#199 The Power Of Patience: Its a Part of Us!!

Pressure has a way of exposing what’s really happening inside us. We sit with James 1:2–4 and get painfully practical about patience, because patience isn’t passive and it definitely isn’t weak. We talk about how internal beliefs shape external behavior, why your reaction can betray your growth, and how learning to respond takes a pause, a thought, and a commitment to truth. 

From there, we define patience in everyday language: staying calm, self-controlled, and hard to provoke while you endure delays, frustration, and conflict. We connect patience to active faith, like a muscle that only gets stronger under resistance. If you’ve been asking God for patience, we explain why the “answer” often looks like real-life situations that force you to practice it, not a sudden feeling of calm. 

We also zoom out to the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–25) and the idea that spiritual maturity grows through exercise and pruning. When you slip, we lean on 2 Corinthians 12:9–10 as a steady reminder that grace meets us in weakness without excusing unhealthy behavior. Then we give four clear pressure points where patience gets shaken most: difficulties, waiting, perseverance, and provocation, plus encouragement for anyone stuck in a slower season who needs to “climb and maintain” with Isaiah 40:31. 

If this helped you, subscribe, share it with a friend who’s in a waiting season, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What area tests your patience the most right now?

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Thank you for listening, and we hope you will return every week.

Transcript

Welcome Back And A Joy Check

SPEAKER_00 0:43

Hello, hello, and welcome back, guys. Diamonds in the rough. So glad to be before you one more time. I hope you're having a great day. Yeah, so what uh is your perspective? You know, what's your perspective on on in of last week's episode? If you didn't check it out, please do. It's all about joy. Has your perspective shifted at all? Yeah. I mean, at the end of the day, I dare you to answer that question with again. Hallelujah. Because it really is eternal. Yeah, it is an internal, internal question that we have to answer internally. Amen. Definitely want to encourage you, tap into you because God wants to speak in such a way that we get it. You know, He wants our response to change. So, whatever's happening on the internal, what's happening on the inside, we must realize that it is ever so it is definitely connected and affecting the external actions. I just said a whole lot, I'm gonna say it again. The response is the internal answer that is affecting the eternal, not eternal, external actions. Y'all excuse me, I'm getting my words all tongue, tongue tied up, but I hope that you understand what I'm saying because at the end of the day, you gotta tap into you. Hallelujah. You must tap in so that you can see. Hallelujah. You must tap in. So simply put, what I just said, it's all about how how your behavior matters, okay? Because what's going on internally affects the behavior and your reaction to what life brings you. Hallelujah. How are you acting? How how do you respond? Do you respond or do you react? Did you notice there was a difference? Yeah, it absolutely is. So I'm excited about our topic today. And before we do that, let's go ahead and pray. Father, thank you so much for another day. Thank you for every ear that is here and every eye. God, I just pray in the name of Jesus. You use me to your glory. I pray in the name of Jesus that we will walk hand in hand on this endeavor and this episode on today. I pray that your will will be done and that you will be pleased and it will be accepted before you. God, I just yield it up to you that you have your way. I thank you so much for your grace and your mercy, and we just give you all the glory and all the honor. We turn this over to you in Jesus Christ's name. We do pray. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah. So you guessed that I am in a different location. I'm not in my normal location. So I don't have all the effects that I normally do. Yes. Last week was the same. And I don't know. I'm God might have me do this here for a season, just simply because I got a lot going on. And so I, you know, you gotta do it. You gotta do it when you can do it. Yeah, everything ain't necessarily gonna be the way we want it, but when we do it, no matter how we do it, no matter where we do it, we do it with excellence. Hallelujah. So I I am doing my best to give it to you in excellence in the season that I am in. Hallelujah. I hope that that makes sense. So today our topic will continue out of our anchor scripture for the month, which is James chapter one, verses two through four. And so I'm going to go ahead and read that. Yes. I hope you got your journals and your pens where you can make some notes so that you can again look back over what you've learned and what you've seen and what you've had to deal with, yeah, in this life, and see that, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations, which is various temptations and things that you know come at us coming at us anytime. Count it all joy, right? We talked about that topic last week about joy under pressure and how the fact that pressure is a good thing, hallelujah! Because you got pressure, you got something's going to come out of it. Come on, somebody. Uh, verse three knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience, hallelujah. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire wanting nothing. Hallelujah. So at the end of the day, today we're gonna really be focusing on that patience piece, hallelujah, amen. So last week we talked about joy, and so we are gonna be focusing today on patience that comes because of your faith, hallelujah. So if I had to give it a title, it would be the power of patience, it is a part of us, hallelujah. Patience, it is it really becomes a piece of it's more than clothing, but it's something that we have to put on every single day, hallelujah. Patience ain't always easy, but it is uh something that we have to deal with on a daily basis. Hallelujah. So, first let's uh take a look at actually what this word means, yeah. Patience is it is the ability to remain calm, self-controlled, and unruffled while waiting for something, enduring difficulties or dealing with provoktion. Hallelujah. Again, it's the ability to remain calm, have self-control, and uh not get easily provoked and ruffled, you know, get I make people people draw you out of your character, hallelujah. Look, I I promise you, true story. I promise, look, it just happened to me as I was getting ready to record it. I I had someone come in and ruffle my feathers. You heard what I'm saying? And you know, in the entire time, I had to remain calm, remain calm and stand on truth, hallelujah. Amen. When we're standing in truth and we're operating in truth, look, even when they come to try to you know trip you out, disturb your peace, and all of those things, you can still, even in the midst of it, remain calm, hallelujah. So, not only that, but it involves enduring delays or frustration without complaining, anger, or anxiety. It is a virtue of steady perseverance and tolerance, and we're gonna go and dive a little bit deeper. But what do you think about that? Hallelujah. What do you think about what I just said now, y'all? Please, if you if you're listening, it's like what in the world is that excuse the noise because uh I am at my community center, and there is people coming in and out, and so you hear things from time to time, you hear people talking. I do apologize, but I'm doing the best that I can do at the moment, hallelujah. It just it just pushes me to do what I need to do where I'm supposed to do it, hallelujah. Right now I'm moving in convenience, but again, God will do it, hallelujah! God will move and shift the things that need to be shifted to where you realize I can't do it no other way, you heard amen. So, going a little bit further, it becomes a part of you. The level of patience we possess is going to be tested, hallelujah. It's going to be tested. This is why it says your faith is tried and it produces patience, hallelujah. Your faith will be tried and it's going to produce patience, hallelujah. And I'm gonna look at it again just to make sure I got it right. He says, knowing this, this is what you gotta know that the trying of your faith is working, it's working. If in King James Version means ing, he said it's working patience. So look, faith without works is dead, hallelujah, and that just means that look, so if you put them all together, then you gotta go for it. You talk, we can talk all we want to, but that thing we gotta put it into action, hallelujah. Because if not, what he say, it is dead, so we put our faith in action, and when we put our faith in action, sometimes things happen that's gonna make you want to just react and not respond, it's gonna make you want to uh jump when God says stay stay still, it's gonna make you do things that can prune your patience, if that makes sense. Hallelujah, amen. It's a process, amen. You must know that you are going to be tested on every side, hallelujah. You gotta know that it is not to keep us down, but to build us up, hallelujah. I talk about the the parable of a plant all the time, how if you don't take off the dead leaves, no matter what kind of plant it is, if you don't take off what is dead, it will kill what is alive, amen. And it it is a powerful, powerful truth. But that's the thing, that's the truth of it. Now you might not be growing because you got dead stuff around you, hallelujah. You might struggle in that area, but in order for you to be able to be strengthened, you gotta understand you're gonna have to be in those situations where you have to practice it in order to strengthen it, hallelujah. So people ask God for patience all the time. What you gotta realize is that you're gonna be in situations where you have to be patient, it's just like exercise. The more you push weight, the more weight you push over time. Well, if you can push five