One Thing No One Ever Said About Endurance Was That It Was Easy. No One Has Ever Been Born A Master Of Endurance.
IQ: I beg and plead with you to pray and pray again, so that I can use your prayers to work miracles. This is how I have designed the occurrence of miracles—they will not happen unless My children ask for them. (ML 3447 (PDF):139)
Art Of War Part 2 (PDF)—Small Decisions
Sometimes small decisions wind up losing you battles—and certainly if you keep making the wrong decisions consistently, you will wind up losing. But usually if you make one wrong decision you can get up and try again, recover from your wound, and reclaim the territory you’ve lost. It’s a bit harder, it costs more, and you want to avoid having to go through that cycle if at all possible. But the war isn’t lost by any means. That’s what I’m talking about here. It’s not the end of the world when you surrender a skirmish or a battle or make a wrong decision. But it’s certainly something to avoid—and that’s the point of the message, to hold on longer, to persevere more consistently, to fight for victory harder than last time.
MB—Jesus speaking in prophecy: Art of War 2 was delivered to the Family in 2005, and back then lots of climbers took the first part of that paragraph a little too seriously. They thought I was offering some slack in the rope so they could move a little to the left or to the right, or even down the slope a little, back to that small shelf they had passed on their way up. Well, they made one of those wrong little decisions by thinking that. I offered slack so that everyone could climb higher. Human nature being what it is, many left the mountain in their hearts that day.
I have to give slack; otherwise, you won’t be able to move. Giving slack is like taking the rules away so that you can stretch those faith muscles and test your climbing ability. The rope was still there. The rules were still there. But what I wanted to see was what My climbers would do by letting the rope out a bit to give everyone some leg room. You’ve done a blog on this concept called “Floating Your Faith.”
Well, 2005 is long gone, and so are all those climbers who thought the rules meant freedom to do whatever they felt led to do. Twenty-one years have passed, and we are still climbing—up, up, up we go. Some of you sitting here in class were born on this mountain. Being born on a mountain doesn’t automatically make a mountain climber out of you.
MB: “Oh really? Then from whence cometh these mountain boots?”
Prophecy continues: You look at these husky old-timers that climb beside you and think, “I can never be like them. They’ve had years of experience. What chance have I of making it up this slope?” Well, believe it or not, I’ve levelled the playing field, and you have just as much chance of making the summit as they do.
When you are old
You’ve got your youth, and that youthful enthusiasm can get you out of a tight spot if you use it just when I show you to. But what truly levels the playing field is the Word I’ve given you. I’ve given you all you need to get that Light to the summit and across the line. You are climbing beside experienced mountaineers—that’s true. They don’t have their youth any more, so they have to rely on something else to keep them going.
And that is why they are listening so intently to these classes on endurance. When all else fails, and they just want to slump down in defeat and frustration, Endurance whispers in their ear. Oh, that isn’t just a word I dangle in front of tired, almost beaten climbers. No, Endurance is a staff member in this mountain-climbing school, and she comes in at times like these. Just when you think you’ve reached the top, lo and behold, the fog clears, and you see another mountain range looming out of the mist.
Just because you were born on this mountain does not entitle you to the much-sought-after “Summit Star” award. Endurance has been keeping a close eye on you tenacious few, and she sees the champion buried just below the surface. She is determined to do all in her power to help you make the summit.
She has a few new Keys in hand, a few new techniques to show you, if you’ll stop and listen to her whispers instead of the tempter’s flood of lies. He tries so hard to tempt you to make that one “little” wrong decision that he knows will start you on the road down the mountain.
Buck up young ones!
As was said at the beginning of this GN: “One thing no one ever said about endurance was that it was easy. No one has ever been born a master of endurance. The tenacity to stick it out through pain and anguish and to fight through hard battles toward a goal is a skill that is developed through practice, hard work, prayer, and wielding your weapons through lots of difficulties and hardships. You need a steel will that will persevere in prayer, claiming the keys of clear vision to help you see the end result and refuse to give up before you obtain the blessing.”
I hear your cries for help, and I’m answering with just what you need. Endurance holds in her hand a special Key that is going to be of great help in making the rest of the journey up the slope. I’ll introduce it to you soon, but first I want to share with you one of your heart cries, just so you know that I’m listening with every intent of answering with just what you need.
I know what some of you want, but I see deeper than that. I know the human frame and how it screams out for release, yet deep in the heart it desperately wants the opposite. I see that longing, and so does Endurance. That desperate desire not to give in to fleshly desires is what she specializes in. (End)
From a young person—May 25th
How am I going to make it through, Jesus?
