Living Proverbs 31 Ladies Meeting - Pastor Michelle Steele - September 5th, 2026

There is a specific instruction, and so I I'm I'm just gonna follow the way the Holy Spirit has put this in my heart because I am I am tasked with preparing spiritual flows in those who are interested.

He said to me to prepare spiritual flows.

He gave me two spiritual flows specifically, but I'm not limited to those.

What inoculates us is our spiritual condition.

What inoculates us against the things that are going on in the world, it's a protection for you to be strong in the spirit.

A weak spirit, the Bible says, what can it bear?

What can it bear?

It's a weak spirit.

It's possible to love Jesus, have accepted Jesus as Lord, and not be cultivating the spiritual strengths by responding to the ways of the spirit.

It's possible to love Jesus and be carnal.

But that's not you and I.

That's not us.

We are daughters who are interested in cultivating the spiritual flows, the spiritual strengths that are necessary for us to walk in the victory that belongs to us.

It's ours.

We don't have to get it.

We don't have to talk God into giving it to us.

It's our inheritance.

Victory is already our inheritance, and yet there is a bringing it into manifestation that faith provides.

Faith draws into manifestation those uh spiritual aspects of our inheritance and brings them into play in our life, activates them in our life.

And so if we're not uh continually feeding our faith, feeding our spirit, and responding out of the spirit, then by default, we're responding out of the flesh.

And if we walk in the flesh, we we know what the Bible says happens, right?

Something's going to be destroyed.

Something's going to experience death because death is operative in the earth.

The spiritual death is governing the people who have not accepted Jesus as Lord, and it's operating through the curse in the earth, and you don't even have to do anything to get it.

It's operating, but the blessing on you protects you from it.

So you're exempt from it as that faith is operating.

Legally, you're exempt from it.

It belongs to you.

But if we don't abide in the word and flow with the Holy Spirit, that which is operating in the earth will try to creep in.

It will try to trespass.

And so that's why we've got to maintain that spiritual strength, those flows of the Spirit.

And so I want to read to you what the Spirit of the Lord spoke to me.

Now, if you remember, he told me back a number of years ago that I that we were preparing for um, we were going in 2022, he gave me the scripture from Joshua 3:4 and said that to when they were following the Ark of the Covenant, he said that you may know the way by which you must go, for you've not passed this way heretofore.

Joshua 3:4

So to know the way, they had to keep their focus on the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, and that's the representation we have of the Ark of the Covenant.

That's where the Spirit of God would come and rest and dwell among the people.

And so God's saying, keep your eyes on me because you're going away you've never gone before.

And he told me those five things.

You remember that when he because I ministered on it and I still minister from it, he said, Know the leading with a certainty.

We cannot afford to be to be taking two weeks to figure out is that God or not.

We've got to become skilled in knowing that's God I'm responding.

Because in a moment of difficulty or in a moment of danger, you don't want to pause and hesitate when you're supposed to leave that position.

You're supposed to leave that vicinity.

And so know the leading with a certainty.

He said, practice obedience.

Practice obedience.

Develop humility and the love walk.

The fruit of the spirit is vital.

The trust in God, his ways and his word are safeguards.

So know the leading with a certainty.

Practice obedience.

Develop humility and the love walk.

The fruit of the spirit is vital.

The trust in God, his ways, and his word.

Trust in God.

And then there's a whole nother level when you say, I trust in his word.

Trust in his ways.

So he identified those three.

They are safeguards.

And so in June of this year, he added to my assignment where that's concerned.

And he said, focus on producing spiritual flows in yourself and in the lives of the people.

Spiritual flows in yourselves and in yourself and in the lives of the people.

And then he identified, number one, he said, we need an increase of the favor flow to access the resources we need and will need.

We need an increase of the favor flow.

Now, this ministry, we've connected to the Savales Ministry years ago.

And God began to teach us about the favor of God.

We're still connected.

We're still uh ordained and connected with the Savelles ministry.

And because the favor flow is still flowing.

Amen.

And we need to stay connected to the places where God has connected us.

And so I've had myself going back and rehearsing some of those truths that were revealed to Brother Savelle concerning favor because that just wasn't a topic he preached.

That was an assignment that he fulfilled.

And we have access, praise God, that his ministry is still making those things available.

And if you've noticed recently, they're bringing back a lot of those original teachings that he taught from them.

