“Maintain Your Position at all Times”

October 24, 2008 prophetess7

As believers we have been called for an assignment that we must commit to in order to fulfill it.

Part of that committment demands that we maintain our positions at all seasons whether they be good seasons or bad seasons of our lives.

Seasons often come into our world to determine who we are, whose we are, what we believe, what we have and where we are going.

The way you stand and maintain your position during these times will determine to a great extinct how you fulfill your assignments in God.

Paul wrote a letter, which was his 2nd letter to Timothy during a difficult season in Timothys life and ministry.  As ministers we have a life, and then we have a life in ministry.

A few years before the picture had been great.  The church was growing and thriving and Timothy was a beloved Pastor by his congregation.  It was exciting pastoring because everything was going well.  By the time ii Timothy was written, the great picture of success had changed dramatically.

Nero had become the emperor of the Roman Empire and his insanity was already wrecking havoc in the lives of countless believers all over the empire.  Because Ephesus was the major city of Asia Minor and the seat of the proconsul of Rome, it had been designated as a place where Christians were being harassed and purged and made to be an example to all believers in other parts of Asia Minor.  As a result of these hard times many believers died for the faith they believed in.  Others defected from the Church world and returned to the old systems and temples to save their lives.

As if all of these hardships and disappointments weren’t enough to contend with, Timothy also had to deal with serious internal problems of rebellion among some of the members of his church leadership.

There was a call for an apostolic release!  They needed an apostolic committment.  Timothy had written a letter to Paul his father in the ministry explaining all of the difficulties that he was having.  Pauls response to Timothy was the book of 2nd Timothy.  In 2nd Timothy Paul urged Timothy to remember that he must preach the word, be instant in season, and out of season.

Instant in the Greek is “ephistimi” which means to stand upon as  to take a firm stand or hard position. It also was a term that meant to stay at one’s post.  Timothy’s post was the pulpit of his church.  From that pulpit he maintained his leadership, imparted vision to the people, issued rebukes, taught, preached the Word and brought the necessary correction.  It was his post.  No one else could stand in that place that God had assigned him to.  Even  though times were tough and he was tempted to quit, his responsibilities, he was urged by Paul to stay at his post.

Beloved, we must be in season and out of season!  Paul told him that he was to remain faithful to his post in season and out of season.

The word in season comes from the Greek “eukairos” which means good times, happy times, pleasing times,joyful times, or pleasurable times.

The words out of season comes from the Greek “akairos” which means bad times.  So when Paul told him to be instant in season and out of season he was really communicating to him to be faithful unto God, whether he was having a happy time or a bad time at that moment.

This was the word that Timothy needed to stand and to be brave, and to stay dedicated to his assignment.  Later his struggle was eventually over, and he became one of the respected leaders of the Christians in the region of Asia Minor.

What kind of season are you going through at this very moment?  Are you going to be just as faithful and steadfast as you were when things were well?  Beloved, this is not a time for you to run in fear and abdicate your position or to look for someone else to take your place and responsibility.  If God called you to that position, it is time for you to dig in deeper and take a firm stand and decree over yourself that you are going to be faithful no matter what!  You know, the bad times will eventually pass.  That is why it is unwise to make a decision to move when things are rough.  If you develop this mentality, Satan will know for sure, when things get hot, he can always put enough pressure upon you to move.   No, there must be no shrinking back.  The scripture says God will take no pleasure in the one that shrinks back.

Heb11:38-39  Now the just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him  But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.

This particular verse tells us precisely what happens to people who walk away from their post—the life of faith.  The ramifications of their departure are grim and tedious.

The word draw back means someone who is shrinking back; withdrawing, retreating, regressing, receding, backing away, backsliding or someone whi is recoiling from something.  This is a person who started on a journey but then abruptly reversed his direction.  He is now moving backward or away from his post and belief, instead of forward.  For some reason this person is backing out of a position or belief that he once strongly held.  The Bible says we are not of “them” who draw back unto perdition.

The word perdition is Greek apoleia and it describes something so ruined and rotten that it is decomposing, such as a rotten egg that has sat too long and is now spoiled and ruined.  This word was also used to describe the stench of a decaying animal or a human dead body.  The smell is so horrendous that you feel like running to the bathroom to vomit.  This is the image that Hebrew 10:39 gives us of what happens when a person turns and walks away from the call of God or from a life of faith.  It results in a sickening stinking situation.

No matter how severe the attacks of the enemy may be against you or your assignment, stand fast and refuse to budge or bow until you see a change come. 

