"Shameless Persistence"

Today's verse of the day says "Ask, seek, and knock". In the Amplified Bible it says to "ask and keep on asking, seek and keep on seeking, knock and keep on knocking..." (Matthew 7) This means that we are to follow God with, as John Bevere said, "Shameless Persistence".

James 5:16 – 18 The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. 18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.

AMP James 5:16b The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working].

Eph 3:20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,

AMP 20Now to Him Who, by (in consequence of) the [action of His] power that is at work within us, is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams]--

According to the Bible there is a power available to us and working in us. What is this power and how does this power become available to us? It is the power of the Holy Spirit and it becomes available as we seek God with our whole hearts, earnestly, fervently, with “Shameless Persistence”.

Go back to the example the Apostle James gave, Elijah.

1 Kings 18:1 Later on, in the third year of the drought, the LORD said to Elijah, “Go and present yourself to King Ahab. Tell him that I will soon send rain!” 2 So Elijah went to appear before Ahab.
41 Then Elijah said to Ahab, “Go get something to eat and drink, for I hear a mighty rainstorm coming!”
42 So Ahab went to eat and drink. But Elijah climbed to the top of Mount Carmel and bowed low to the ground and prayed with his face between his knees.
43 Then he said to his servant, “Go and look out toward the sea.”
The servant went and looked, then returned to Elijah and said, “I didn’t see anything.”
Seven times Elijah told him to go and look. 44 Finally the seventh time, his servant told him, “I saw a little cloud about the size of a man’s hand rising from the sea.”
Then Elijah shouted, “Hurry to Ahab and tell him, ‘Climb into your chariot and go back home. If you don’t hurry, the rain will stop you!’”

God told Elijah that the rain was coming. Elijah even told the King Ahab that he heard a storm, yet Elijah still went and prayed for God to send rain. He had to send his servant to look for the rain seven times.

What would have happened if after the first, or second, or even sixth time he would have given up? How many times in my life have I given up after the fifth time or, dare I say, the first time? I think I often have more faith in my hot water heater that I do in God. When I turn on the hot water at the faucet do I turn it off if I don’t immediately get hot water out of it? No I leave it on and wait because I know the hot water heater will produce hot water.

Jesus spoke more about this, He told his disciples, through the parable of the Unjust Judge, in Luke 18:1 – 8 to pray and do not lose heart.

AMP ALSO [Jesus] told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not to turn coward (faint, lose heart, and give up).

In this parable the woman, through “Shameless Persistence” went before the judge over and over again until he finally gave her what she was seeking.

As I asked in my earlier post, what are we going to do when the storm comes? We must stand on the rock and press in! We must run the race with endurance and not lose heart!

God is an awesome God and He is a good God. And he is working in and through us, “for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13 NKJV) But it is for His purpose and in His timing.

If you are praying for the salvation of your children, if you are praying for a job, no matter what your situation is do not lose heart. Knock and keep knocking, pray and keep praying and no matter what happens you must praise Him and acknowledge He is God.

We are in a battleground not a playground. Why else would God have given us armor? Therefore, we must fight the enemy and never let our down our guard. Satan is persistent too, he will continue shooting his fiery darts at us just for that one instance we lose heart and drop the shield of faith.

Remember it is not “if” we face trials, but “when”. Jesus says we will suffer for righteousness sake. We cannot stand still in our relationship with God, we will always be moving, it will either be forward or backward. The currents of this world are always trying to pull us backward and we must fight against it. In the times when it seams that we are moving the slowest, and fighting the hardest against the currents around us, we are experiencing the most growth but only if we are in continual, earnest, heartfelt prayer.

This post was inspired by a message I heard from John Bevere entitle "Shameless Persistence".