PASTOR OLUSOLA OGIDAN
JAMES 5:7-8(KV): “7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. 8 Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.“;
HOSEA 6:1(KJV): “Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.”;
[biblegateway passage=”HEBREWS 6:1-6″ display=”HEBREWS 6:1-6″]
James compared us with a husbandman. If a husbandman will get fruit for his labour, he has to be patient. It is expected of us to wait and be patient. There is a difference between waiting and being patient. The word “waiting” here implies that we should be expectant.
Even if God shows us a dream, we still need to be expectant and tarry for its fulfillment. We must wait, long for, tarry and expect. The husbandman tarries for something. The expected default position of our hearts is to have a longing. The husbandman is patient in the sense that he has capacity to endure the circumstances that come against what he is being expectant for.
The knowledge of the Lord is very crucial in Prophet Hosea’s prophecies. The ministry of perfection is compared with the coming of the rain. There is something called the knowledge of the Lord which has to do with our wait and that is why we have to establish our hearts. This is the place of maturity we have to come into.
What God is doing with us presently is not for the present but for the future. The testimony given to the children of Israel in the wilderness was not for their present but for the time when they would eventually get into the land of Canaan. God is doing a work with us presently such that we can be able to manage the age to come.
HEBREWS 10:38(KJV): “38 Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.”;
PHILLIPIANS 1:27-28(KJV): ” 27 Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel; 28 And in nothing terrified by your adversaries: which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God.”;
2 TIMOTHY 2:19(KJV): “19 Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”
There is a lot about our faith that God’s expects us to hold unto. One of the strongest point of the heart is its capacity to believe. The moment we begin to lose confidence in God’s word, then our Christian foundation starts to fail. The only way by which God can identify His people is by seeing them hold on to our faith. If there is anything God wants us to keep fighting for, it is the faith we have in Him and his words. Faith is the foundation of all things.