Be like those who stay the course with committed faith and then get everything promised to them. —HEBREWS 6:12 MSG
Multitudes will read comfortably about God’s promises, but you and I are called to possess the promises and walk in them. —FRANCIS FRANGIPANE78
It is easy to get stirred up talking about faith and breakthrough and miracles. Yet, when it comes to the topic of perseverance, it is often like a wet blanket. My prayer is that this chapter actually demolishes this false concept for us. I hope that as we catch the vision for what perseverance creates in us, we would begin celebrating what is happening behind the scenes during seasons of waiting and perseverance. The level of breakthrough God wants to release in, through, and to us is way beyond just one miracle or blessing. It is a lifestyle.
First, we persevere with vision because God’s Kingdom provisions are available and accessible. When we are insecure about what God’s Kingdom actually includes, it is tough to persevere for these promises. But we have a guarantee. Breakthrough is accessible! Jesus told us that the Kingdom of God was at hand (see Matt. 4:17). It is not somewhere out there. It is not off in outer space. Francis Frangipane notes that this truth of God’s Kingdom being “at hand” means “that it is close enough to touch from where we are. Yet it must be fought for aggressively and attained with perseverance.”79 While we are not guaranteed to receive everything we ask for in the place of prayer, we do have a guarantee that everything we ask that is included in God’s Kingdom agenda is His will.
Now that we know God’s Kingdom provision is available and have gone to the Word to determine what this provision includes, we step into a realm that many fail to navigate correctly. This is the space between asking and receiving, between perseverance and promise. The enemy works overtime to destroy believers in this place. He knows that it is in this very space that he can cause us to give up, and in the process of giving up, redefine who God is for us.
We should be on constant guard against disappointment and discouragement. These two forces feed off one another. Disappointment happens when we start growing weary through impatience. Disappointment also happens—and more severely—when circumstances do not turn out the way Scripture promised they should. Disappointment happens when prayers appear like they went unanswered, when someone passed away, and when circumstances go from bad to worse. As a result, disappointment produces discouragement, which lives up to its very name. It disarms our courage. It robs us of the courage we need to persevere and actually break through the roof. It robs us of the very strength we need to sustain perseverance for the breakthrough.
What is the key to overcoming discouragement and disappointment? It can only be found in fixing our eyes on the Unchanging One. God’s constancy is our desperate need during seasons of perseverance—especially when discouragement tries to set in and rob our zeal. If God changes with our circumstances, we get lost. However, we are assured that no season or situation has the ability to change the Eternal One. Even though the disconnect between God’s Word/God’s nature and what actually happened can send us into major “God, I’ve got a question for You” mode, rest assured because He is not intimidated or angered by our questions. He welcomes them, actually. Questions reveal spiritual maturity, for the opposite of asking questions is going right into experiential theology mode. This is where we redefine who God is and what the Word says based on what happened in a specific situation. I would prefer to live out my entire life asking God questions and pressing in for answers, all the while believing that the Word is true, God is exactly who Scripture says He is, and the model of Jesus reveals Him accurately.
Francis Frangipane once again observes, “Discouragement comes when we look only at our circumstances without looking at the faithfulness and integrity of what God has promised.”80 Remember, faith does not deny circumstances. We do not try to pretend our problems away. However, if we are going to walk in perseverance, it is vital that we always see God as greater than the circumstances that we face. This will guide us through even the darkest valleys of disappointment.
God’s constancy is our desperate need during seasons of perseverance.
I lost a very, very dear friend to a brain tumor. In fact, he was among my best friends. What comes off as rather shocking is that my friend and his family exemplified breakthrough faith. They were praying for his healing. They were believing for the miraculous. They were standing in agreement. And what happened? He passed away. I was there. I was in the room shortly after his spirit departed from this world and went to be with the Lord.
How do we respond to moments like these? I was in absolute shock, quite honestly. I was upset. I was angry at the devil. I was confused with God. In my mind, what happened to him was downright illegal. As one can imagine, I was filled with all sorts of different feelings and emotions. But one thing I recognized throughout the whole process of pain was that I could not let my pain and questions for God and anger with the devil change my theology about God. My friend would not want this.
We need to mourn. We need to grieve. We need to feel everything that is appropriate, but then we need to rise up and keep pressing forward. Not abandoning memory, but pressing in for a greater demonstration of supernatural power in our lives.81 I know that my dear friend is now among the great cloud of witnesses (see Heb. 12:1-2). He is looking down from Heaven, beckoning me—beckoning you, saying, “Do not quit.” Do not get caught up in what happened, what didn’t happen, or what should have happened. This is absolutely crippling to our perseverance.
Frangipane notes that the “enemy’s specific goal is to get you to give up.”82 He knows what potential is on the other side of your perseverance. It is not just a miracle or breakthrough or blessing, but momentum. Miracles were always designed to carry momentum beyond you, beyond your church, and beyond your sphere of influence. When you experience breakthrough and start telling people about it, it stirs hunger in their hearts to experience more of God. Likewise, this hunger becomes contagious quickly, and the devil cannot afford to have a lot of God-hungry people causing problems for darkness.
At my friend’s celebration of life, I had this unusual sense that he was in Heaven and actually cheering me onward. The last thing he would want is for us to stop believing God for the miraculous. His eyes now behold the overflowing storehouses of Heaven that are just waiting to be released into the earth. Why do they remain unaccessed then? Burned-out believers give up and end up settling for lives below their inheritance. They do not take advantage of all that is available to them. It is time to contend and fight for what is rightfully ours!
We are not fighting our breakthroughs out of God’s clenched hand; rather, we are fighting from what God has already provided through His hand. We are not fighting to get faith, but are fighting from a position of faith. Jesus explains this process in Matthew 11:12 as He describes this process, “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.”
