In Hebrews 6:12 we are encouraged, “don’t become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherited what God had promised them.” Time and again we see faith linked with the ability to persevere and to keep on keeping on, even when there is no sign of change.
A victory of faith is sometimes compared to a pregnancy. There is a season where God is working and growing the future in you but you and others can’t see it. There are even times of groaning and travail. but all of that is just proof something great is coming.
I liked the language that Yonggi Cho, the former Pastor of the world’s largest church in Seoul Korea gave to this process. When he was just learning faith he was claiming God’s provision for a bicycle. At that time, he had to walk wherever he was going so he had prayed for a bicycle and began to praise God that he had it. While he was doing this once someone overheard it. They asked where the bicycle was. He wasn’t sure what to say so he told them, “Well I have it you just can’t see it because I’m still pregnant with it.” Sure enough a short time later he received a bicycle.
When you’re pregnant you prepare and even nourish what is inside of you. That’s what God wants us to do with all of the promises He is leading us to claim. I like what Heidi Baker is famous for saying, “If we won’t quit, we win!” That is really true. In 2002 we were able to purchase land to build our church building on. We went forward drawing plans and raising money. We hoped to start building in a year or two. Sadly, we ran into one snag after another. It was already nearly 2006 and we still hadn’t made any progress. The owner’s next door wouldn’t allow us to build a road. God had so encouraged us we felt to get this land and we were believing to be able to build a 20,000 square foot structure. There were great sighs in our prayers during this time.
In 2005 I received a call from a Pastor friend who asked if we wanted to purchase the First Assembly building because they were moving to purchase and build on another property. The building was fantastic and over 38,000 square feet. At first, I reacted that I could never see us being able to afford this, but my wife encouraged me to pray some more. The elders felt that this was the Lord, so we prayed the prayer of faith not knowing how we would get the $500,000 we would have to have in a few months for a down payment. We called the church to stand in faith and praise with us.
The very next week, without ever putting it on the market a developer called and asked if we’d be interested in selling our land and how much we would take for it. I was stunned but just said, $500,000 knowing we had paid less than half of that. Surprisingly, he said they would take it and had a check to us that week. God moved and we were able to move into the wonderful building we now occupy.
It was another reminder, that when faith perseveres, God provides!
Love,
Dale
To watch a short video on the subject go to: https://www.facebook.com/102290718050412/posts/126223215657162/?vh=e&d=n
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