for you know five, five or six days, you can push five pounds of weight, then it's gonna be a what? Your resistance. And what was heavy at first is now gonna be light because you're stronger. And what happens? You got to put more weight on that bar so that you can build some more resistance to pump some more, and that's how these different spiritual muscles work. You have to exercise it, hallelujah. So in this moment, we are exercising our patience muscle, and because we're exercising the patience muscle, we have to have a level of things happen where we gotta exercise it, we gotta pump the iron, hallelujah. The iron of patience, and it is not easy, hallelujah, but it is doable, amen. Now, here's another nugget, it's right alongside in alignment with the reality of patience. But look, he says to us that look, wait, hold on, no, so it's not just in patience, but it's also in the entirety of the fruit of the spirit, hallelujah! Because the fruit of the spirit, they're not fruits that come by nature outside of love, hallelujah. Because look, at the end of the day, we're attached to God, then we are attached to love, but all of these fruits must be exercised so that like a fruit tree, they come in small, but they grow to their to a size where they are applicable. Hallelujah. Where this the fruit tastes good because it ain't fruit, the fruit of long suffering, we're talking about patience, it don't taste very good at the time. But when it is ripening in season, you look back and you're like, oh man, I handle that so much better than I did a year ago. Oh my god, thank you. Your fruit has come into season, hallelujah. Does that make sense? Like at the end of the day, our trees, our tree is constantly being pruned all the time. Amen. Hallelujah. Look, I wanted to talk just briefly about the fruit of the spirit and the other muscles that have to be exercised. That faith is working, hallelujah. So you don't have just the fruit of long suffering, suffering, or that's just another way of saying, you know, patience, but you got love, you got joy, you got peace, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. He says, Against these, against these, there is no law, hallelujah, amen. And when you when you put your best foot forward with these fruits, like ain't no law against it, because it comes out of the heart, hallelujah. It is produced out of the hurt, out of the heart, and is put into practice by our faith. That's a mic drop, right? Hallelujah. Look, he says, and they that are Christ, let me finish reading the rest of it. He said, and they that are Christ, meaning they belong to him, have crucified the flesh with the affections and lust. He says, if we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. So we can talk about the spirit all day long, but are we putting it into action? Hallelujah. Are we uh able to exercise those those? And I want to say gifts because that's what they are. Hallelujah. They're actually, we have to exercise that thing, he said, let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. Like at the end of the day, be real about it, hallelujah. And and and the reality is that again, I mean, I can say it over and over and over again. Look, there is a process where these gifts, I call them gifts, these fruits have to be exercised. Hallelujah. And indeed, and they come out of Galatians 5, verses 22 through 25. So write that down in your notebooks. You can go back in it and look at it on your own time because not just the fruits of the spirit, but it also, I think it's afterward. I think no, it's before, before you get to these and talk about the things that are not a part of the fruit of the spirit. Hallelujah. We need to know both, amen. At the end of the day, you need to know or be aware of both, hallelujah, because they both are relevant, they both come into our life, and we need to know what is of the spirit and what is not. Hallelujah, amen. So coming on back to where I was talking about patience. Oh, I also gotta add this. I want you to go to when you're in your time, go to second, no, first Corinthians, second Corinthians, I'm sorry, chapter 12, verse 9 through 10. And I want you to take this nugget. This is a good nugget, really, really good nugget, nugget. But that where we are weak, he is strong. Hallelujah. Look, patience ain't an easy thing to operate in, it's not, and this is why when we fall short and we lose our patience and we just react and not respond, or we move and how we feel, and uh, you know, or whatever have you. Look, he says to us that my grace is sufficient for thee. Hallelujah. My grace is sufficient for thee. I say that because you may have you may have been in a situation where you lost your patience, you might have been in a situation where you weren't so humble, you know, because these fruit again, the fruits of the spirit are us are fruits that have to be exercised, and as time passes, you get stronger in those areas, hallelujah. Christ says to us, my grace is sufficient, have grace on yourself, hallelujah. No, don't excuse bad behavior, but you gotta have some grace on