persistent and repetitive faith

Luke chapter 11. Let's go to the Gospel according to Saint Luke, chapter 11, verses 5 to 10. And in these days that we are talking about the subject, what? Of faith. The theme of faith. This year is a year in which we will be continually meditating on issues and considerations that guide us towards faith, to live lives of faith. Lives of authority in the Lord. Lives that reflect the use of the resources of the spirit. The use of the truths of the word of God. That is a life of faith, a life that can provision itself, take advantage of... grab hold of the instruments that God has given in his word because it believes that they are true, that they are useful, that they are reliable, that they are real and that they are for this time, which are for me and for you. That is faith.

Faith is the attitude, the posture... that allows us to connect with the resources of the kingdom of heaven. With the truths of the Kingdom of Heaven. That openness to what God has declared and that simplicity of heart that allows us to believe that if God said it, that if the Word of God says it, it is real and that I can go to the bank with it. Amen. That is faith. It is an attitude of receptivity to the promises and declarations of God.

And one of those elements... I have spoken up to here, for example, about, that in these three characters, the paralyzed man and his friends, Bartimaeus, the woman with the issue of blood, we have talked about what he said … that faith that is daring, that faith that proceeds forcibly like the Kingdom of Heaven, that faith that can be sometimes violent and sometimes even a little rude and like it imposes itself on things. That faith that admits no barriers, that faith that does not obey fear, that faith that is not intimidated because the undertaking seems improbable, uncertain and even impossible. That faith that doesn't let obstacles, no matter how big, keep us from going after our goals because we believe that God is powerful to level the mountains behind us.

And these characters exemplify that kind of stance. We have also spoken, in passing, about King Jehoshaphat and his battle and precious message –two messages– that I know will bless your life a lot, are there on the Internet. Many people have written about those passages, those sermons. Before that, we begin with the passage of Mary. How will this be? Faith always asks, how will it be possible for this miracle to be done? God says that it will be done, God says… God has called me. I feel in my life one, a vision that I want to realize. How… how will it be? What is God going to do to make that possible? It may seem impossible to us but God always has a solution and God's solutions are always simple but powerful.

And now, I want to go into another very important aspect of faith and listen to this, please. Faith is... we've already talked about that a little bit but I want now to isolate that point. Faith is persistent, faith is persistent. Say with me: Persistence. "Persistence." What does the word persistence mean? It means staying on target, it means insisting. It is sister or friend of the word insistence-persistence. There was the word also repeat. It's repetitive. Faith is a machine gun that is firing, firing until it hits its target. It's a mechanical hammer and it's hitting, hitting, hitting until it drives the nail into the hard surface.

Faith is that stream of water that gradually licks a surface with many taunts and laziness, and over time that little bit of water that seems to do nothing wears away a surface and makes it smooth. Because it is persistent through years and years and years, little by little, one... two or three atoms here, two or three grains there, it peels away a surface until it is left smooth because it is persistent, he insists. I could call this sermon the same way, faith insists, faith is persistent, faith continues to insist until it achieves what it proposes and I am also going to use, these days I also want to talk a little about prayer. In other words, you are actually going to have two topics within the great topic of faith, which is persistence and also prayer. Because prayer is, brothers, the vehicle that God uses to lower his power.

Faith connects with prayer. I would say that faith... or prayer is faith in expression. Prayer is faith expressing itself, okay? So, these two themes of prayer and persistence are going to be here these days circulating in my comments and that is why, for example, the passage from Luke 11 is a very appropriate passage, verse 5. 11, 5. You are going to see there this parable of Jesus of the friend at midnight. The friend at midnight.

And, then, the Lord offers a parable to his listeners and tells them, “I also tell them, which of you who has a friend goes to him at midnight and says, 'friend, lend me three loaves because a friend of mine has come to me on a journey and I have nothing to put in front of him'. And the one responding from inside tells him, 'don't bother me, the door is already closed and my children are in bed with me, I can't get up and give them to you.'” And this is where the element of persistence comes in. He says, “I tell you , that although he does not get up to give them to him because he is his friend, however, -" why? "Because of his importunity..." "Because of his importunity he will get up and give him everything he needs."

