Patience
Patience
God is patient. The true saint reveals in himself the patience of the Spirit of God. Christ is waiting patiently for His enemies to be made His footstool. The way of the cross, of the Kingdom of God, is the way of patience.
Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. (James 1:3,4)
God waits patiently until His image, which is patience, is developed in us by His Spirit. The reader, as he reflects on his own life at this point, will observe there are areas of pain. He or she is being tested in the area of the patient bearing of pain. It is the case with every true cross-carrying saint of God. God is patient. Those who would bear His image must learn patience.
If Adam and Eve had waited patiently for God they eventually would have been given to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for the knowledge of good and evil is the mark of maturity (Hebrews 5:14).
The persons who bear Satan’s image are impatient. War, murder, confusion, and every other evil work spring from impatience. Satan is impatient, being filled always with pain and frustration. Satan’s followers also reveal in themselves this same murderous impatience. "Give me what I want now," they scream.
The true saint bears his cross without complaining, waiting patiently for God to grant his desires.
As Antichrist is growing in the earth his doctrines are appearing among the Christian church people. Satan always works among the sons of God, as far as he is permitted. The recent "faith" and "prosperity" teachings are examples of Satan’s penetration of the Christian ministry. In these doctrines the emphasis is on now. "Get what you want by faith. Find what God has promised and demand it now, as the prodigal son did. God is required to do what you say if you have faith."
The "get it now by faith" is the opposite of the way of the cross, the way of patience. There may be a kernel of truth in the faith and prosperity doctrines, but the way they work out in the lives of the believers definitely is not in keeping with the image of God. It is the way of Satan, the way of self-centeredness.