I had a powerful experience of our last confession (I do not LIVE by bread alone, but by every WORD that comes from the mouth of God) on Tuesday after sending out the last message! I will share it since it goes along with the PATIENCE/ENDURANCE theme of our last message and hope it encourages anyone else who needs to hear these words in your journey!
I received some news Tuesday afternoon that left me battling feelings of complete overwhelm, hopelessness, and defeat. I put my head in my hands and cried out to the Holy Spirit to help me. When I looked up my eyes landed on a Scripture card that is taped to the bottom of my computer screen. My eyes landed on ONE WORD on that card which seemed to be highlighted/illuminated to me by the Spirit. As I sat there staring at that one word, the Lord began to bring to my remembrance the words/promises He had already given me about this situation months earlier which contained that EXACT SAME key word. (This card had been on my computer long before He gave the recent promises and I had never even noticed that the same key word was on it.) As the Lord used that Scripture card to remind me of His words/promises about the situation at hand and I began to declare those instead of the report I had just received, those words breathed His LIFE into me again. Overwhelm, hopelessness, and defeat disappeared and I felt hope and faith arise to keep moving forward. Frustrated by my near instant recovery from his hit, the devil tried again with another blow from a different source. As I was trying to keep my head above the waves of discouragement by holding to the promises the Lord had just reminded me of, He immediately sent me another lifeline – another precise word that imparted His breath of life:
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March 11, 2013
Endure Hardness
Gloria Copeland
Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.– 2 Timothy 2:3
There are no “ifs” about it. Hard times are going to come in the life of every believer. There will be times when circumstances will seem dark, times when you face seemingly impossible obstacles, times when defeat seems inevitable.
In 2 Timothy 2:3, the Apostle Paul didn’t tell Timothy, “If hard times come, ENDURE them.” He simply said, “ENDURE hardness.” Some Christians become confused when those times come. “What’s happening here?” they cry. “I thought Jesus redeemed me from the curse!” He did, but you can rest assured, Satan will challenge that redemption. He will try his best to steal it from you by pulling you off your walk of faith. Jesus warned us about that in the parable of the sower in Mark 4:14-17. He said, “Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts….”
Satan will not sit idly by while you sail through life, effortlessly believing the Word of God. He’ll pressure you with hard times. He’ll attack you with sickness or lack, then he’ll lie to you and tell you that God doesn’t care. He’ll try to convince you that God is not going to answer your prayer this time. He’ll attempt to talk you into believing there’s no way out and that you will end up a miserable failure.
When those hard times come, don’t cave in to pressure. DON’T GIVE UP! STAND ON THE WORD and ENDURE hardness like a good soldier UNTIL VICTORY COMES!
Scripture Reading: 2 Timothy 2:1-7 (© 1999 Kenneth Copeland Ministries)
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When I finished reading this, I looked to my right and saw a card on my desk that I’d just written with the title of a Rick Renner devo the Lord had given me earlier the same day: “HANG IN THERE AND DON’T GIVE UP!” This reminded me of the deluge of recent words He has given us about PERSEVERANCE (ENDURANCE) and PATIENCE (as mentioned in the last note). When I reread that Rick devo, I realized how PERFECTLY it paralleled this KCM devo! Both focus on ENDURANCE, not giving up until the victory is won, and both even speak of these things using the analogy of SOLDIERS!! (Part of that devo is included at the end of this message – in part 2.)
As I saw how God was rushing in, when the enemy came in like a flood, to raise up the standard of His WORD against Him (and that He actually began rushing in even in advance), I was anchored by faith instead of tossed about in the storm. I was able to be supernaturally SHIELDED from those fiery darts the enemy had intended to run me through. I was able to LIVE by His WORD and FAITH instead of crumbling in defeat and despair due to natural appearances, circumstances, and the report of man.
When the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him. Isaiah 59:19
When Jesse got home I told him about the situation, about seeing the key word jumping off the Scripture card on the computer, and how the Lord used that to bring back to mind His words/promises for this situation. I reminded him of why that specific key word was significant and also reminded him of a couple of other key words the Lord had given us about the situation months before. That night when we went to bed, the Lord gave us a word from Ivan Tait’s book that contained ALL of those EXACT SAME KEY WORDS!!! He also gave us several additional passages, through the confessions we read from our regular Scripture confession list, about perseverance!
to be continued…
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