Pain is Temporary… but Quitting is Permanent! (Part 1)

I’ve been sharing with our congregation that we are going through a time of testing, as God is allowing tests in our lives in this season so that we might be perfected in Him to answer our call. You must remember through trials and tribulation that “Pain is temporary, but quitting is permanent!”

We pray things like: “More, Lord! Use me, Lord! Change me, Lord!” So then when the Lord starts giving us instructions on what it takes to move forward, we must take steps of faith to be able to accomplish the task.

Often the small steps taken are what make it possible for us to take giant leaps in the future!

However, when the times of testing come to prune our attitudes, behavior and general character conditions, we sometimes mentally process this testing and pruning as an attack from the enemy. In reality God is changing issues in our personality, disposition, and temperament to match up with the promotion of our calling.

We have to understand protocol… Have you ever noticed that the people at different levels of business behave differently? Those working at the top do not operate like those working at the bottom. There are different standards and expectations.

This is also true in the spirit realm. God is molding us into the people we are called to be. He is asking greater things of us, because we cannot take second-day behaviors into our third-day callings.

Increase comes at the price of the pain of change…

“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind.”—Philippians 3:12-16

If we asked the Apostle Paul what was the greatest lesson he learned to serve the Lord… his response would probably be similar to the verse above. He was a pioneer, so different than the other disciples. He had money, power, and was highly educated. He learned one thing in all of that. I have to forget the past. He had to forget the rejection of yesterday, in order to plant spiritual seeds for the future.

We cannot quit just because we’ve been rejected. While we might not see the return on our spiritual investments now, we will see them in the future.

Paul was always looking forward and we must also…

I want to share with you from my heart as a father. This is God’s law, if we chose to answer God’s call fully, overtime we will surpass time, task, and influence that we could have accomplished in the natural. I don’t care how successful the past may have been, we will be more successful because of the commitment we’ve made to the call of God on our lives.

You never know if what you do for someone else will bring the trigger for the release of your own blessings.

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”—2 Timothy 1:7

When you get a promotion, you need to operate under higher levels of deliverance from fear.

Let me give you an example… How many of us could contribute a quarter to the offering basket? Yet, tens of thousands of dollars… that’s an entirely different story.

You must start preparing for the vision. If you don’t invest in yourself, don’t expect anyone else to.

When God gives me the vision, I simply ask, “What is the next step that I’m responsible to take?”

Dr. T.L. Osborn always told me, that when we will do the small thing… God will do the BIG thing.

“…who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.”—2 Timothy 1:9

Check back in for “Pain is Temporary… but Quitting is Permanent! Part 2” to learn more about YOUR unique calling—one that can only be answered by you and you alone…