Wholehearted, passionate commitment means that once God grants you a revelation concerning an area you need to possess, you press into that area until you have success, mastery and victory (Jer. 29:11-13).

John Wimber became convinced that healing was to accompany the preaching of the gospel. "Unbelievably, Wimber prayed for the sick for a full 10 months before the first person was healed! From then on healings increased exponentially." C. Peter Wagner, Wrestling With Alligators, Prophets and Theologians.

Here is an interesting quote: "John Wimber's healing conferences and teaching impacted thousands of Christians around the world in the 20th century. He noted once that he would receive cards or letters after someone had heard him teach that would say something to the effect of, 'I went home and prayed for somebody and it didn't work.' John would laugh and reply, 'Why don't you pray for a thousand somebodies, and then let's talk.'" ("The 5-Step Prayer Model," vineyardusa.org/library/the-5-step-prayer-model-introduction/.

Most, if not all, healing ministries will confirm that they went through a period of trial and error before seeing healing as a normal part of their ministry.

Shawn Bolz in his video training series "Translating God" discusses how he grew to become a mature, skilled, accurate prophet. He started as a young child and practiced using the prophetic gift God had given him. Later, he received mentoring from other prophets such as Paul Cain. Now he is an international trainer, raising up prophets around the world.

Peter Daniels, an entrepreneur and millionaire in Australia, tells in his book of nearly going bankrupt several times before finally achieving such success that he now gives $10,000 a day to ministry causes. It is normal for businessmen to fail in their first three attempts at business.

Abraham Lincoln: There is probably no better example of failure and persistence that I know of. Let me share Lincoln's life history with you: This was a man who failed in business at the age of 21; was defeated in a legislative race at age 22; failed again in business at age 24; overcame the death of his sweetheart at age 26; had a nervous breakdown at age 27; lost a congressional race at age 34; lost a senatorial race at age 45; failed in an effort to become vice-president at age 47; lost a senatorial race at age 49 and was elected president of the United States at age 52.

Would you dare call him a failure? He could have quit anywhere along the line. But to Lincoln, defeat was a detour and not a dead-end. And it was a great source of learning.

Walt Disney: As a young cartoonist, Walt Disney faced many rejections from newspaper editors, who said he had no talent. He was even fired from one who told him he lacked imagination and original ideas. His first company went bankrupt within two years, and he ate dog food until he could get back on his feet. He lost the rights to his first successful animated character. When he tried to get MGM studios to distribute Mickey Mouse in 1927, he was told the idea would never work—a giant mouse on the screen would terrify women! The Three Little Pigs was rejected by distributors in 1933. Pinocchio, Fantasia and Pollyanna were box office flops at first. Undaunted, Disney faced each disappointment by planning his next adventure.

Mark Virkler: Ten years of failure in hearing God's voice drove me to a conviction that hearing God was central to a relationship with Him and central to an effective life and ministry. God inspired a thought that I should spend a year of focused effort seeking to learn to hear His voice. He arranged for me to meet key people and read certain books which sparked insights of understanding. God woke me one morning with a loud voice saying, "Get up, I am going to teach you to hear My voice." That day He showed me four keys in Habakkuk 2:1-2, which have now been taught to millions, allowing them to clearly hear God's voice.

I have used this same year-long process to discover many keys to Christian spirituality which are now recorded in my books.

This year, I have a commission to demonstrate in my life another of God's promises: "It is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant" (Deut. 8:18, NASB).

The Lord has reminded me of my passion for charts and graphs. I love charting! I love the insights to relationships which charts can give. I actually charted the entire Bible in my early 20s. The Lord is asking me to apply this love and passion to charting the stock market and looking for key relationships so I can successfully trade it.

I know the keys to releasing creative, anointed flow: Follow my love and passion. As I work on the project, I follow His voice (flowing thoughts). Money is not secular or evil. I know this project is spiritual, and it is fine if it consumes my attention and focus for a season. I go to bed asking for God to grant me revelation and allow me to see relationships on these charts. I ask Him to make me one with the market I am trading so I know it inside out. I wake up in the middle of the night with dreams and ideas. I get up and spend a couple of hours writing down these ideas and testing them out on historical charts. My morning devotions involve journaling about this project. I am placing hundreds of paper trades over several months until I can demonstrate consistent success. Then I will switch to real money. This is the battle I am in this year, and it is proper to give it my full attention until my victory is fully manifest.

Journaling Application

1. Lord, what is the love, passion and giftedness You have placed within me?
2. What battle are You commissioning me to fight and win this year?
3. What am I to do to begin?
4. Share your stories of victory below.

Mark Virkler, Ph.D., has authored more than 50 books in the areas of hearing God's voice and spiritual growth. He is the founder of Communion With God Ministries and Christian Leadership University (cluonline.com), where the voice of God is at the center of every learning experience. Mark has taught on developing intimacy with God and spiritual healing for 30-plus years on six continents. The message has been translated into over 40 languages, and he has helped to establish more than 250 church-centered Bible schools around the world.

This article originally appeared at cwgministries.org.

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