“Determination” - message by Steve Martin

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Determination

Our walk with the Lord will bring us to events and situations where we are going to have to either stand strong, or we will turn and run. In my life, I have made that decision already. My life is His. I will stand, so help me God.

Yeshua (Jesus) had made that decision too. He was determined to do the Father’s will, and He did it.

We must choose to be as He was, and have the determination to do what is right before that time will certainly come.

“The Master, God, has given me a well-taught tongue, so I know how to encourage tired people. He wakes me up in the morning. Wakes me up, opens my ears to listen as one ready to take orders.

 

The Master, God, opened my ears, and I didn’t go back to sleep, didn’t pull the covers back over my head. I followed orders, stood there and took it while they beat me, held steady while they pulled out my beard.

 

Didn’t dodge their insults, faced them as they spit in my face. And the Master, God, stays right there and helps me, so I’m not disgraced.

 

Therefore I set my face like flint, confident that I’ll never regret this. My champion is right here. Let’s take our stand together! Who dares bring suit against me? Let him try! Look! the Master, God, is right here.

 

Who would dare call me guilty? Look! My accusers are a clothes bin of threadbare socks and shirts, fodder for moths!” Isaiah 50:7-9, The Message

 

When I was the office manager of a Canon copier dealer in Lansing, Michigan, between 1980-1987, I was asked to do an invoice for the company, billing a location that I had heard did abortions. I refused to do so. I wanted no part in it.

 

I would have been around 26, and we had three young kids at the time. I couldn’t afford to lose my job, but my Lord told me I was not to do that invoice. I told the owner as such.

 

He then made his wife, the co-owner, do the invoice. (In later years they asked me to become Vice President of the company, but even then the Lord had called me on to other work for Him, and that meant a move to Fort Lauderdale, Florida to work for Derek Prince Ministries.)

 

Are we going to stand as Christians, when faced with decisions that will go against the actions and beliefs of those around us?

 

Now is the time to make that determination. Not when the time to stand faces us head on. We will need to have made that decision already.

 

Christians, and Jews, are among the most persecuted in the world. Times have not changed since Jesus’ time. We know the Bible says the same days are coming for us.

 

Decide now what you are going to do when called upon to choose.

 

Ahava and shalom,

 

Steve Martin

 

Message #21, April 14, 2026

#determination #SteveMartin #Jesus #courage #faith #Master #DerekPrince #Christians #Jews #Bible #persecution

With Even More Resolve - Now Think On This by Steve Martin

With Even More Resolve

Now Think On This

Steve Martin

“For the Lord God helps Me, therefore, I am not disgraced; therefore, I have set My face like flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed.” (Isaiah 50:7, NASU)

The Webster dictionary gives these synonyms for the word RESOLVE, when used as a noun - decidedness, decision, decisiveness, determination, determinedness, firmness, granite, purposefulness, resoluteness, resolution, stick-to-itiveness.

Resolve - something we must have in these days. Resolve - even more so must we possess in the days and years to come.

As our ultimate example and the One we are commanded to follow, Jesus knew He had come for a distinct purpose and was determined to complete the mission, at all costs. When the time came for Him to move on it, He did not flinch, back down, or seek an escape route out of there. He had the resolve, the firmness, the determination to do what it took to get the job done.

As the apostle Luke records in chapter 9:51, “When the days were approaching for His ascension, He was determined to go to Jerusalem;” (NASU) Or as the NKJV translates it, “Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem.”

Isaiah did rightly prophesy about the Messiah Yeshua as written above, “I have set My face like flint.” That is exactly what He did.

To put this in full context, one must read the other verses that come before and go beyond that verse. It gives a wider picture of what He was committed to do.

"The Lord God has given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary. He awakens Me morning by morning; He awakens My ear to hear as the learned. The Lord God has opened My ear; and I was not rebellious, nor did I turn away. I gave My back to those who struck Me, and My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting.

For the Lord God will help Me; therefore, I will not be disgraced; therefore, I have set My face like a flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed. He is near who justifies Me; who will contend with Me? Let us stand together. Who is My adversary? Let him come near Me. Surely the Lord God will help Me; Who is he who will condemn Me? Indeed, they will all grow old like a garment; the moth will eat them up.

Who among you fears the Lord? Who obeys the voice of His Servant? Who walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord and rely upon his God.” (Isaiah 50:4-10 NKJV)

Even as we are commanded to grow deeper in love for one another in our hearts, at the same time we will be required to stand stronger because of that love with more resolve and a greater resolute heart to press on, to push through, to not stop until we have completed our assigned mission from above.

As any toughened combat soldier, long before prepared to engage in battle; or the proven athlete, measured and strengthened through years of practice for his competitive field; or the years of perfected, intense time given the trained surgeon, now performing through the grueling hours in the operating room – these similar years of ourselves being trained, groomed, and prepared for this hour must show itself strong as we stand courageously and boldly in these days of increasing pressure to bow down and give up.

The enemy of our soul continues to use the masses to attempt to tear down, destroy, and eliminate the eternal truths of God Almighty’s Word. And as a roaring lion, he will not stop in his attempts to wear down the saints of God, doing so until we will give up. But we must not give up, and instead stand strong with the Lion of the tribe of Judah, with firmness,  decisiveness, and a granite will to hold the line, advance the truth, and see the war won, as it has forever and a day been recorded in the final book of the Bible.

With even more resolve, pressing forward to the mark with increasing strength daily, spending more time in prayer with our Lord, more time in His Word, and more time with His people, we are together working for His Kingdom to come.

I pray you are staying in the battle, standing firm together, committed to the end to see it happen. Do so with even more resolve.

Shalom and ahava (peace and love in Hebrew).

Now think on this,

Steve Martin

Founder/President

Love For His People, Inc.

P.S. Want an adventure walking on short adventures? Check this out: "Walk With Me" video series with Steve Martin.

Also, I hope you get my latest book, Adventures in Courage, published in November 2018. Paperback or Kindle versions. This was my 19^th authored publication. (Yes, this is an advertisement!) Buy here on Amazon: Adventures in Courage

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Now Think On This #379 - in the year of our Lord 01.02.19 – “With Even More Resolve” – Wednesday, 12:45 pm