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UNDERSTANDING GOD SERIES
UNDERSTANDING GOD PART 3
We
have been looking at two men of God, Abraham and Moses. The reason we have been
looking at both their lives is because God called them His friends. And there
are privileges involved in being a friend of God.
We were touching on the three realms of
prayer. There is the Holy of Holies,
there is the
Some prayers are prayed from the second realm, where
we began to understand the ministry of God and covet and desire the gifts and the
ministries of God. God in His grace and mercy does pour them upon us and
quicken them through our lives. But there are more than just the gifts, more
than just the ministries. God wants us to go beyond the second veil and enter
His Most Holy Place into the realm He has brought us, opened for us, paid for
us with the precious Blood of Jesus Christ. This is prayer in the third realm
and that is deep communion with God. And we said that these two men Abraham and
Moses had some principles in their lives where they have broken into the third
realm. Where they talked with God as a friend. And God as a friend protected
them.
Let’s look at Gen.18: 9 -15, Then they
said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?”
So he said, “Here in the tent.” And He said, “I will certainly return to
you according to the time of life and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a
son.” (Sarah was listening in the tent door, which was behind him.) Now Abraham
and Sarah were old, well advanced in age; and Sarah had passed the age of
childbearing. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “After I have
grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?” And the Lord said to
Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, “Shall I surely bear a child, since I am
old? Is there anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will
return to you according to the time of life and Sarah shall have a son.” But
Sarah denied it saying, `I did not laugh,’ for she was afraid. And He said,
“No, but you did laugh!”
Later we see how God talks to Abraham. We
have mentioned how in the third realm of prayer, you are in the boardroom with
God. How Abraham had such fellowship with God that he could discuss with God
regarding the situation of
The point we want to bring forth is that at this stage of his life in Genesis 18 he was about 100 years old. He originally started in Gen.12: 4 and he was 75 years old when God called him. Now in Gen.18, he was 100 years old. He had walked with God approximately about 25 years. We never say that it’s going to be fast. You cannot take this message and overnight become a man who walks close with God. There is a process and a time frame.
Even Enoch started walking with God after
the birth of his child. Apparently before that he never walked with God. Gen.
5: 23, “All the days of Enoch was 365 years. And Enoch walked with God then
he was no more because God took him.’ Before that in verse 21 Enoch
lived 65 years and begot Methuselah. So Enoch was 65 years old. In those 65
years we do not know what he was doing. Apparently something that was not
closed with God. When he was 65 years old something happened. It could have
been a crisis. Maybe he saw for the first time the creation and the coming
forth of human life as he saw Methuselah being born. It must have made him
thought about life and what it is to come. Something must have made an impact
on his life. So that in verse 22 After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked
with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters. So he started
walking with God late also, in his sixty fifth year. These are men who walked
closed with God.
So Abraham had walked 25 years with God.
And what you see in Gen.18 is the result of 25 years of fellowship with God. He
did not straight away come out of the
Now for the third point that we are
covering tonight as we seek to understand how to walk with God. There is
something that God observes and that is required of us as we walk with God. It
is patience when we walk with God. We know that God exalt the humble and resist
the proud. When we mention that verse, we say that in both counts God does
something. It’s not that God exalt the humble and does nothing about the proud.
It is God resisting the proud. In fact one of the things that stirred Him up
most is when human pride comes out. Then judgment time comes. So God not only
just ignore the proud, He resists them. So there is something that touched God
to the core of His very heart.
The word patience is translated
longsuffering. And by Genesis 18 Abraham had developed certain patience that
was not there before. Let me give you an example. He knew that God promised him
an offspring. He knew that God promised him a son and an heir. Yet when Sarah
said, “We have waited so long and still nothing has happened. How about this
idea?” I tell you some ideas are dangerous. Because of Sarah’s idea, today in
the Middle East there is still much fighting between the children of
From that time onwards until Ishmael grew
up to 12 years of age is known as the silent years of Abraham. God never talks
to him again. But in His mercy He never forgot His promise to Abraham. Abraham
had to paid the price for his act of unbelief. In Romans chapter 4 it says the
Abraham was strong in faith, giving glory to God. That must have taken place
through the years. Now you see he has such strong faith that when God speaks
about Sarah having a son the following year in Genesis 18 he never said
anything. He didn’t laugh like Sarah. He probably had more faith than Sarah
did. Abraham never questions it. He just accepted it. His faith had grown and
his patience has grown. Because of his strong development of patience, he was
able to walk with God up to the realm that he had walked in Gen.18. There is
certain patience that needs to come before we can move into the third realm
prayer. A lot of prayers are not in the third realm because of a lack of
patience. In the third realm prayer you have to hear first before you pray. In
other words the hearing is very important.
