1...2...3...Wait!

Have you ever heard God calling you to do something, but then you weren't so sure? "Is that a yes Lord, or a no?" And if you find yourself having to ask this several times, it could quite possibly be that God is indeed giving you a resounding answer, one way or another... Or maybe, somehow, the answer is both. Maybe it's "worse" than a yes or a no.


Maybe it's a yes, but wait.


Whhaaatt??!!


Why would God give someone an instruction or next step, and then say wait? Surely it must be a mistake. Biblically, though, waiting on the Lord is not unheard of, and it works out in our favor. (Doesn't anything, if done God's way, work out in our favor???) In Isaiah 40:31 it says "But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." (KJV). That's right, I went old school with the King James Version ;)...


This verse kept going through my mind while at the Prayer Conference this last Thursday and Friday. (Blog post on that coming soon!)  And I felt pretty peaceful, despite no obvious next step. How could I feel so at peace with waiting? Have I been waiting on a next step in frustration, and God has been trying to get through to my thick skull, "Woman, your next step is to wait!!! I can't give you a next step to say yes to until you say yes to waiting!!!"


The regular me would not be okay with this. How can I be at peace with this??? How??? Here's how: the best kind of waiting - the kind that produces strength - is waiting on and for and with God. Don't wait by yourself, alone, for God to re-emerge. Wait with Him, in His presence, for renewed hope, strength, and power.


Power? Yes - power. Just ask the disciples. They encountered a big "1...2...3...Wait!" moment. At the end of Matthew we read in chapter 28:19-20 about how they were to go and make disciples: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." (ESV). Yet, at the beginning of Acts we read "And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, 'you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now'." (Acts 1:4-5, ESV). [emphasis added]

If the disciples, in all their excitement, hadn't waited, but had proceeded onward without the power of the Holy Spirit, what would they have accomplished? A whole lot of flimsy nothing in their own strength... Not only would they have failed at the task they had been given, they would have been downright disobedient. And, they would have missed out on the promise given at the end of Matthew 28 - "And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." (God's promises and commands seem to go hand in hand... hmmm...) It's a good thing they waited!!!


If they can wait, so can I... and so can you. The same God who is so faithful to call, so faithful to instruct, and just... so faithful... can manage to let you know when to wait, when to move, and at what speed.


Alright, I'm waiting Lord! I don't like it! But... your ways are not my ways and your thoughts are not my thoughts.


Psalm 27:14 "Wait for the LORD; be strong and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!"


Psalm 37:7 "Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices."


-C

Be looking for a blog post re-capping the latest PoC excitement:  we had our first Sunday last weekend in our own space at the IBEW as well as PoC at the Prayer Conference in Springfield, IL last Thursday and Friday!!!