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The Vehicle That Will Drive Your Faith to the Finish Line

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Wondering why you haven’t seen a manifestation of victory in your life? You need the vehicle that will drive your faith to the finish line!

If you’ve ever driven in the mud or in the mountains, you know that having the right vehicle can mean the difference between arriving safely at your destination or being stuck for hours in the same place. Choosing the right vehicle at the start is the best way to go! The same is true with faith. It can often be a rocky, muddy and steep road to the finish line—where you see manifestation and victory—and choosing the right vehicle will keep you from getting stuck.

Maybe you’re feeling that way today. You declare and stand for healing and your symptoms subside. Then three days later, they’re back in full force—maybe even worse! Or maybe you’re standing in faith, reciting scriptures, and believing for a financial breakthrough, and things start to look good. Then, suddenly it’s as if you’re back to square one. What’s the problem?

Keith Moore puts it this way, “On-again, off-again faith will produce on-again, off-again results.” To get to the finish line, you have to keep the switch of faith turned on and use a vehicle that can navigate the terrain ahead. That vehicle is patience.

Patience is being consistently constantly the same, day in, day out, by faith. Patience isn’t as exciting as faith, is it? But it sure is a necessary vehicle to get your faith to the finish line. God is not only the Author and Finisher of our faith, but He has given you the grace to reach your destination—even when you’re tempted to quit, get discouraged, give up on a dream, or give up on a promise. You weren’t created to quit. You were created to win!

As you honor God, moving forward in your faith, He will meet you with supernatural power. As Gloria Copeland says, “With faith, you get started. With patience, you finish the race.” Here is how patience—the vehicle that will get your faith to the finish line—works when you make it your primary source of transportation.

1. Avoid Flip-Flopping to Get to the Finish Line

“Be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.” –James 1:6-8

This is a great place to pause and do a quick self-evaluation. Take a moment and think about what you’re believing for right now—whatever promise you’re standing for—whether it be promotion, a ministry, your family, financial increase or healing. Now, you can probably think of many times when you’ve been strong in your faith regarding this matter, but can you think of times when you’ve started to get “blown and tossed” by statistics, your symptoms, your bank balance or missed opportunities?

If you let circumstances throw you off course, you got out of the vehicle driving your faith—you got out of patience. The problem is, when you get out of your vehicle, you aren’t moving forward anymore. James 1:7 says that when this happens, we “should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.” That’s why it is so important to avoid flip-flopping in our believing, our speaking and our persevering.

That might sound rough, and everyone struggles in this area, at least for a time. But God would not ask us to do anything that He has not equipped us to do. It takes practice to become a faith champion, but you can do it!

You see, the power of patience is a working power. When faith has a tendency to waver, it is patience that comes to faith’s aid to make it stand. The power of patience is necessary to keep faith strong and moving. Kenneth Copeland says, “If patience is not in its place, you’re going to come apart at the seams.”

That’s why almost everywhere you find faith mentioned in the Bible, you also find patience. Faith and patience are the power twins. Together, they will produce every time.

Watch as Kenneth Copeland teaches about the power twins faith and patience:

On the other hand, faith without patience will often fail because no matter how many confessions you speak and how determined you are to stand on the Word of God, the devil is always standing by, ready to fire distractions at you like a machine gun. “Look over here! Look at your symptoms! Look at that failed business deal! Have you noticed that what you’re believing for hasn’t happened yet?” He will tempt you with anything to keep your focus off the Word of God.

That’s where patience comes in. Patience says, “I don’t put timelines on God. I don’t have to see it to know I have it. I believed I received it when I prayed.” Patience keeps your faith strong and gives it endurance to persevere until the answer comes. Faith takes it, and patience keeps it.

2. See Trials as an Opportunity to Get to the Finish Line

“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.” –James 1:2-4 (NKJV)

One of the most common traditions and mistakes is believing that trials and tribulations develop faith. Trials and tribulations do not develop faith…faith comes by hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17)—hearing, speaking and acting on the Word. Faith must be developed on the Word of God before the trial or test comes.

However, trials and tribulations do develop patience. We have already learned from James 1 that this is true. The Apostle Paul says the same thing in Romans 5:3: “We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance.” In other words, endurance—or patience—is the vehicle that drives your faith to the finish line.

If trials develop our patience, does that mean God sends them our way? No. Tests and trials don’t come from God—they come from the devil. God, in His goodness, knew that these tests would come and taught us how to use them as opportunities to grow spiritually. A test or a trial is something that applies pressure on our flesh and attempts to draw us away from God’s Word.

But God encourages you to remember that “the temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

That’s what Jesus was talking about in Luke 6:47-48, when he compared one who builds his house on sand to one who builds his house on a rock. When the floods (or trials) beat on a house built on the rock, the house does not fall. That’s because faith is developed before the trial comes. Then patience is developed in the trial or tribulation and undergirds, or keeps the door open, for faith to work.

