The real character of our faith is determined by our patience.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

1. The barrenness of Sarah mentioned in GEN 11:30, and 15:2, continues in Gen 16 to see if Abraham and Sarah will claim the promises of God, apply the appropriate doctrine, and wait upon the Lord.

2. Specific promises have already been given to Abraham that he will have an heir,
GEN 13:14-17; GEN 15:4-5; therefore, Abraham needs to trust in the character and nature of God and wait for God’s timing.

3. No matter how impossible the situation becomes, Abraham and Sarah can enjoy each day by believing the promises of God regarding the heir, applying doctrine, and not worrying about the future.

4. Faith is believing at the moment that promises are received or the moment that the doctrine is perceived that patience is needed before the promises will be fulfilled.

MAR 11:24 “Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they shall be granted you.”

The real character of our faith is determined by our patience.
A patient person will wait upon the Lord.

A patient person will be slow to anger.

Patience gives us the power and the gracious system of thinking to have great understanding and sensitivity toward others.

PRO 14:29 He who is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who is quick-tempered exalts foolishness.

Patience with others will also help us resolve and reconcile differences -
PRO 15:18 “A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but the slow to anger pacifies contention.”

Patience also gives the believer fantastic strength under pressure -
PRO 16:32 “He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit, than he who captures a city.”

Patience will also allow us to be discrete and overlook the sins of others -
PRO 19:11 “A man’s discretion makes him slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook a transgression.”

Patience allows us to rest in the Lord and let the supreme court judge handle any unfair or unjust treatment -
PSA 37:7 “Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him; do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who carries out wicked schemes.”

Many of you are going to find yourself in a very confusing situation like Sarah did as you go forward in the spiritual life.

The last statement in verse 13 is only true for a special kind of believer called the supergrace or the advanced spiritual believer like Sarah.

Believers who have reached supergrace or the advanced spiritual believer like Sarah have a phenomenal gracious mental attitude.

They can take their minds off their own problems and focus on the needs of others, and they give graciously and sacrificially.

Supergrace believers or the advanced spiritual believer like Sarah get out of the way and let God work all things together for good.

The supergrace or the advanced spiritual believer like Sarah is instructed to let this fantastic mental attitude be known.

One of the most difficult tests of the spiritual life on earth is supergrace or the advanced spiritual life like Sarah had to go through.

It reveals the beginning of living in no man’s land between supergrace and ultra-supergrace, where we finally experience what living in the minority is all about.

Both of them were geniuses and reached ultra-supergrace where their lives were enshrouded with continual pressure and suffering.

These are the believers who wear the highest honor that can come to the human race, to have total blessing and wear a shroud of pressure and disaster all the time they’re in that total blessing.

The highest dignity ever bestowed upon any born again believer is the shroud of pressure and suffering which belongs to the ultra-supergrace believer.

Ultra-supergrace provides everything found in the blessings of supergrace plus the intensification of these blessings completely enshrouded in maximum pressure and persecution from the satanic forces of evil.

This doesn’t mean he was perfect; supergrace and ultra-supergrace believers sin too,
1JO 1:8-10.

David made his mistakes and tells us of the resulting discipline while in operation Bathsheba, Psa 38 and Psa 51.

David was a supergrace believer before operation Bathsheba and after operation Bathsheba.