 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Time to stop waiting and start receiving!
Recently God put this message on my heart. Too many Christians are waiting, that is, just letting time pass expecting God to move in their lives and He can't. When He does not fix the situation they give up and lose hope. In some cases they blame God, the church, the Pastor or themselves, but the result is the same – God cannot move in their lives simply by praying and then letting time pass.
This cycle has rendered too many Christians powerless, defeated and not much different than the unsaved people around them. In some cases they are worse off because they pray and then do nothing... waiting on God to do a miracle... Meanwhile the unsaved aren't waiting for God so they go ahead and do what ever they can to make a living and in some cases come out looking better than the Church.
It is hard to get the attention of the unsaved world when Christians look defeated, sick and in poverty. Non of which is God's plan or will for any of us!
We read about the miraculous in the early church – what happened.
When did we lose the power? Did God get tired? Did He treat them differently than us?
Absolutely not! God is the same yesterday, today and forever!
Then what is the problem? If you have been taught that waiting on the Lord is a Holy thing and that God is sovereign.. therefore if He answers prayer He will... and if He doesn't then just accept it and He will help you get through the situation... even if it kills you...
THIS
IS A LIE FROM THE PIT OF HELL
AND IT WILL KILL YOU
IF YOU DON”T GET THE TRUTH!
Did you notice that when preachers teach this lie they usually lower their voice and slow it down... This is to make it sound more Holy. Later I will share some scripture that proves God does hear these false teachings and these folks will be held accountable.
Whenever a preacher uses only scripture from the old testament to prove his point if it is not balanced with new testament scripture -you know it will be off... don't accept it.
Some scripture that can be misused or understood is:
Psalm 5:3
3 Listen to my voice in the morning, Lord. Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly.
Psalm 27:14
14 Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.
Psalm 62:1-2 1 I wait quietly before God, for my salvation comes from him.
2 He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will never be shaken.
The classic... The Israelites were complaining and coming to the conclusion that I mentioned earlier...
"The Lord must not care...”
Isaiah 40:27-31
27 O Israel, how can you say the Lord does not see your troubles? How can you say God refuses to hear your case? 28 Have you never heard or understood? Don’t you know that the Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth? He never grows faint or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. 29 He gives power to those who are tired and worn out; he offers strength to the weak. 30 Even youths will become exhausted, and young men will give up. 31 But those who wait on the Lord will find new strength. They will fly high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.
This scripture is talking of applying our faith to the waiting time. (who expect, look for and hope in Him -Amp.)
Where the problem comes is when Christians pray and ask God to intervene in their lives and then let time pass... without applying faith to their prayer. These are all wonderful scripture and truths of God... if we interpret them in light of the new testament teachings. I read these verses and see faith, but I know some have taught "time passing” without the main ingredient to answered prayer ever talked about -that being faith.
If we want prayer answered in our lives we need to get this! Waiting on the Lord has more to do with what we do, and our faith, than it does with time passing. Time alone will not bring the promises of God into our lives. If it did then over the years we would see the worlds hungry being fed and the problems of humanity getting solved. The opposite is true -we see man's problems increasing.
Hebrews 11:6
6 So, you see, it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that there is a God and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.
Sincerely seeking is not just letting time pass...
We start to see this in Galatians 5:5-6
5 But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive everything promised to us who are right with God through faith. 6 For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, it makes no difference to God whether we are circumcised or not circumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love.
Romans 10:5-13
5 For Moses wrote that the law’s way of making a person right with God requires obedience to all of its commands. 6 But the way of getting right with God through faith says, "You don’t need to go to heaven” (to find Christ and bring him down to help you). 7 And it says, "You don’t need to go to the place of the dead” (to bring Christ back to life again). 8 Salvation that comes from trusting Christ—which is the message we preach—is already within easy reach. In fact, the Scriptures say, "The message is close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart.”
9 For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. 11 As the Scriptures tell us, "Anyone who believes in him will not be disappointed.” 12 Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They all have the same Lord, who generously gives his riches to all who ask for them. 13 For "Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
There is so much in this passage. Notice, all the benefits of Salvation "are close at hand”. They need to be in our heart and on our lips. In other words we need to believe the promises of God and speak them out our mouths. If we pray for help and them go around saying God has not helped us then we will get what we say... nothing from God! But if we speak faith to our prayer while waiting on God He will " generously give his riches to all who ask for them.”