So you can go to their channel and you can hear the ones from the 1970s and 1980s when that revelation was coming, just fresh to him.

And you can hear little aspects.

Let me tell you what I've learned listening to Brother Hagin.

I've got, I've got a brick, is what it's one of those uh uh uh hard drives that has all of Brother Hagin's messages from early.

I mean, from when in the 1960s, 68, I'm thinking, I was born the year they were preaching this, right?

They got uh conferences from 1968 and different Holy Ghost meetings and all of these things.

And I've listened to them and and heard a lot of the same stories more than once.

I've heard some of this, like he'll tell his testimony, and I've I've heard his testimony, but I've heard it through the years.

I've heard it from when he first started telling it, and I've began to realize he's emphasizing something this time that he didn't emphasize the last time, and he's bringing out a point this time that he didn't bring out the last time.

Some of the things remain, you know, the same details, but there are little truths that come out for the people in the room, for those who are are hungry or or in need of that revelation at that moment.

And so the same is true with Brother Savelle's teachings on on favor.

You can go back and hear some of those uh earlier ones, and you think, well, the quality of the picture is not the same, or you know, wow, doesn't he look young?

But the the key is tune in to what he's saying because he's getting pieces and aspects that you don't always hear after he's told that story 50 times or or used that example 50 times.

So the favor flow for what we need and what we will need, the Holy Spirit is telling us we need an increase of the favor flow because it's not our ability to produce it, it's not our ability to produce.

We we are believers, we don't live by our income.

We live by the just shall walk by faith.

We live by faith.

So I believe for favor that takes the lid off my finances.

Why?

Because favor can do for me more than what my paycheck can produce.

Not that I'm going to abandon the paycheck, but I'm gonna put favor on it.

I'm gonna I'm gonna take the paycheck and I'm going to apply it in the kingdom principles and allow the kingdom flows to take my financial flow outside of the world's limits and into the kingdom ability.

And in the kingdom ability, give and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together.

In the kingdom ability, he'll bless the work of your hands.

He causes it to prosper.

And so God says, the increase the favor flow.

So to do that, I've got to increase my faith in it.

So that means I need to give my ear to it so that I can deposit it in my heart.

And then I need to start springing it out of my mouth, and I need to start calling myself blessed, and I need to talk about favor and not struggle.

Talk about the favor of God.

And somebody says, Well, this is all that we're gonna have coming in this month.

Yeah, but we have favor.

And so you've got to increase the favor flow in and out.

Okay?

And then he said to me, Joy is a fruit that must be cultivated.

And you know, I've taught on joy over the years.

That's one of my go-tos.

The joy is a fruit that must be cultivated, it provides a spiritual strength that is required for what lays ahead.

So now God has told us we need favor for what lays ahead and we need joy for what lays ahead.

Don't be afraid of what lays ahead.

The Holy Spirit is preparing us, He's preparing us with a spiritual supply so that we can go through and overcome in any situation.

Why?

Because we've got the joy of the Lord.

We're in the favor of God.

If I am strong in favor, I know God is with me.

I know God is by my side.

Amen.

If I'm strong in joy, I'm strong spiritually.

And so it must be cultivated.

Just because you're born again and own a Bible, got one on your iPad, your telephone, your nightstand, you got every translation, you know, that doesn't mean that you're cultivating it.

To cultivate joy, you've got to rejoice.

It's a spiritual activity.

The spiritual activity is not just a show.

It's not just something I'm I'm um doing out of tradition or out of a regulation.

I am, when I rejoice in the Lord, something spiritual is being released, something spiritual is being accessed.

And so rejoicing, the joy of the Lord is a fruit that is already resident in your heart, and yet for it to be cultivated, it's got to be tended, it's got to be watered.

So the rejoicing is the watering of it, it is the reacting to it or the responding to it.

Um, you know, I've been teaching uh different things, different aspects of the fruit of the spirit.

And when I think the greatest example for me uh is when you are driving and you come to a yield sign, the instruction then that you have when you see that yield sign is that you give right away to the person who is driving on the road where the right-of-way is.

Correct?

For you to walk in the spirit, you've got to learn to yield to the word.

You've got to learn to yield, you've got to give that right away because in every day, every day you have options to walk in the flesh, respond to the flesh, respond with a sour attitude, respond with an angry word, to respond with, oh no, you did not just talk to me that way, or you did not just cut me off in traffic, right?

