Power Walk Ministries

Guest (Male): We welcome you to the Power Walk Ministries broadcast. We're glad that you've tuned in today. Reverend Paul Cannings continues with the series titled "Endurance for a Time Like This." How can we experience God powerfully through the very circumstances that drain us of our strength? We want to fix our problems, but sometimes God just wants us to wait on Him. Here's Reverend Cannings addressing this very issue in the message titled "Learning to Wait."

Dr. Paul Cannings: When circumstances are out of our control and we can't go in and fix them, then God is calling us to wait on Him. We talked about this yesterday as an introduction to where we're going today, but just a quick reflection. Waiting on God is when He's not really telling us everything we need to know in order to know what is going to happen in the future, and everything around us is outside of our control so we can't run and fix it immediately. So, we're forced to wait, and that's when this big word, "endurance," pops up that He wants for us in the midst of that to endure.

Why is that a big deal? The trying of your faith worketh patience. So God is making us complete, as Paul would talk about in Colossians, because God is not just focused on us being blessed in the city, blessed in the field, blessed when we come and when we go. That's not what God's major focus is. God said we are blessed, but God has a plan to where we're going to arrive in Heaven. When we arrive in Heaven, He wants us to be finished. As Paul would say, "I finished my course. Laid up for me is a crown of righteousness." He wants to get us there finished. So when Christ presents us before the Father, it's a job done.

So when we look at all of these things and we see His plan in everything and that He is seeking to refine us, to purify us as Peter would say, He is seeking to make us the best we can be as we live on this Earth. So no matter what's going on, nothing affects our joy, nothing affects our peace, nothing changes us from being focused. What He gets out of that is a church that is so powerful the world has to reckon with it and deal with it because of its strength and influence to win more people for Christ. Matthew 24, He's able to go to all the world and tell the world about Christ before He comes. He accomplishes His mission on Earth that He will burn up and put a new Heaven and a new Earth on. His commitment is to that process because this is all temporal.

That leads to this word, "wait," because it's outside of our control and the purpose is for those things that I've listed that in waiting and working, He refines us. So what is this word, wait? What is He talking about? Well, the word "wait" is not sitting around looking at the news all day waiting for the antidote to come. That is not the wait He's talking about. What's the point of going to the same wall, beating our heads on the wall, hoping it'll break? We'll break first.

Waiting in the Scriptures literally means that it is an active time. It is a very active time to where I'm being productive in my life, I'm being productive for the glory of God. Abraham still had to deal with all kinds of issues. He had to go rescue Lot. He worked in developing his business. He would constantly deal with all the issues God has brought and walk by faith and not by sight. When you've got Joseph in prison, he became the best jailer.

Waiting is not doing nothing. Waiting is a very productive act of faith where I'm walking by faith. We talked about this faith thing because many people throw this thing "faith" out there like it's some kind of a pie way up in the sky and whoever jumps the highest gets the bigger piece. It's not like that. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. The word of God has put us in a point of waiting. In First Peter Chapter 2, He says, "Hey, when it comes to government, I put them in place to protect you." So when they're speaking, give them respect. He's saying that at the time in Peter where Nero was that crazy person functioning. He was doing crazy stuff to the believers.

Women were going home to husbands who didn't care about no Christ and Jesus in Chapter 3. Later on, he talks about those people who were trying to harm them. That's the kind of world they were in when He talked about it in First Peter as to how they should submit to government and work with government and trust that God has their best interests at heart. So when I'm waiting on when the government is saying you're able to do this, you're able to do that, the Bible is saying, "What am I exercising? Faith." Because the Bible tells me to do it that way, not just grabbing some pie in the sky. It's coming into the word of God. Faith comes by hearing. It's there, but faith goes to work when I put the word of God to work.

In the midst of all of this, how can I still serve Him when I'm dispersed? Even in coming back, am I going to come back scared, or am I going to come back believing that because He says what the word of God is saying about government and what they're looking at and the decisions they're making, how do I come back and be wise so that I'm not just coming back crazy? Because God's got this. No, He's saying now pray for wisdom. That all makes waiting very active. It's not a time that is very passive. It's a very active time of learning from God, being obedient to God and getting involved in church Bible studies.

The church could be a powerful mechanism as a great witness to many people. We could become so creative in still evangelizing the world in the midst of this. I refuse as a pastor to not find ways putting a little verse in there as we give food to people, telling them about our worship services, and encouraging them to hear the word of God and all these different things. So yes, they're getting food, but we're finding a way to witness for the glory of God.

Waiting is not just sitting around. Waiting is how do I apply the word of God in this situation that looks endless, while I am still trusting God to fix the situation when He chooses to fix it for His glory and His honor, to accomplish the purposes that He has? Because all things work together for good to them who love the Lord, who keep obeying Him. It works out to understand waiting.

In the Hebrew text, it's "I'm expecting something to happen." That's really where the word comes from. I'm expecting this to happen. I'm expecting that God is going to do something great, so I am preparing for that moment when God is going to do something great for the glory of God because we want to bless His name. So He says, "but they wait upon the Lord." So at the end of the day, of coming from here to there, I'm waiting for Him to do what He's going to do.

