Peter told us to add temperance to our lives before he said anything about patience. Actually, the two go hand in hand; you can't really have one without the other. Temperance or self-control, however, has to come first because without self-control, you'll never be able to develop patience. It takes self-control to be patient.

Patience means steadfastness. Someone who is patient knows how to endure. They're stable no matter what happens. The reason some people never receive anything from God is that they are not patient. They can't endure anything, and they give up too easily.

James says, "... that the trying of your faith worketh patience" (James 1:3). The trying of your faith implies there will be some things to endure. Read about Paul's, Peter's, or James' life.

Those men knew what it meant to endure. They faced stonings, beatings, and all kinds of persecutions and opposition. But they knew how to believe God. They kept their faith in God. And the power and grace of God was sufficient to see them through every difficulty victoriously. They came out conquerors.

Timothy said, "...what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me" (2 Tim. 3:11). Some people seem to think if they'll just walk by faith, they'll never have another problem, trial, trouble, or tribulation as long as they live. Are they ever in for a surprise!

I don't know what kind of faith they have, but it's not the Bible kind of faith. It's not the faith we find in God's Word.

All Show And No Go?
The minute you start to walk by faith and believe God's Word, the devil's going to come to find out if you really believe what you say, or if you're just all talk.

There are a lot of people who are all talk. They can talk a pretty good fight, but they can't really fight the good fight of faith. They quit as soon as things get the least bit tough. Their faith is weak. When it comes right down to it, they have no endurance—no patience to endure the hard times. But patience and endurance in the hard times is what develops true, strong faith.

The problem is that we want everything handed to us on a silver platter. We always want the easy way out. Stay in there when the going gets rough. Don't quit. - Kenneth Hagin, Jr.

That's why James said to "... count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing" (James 1:2-4).

You see, you can count it joy because you know that as you endure and stand firm in faith, your faith is going to become stronger. You are not rejoicing over the problem or thanking God for the trial. You are thanking Him and rejoicing in the fact that He is going to deliver you out of it. And you will come through it stronger.

No one has ever received anything from God in the natural or in the spiritual realm without showing some endurance. You can't succeed at anything without endurance—without patience. Some people seem to think that faith is a get-rich-quick scheme. It's not. Real faith knows what it means to be patient and endure until the answer comes.

The reason some people never receive answers from God is that they quit too soon. About the time the answer is ready to reach them, they lose patience and quit trusting God. Their faith runs out.

The Bible says that it is through faith and patience that we inherit the promises (Heb. 6:12). Everyone likes the faith part, but they want to throw out the patience part. They just want to cut that little word "patience" right out of their Bibles!

Success in prayer only comes through patience. Daniel learned this, and we can learn from his experience. Remember the time when Daniel prayed and then waited, ...and waited, ...and waited. He waited 21 days before ever receiving an answer. If Daniel was like the rest of us, I'm sure he was wondering what was taking so long! Then an angel came, and it's interesting to note what that angel said.

Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: For from, the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words.
(Dan. 10:12)

From the very first day, Daniel's prayer was heard. When the angel finally arrived, Daniel probably wanted to say, "Where in the world have you been? Don't you know I've been here waiting?" The angel told him that it was the prince of Persia (a demonic ruler in the heavenlies) that had held him up. The angel had to wrestle to get through to Daniel with the answer to his prayer (Dan. 10:12-13).

For 21 days, Daniel waited. It was Daniel's steadfastness—his patience that ensured the answer. Many times we rob ourselves of the answer because we throw in the towel right before our answer comes. We lose all the ground we ever gained by quitting too soon. Stay patient. Stay steadfast. Endure until the answer comes.

The problem is that we want everything handed to us on a silver platter. We always want the easy way out. Stay in there when the going gets rough. Don't quit. You'll find out what kind of character you have when life calls for patience and endurance.

Harry Truman once said, "The way you endure that which you must endure is more important than the crisis itself."

Commitment Takes Patience
Many can talk a good talk. But when the chips are down, you find out whether you have the real commitment needed to stand in there and fight to the finish.

When the going gets rough, those who are just mouthing things won't last. Those kind of people are gone when things begin to heat up. Those with commitment will stick. Stick-to-it-tive-ness is another good word for patience or endurance.

In this day and age, it's easy to not be committed to anything. People go here and there just looking for a good time. They like to shout and get excited about faith, healing, prosperity, and all the blessings of God. But they don't want to stick around to hear anything serious like commitment, sin, tithing, or developing character.