yourself. You heard me? Hallelujah. Personal development is a good thing, personal spending time with God, you and God alone, y'all spending time together, that's a good thing because he's gonna work with what did we talk about in the beginning? Internal things, internal thoughts, internal ideas. He's gonna work with those things, and you gotta understand that when we fall down, it's a part of the process. When we fail, it's a part of the process. All of those things, they are a part of the process. He said, My strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Hallelujah. Look, we're not we're not that strong to be able to do it in our flesh. That's that's the essence of what Paul is saying here. We're not that strong that we can do it alone. Christ has to be with you to be able to exercise something that is connected to him, hallelujah. Look, you can try to do it in your flesh, but it ain't gonna last, and it's not genuine, hallelujah. Most of the time it's an act, amen. An act that eventually it doesn't last, hallelujah. So he said, Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, and persecutions, and distresses for Christ's sake, he said, for when I am weak, then I when he when I am weak, then he is strong. Basically, that's what he said. I messed up the writing somehow or another, but at the end of the day, what Paul is saying here that whatever has to happen in order that I get to where God is trying to take me, he said, I count it all joy. He said, Because where I am weak, he is stronger. Hallelujah. And as time, look, you will never get stronger than him, but we'll get he will lead us into the place where we get stronger and stronger and stronger and stronger. We're gonna always need Christ, we'll always need him to fight on our behalf, we'll always need him, but what he's saying is that there's gonna be moments where he gotta fill the gap for you. That's grace, hallelujah, where you're not so strong, and you always he said, I'm gonna fill the gap for you. Hallelujah. You know the moments where he got to carry you because you can't walk on your own. That is grace, hallelujah. That is the power that is within the realms of patience and all of the other fruits of the spirit. At the moment, we're dealing with patience because patience is one of the ones where we have four particular areas where you know patience can be shaken. Let's put it that way. Number one, difficulties, write it down. Number one, difficulties. Why? Because we automatically want to react. We have to learn how to respond. The difference between reacting and responding is thinking. When we respond, we think about what we're gonna say before we say it. When we react, we just respond out of how we feel in the moment, and in the moment, and all it's not always a good thing because we can say or do something that wasn't timely, that it was out of order. Do you hear me? We can have good intentions and still react the wrong way because we didn't respond. Hallelujah. We didn't take a moment to think about what we were gonna say, think about what we were saying before we said it. Hallelujah. So that is what makes the difference when we are having difficulties. This is where our patience is a must. Because difficulties will draw out the worst in us. Hallelujah. How about number two? Waiting. When we're waiting, this the waiting part. See, I was just look, when we tarry and wait, there's an area in between there where the enemy comes in to try to steal what don't belong to him. He tried to steal your victory. He tried to steal your triumphancy. He tried to steal the thing that makes you look at God twice. Like, wait a minute, why is this happening? Like, I just asked you for this. How come that is happening? Look in the waiting time, that is where our patience, our patience can wear real, real thin when we're waiting on God. Hallelujah. And the thing that we have to understand is that it's a process. The process is a process because God don't move on our timetable. Hallelujah. He not necessarily move as fast as we want him to move, but he don't always move as slow as we expect him to. Hallelujah. Because he can do it in an instant. Y'all hear me click. But he can also take a good time. You hear what I'm saying? Months, days, yeah, years before he gives us the thing we've asked him for. But we gotta hold to our faith. Hallelujah! And hold and be patient, and know that Isaiah 41, no, Isaiah 40 and 31 says, Yeah, the in the midst of your waiting, he said, I'm gonna give you wings like eagles, so that while you're running, you don't faint. You know, why while while you're walking, you don't pass out. Hallelujah. He's gonna give us the strength we need to continue to maintain altitude. Come on, somebody, hallelujah, maintain altitude, hallelujah. You're gonna climb and maintain, climb and maintain, maintain, climb and maintain, hallelujah, amen. As God is working that thing out for you, number three, perseverance. I'm almost out of time, y'all. Perseverance, that's all about withstanding what is coming at you, hallelujah. It is look when you're waiting