“Be still, and know that I am God,” Psalm 46:10
Slow down! Sometimes we are so busy with the endless agendas, tasks and projects of our lives that we push the Lord to one side sub-consciously, instead of inviting Him in each day and listening for His voice. God wants to be wanted!…..included.
IF I DON’T CONSULT GOD, I INSULT HIM!
A well known preacher once said that the ministry the Lord gave him was based on three things:
1 Hearing the voice of the Lord.
2 Not listening to flesh and blood, (the voice of reason that would oppose what God has said).
3 Waiting for God’s timing to move.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” In the natural we do not like God’s timing. That is because we have our perspective on matters and not God’s.
Jesus declared, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me,” John 10:27
Once God has spoken He will confirm His word to us. We declare with our lips what He has said, and then the testing comes. The waiting period for God to fulfill His word to us is often the period we dislike the most. This is where the voice of reason or the devil will question what God has said, ( Genesis 3). It is in the “waiting period” that the Lord works with us through His Holy Spirit to learn to trust Him more as He draws us into closer fellowship with Him. It is often in this period that we make mistakes, move ahead of God’s timing, try to “help God out” by fulfilling His word ourselves. The record of Abraham and Sarah is a good example of this, resulting in the birth of Ishmael, (Genesis 15-21). There is safety in the Body of Christ He has set us in, and they will witness to the truth of God’s word and encourage us.
At the “set time” God will fulfill His word to us. His timing is immaculate….but in the waiting period, sense knowledge and reasoning have to be sacrificed on the altar of God, as we abandon ourselves to His perfectly appointed time, and His work in our hearts. The word of God, spoken from His mouth is creative. It fulfills itself. My portion is to have faith in God, trust and lean hard as I abandon myself to Him.
The testing period is the “trial of our faith,” which we often dislike but the Lord deems “precious” in His sight. 1 Peter 1:7 “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise, honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.”
DELAY IS NOT DENIAL, when God has spoken.
John 2:1-11 records the event of the beginning of miracles Jesus performed at the wedding in Cana of Galilee. Jesus’ mother appealed to Him regarding the lack of wine at the feast. Jesus’ answer that “His hour had not yet come,” (verse 4) was denial for that moment, but within the hour all that changed. Jesus only did the things His Father told Him to do, and at the appointed time at the very same feast, He gave instruction to fill the water pots with water and “DRAW OUT!” The water was turned into wine. When the time of God’s word comes and He says, “Draw out,” He will open the windows of Heaven and pour out a blessing to make a way, where there is no way. Divinity speaks and the Indwelling Christ in me calls into being His divine plan and purpose, for His glory.
ONLY WHEN WE MEET THE IMPOSSIBLE, DO WE TOUCH THE RESOURCES OF GOD.