Those people are the first to declare that discipline is bondage! That is not true, but I'll tell you what will produce bondage. If you don't know the full counsel of God, you will definitely wind up in bondage!

People run around saying, "Give me more! Give me more! Give me more! I want more revelation." They don't care if it's truth or not. They're not even disciplined in what they listen to or under what teaching they sit.

If a "revelation" doesn't line up with God's Word, we have no business having anything to do with it. But some people aren't even self-controlled enough to know the difference. They haven't disciplined their spirit man to be sensitive to truth or to error, so they'll just swallow anything.

People like that remind me of little birds with their beaks wide open, just waiting for the momma bird to fly up and drop something in. It doesn't matter what she gives them; they'll take anything. An attitude like that will cause people to be out of balance.

I'll tell you how to determine who the really committed people are in your church. Start a building program! As soon as you mention a building program, you see immediately who the truly committed ones are.

Most people leave quickly and you never see them again until the building's all finished. Then they mysteriously pop back up again, and say, "Oh, what a great building we have built!" You want to shake them, and say, "That who built? Just exactly where were you when we were working on this building?"

The truth is that we are basically impatient in our everyday lives, and it carries over into our spiritual lives. - Kenneth Hagin, Jr.

They don't want to be there when it calls for commitment, patience, financial support, endurance, or steadfastness. They just want to be there for the exciting times—the goosebumps. They don't stick around when the going gets a little tough. They have no commitment.

If you want to be a success at anything, you have to make a commitment to the things of God. Pastors, it doesn't matter whether there are three people out in your congregation or 3,000. I learned a long time ago if there are just three people out there, you preach like there are 3,000 present.

You need to examine yourself, and ask, "Why am I doing what I'm doing?" It all comes back to what God told you to do. If God said do it, you do it, no matter how many people are there. You brace yourself with a backbone of steel, and you stand and deliver the Word of God in the hard places. If you make a commitment to go with God, you have to live up to that commitment.

People don't want to talk about commitment or steadfastness. We live in the great microwave generation—fast food, fast banking, fast cars, fast sleeping, fast working, fast everything. The truth is that we are basically impatient in our everyday lives, and it carries over into our spiritual lives.

If we have to stand in line at the grocery store for more than three minutes we start getting impatient. We get over into the express lane where we're only supposed to have 10 items. We look at the guy in front of us and start counting his items. If he's got more than 10 items we start fuming and think, Hey you! You're not supposed to be in this line. You're taking up my time, Buddy.

How many of us have done that? Sometimes we even get upset with God because we're impatient. It's something we need to change.

Measuring Your Patience
One of the main ways you can tell how spiritually mature you are is by measuring your level of patience. When someone is sick, you put a thermometer in his mouth to measure his temperature. Some of us need to measure our patience. Are we at the zero mark or have we progressed to a higher degree of patience?

One good way to measure our patience is by our reaction to unsaved loved ones. If they're not getting saved as quickly as we'd like, what do we usually do? We jump in and try to make it happen. Then we mess things up.

If we don't see something happening immediately, we start getting impatient. Then we begin speaking all kinds of doubt and unbelief. We nullify our prayers for them through impatience.

We tear down everything that's already been built up through our prayers by doubt, unbelief, and lack of patience.

Without great patience, there is no great faith. Without great faith, there are no great victories. You won't achieve any victory without a battle. That's why the Christian walk is called the fight of faith.

Nobody wins if they don't get in the fight. You can't win any fight by sitting down on the sidelines, saying, "Gee, I hope our team wins today. I'll just sit over here and watch." No, someone has to get in there and make a commitment to the team and get involved.

Have you ever watched a basketball or football game? Those coaches and managers have to learn to exercise a lot of patience. At times it looks like there's no way their team can win but the coach patiently sticks with his team. He doesn't walk out of the stadium halfway through the game, and say, "Forget this! You're all a bunch of losers." No, he waits and waits and encourages them and patiently works with them. Then he watches as they pull from behind. He doesn't quit on them.

Yet we're so quick to quit on God. We quote one verse, wait 15 minutes, and if nothing seems to happen, we give up. Sometimes we're willing to wait 24 hours and then we're back knocking at God's door, "Hey God! What's the matter? What's taking so long to answer this prayer? I quoted Your Word just yesterday and nothing's happened yet. How come, God?"

Remember, the trying of your faith worketh patience. What do you do when you've prayed and nothing seems to be happening? You stand. And you keep standing for as long as it takes.

That's faith.

Source: What Comes After Faith? by Kenneth E. Hagin, Jr.
Excerpt permission granted by Faith Library Publications