for God, and waiting and perseverance, they go hand in hand, but perseverance is about being in the midst, in the in the in the thicket of the thing that you might be doing, and you're you're wanting to hurry up and finish, hurry up and finish, but it seems to be taking a long time, hallelujah. That's a picture of perseverance when God is teaching us how to slow down, teaching us how to withstand the test of time, hallelujah. When we are used to going fast, like me, I'm used to going fast, but now I'm in a season where God is saying, Nope, you got to slow it down, slow it down, and I, you know, when we first started refinement, the refinement season, you know, looking at notes, writing notes, it was just like, oh, it wasn't my dig, hallelujah. But now, as I I am, I've been doing it for a little while, I can see why it's important for me to take down notes and to keep my structure because it creates a level of stability, not just for me, but for the listener, for the receiver, hallelujah, because there's a level of expectation, it's almost like uh going to go into a movie. You already know what the movie is, you know what it's gonna be about. Now you just see in-between, hallelujah! Everything that's gonna happen. I got a synopsis, I got a summary of what's supposed to happen from the beginning to the end, but now I'm gonna see it being played out, hallelujah! And that's what it looks like when we are in the thicket of whatever we're doing. God is accomplishing accomplishing something in the midst of what you're doing. You got to be patient in the process. Hallelujah. I know you want to hurry up and finish. Look, you're I'm a witness, I am showing up a witness. I want to hurry up and get it done and get it by me so I can go on to the next thing. But it's just not working like that for me these days. He's forcing me, not forcing me, he is calling me to slow down and really be present in what I'm doing. Hallelujah. So, yeah, anybody that's struggling with that, look, patience is being strengthened in the midst of it. Number four, the last one, provoke. When somebody is provoking you, it's called provoking provocation. When people provoke you, people can provoke you in places and areas. You sitting there back and you looking back like, no, leave me alone. You hear me? You try to get away. You ever been in a situation where you're trying to get away from them, and it seems like they just keep on coming. You heard me? Hallelujah. That is a that is an area where where the enemy is trying to try you, trying to tempt you, trying, you know, somebody poke you, and they just keep poking you. My kids will do that to me sometimes. They'll just keep poking out, especially my oldest daughter. She just keep poking me. I keep saying, Stop, stop it. And after a while, it's just like stop. You know what I mean? And then then once you once you raised your voice and made it clear to them, stop that's getting on my nerves. Then they said, Oh, you yelled at me. Y'all know what I'm saying. You know, you yelled at me. What do you yell at me for? Because I told you to stop. You heard me, hallelujah. So, you know, it is a thing. So those are the four, write them down. Your your patience is going to be tried in those areas because you need them the most. Difficulties and waiting and perseverance, perseverance, and provoktion. So, all of that being said, we are about to wrap it up. Says, so how we respond tells the story of how much we have grown and becoming more and more like Christ, in which the diamond in you is able to shine brighter and brighter. Let's pray, Father. Thank you again for your grace and your mercy. Thank you for every ear that you drew here on today. I pray the blessing of the Lord will be upon them, and they will continue to draw, be drawn to you. Continue to perfect us and shape us, make us and mold us into the men and women of God you desire us to be. As we as we are gone, we've been thrown in the wait room of patience, God. I pray, God, that we would be intentional about how we handle difficulties, how we handle promotion, how we handle handle it when we are in the midst of perseverance and how we handle difficulties. God, and the waiting period. God, I just pray that as we go forth, we can do it the way the in a way that pleases you, that we learn how to respond and not react because of how we feel in the moment. God, I thank you again for calling me into this place to be able to disciple those who desire to be discipled. I pray in the name of Jesus you'll continue to walk with us as we go forth. God, again, we love you and we thank you. We pray that this prayer is pleasing and acceptable in your sight. In Jesus Christ's name, we do pray. Amen. Amen and amen. Hallelujah. So, all of that being said, I hope that you have a great day. I hope that you will come on back with me on next week where we will be talking about nothing is wasted in refinement, absolutely nothing is wasted. Hallelujah. So, so many blessings from me to you, and as Michael always says, remember you are a diamond in the rug. Hallelujah! Amen. Have a great day.