In Exodus 33: 18 Moses asked God, “Please
show me Your glory.’ The request was for His glory. Exodus 34:6, “And
the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful
and gracious, longsuffering and abounding in goodness and truth.”
Immediately you see the ingredient for Glory. Five
ingredients: goodness, mercy, graciousness, longsuffering and truth. Tonight we
are looking at longsuffering. Longsuffering is one of the attributes of God
that relates to His glory. He did not
come to Moses and said, “The Lord, the Lord, His glory is here.” What did Moses
ask for? Moses said, `I want to see Your glory.’ Did God answer him? Yes, God
did. But when God came He actually revealed to Moses what His glory is about.
He says, “The Lord, the Lord God, gracious, merciful, longsuffering, full of
goodness and truth.’ So all these 5 ingredients are His glory. Longsuffering is
a part of God’s attribute that if we could reach the same level of His patience
and longsuffering, we will be able to move into a very deep realm with God.
Now Moses grew in God until that he could
come to the stage in Exodus 34 where he could ask to see God’s glory. In the
Book of Numbers he is called, the meekest man on earth. How did he reach that
point? In Numbers12: 2 Aaron and Miriam said, “Has the Lord indeed spoken
only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us also?” And the Lord heard it.
Then verse 3, Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who were
on the face of the earth. He was the meekest man on the planet earth. What
a statement! How did he reach to that stage? Part of the process was the
development of patience in his life. See humility involves patience too. And
you notice patience, zeal and humility are all interrelated. Then they are
finally related to the glory of God.
As we look into Moses’ life, we can recall
his early days he was not patient. Again like Abraham he grew in patience. In
his early life in Acts 7 we are told that he killed the Egyptian supposing that
the Israelites would understand that from that act of his, he was the chosen
one to deliver them. He knew that God called him. But there were two things
that he missed. One is the timing of God. The other was the anointing of God.
He was 40 years ahead of God’s time. Remember God told Abraham after some 400
years you will come out. Moses was too early. The other was the anointing of
God. He went on his strength. He thought he was great and mighty. He thought he
was the prince. He thought he was the deliverer. He had it right. But he was
half right which actually could be wrong. If you do the right thing at the
wrong time, it still becomes wrong. If you do the right thing with the wrong
strength it is also wrong. And so he had the right purpose but he depended on
his strength. He had 40 years of education in the
How does it relate to that closeness and
that character of God that we are talking about? Again those two points play a
role. Without patience we will miss the timing of God. We will always be
running ahead of God. And without patience we will not learn to wait on God’s
anointing before we do something. It is not only important to know what to
do. It is important to wait for the
Spirit of might to come upon us to do it. To know what to do is only part of
the solution. We must hear the full part until God has spoken fully. A lot of
times people only hear part of what God says and they run into doing something.
And half way through it they got problems. And God said, `I spoke half way and
you went. Why didn’t you wait till I finish speaking.’ Impatience robs people.
So let’s look first on the New Testament
and see some words on patience before we go back to the Old Testament. Turn to
Heb.6 and see how important patience is. If you have great faith but no
patience you still cannot get it. If you have faith that move a mountain but
without patience you will never get it still. It requires the twin forces of
faith and patience. In Heb 6 verse12 it says, “That you do not become
sluggish but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the
promises.” So if you have faith but no patience you don’t inherit the
promises. Now here is where in verse 15 Abraham is mentioned. Verse 13 and 14
talk about Abraham and verse 15 says, And so, after he [Abraham] had patiently
endured he obtained the promise. God
was his friend.
