Living Hope Fellowship Church

Training Material

by Pastor Kevin Badgley

PERSEVERANCE

Preface

(pray till the answer comes)

          Many times when we pray we come up against a WALL that we can’t seem to get through.  It seems the heaven over us is brass.  At that point, some people immediately back away like a bug bouncing off of a light bulb.  They don’t press on, because they think it is too hard. 

Matthew 11:12 says, “. . . the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.”  Some answers require violence, a use of force in the spirit, to obtain!  People think they will always have options, so they don’t pray hard or get spiritually violent against the devil, but God can remove options.

Isaiah 62:6 says, “. . . ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence,”  Verse 7 says, “And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.”  Don’t quit praying till God brings revival.  If you have a need, God is faithful to answer if you persevere. 

PERSEVERANCE

by Pastor Kevin Badgley

          When someone in the Bible got something from God, it was because they persevered.  They stuck it out, stayed with it, and didn’t give up until God answered.  They knew the Word of the Lord, and they knew that God’s heart was in their direction for their victory.  I am convinced that having locked in on what God said they could have, they wouldn’t give up or quit until God answered the way they believed for!  Hebrews 11:6 says, “. . . God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”

          Diligently means “painstakingly”.  Sometimes seeking God can be painful, desperate, or difficult.  You may be tired or even vexed in your spirit as you seek the Lord for an answer.  At times we need restoration, because something has left us because of sin.  Many times it seems as we pray, that we come up against a WALL.  Have you ever seen that WALL when you were praying?  You can’t seem to get through.  It seems the heaven over you is brass, and the earth under you is iron.  You wonder if God can still hear.  If you have ever prayed for anything deep at all in God you have felt that wall.  When some people get to that point, they immediately back away, because they think it is too hard. 

The world has established things that they say God can’t do, but God is going to turn the world upside down in great revival. 

Matthew 15:21-23 says, “Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon.   And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.  But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.”

She began crying after the disciples when Jesus didn’t answer her.  She cried to them, to get Jesus to answer, but they asked Him to send her away!  They were no help!  

Matthew 15:24-25 says, “But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.”  Can you see the desperation of this mother?   She knew what devil possession was.  She didn’t deny it, and she wanted the Lord to cast the thing out.  She knew if her daughter didn’t get delivered, she would go to hell.  Folks, if you’ve got a devil, you go to hell.  I believe the more specific and serious you get as you pray, the more direct influence you will have on moving God. 

That daughter was grievously vexed with a devil, and it tormented her every day.  The woman looked into the face of the daughter she loved and saw the face of the devil laughing and mocking at her, saying, This one is going to hell.  Understand how desperate her situation was.  She couldn’t look into the face of her daughter without seeing a set of snake eyes.  She heard the hissing rasping voice of a mocking unclean spirit.  The devil wants to take every soul to hell that he can. 

This woman cried to the Lord for help.  Matthew 15:26 says, “But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs.”  He called the woman a dog!  Verse 27 says, “And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.”  She knew He had plenty of anointing, and a crumb of it was plenty to cast the devil out of her daughter.

Jesus rejoiced inside!  Matthew 15:28 says, “Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.”  God is pleased with faith.  He told her, “. . . be it unto thee even as thou wilt.”  She had crossed the barriers.  She prayed past the place where they said she could not come in, past where they tried to turn her away. 

You can do that too.  The Lord will break you, and crumble you, and mold you the way He wants you to be.  God is fixing to bless you big time if you hold on to Him.

This woman was a sinner, and God heareth not sinners, but then she declared Him to be Lord of her life.  If you believe on the Lord you shall be saved.  She was brand new in the Lord, and she got a miracle, but it was not immediate.  She got it by perseverance.  She continued to battle ram the barricade the devil put up. 

The church is good at putting up barricades for certain types of people they call unworthy.  If you believe God, don’t worry about the hypocrites in the church!  Pray right past them, because God has victory for you! 

In Verse 28 it says, “. . . And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.”  In Mark it recaps the account and it says she went home and found her well and resting in bed.  The devil was gone out and she had her daughter back, and she wasn’t going to hell. 

Do you see how many obstacles this woman had to go through to get to the Lord?  Even then, He tried her along the way.  He wants to make sure you seek after Him with ALL of your heart.  The answer is there.  2 Corinthians 1:20 says, “For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen. . . .”

You CAN pray past every obstacle and get the victory.  It is God’s desire, and it is in the Word of God that you hammer heaven until the answer comes.  3 John 1:2 says, “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.”  If you have a problem with your health, pray until you get the answer. 

Isaiah 62:6 says, “I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence,”  This is a spiritual law and a commandment.  “Ye that make mention of the LORD,” are Christians, children of God!  He said don’t keep silent!   

