Woe to those who draw out iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope: 19 That say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it!
Usually when we think of patience it’s a patience tinted with ‘tolerance’.
Sometimes it’s not so much that we are patient with others but that we are ‘tolerant’ with their behavior, or lack of behavior and so we wait.
However Godly patience is very different. Why? Because it proceeds from its’ origin based in faith and obedience out of a heart that loves Him and it is part of His refining process in our lives. We are to let patience bring us through this process.
Love, faith, and patience are the marks of the believer’s maturity and that which He is working in our lives is designed to bring us into our place of blessing.
When we ‘wait‘ on our Heavenly Father it is not because we are tolerating His delays, it is because we trust in His faithfulness. When our Father says ‘Wait’, we know that His timing is best, no matter how long-suffering it may seem at the time. It is often said our Heavenly Father has 3 answers to our every question or request:
Yes, No and Wait;
and most of us will bear witness to that in our lives.
The length of time we have to wait is easier to endure when we wait with Godly patience. When we apply the principles given in His Word and draw on our past personal experiences, we are able to prophetically see our Heavenly Father’s deliverance coming at an appropriate time in the future. It is this kind of patience that will empower us to stand strong against temptations and not give in to distractions as we stay focused on Him, His Word and His promises. With Godly patience formed through relationship with Him, we can be prophetically certain of our Heavenly Father’s plans even before He reveals them to us.
Sadly, many times we don’t exercise this kind of patience. We want it to speed up, because we want to see it and we need it to hurry up, now…. today…. yesterday! Sometimes we even tell the Creator of all things in the universe that He is taking too long…..!
We see that in verse 19.
When we choose to live our lives without humble obedience and faith in our Heavenly Father’s timing for our futures, we are playing with sin.
We need to be wise because having a prophetic understanding of things in the future, does not give us an excuse to rush ahead in our own way, strength and timing.
There is a caveat here to warn us that if we can’t wait patiently when our Heavenly Father, by His Holy Spirit says, ‘wait’; then how much more will we not pay attention and be obedient when He says, ‘no stop’ or, ‘yes go’? And these instructions may have very serious consequences in the future, if we are not in the habit of hearing and obeying His instructions.
The Hebrew term for patience is
savlanut- סבלנות.
Linguistically it shares a root with ‘
sevel‘ which means:
suffering
and
‘sabal’
which means:
a porter, someone who carries something for another.
The root, s-v-l (ס-ב-ל), literally means:
‘to bear’ or ‘to suffer.’
Patience has been defined as:
“the ability to tolerate the pain of someone or something going against our will.”
So we understand that there is a kind of suffering in patience. If we are to be patient in traffic hold-ups, patient with a member of our families, or a friend who rejects and dismisses us; or patient with a health care professional who is not taking enough time with us. In a way we could say, ‘we are suffering,’ but we stop ourselves from lashing out at them and impatiently pushing against the situation.
However, patience does not mean being totally passive and just doing nothing.
We still need to make a concerted effort to maintain a forward motion and direction in our lives, but we don’t need to react to every delay or detour as if it were a denial; and that could mean a denial of ourselves or a denial by our Father. We live in the moment of the here and the now when we manage to be patient, because we aren’t straining against the reality of the current situation. This is not compromise but rather walking on a middle pathway, because we’re not leaning to the extreme of being inactive and just giving in to ‘fate’. If we do that, we deny the power of free will choice we have been given, and neither are we to change to the opposite direction, where impatience rules.
The essence of patience is to live in the present, the here and now, this moment. We are impatient because we want to be somewhere in the future faster than reality will get us there. The simple truth is that we will more than likely be in exactly the same place and situation whether we are patient or impatient; for this reason, it makes sense to choose to be patient. The times we see someone who is impatient, is an opportunity for us to learn patience because being impatient often appears quite silly. We wonder sometimes why a person is so impatient just because something is taking a few seconds longer than they want it to in our instant microwave world. When we see how impatience can look so ridiculous, hopefully it will increase our desire to make patience part of who we are, character-wise.
The Hebrew Scriptures have many words for patience, corresponding to the varied meanings of this complex virtue;
e.g., ‘erek af’ equal to our expression of ‘long-suffering’
which is the patience exhibited in:
the restraining of immediate action.
It has been said that:
Patience/Savlanut towards our Heavenly Father is Faith/emunah,
Patience towards ourselves is Hope/sabar,
and Patience towards others is Love/ahava.
Strong’s Hebrew: 7663. שָׂבַר sabar — hope … ‘}; a primitive root; to scrutinize; by implication (of watching) to expect (with hope and patience)- hope, tarry, view, wait.
sabar: To hope, to wait, to expect
Original Word: שָׂבַר Part of Speech: Verb Transliteration: sabar Pronunciation: sah-bar’ Phonetic Spelling: saw-bar’ KJV: hope, tarry, view, wait Word Origin: [a primitive root]
1. to scrutinize 2. (by implication, of watching) to expect (with hope and patience)
Patience has another word in Hebrew which is also biblical:
E•rech Ru•ach – literally, ‘long breath’. This is sometimes what we will do before answering a situation, we take a long breath and hold it before speaking something we may later regret.
It appears once in the Bible as an important gift of the Fathers’ Holy Spirit to us.
When we learn Godly patience, we learn the ‘ways’ of of our Heavenly Father. Like the children in the wilderness recorded in Psalm 103:7, they knew His acts, His miracles, but not His ways.
He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.
Knowing someones ways takes relationship and relationship is only achieved by spending time with someone and getting to know them.…
This is the very nature of being prophetic … when we truly know Him, we learn to take our Heavenly Father at His every Word and because Yeshua/Jesus is the Word of God made flesh. Revelation 19:10 tells us the testimony of Yeshua/Jesus is the spirit of prophecy, itis His prophetic messages to His people, given through His prophetic Word,which offers spiritual insight and guides His disciples today.
Through prophetic patience, we put our trust and faith into action as we submit to His present will for our lives. If we can only be patient, He will always, without fail, and at the perfect time, bring us to exactly where He wants us to be.
Right now tell Father that you trust in His timing because He has never fallen short or arrived too late. Thank Him for His leading and for letting you hear His voice, and for giving you boldness to stand on His promises. Tell Him that you believe He is Who He says He is and that He will do what He says He will do.. Praise Him and tell Him that your only desire is to see Him glorified because His plans will certainly all come to pass.
Shalom shalom
‘Mishpachah’
‘Family/Tribe’
משפחה
Mish-pa-KHa,
friends, visitors and every reader…
Please don’t leave this page before making certain you are His
and are truly born again from above.
Know of a certainty that Jesus/Yeshua is
your Redeemer, Savior, Lord
and soon returning King
and that you have a personal relationship with Him.
You are greatly loved and precious in His sight.
It’s all about Life and Relationship, not Religion.
NOT SURE? YOU CAN BE..
SAY THE FOLLOWING FROM YOUR HEART RIGHT NOW…
Heavenly Father I come to you in the Name of Jesus asking for forgiveness of my sins for which I am truly sorry.
I repent of them all and turn away from my past.
I believe with my heart and confess with my mouth that Jesus is your Son and that He died on the cross at calvary to pay the price for my sin, so that I might be forgiven and have eternal life in the kingdom of Heaven. Father I believe that Jesus rose from the dead and I ask you to come into my life right now and be my personal Savior and Lord and I will worship you all the days of my life. Because your word is truth I say that I am now forgiven and born again and by faith I am washed clean with the blood of Jesus. Thank you that you have accepted me into your family in Jesus’ name. Amen.
The Hebrew Scriptures have many words for patience, corresponding to the varied meanings of this complex virtue;
