The Happen Stance

How to Make Things Happen In Your Christian Life

K. Neill Foster

AT OUR HOUSE MY TEEN-AGE SON has decorated his room with all kinds of posters. Some are humorous and some have unusual messages.

"One of his posters shows a cat, bedraggled and desperate, chinning himself on a pole. His whiskers and chin are still above the pole and the poster exhorts, "Hang in There, Baby."

I like that. It says something about determination and persistence that needs to be said.

SPIRITUAL PUSHOVERS

I notice in the kingdom of God those same qualities - persistence and determination - count a great deal. In the spiritual warfare they make the difference between conquest and defeat. You can learn all the lessons of these pages and still be a spiritual pushover. There must be a constant application of these spiritual weapons to life's problems and difficulties.

Pray - without ceasing.

Offer the sacrifice of praise - continually.

Bind and loose - repeatedly.

Fast - often.

Love - always.

Every single one of these spiritual weapons in the Christian's arsenal needs to be continually exercised and maintained.

A bit of evangelical doggerel says it, too.

Keep on keeping on,

Keep on keeping on,

You'll always have the victory

If you keep on keeping on!

And so it is.

A SIGNIFICANT ENCOUNTER

Recently, I stopped for gasoline at a service station. I happened to be humming a gospel song. A young man who had also stopped there recognized the tune and said, "Are you a Christian?"

"Yes," I replied. We exchanged a few brief words and then it ws time to go. But before we parted I said to the young fellow, "Hang in there!"

Afterward, I felt it had been a significant encounter. I had had an opportuni ty to exhort a brother to keep on going.

One of the reasons we fail in warfare, one of the reasons we do not persist, is lack of courage. We need to hear Jehovah's words to Johsua for our own ears: "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee withersoever thou goest" (Josh. 1:9). They would give us the courage to attack when necessary, and the will to prevail until victory comes.

I WAS AFRAID

Once God was clearly telling me to do a certain thing. But I was afraid. I thought I was just being careful, but I was really a coward at heart.

Once, too, in the Scripture the prophet Samuel called upon a young man to kill Agag, a wicked king. But the youth was afraid. So the prophet took up the sword himself and he hewed Agag into pieces.

I was like that youth. For me, I knew the time had come to hew the" Agag" of my self-life into pieces. I took courage, I obeyed God, and I have no regrets. And I would like to say it again to every weary warrior on the way. Take courage because persistence pays, brothers, persistence pays.

God is the God of the breakthrough. Consistently in the Bible His character is revealed in spectacular breakthroughs. Persistence pays because God really does break through.

Jesus Christ set himself like a flint to go to Jerusalem. He went all the way to the cross. And He ever lives to make intercession for us.

So believe it. Pick up the sword and pass the word.

And do not be surprised when things begin to happen!

Notes