Verse 7 says, “And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.”  Jerusalem also means the church, and “a praise in the earth” means revival.  Don’t quit praying till God brings revival, and don’t quit believing until God brings forth what He said you are to have.  It says give Him NO REST!  When you pray, it ascends up before the throne!  Revelation 8:4 says, “And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.”

As you pray and believe God, it goes up before God.  As you pray in the Holy Ghost, it goes directly right through the devil’s living room and reaches God anyhow.  If you continue to pray, you will not be the same, and God will answer. 

We are going to have great revival!  People who are not able to believe for this now will be ashamed in that day that they ever doubted God.  If we set our faces like flint for God, He said He would answer.  He is going among the people, choosing warriors, valiant men.  These are in battle all the time like David’s valiant men.  They are always ready to fight in the Spirit, always in prayer, and always believing God, serving the King. 

The Lord has given us counsel how to talk to God, the Father.  He said to give Him no rest!   What did you do to your children when they pulled on your leg for a piece of candy?  Get out of here.  I am busy.  They came back and said they wanted a piece of candy.  Get out of here.  I am busy.  I WANT A PIECE OF CANDY!  What kind?  Okay.  Pretty soon you started carrying a pocket full of candy, because you liked those little ones grabbing your leg.  Maybe you drug them around a little bit before you gave them what they wanted.  Maybe you even adjusted your leg so they could hold on better. 

That is the way God is with His children.  God wants you to mean business when you talk to Him, and He will give you what you ask for.  He wants to see if you will wrestle Him for it.  Will you cling to Him for it?  Do you really mean what you say?  You wonder why God doesn’t just give it to you when you ask.  Sometimes you ask amiss, sometimes He wants to see if you really mean it, or if you are just casually asking for something. 

People come up to God and tell Him they want a miracle or this or that.  God waits, but it is not because He is too busy.  He waits to see about you.  You may wait around for a little bit, or you may decide you can do without it, and so you saunter off.  These things are for whosoever will believe.  When you come, bring faith with you.  Don’t leave till you take home what God has promised them that love Him. 

We are talking about perseverance.  When you pray, keep at it till God answers.  In Luke, Chapter 18, we find the parable of the unjust judge.  I believe all of the Lord’s parables are events that really happened.  I don’t think He had to make up any stories.  He could just recount an incident that happened some time before. 

Luke 18:1 says, “And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;”  When you faint, you quit praying.  You can’t do anything when you faint!  You just lay there with no prayer, no faith, and no works.  It is the same as being dead.  You can’t work by fainting, and faith without works is dead. 

Sometimes people feel like giving up.  What’s the use?  God hasn’t answered.  Some people don’t wait very long.  In days of old, people would pray, and pray, and pray, and they would pray some more.  You may not like to pray, but you sure like the answers!  When the answer comes, you will rejoice. 

Psalm 30:5 says, “. . . weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”  We have to pray till the answer comes.

The first church prayed till the building shook.  Acts 4:31 says, “And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.” 

You have to pray harder and longer for some things than you do for other things.  According to Luke 12:48, “. . . unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required. . . .”  Some of us have been praying a long time for some things that haven’t been happening, but we have a lot invested, so God will give us a lot back.  He is building it up in heaven, and you are about to get a great blessing. 

If you have been praying for a long time for a miracle, and you haven’t seen it yet, it is fixing to come.  Ephesians 3:20 says, “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,” 

You don’t see it yet, but you don’t walk by sight anyway.  You have a choice to believe God or believe man.  Luke 18:2-5 says, “Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man:  And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary.  And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.”

The widow was troubling him!  This man had power over the whole city, but the widow came with a need and she kept asking for help.  Can’t you see her?  We don’t know what her adversary had done, but what if it was a property dispute? 

Possible scenario:  This guy moved his fence over the line, and I want you to correct the situation.  The devil has done crossed over the line, and he is on my property.  I want you to do something about it.  Bring some policemen and run him off.  The judge put her off.  Yeah, yeah.  Next case. Wham with the gavel on the desk.  The next day she was back in his face.  An enemy has come down there and crossed over the line.  He is trying to build a house on my property.  Send a policeman and get it fixed!  I can see that judge saying, Oh, woman, that is not important.  I am only dealing with the big stuff.  Next case.  Bang.

Day after day she came.  I wonder if when he went to sleep at night he saw her face!  The Bible says to give God no rest until He answers.  I believe it could get to the place that when he sits on His throne He will see your face in front of Him and you saying, Lord when are you going to answer me?

Finally the unjust judge couldn’t stand it any more!  What happens when someone gets frustrated, and they have had all they can stand?  They give somebody what they want, and ask if there is anything else they can do for them!  They want to get them out of their face! 

Luke 18:6-7 says, “And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith.  And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?”  He may make them wait a little bit.  Verse 8 says, “I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. . . .”