Here the word importunity, in the context of this passage, indicates that... it is that insistence. I'm not going to leave, until you attend to me. And if you don't get up, well, you're not going to sleep today. So you better get up and give me what I need so you can go back to your bed and sleep the rest of your night easy, right? How interesting!

Many of the characters that we see in the writing have that quality of persistence and also of impoliteness, which is why I tell you that this is like a continuation of the themes that we have discussed up to here, but with a slightly different twist and it is Like this rudeness that insists, insists, insists until it finally achieves its goals. And that is a very powerful principle, brothers and sisters, of the Christian life and of the life of faith. Let me tell you, I'm not talking about little birds in the air or pretty things, this is something very powerful for our spiritual life.

If you want to be a man, a woman of victory in the Christian life, persist. Even in relation to your prayers and your requests before God. And that was what the Lord wanted to isolate here, and then He says, "because of your importunity he will rise up and give you whatever you need." And so here comes the conclusion, why does the Lord say I am offering you this parable? And what can you take from this parable? Well, "and I say to you, ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you..." Notice the dynamic image here. "Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you..." And how one sees people asking, from different parts and asking.

He sees one touching there so that it opens and he sees another looking like the woman in the parable, right? Until he found the coin he had lost. I see when the Lord says, ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you… I see people insisting on that action. The Lord wanted to project an image of dynamism, of insistence, of continuity in action. And, then he says, "because everyone who asks receives and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened." May the Lord bless his Holy Word.

But you know what? Let's go to another passage. I feel like it's… driving the nail home, so you see this was not an isolated teaching from Jesus Christ even though there are so many lessons throughout scripture that tell us the same thing about persistence. Look at chapter 18 of the Gospel according to Saint Luke, beginning with verse 1. This was not an isolated idea in the mind of Jesus, but it was, He who knew the heart of the Father, He who knew the mysteries of the life in the spirit. He who knew like no other person how to get to the heart of God and get what it takes. If he is God Himself, He had to know how one gets things from God. So if He is giving us, brethren, a teaching like this, wouldn't we do well to hold on to it and put it into practice and isolate it in our minds and bookmark it? Do as a check and underline this truth.

Look here, chapter 18, verse 1, Luke. "Also, Jesus told them a parable…” About what? “…the need to pray always,” And, what else? “…do not faint.” Do you see here, again, the relationship between prayer and persistence? "On the need to always pray and not faint." Do you remember what the Apostle Paul says, pray how? Without ceasing, pray without ceasing. Okay, here he says the need to pray always and not faint. And then, He says, a… story in a parable: "Once upon a time a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. There was also in that city a widow who came to Him..." See, 'she came to Him' that is the imperfect in grammar, that is, she insistently came over and over again, It does not say it came to Him, which is the past perfect state, no. It came. It has not been fulfilled, that is why it says the imperfect because it is not completely realized.

He came saying, "Give me justice for my adversary..." As you know, a widow... every day, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday... at 9 in the morning she was at the door of the court. And every day I told the judge, you have not listened to my cause, you have not wanted to hear my case, you have not done me justice and the judge there with his briefcase under his arm continued inside, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday... Three weeks, four weeks go by and the woman is always there. And every time he sees the blessed woman in the morning he turns sour all day, the judge's day is ruined, this one. No? And, then it says here, and "he did not want to then for some time, but after this he said within himself, although I neither fear God nor have respect for men, however, because this widow annoys me..." In other words, so that he leaves me alone, so that he doesn't bother me anymore, "... I will do him justice, lest coming continually exhaust my patience."

Again in my idea, this woman by her insistence, by persistence reached her goal. She overcame the obstacle, she overcame a reluctant heart that did not want to attend to her and we are going to talk about that in a moment. And the Lord said, hear what the unjust judge said. But here is the punch line, here is the key: "... and perhaps God will not do justice to his chosen ones who cry out to Him..." how? Day and night. Well, not that they cry out to Him one day and lie down to sleep and forget what they said forever and they got tired because they didn't receive it immediately. “…who cry out day and night, will it take time to answer them? I tell you that he will soon do them justice.”

