Wait On The Lord

D. LEARN TO WAIT ON GOD

They that wait upon the Lord will ‘exchange’ strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint” (Isa 40:31).

1. Two Concepts

What does the Bible mean when it says to “.. wait upon the Lord?” There are two concepts involved in “waiting upon the Lord” these are:

a. Waiting For God’s Time.

That is take no major action until God shows you it is time to act.

b. Waiting God’s Time

May I share my personal testimony with you? The Lord called me to His service in 1948, at age 16. I was born again and filled with the Holy Spirit but didn’t understand the need to fully surrender my will and plans to the Lord.

The “deeper life” of Christian commitment had little appeal to me. I had already decided what I was going to do with my life and being a preacher had no part in that plan.

During the summer of 1948 the hand of the Lord came heavily upon my life. Events took place which made me feel as if I were being wrestled to the floor to pray. Many times I lay prostrate on the floor with tears flooding down my face. I was crying out in prayer to God.

In retrospect, I think many of those tears may have been tears of resistance to God’s will. I wanted my way – and God wanted His way. This conflict of wills – my will against God’s will – was creating an internal struggle to the death. The death of my will.

After three months of this intense spiritual conflict, I surrendered my life to do what God wanted. He wanted me to go into all the world and preach the gospel.

a. Let’s Go Now!

When I finally gave up to the will of God I said to the Lord, “I’ll go where you want me to go dear Lord. I’ll say what you want me to say, I’ll be what you want me to be.” With this total surrender of my will to God’s will I was ready to GO – RIGHT NOW!

There was no time to lose! (Or so I believed.) “Let’s go God! Right now! I’m ready! The time is short! The nuclear Age is here! The world is coming to an end! I’m ready to evangelize the whole world – by myself if necessary.”

In my youthful enthusiasm, optimism, (and I should add, ignorance). I was expecting to be an instant “wonder world winner.”

You see, my thinking was moulded somewhat by the theology of my church. Our church leaders emphasized the soon return of our Lord from Heaven. The Second Coming of Jesus was preached constantly in the pulpit If not by the local preacher, then by the visiting evangelist. I expected Jesus to come very soon.

I remember a poll taken in the teenagers’ Sunday School class the summer of 1948. We were asked, “How long will it be before the Lord comes again?” No one in that class of 50 teenagers believed the Lord would possibly delay His Coming beyond 1950.

World War II had just ended. The Korean conflict was simmering. The threat of nuclear holocaust seemed imminent. I felt that whatever God was going to do had to be done right now. There was no time to wait. With a commission to evangelize the world, and only two years left in which to do it, I had to start immediately!

What was God’s response to my great sense of urgency?

b. Learn To Wait!

I had to learn that whatever my interpretation of world events, whatever my own sense of urgency – God acts in His own time, not mine. When you are “itching” to get into action, it is the hardest thing in the world to wait.

I was not prepared (trained) to go and preach. True, I had been called. But God’s call and God’s sending are two different things. I didn’t know it at the time but God wasn’t a bit worried over the world situation in 1948. I was, but He wasn’t. He had planned my training and preparation. All my anxiety and impatience didn’t cause Him to speed up His schedule by a single minute.

I did not realize it at the time but I was straining to enter the battle and fight in my own strength. God knew I would have been destroyed if I had gone forth unprepared. So, He made me wait until I gained training and experience. Through those years of waiting on the Lord, I learned that I must never “…go beyond the word of the Lord my God to do less or more” (Num 22:18).

c. God Controls The Time.

The Bible says, “…when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son…” (Gal 4:4). God controls the times and seasons. He had a time to send Jesus into the world. He had a time for all things. Wait for God’s time. don’t get ahead and don’t lag behind. Wait upon the Lord. He will reveal His time to you.

The times and seasons are in the Father’s own power (acts 1:7). Let us learn to wait patiently on Him. He will reveal the times and seasons to us when we need to know them.

3. Waiting In Prayer And Fasting

“Let not them that wait upon thee.. be ashamed… let not those that seek thee be confounded…” (Ps 69:6).

If we are to “exchange” our limited strength for His unlimited power, we must establish a consistent daily devotional habit. Disciplining oneself to times of regular prayer (and fasting) is one of the most difficult things for most church leaders to do. The pressure of daily schedules and activities tend to rob us of these essential devotional times with the Lord.

a. How Do Daily Devotional Times Help?