Sonora (Blue Angel) : Take it one day at a time and do the things that you know Jesus is wanting from you. Just be faithful, one step at a time, and don’t let the lies of your enemy pull you down. It’s mostly that you just get fed up with the struggle, and you open the door to those enemies. You let it all in to escape the feelings that come—the fears and the weariness—but instead of opening that door to all those enemies, you have to cry out to us for help. You have to lean on the Keys and remember that, most of all, you want to be close to Jesus and to love not your life unto the death.
Me: In this day and age, it’s so hard to keep the vision, and I don’t know what I am holding on for. It’s really difficult to just read the Word, and that’s it. I just get fed up, as you said. I don’t know how to keep it up.
Sonora: What you aren’t seeing is that the more you open this door and neglect your spiritual weapons and the Seven Thunders, the weaker you become. Your faith grows weaker and weaker, and your Light dims. You don’t have—and won’t have—the strength to fight against the endless floods of lies and doubts the enemy sends your way. Suddenly you are questioning why you are believing these crazy things, and the fears start growing and growing. You become frustrated and unable to hold that Light of Israel that has been entrusted into your hands.
That is what you are holding on for. You are keeping these Words alive and refusing to let them be snuffed out by the gross darkness that surrounds you. So even though it’s taking everything you have to be faithful, you know what you really want. You hate this system, and you want the Words of David to come out on top.
But as you disobey and compromise, this stand you are making is weakened, and you are no longer standing on the exact spot that Jesus has asked you to stand. You’ve stopped wrestling with Him and chosen to sit it out and take the compromising way, which requires no blood, sweat, or tears of effort to really claim the blessing He wants to give you.
Yes, you have to refuse to move from the place He’s told you to stand. “If you are moved by adverse circumstances, go back and resume your stand.” This stand is to pray with all your heart, refusing to let go till you see it. Don’t allow your faith to be stolen away by the steady drip, drip, drip of poison into your heart, but instead pull away from it and let us convince you further how foolish and stupid this world is. And remember always that your enemy’s goal is to get you to put your Seven Thunders completely away and to abandon the Light along the way. How heartbreaking—your part of the Light sitting in the dirt instead of being upheld by your hands, desperate to prove your Lord and Lover is King of all.Hold it up now, dear. I know what it is costing you, but you will still be happy that you did it. In the end, when all is said and done, you will know you gave your life to the right cause.
Prove you are alive by not surrendering to the voice that says it’s okay to rest and to stop fighting for your faith. Rise up and refuse to lie down and die. I know you feel you can’t do this, but keep getting up and join hands with me each time you feel this life is surely sucking you completely dry and you can’t bear it a moment longer. We are with you, and we are real and have not left your side. When the night is darkest, DAWN is on its way. Hold on for the Promise, and give your hands and heart to this Mission. Don’t ever believe you are alone, because we all in the Spirit are with you till the end.
Me: I’m not willing to let everything You’ve done for us go. I can’t. It’s in too deep and gone too far to turn away now.
Spirit helper: Your heart and spirit tremble, and you don’t know how you can do it—how you can stay in the wilderness (Audio), letting go of all those things that continually call you to take the easy way. It feels impossible, but don’t look ahead into the future. Next month or next week are not your concern. Live today and fight your hardest to give your all today, and we will give you courage to stand one day at a time.
If you are faithful now and do not let go, you will see Him help you and uphold you when you thought it was impossible. He will make that way of escape you prayed so desperately for. He will be faithful and do what you can’t, so don’t think it’s just up to you to struggle through and make it. Just rest in His Words (Audio) and trust Him to help you where you can’t help yourself.
You feel the utter sacrifice of it, and now you know more than ever what it’s all about. Oh, what a hard line it is… God or Mammon… Self or Jesus… The calling is burning in your heart, and it’s a searing heat—so bright it burns everything in its path. But pray that it never goes out, that it never dims and leaves you in the darkness of this world. Pray for strength every day, and we’ll take your hands and lock arms with you so that you may indeed die with that flame in your hand.
You know it’s all fake, and you hate it with a passion, but still you feel the pull, real and live, as if your body and spirit are at war. You don’t want that darkness to win, so just keep drinking in the Words, and they will enlighten the darkness that is continually trying to encroach upon your spirit. Yield to your spirit instead, and your better half will win the war, and Jesus will be victorious in your heart.
Yes, it’s time the tempter… time the trap…
This is the test He is putting you all through at this point—the time of waiting and not knowing. Now we will see how your faith holds. As the days pass, will you let the Love and Light slip away, or will you fight every single day not to give it up, but to keep it burning bright and hot through your daily sacrifices to the Fire?