Now a question there, when the son of man comes will he find faith on earth? One of the most terrible questions that I believe the Lord Jesus Christ asked. The truth is that many of us hear these things, but I assure you that some of us will forget. I shouldn't even say that because I'm prophesying negative. In the name of the Lord, we are not going to forget and we are going to get out of here blessed and we are going to get out of here... But, the Lord understood how difficult it is many times for people to receive these truths, apply them in their lives, how easy it is people get discouraged, how slow we are to put into practice the truths of the Spirit. And the Lord wondered, wow! It is that the truth, when I return, will there be people that… that apply these truths?

Brethren, again, there you have two passages that speak to us precisely about this aspect of persistence. And look at both places, going back to the 11th chapter of Luke. Where this friend arrives at midnight, where his friend, we see here several elements that remind us of ourselves. The first thing I see in this passage is this man with a very strong need and it would seem almost unimportant, but for him it had a profound importance. We have to… the Lord was a master at taking themes from the culture in which He was managing, from the time that He was managing and using it to illustrate timeless truths that still speak to us today.

One has to go back to the Middle Eastern culture in the first century when the Lord is speaking to understand how what He was saying was perfectly understandable and they could relate to the plight this man found himself in. Its state of necessity was very strong because firstly in those times of the first century there were no communications as there are today. There was no Internet, there was no telephone, there were no cell phones... there was not even a telegraph, you simply knew that a relative was coming because someone came three months ago from the village where he lives and told you that his relative told him that he was going to go a day to visit him there at his house. He left when you were little, they broke up and you haven't seen each other for 10, 15 years and he says he wants to come see him. But you don't know when he's going to arrive because he lives over there on another mountain far away and there isn't very good transportation, there isn't…

And people live there that way, right? When they can, they do things. And one day less expected, it's 12 at night, you've already gone to bed, you blew out the candle and you're just fine, there you're falling asleep, and boom boom boom a loud knock on the door and there comes your cousin with the wife and the seven children and with the servant too, and the two mules that they hired to bring all the things and they come to stay a few days and, what happens? It is precisely the day that you do not have a teaspoon of coffee in the pantry, you do not have sugar, there is nothing in the pantry. You forgot to do the shopping or things are a little tight.

And you feel the… invite the friend into the house, or the family member, you feel them, they start talking about things and you are thinking while I am talking and you are smiling, where am I going to give coffee to these people who come from so far? Even if it's a little orange juice or something so they can sleep peacefully while I fix the situation tomorrow. And finally it occurs to you, you know what? So-and-so next door, my neighbor, I'm sure he has coffee or I'm sure he has a can of frozen juice there, Minute Maid brand and there... I'm going to borrow it until tomorrow so I can go to the supermarket and buy something, right? So, look at that, for me that moment of fragility for this man, that moment when he doesn't want to be embarrassed, when he doesn't want to put those poor people to bed just like he came and he doesn't want to tell him, 'look, the truth is that I don't I have nothing to offer.'

How sad is that? And I know that sometimes one suffers more for little things than for big things. And there was the matter of honor, so important in Middle Eastern cultures, of the mixed hospitality of seeing people when they come home and offering your coverage and all these kinds of things. The truth is that it seems something simple but it is a bind and it is something taken from daily life, that the people who were listening at that time can identify with it. And I think, brothers, that many times this man in his extreme need, in his fragility, is an image of you and me in life. That we have moments of fragility, of need, we are people of the contingency, we do not know when a moment of need will arrive and sometimes we find ourselves in trouble, we find ourselves in need. And we don't have the resources with us, we don't have how to solve the problem.