Redeemed humanity has been called to enforce the Kingdom of God on earth, for we carry it inside of us (see Luke 17:21). Motivated by love and a desire to serve people, our vision is nothing short of a complete overthrow of darkness. However, the key to actually seeing darkness pushed back is taking our place as a persevering people rooted and grounded in God. We cannot let darkness push us into a corner; rather, we must become the restraining agent of darkness and push it back. This demands perseverance on our end because darkness fights back nasty, kicking and screaming.
Paul rightly encourages young Timothy to “fight the good fight of faith” (1 Tim. 6:12). Faith is a fight because of the demand for perseverance. To remain in an attitude of unwavering faith, we need unwavering focus on Jesus. This is what compelled the four men to bust through the ceiling and lower down their paralyzed friend before Jesus. Breaking through the ceiling signified that these guys were discontent living in the gulf between what could be and what should be. Knowledge that Jesus heals, in and of itself, does not produce breakthrough; rather, it is the dissatisfaction we feel because what is does not agree with what should be. This produces tenacity within us to climb up on a house, dig through the roof, and lower down our friend to experience the what should be of God’s Kingdom.
We are not fighting our breakthroughs out of God’s clenched hand; rather, we are fighting from what God has already provided through His hand.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony (Hebrews 11:1-2).
What is on the other side of perseverance? A good testimony. You might think, “But what about…” and fill in the blank with the person who was prayed for or asked God for something, but it did not happen, or has not happened yet. We cannot ignore this. In fact, for every disappointment and every instance where the promise did not happen, we press on with increased intensity and vision. We do not beat ourselves up. We do not start playing the blame game. This is Christian maturity. It is persevering with questions, both answered and unanswered.
Why do we keep moving forward? We are compelled by what is possible and available on the other side of perseverance. Hebrews 11 gives us example after example of men and women who persevered for promises—and received them. In the same way that they obtained a good testimony by faith, the same is available for you and me.
Perseverance actually creates something in us—character. It builds patience. The fruit of the Spirit is cultivated. Remember, God does not send problems just to take us through the process. We must live mindful of what comes from whom. Does it come from God, or does it come from the enemy? If anything, us embracing the process and learning from it spits in the enemy’s face. Through perseverance we are building the character fit to manage and carry sustained breakthrough.
When our perspective is like Peter and John, then we are ready. These two men possessed hearts that exemplified spiritual growth and maturity. They were not perfect by any means, but they demonstrated the ability to carry a breakthrough lifestyle with integrity. Read their account below:
Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple; who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms. And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, “Look at us.” So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them—walking, leaping, and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God. Then they knew that it was he who sat begging alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him (Acts 3:1-10).
This is what we all want, right? We want the miracle. We want the impossible situation turned around. We want the broken thing fixed. We want the crooked thing straightened. We want the marriage restored. We want the cancer healed. We want our children serving God. We read miracle accounts like this and think to ourselves, “Yes, this is what I want, God!”
Through perseverance we are building the character fit to manage and carry sustained breakthrough.
God actually desires this activity more than we do. He wants it in both greater quantity and greater quality than we can possibly imagine. If this were not so, Jesus would not have given us the harrowing invitation into a lifestyle of greater works. So what positioned the early church to walk in this consistent, sustained expression of breakthrough faith and corresponding miracles?
Jump back into the Acts 3 account and find out:
Now as the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch which is called Solomon’s, greatly amazed. So when Peter saw it, he responded to the people: “Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why look so intently at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go. But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses (Acts 3:11-15).
First, when it came time to testify, Peter gave the right answer: he redirected focus to God, off himself, and off the miracle. God is seeking the generation who is desperate for an explosion of the miraculous because they are fit to steward breakthrough correctly. When God supernaturally turns a situation around, these “stewards of breakthrough” are intentional about celebrating the miracle but glorifying the Miracle Maker even more. They refuse to become “God’s people of power for the hour,” acting as if their ability had anything to do with the miracle. God’s glory is front and center of every miracle!
Secondly, Peter sees evangelistic potential in the miracle, noting that it was by faith in Jesus’ name that the man was healed: “And His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all” (Acts 3:16). Immediately after linking the miracle to faith in the name of Jesus—demonstrating the Savior’s authority and supremacy—Peter goes right into an appeal for those who witnessed the miracle to “repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19).
Third, miracles produce momentum. After Peter shares the Gospel, two things happen. In Acts 4:1-3 we see that the religious leaders got very upset that the name of Jesus was being preached. As a result, they seized Peter and John, and held them in custody. We know that Peter and John stewarded the miracle well because of what happened next. The second thing we notice is that even though the two guys are out of the picture, the miracle itself still produces a harvest: “But many of those who heard the message believed (adhered to and trusted in and relied on Jesus as the Christ). And their number grew and came to about 5,000” (Acts 4:4 AMP). The miracle and the message produced a momentum that brought roughly 5,000 people into the Kingdom.
God’s glory is front and center of every miracle!
Just imagine what becomes possible when every single believer starts exercising breakthrough faith like this? Truly, the Desire of All Nations will be exalted and, in turn, the masses will turn to Christ. This is what empowers us to sustain breakthrough rather than experience a sporadic miracle here and there. When it becomes all about Jesus, the One whom all the signs and wonders point to, perseverance becomes less problematic. It is one thing to try and persevere, clinging to a promise. However, when we know the character of the One making the promises and are intent on seeing Him receive all the glory when His promises come to pass, we will not back down. We will not give up. Our aim will be to model those described in Hebrews 11:2, who through faith obtained a good testimony.
Perseverance is our key to walking in breakthrough; the miracle we are praying and believing for is on the other side of perseverance. Giving up cannot be an option!
This Day We Fight by Francis Frangipane