Praying Until You Obtain the Promise

“For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.” 2 Corinthians 1:20

The promises of God are innumerable and expansive. Promises to always be with us, promises to never leave us or forsake us, promises to protect us, to be our fortress, to strengthen us, and to deliver us from our enemies. Promises of prosperity, promises of healing, promises to bless our children and to bless our marriages. And without a doubt, most important, becoming one with Him, to be partakers of His Power, to be filled with His Spirit⸺ones capable of bringing Heaven to Earth for ourselves and for others.

All of these promises are obtained by faith, and faith comes from hearing the Word of God.  More and more of these blessings will overtake us as we spend time with Him and get to know Him through His Word.

But some blessings it feels have been robbed from us. Stolen from us by an adversary and cruelly locked away just out of our grasp. It is those promises that I want to address today, as well as our desire to capture them, to bring them into our lives, and to crush our evil enemy and glorify the goodness and greatness of God in the process.

The Principle of Persistence

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There is a principle of victory that repeats itself throughout Scripture. It is the principle of persistence. Dutch Sheets, a minister of intercession in the Kingdom of God used this illustration while teaching on this principle of persistence.

Most of us know the cheetah is the fastest land animal in the world. It can attain max speeds of 70 miles per hour. But this you may not have known. For its size, the cheetah has a disproportionately small heart. It takes off with a flurry after its prey. But if it does not catch it in that initial burst, the cheetah tires quickly, often collapsing or stopping as it watches the prize it longed for go trotting off into the sunset.

Like the cheetah, many Christians pursue these promises with everything they have, crying out and praying a hundred miles an hour with unmatched fervor. They are determined to destroy their enemy. But when they do not catch him in that initial spurt, they quickly tire and fall to the ground exasperated and frustrated. Unable to comprehend what they did wrong or why God would not answer, they question everything. All the while, they are oblivious to the fact that the real problem was they did not have enough heart to capture their prize.

Read Luke 18:1-8. It is the parable of the unjust judge and the persistent widow who cried to the judge relentlessly, “Get justice for me from my adversary!” The judge had no desire to help her, but by coming to him over and over finally he says, “I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.” Persistence got her what she knew was rightfully hers.  

Now reread verse one which explains the meaning of the parable. In the NKJV it reads, “Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart.”  The Amplified Bible says Jesus’s purpose in telling this parable to his disciples was “to make the point that at all times they ought to pray and not give up and lose heart.” Make sure you have enough heart!

We need to realize that every time we pray God’s purposes, that every time we declare His promises into our lives, every time we boldly announce the overcoming power of our God, we are releasing spiritual power that will crescendo higher and higher until it finally crashes through the walls bringing the breakthrough.

Persistent Faith

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Let's look at Elijah in 1 Kings 18. Elijah prayed fervently and the rain stopped for 3 ½ years. When that season was over, God told him it was time for the rains to return. Elijah had a word from God that the rains were about to return. He knew that was God’s will and he had His promise. Yet seven times Elijah had to bow with his head between his knees, his fervent prayers literally giving birth to the rains that God had already promised. Seven times! This is the story relayed to us again in James chapter 5 as James confidently avows that “the effectual, fervent prayers of a righteous man avail much!”

This principle of persistent faith is not a one-time mention in the Bible. Jesus tells us to ask, and keep on asking, to seek, and keep on seeking, and to knock and keep on knocking. Daniel prayed 21 days until he received what he had set his heart on. Three times Elijah had to lay his body on the widow’s dead son and let the power build until God raised him from the dead. Jesus anguished in prayer three long hours in Gethsemane before he finally received the breakthrough that allowed Him to lay down His life.

Lastly, Ephesians 3:20 boldly declares, “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.”  We rejoice in this Scripture, but we often miss the final add on. He is able to do exceedingly above all we ask or think, according to the power that works in us. God has entered into covenant with us. We are his hands and feet. He wants to bring heaven to earth. But we are the vessels that can bring forth his power. Never, never forfeit that power by giving up.

“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9

As a church we do not believe in doing life alone. We want to pray with you.

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www.legacychurchri.com/prayerandpraise

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