You know, you that that response of the flesh, it's always there.

It's always on the table as a choice.

But we learn to yield to the word.

What does the word say about this situation?

What does the Lord, what is the Lord impressing?

Forgive, but my flesh doesn't want to forgive.

But I'm not doing what my flesh wants to do.

I am not, I am training myself not to say yes to the flesh.

And if we don't train ourselves, it will just come up and it's easier.

It seems easier, but in the long run it's not because it costs more.

It costs more.

Yielding to the spirit always pays, yielding to the flesh always costs.

There's going to be a negative to it.

So the yield sign, when I've I've got to catch myself in that moment before I make the decision, and I've got to train myself, yield to the Lord, yield to the word, yield to the spirit.

And usually, right about the time my mouth is about to open up and say something I don't want to say, the Holy Spirit's right here saying, No, no, no, no, no, don't say that.

Don't respond to him that way.

Don't, don't, don't answer that way.

And I've got to have the self-control, fruit of the spirit, the self-control to say, okay, I yield.

I yield.

Hallelujah.

So cultivating.

It's got to be cultivated.

So that means every day I'm giving place to joy.

Every day I'm working on increasing the flow of favor.

I'm working on increasing that cultivation of joy in my life.

Why?

I need the strength that that joy will provide for me.

And then the Lord told me this.

He said, Sowing the word in the ground of the heart is not optional.

Sowing the word in the ground of the heart is not optional.

Don't look at this truth as a teaching you teach, but a lifestyle that you live.

And maybe you would say, Well, Pastor Michelle, I don't, I don't teach that.

So let me apply it that uh a way that would cover us all.

Don't look at this as a teaching you learn.

Oh, yeah, I believe in that confession.

I believe, I believe, yeah, I know what God's created power says.

Yeah, what Brother Hagin says about calling those things that be not.

That's the teaching aspect of it.

That's the the lesson you learned from it.

But he says to me, don't look at it as just a subject.

Don't look at it as just a concept.

Don't look at it as just something you know.

Are you doing it?

And then he asked me this what what word are you standing on?

What what what have you been saying?

What word have you been sowing in your heart?

He said, Become intentional about putting the word in the ground of your heart on purpose.

Intentional.

This is the specific thing that I am trying to see changed or produced in my life.

So I am going to be intentional about putting it in my mouth.

And if I have it in my mouth, it's going to get in my heart because he said, This word is near you, even in your mouth and in your heart, Romans 10.

Mouth first.

Because with the tongue, Psalm 45, 1, the tongue is the pen of the ready writer.

Proverbs says that my heart is a tablet, a notepad.

And so how do I get it on the notepad of my heart?

I've got to take the ink pen of my tongue and I've got to put it in my heart.

So he said, be intentional about it.

Be intentional about it.

And so I began to get gather some specific things that need to be said every day, that need to be planted every day.

Why?

Because I need a harvest of these truths in my life.

I need a harvest of these forces in my life.

So I've got to have them in my mouth so that I can get them in my heart because the kingdom of God is in you.

The ground of the heart is provided so the seed of the word can be sown into the heart and you can live off the harvest of what comes forth.

So he says, be intentional.

Be intentional.

And and if a person says, well, just whatever the Lord wants to give me.

Whatever the Lord wants to give me.

If you did your garden, let's say that your family was dependent upon the garden to eat from, right?

And you said, just whatever the Lord wants to give me.

If you don't get out there and put some seed specific in the ground, you're not going to have corn.

You're not going to have beans.

You're not going to have tomato plants.

If you want tomato plants, you better plant some tomatoes.

Right?

If you're planting on green beans, better get some green beans and put them in the ground.

If you want corn, put some corn in the ground.

Why?

Because you're only going to get what you're sowing.

If you don't sow it, you can't reap it.

And so if the seed of God's word is not intentionally put in the heart, and you're just just whatever the Lord wants to give me, well, you're just.

Letting the wind blow whatever into your garden that comes your way.

And you're not going to have the full result of the kingdom design without taking the seed of the word and putting it in your heart specifically.

And so when I came out of debt, I was taking those specific scriptures and I was intentionally putting them in my heart.

And I've said it before, and I'll say it again.

When I started, I thought I had faith.

I thought I had faith.

I'm like, yeah, I believe God.

I believe God.

