The faces in Ezekiels vision:

The face of the Ox – Session One:

The Perseverance Principle: It’s Always Too Soon To Quit

By Apostle Carel Marais

God naturally endured the ox with the Perseverance Principle. The ox will plough from sun up until sundown without stopping. Put Him in his stall, feed him and the next day, and the next day, and the next day he will plough and plough until the task is complete.

Perseverance is Job, attending the funeral of his ten children, losing his wealth, his health and listening to his wife who had a tongue sharp enough to clip a hedge. Remember her encouraging words? She advised him, “Curse [God] and die” (Job 2:9)

Remember the words of Job’s three friends who accused him of sinning, who accused him of folly, who told him God was chastening him and advised him to repent.

Yet despite all these words, Job persevered. He said, “ Though God slay me, I will come forth as pure gold.” I will not quit! I will endure! It’s too soon to quit!

Unfortunately, our generation lives in the era of instant gratification. We want it now. Recently I saw a sign: “Antiques manufactured while you wait!”

There comes a time in every life when quitting looks good. When problems seem insurmountable … When defeat seems inescapable … When retreat seems the only option! Remember: It’s always too soon to quit!

Judas Iscariot began as a disciple of Jesus Christ, then betrayed our Lord with a kiss and hanged himself. He began well. But he gave up!

Adolf Hitler began his career in Catholic school wanting to be a priest. He began well … Joseph Stalin and Karl Marx were both seminary students. They began well and gave up. Stalin murdered thirty million Russians during the birth of Communism.

The Bible does not say, “those who begin well shall be saved” It says, “They who endure to the end shall be saved” (Matt 24:13)

Whatever you’re going through today, keep trying. Mountains only seem so high from the valley. Unfortunately, the road to success runs uphill, so don’t expect to break any speed records. The thing to try when all else fails is “ begin again”.

See there’s a price for running faster, jumping higher, and being better than the competition. Champions force themselves to do what they don’t like.

Many of life’s failures are individuals who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. Falling down does not make you a failure, but staying down does.

The Bible is a book of perseverance. The portrait of perseverance is seen as Noah works to build the ark for 120 years with all of humanity laughing at him. His generation had never seen rain. They lived hundreds of miles from water. Noah’s bulldog perseverance finished the boat designed by the architect of the ages.

Perseverance put the animals on the boat. Perseverance put Noah’s wife and children on the boat with blue skies .

Perseverance is a fire in your bones that will carry you through ridicule, rejection and reversal. Perseverance does not need public approval. Perseverance couldn’t care less about being politically correct. There is nothing half-hearted or lukewarm about perseverance. It’s bold. It’s daring. It’s fearless.

Perseverance is Nehemiah rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem when powerful men organized a slander campaign to stop him.

When slander could not stop him, these men ridiculed him. Finally, when slander and ridicule could not stop Nehemiah, they threatened to kill him.

Nehemiah passed out swords to half his men and bricks to the other half. He made it clear he was ready to fight to the death. The wall was rebuilt to the glory of God through the power of perseverance.

2 Cor 4:8-9 (CFMTranslation) Hell has thrown the kitchen sink at me, and I’m still fighting the good fight. I’m still enduring! I’m still standing! I will not bend, bow or burn! I will not look back, let up, slow down, back away or be quiet. My past is forgiven; my present is redeemed; my future secure, I no longer need position, prominence, or popularity. I don’t have to be right, recognized, regarded or rewarded.

I now live by faith and walk in divine anointing. My face is set, my gait is fast; my goal is heaven; my road is narrow; my way may be rough and my companions few.

I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice or hesitate in the presence of the adversary.

The night before Paul’s head was chopped off, this apostle of perseverance again put his pen to parchment in the dim glow of the candle and wrote, “I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness … And not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing”(2Tim4:7-8)

Think about that promise. It’s available to all of us who persevere. A crown of righteousness. Have you been knocked down? Have you been betrayed by a friend? Have you experienced the death of a loved one? Are you fighting sickness? Are you in a financial crisis? Get UP! Get UP! Get UP NOW!

Calvary wasn’t a picnic ground; it was ground zero in the universal war zone! It was heaven’s high water mark for perseverance!

Perseverance is Jesus hanging on the cross, bleeding from His hands, His head, His side, His feet. Below boiling skies, blacker than a 1000 midnights, shouting out: It is finished! – what was finished?

The Light of the World has crushed the prince of darkness. Satan is finished. He is defeated and Christ is Lord – and of His kingdom there shall be no end!

Perseverance is a decision! All great living begins when you look into your soul and decide you will not play the role of a coward. You make a definite decision. You will endure. You will persevere – period! So be persistent! NEVER … NEVER … NEVER GIVE UP! It is always too soon to quit!

Rev 3:5 and “He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of life, but I will confess his name before My father and before His angels! Ref :Rev 3:12 + Rev 3:21

Mat 24:13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

2Co 4:8 Troubles are round us on every side, but we are not shut in; things are hard for us, but we see a way out of them;

2Co 4:9 We are cruelly attacked, but not without hope; we are made low, but we are not without help.

I believe that this is one of the characteristic's of Christ that the Church has lost over the centuries . Instead of persevering in accurate Biblical doctrine we somehow have bent the truth to suit our new found comforts. Christianity has become nothing more that a addition to our new found worldly existence. A thing we practise to still our conscience.

In the church of the last days there is an unmasking taking place. The earth is in earnest expectation of the revelation/unmasking of the sons of God. One of the faces that we'll see being unmasked will be the face of the ox.