There will be a great move of God, and He is going to come so fast that we will struggle to keep up with Him.  You won’t have to provoke somebody to get up and testify.  They’ll want to testify of the great miracles that have happened.  Look here at this new leg I got that I didn’t have last week.  Look at this hand.  Look at my eyes!  I can SEE you.  You won’t be able to stop the testimonies.  God is going to come speedily and with power. 

The end of Luke 18:8 says, “. . . Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?”  When this revival comes, will he find anybody that prays with faith and goes after the adversary, demanding recompense for his wrong doing?

Matthew 7:7 says, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:”  Some things you can get an answer for, by just asking.  Some things, you have to go a step further and seek it out and tell God it is in His Word.  There is a third and final stage where you have to knock.  Some things, you will have to knock and then kick the door down in order to get the answer. 

Matthew 11:12 says, “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.”  Some answers require violence to obtain!  We have to take the anointing and the joy of the Lord by force. 

In Hosea 5:15 God said, “I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.”  God allows things to happen to wake us up and cause us to pray more than ever before. 

Psalm 139:23-24 says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:  And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”  If the devil has any place in me, I want to know it! 

We need to hunger and thirst after righteousness.  2 Peter 3:9 says that the Lord is not slack concerning his promises.  I wonder how people would pray if there were no pain pills.  I wonder how people would pray if the economy collapsed so much that there was no place to go for assistance of any kind.  I wonder how people would pray if the New Madrid earthquake moved suddenly and dropped every bridge between here and any hospital they could get to.  People have options, so they don’t think they have to pray hard or get violent spiritually against the devil, but God can remove options.

Mark 10: 46 says, “And they came to Jericho: and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging.”  This blind man could not help himself.  Verse 47 says, “And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, and say, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me.”  A lot of people resist that desire to cry when God walks by them.  What would people think? 

Verse 48 says, “And many charged him that he should hold his peace: but he cried the more a great deal, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me.”  They didn’t counsel him or give an opinion; they demanded that he should hold his peace.  However, he cried out MORE a great deal.  He had never been able to see, and he wanted to see badly so he could live normally.  He was tired of begging.

The people who could see the Lord told him to be quiet!  They wanted him to be content where he was, but he wanted to be healed!  He didn’t know if Jesus would come back that way again.  He may not ever get that close to him again.  Those people sure couldn’t pray for him and get him healed.  He got more violent, and Jesus kept on walking right past him. 

The man could sense that they were moving away from him, because the noise of the crowd was getting dimmer.  He cried, Lord have mercy on me.  He couldn’t get up and run, because he would run into people or fall down.  He just shouted louder, and it made people nervous.  When people start praying through, you will find that people who really don’t care about praying through get nervous. 

When somebody really lays it on the line, and dumps all their sin on the altar, ready to go on without spot or wrinkle, few can minister with them.  Some so called Christians get nervous, because some of the sins they name are some of the sins they are doing, yet they think it is no big deal.  When God is drawing you to a closer walk with him, little things become big deals.

Moses smote a rock a couple of times instead of speaking to it, and so he was not able to enter into Canaan land.  The closer you get to God, the stricter it gets.  However, He gives you power to do it.  Thank the Lord that He got you into that place.

Mark 10:49 says, “And Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called. And they call the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise; he calleth thee.” 

Jesus had been walking up to that time.  Blind Bartimaeus couldn’t grab Jesus, because he couldn’t see him.  There was a crowd, and he only heard Jesus from a distance.  In a constantly moving crowd outdoors he would never have found Jesus, but Jesus found him!

Mark 10:50 says, “And he, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus.”  Verse 51 says, “And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou. . . .”  Look at this question.  Jesus never even noticed him.  Would He have walked past him if he hadn’t cried?  Yes.  He was doing it on purpose.  Jesus knew there was a blind man there that was going to be healed.  Does He know you have needs today?  Yes, He knows.  He is walking by, but He does not always stop.  He will pass on by if you don’t reach out and get a hold of Him! 

When Bartimaeus got real, and started crying out and praying in earnest, he got an answer.  He believed and got violent and came after Jesus.  The latter part of Mark 10:51 says, “. . . The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight.” 

Mark 10:52 says, “And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.”  This can happen again today.  Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.”

If the victory doesn’t come immediately, pray again and again until God brings an answer.  If something is in the Word of God, it is for us, so believe God and keep on hammering! 

CONTACT INFORMATION:

PASTOR KEVIN BADGLEY

LIVING HOPE FELLOWSHIP, P. O. BOX 111, GRAND CHAIN, IL  62941

CHURCH / FAX (618) 634-2541

E-mail  livinghope@hughes.net

www.livinghopefellowshipchurch.org

These condensed Bible studies have been published to help new Christians in their new walk with the Lord.  Kevin Badgley, the author, is the pastor of Living Hope Fellowship Church.

This is a Living Hope Fellowship publication.