Until faith came.

And when faith came, I thought I wasn't in faith.

I was in the process of faith.

I was in the first part of the equation, but I had not provided the seed or the time for a harvest.

Because it's seed, time, and harvest.

I had not provided the seed of God's word specific enough to produce the kind of harvest that I needed.

But when the word was intentionally being placed in my heart, then I began to see an intentional harvest.

And so we can't look at this.

And I'm looking across this whole room.

Y'all have all heard some of the very best messages on sewing the word of God into your heart.

I found myself coasting.

Eating the old stores, but not putting anything new in the ground.

And that's why the Holy Spirit had to bring an instruction, a correction.

I I love correction.

I embrace, I just want to just wrap my arms around my Heavenly Father and kiss him right on the cheek and say, Thank you for correcting me.

Because I would much rather you correct me and me accept the correction and make the adjustments than for me to come to a certain place of saying, Why is this so what is wrong with my life?

You've not been sowing the seed.

You don't have the harvest because Brother Caps said, Lord, why isn't it working for me like it used to work?

How come I don't have it working?

And the Lord said, You're not saying like you used to say.

And he said, Your words, confessing my word, is like the thrust to an airplane.

Well, you and I don't fly necessarily airplanes from the pilot's position, right?

But you could say it this way: your speaking the word of God is like your foot on the accelerator pedal in your car.

You can have the car running full of gas.

Even go ahead and put it in gear.

It might creep along in that low, very low part.

But if you want to get on the highway, you're gonna have to put your foot on the accelerator and you're gonna have to give it gas.

And if you want to have the harvest of the promises of God, you're gonna have to give that acceleration of your words, putting it in your heart and bringing forth that harvest of faith-filled words out of your heart.

Praise God.

So that was one of the instructions.

Don't look at this truth as a teaching that you learn or teach, but a lifestyle that you live.

I live by this.

And then the Lord said to me, The condition of your spirit depends on your spiritual decisions.

The condition of your spirit depends on your spiritual decisions.

If we decide, we don't need to pray or study or read the word.

God's not gonna hate us for not praying or studying or read the word, but we're not gonna get the strength that we need that comes from those things.

You know, when I first got saved, I thought this was I gotta, I gotta pray.

I gotta study.

Why?

Because I don't want God to be mad at me.

I don't want God not not to, you know, help me.

I but that that's a backwards way of looking at it.

We benefit with revelation and light from praying and studying, and we need the light and that that spiritual impartation that comes from spending time with Him.

Hallelujah.

So the condition of your spirit depends on your spiritual decisions.

Every day you must prioritize spiritual strength, spiritual accuracy, and dependence on the word.

Every day it's got to be a priority.

Spiritual strength, spiritual accuracy, dependence on the word.

And then he said, work the word and the word will work for you.

Increasing the spiritual flows will produce the provision and stability to move the plan forward.

Increasing the spiritual flows will produce the provision and the stability to move the plan forward.

And that's for all of our lives.

There's a plan of God for your life, but it's not automatic.

It's not going to happen without the spiritual effort and the spiritual provision brought to it.

I want to recommend two things because what I find myself dealing with is a lot of the spiritual fruit.

And I have to say, I have not found an enormous amount of teaching materials.

And so I wanted to share with you some that I think are the two best teaching materials for developing, cultivating the fruit of the spirit.

This is a book called A Call for Character by Greg Zoshak or Sojak.

I'm not sure how to pronounce his name.

Z-O-S-C-H-A-K.

A Call for Character.

I got mine out of a used bookstore online called Abe's Books.

I like to rescue books.

Give them a good home.

This is the book that Sister Gloria was reading when she was preparing all of the teaching that she did back in the was it the 80s where she was doing the teaching.

But now from that teaching, they have a book by Sister Gloria Copeland called Walking in the Fruit of the Spirit that's available and it's on Kindle as well as you can get a print copy from them.

I'm not sure if this is even in uh print anymore.

It might be, but I bet you could find a used copy if you went searching for it.

So a call for character, developing the fruit of the spirit in your life.

And like I say, I haven't found a lot.

It's not something that, and maybe I'm just gonna because I did a little snippet in pressure no problem about how each of the fruit of the spirit helps us in um uh overcoming pressure.

And maybe I'll one day just write a book just about the fruit of the spirit, especially since he's emphasized how it's vital.