It is true most often there is a time period between "Amen and there it is” as Jerry Saville says. Biblical waiting on the Lord – God's way is to ask in faith, expect in faith and receive in Faith. When we know it is God's will for our lives, the time involved in receiving what we've asked for in prayer depends on our faith, not God!
If we start out in faith then give up we should not expect God to answer our prayer either.
Hebrews 10:38-39
38 And a righteous person will live by faith.
But I will have no pleasure in anyone who turns away.”
39 But we are not like those who turn their backs on God and seal their fate. We have faith that assures our salvation.
Waiting on the Lord needs to be a lifestyle of Faith - an expectation of the answered prayer. Time passing has nothing to do with whether God will work in your life. Our faith has everything to do with answered prayer in the time we wait.
Hebrews 11:1-3
1 What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see. 2 God gave his approval to people in days of old because of their faith. 3 By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.
How do we develop our faith to receive the promises of God or answered prayer? We need to get His Word inside of us -in our heart so we can speak it out our mouth's, as we wait on the Lord. The more we develop this the less time will pass between when we pray and when we see God moving in our lives.
Romans 10:17
17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Just believing in God or going to church without faith will not get you answered prayer either. You will keep praying, waiting and getting nothing.
James 2:19-24
19 Do you still think it’s enough just to believe that there is one God? Well, even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror! 20 Fool! When will you ever learn that faith that does not result in good deeds is useless?
21 Don’t you remember that our ancestor Abraham was declared right with God because of what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see, he was trusting God so much that he was willing to do whatever God told him to do. His faith was made complete by what he did—by his actions. 23 And so it happened just as the Scriptures say: "Abraham believed God, so God declared him to be righteous.” He was even called "the friend of God.” 24 So you see, we are made right with God by what we do, not by faith alone.
Now we see that faith alone is not enough... WE have a part to play. WE need to seek the Lord and get to know Him and develop our relationship!
"OH Pastor, I can't do any more!” Then don't expect God to answer your prayers... just keep waiting.
I remind you there is a real danger of falling away in our walk with God if we don't make an effort to get to know His ways. When we simply let time pass while waiting on God without applying constant and real faith that He will answer our prayers we will experience disappointment. With disappointment comes apathy -with apathy comes drifting away...
2 Peter 1:1-11
1 This letter is from Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ.
I am writing to all of you who share the same precious faith we have, faith given to us by Jesus Christ, our God and Savior, who makes us right with God.
2 May God bless you with his special favor and wonderful peace as you come to know Jesus, our God and Lord, better and better.
3 As we know Jesus better, his divine power gives us everything we need for living a godly life. He has called us to receive his own glory and goodness! 4 And by that same mighty power, he has given us all of his rich and wonderful promises. He has promised that you will escape the decadence all around you caused by evil desires and that you will share in his divine nature.
5 So make every effort to apply the benefits of these promises to your life. Then your faith will produce a life of moral excellence. A life of moral excellence leads to knowing God better. 6 Knowing God leads to self-control. Self-control leads to patient endurance, and patient endurance leads to godliness. 7 Godliness leads to love for other Christians, and finally you will grow to have genuine love for everyone. 8 The more you grow like this, the more you will become productive and useful in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But those who fail to develop these virtues are blind or, at least, very shortsighted. They have already forgotten that God has cleansed them from their old life of sin.
10 So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Doing this, you will never stumble or fall away. 11 And God will open wide the gates of heaven for you to enter into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Jesus is very interested in us. He desires a personal relationship with us and He knows us better than we know ourselves. He wants to answer our prayer, but we have a part to play.
Revelation 2:19
19 "I know all the things you do—your love, your faith, your service, and your patient endurance. And I can see your constant improvement in all these things.
God desires to answer our prayer and get all His promises into our lives because He is Glorified in doing this for us. Lets not disappoint Him by letting another second go by without repenting if we have been just waiting, as opposed to, waiting in faith, opening the door to the miraculous in our lives!
I believe, as we apply and develop our faith -while waiting, we can get to a place that as we say Amen and open our eyes -our answer is already there. Now that will be truly worth the wait!
Submission by,
Pastor Dale