The following was taught and prayed through during our 6 a.m. prayer time with Terry Nyenhuis
1 Tim 2:1-4
Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Excerpt from “Faith Worthy of the Hall of Faith” by Rick Renner
“So much is happening in the world, and this is really a time for all of us to keep our eyes on Jesus and to stay in a place, or position, of faith. Today I want to speak to you about holding on to your faith for whatever you have been praying for and believing to come to pass in your life.
Hebrews 10:23 says, “Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised).”
Dreams are powerful, but they usually seem impossible at first. However, those who dare to do the impossible are the ones who eventually see the impossible come to pass.
There are myriad examples in the Bible of individuals who had a dream. For instance, consider the dream God gave Abraham — called the father of our faith — regarding a new land and a new people. When God first spoke to Abraham about the son He would give him, Abraham and his wife had long been infertile and unable to conceive a child. The thought of having a baby probably seemed like an unattainable fantasy to them. They could have asked themselves, Is this really the plan of God for our lives, or is this a hallucination?
God also promised Abraham a new land but didn’t tell him where it was located. In their efforts to find that land, Abraham and Sarah were stricken with colossal challenges, problematic circumstances, and horrible internal family problems. First, Abraham’s father died. Then they lost their nephew, Lot, to Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham also took Hagar as a second wife, producing a son that didn’t belong to Sarah, along with a great deal of jealousy and strife. In addition, Abraham and Sarah experienced a terrible famine in their promised territory that forced them to leave due to a lack of food.
Traveling to Egypt in search for food, they soon found themselves evicted from that land as well.
At any moment, it would have been so easy for Abraham and Sarah to say, “Enough is enough! Pack it up — we’re going back home to the city of Ur!” But instead of giving in to defeat and discouragement, they held tightly to the dreams God had put in their hearts and kept pursuing those dreams until they had witnessed their fulfillment.
As Hebrews 10:23 says, “Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised).”
Today I want to point out the words “hold fast” in this verse. Abraham and Sarah “held fast” to their dream, and that is what you must do as well. The phrase “hold fast” is taken from the Greek word katecho, which is a compound of the two words kata and echo. The first word, kata, carries the idea of something that comes downward.
You could say the word kata carries the force of something that comes down so hard and so heavily, it is overpowering and dominating to the point of being subjugating. When this force arrives on the scene, it conquers, subdues, and immediately begins expressing its overwhelming, influencing power.
The second part of the word katecho is the word echo, which simply means I have and carries the notion of possession. This is the picture of someone who has sought and searched for one particular thing his entire life. After years of seeking and searching, he finally finds the object of his dreams. Joyfully he rushes forward to seize it and hold it tight. He wraps his arms around that object, making it his very own. Finally, he can say, “I have it! At long last it is mine!”
When kata and echo are compounded into the word katecho, it literally means to embrace something tightly. However, because of the word kata, we know that this is the image of someone who finds the object of his dreams and then holds it down — taking control of it, dominating it — even sitting on it so it doesn’t slip away!
In Hebrews 10:23, this same idea is used positively to describe sitting on your word from God and refusing to let it slip out and get away from you. This is the attitude you must have if you want to see your God-given dream come to pass. You have to wrap your arms around that word from God and never stop believing and pursuing your dream until it comes to pass. If you’ll “katecho” your dream, it won’t be able to get away from you, nor will anyone else be able to take it away from you!
The word katecho in Hebrews 10:23 could be interpreted this way: “And let us hold fast to our confession, tightly wrapping our arms around it and embracing it with all our might, rejecting all attempts of anyone who tries to steal it from us.…”
When you finally discover God’s will for your life — when His plan finally begins to awaken in your heart and you know exactly what you are to do — hold fast to that dream. Tightly embrace what God has shown you. Seize it — wrap your arms of faith around it. Hold it down, and hold it tight!
Whenever you are tempted to become discouraged, give up, and release your dream, remember Abraham and Sarah. Although it took them awhile to receive their dream of having a son — and although they had to overcome titanic hurdles along the way — they refused to let go of that dream, and they eventually saw it come to pass. In the end, they discovered that their dream was not a hallucination; it really was a word from God!
The word “waver” is taken from the Greek word aklines, which conveys the picture of something that does not bend or something that is fixed and unmoving and is therefore stable and enduring.
Interestingly, if you remove the a from the word aklines, you are left with the word klines, which pictures a person who is bowed down. With shoulders sloped and body bent over, this person is so tired that he can barely stand. Ultimately, he becomes so exhausted that he throws in the towel and gives up. In fact, the word klines is the same root in Greek for a couch or a bed. So when a person is klines, his “give-up” attitude causes him to head for the couch or bed where he lies down, stagnates, and wastes away.
Many people give up hope and quit believing because they get tired. The devil whispers in their ears and tells them, This thing you’re believing for isn’t ever going to happen! If it was going to happen, it would have happened by now! This is just a fantasy. You are wasting your time and throwing away precious years of your life. Why don’t you forget it, let it go, and move on with your life?
As long as you are energized by faith, you’ll keep moving in a forward direction. But the day you let loose of your faith and back off your position, it won’t be too long until a spiritual sadness will come over your life. Spiritually speaking, your shoulders will slope; your head will drop; and you’ll feel like someone pulled the plug on your energy level. Your eyes will drift toward the couch or bed, and soon you’ll end up completely going to bed on your faith!
Don’t let that happen to you!
What God promises, He will perform. It may take a while for that promise to come into manifestation, but eventually it will come. In the meantime, you must choose to believe that He will do what He has promised. That is the key! You must set your heart and commit your will, making an irrevocable decision to believe His Word regardless of how you feel, what you think in your natural mind, what others say, or how circumstances look.
It’s time for you to make the decision that you have too much invested to turn back now! Dig in your heels; drive down your stake; and tell the devil that you are not going to move from your position of faith! Aggressively choose to believe that what God has promised, He will always do. Once you’ve made that kind of life-changing decision, it will only be a matter of time before you’re rejoicing because of your manifestation!”
Acts 9:31 AMPC
So the church throughout the whole of Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was edified [growing in wisdom, virtue, and piety] and walking in the respect and reverential fear of the Lord and in the consolation and exhortation of the Holy Spirit, continued to increase and was multiplied.
This is us at Eagles Nest.
We prayed that we would not “let loose” of all the promises God has made to us at Eagles Nest, but “hang on tightly” to the promises until we see the manifestations that are “to all come to pass at last!”