But I want you to feed on it.

I want you to feed on things that are gonna help you to recognize how you can increase joy, how you can cultivate self-control, how you can cultivate long suffering.

What is it?

And so one of the things we're gonna do today is we're going to redefine patience.

We're gonna redefine patience because if we have a carnal viewpoint of a spiritual flow, we won't give it its right place in our life.

If we have a definition that it's emotional, or a definition that it's it's something mental, like, oh, patience.

Like, you know, I need to be patient, and that means I need to just be quiet until they're ready to go, or until this happens, and or if they think patience means waiting, be patient, that means wait, right?

But that's not the Bible definition.

It says patience is a fruit of the spirit, and so anything that you see in that list, everything in that list is a spiritual force, it's supernatural and it's working, and it needs to have the right place in our life.

And so patience isn't something that is a mental concept or an emotional control that I have to help me to wait.

Patience is a supernatural force that undergirds my faith and is required for receiving promises.

And every one of us have promises that we are standing for.

And there are things that faith is not a drive-thru.

Faith is not a pull up to the window, order it, pull through, and get your order, and zoom, you're out the door and ready to eat your burger before you have the stop sign, right?

No, faith is a lifestyle, and there are things that we do by faith that aren't immediate.

There are things that our faith is is currently working on and may continue to work on for a number of years, right?

So, what are we going to do in between that what that time before we see the manifestation or the full extent of the promise in play in our life?

If we don't have patience, we will let go of our faith, we'll abandon our faith.

And so we want to redefine patience, to have a biblical understanding, a God's word uh example, a God's word image of what patience really is.

Let's look at eight, uh Luke 8, 15, Luke chapter 8, verse 15.

Luke 8:15

And I'm gonna read this one from the amplified.

This is Luke's account of Jesus teaching the parable of the sower.

And so the parable of the sower is the master understanding of how the kingdom works.

If you Jesus said, if you don't understand this parable, how will you understand any of the parables?

So, in this parable, the understanding of this parable puts everything in place for how the kingdom of God works.

And we know that the seed in this parable is this the word of God, the seed of God's word.

The ground is the hearts of men.

The seed was sown by it being proclaimed or spoken, which means the receivers heard it.

The sower spoke it, the receivers heard it.

So it went into the heart by the hearing, right?

But there all three of the types of soil that did not produce heard the same word that the good ground heard.

The wayside soil, the stony ground, the thorny ground, all three of those also heard the word that the good ground heard.

But the good ground brought forth something the other three didn't.

And it wasn't because of the word being different or less effective.

It wasn't that they didn't hear.

It was that the word did not remain planted.

In one, immediately the ravens, the birds came and ate it up.

In the other, the heat of the sun scorched it because it didn't have root.

In the thorny ground, it began to grow and it began to prosper until the cares of the world, the thorns of life, choked out the word.

So the condition of the soil, the condition of the heart affected the outcome of the word.

In this the good ground, we see here in verse 15.

But as for that seed in the good soil, these are the people, and I'm looking at you.

This is you.

I declare it over you, woman of God.

You are the good ground people who hear the word and hold it, hold it fast.

Well, that's not talking about speed, that's talking about steadfast.

Hold it with a consistency in a just, noble, and virtuous and worthy heart, and steadily.

There again, we see hold it fast, which is steadfast, and steadily or consistently, constantly, bring forth fruit with what?

Patience.

Patience is needed then.

Patience was the thing that gave them the grip on the word, gave them the consistency to maintain the word in the place where the word could grow and produce for them.

With patience.

Bringing forth fruit requires patience.

To bring forth fruit of the word, the promise of God, requires patience.

Not just faith.

Faith, yes, but not just faith, not faith alone, faith and patience.

Compare this ground to verse 13, the stony ground.

In this same chapter, Luke chapter 8, verse 13, says, They on the rock are they which when they hear receive the word with joy, and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in a time of temptation or testing, they fall away.

Luke 8:13

So in a difficult time, when the pressure is put against them, when when the situation doesn't look like it's going their way, they that what did they do?

They fall away.

The Amplified says they believe for a while, and then in a time of trial and temptation, they fall away or withdraw from the word.

They stand off from the word, they're separated from it.

It's there, yes, I see it, but it's not in me.

It's not working in me, it's not changing, it's not producing anything in me.

Why?