It’s not impossible, as long as you daily commit yourself not to give up in your mind, not to succumb to that voice that says this is all an unrealistic daydream… an impossible pipe dream… No, this is your destiny: to keep the Word alive (Audio) in your heart no matter how long it takes for you to see the fulfilment. Just be a vessel for the burning so that it won’t go out for lack of fuel to keep it going. Surrender to being that, and you will do well, for that’s exactly what Jesus needs at this point in time.
If you stop giving, sacrificing, and dying, it’s a sign that the Fire is running low on fuel, and you need to remind yourself what you are doing here: to keep the Flame bright, or just to survive one more day in this desolate wasteland. (End of excerpt from young person)
MB—Jesus speaking in prophecy: Okay, now we’re going to jump back a few years to a well-known story that ties in well with all that we are discussing in this class. (End)
The High Road or the Low Road?—The Choice Is Yours!
(Taken from Prophecies on Yieldedness (PDF) ML 3044 1996)
Prophecy, Jesus speaking: Oh, that this one would just yield and would just say “yes,” for a simple “yes” would bring the relief that she seeks. But her “yeses” are so delayed and are fraught with such hard work. When she comes to a crossroads, instead of taking the upward road, she starts on the downward one. After going downward awhile, she realises this is the wrong direction. So then she must climb upward over the steep cliffs and the jagged rocks, and thus she cuts and bruises herself and works so hard to get to the upward road that she was supposed to be on in the first place. When she gets on it, she sees that this is the right way, the right path, and she goes merrily along her way.
(The picture is that the higher road slants upward and the lower road slants downward, so the farther you go on the downward road, the further away you are from the upper road. When she realised she was on the wrong path, she couldn’t go back the way she had come, but instead she had to climb straight up the cliff from the low to the high road. It wasn’t as though choosing to travel on the upward road was so terribly difficult or required an expenditure of great self-effort. When you came to a crossroads it only required a simple “yes,” a yielding to the Lord, for you to take the path of the high road.
MB: Now at this point you may think, “This isn’t right, because it is a terrible struggle.” Now that might be because you aren’t really saying “yes” at the crossroads in your heart, which brings on that terrible struggle. You see, Jesus has lovingly placed, beside the path, an esky, and inside the esky are some Keys, some muscle toner, some get-up-and-go juice, some lovely ointments, etc.—just to make that “yes” so much easier to say. But right beside Jesus’ esky is the Devil’s. And his is full of smartphones! ☺ They’re chilled too! (End)
Prophecy continues: As she travelled on the downward road, it was like the road represented time. She could not turn around and go back in time to the point where she made the wrong decision and get back on the upward road. The only way to get from the lower road to the upper road was to climb the steep cliff joining the two.)
But then comes another fork in the road, and instead of just saying “yes” and continuing on the upward path, she resists and she kicks and she fusses and she fights and she starts downward once again, only to later realise that she is heading the wrong way and that she must climb the cragged edges (Audio) once again. She must once again go through the suffering, the torment, the pain, the torture, the depression, the discouragement and the defeat, until she finally drags herself up on to the high road and goes merrily on her way.
But the solution is so simple! She must only say “yes” and (MB: go to the Esky, get her nutrients and…) follow the high path from the beginning! These choices are not choices that are only put before her, but before all of My children. Day by day My children must make choices, they must decide to take the high road or the low road. If they miss the high road, they can still get on it, but it’s very difficult and they must work at it. But if they just say “yes” at the crossroads, they carry on in the high way and they progress and they grow and they’re strengthened. They don’t waste their strength climbing from the low road to the high road; instead they use their strength for My service and My purpose.
The choice of the high road is just that!—Simply a choice! When you choose it and you walk on the high road, things are so much better. Though the high road has its battles and there are boulders in the way that must be overcome and pushed off or climbed over, it is not like the cragged edges or the steep cliffs that must be climbed when you miss the high road in the first place. (End of prophecy.)
Prophecy, spirit helper speaking: She should say “yes” to us, for we try to help her. We try to show her the high road. We point the way. We turn her that way and we say, “This is it! This is it!” But she says, “No! I want to go my way! I want things to be my way! I don’t want it to be someone else’s way, I want it to be my way!” And thus she starts down her low road. But then she sees her way is not the way of happiness, but the way of death, and thus she has to start her high and hard and difficult climb.
Oh, that she would just listen! Oh, that she would just listen to us. Oh, that she would just listen to others. Oh, that she would just believe that her way is not the right way. Her ways are not our ways. Her thoughts are not our thoughts. But if she would say “yes,” simply “yes,” then her thoughts could be our thoughts, because we would have an opening in the Spirit to get through to her and to influence her mind and her heart and her spirit more easily.
