"PAYING THE PRICE OF PATIENCE"

DRAMA MINISTERS "YEAR OF GREAT THINGS"
DRAMA MINISTERS' 40 DAYS PRAYERS AND FASTING - DAY 13
(January 1 - February 9, 2015)

"PAYING THE PRICE OF PATIENCE"

Isaiah 40:31
But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.

Hebrews 6:13-15
13For when God made a promise to Abraham,
because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself,
14saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.”
15And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

Every electronic gadget has a manual. Every nation has a guiding constitution. Every game has its rules. Scientific equations are solved by formulars, so also is the matter of the Kingdom. It has its own guiding principles.

At age 75, The Lord had spoken to Abraham to leave his land and his people and go to the land He would establish him as a nation. Abraham obeyed and departed with his wife and his servants, heading towards where he knew not. Then, he came to Canaan land and The Lord spoke to him saying: "To your descendants I will give this land.” Genesis 12:7b. Yet He had not given him any child.

After he had got to Canaan land and God had blessed him with a lot of substance and Lot had separated from him, The Lord spoke to him again:
Genesis 13:14-15
14 ...... “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you
are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward;
15for all the land which you see I give to you and
your descendants forever.

Yet he was getting older and clocking toward age 85, The Lord kept promising him.
In verse 16 The Lord even told him to walk through the length and breadth of the land because He would give the entire land to his descendants, yet at almost 85 years, His God had not given him a child, just promises....promises...and promises!

In Chapter 15 of Genesis, I guess, Abraham was getting confused or almost discouraged, then, he voiced out before God:

Genesis 15:2-3
2But Abram said, “Lord God, what will You give me, seeing I go childless,
and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”
3Then Abram said, “Look, You have given me no offspring;
indeed one born in my house is my heir!”

Then, The Lord assured him again that his own child shall come from his body. Then, The Lord brought him outside to up and count the number of the stars if he could. He said that was how countless his descendants shall be. And Abraham believed God.

At 99 years, God still came to him and said: "I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you." Genesis 17:6.
This is 24 years after The Lord had called him out of his father's house to follow Him. Abraham had still not got what he was asking from Him. All Abraham could hear from God was repeated promises upon promises. 24 years after God had promised him, he was still waiting for the fulfillment of the promise. The child was yet to come.

At last, the set time came, twenty five after he had been called out by God, out of his land of nativity, the answer came:

Genesis 21:5-7
5Now Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
6And Sarah said, “God has made me laugh, and all who hear will laugh with me.”
7She also said, “Who would have said to Abraham that
Sarah would nurse children? For I have borne him a son in his old age.”

What a long journey to fulfillment of promises! What a long wait! All the promises of blessing the whole world through him, all the covenant of making him a father of many nations; and all those covenant of making his descendants to be as numerable as the stars of the sky were all hanging up till the appointed time came. At last, that seed of covenant came. Inside the baby that came at last were Jacob and inside Jacob were the twelve tribes of Israel. Inside one of the tribes, Judah, was David, and Inside David was Jesus Christ, the Son of God and we are... "...... created in Christ Jesus for good works,...(Ephesians 2:10) Can you see how that painful waiting of Abraham has been a blessing to even our generation?

Is this a major spiritual principle for receiving the Lord's promises? Abraham paid the price of PATIENCE to give birth to Isaac, and in Genesis 25: 20-21, Isaac was 40 years old when he married Rebekah and still had to wait patiently in prayers for 20 years before he could have Jacob and Esau. Jacob labored patiently for 7 years before he could get married.

In 1 Samuel 16:13, The Lord instructed Samuel to anoint David as king over Israel in place of Saul whom God had rejected. But David spent the next 13 years avoiding death traps from the reigning king and waiting patiently in aflictions, oppositions, hunger and thirst, enduring loneliness and emotional and psychological pains, in preparation for the appointed time to rule the houses of Israel and Judah. I think PATIENCE BEFORE THE LORD IS THE RULE OF THIS SPIRITUAL GAME.