Because they weren't still holding it in the heart, they weren't consistent in their grip on the word of God.

So it says for a while.

That's the opposite.

So patience isn't just waiting.

Patience isn't just being able to control my attitude while I'm waiting.

It's not a mental thing, it's not an emotional thing, it's a spiritual force that helps me stay in faith.

It helps me maintain the constant application of my faith.

Even when I don't see anything different, even when I don't feel anything different, I'm not requiring any evidences in the natural.

Why?

Because I have patience.

I will see the goodness of the Lord.

Remember what David said?

I would have fainted, except I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

I would have fainted.

Why?

Because everything around me was telling me it's not working, it's not working.

But I applied my patience.

I'll see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

So patience is supernatural in the way that it works, and we need it.

It provides the steadfastness, the constancy.

These are some words.

I want you to write this definition down.

Steadfastness, constancy, endurance, sustaining, the ability to persevere, the ability to persevere, steadfastness, constancy, endurance.

Endurance just sounds painful, doesn't it?

It sounds painful when I when a pastor tells me I'm running eight miles in the morning.

Ow.

It doesn't bother him.

Why?

Because he's built his endurance.

I remember the first time I ran for a minute on the treadmill.

That was the longest minute of my life.

And the first 5K that I did, oh my goodness.

And of course, I did not run the whole thing.

I was a run walker.

But the endurance part, the more I would I would do it, the easier it did get.

And so endurance sounds, from the beginning part, it sounds like that's awful.

That I've got to go through that.

But when you're when you have a supernatural supply to help you go through it, you're not going through it in your flesh.

You're not going through it in your human natural abilities.

You're going through it with a supernatural help.

I can do this.

Why?

Because God is with me.

I'm going to feed on his word and I'm just going to stand still and see the glory of the Lord.

Amen.

And so endurance, sustaining, and the ability to persevere.

Those are the definitions I think help us to see patience in a different viewpoint.

Let's look at Hebrews chapter 6.

Hebrews 6 · chapter mention

That's where it talks about our inheritance of the blessing.

Hebrews 6, verse 11.

Hebrews 6:11

Hebrews 6, 11, and we'll read down through verse 15.

And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence.

Underline that word diligence in your Bible.

The same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end.

Underline that phrase, unto the end.

Diligence unto the end.

That's a great definition for patience.

Diligence unto the end.

I mean, if a person is diligent for a week, they're not going to have the same results as a person who's diligent for a whole year.

You can be really diligent and say, I got up every day, I did this every day.

I was diligent every day for a week.

But it's not just that short-term diligence.

He wants us to maintain that constancy to the end.

And what's this constancy?

Full assurance of hope.

That's talking about faith.

Faith that was our expectation, assurance.

Anytime we see assurance and confidence, we know we're talking about faith, right?

So having faith for my healing for a month is a lot different than having faith for my healing until.

What brother Hagin said just comes to my heart.

If you're if you'll be determined to stand no matter what, it's not going to take that long.

Why?

Because the enemy uses that time.

And that passage of time to come against you in your faith, so that you drop your faith hold.

So he says, you've got to be diligent unto the end.

And then verse 12 that you be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience, faith and patience inherit the promises.

So what did they use to inherit the promises?

And then he begins to give us specifically Abraham's promise of the blessing, the Genesis 12 blessing, blessing, I'll bless you, and multiplying, I'll multiply you.

That's the specific thing.

How did Abraham receive that?

Faith, yes, but not faith alone.

He had to add something to his faith.

He had to utilize something with his faith, and it was patience.

Through faith and patience we inherit promises.

We receive promises.

Hallelujah.

Verse 15.

So after he had patiently endured, don't define endured as suffered.

Don't define that.

Is you remember the poster that they used to sell in the bookstore when you were when I was a kid, they did.

And it was a little kitty cat with the knot tied at the end of the rope, and that cat was hanging on, and it says, hang in there.

And that's what most people think.

Endurance.

Hang in there.

Wait.

Hang in there.

Just wait, although it hurts.

It's hurting, but just hold on.

Hold on.

Hold on till the going on comes on.

Well, I'm gonna hold on in faith.

I'm gonna hold on with the strength of God.

So there was back at the end, I think it was around the time of World War II or or in that vicinity, they had just brought a a huge um airship.

It was it was kind of like a big balloon.

What is the the Zeppelin blimps?