And that to me is the essence of prayer. When you recognize and know that you do not have the resources you need to resolve a situation and you recognize your fragility and know that you are going to have to go to someone who has what you need and that someone is called God, his name is Jesus Christ, it is called the kingdom of heaven. And you recognize your fragility. Brothers, I believe that the origin of all prayer is a man, a woman who says, you know what? I don't have what I need for this situation and I have to go to my Heavenly Father and I have to humble myself and I have to admit that I need Him.

As long as one is confident in himself, full of his own resources, sure that I can get out of this, I can solve it or I can go to a doctor or I can go to someone who lends me money... or I can use that technique that I used it last time.... While one tries to seek help on the human level only, one is looking where one truly does not have to go. First of all, I believe that prayer is born from a man, a woman who has recognized weakness, has recognized insufficiency.

I have been studying a lot the Jehoshaphat passage, the life of Jehoshaphat, and one of the themes that we saw a while ago when we talked about Jehoshaphat when he found himself in terrible need of this army that was coming to Judah, to destroy Judah and to remain with his land and Jehoshaphat made a prayer. And there are some words of his that sort of summarize what prayer is and what prayer posture is, and it's in the verse—you don't have to look it up, in verse 12 of chapter 20, Second Chronicles, “and Jehoshaphat already after describing his need before God and praying to Him and crying out before a national audience, said, 'O our God, won't you judge us?" Referring to that multitude that comes against them, "…for in us there is no strength…” Hear that. "…because in us there is no strength against so great a multitude that comes against us." There is the root of all powerful prayer before God, it is to recognize that in me there is no strength, and in me there is a great need.

He says, “…we don't know what to do and we turn our eyes to you.” “…we don't know what to do and we turn our eyes to you.” That, brothers, is the essence. If you ask me, what is prayer? There is. I would tell him that word of… King Jehoshaphat, “we do not know what to do and we turn our eyes to you.” Prayer is when a person does not know what to do, turns his eyes to God and asks the Lord for an answer. The psalmist asks, “I will lift up my eyes to the mountains, where will my help come from? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth." So remember that brother, you and I always depend on God. And we have to cultivate a sense of fragility. I believe that when one cultivates that sense of fragility one will always be praying to the Lord. I don't know about you, but I have to pray to the Lord dozens of times a day and I don't do long prayers, but I believe that sometimes, when I'm driving, people will think I'm crazy. I'm always telling you things, Lord... and sometimes I have to hide, if I look and there's a car very close to mine so that... they don't think I'm crazy.

Because one is always speaking to the Lord, one is always conversing, sometimes a prayer, two sentences... uh, two sentences, three thoughts, you are washing the dishes and you pray to the Lord, you are talking on the computer with something and suddenly remember something and cry out to the Lord. You get up in the morning and have your time to seek God, because you are always aware of what you need. Every day more in life I recognize that I am more fragile and I am more in need of God's mercy and intervention in my life. Every day I cultivate more deliberately, that sense of absolute dependence and fragility before God. As time goes by, instead of feeling stronger and more confident in myself, it's the opposite, I feel weaker, more adrift and more in need of God's grace. But, you know one thing, how interesting, that when I am weak then I am strong, says the Apostle Paul.

The man, the woman of God, when he cultivates weakness in God, becomes stronger than... because then he empties himself of all sense of self-sufficiency and it is in that empty vessel, God can pour his oil. How did Elisha tell the widow? Find yourself many empty vessels. And when she looked for all the vessels she could, empty, because if they had been full, what happens? God couldn't have filled them with oil, could He?

So, we have to empty ourselves of all sense of self-sufficiency and when we get to that point where, look, for anything you know you need God. For any task in your life, any errand, any financial situation, your family, your health, your emotional state, a difficult conversation that you have to have with someone, the work day that awaits you... Go outside , how many know that it is a very great test many times. I don't know, you don't know what you expect on that street. What risks one can take, what things can happen. And at all times one is like that man, fragile, in need of something. And that is good, that we understand that, that we have to come before God, over and over and over again. That's why the word talks about it, isn't it? Pray always and not faint.

