Straining Toward the Goal: I Press...

Paul said, in one of his most memorable declarations (Philippians 3:14), "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." I press on, towards the the goal, he said. I press for a mark that I have not yet obtained. I press for some promise, some blessing, some prize that I have seen on the distant horizon but haven't yet obtained.

As a matter of fact if we back up a few verses we will find the author of much of the New Testament declaring, with passion, that he has not yet obtained that which he is pressing for. Brethren, he says, "I do not count myself as having obtained what I'm striving for. But this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press..." (Philippians 3:13 ESV)

I press. I believe this forward driven stance, this perpetual straining towards some future promise, is a biblical trait of an apostolic church. Paul said, I'm straining forward. I'm reaching. I'm striving. I'm pressing. I'm putting some effort into this thing. I'm straining towards my promise. We wonder, sometimes, why revival tarries. We wonder sometimes why we aren't seeing a breakthrough. I'm afraid that we spend too much time waiting for it and not enough effort straining towards it.

Jesus told his disciples to go to Jerusalem and wait. Wait for the promise. Wait for God to pour out an apostolic anointing. The disciples did exactly what they were instructed to do. They went to the upper room to wait. But there is some defining characteristic of that book of Acts church that always turns a waiting room into a birthing room. They didn't sit back on their haunches and talk about the weather. They didn't kick around the various political issues of the day. They found a place of prayer and they pressed.

This is their idea of waiting for the promise. They pressed their way into it. They strained towards the thing that God had promised he would do. When the day of Pentecost was fully come they were found reaching for the promise. They were found pressing their way into the presence of God. They were found straining towards the prize.

The prophet declared in Isaiah 66:8 that "as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children." This my friend has long been recognized as the barrier to revival, but let me restate it once more. It will be the travailing, the pressing, the straining, the pushing that produces the results that the church is hungry for. It will be that insatiable desire to obtain the promises of God, to reap the harvest that God has promised, to experience the end time revival that scripture declares.

It is the pressing that will produce the promise. In light of that, I have made up my mind to press like I have never pressed before!

I press...