Yeah, and and so they had one and that it was at this big fair, this big huge event that was taking place.

And so the servicemen were out there and they had all their their lines tied to it and holding it down.

Well, a big wind came and it began to to pull that airship up, and so all of these men in the crowd and in the the soldiers standing around, they're all grabbing these ropes and it took them up, and some of them let go of the ropes and they fell to their death.

And so it was a huge event that made the headlines, and and the people in the audience were standing there screaming, and parents were putting their hands over their children's eyes because they're seeing these men falling from the sky and to their death, and they're like screaming, and and it gets higher and higher, and this one man is still holding on, and they're like, you know, women are starting to faint, you know, because this man is holding on, he's gonna have to let go, he can't hold on very long, you know, and and and they're freaking out, they're having their hysteria.

How is this man holding on?

He's gonna die any minute.

And eventually the the fuel of it began to dissipate and it began to come back down, and they're he's still holding on.

How did this man hold on for like 30 minutes?

And they bring it back down and they were like, Oh, we thought you were gonna die.

We thought you were gonna die.

How did you make it?

And he said, Well, I just realized when we got to a certain height that I wasn't gonna be able to hold on, so I just grabbed the rope and I tied it around me and I didn't hold on to it, it held on to me.

Amen.

That's the fruit of patience.

We're not enduring suffering.

That's not the definition of enduring.

The Bible definition of enduring is tithe the promise of a God and let it hold me up.

I'm not holding on to it, it's holding on to me.

Hallelujah.

So don't define endure as suffer after he patiently suffered, is not what it says.

He remained constant.

This is our definition of endure or patience.

Constant, persevering, sustaining.

I'm gonna I'm gonna sustain the same level of application of my faith.

This I'm gonna sustain the force of I believe God against that situation.

I'm not gonna waver, I'm not gonna stagger, I'm not gonna let up, I'm not gonna give in, I'm just going to remain the same.

Hallelujah.

So patience is a steadfastness, and it is a necessary part.

So it says, after he had patiently endured, so we're gonna put in there, after he had patiently continued, after he had patiently persevered, after he had patiently sustained his faith.

Hallelujah.

Because what we want is we want our need to be, and so after Michelle had patiently endured, she obtained the promise.

I want that to be my testimony.

She received it.

Why?

Because she stayed consistent, she stayed steadfast in her faith.

Hallelujah.

Hebrews 3 gives us another definition.

Let's see if we can get through this one and we might stop here.

Hebrews 3 and verse 14 gives us another description.

Hebrews 3, 14.

For we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end.

Circle that again or underline that again, unto the end.

Because we saw that in Hebrews 6.11, and now we see it here in Hebrews 3.14, that we need to hold that confidence.

Again, it said assurance in the other verse.

Confidence.

How do I hold it?

Steadfast unto the end.

That's patience.

Patience works with faith.

It's a faith companion.

It's a necessary element for the faith to have its long-term, ongoing working in a situation.

And we've got to hold, hold, hold it steadfast unto the end.

1 Corinthians 15, 58 says, Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable.

Always abounding in the work of the Lord.

Steadfast.

Unmovable.

That's a description of Bible patience.

Steadfast.

Unmovable.

Why am I not moving?

I'm already in the light.

I'm already on the right foundation.

I don't need to move.

I don't need to move because it doesn't look like it's working.

Because I'm not judging by what it looks like to determine if it's working.

The word has been applied.

It's working.

Because God's word will not return unto him void.

So this holding steadfast we see as an instruction to us throughout the Word of God.

One more, one more.

Hebrews 10, 35.

Hebrews 10 and verse 35.

Cast not away, therefore, your confidence.

Why would somebody do that?

Why would anybody cast their confidence away?

But that's how the enemy tempts during that time while you're waiting.

Brother Keith Moore wrote a song.

It's working, it's working.

The healing power is working.

It's working, it's working.

He wrote another one that says, Hold on, hold on, keep believing, be strong.

For in a little while it's gonna be alright.

Hold on, hold on.

Well, that came to him by the Spirit.

He was under pressure.

He was dealing with a situation where he'd been standing and believing and standing and believing, and he said, it was just bombarding my mind.

It's not working, you're not gonna get it.

It's not working.

Just give up, just go on and do something different.

It's not working.

And he said, I was standing over a sink, washing my hands, and out of my spirit, the Holy Ghost began to sing it.

