6th Fruit of the Holy Spirit
The Patience of God has to be one of the most self evident fruits of God’s personality, when you come to know God; and it is one of His most powerful weapons. Indeed, it is the sign of His omnipotence and His timelessness that allows God to be patient.
If God’s kindness leads us to repentance, then it is God’s patience that works salvation for us—as Peter the hasty testifies: 2 Peter 3:15 Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. -- And Paul, who knows of the effect of God’s patience, wrote in Romans 9:22 What if God, choosing to show His wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of His wrath—prepared for destruction. He was thinking of the Hebrews – for he says in verse 24-- even us, whom He also called, not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles?.
If you studied the History of Israel with God, you would see the patience of God with them. He delivered them and put up with their complaints and disbelief through the desert.—This is the generation that was born in the desert, and lived there for 40 years.—There had not been an obedient generation that would obey God without going through a time of trial. All of them through the Judges, Kings and Chronicles—as soon as God delivered them from their enemies—would revolt again and again. It took almost 1000 years before the Lord executed judgment on Jerusalem. Now that’s patience!
Proverbs says in Proverbs 19:11 A man’s wisdom gives him patience;
14:29 A patient man has great understanding,
16:32 Better a patient man than a warrior,
God demonstrates His wisdom and understanding through His patience.—And His patience also makes Him a better and superior warrior—for if a patient man is better than a warrior, than surely a patient warrior is the best man for victory, and remember—the Lord is a warrior, the Lord is His Name Exodus 15:3
The Wisdom of God is patience, and the understanding of God is patience—and the supremacy of God as a warrior is His patience.
Peter says in 1 Peter 3:18-20 He (Jesus) was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.
In a time of sin unprecedented since when God found only one righteous man on Earth, He still waited 120 years before He suddenly swept them away without warning by the flood. And when it was over, only Noah & his family was left on the Earth. Gone were those who had blasphemed God and washed away forever was all their works of the centuries past. Likewise now, as Jesus said: Luke 17:26-29 “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking and marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.”
And Matthew 24:37-39 “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and given in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.”
Now once more God has been patient. He waited 120 years on Noah, and He waited almost 1000 years on Israel, and He has waited 2000 years on the Church to get it right. For 2000 years, the Church has not obeyed God and has grieved and ignored the Holy Spirit, except for pockets of isolated areas –almost like areas of righteousness, like Lot in Sodom which preserved the word. 2000 years of powerlessness, 2000 years of misuse of the Name of Jesus, 2000 years of putting up with Judeaizers and Nicolaitians, 2000 years of Balaamites and Jezebelians who have turned the church into a means of feeding and making wealthy the few whilst oppressing the multitude. Jesus fed the multitudes and oppressed no one. Even today, thousands feed one ministry instead of one ministry feeding thousands.
Like He ran out of patience with the world of Noah, with Sodom and with Israel, we are approaching the days when God is running out of patience with the world since Jesus’ resurrection. How do we know this? When you leave here tonight, look at the number of winers and diners on Church Street. Look at the success of McDonalds and the divorce lawyers and the divorce courts. No other time in history has eating and drinking been as prominent to the whole population, nor has giving in marriage been so successful—giving up that is—that an entire court system called the Divorce Court has been set up to equal the size of the criminal courts…..McDonalds and rich divorce lawyers …. Tells me the days of the Son of Man are close at hand and these are the days—just like Noah’s.
It is the ability to recognize the presence and absence of God’s patience, that is the key to success to your life…and to apply patience as God does.
Jesus teaches us of the patience of God, therefore—His—in the Parable of the Weeds and the Tares [Matthew 13:24-30]—in that parable the servants, like all servants, asked – v 28-30 “Do you want us to go and pull them up?” And the Lord replied – “No, because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until harvest time…” The patience of enduring the presence of those weeds meant that none of the wheat was damaged.
Patience prevents damaging that which belongs to God. When you learn to be patient, you give yourself time to learn and perfect that which God has asked you to do—that is, to minister in the power of His Spirit—not the power of a gun. To be trained to use a gun takes weeks, but to be trained in the use of the power of God—took 40 years for Moses, 40 years for Joshua, and at least 3 years for the 11 disciples—and they were given only a taste of what is to come.
And out of patience, comes greater glory.—The patience of Jesus, in John 11—in not responding immediately to Mary and Martha’s call for help—but waiting until Lazarus was stinking dead in the ground, 4 days after burial—gave God the greater glory. If you want glory, learn patience, in fact embrace patient endurance.
God could have rescued Jesus from the cross but waited for the Resurrection, so that not only was the sin of man removed, but death was also destroyed. The patience of God, which underwrites His wisdom and understanding—results in greater glory for God—every time.
Now to learn to imitate God in His patience is the beginning of the art of imitating God, not just the science. What do I mean? The science of something is knowing what to do and the science carries the knowledge and the information—But the art carries the character and the soul and heart—We all know Jesus asked the Legion of demons in the man at Gerasenes in Mark 5:9 “What is your name?” Knowing what Jesus asked is the science and everyone can get that by reading the Parable; but knowing how He said it –soft, harshly, nonchalantly—that’s the art—and that comes by fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit whose nature is to be patient. He is the One who speaks not on His own, but waits until He is spoken to.