The idea that Paul says, to pray without ceasing... is not saying that we are 24 hours a day, 60 seconds a minute: praying, praying, praying. No, it's like the idea is that you always move in an atmosphere of prayer. You are always presenting to the Lord, repeatedly, insistently your requests. First of all, this idea of persisting means that prayer is an ongoing part of your life. Prayer is what you continuously breathe, prayer is what comes out of you from the time you get up in the morning until you go to bed. It is a continuous talking with God, a continuous repeating to the Lord, persisting before the Lord about: I need you, Father. You are my helper, You are my strength, without You I cannot. In this situation I need you. This work problem, this financial crisis, this fragility in which I find myself in my emotional life, with my children, my wife, whatever, Lord, I remind you of my cause.

And one is, like this, as one learns to breathe. How many times do you breathe a day? Thousands of times, and you don't even realize it anymore, because your autonomous system has taken control of that task. You know what? I say that something like this must happen, that even at night we are praying to the Lord, even when we are asleep. How many times do you wake up like this, do you have a moment of awareness at night? No. It can be a few minutes, sometimes we don't know how long… Do you know what? A good time, take advantage and shoot three or four prayers to the holy spirit. Instead of being there hanging around and sweating the hell out, with the anxiety that gets to one. Hey!

Take the opportunity to give three stones to the devil there, with three or four well-given prayers. No? And you will see how you, you don't even realize it, uff!, go back to sleep again. When he comes to see, he missed the time to wake up more. Because you will keep in perfect peace the one whose thought of you… what? Persevere. Amen.

You will keep in perfect peace the one whose thought in you perseveres. Hey, and to persevere means, what? Stay stuck. A person perseveres, when? It sticks to a task and doesn't let go until it's completed, right? So many times, brother, to keep peace in our hearts we have to persevere in God. We've got to move that wayward animal and grab it by the rope and get it back on the path of prayer; because, if not, the mind begins to wander, to worry, to be filled with anxiety and everything, no, well. Get back on the road again, you have to get in, cry out to the Lord, seek his face, ask Him. We have to, from that sense of need for God that we cultivate, we pass to a life of persistent prayer. A continuous coming before God, making prayer your daily bread, our continuous habit.

Because? Because we are fragile. Now when this man knows he's in a tight spot, he goes where he knows he has what he needs. That is a very important thing because first there is the tremendously needy human being. But there is a God who has what you need. He has the resources. God has what you need. This man knew that where his friend had coffee, there was sugar, there was bread, there was even a little butter. And he goes to his friend. How important it is that we know God! How important that we know that God has what I need! This man had to have been at this friend's house. This man had to know enough about his financial state to know that this friend had what he needed.

Know what? That is why it is so important, brothers, that we do not wait for the crises in our lives to come in order to have contact with God. I encourage you to make your life a life of continuous and deep knowledge of God so that you know what God has and so that you know what God is willing to do for you; and so that you know how to approach God; and so that you know how to get from God what you need for your life. Amen.

That is very important, that we know the heart of God, that we know these rules of the spirit like the ones the Lord is saying here. If you persist, if you insist, if you persevere, if you repeat before God... God will respond to your need. There you have an insight, a teaching, an intuition into the character and resources of heaven. And that's why it's so important that we study the Bible, that we have dealings with God through prayer, that we attend church, that we take discipleship classes. Let's not waste opportunities to study about the secrets of the manufacturer's manual that is the word of God.

Because when you know the heart of God, you will know. When the needs come you won't have to ask, and now where am I going? Your heart will go directly, I will go to my Father, as the prodigal son said, right? When he saw that everyone abandoned him, “ah wait, I'll go to my father because he has what I need. How many laborers in my father's house eat everything they want and I here eating carob. What's that? I'm flying to my dad, I'm going to ask him for what I need.” So when you know the heart of God, when you have dealt with God, you will instinctively know where to go.

