Langata Rd, Opposite Uhuru Gardens, Nairobi, Kenya.
We are on a pilgrimage that demands tenacious persistence if we are to realize all that God has in store for us. Your responsibility is commensurate with your assignment, and you cannot delegate it. Challenges and trials will be present in life; therefore, to live victoriously and fulfill our God-given purpose, we must live as overcomers in Christ.
Jesus promised to never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5-6). He gave us the Holy Spirit to guide and comfort us, and we have God's Word to build and direct us. He has made the way and given us what we need to live as overcomers (2 Peter 1:2-4).
Learning to trust God in crisis and uncertainty helps to mature us in Christ and strengthens us to overcome obstacles to fulfilling our destiny. Jesus has never lost control, and we can always trust Him. Faith flows from intimacy and relationship with God. A life of faith is not about achieving results, but living as one who trusts the One who guides.
When we examine Joshua and the children of Israel as they crossed the Jordan and entered the promised land, we can find principles to overcome obstacles:
1. When God directs, faith ignores natural circumstances and embraces the opportunity to live in promised inheritance. Your ability to trust Jesus confidently amid life's uncertainties determines how much you abide in God's peace, joy, and victory.
2. Courageous faith sees opportunity in contradiction. It is a faith that can detect chaos and release God's peace in a turbulent world. As with every new year, we are given a fresh opportunity to occupy and possess God's inheritance for us. It is eternal and priceless. Our born-again experience brings us into kingdom inheritance. In Christ, you have a priceless inheritance that will not change; this is a present eternal reality (1 Peter 1:3-4).
3. A kingdom mindset apprehends this reality by faith and lives from the assurance that inheritance is available presently, as well as in the future.
Your certainty is in Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith. Hope dispels discouragement and attracts what we hope for. God wants us to become what He says, to apprehend what He has promised (Romans 4:18). To produce powerful results, we must be constant in our commitments. We must be 'steady-as-she-goes' - fixed, unchanging, and steadfast. It's all part of being diligent.
Persistence is also key to remaining diligent. When a person is diligent, they refuse to relent. They are tenaciously immovable, even in the face of opposition, and unbending until their objective is achieved. Withstanding opposition and braving adversity are part of the walk of faith. To resist attempts to abort our dreams, we must be persistent. This is the kind of commitment required to live and walk in faith.
God rewards those who are hardworking, attentive, busy, constant, and persistent in their pursuit of seeking Him. You have to give 100 percent of your focus and energy to press through the barriers that stand against you, keeping you from making it to the finish line. Diligence and all it entails is a requirement for you to reach a place of victory.
We are called upon to thresh mountains - unless we do so, the mountains will not move. All the things that stand in the way of your desired outcome will become like chaff. Some areas in our lives require more work and effort than others because the ground is harder, we haven't been dealt the best hand in life, or simply our personality wiring tends to lean toward certain priorities. We may be more rationally focused or task-focused, and sometimes we need to address the areas that are out of balance to see fruit in lacking areas. But if we are faithful in our diligence, whether that requires us to actively put effort into physical focus or time, or to "seek the Lord diligently in prayer and study" for answers, we will see the reward of our labors (Hebrews 11:6).
Consider what priorities need to shift to allow you to diligently tend to the areas where you desire to see fruit or breakthrough. Diligence in correct priority will lead to much breakthrough as you partner with the Lord in faith.
It's important to understand that:
1. Poverty is a result of spiritual warfare (Genesis 2:16-17)
2. Abundance is signified by every tree - eat freely (John 10:10)
3. The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Jesus came that we may have life in abundance (Genesis 3:1-4)
Satan specializes in twisting words to achieve his objectives, and it's evident that Eve fell into the trap of distorting God's word. Eve exaggerated by adding to what God had said - God had not said anything about touching. Adam and Eve had to go through abundance to get to the forbidden tree (2 Corinthians 2:11, 11:3).
The characteristics of satanic lies:
- God gave us authority.
- God gave us an assignment.
- God gave us abundance.
We lost these through disobedience, but Christ recovered them for us when he offered himself as a ransom for our sins. Satan's strategy is to displace you from God's purpose. Consider who in your network of relationships is your weakness, who can get you to violate God's law? It could be a parent, a spouse, a child, or even a friend. This is why we must choose our friends wisely. After Satan gets you to sin, he is no longer a tempter but turns around and becomes an accuser (James 1:17).