Definition of patient continuance: steadfastness, constancy, and endurance.
A person possessing patient continuance is defined by loyalty, faith and piety. (A modern definition of piety is an individual who regularly seems to have God finish his/her sentences.)
Patient continuance is an attribute of humility (someone who knows he needs God and is willing to wait for God to show up.)
Patient continuance possesses the uncanny ability to focus on the purposeful on thing.
They are purposeful in their disciplined enough to give God room to move within every decision they make, thus reflecting “the cross” in their walk – or having a crosswalk.
Crossroads are the decisional paths taken that result in redemptive outcomes.
Christ tells us in Matthew 7:7 to Ask, Seek, and Knock.
Ask: of the Lord – What are my options today?
Seek: – Is there something I am not seeing? “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it is not the same river and he is not the same man.” Heraclitus. Life is a river that is always moving.
Mark 8:24. Jesus heals the blind man, and what he sees first are “men as trees walking.” He was seeing the spiritual dimension of people, for Jesus said, They will know you by your fruit.
Fruit is God’s way of witnessing, demonstrating the kingdom, exercising and gaining and apprehending authority.
Fruit requires seeds, good ground, the right season to grow and time.
In Luke 8:15 Jesus refers to “good ground,” characterized as hearing the word, keeping it, and bringing forth fruit with the necessary patience. You can’t get fruit without patience.
Seeds: What is a seed? A seed is anything that gets into a place where it can grow.
Spiritual seeds can enter our eyes, ears, mouths, noses (the atmospheres we occupy), and touch.
Knock: The scripture talks about that in the multitude of counsellors there is wisdom. When we ‘knock’ we are asking those who are gifted in decisional excellence for their input. Knocking means going to those people with an attitude of obtaining what is necessary to act in line with the goal or objective.
“Experiments show that even incompetent outsiders move a team forward. They don’t need to be oracles or geniuses. They just need to be different. According to one study, we believe top performers give better advice than mediocre performers, but in fact their advice is equally good. The only difference between the best and mediocre is that top performers give more advice, not better advice.” 163 Anatomy of a Breakthrough
Seasonal Patience: Every spiritual season has an activity concomitant with its conditions requiring its own aspect of patience:
Winter: stillness, rest, recovery
Spring: plowing, fertilizing, planting, sowing, seeds, watering
Summer: growth, light, nourishment, expansion, fruitfulness, fullness
Autumn: harvest, reaping, work and effort, gathering, storing, giving, sharing
Unforgiveness is a form of contention.