Power Walk Ministries

Guest (Male): This is the Power Walk Ministries broadcast. Our current series is titled Endurance for a Time Like This. Our teacher, Dr. Paul Cannings, brings us this teaching with a keen desire to help us stand strong and experience an abundant life, even in the midst of what seems like insurmountable problems that we're facing. He urges us to be vigilant and sober and place ourselves under God's mighty hand so that we can endure whatever comes our way. Let's listen now to the message titled Stand.

Dr. Paul Cannings: What do you do when you've done all you can and you don't seem like you can make it through? Oh, the song would say that you stand. That's all you can do. You can't run; you can't press forward at times. There's times all you can do is stand. Folks, as we continue this series of messages on endurance, because sometimes God calls you to it, you don't have a choice. There's times in your life when you've done all you can, and all you can do is stand. That's the call to endurance.

That's the call of Hebrews chapter 12, verse 7, a call to be disciplined. That's what he's talking about in 1 Peter chapter 5 when he says that there's a call to be refined in verses 3 through 11. When those times come in my life, I just know this is my time to trust him, like Peter is talking about that he failed to do. So Peter says I finally get it, and when I got it, this is the temperament, this is the mindset, this is the attitude that I needed to learn at that time.

I'm teaching the people now that he's writing to who are suffering, who's going through pain and difficulty, who are dealing with Nero and all the frustrations he's putting Christians through. Peter is saying, listen, I didn't get what I was going through at the time, but I'm telling you now, this is how you deal with it: the attitude, the mindset, the focus, the commitment you need to have. He says be sober in verse 8. We've dealt with verse 6 and verse 7 in the days past.

In verse 8 he says be sober, be vigilant. Sober means my emotions are everywhere, my mind is everywhere. But when it settles and I now know that yes, Lord, I will go do your job, I will go get it done. I'm sober now. I'm committed to love him now. I'm committed to follow him now. I get it now. I finally get it. He says when we are there and we have now learned to take those emotions and cast it—that's what he says in verse 7. Take all emotions and feelings and stresses and anxieties and uncertainties about life, and each day we just say God, this isn't meant for me, it's meant for you, and throw it on him.

He says cast. He says when you do that, remember he careth. We talked about this: hesed love. I'm never going to turn my back on you. I'm never going to walk away from you because I'm committed to you. So Paul would say in the midst of all he went through, he learned this. He said nothing could separate me from the love of Christ. Nothing—height, or depth, principalities or powers—nothing could separate me because his hesed love is with me.

No matter how ugly things look and like he's not hearing my prayers, I'm not getting the job I thought I was going to have, I'm furloughed, I'm going through all these different things, I know he's never going to turn on me because nothing can separate the love of God from me. He's not going away from me. When I finally get that and I'm there, sober, my emotions are no longer taking me from keeping my eyes fixed, he says you've got to meet that sobriety with vigilance.

In other words, you can't sit around going, "I don't have a job right now." No, you know what? I'm not going to take something less than what I'm qualified for. This is one of the things God taught me when I shared with you my experience when I was out of work for a year. God taught me: be vigilant. And the Bible says work. This is what God called you to. My first call wasn't to ministry. My first call wasn't to have that great job. My first call wasn't to have that great position. My first call was to my family.

He says, "Okay Paul, you've got to humble yourself," verse 6. Come under the mighty hand of God. Trust that this mighty hand is working on you, disciplining you, taking out these kinks out of you and settling you straight. Let this mighty hand discipline you and work you. I had to learn in that process of working all these little odds and ends jobs that I would take because people say you're too qualified for this, you're too qualified for that. I had to keep being vigilant. Whatever the things that came down to the last thing that blew up in my face, he still said be vigilant.

Meet your sobriety with vigilance. What I learned in that is that it kept me focused. It kept me off of me. It kept me off of my pain. It kept me focused on the things that mattered the most. I must walk through these doors of my house and I must be what I need to be for my wife and for my kids because this is what God called me to. Peter had to learn the same thing. "They beat me, put me in prison, but I'm going back out here. I'm not turning my back on God anymore. I'm going back out here, I'm going to go to the same spot, and I'm going to preach just like I preached right after Pentecost, right in the midst of Pentecost. I'm going right back to that spot and I'm going to preach again."

There's no way they can stop me from being vigilant. Now he has to come and say, "Peter, do you love me? Are you going to get sober again in that you're committed to do what I say?" To love me is to keep my commandments. Are you going to keep being there? Now you're being there. Okay, Peter, go preach. Christ says vigilance, sober vigilance. He said that's how we start the race of endurance. We have to meet it with sobriety and with vigilance. He says when we do that, Satan gets more roaring.

He does. That's what he's saying here. He says because your adversary the devil is a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may—not bite, but devour. Not bite, devour. Take us out emotionally, take us out mentally. "God, I've been trying to trust God, look where I'm at now. I've been giving to the church and serving in the church, look where I'm at now. What has that done for me? Look at where I'm at." Spiritually, takes us out, the way we sometimes turn our backs on God. I've seen people just turn their back on God, question their Christianity, question their commitment to Christ, question whether or not God exists because Satan devoured them.