But when she is stomping her feet and saying, “I want my way!” there is nothing we can do, for the barrier between her mind and heart and us is too thick, and we cannot get through, so we must let her go her way. Then we have to work to help her to understand and to make the hard, hard, hard climb. But these are her choices, and this is of her own choosing. Because she wants her way and insists on her own way and her own thoughts, she cannot accept the things that we try to show her, and it makes it difficult for her to even accept the Word—the Words of David—because she is constantly saying, “I want my way!”
But now is the day of choices, for now are the children of David set free to make their own decisions in a much fuller and greater way (He’s giving us slack), and they are more fully responsible for these choices. This is the way we have set it up, and this is the way we want it to run. Because as the times grow darker and more difficult, the children are going to have to make their own decisions and choices.
MB: This is where we are now on the high road. This has been fulfilled to a “T.” No leadership, no groups or organisations. Not even fellowship. We brought this out recently in one of our podcasts. Jesus just blows on those things. He just doesn’t bless those paths any more. As I said, fellowship may be dangerous because you may very well not be following His will. You may be following your own will, your own way. Jesus is saying, “Go into your cave, and there find fellowship with Me, for the dark day is upon you.”
Prophecy continues: They are going to have to learn to listen to us and to seek us for our guidance, and for our strength, and for our wisdom, for the gifts that we are unto them. The days of commanding and insisting and pushing and saying, “You must do this and you must do that” are over. For now is the day of the whispers (PDF). Now is the day when those who will listen will hear, and those who refuse will not.
We have helped to carry this one and to shield her for many years, but there is now a change. This is a day of change, and it is significant. Many things, both there and Here, are changing, and the way we will all operate together will change. For the days ahead are dark days, and we must all work together in a new way. Now all must make choices. All must begin to hear the whispers (Audio) and to yield and to say “yes.”
We are no longer allowed to hedge her about so closely. She is going to have to decide. She is going to have to make her own choices now. We are there to help, we are there to lead, we show the way, but she must stop demanding and insisting. She must begin to yield. For the path from the low road to the high road is going to be much steeper and much longer a climb, because the low road descends even faster and the high road ascends even steeper; thus the further down the low road she goes, the further away from the high road she is.
MB: And that’s exactly what we’ve been experiencing—pre and post April 4. The high road is now very steep, almost vertical. None of that nice sloping high-road-and-low-road business. Those days passed 21 years ago, the prophecy says. You guys were born on this mountain, but you’re not going to escape the lessons. You’re not born with mountain boots on; you’re born with knitted booties.(End)
Prophecy continues: So her choices are important. She must choose. She must choose this day whom she will serve. If the Lord be God, serve Him! Say “yes” to Him, and follow closely. But if Baal, the Baal of your own desires and your own mind and your own insistence be god, then serve him. (End of prophecy.)
MB—Jesus speaking in prophecy: The Words that I speak to you in My written Word and My Living Word for today may seem to take a long time to come to pass, but I assure you they will come to pass. If you choose to ignore My Words, you will eventually pay the price or reap the benefits.
How easy it is, in retrospect, to see what was so difficult back then. The choices to hold on, to keep climbing, to stay true to the Words of David seemed impossible back then. But are the decisions to keep climbing, to endure, to hold to the Words of David when everyone else chose that lower road any easier today? As was said, these days there is no one to tell you to do this or go that way. All that you have is My Word, both written and living.
Circumstances may change. Situations may be different. But you still are left with having to make one little decision after another. And the counsel on how to make these decisions hasn’t changed, for these are the days those prophecies of bygone days spoke of—these are the days of not being told to live the Words of David, but of living them. (End)
Take the Humble Road—The High Road Is The Humble Road
Art of War Part 2 (PDF)…continued: If you, My soldiers, can do that‚ you will be much more effective fighters. You will taste victory much more often, and you will have tremendously increased your endurance level.
So study your fighting techniques! When you’re pushed back or you lose a battle, it doesn’t mean you’ve lost the war‚ but you should stop and analyse what went wrong, what you did that gave the Devil the advantage. And very often you’ll find that it was a decision not to fight, or not to use your spiritual weapons, or it was a time when you gave in to whatever was besieging you rather than continuing to visualise the victory you desire and choosing to hold on with all you’re worth.
When you see what went wrong, you’ll want to strengthen your faith and fortify your defenses and hold on longer next time-claim another promise, stand another test, defy the Enemy one more time. Each time you do that, you’ll increase in strength, and with time you’ll be winning a whole lot more often. You’ll come a lot closer to loving the battle, because you’ll be a lot more victorious. It’s worth it to endure!