Try this experiment. Fill a pitcher right to the top brim with water. Fill it so full another drop would make it run over. Then start dropping in stones about the size of your hand. What happens? With every stone that goes in the pitcher, a like amount of water overflows and spills out from the pitcher.

This is the way we exchange our strength for God’s. We are filled with the water of our own strength. As we spend time in prayer, God begins dropping in the stones of His strength and power. These stones of grace displace the water of negative unbelieving attitudes, stones of dependence on the Lord displace the stagnant water of “I can do it without God” attitudes. His divine enablements fill our life, and our powerlessness is replaced with His strength.

How can I cause God’s strength to fill my life? It is a natural-supernatural process. If you spend daily time in prayer it will be like the growing-up process. A child does not grow up and become strong by thinking about it or trying to force himself to grow up. It is a natural process that happens as a result of proper diet and exercise.

In the same way, if a church leader will spend time each day reading the Bible and praying, this spiritual nutrition will promote the growth of God’s strength in his life. The exchange of your strength for His, will take place gradually and consistently.

b. How Should I conduct My devotional Time?

The following outline was adapted from a series of messages on the subject, “Renewing The Devotional Habit.” I have found this most helpful in my devotional times.

1) Confess Sin.

Ask the Lord to bring any unconfessed sins to your mind. Acknowledge these sins to God and ask for and receive His forgiveness and cleansing (1 John 1:9,10).

2) Praise God.

Next, take time to give thanks and praise to God for Who He is and for what He has done (Psalm 100).

3) Surrender The Day To God

Tell God how much you need His direction and guidance. Ask for His guidance and obey any instructions you feel God gives you in prayer.

4) Pray For Family, Church All Believers.

Pray for your spouse, children and family members. Pray for your church members and leaders. Pray for believers in other parts of the world. Pray for the orphans and widows (those without family).

5) Pray For Leaders, Missionaries, Evangelism.

Pray for the leaders of your nation. Pray for your spiritual leaders. Pray for the tribes and language groups in your part of the world who still need the gospel. Pray for the missionaries and for the evangelization of other nations.

6) Pray In Other Tongues.

In all this praying – let the Holy Spirit’s action come upon you and pray in other tongues (languages) and pray for the interpretation of your prayers in other tongues (1 Cor 14:13,14).

7) Write Down What The Lord Gives You And Do It!

Write down impressions you feel came to you from the Lord during your prayer time. Take obedient action in response to anything God gives you in prayer.

c. How Do Trials Help Us?

Peter warned us, “.. think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to test you as though some strange things happened unto you” (1 Pet 4:12).

An elderly minister friend of mine told me some years ago, “Brother Ralph, when you try to go on with God, the world will oppose you. When you try to go deeper in God, your fleshly nature will resist you. When you try to go up higher in God, the demonic principalities and powers of the air will fight you.”

Nowhere do we hit resistance like we do when we decide to establish a daily devotional time in which to wait on the Lord. When you get serious about seeking the face of God, expect opposition and trials. They often come.

It is comforting to know that even through trials and tribulation, “God works all things together for good to them that love the Lord, to them who are called according to his purpose” (Rom 8:28 rsv).

As we wait on God, He turns on the fire of trials, tests and temptations, and our lives heat up. When we have reached the “boiling point,” two things result:

1.Sin And Self Are Purged Away.

2.God’s Power Begins Working In Us.

God’s power begins working in us and through us with exciting supernatural consequences.

When you place a cooking pot of water over fire, the water will eventually boil. You cannot hasten or prevent the boiling by watching the water, by stirring it constantly or by ignoring it. Whatever you do, the water will boil when it reaches the boiling temperature. The boiling is the result of the application of heat to the water, not the result of some action of the water upon itself.

In the same way, when we go through the fire of affliction or tribulation, things happen inside us – with no effort on our part. They are the by-product of God’s heat applied to the water of human nature. We experience inner change. Our motives are purified. Our desire to sin is burned away.

“Whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin” (1 Pet 4:1). Yes, it is true, “…they that wait [for His appointed time with prayer and fasting] upon the Lord will exchange their strength for his.”