When they came through their trial they were fired up, but this endurance race must have its finished work. James chapter 1, verses 2 through 4 says it must have its complete work. So it may take a while. For Joseph, 12 years; David, 12 years; Paul, 14 years before he could ever be fully into ministry. 14 years. 14 years God took to refine him, to move him from law to grace. 14 years in Tarsus teaching and preaching and confined to that because people were afraid of him. He had to deal with all of that. Ministry was rough.

Understand, he didn't make it easy. Have you ever noticed when Christ was on earth, the intensity of the devil during that time compared to the Old Testament? Ever see how he intensified himself as Christ became more and more committed to be about his Father's business? So folks, when you get into this race and you're committed to this journey that could take a while—I can't promise you the time. All I can tell you is your job is to stay in the race and to thank God for today.

When you make it through the day, thank him for today because he says tomorrow will take care of itself. Have great plans, great focus, all the things you want to do, but don't let your cares go to tomorrow because you're sinning. Don't go there. When you cast it, it's about where you're at now. Tomorrow will take care of itself, he says. Don't focus on tomorrow. Luke chapter 12, verse 22 on, "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; I'll provide for your needs according to my riches in glory."

So yes, you have plans, yes, you have a strategy, yes, you're looking for this, yes, you've got your resume all put together, yes, you've got a hunter, yes, you've got all these things, yes, you're planning. But he says don't stress about tomorrow. That's how Satan can devour you. He can devour you to where God doesn't matter anymore. He couldn't devour Paul, but the intensity of Satan against him increased, came against him because Satan wants to stop the work. Paul would say that many times. "I've seen doors open, I've seen doors closed. I know the schemes of Satan. So what he got? We're going to keep going this way no matter what's taking place."

When you get excited and you're all fired up, please remember that many times when you're there, the intensity of Satan shows up. He shows up in different ways. You get slandered. Satan is a thief; Satan is a liar. So the slandering will take place. All the things that describe the nature of Satan will come out. And when you see it, you say, "Okay, intensity is coming from Satan." The Bible says I don't struggle with flesh and blood, so it's not this person, not that person, it's not that person, it's Satan.

So when I see the nature of Satan functioning, I say, "Okay, I'm not struggling with flesh and blood; I'm struggling with principalities and power." So I'm in a bigger fight. And since I'm committed to humble myself, since I'm committed to cast my cares, since I'm committed that God cared for me and will never turn his back on me, I just got to stay in this journey and keep running this race because I've got a cloud of witnesses that are cheering me on. I'm going to finish this race because he didn't just say I run the race; he says I'm the author and I've already finished this. I just need you to be on the track.

So no matter what's taking place, I'm running. There's times when I just stand. Paul would say sometimes you've got to press because God's word is telling you you've got to work forward today. You've got to get this done today. You've got to be vigilant in going in this direction today. So Paul said there's times I press towards the mark. The writer of Hebrews would say there's times you run. There's times you stand. There's times you walk, Paul would say, because all you're doing is saying I've got to stay close to the text.

God's Bible has given me everything I need for life and godliness. I'm going to keep doing what God says. But right now, the best I could do is just make one step forward every moment this day because there's just way too much on my plate. I'm going to do one thing at a time, one thing at a time. Not ten, because today, that's all the strength I have is to take one step forward. I can't run. But the Bible says it comes a time when no matter what I'm going through, I know God has got it and I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. So guess what? I can run. I can run because the track has already been mapped out. It's just a matter of me staying in the race and running what is set before me.

So folks, when everything seems to go wrong and the race that God has called you to is the race of endurance, don't back down. I remember in the early parts of our school, my wife called me and says, "To tell the truth, we don't have money but for today." I said, "Really? Wow, this is great!" She said, "Paul, you're not listening." I said, "No, no, no, I'm coming over. I'm coming over to your office." I walk into the office and say, "God, I thank you! We have money for today! I praise your name, you've taken us through today." I mean, I could just sense the whole staff, the room is quiet, like this man is crazy.

And I kept saying, "Thank you, God, thank you, God. You will take care of tomorrow. Give us wisdom, give us knowledge. But Lord, that's all we could do today is just one step forward. Give us ideas to do the next step. But you've blessed us today. Hallelujah!" Folks, he doesn't promise us a rose garden, but he definitely promised that he will always be the gardener that prunes us. So we need to stay focused. God bless you.

Guest (Male): That's a great illustration. The fisherman's net being cast, just as we are supposed to literally cast all our cares upon him. We hold tightly to our worries and fears, but God really wants us to lean on him. Now to obtain a copy of this message for yourself or for a loved one, please give us a call at 281-260-7402. Again, that's 281-260-7402. You can also visit us online for all of our ministry resources at powerwalkministries.org. Now Dr. 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's 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 a 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. Be a part of this. You will not be disappointed. April the 23rd through the 25th. Look forward to seeing you.

Guest (Male): Be sure to join us again tomorrow for a continuation of this series Endurance for a Time Like This. And now remember, the enemy aims for nothing more than to take us out emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. But Jesus Christ is the author and finisher of our faith. So let's trust in him no matter what obstacles we face in the race.