That patience in a sense is like an anchor
into the Spirit realm. Verse19 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul,
both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil.
Now hope is related to patience. Faith and
hope are related. And Heb.11: 1 puts them all together, Faith is the
substance of things hoped for. If faith is the substance of things hoped
for, in other words the material of faith is hope. A brick house is made out of
bricks. So the material for building the house is bricks and maybe some wood
and glass, cement, etc. So without the materials you can’t build the house. And
if faith is the substance of hope, then hope is the material to build faith. If
you don’t have hope, you cannot have faith. It must start first with hope.
Before faith comes hope come. You have a hope that says, “It is possible to do
this thing. I believe it can be done.” Because of this hope, then you put
yourself into this thing with faith.
But how do you get into faith? You must
use the anchor of patience. You hang on to that hope. You meditate on that
hope. You hold fast to that hope. You confess the Word. And the faith begins to
grow into you. You begin to have that hope developed into you. There are two
Greek words for patience in the New Testament. One is the word makrothumia,
which means literally longsuffering, long patience, long endurance. The word makrothumia
comes from two words that are an unlikely combination. The word thurmia
is a Greek word that has been translated as wrath, rage, and anger. It speaks
about boiling anger. Incidentally the English got the word from the Greek where
we got the word thermos flask. There you have a picture of anger,
boiling. Then the word makro is from the Greek word macro, which
means to stretch. It is the same word used in Mk. 4 where Jesus said, “The
Some of us just think that patience is a
weakly passive trait. My friends one of the words from patience makrothumia
speaks about something that is stretched to contain that which God has
promised. The word patience talks about stretching. You stretch over
time. You stretch over circumstances. You stretch over all kinds of opposing
and contrary winds. And you could maintain it long enough until the whole thing
burst forth from within you. That’s the word patience. It contains life.
From the word patience, we see that
patience figuratively speaking is actually incubation. Patience is a period of
pregnancy and incubation that is necessary for the promise of God to take
place. See in a pregnancy life is growing. So in the same way, the Bible says
here, faith and patience get that promise. Faith and that pregnancy, incubation
period which last and last, equal the promises of God, inherit the promises of
God. It becomes a reality to your life. You walk into the realm of God’s
promises.
The other word for patience is also a very
strong word. In the book of James 1: 2-4, “My brethren count it all joy when
you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces
patience. But let patience have its perfect work that you may be perfect
and complete, lacking nothing.”
Now here although the English has the same
word patience, the Greek word is totally different. It’s the word hupomone,
which comes from two words. One is mone and one is hupo. The word
hupo means to come under. The word mone from meno is the
same word where Jesus said, “Abide in Me.” John15. Meno is the same word
means to dwell in, to be at home in. It is a picture of rest. And so you put
the two words together it talks about coming under and resting. So hupomone
is the ability to be able to come under any circumstances and still maintain
that rest. And you stand firm. Circumstances are thrown at you. Difficulties
are thrown at you. And you are still at rest.
It would have been exactly what Paul meant
in Eph. 6: 13 when he says, Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that
you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
So patience means that you stand without giving an inch. And when you conquer
new ground, then you stand again. You are not giving one inch.
Now you see that two words for patience in
the New Testament. One picture of patience speaks of stretching. The other
speaks about resting and maintaining. See if you have the ability to stretch
but no ability to stand and maintain that stretch, you will soon be
“unstretched”. All your gains and your conquests and your work will be
unraveled and be undone. If you have the ability to remain strong and be the
same without further stretching, do you know what you are? You have become a
monument or a statue. That wouldn’t help either. You wouldn’t have the ability
to move at all. You have frozen. The Bible said that we are God’s chosen
people, not God’s frozen people.
So the Bible in the Greek is so
picturesque that it has to use two different words to picture a point. It
pictures the ability to stretch. And then as it stretches, it stands. Now this
kind of force is spiritual force like faith. Faith is the ability to reach into
God. And then bring it to manifest. But patience is the ability to withstand
contrary winds. Patience is the ability to push opposition back to conquer. It
is with faith and patience that these two forces work together.