He said, It just came up, hold on.

And he just really yielded to the spirit of, hold on, hold on.

And he's like, the Holy Spirit gave me a song in the midst of that bombardment against my mind because the enemy was trying to make me think it's not gonna come to pass.

And the Holy Spirit says, just hold.

So why do we have so many, so many New Testament instructions?

Hold fast.

Hold fast.

Cast not away, therefore, your confidence.

Hold fast the profession of your faith, right?

Cast not away your confidence or your faith, which has great recompense of reward, for you have need of.

What does verse 36 say?

You have need of?

This will help you not cast away your confidence.

You have need of patience.

That after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise.

The promise belongs to you.

It's yours legally.

But to bring it from there to here, from bring it from your account to a vital living aspect of your life, it's going to require faith and patience.

Faith and consistency in the faith.

Faith and sustaining in the faith.

So in Sister Copeland's book, she describes, and I think also Brother Caps uses this example as well.

The under undergirdings of a bridge.

When you have a bridge that goes from one, like from an island to to the the you know, island to island or or across a river.

It's not just it's not safe without the undergirding of it, right?

The pillars underneath that bridge.

Your patience are the supernatural pillars under that that that path that you're driving on of faith.

You're on the road of faith, you're on that that journey of faith, you're on that that that plan, but it's undergirded by that patience.

That patience is holding it up so it doesn't fall through under the weight.

Hallelujah.

Hold fast, you don't cast it away if you'll if you'll use the patience.

And James says it this way let patience have her perfect, which means perfecting or developing work.

So patience.

When we first took the church in Kansas, Pastor Steele preached a message on patience, and I thought, I thought some of the ladies were just gonna come unglued.

They were like, oh, Pastor, we cannot pray for patience.

No, Pastor, if we pray for patience, God's gonna put us through all kinds of tests and difficulties.

They had been raised in a full gospel denomination that taught them if you pray for patience, woo, God's gonna put you through some things to work that patience in you.

But that's not what it means.

You have patience now as a fruit of the Spirit.

You've got to cultivate it.

And he said, let patience have her developing work.

See, the word perfect there's got to be defined in the light of the Greek language.

It means it means maturing, developing, taking you from the beginning of the process to the maturity of the process.

Let patience work.

Patience works.

Patience is a force that goes to work in the situation, that that that brings something to that situation, that that provides uh a benefit in that situation when it's working, when you're when you're letting patience work in you.

Hallelujah.

So let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire wanting nothing, it goes on to say in James.

Or that you may be mature and developed and entire and wanting nothing.

So without patience, there's going to be some areas where I'm missing development, where I'm missing life because I don't have the steadfastness to help me stay with the word.

And I might believe for a while.

But if I'm not employing patience, I'll believe for a while, like chapter 8, verse 13 of Luke.

But I'm not I'm not a verse 13 kind of girl.

Not Luke 8.13.

I'm a Luke 8.15 kind of girl, right?

You're a Luke 8.15 believer.

You bring forth fruit with patience.

You bring forth fruit with patience.

Father, thank you.

Thank you for the spiritual supply and the skill necessary for us to cultivate the fruit of patience, the flow of favor, the increase of joy in our lives, so that we can have the full benefit of the life that you have chosen and pre-arranged and made ready for us.

We desire the spiritual flows, the forces of your spirit to have the dominance in us so that every decision is made in the light of our spiritual strength, every movement, every activity, we do it in you.

In your supply of wisdom and patience and faith.

And we thank you for it, Lord, in Jesus' name.

Praise the Lord.

Did you receive today?

I look forward to these times and every time we sit in the presence of God and receive of his word, he's able to move us a step further.

He's able to establish.

And it said over the picture of these bricks, and you know how bricks are fit together.

And it said, every visit builds on the next.

I thought, church needs that right there.

The church needs that because every time we come together, it's line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little.

We can't get it all in one download.

We've got to come and we've got to absorb, and then we've got to go out and apply that, gain skill with that, and then let him bring us into more light.

Amen.

So I believe we've got light today.

I believe we heard some things by the Spirit of God that will help us to be prepared and to have the spiritual strength and the spiritual cultivation necessary to overcome and receive everything He's made ours.

Would you stand with me today?

Hallelujah.

Thank you, Lord.

Thank you, Lord, for your blessing.