16 Jun Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way (Because Tenacity is a Necessity to Fulfill your Destiny) Part 8

Approximately 23 years ago I almost died.  I had horrible cardiovascular symptoms…continual angina, frequent arrhythmia; constant difficulty breathing and thus I could barely walk and barely talk.  I became so emaciated I couldn’t even do simple household tasks around the house.  When I taught at World Changers Bible Institute I had to do so sitting down and only barely above a whisper. I knew all the healing scriptures and could recite them to you via memory. I had taught on healing for years and had seen hundreds of people divinely healed over the years.

I had prayed and for six months not only did I not get better…I got worse!  Then after six months something inside me began to turn…I could literally sense it!  From that moment on I began to get better and from then it was an additional 12 months before I fully recovered (my darling wife, Anne, gave me massages almost every night to help the circulation flow in my body…I didn’t tell her for an additional six months after that…just so I could keep getting massages!  Lol!)

As you can imagine during this 18 month period, there were times when I was tempted to be discouraged and quit.  However, with tenacity I held on to the Word of God like a bulldog!  I knew if I died prematurely my beloved wife Anne would marry some young handsome guy and I wanted her to be stuck with me!  Tenacity is a necessity to fulfill your destiny!

Over the last several weeks we have journeyed together into the subject matter. Let’s review:  Our key verse was II Timothy 1:7, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love and a sound mind.”  Then we began to share with you “10 Truths towards Tenacity”:

1) Tenacious people don’t waste time feeling sorry for themselves (Rom. 8:31).

Within this section we gave you 6 Very Vivacious Victor Verbals:

1. Life is not always fair.  People are not always fair.  God is ALWAYS fair.

2. You are not a loser…you are a chooser (Deut. 30:19)

3. A victim believes that others are responsible for his dilemma. Therefore someone else must bring them out of their dilemma. Thereby posturing them to whine and wait, instead of win.

4. You have a choice:  You can either be pitiful or powerful!

5. Betrayal is something someone does to you.  Bitterness is something you do to yourself

6. Don’t get bitter, get better!

2) Tenacious people don’t hand the reigns of their emotional well-being to another (Phil. 4:4).

Within this section we shared with you six more things you should never give away to others in order to maintain your tenacity:

1. Your attitude

2. Your joy

3. Your priorities

4. Your passion

5. Your calling

6. Your integrity

3) Tenacious people embrace change (Ps. 55:19). 

Then we began “9 Channels of Change” and got through three of them:

1. Sometimes people are more comfortable with old problems than new

2. The road to growth always travels through the city of change.

3. God-given change will always create better “normals”

This week let’s continue…

4. People tend to keep you where they last saw you.  Your change will expose the flesh of others.

When I was just a new believer back in the 1980’s, the fashion style was wearing sandals with no socks (Miami Vice style…oh yea!).  Well a couple of years ago I saw an older gentleman who came to Joy Church.  I

knew this same gentleman at that same time in the 80’s and I had only seen him a few times since.  The first thing he looked for when he saw me in 2013 was if I was wearing socks or not!

People tend to keep you where they last saw you!  Many times if you change it will expose their flesh.  Let me illustrate.  Let’s say two married women who have husbands who are not serving God, get together on a regular basis to pray for them.  Because it is so difficult to live with these husbands, invariably these two women turn their “prayer” time into a“gossip about my husband” time.  Then all of a sudden one of the women becomes convicted by God.  Next time the two ladies get together the gossip begins again, but the convicted lady says, “You know what, let’s not gossip about our husbands…let’s actually pray.”  To which the other lady responds, “Who do you think you are!”  Suddenly one woman’s change exposes the flesh of the other!

Next week, we’ll continue our series!