Exposing Satan's Playbook The Perry Stone

out of patience and thinks Saul will be back (as he always was) and eventually kill him! Just when David experienced his most important breakthrough in dealing with his adversary, he gave up and chose to hang out among God’s enemies in the heart of the Philistines territory, where eventually his decision almost cost him his life—not by the hands of Saul but through the hands of his mighty men. (See 1 Samuel 30.) David actually lost faith in God’s future promises, and his patience wore thin; thus he made a bad choice. Often our simple conception of faith is a spiritual force that creates what we see from what we cannot see and gives us confidence it will happen before we see it (Heb. 11:1). This fact gave expression in the charismatic circles that if you have “right-now, active faith,” the power and level of your faith can form a supernatural shield that exempts you from opposition and trouble. The assumption is that if we fast long enough, pray loud enough, and believe strong enough, our problems will go away almost immediately and we can shout a praise, say “Thank You, Lord,” and move on to the next level of success and prosperity. However, the virtue of patience is significant for several reasons. There are times when prayers are delayed (Dan. 10), battles are long (2 Sam. 3:1), and temptation doesn’t immediately go away but comes and goes in seasons (Luke 4:13). Patience assists in lighting a spark of hope in the midst of the darkness, a surge of new life in the midst of the weakness, and an invisible strength during the testing as faith and