Now in the light of the meaning of patience, let us look at the walk of Abraham and Moses with God. We see that the only way we can stretch forth as Abraham is to pick up the pieces after a failure and carry on. As Abraham walked with God his faith was stretched in the issue of believing that God would fulfill His promise of giving him a son and an heir. He failed in the incidence when he succumbed to Sarah’s suggestion and begot Ishmael through Hagar. But he continues and he grew in faith. He stretches and he grew strong.
2 Cor.12: 12, Paul says, Truly the
signs of an apostle were accomplished among you with all perseverance in signs
and wonders and mighty deeds. It looks wonderful, isn’t it? The signs of an
apostle. He is talking about powerful signs and wonders in the things of
God. Don’t forget the tiny little word
put there with all perseverance. That tiny insignificant word people
miss because every time you go to a Christian bookstore and there is a book
that says, “Signs and Wonders” and another book that says, “The Story of
Jesus,” people would pick up the “Signs and wonders” book more than the other
one. And when people read that verse in 2 Cor.12, “Truly the signs of an
apostle,” we catch that. And we see the miracles, signs and wonders, mighty
deeds. But we miss that tiny little verse right in the middle, which is
actually the foundation. That says with all perseverance.
Some of us go to see a big nice building,
like the
There needs to be an incubation period. In
that period we must not get discouraged or throw away our hope and faith and
patience. To throw away patience is like aborting a fetus that is not ready to
face the world. And a lot of miracles are aborted. People scream about physical
abortions but there are a lot of spiritual abortions taking place. A lot of
things that should have been birthed forth and brought forth are not happening.
And one of the mighty ways that we learn to stand our grounds and to stretch
ourselves is in the house of prayer. It is in prayer that you stretch yourself
into realm that you never reached before. It is in prayer you maintain your
stand without fail, without yielding, without giving one inch to that which God
has spoken. So it’s important for us to understand the depths of patience.
Let’s see what people with no patience
fail to do. Then we understand how people with patience could accomplish
greater things. Judges 20, there is a civil war between the 11 tribes against
the one tribe. It was one of the lowest points in the nation of
Verse 19 - 21, So the children of
The Lord was the one who sent them. They
asked the Lord who should go first. The Lord said, `
In verse 23 Then the children of
And they went. They want to be friend of
God.
Verse 25, And Benjamin went out against
them from Gibeah on the second day, and cut down to the ground eighteen
thousand more of the children of
In the second battle, 18,000 of the children of
Verse 26, Then all the children of
Some of us are like this. We don’t have
enough patience. We hear the first sentence from God and run out. Then we lose
22,000 men or whatever 22,000 something in your life. Then you come back to God
and say, `Do You want me to go again?’ `Yes.’ the Lord said and before He could
say anything else you ran out. Came back, you lost 18,000 men. “Lord, I am
sorry.” Did you miss it? You did, you are not a friend of God. You don’t value
friendship with God. You are only seeking your own end.
Friendship involves fellowship. There are
many people who treat God like that, like supermarket. Come to God give the
orders and then come out. God wants more than that. He wants fellowship. You
complete the conversation with God. You entered properly and you exit properly.
Finally they wept, they cried and then finally they came to God.
And in verse 28, and Phinehas the son
of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days, saying, “Shall I
yet again go out to battle against the children of my brother Benjamin, or
shall I cease?” And the Lord said, “Go up, for tomorrow I will deliver them
into your hand.”
What did Phinehas receive? He received the
full instructions from the Lord, which earlier they did not. Phinehas also received
the everlasting covenant of peace from God when he showed zeal by killing the
Israelite who brought in the Midianite woman in the midst of the repentance and
weeping of the Israelites.
What a strange story this is. When God
said, “
Let one illustrate: in our fellowship with
human being there are many degrees of fellowship with each other. For example
you could be in a classroom with a teacher but not be a friend with the
teacher. So every time you have a mathematics problem, you come to your
mathematics teacher and ask, “Could you explain this format how it works?” and the
teacher will give you the solution and then you go off. You are not a friend of
the teacher. You are just an obedient pupil. But the friend of the teacher
speaks more. It goes beyond the subject that bothers you. A lot of people come
to God with only the subject that bothers them. But they are not concerned with
things that do really bother God. That’s a different level.
