⚱️Endurance | The Cost Of Deliverance

Life teaches us how to respond and endure, whether it's responding to annoying garden weeds, the elusive returning predator on a farm, an unreasonable boss, or a belligerent family member. "Deliverance" speaks to the cup of hardship, heartbreak, and oppressive circumstances we all partake of. We become heavy-hearted, depressed, and even angry when forced to succumb to conditions contrary to who we are, BUT our Elohim knows how and when to deliver us. We prefer deliverance without endurance; after all, who likes or embraces betrayal, pain, and discomfort? Yet, Yeshua perfectly personified endurance; He endured every imaginable crucible, including the cross to rightly earn a title of “The Deliverer” of mankind; He ENDURED it all! We too endure by standing in our identity as His people while carrying our cross of hardships, working through them with Biblical principles and becoming surrendered to the process of Santification. Hardship is designed to make us better, not bitter. Others see our stance as foolish, even pointless, not seeing the worth of being steadfast, but we’re being "Kingdom qualified," and vetted during our seasons of tears, testing, and endurance. Will we embsrk on a path to forgive, or keep and store animosity like rocks in our pockets.

Enduring and remaining faithFULL in the midst of hardships bears witness to YHVH’S gift of deliverance and spiritual stamina. The ability to steadfastly endure should be improving with time. However, the curse of going our own way, and running from the lessons of endurance, always stings in the end. "Our way" brings distortion and remorse. Repeatedly failing to honor YHVH’S Commandments, disrespecting His Word, quenching His Spirit, and unforgiveness makes the battleground lethal to the soul. We might escape one bad situation, only to find ourselves in yet another dysfunctional, dangerous cycle, that looks alot like the conundrum we thought we escaped from before. When we’re disobedient to the Word of Elohim we BLOCK the path of deliverance and live outside the covering (Covenant) that protects us; in our rebellion we become our own worst enemy.

Endurance has its bitter counterfeits. "False deliverance" manifests itself in unhealthy entanglements with ungodly, unscrupulous, toxic people, substances that lure us into an altered mind-numbing reality, and the sexually risky lifestyles that only perpetuate and prolong misery and bondage. Should repentance (teshuvah) indeed happen, darkness flees, the clarity and ability of endurance comes, and one can begin to suit up properly for battle and do the inner-work necessary so we CAN be delivered. Repentance breaks “self-governance” and the curse of spiritual blindness.

We were forewarned we’d have many diverse tribulations; he also assured us that He'd never leave or forsake us; He’s with us IN the trenches. Experience is a hard-earned resume. It testifies to our tribulations, but more importantly, to His faithfulness to deliver and make us better for it. Life’s hard spots teach us to boldly proclaim His Word as the final authority in all situations. Spiritual weapons forged in the fiery furnace of troubles hones our discernment (vision) and sharpens our ability to heed the Ruach’s instructive voice. We become overcomers, spiritual “warriors,” by repetitively being forced to be where we don’t want to go- IN the battle. Forgiveness and love are crucially vital weapons to the fight; they enable us to respond to the complicated labyrinth of life rightly and exit with a clean heart.

Love is the only eternally viable emotion, but it has a nemesis, a distorter, working continually to beckon us back into old, familiar behaviors. “Live your best life now” is appealing but contrary to "enduring.” The philosophical jargon denies the intrinsic purpose of enduring for Elohim’s people. Avoiding endurance of life's hard spots, can hinder our accountability, which matures us and keeps insights buried and hidden that we need to move forward with better discernment and wisdom.

Our rock, becomes a "rock of offense" to those that refuse to bend a knee. But whether we trip over that rock, or build upon it, we all make a decision in that regard that impacts our life in every way. The leaven of sin swells in the wayward hearts of those who leer wantonly, hoping to see some residue of malice, unforgiveness, rage, or retribution, still within us. But the steady, patient, and joyful countenance is a heart-position of constant irritation to the soul saddled with the heavy load they bring on to themselves by refusing Eloheim’s ways.

The Father equips us with the hard-earned, valuable oil that sustains us in the dark, lean times. There’s no counterfeit for experience, which is why we can’t give our hard-earned oil to someone else; they must pay the price of endurance, deny the flesh, and earn their own. Our life-lamps fill with the oil (insights) of life’s tribulations, endured as one who carries His Name and respecs His Word. The priceless oil of the overcomer is drawn to the top by the wick of endurance. It burns steady and slow; it goes farther, longer. It burns brilliantly, especially in the hard dark moments, evidence of the eternal light (Ruach) living within us, because we yeilded to our Creator.

Finally, only the bethrowed Bride will carry the Bridegroom’s (Yeshua’s) Name. The Name has the weight and respect of an enduring over-comer. If we carry His Name, we too must carry our cross. It’s up to us to endure until deliverance comes; it’s up to YHVH to bring the outcome. The Bride doesn't murmur and grumble in the wilderness. The Bride is a triumphant overcomer, enduring all things with patience. She's not a wilting flower but fulfills her commission expecting the inevitable epic deliverance that’s fast approaching and will be totally, absolutely, worth it all!