You know what, a soldier has to repeat the same actions so much that when the time comes for war and panic and run-run and the enemy is shooting bullets, and they are whistling through his head, the soldier has practiced so much the same actions that you already do by nature. For once he knows if he has to throw himself to the ground or if he has to shoot, how to do it. Or if the gun jammed, how to quickly disarm it and reassemble it, because you have already repeated, repeated, repeated something so much that it is already second nature, the reaction is instinctive. And I believe that this is how our life has to be, we have to... in times of peace and tranquility is when we continually read the word of the Lord, when one keeps fit, when one is continually seeking God, and one has persistent dealings with God and one has repeated the same actions, over and over and over again.

One has read the same verses. Why can I quote: "you will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is stayed on you"? Because I have recited that verse more than 450, 500, 600 times throughout my life. Why can I say, " Be anxious for nothing, but let your requests be made known before God with thanksgiving, and the peace of God that passes all understanding will guard your minds and hearts in Christ our Jesus." Why can I repeat that? Because I I have said it about 700 times throughout my life, to remind myself: Roberto Miranda, instead of worrying and instead of screaming in panic when the enemy comes, look up to God, pray to the Lord, cry out to He.

And that has already become part of my life and part of my heart, it's inside my veins, it's running through my pores, and I don't need someone to come tell me, Roberto... No, no, that's inside there, I have repeated it, I have said it so much. That is why it is so important, brothers, that we repeat the word of God. If we are going to talk about persistence, persist in understanding the word of God. He persists in repeating those verses. Persist in knowing the Bible. They persist in practicing prayer even briefly because when the time comes for the test, your super-ego, your brain is not going to be able to act as you want and it has to be an instinctive thing. It has to be a shot that comes from the depths of your heart because it is already part of your life, you have continuously trained in it.

And it is important that we, thus, in times of peace, cultivate power for times of war. Don't be a crisis Christian, don't be a trial Christian, don't... don't go to God only in those isolated moments when you need it. Go to the Lord all the days of your life. Brothers, I believe in preventative faith. I believe in pro-active Christian living, storing up there in your pile, in your storage store, in your warehouse for when the day of trial comes. We have to be like José, when the days of the fat cows, brother, put in wheat, put in flour, put in vegetables and dry or freeze them, can whatever. In times of blessing and prosperity, pray to the Lord, cry out to God, serve God. Give to God. Seek the Lord. Read the word. Store up so that when the lean times come you can go to your store and get… get the blessing for your life.

That is why we have to be Christians who are continually repeating the same actions, preparing ourselves, training ourselves, every Sunday. I think there is no shame in saying I need to go to church. In the last case you can say, I can in my house; but you know what? That there is something beautiful when you come to the house of the Lord, something that strengthens you to see your brothers. You kind of get encouraged, gain strength in seeing each other, knowing that you are part of a family, you are part of an army. We are all in the same thing, we are all advancing towards Canaan, Glory to God. Until Pentecostal I turned a little while ago.

We are moving forward and we have to... these things have to be repeated continuously. How many times do you eat a day? More than you need, many times. How many times do you bathe? I hope once a day at least. We are constantly repeating things, and you know what? Likewise, I need to continually repeat certain things in my life to maintain myself and I have to be like a soldier, disciplined, practicing the same disciplines... Why is it called spiritual disciplines? Spiritual disciplines refers to fasting, prayer, reading the word, serving the Lord, the communion of saints, are what have been called through the centuries: spiritual disciplines. Because? Because you have to do it whether you want to or not. Whether you like it or not, you have to do it at any time so that your life is forged and the temper of a warrior, a warrior of God, is made.

And, you, by the time the trial comes, you'd better be like this man who knew exactly where there was food, and how to go to that person. The last element that is here is very important and it is the following: We have talked about the inherent fragility, and we have to cultivate it, we have to recognize it. Number two, we have to know where the resources are. God, He is our provider, our helper, and knowing how to cultivate a life that allows us to go in times of need. But there's a third thing, and guess what? It is the following, we have a God who wants to respond and who invites us to come to Him.