And many times when people come to prayer,
how many come to say, `Father God what are the things that are most important
to You?” What a difference. As we grow
in God we must grow into the realm to understand communion with God. And one of
the things is to learn to have patience.
Some of us don’t realize it. When Jesus was growing from a little boy to
adulthood, one of the greatest sufferings is that He had the love to help
humanity. But He could not help because it was not time. And He would not help
because the anointing had not come on Him. Can you imagine? It is not easy
living among human beings that you love so much, knowing they are suffering out
of ignorance and knowing that you are the solution for them. And you cannot do
anything unless the Father says, `Son, it is time.’
What should the Israelites do? They should have waited on God. When God
said, “
Notice the difference in 2 Sam. 5: 17-19, Now
when the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over
Now notice David was a mighty man of war.
He had won countless battles. Physically his army was very strong. He had those
fierce looking mighty men. One look at them and the enemy would run. In the
natural he wouldn’t need to even pray. But he knew his strength is not in the
army. It was in God. Here he is natural warrior and commander but he was not dependent
on it. He is a friend of God. He must hear his best friend say something before
he goes out.
And he inquires of God, “Shall I go out
against the Philistines? Will you deliver them into my hand? Notice what
the Lord said, “Go up, for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into
your hand.”
Straight away he got the victory. He
fellowshipped with God and he heard God specifically. God said He would deliver
them. There are a lot of us who heard half sentences from God. We haven’t heard
the last word from God and we run out. We need patience to wait on the timing
of God. And we need patience to wait for the anointing of God. To do God’s work
without anointing is an abomination in the sight of God. I don’t care how
acceptable it is to man, but if you fear God and you understand God, that any
man who try to do the work of God without His anointing get cursed and
separated in the Old Testament. When
people like king Uzziah had no anointing to be a priest and tried to offer a
sacrifice in the
And David knew it, he say, “God, will you go with me? Will you deliver me into their hand?” He fellowshipped with God. He wanted the mind of God. The thing about God is that He will let you stretch right to the end. If God answered Abraham earlier, Abraham could have said it was half a miracle not fully a miracle. Human ability came in if God had given a child to Abraham earlier. Sarah was the only one barren. Abraham still had the ability to produce children in the natural. He laid with Haggai and he produced Ishmael. If God had given a child to Abraham earlier, Abraham would say it was by his natural strength. The Bible tells us in Rom.4 that God waited, now patience again being stretched until Abraham’s body was dead in the sense that it was “unreproductive” anymore. There is no natural way he can produce a child. When there was completely no way that human beings can take the glory, no way that human ability can do it, God said; `Now I will do it.’ As long as the patience has not been stretched to the end and dying to self is not complete, God will not step in to deliver the promise.
Notice in James 1: 4, But let patience
have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. At
the end of patience there is the reward of lacking nothing. Heb.6: 12 that
you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience
inherit the promises. Notice here the reward at the end of patience is the
inheriting of the promises. It’s how long you can last, how long you can
stretch and how long you can stand that finally give you the reward of lacking
nothing and inheriting the promises.
I believe when Paul started his ministry,
what he meant in 2 Cor.12: 12 when he says the signs of an apostle were
accomplished among you with all perseverance is this. That as he ministered
to the people, there could be many difficult cases coming before him. He
continued praying and never gave up. He was one who was not discouraged easily.
One who gives up easily shows a lack of this ability that is required to walk
in the Holy of Holies. Are you someone who gets discouraged? If you are then
you lack this quality. Patience has not had its complete work in your life.
That’s the very reason why the reward never comes.
David was patient. There they are and he
said, `Lord unless You tell me I am not going, do You want me to go? Will You
give them to me?’
And in the second incident in 2 Sam. 5:
20, So David went to Baal Perazim and David defeated them there. Verse
22 The Philistines went out once again and deployed themselves in the
Verse 23 Therefore David inquired of
God, and He says, “You shall not go up, circle around behind them and
come upon them in front of the mulberry tree.’ Now many people would run
from there. A lot of people are going out on half commission. That’s why they
have half results and they have half successes. And they come back half
defeated. Half commission is dangerous.