Psalms 37:7
Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him;Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,
Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.

Spirit of Patience is gradually being eroded from most teachings we hear all around us. We find it difficult to prayerfully wait on The Lord to know whom to marry, we are too hasty to get whatever jobs that come our way without taking time to pray about the will of God for our life. We look around for any open opportunities without considering any possibilities of the enemy setting a deadly trap. We want to start a church today and make a 1000 congregation the next month, through whichever means. We want to start a drama ministry today and make a blockbuster box-office hit movie next week. We want to start acting for God today and become a star tomorrow. We want to make our first album and sell in tens of thousands.

We once worked with a group of dedicated drama ministers to make a movie. After the shooting of the movie, we noticed they began to make various unrealistic fast moves. They began to plan on how the movie will be seen all over the nation. The secured the consent of a leading minister of God who was the head of a church which had his church all over the nation, to make an endorsement of the movie. They went ahead to make a lot of arrangement for the premiere including gala night and red-carpet preparations. They sent invitation letter and cards to several people and informed the casts to come in their beautiful outfits because it was part of the arrangement for invited guest to take pictures with the movie stars after the premiere. All the preparation was the proto-type of the Nollywood or the Hollywood premiere night. We were implored to come for the Gala nite, so we decided to be present to encourage them, but we knew things were not going to be the way they expected. So, I had decided to go and give them word of encouragement, lest they become completely dampened at the result.

Inside the church hall were very scanty people not up to 40 in number. I felt for the brethren who had expected a large crowd of people. They had dressed gorgeously and had planned to do a Nollywood or Hollywood-styled Movie Premiere. They were just happy at the new movie The Lord had helped them to do and they were doing things they thought could make them shoot up faster. After that experience, we know they are now wiser in His service and The Lord has helped them to make more movies after that maiden one with more refined mindset. WHEN IT HAS TO DO WITH THE MATTER OF THE KINGDOM, THE PRICE OF PATIENCE MUST BE PAID. No Short Cuts. No Cutting of Corners.

The Lord compared the good ground in His parable of The Sower to the Children of God who heard the Word of God and bore fruits with patience.

Luke 8:15a
15But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who,
having heard the word with a noble and good heart,
keep it and bear fruit with patience.

This is what the Word of God says in the Book of Habakkuk 2:3

"For the vision is yet for an appointed time;
But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.
Though it tarries, wait for it;
Because it will surely come,It will not tarry.

During this Spiritual Exercise, we are praying for Massive Open Doors for our lives and ministries. Yet, one of the rule of this spiritual game is PATIENCE. Waiting Patiently to know the mind of God concerning the message to write into scripts, waiting prayerfully to know the casts to call on film locations, praying to know the purpose of God for the movie you have just shot. Waiting and praying to know steps The Lord would wants you to take concerning our academics, ministry, marital life, etc.

What promises has The Lord made for you? What covenant has The Lord made with you, but is still hanging unfulfilled? What long-termed prayers have still remained unanswered? Are you thinking he Lord has forgotten you or forgotten the promises He made for you? WHEN IT CONCERNS THE MATTER OF THE KNIGDOM, THE PRICE OF PATIENCE IS NON-NEGOTIABLE. No Short Cuts. No Cutting of Corners. EVERY VISION COMES WITH THE PRICE-TAG OF PATIENCE.

It was said of Abraham: Hebrews 6:13, 15 that after he had patiently endured all those waiting periods, he obtained the Promises of God.

13For when God made a promise to Abraham,
15And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

One of the rules of entering the Lord's OPEN DOOR is paying the Price of Patience in the Lord's presence. Learn to seek His mind concerning matters of your life. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths. Sit quietly and wait for Him to fulfill the promises He has made for you. "Though the Vision tarries, Wait for it, Because it will surely come to pass."

Let me give you this parting verse:
James 1:2-4
2. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,
3. knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
4. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be
A perfect and complete, lacking nothing