We must mix faith and patience  Heb 10:36.  For we have need of patience…..

Faith and patience are partners that propel you into a solidified stance.  We need patience after we have done the will of God, so that we can obtain the promise.

Patience means to stay, to remain, to continue or to permanently abide in one place.  It carries the picture of a person who is under a very heavy load, but who has resolved that he isnt moving; he is going to stay in that one spot.  Regardless how heavy the load or how long it takes, he refuses to move from his position because he knows that it is where He is supposed to be.  He is intent on standing by his committment, regardless the cost he must pay. Nothing can sway or move him to change his mind.  He is not going to relinguish his territory.  Patience is also translated as endurance.  How many times have we heard Apostle Steele teach on endurance? Patience portrays an attitude that never gives up.  It is a faith that does manifest as a tough, resistant, resilient, persistent, obstinate, stubborn, tenacious spirit that refuses to let go of what it wants or believes.  My definition of it is an unstoppable force.  You must have patience if you plan on beating the devil at his game and successfully maintaining your position at all times, if you are gonna do what God has called you, prophesied to you to do.  If patience is having its full work in you, it is just a matter of time until your victory will appear.  So don’t let go of your faith!!!!!  The day your vision dies is the same day your purpose will disappear.  Your life will then become depressed and you will turn bitter.

You will turn into perdition if you let go of the Word of the Lord that He spoke to you, and quit your post. You will start releasing the putrid stench of a life and faith that has turned sour.  You will begin to rationalize your defeat by immersing yourself into a doctrinal system designed to support your depressing existence.  Perhaps you one time tried to do God’s will but then allowed yourself to become discouraged, which resulted in leaving your post and witthdrawing from doing what you were called to be or do. You can still get back to your position.  God isnt finished with you yet.  The table is prepared an the meal is cooked.  God is waiting for you to pull up your chair to the table, pick up your fork and knife and begin  again to dig into the awesome plans He spoke to you about previously for your life.  I would not let the prophetic word drop to the ground and be trampled on by the enemy, and people that are trying to talk you out of it.  Just because they trampled on their destiny/prophetic word does not mean, you have to do the same. It is not to late for you!

Dont let the attack of the enemy keep you from getting back to your post.  Get back quickly to your post   and commit yourself afresh to your assignment.  There were some naysayers that you hooked up with that convinced you  your assignment was over.  The thing about most people when they hit this bitter state, they are so selfish that they never tell you.  They just keep injecting their venomous poison in the veins of your spirit, and you dont even know you have been onocculated. You dont know when your heart turned away from the ministry.  If you go back and rehearse your girl talk or boy talk, you will find that someone sowed some bad, bad, bad seeds into you.  It cut off your spiritual circulation.  Because the blood couldnt flow in the cesspool of the poison they were injecting into you, in a nice sweet way.  All the while they where unwinding you, breaking your focus, and stealing the vital and necessary nutrients that you once had drank.  Now you are weak, depleted, bloated, and feeling empty and disconnected. And for the life of you you can not figure out what is wrong with you.  Your appetite for the truth has changed.  Your attitude that allows you to receive the truth has changed.  The table is waiting for you. 

There are 4 thoughts that keep us connected to our post:

a) Your post is your very place of assignment.  Your assignment is what God personally spoke to you to do. He told you how, he told you where, and he told you when.  You must remember there are not any alternatives to what you have been called to, no matter how your friends may influence you and tell you something different. Decide that you will not be disobedient to the heavenly vision.

b)Your post is your place of protection and no where else. As long as Adam and Eve were in the right place and obeying they were protected from consciousness of their nakedness.  When they violated instruction they moved from the post of intimacy and fellowship with God and then began to see and know their nakedness.

c)Your post represents your place of joy and fulfillment. Jn4:34 My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me and to finish his work. It is not enough to start it, but you must finish it also.  Many believers when times get tight take off without finishing what they began.

d) Your post represent your place of provision.  God always meets us in the place He has called us to . Quitting your post means abandoning your resources.  Some say God can bless me anywhere.  That is true. But if He has specifically told you to be at a particular place and you defy that, it is called disobedience, and God is not obligated to provide where you take off too. Ask Johah about this one.  In fact the prophetic word God gives us is attached to a certain place called “there”.  It wont work anywhere else except where God sent it too.

Entry Filed under: Bible,Church,Discernment,Faith,God,Jesus,Prayer,Prophetic,Uncategorized

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