Friend, I’ll tell you the truth: There are some things that I’ve been believing for more than thirty years without seeing clear results. I particularly remember a time when I was 17 years old, sitting in a service, and suddenly, it was like heaven opened, and God began to download information into my brain. He began to speak to me about my life and to prophesy concerning my future. I had to borrow a piece of paper and something to write with from the person beside me so that I could record the precious things God said to me on that day. Some of those things have come to pass, and some of them are still to come, but they still burn in my heart, and I fully believe that they will come!

In the Book of Hebrews, Paul was writing to a group of people who had been believing for the fulfillment of their faith for 20 years or more. That is a long time to wait, and it is therefore an example that we need to recognize. Sometimes, you only see part of the manifestation of your God-given dreams, those things that God has spoken to you alone, and it takes a while before you see the promise come to pass in its entirety.

During the time of waiting, we must understand that waiting alone doesn’t bring us anything, but waiting and believing is a combination that will bring us the full manifestation of our dreams. Of course, it’s much easier to say that than to actually do it. The Book of Proverbs tells us that something happens in our hearts when we have to wait for a long period of time: When our hope is put off, our hearts grow very sad (Proverbs 13:12).

The fact is, we are just not very good at waiting. What often happens is that God says something to us, and we are initially excited and eager for the fulfillment of that promise, so we start proclaiming, professing, and looking out for it. Over the years, we keep waiting and waiting, and it seems like nothing’s happening. Another year passes, and we’ve told our spouses and probably our friends, but what we’re believing for is still nowhere in sight. That is very often the moment when a spirit of discouragement comes against us, and when I talk about a spirit of discouragement, I’m not just talking about an attitude. No, I’m talking about a real spirit sent from the enemy who comes to speak to us to discourage us.

The enemy begins whispering to us, “Why should you believe? You’ve waited. You’ve walked in holiness. You’ve gone to church. You’ve done what God required. Don’t you think that this is a fantasy? Maybe you misunderstood God. Maybe you just think God promised you something. Maybe it was just your imagination. If you would give up this dream, then you could finally move on with your life, but as long as you keep waiting, you’re stuck. Better to get rid of this dream and move on.”

Friend, have you ever had these thoughts before? I am sure all of us have. They come from a real spiritual entity that comes to us, especially when we’re weak and tired. I want you to remember when Jesus was led into the wilderness for 40 days after He was baptized in the River Jordan. The devil waited to begin his assault against the Lord until Jesus was physically and probably emotionally weak. When He’d been without food for 40 days, Satan began speaking to Jesus, tempting and testing Him, because that’s when Jesus would have been an easy target. Likewise, the believers in Hebrews had been waiting for 20 to 25 years, and they were extremely tired. They were at the point of giving up, rationalizing to themselves, “Maybe this isn’t what God promised. Maybe we misunderstood.” Their minds were probably being influenced by spirits, but they thought it was just coming from their own minds, and they didn’t know to fight back.

The devil is so seductive in the way that he speaks to us, and sometimes, we need a good wife or husband just to look at us and say, “That is the devil talking to you.” We need a good friend who will say, “That is the devil speaking. Those are lies.” God is not like human beings who will lie or change their minds, so whatever He said to you back then is what He is still saying to you today. What He promised He would do is what He will do, even if you’re tired at the moment.

This is why we need to listen to the command of Hebrews 10:35:

“Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward.”

That word “confidence” in Greek is the word parrésia (παρρησία), which means boldness, and this word always has to do with people who are bold in their speech. The apostle Paul said, “We also believe, and therefore speak” (2 Corinthians 4:13), because faith is simply not quiet, not ever! It is always speaking! What you believe in your heart comes out of your mouth, and this particular word “confidence” used in Hebrews 10:35 describes somebody who is so bold about what they believe that they are publicly proclaiming and declaring it.

But this verse says, “Don’t cast away your bold declaration,” and it lets us know that the believers were about to throw that powerful, loud faith away. That exact phrase “cast away”  is only used in one other place in the New Testament. It’s used in Mark 10, where the Bible tells us about a blind man named Bartimaeus who was sitting by the road. As he was sitting there, he had some kind of a blanket wrapped around his leg, and the Bible wouldn’t tell us that if it was unimportant. It’s painting a picture for us. This was a blind and sick man wrapped up in this blanket. When he heard that Jesus was passing by, Bartimaeus started screaming for Him to have mercy, and as the crowds tried to quiet him, he only screamed louder.

Eventually, Jesus did call him over, and then we see that phrase, “cast away.” As Bartimaeus arose to get to Jesus, he couldn’t get up because of the blanket that was wrapped around his legs, so he grabbed it and threw it out of the way. That blanket was stopping him from getting up and moving forward, so he had to get that blanket off him! He grabbed it, and he threw it out of the way, almost as if he was saying, “Get this thing off me! It’s stopping me, so get it away from me!” He cast it off himself.

Returning to Hebrews 10:35, we see the exact same phrase for “cast off,” but in this case, it is casting off a good thing. These believers were thinking, “How long am I going to sit here? My other friends have jobs and careers. They’re making money, but where am I? I’m in the same place I’ve been for 20 years. Why in the world did I think I had a word from God? Think of all the opportunities I’ve passed in my life, jobs I could have had, places I could have gone, but I said, ‘No’ because I had this word from the Lord. I am so tired of this.” They are tempted to say, “Forget it. I don’t need this dream. I don’t need this promise.” Their temptation was to take their faith and throw it away, casting it from them like it was in the way.

They were tempted to forget the words they received from the Lord and the promises they stood on for so long, and this is very often what happens to people. When they wait for a long time and get caught in a tired moment, the enemy seizes his opportunity and begins to say, “It’s never going to happen. If you just forget this word, at least you can move forward in life.” That’s the moment when people lose the battle of faith, and that’s precisely why we need to have people around us who can say, “You can do this. You are so gifted. Your dream is going to come to pass.” We all need somebody that will build us up and support us in a difficult moment.

Your Reward is Coming!

Now, look at what the rest of verse 35 says:

“…which hath great recompense of reward.”

Do you know what the Greek says? The Greek literally says, “payday is coming.” It says, “Don’t cast off your bold declaration, because payday is on its way,” and what a wonderful payday it is. It’s when you wake up one day, and your healing is in your body. It’s when you wake up one day, and you find out that you just got the promotion you’ve been believing for. That is the payday just around the corner, waiting for you if you just refuse to give up. In the very next verse, we’re told, “For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise” (Hebrews 10:36). This verse says that after you’ve done the will of God, you will receive the promise.

Now I want to tell you something you may not want to hear, but it’s the truth. God’s will isn’t just about you receiving your healing or getting blessed; part of it is about you being changed. All of us have characters that need adjustment and correction, and if God gave us everything without requiring our faith and endurance, we would be unchanged people. We would be unthankful people, because we would just expect everything to happen, and we probably would end up being very self-consumed people.

Waiting requires our faith, the crucifixion of the flesh, and the transformation of our mind. God will bless us, and He will answer us, but we must participate in the transformation of our souls, and patience puts us in a position for that change. Sometimes, if God were to give our reward right away, we would just lose it because we weren’t ready to know what to do with it yet, and He does not want that for us. So in the waiting period, we need to say, “Lord, change me. Is there something in me that is hindering the manifestation of my promise? Change me and transform me. Let your Word change the way that I think so I can receive your promise and keep it once it comes.” That is part of the will of God while we wait.