{"id":16161,"date":"2017-06-05T06:55:08","date_gmt":"2017-06-05T10:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sendoutyourroots.com\/?p=16161"},"modified":"2021-10-13T13:30:49","modified_gmt":"2021-10-13T17:30:49","slug":"have-patience-to-be-made-complete-lacking-nothing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sendoutyourroots.com\/have-patience-to-be-made-complete-lacking-nothing\/","title":{"rendered":"Have Patience to be Made Complete – Lacking Nothing"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Faith, Patience, then the Harvest<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I love the subject of faith.\u00a0 Faith is vital<\/em> to our Christian walk for without it we cannot please God (Hebrews 11:6).<\/p>\n

I spent most of my Christian life not understanding what faith truly was.\u00a0 Over the years, I heard a lot about faith and even named my daughter Faith, but faith to me was like Jell-O.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t quite grasp what faith really was.\u00a0 I read books and listened to numerous messages on this subject.\u00a0 However, I never received personal revelation<\/em> as to how faith worked, how to get it, and what it is capable of doing in a Christian\u2019s life.\u00a0 I had head knowledge, but I found that mere knowledge of something falls short of experiential knowing.<\/p>\n

In the last decade, I have been compelled by my circumstances to study faith and now I have a much better understanding of what it is and how is operates.\u00a0 Faith is an invisible force yet it provides tangible evidence of things hoped for.\u00a0 Faith is proof of what we cannot see.\u00a0 Faith is seeing into the unseen world and being fully persuaded in our heart that what ALREADY EXISTS will soon be made visible.\u00a0 Faith is living as though God\u2019s precious promises are literally in the here and now.\u00a0 By faith our imagination is already enjoying what we cannot physically see.<\/p>\n

Faith, however is not the subject of this article, patience or perseverance is. I like the word perseverance because it implies a continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failures or opposition.\u00a0 \u00a0(I will use patience and perseverance interchangeably throughout this article.) \u00a0James 1:3-4 says, \u201cKnowing that the testing of your faith produces perseverance<\/em>.\u00a0 But perseverance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.\u201d\u00a0 Faith is always accompanied by patience or perseverance.\u00a0 Perseverance is \u201cthe rest of the story\u201d that you rarely hear from the pulpit.\u00a0 Perseverance plays a key role with faith and cannot be ignored.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at a picture that I hope will help you understand how faith, perseverance (patience), and the promise work together:<\/p>\n

A farmer, by faith, sows seed in the ground with the hope of a multiplied return\u2014harvest.\u00a0 Once he sows the seed he has to wait<\/em> for the seed to go through the process<\/em> of producing a harvest.\u00a0 The seed doesn\u2019t come up overnight.\u00a0 It takes months of patient waiting to produce the hoped-for crop.\u00a0 There is a confidence within the farmer that what he sowed will manifest in due season. \u00a0He understands the law of sowing and reaping. He is not troubled by the wait, wringing his hands and wondering if the seed will produce.\u00a0 He has faith in the process.<\/p>\n

Faith operates in much the same way.\u00a0 We declare God\u2019s Word (promises) and plant that \u201cseed\u201d into our heart.\u00a0 Day by day we hold that seed (those promises) in our heart through meditation until, over time, what we are holding in our heart manifests in the physical world we live in. \u00a0This is the law of faith and how it works. \u00a0Faith is all the proof you need that God\u2019s promises are yours.<\/p>\n

So many Christians abort their blessings by giving up before the harvest has a chance to manifest.\u00a0 They either stop meditating on the Word (seed) or mix their meditation with negative speaking.\u00a0 Negative speaking is like putting Round-Up\u00ae on the planted seed growing in our heart.\u00a0 Negative speaking kills the seed!\u00a0 Another common mistake is that they become impatient and \u201cdig up\u201d the seed by trying to \u201chelp\u201d the seed produce something through their own efforts.\u00a0 They simply don\u2019t trust the process.<\/p>\n

Something amazing happens if we persevere and wait on God\u2019s promises to manifest through meditation\u2014holding on to God\u2019s Word in our heart.\u00a0 Our flesh gets dealt with.\u00a0 Faith forces our flesh with its five senses to take the back-seat in our life.\u00a0 Over time we no longer depend on our natural senses, but on the ability of the planted seed<\/em> (God\u2019s Word) to do its work.\u00a0 Eventually the invisible becomes more real than the visible.\u00a0 When this happens, manifestation is very near.<\/p>\n

Patience matures our faith and puts us in a place where we lack nothing.\u00a0 When faith is perfected or reaches a place of maturity, we find ourselves living an abundant life.\u00a0 We live a life of confidence in God\u2019s Word and its ability to produce what it says.\u00a0 With a mature person, wavering is no longer present.\u00a0\u00a0 Steadfastness takes its place and is seen by all those who observe him or her.\u00a0 Faith exercised through perseverance ALWAYS results in God being glorified.<\/p>\n

One of my favorite verses is Hebrews 10:35 (HCSB) that says, \u201cDo not throw away your confidence which has great reward.\u00a0 For you need endurance (perseverance) so that after you have done the will of God, you will receive what was promised.\u201d\u00a0 Our confidence must be in God\u2019s Word and we should NEVER throw that away.\u00a0 We should never quit or give up on what God has said.\u00a0 If we are patient, doing God\u2019s will by remaining confident in His promises, we will receive exactly what He said in due season<\/em>.\u00a0 Always keep in mind the law of seedtime and harvest.\u00a0 There is TIME between the moment we say \u201camen\u201d to God\u2019s Word and \u201cthere it is\u201d in our life.\u00a0 If we understand the law of faith, we will live in confidence and with a peaceful heart. \u00a0What could be better than that?<\/p>\n

Over the years I have made meditating on God\u2019s Word a practice.\u00a0 As my heart holds on to God\u2019s word and I let it do its complete work in me through perseverance, I end up receiving exactly what the Word promised.\u00a0 I have experienced abundance and healing many times by practicing this formula of faith + perseverance = promise manifested. So, I encourage you to do the same.\u00a0 It takes work to transition from a sense-based life to a faith-based life.\u00a0 However, you will discover for yourself that it is worth it!<\/p>\n

\u201cI decree your faith will increase and that you remain patient until you receive what God has promised.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

If you enjoyed this article, please sign up for future posts to be delivered automatically to your email.\u00a0 Plus, you will receive my free eBook that contains Scripture regarding God\u2019s promises of healing and prosperity.\u00a0 Thank you for reading!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So many Christians abort their blessings by giving up before the harvest has a chance to manifest. They either stop meditating on the Word (seed) or mix their meditation with negative speaking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16160,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[494,1,201],"tags":[500,416,530,220,526,529,299,527,528,531,382,533,521,290,532],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sendoutyourroots.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16161"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sendoutyourroots.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sendoutyourroots.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sendoutyourroots.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sendoutyourroots.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sendoutyourroots.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sendoutyourroots.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sendoutyourroots.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sendoutyourroots.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sendoutyourroots.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}