To be clear: Tribulation is not the goal of Christianity. Many think we cannot be worth anything until we suffer. That is not true. You will not be worth anything unless you overcome that suffering. There is no glory in knuckling down and enduring trial. The glory is in overcoming that trial with the Word of God through His power. This is why we can count it all joy when we are tried. We know that Jesus has defeated Satan, and that we are victors over anything Satan sends our way.

So, if you’re facing a trial right now that is challenging your faith, “consider it an opportunity” (James 1:2) to get to the finish line through the vehicle of patience.

3. Don’t Quit to Get to the Finish Line

“So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.” –Galatians 6:9

Have you ever seen a quitter win? No one has. Every victory in the Bible had a time between the promise and the victory. Some were very long periods of time with evidence that contradicted the promise all along the way. The common thread in every Bible victory? They all knew the secret: Don’t quit to get to the finish line.

That’s what happened with Joseph when he was first given a dream from God, revealing His plan and purpose for his life, which included reigning and ruling (Genesis 37:1-44). He had faith in that dream because he spoke it to his family. He was probably ready to begin ascending to power and greatness and get on the road to a manifestation. But what happened instead? One detour and setback after another!

Setback No. 1: His family turned on him and threw him into a pit, leaving him for dead.

Setback No. 2: He was sold into slavery.

Setback No. 3: He was framed, betrayed, wrongfully accused and fired.

Setback No. 4: He was sent to prison.

Setback No. 5: He was forgotten by those who had the power to help him get out of prison.

Gloria Copeland teaches you how patience does not give in to pressure:

Every natural circumstance pointed to the opposite of the vision and dream God had placed in Joseph’s heart. He seemed to be getting further and further away from fulfillment rather than closer! There were so many times when Joseph could have given up and thrown in the towel on his faith. But he didn’t. He chose to continue to have faith in God, live with integrity, and let patience have its perfect work (James 1:4).

When you first had a vision from God or set your heart on a dream or a promise in His Word, you may have had the idea that it would come to pass instantly—or at least quickly and easily. Sometimes they do. But when there is an in between time, that’s where many people get stuck.

Find 3 Things to Do When You Feel Stuck here.

How many setbacks are you willing to endure on the road to your victory? Two, three, 10? When will you decide it’s best to just give up?

Giving up will never bring a reward—that’s a Bible fact. The victory is won in the midst—in patience, in persevering, in unshakable faith. That’s why Hebrews 6:12 instructs us to “imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (NKJV). Patience is the vehicle that will drive your faith to the finish line.

So, if the devil is digging you a pit—a pit of sickness, poverty, strife, depression—that’s when you shift into another gear. Joseph had a powerful dream from God. But in the natural, that dream all but died right there in that pit. Ruling over people? He was thrown 10 feet below everyone. That’s going the wrong direction!

Do you feel like you’re going in the opposite direction of your dreams?

The closer you get to the finish line, the tougher things become. The devil is throwing out his last and best shot at getting you to give up. The question is: Will you allow him to succeed or make him sorry he ever messed with you?

Pressing through to the end—that’s going to take Bible patience, which is different than the world’s kind of patience. To the world, patience is just dealing with something or grinning and bearing it. But Bible patience will go after something as long as it takes. For example, if you’re believing for healing and it’s been three weeks, but you haven’t seen a change, patience will come and undergird your faith. It will keep you standing and believing the Word of God until the full manifestation comes.

So, what should you do when you have symptoms, and you pray, and nothing happens? Bible patience knows if you believed you received it—you have it. So, Bible patience won’t call people on the phone and say, “Well, I prayed about it, but I didn’t get anything.” No. You take it when you pray. Don’t give it up until that prayer is fully answered and your healing is fully manifested.

It’s the same way with money. You might be believing for something big— a house, a car—and it’s been a month or two. You can’t tell anything has changed. What do you do? You do the very same thing you did on the first day. You believe you receive it. You don’t give up just because time has passed. Bible patience does not surrender to circumstances. 

Patience will guard you from your own feelings, and from watching the clock. Let patience have her perfect work. Patience comes and holds the door of faith open. Praise God! It won’t let the devil slam it. It won’t let anything shut it. It just keeps calling things that be not as though they were. It keeps acting as though it was already done.

Find 3 Ways to Practice Patience Every Day here.

Now that you know why patience is the vehicle that will drive your faith to the finish line—you can climb in and head straight for your destination! Do you have your faith sights set on a promise of God today, a promise you’ve been waiting on for some time? Don’t let the delay discourage you. Put patience to work. Faith with patience always works. The Word of God guarantees you will receive your reward.

Related Article:

3 Ways to Practice Patience Every Day

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