You Got To Go Through It To Get To It Series

II Perseverance

1 Corinthians 9:24-25

24You know that many runners enter a race, and only one of them wins the prize. So, run to win! 25Athletes work hard to win a crown that cannot last, but we do it for a crown that will last forever.

The apostle compares himself to the racers and combatants in the Isthmian games, well known by the Corinthians. But in the Christian race all of us run to get to the end and get the prize and the prize is eternal life! Now don’t misunderstand, I am not saying that we have to wait till we get to heaven to obtain the abundance of God, in fact the word of God states that the sole reason for Jesus coming was for our abundant living. We must realize in order to get to the end of the race, you must go through the course. Perseverance! But to get to it, you got to go through it. This is a simple encouragement to endure. One main reason we don’t persevere is because of lack of purpose. In order to obtain a purpose you have to talk to your father… However, there is a process that we must begin in order to do just this. The problem many of us have is the fact we don’t take the necessary steps to persevere. We simply get an urge, jump into the water… and since we didn’t take swimming lessons…. We sink like a rock… somebody has to come and rescue us… and then we are to scared to do anything else but sit on the shore and watch the waves.

Last week we learned (at least some of us did) in order to persevere, that you have to focus, you have to be fearless, and you have to be faithful. By the time we conclude this dialogue next week, you will have nine points to assist you to obtain all God desires for your life. The number nine represents the “final” project… or the completion. There are 9 individual fruit of the spirit… that will complete a Christian. There are 9 spiritual gifts.. Jesus was crucified at 9:00 a.m… representing the finality of sins control over our life, so it is not ironic that God provided nine elements for us to be able to persevere. Many of us fall out before we get started, but as the scripture writer lets us know, you got to go through it to get to it. Turn to somebody and tell hang on….. you got to go through it to get to it!

We are going to touch on three things today

Petition

Pray

Prepare

Step 1 Petition

Before you begin doing anything, since the word of God tells us we

don’t know what to ask God, we need to petition the one who does.

The word of God tells us in

Jude 1:20

But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit

In Acts as the people gathered together, in one place on one accord – the word stated that:

Acts 2:4

And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

This utterance give us the ability to let our Father know exactly what the need is…..because utterance gives us the wisdom and the knowledge….

1 Corinthians 12:8

To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit,

It is necessary, because of who we are and what we are wrapped up in (flesh) that there is something provided to get past who we are to connect us to who’s we are.

Romans 8:26 In certain ways we are weak, but the Spirit is here to help us. For example, when we don’t know what to pray for, the Spirit prays for us in ways that cannot be put into words

Step 2 Pray!

Now that you have petitioned the Holy Spirit it is time to pray. You have called on the Holy Spirit and it will now pull out of you what is necessary to go to the mercy seat. But there is a catch, in order for Him to pull something out… you got to put something in. Because in order to get to the next step of this perseverance you have to pray… but you have to pray the word!

What! I got to know the Word to talk to my Daddy! Why!. . Because in the word is power! The word is the seed that will allow your blessing to bloom.

If you look in Genesis with a word, God created the heaven and the earth. Brought them into existence and said… it’s all good. With a word God spoke a word and there was light. He spoke a word and it separated the day from the night. He spoke a word and rivers, lakes, creeks, ponds, and oceans and even waterfalls came to pass. With a word, He created every species of animal, every critter, everything that walks, creeps, slithers, and flies. Every tree with their multiple species came into existence because God said a word… so there is power in the word of God… In fact the word says