Here's something interesting, mind you. In the two cases of the unjust judge and the unwilling friend, we could also call this parable the unwilling friend. In both parables, the people who have the answer don't want to help the next person, do they? They are resistant; And what overcomes the insistence of the needy? Well, what the Lord was saying here is even more important, and that is, you know? that the difference between God and these characters is that God does want to help. God does want to respond to your need. God's heart is willing but many times, brothers, you know what? For some mystery, when God tells us, come to me. Pray, look for me, ask me; sometimes we have to keep asking too.

And at some point I'm going to keep talking about that too. Why is persistence so necessary in the Christian life? If God wants to bless me, why do I have to continually ask? And there comes some of the interplay between the natural and the supernatural. But I can tell you something, that there are many reasons why we have to cultivate asking God persistently. Although God wants and desires, and invites us, we have to persist, we have to keep asking the Lord. Look, if you have asked the Lord for something and you have not received it, ask him again. I have learned that even though I know that God loves me and that God is generous and wants to bless me, I can't take just that; which is the spiritual, God wanting me to learn certain things, it is not the appropriate time, I have to learn certain lessons, before many reasons.

And I can't try to second guess, I don't want to try to guess what is in the heart of God. All I know is that the Bible from Genesis to Revelation says that God honors those who persist in their requests. And that I have to do the same, if you want to receive, look, gird your loins, tighten your belt well and pray until you prevail, pray until you receive. Come before God, God wants to give it to you, God wants to respond to your need but sometimes God artificially resists a little to get out of you that cry, that cry that is what is needed for the prayer answers to come.

And sometimes that cry must be cultivated, that cry must be kneaded there. That cry must be warmed up, sentence by sentence. Day by day, until one day you will see that your cry comes out with certainty and you know that that day you hit the target and God received your prayer. And that day you can now, look, go to the bank because the money will be there. You can go back home and know that this… that son who was turned into a demon, God has already healed him and the blessing for his life and the change has already begun. Because God loves and God honors the person who persists.

That is the lesson of this passage, brothers, pray until you receive. Persist in your prayer. Keep insisting before the Lord. Live a life of repetition of the truths of Bible study, of cultivating the character of the believer. Be a man, a woman of God who persists until you reach the goal. Amen.

May God raise that spirit in us. Let's stand up. Glory to the Lord. Glory to God and again, brothers, very clear in this practice of faith, God says: persist. In this practice of faith, God says: cultivate. Persistence, don't let yourself... don't let yourself be intimidated because you didn't receive it the first time. Don't be discouraged because you've had to pray a few times. And you still haven't received what you asked for. I beg you in the name of the Lord, make a pact with God today, that you will stay on your goal. You're not going to take no for an answer. You are going to be like Jacob who wrestled with the angel and said, I will not let you go until you bless me.

And you know what? God instead of feeling insulted is going to say, wow! This little boy seems to be learning some things about words. I am going to bless him, I am going to give him his request. Brothers, how many want to be people of persistence, Amen. How many want to be people of faith? In the name of Jesus we will ask, just as Father help us. Amen, amen.

Keep that in your heart right now. Put a mark there, there. Persistence. Right now in your spirit, right now, say: Lord, I receive this teaching from my pastor, I receive this teaching that comes from your holy spirit and I promise you, Father, I am going to be a man, I am going to be an insistent woman , I am going to learn to practice what a life of faith is. I go every day to repeat my prayer. And, Father, that prayer that I discontinued, you know what? Now I'm going to present it to you again, until you answer me. Because I love you and because I know that you are faithful. And because I know that you who call, you answer. You who invite, you do not disappoint. You who open the door, don't close it in our faces. You who promised, will be faithful to fulfill it. Amen. Glory to the Lord. Thank you, Father, thank you. In the name of Jesus, by that word, Father. Our prayers that we have presented before you. The expectations that you have placed in us, Lord, we declare that we will see them, we will see them, we will see them fulfilled for the glory of your name. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Glory to the name of the Lord, Amen.

Sermon by Dr. Roberto Miranda recorded March 29, 2009 in Congregación León de Judá

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