{"id":23462,"date":"2022-07-02T00:01:31","date_gmt":"2022-07-01T23:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/?p=23462"},"modified":"2022-06-30T16:22:32","modified_gmt":"2022-06-30T15:22:32","slug":"persistent-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/2022\/07\/02\/persistent-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Persistent Action"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-23462-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/July-2..mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/July-2..mp3\">http:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/July-2..mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><i><a href=\"https:\/\/www2.bible.com\/en-GB\/bible\/1588\/2CO.5.20\">2 Cor. 5:<sup>20<\/sup><\/a> \u201cSo we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His appeal through us; we [as Christ\u2019s representatives] plead with you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God. (AMP)<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">From the story of the four men in <a href=\"https:\/\/www2.bible.com\/en-GB\/bible\/116\/MRK.2.1-12\">Mark 2:1-12 <\/a>[please read], we have learnt we must have compassion on others, we need to have faith and we need to act. <a href=\"https:\/\/www2.bible.com\/en-GB\/bible\/1\/LUK.14.23\">Luke 14:<sup>23<\/sup><\/a> \u201c<span class=\"s1\"><b><i>Go out<\/i><\/b><\/span><b><i> <\/i><\/b><i>into the highways and hedges, <\/i><span class=\"s1\"><b><i>and compel them to come in<\/i><\/b><\/span><i>, that my house may be filled.&#8221; <\/i>(KJV, emphasis added). <!--more-->God says after you have prayed that people will experience His power and love, go out and bring them to Him. Do something about it because it is your move. What kind of friend are you and what actions are you going to take this season?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Our fourth lesson for these four men is <b>Persistence<\/b>. They were persistent, not allowing the difficulty to stand in their way or even discourage them. The truth is there is always an obstacle on the way to a miracle. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Gal.+6%3A9&amp;version=TLB\">Gal. 6:<sup>9<\/sup> <\/a><i>\u201cLet us <\/i><span class=\"s1\"><i>not get tired<\/i><\/span><i> of doing what is right, for after a while <\/i><span class=\"s1\"><i>we will reap a harvest<\/i><\/span><i> of blessing if we don&#8217;t get discouraged and give up.&#8221; <\/i>(LB, emphasis added). The reality is sometimes we are just tired of that friend, tired of our spouse, tired of the children, tired of that cousin, tired of that neighbour. However, God says let us <span class=\"s1\"><b>not<\/b><\/span> get tired because the harvest will come. The four friends were persistent. Ladies might not fully understand this but when four men are on a project, there are different ideas. There will be at least two prevailing ideas because of their different personalities. But these men put \u2018their differences\u2019 and \u2018their personalities\u2019 aside and they persisted together on the same mission.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">They needed each other. Persistence is only sustained in community. No one can be persistent alone forever. Persistence can only be sustained when you have a partner when you have a friend in it with you. Join a small group [house fellowship, serving team] in your church community. You can last longer with the things you like to do when you have people of like minds pulling along with you. <a href=\"https:\/\/www2.bible.com\/en-GB\/bible\/392\/2PE.3.9\">2 Peter 3:<sup>9<\/sup><\/a> <i>\u201c\u2026God is <\/i><span class=\"s1\"><i>patient,<\/i><\/span><i> because he wants <\/i><span class=\"s1\"><i>everyone<\/i><\/span><i> to turn from sin and <\/i><span class=\"s1\"><i>no one to be lost<\/i><\/span><i>.\u201d<\/i> (CEV, emphasis added). Even God persists with us.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Think about how you came to Christ, are you not glad that someone kept inviting you to church or kept sending you messages about God? Are you not glad that someone did not give up on you, that someone was persistent? God is saying you have to be persistent. You have reached out to and invited someone to fellowship, and they have shut you out. It is okay to feel bad; go home, look into the mirror and say to yourself fifty times, \u2018It is not about me! It is about Jesus!\u2019 By the forty-fifth time, you will be fine. When you are done, go out and invite the person again. If they shut the door at you or say something that is not nice. Repeat the process and go again. Eventually, because you are not the only one working, God is working with you. The more you reach out, the more God is working on your heart and on their hearts, the harvest comes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>Prayer<\/b>: Father, thank You for the privilege to be an ambassador for Christ, continue to make Your appeal through me, I ask for the grace to focus on You, in Jesus Name. Amen!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2 Cor. 5:20 \u201cSo we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His appeal through us; we [as Christ\u2019s representatives] plead with you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God. (AMP) From the story of the four men in Mark 2:1-12 [please read], we have learnt we must have compassion on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[146,464,284,82,8,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-acknowledge-god","category-christ","category-commandment","category-community","category-jesus","category-love"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23462"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23492,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23462\/revisions\/23492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}