enduring faith

In three different books of the Bible we are told that the just shall live by faith.  Well, how long do you plan to live?  No matter how long you live you will need faith every day.
 
1 Peter 1:25 But the Word of the Lord endureth forever.
            
If God’s Word is forever then we will continue to live by it in heaven.  So, if we don’t learn it here we will have to learn it there.  How can we rule and reign with Jesus if we don’t know His will?  When we speak the Word of faith we are speaking God’s will and He performs it.  If we must engage the devil in spiritual warfare, we can wear him out because the weapons of our warfare endureth forever.  The devil can’t endure for long because he has other appointments he must attend to.  When he failed to tempt Jesus he left Him for a season.
 
Luke 18:1 Then Jesus spoke to the people to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint.
 
The word faint means to turn coward or give up.  So, Jesus is warning us that we will face opposition when we set our hearts to pray.  We can surely outlast the devil because we have faith and he doesn’t.  The devil is banking on us to quit when he opposes us and a lot of Christians do!  The biggest mistake Christians make is failing to identify who the enemy is.  If you can’t identify the enemy you will end up wrestling with flesh and blood.  Wrestling with people is a fight you cannot win, because they are not the problem.  Our warfare is spiritual but people have a will we have no authority over.
 
2 Timothy 3:11 Persecutions and afflictions came unto me at Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, these persecutions I endured: but out of all of them the Lord delivered me.

Paul would never give up, he would not altar his confession of the Word.  He knew who the opposition was, it was a messenger of satan sent to buffet him.  Paul said that when he was weak he would become strong because his flesh was in the promises of God.  He became so convinced of God’s Word that he began to take pleasure in all the persecutions.  He absolutely knew what God would do on his behalf.  He went out of his way to do things that would attract the devil to his life.  If we will take Paul as our example we will have the same boldness.
 
Galatians 6:9 Let us not be weary in well-doing: for in due season we will reap, if we faint not.
 
We just need to believe one thing, due season is coming because the Lord says so.  No matter what the devil pitches at us we are assured of the victory.  If we will hold fast our faith and not turn coward and give up we will reap the victory.  Faith which is the Word of God endures forever but the devil will be arrested and dropped in a pit that is hot as hell.  We are scheduled to win, he is on course to lose.  Jesus is the surety of our success and He is the guarantee of the devil’s demise.  How long can we endure?  God knows we are weak so He gives us His grace to empower us to believe and endure.  We can endure as long as we need to and a little more.

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