He needs the full commission with the anointing of God.
Verse 24, “And it shall be, when you
hear the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry tree, then you shall
advance quickly. For then the Lord will go up before you to strike the camp of
the Philistine.’ He knew that he depended on the Lord.
So without patience you will miss two
things. You will miss the timing of God and you will miss the anointing of God.
There are many times when God may have spoken, but you have to have patience.
The purpose for patience is that we need to hear the timing of God. See faith
comes by hearing the Word. Hearing what God wants you to do gives you faith.
But you need patience to hear when God wants to do it. And we need patience to
hear when God wants to do it. And we need patience to wait for that anointing
and enablement to do what He wants us to do.
In the book of Isaiah, there is a
wonderful promise of God about Jesus and said that His voice shall never rise
up in a cry and he shall never be discouraged. And as long as we can get
discouraged, patience has not completed its work. James says let patience have
its complete work in our life.
Tonight as we go into the depths of God in
prayer, we need to pray and wait for His timing, which is difficult for the
human soul. We have to wait on Him for some of His timing. We need to wait on
Him to hear carefully our Mighty God and Father. We need to hear and fellowship
with Him. I know we all have different needs. I know we have different burdens.
But its nothing compared to the burden that our Father carries all the time.
And if we would learn to put aside our burden first and reach into the things
of God the blessings are greater.
When Jesus Christ saw his disciples
fishing and washing their nets, He came to them. Peter was one of them and He
said to Peter, “Let out your boat.” Peter laid the boat out. Jesus got into the
boat and start teaching. I want you to remember that while Jesus was teaching,
Peter had a fruitless night. He went out fishing and he had no fish. That would
have been a burden on his life. Some of you come to this prayer meeting and you
are like Peter. You have gone fishing and there was no fish. You have worked
hard and you have believed God and you are still in debts. You have prayed and
you have sought help and you still need healing. You have great needs on your
life. Jesus is aware of your needs but He wants His needs to be fulfilled
first. What were His needs? The crowds were pressing on Him and He could not
teach them. He needed a boat to go out into the water so that He could separate
from the crowd and teach the Word and minister the Word. Jesus had a need in
His ministry during that time. Peter supplied the seed for the need. And Peter’s needs were met. When Jesus
finished with His need, when Jesus’ needs was met in His ministry, He turned to
Peter and said, “Let down your net.” And Peter said, “Lord, we had let down the
whole night and there was nothing. Yes, Lord, nevertheless, at your Word I will
do it.’ And in his whole life he had never seen such a harvest. How do we know
that? It touched him so much to the core of his being that he knelt down and he
said, “Lord, go away from me, I am a sinful man.”
If we come to God into the third realm and
say, “Father God, what are our needs compared to the needs that You see that
the Body of Christ has and the burdens You carry? What is our every need
compared to the burdens that the Lord Jesus is carrying in heaven, longing for
the fullness of the Body of Christ to come forth? And if we will come and enter
the realm where we could say, “Father I put my needs aside and I take upon
myself Your needs, Your desires, Your will, Your burden. Let me take them,
Father.” And when we are finished with that, He will bless you more than you
could have asked for yourself. Seek ye first the
And the anointing that comes when you wait
on Him is beyond what man could ever see. `For eyes have not seen, nor ears
heard, the things that God has kept for those who love him’ that’s in 1
Cor. 2: 8. But Is. 64:4 the same verse
says, `Eyes have not seen nor ears heard the things which God has in store
for those who wait on Him.’ The word
wait in Hebrew is the same word in Gen.1 where it says; `God gathered
the waters together.’ The word gathered in Gen.1 is the same word wait
in Is.64 in the Hebrew. The word wait
means to be bonded, to be bound. So when you wait on God, you are entwining
with Him and He entwines with you. Your weakness is gone. His strength becomes
your strength. His wisdom becomes your wisdom. His life becomes your life. How
wonderful to have patience to wait on Him.
Let’s go to God in prayer.
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