A person who speaks not on his own, but waits until he is spoken to is a patient person. Many would say he is too mild, too meek or not aggressive enough. Compare the Holy Spirit who waits to hear what is spoken with the spirit of the world or your spirit and mine—which seeks to speak before it is spoken to. A man who waits to be served is a patient man. A man who demands to be served is impatient. A servant who waits to serve is patient. A servant who demands to serve is impatient.
The first command Jesus gave the Church in Acts 1, was “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift My Father promised…” The first command demanded and required waiting and there was no time set by the Lord. He did not say wait till Pentecost Day, or the year of Jubilee – just “wait”. Did they wait? No, they couldn’t wait to elect Matthias by lot to replace Judas.—They did not wait on the Holy Spirit to tell them whom Jesus had chosen to replace Judas, but they reverted to the Old Testament way of casting the lot to select the High Priest.
By practice they, the eleven, had already taken the new work of God – the Church of Jesus Christ – back into the old work of God – the Nation of Israel in Acts 1:26 Then they cast lots, and the lot fell on Matthias…
From that moment on, they had given the right for Judaism to infiltrate the work of the Church so that now the yeast of the Pharisees, Sadducees and Herodians is fully manifested—and the Church is like a schizophrenic who cant quite decide whether she is under the law or freed from the Law of Moses.
If we had stuck to the original plan of Jesus – “I tell you the truth; anyone who has faith in Me, you will do what I have been doing.” John 14:12 What need is there of tithes and offerings to run a Church, or silver and gold to buy a Church building, when you have the power to multiply the food? –and the ability to get what money you needed by catching a fish…How do you tithe from the loaves and fishes that Jesus multiplied? Did Jesus pay a tithe of 10% back to God for multiplying the loaves and fishes He received, as he gave thanks to God for the 5 loaves and 2 fish? Try and work that one out!
We were impatient – and we lost the power. We have always been impatient—The Church persecuted to death those they believed were of the Devil in the days of the Inquisition—contrary to the Lord’s own command. Leave them alone, wait until harvest time. Truth be known—it was the sons of the Devil that persecuted the true sons to death—and those that did it now live the fruit of their actions.
Does that mean we can only sit and wait without ever doing something? The patience of God is not the patience of a helpless and powerless man.
There is a patience that is not of God. —That is the patience of the helpless and the powerless where you couldn’t do anything, so you might as well wait – if it’s for God –- wait for God; if it is for death—death.
The patience of God is the patience of the all powerful, Almighty —for whom nothing is impossible—with whom nothing is impossible.
The patience of Jesus on the Cross was never the patience of a hopeless and helpless man. Jesus said in Matthew 26:53 “Do you think I cannot call on My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” Yet He allowed Himself to be pinned on the cross. but He was never powerless nor helpless. He demonstrated this in Matthew 27:50 And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, He gave up His Spirit.
Jesus chose the time of His death. He did not helplessly wait for death; but chose it. So that even the Romans who were experts in prolonging the life of a crucified man and so prolonging his suffering, were surprised—even Pilate. Mark 15:44 Pilate was surprised to hear that He was already dead. In their cruelty, the Romans waited till the end of the day to break the legs of the crucified to finally suffocate them.
So if you want to be patient as God is patient—not only do you have to learn to wait and endure patiently—you have to have to wait and endure patiently as One who had the power to deliver Himself out of His situation—and chose not to. Jesus could have healed Lazarus—but chose not to—and chose to wait to raise him for greater glory. Do you have the full power of the Holy Spirit manifesting at your will yet? If not; your endurance and patience is not yet that of God’s, but only that of a helpless and weak Church. However, there is much to say in favour of patient endurance. Especially that of the weak Church with little strength, for the promise of Jesus to the weak and helpless Church that has endured patiently – and “…yet you have kept my word and have not denied My Name—Since you have kept My command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth.” Revelations 3:10
Oh the mercy and kindness of our Lord to the Church that has kept His word and not denied His Name, even when they didn’t have his power or strength—and refused to turn to the financial, political and intellectual power of the world in order to gain a strength that is not really strength, which is the way of the Laodicean Church.
Our brothers and sisters of the Philadelphian Church will be spared the days of distress that are coming. However, that is not my calling, nor your calling if you will listen.
You have been called to grow and develop your character to the place where God can trust you—as He trusts Jesus—with the power of the Holy Spirit to such an extent that when the Holy Spirit leaves with the Philadelphian Church—He can leave his powers behind for us to use to prepare this earth for the Lord’s return.
Without power – the Power of God – you cannot taste the true meaning of the patience and endurance of God….And if you think that you are ready just because you have the Word and the Power—then you are sorely mistaken, because until you learn patient endurance as one who has power to end the pain, yet chooses not to—you are yet to be trusted by God.
So take heart—and endure. Learn endurance and wait until… Or as Christ said, “but stay…until you have been clothed with power from on high…”; and then, after you have been empowered, learn to wait….Then you are ready to taste God’s most precious fruits---Peace, Joy and Love.
GOD IS PATIENT -- AMEN HOLY SPIRIT
