Faith and Patience: Partners Forever

Hebrews 6:12 “that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”

On numerous occasions in the New Testament patience is linked to faith. In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit tells us to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. The scripture teaches us that all the promises of God are yes and amen to those who are in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 1:20). In other words every promise of God is available to all of His children. And so each promise of God, when acted on in faith, will result in the manifestation of that particular promise in the life of the believer. Some promises, when acted on in faith are manifested immediately. For example the promise of salvation, for the moment anyone acts on this particular promise they are instantly born-again.

Acts 19:4-6 “Then Paul said, "John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus."  (5)  When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.  (6) And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.”

Another promise that is instantly manifested when acted on in faith is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. In the above quoted passage of scripture we read an account of the apostle Paul laying hands on new born believers to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Before Paul laid hands on these believers he first taught them about the promise of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And so the moment that they believed the promise of God and acted on it by allowing Paul to lay hands on them to be filled, they were instantly baptized with the Holy Spirit. Another promise of God that is normally manifested the moment we believe and act upon it is our healing. With regards to healing however, not always is the individual completely healed the moment that they are prayed for. In some instances the healing is progressive and the full manifestation of complete healing happens over a period of time. But the point remains that the healing process begins immediately when hands are laid on the individual to receive their healing. Think about the earlier example that we looked at when our Lord cursed the fig tree, the tree began to whither from its roots the moment the Lord spoke to it but the full manifestation only became evident the following day. There are many other promises of God that are manifested almost immediately when they are prayed for in faith, for example God’s promises of wisdom, strength, comfort, peace and many others. And so we can see that in all instances when the promise of God requires the individual alone to act, then the promise is almost always manifested immediately. The reason for this is because nothing else and no one else is involved in bringing the promise to fruition in the believer’s life.

Philippians 4:19 “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

There are some of God’s promises however, that when acted on do not manifest immediately. These are the promises that require not only faith but also patience in order for us to be able to see the manifestation of those promises. Normally these promises involve the influencing of the wills of other individuals before the promise can be manifested. An example of this type of promise would be God supplying our financial need according to the promise recorded in the above quoted passage of scripture. When a believer acts on this particular promise, then in order for God our Father to be able to make this promise manifest in our lives He has to influence the wills of other individuals to make that finance available to us, and that takes time. When you read the context of this passage you will see that when Paul taught the church at Philippi about this particular promise, he had himself been standing in faith for God to supply his needs. And so in response to Paul’s faith God had moved upon that church to take up an offering and send it through to him. All of this took time however, and during that time Paul exercised patience along with his faith in waiting for God’s promise to be manifested.

Luke 8:15 “But 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.”

Another example of God’s promises that requires patience to be exercised along with our faith, is His promise to transform our lives into the image of His Son (Romans 8:29). In the passage of scripture quoted above our Lord referred to it as producing the fruit of the kingdom with patience. Farmers understand the concept of patience, for none of them plant a crop and expect that crop to be ready for harvesting the following day. A wheat farmer for example, will sow a crop of wheat and fully expect to harvest that wheat in four months’ time because experience has taught him that it takes roughly four months for a crop of wheat to mature. And so while his crop of wheat is growing he will continue to water and nurture that seed. The point is that he knows that there is a time delay from the time he plants until the time he reaps. So it is with the kingdom of God. And so we see that there is a growth process, and if believers will patiently put into practice that which God teaches them through His word, then they can fully expect to ultimately see His word produce the fruit of the kingdom in their lives.

Michael E.B. Maher

Faith Toward God

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