That's why He says it becomes a faith walk. It's a faith walk. Why? Because He is the one doing the refreshing of our strength. We can't find strength without Him. What is strength? Strength is the ability to be able to overcome obstacles and it's the capability that it takes to work my way through it. It's the ability to overcome, meaning I have the wisdom that I need to overcome it. I have the capability, knowing, carrying my way through it, finding strength through my way through it. It is a process of overcoming.

Let me just throw an example out there. Just suppose you're David and you're going out to face the Philistines. You've got your army. You put your army together. You've got all your weapons. It's all laid out. Everything is set and ready to go. Now you have to muster up your strength to get on this horse or donkey and you're now heading out to war. Now you've demonstrated that you have the ability and the capability. The capability means the weapons of war, the 400 mighty men to go take on this army. You have the capability because you have the weapons. You have the ability in the sense that you've trained for war so you know how to knock the other sword down. You know how to knock the arrow when it's about to come into your spear and just cut it off with your sword. You're that quick now. You can move around and learn how to fight the enemy two or three at a time. You're able to do all of this stuff. You could go on a horse and fight while you're on this horse and kill the enemy while you're on this horse. You've shown the ability.

The capability is the weapons you bring to it. The capability is how the army structures itself so that they could face the enemy and be productive, the capability. God is saying strength in this passage is not just the ability, it's the capability. I put on my armor. I know that He who is in me is greater than he who is in the world. So I come to it with ability and capability in order to be able to do what God is saying. That's why He says this strength is the Lord's strength.

Because I'm waiting in how we described waiting, He keeps renewing it because He sees my faith, my commitment to Him to walk with Him, to trust Him, to believe in Him no matter what I'm facing. No matter how many trials Paul went through, Paul would say, "I'm pressing towards the mark. I want to walk in a worthy manner. I want to keep going. It doesn't matter what I face." Peter says, "I'm going to let God refine me like pure gold." When God sees that determination, that pressing and running because the race is set before me and I'm going to keep running it, the Bible says God will watch that.

Because I have the capability and the ability, He will let me mount up with the wings of an eagle. The wind is under it and they're using the currents of the wind to fly. So they're not flapping around all the time. They're just using what is available to them to use the capabilities that they have and the ability they have in order to benefit from the wind, benefit from the wingspan that they have, the capability, the ability to use the wind to go up or down so that they could fly for long periods of time because they're using the wind. He's saying you're not using your own strength to try to get it to work. No, He is saying you use the ability of God, and that ability of God will allow us to run and not be weary, to walk and not faint.

Some days you get up, man, that energy is there and you want to go, and some days all you can do is walk. In this second word we've looked at in enduring in this process and another thing we find in this is a sense that in this process we have to continue to take one step at a time. There's days when you're just taking one step at a time.

That's why I love what Paul would say. There's times you stand and you put on the armor. Ephesians Chapter 6, you stand. There's times you walk. Ephesians Chapter 4, verse 1. And when you do, oh, you walk worthy. In all whatever I do in word or in deed, I do it for the glory of God. And there's times you press. Philippians Chapter 3, verse 12 on, towards the mark of the high calling. I'm pressing. There's so much against me, but I'm going to press. And the time the writer of Hebrews would say in Hebrews Chapter 12, I'm running the race that is set. Run and not be weary, and you shall walk and not faint. Stay focused.

Guest (Male): Thank you, Reverend Cannings. The sufferings of this present time do not compare to what lies in store for us as believers. So let's fix our hearts and minds on Jesus and this hope that awaits us. Now I encourage you to visit us online at PowerWalkMinistries.org to obtain a copy of this series or any of our ministry resources. And now, Pastor Cannings would like to share a brief word with you.

Dr. Paul Cannings: I am so excited about the pastor's conference coming up April the 23rd through the 25th. You cannot miss it. There's going to be such a great group of teachers teaching, well-trained, well-prepared, practice what they're teaching in their local churches. Here are some examples: pastor and deacons functioning under the lordship of Christ, the biblical approach to resolving conflict in the church, traits of successful leaders, effective teaching methods for children, social media, how could you make it very positive for your children, developing their counseling ministry, dealing with mental health issues in the local church, marketing, moving from traditional ministry to bibliocentric ministry, how do you grow the church through evangelism. You cannot miss this conference April the 23rd through the 25th, 2026 at 7350 TC Jester Boulevard right here at Living Word Fellowship Church. I pray you'll go to PowerWalkMinistries.org. PowerWalkMinistries.org. Be a part of this. You will not be disappointed. April the 23rd through the 25th. Look forward to seeing you.

Guest (Male): Again, that's PowerWalkMinistries.org or call 281-260-7402. That's 281-260-7402. Dr. Cannings will pick up on this tomorrow, so please be sure to join us. In the meantime, remember, God continues His refining process in us as believers in the midst of challenges in order to enable us to finish well.