Sometimes we don't know what to do in the delay. You're waiting for a loved one and they're held over at a connecting airport because of bad weather. Supper is on the table and you're waiting for your husband to get home from work; he should have been home forty-five minutes ago but he's caught in traffic. Let's turn it up a notch. You need a miracle and it's not happening. Your church's finances are on tilt, you need a job, a healing, etc. We can go on and on. The bottom line is we need Jesus to show up on the scene and we need Him to arrive now or preferably yesterday.
How are we going to conduct ourselves while we wait for Him to show up? Do we become casual and lazy? Do we work something up in our own strength? Do we compromise and take something close enough? These are very legitimate questions we have to ask ourselves.
Abraham was promised by God that he would be the father of a multitude. Abraham and his wife Sarah were both well along in age. I think it would be safe to say past child bearing years. They devised a plan because they couldn't wait for God to move. They chose to do things their way. We all know that Abraham went into his wife's maidservant, she conceived and birthed a son by the name of Ishmael. Ishmael was blessed of God and became a great nation; however, he wasn't God's original plan. What Abraham and Sarah had done in their own timing and in their own strength became more than they bargained for.1 This is definitely building on a wrong foundation. If we do these things the end result is normally a nightmare.
If God isn't moving or moving fast enough, do you manipulate things or take things into your own hands to produce something that looks like His creation on the outside but was never of His genesis?
Saul was set in as king because the elders of Israel wanted a king like all the other nations.2 After Saul was anointed as king Samuel gave him direction to go down to Gilgal and wait for his arrival.3 Upon his arrival, Samuel was going to tell Saul what he should do.
Saul waited the appointed days in Gilgal and Samuel didn't show up, therefore, King Saul took things into his own hands.4 He felt compelled, or we could say he forced himself, to present a burnt offering, the very thing that Samuel was suppose to do. Samuel arrived and appeared to be a bit perturbed and asked Saul what he had done. Here are Saul's reasons, or what are really excuses, why he did what he did: 5
1. He saw the people were scattered from him.
2. Samuel didn't come within the appointed days (he did finally arrive on the scheduled day).
3. The Philistines gathered for war against Israel.
Things didn't look too good in the natural.
We, as leaders in the community of The King, should realize that God will delay His coming to see if we will trust and obey Him, or work something up that appears to be very spiritual in the delay. He's looking for those who will obey Him and wait for Him no matter what it looks like or what is surrounding them.
When God delays, do you get moved by what you see or don't see around you in the natural? Can you hold your position and not be moved to enter into spiritual activities that you shouldn't be? God is looking for those who can keep their head in the midst of pressure and His delaying.
In the parable of the Ten Virgins they all slumbered and slept as they awaited the bridegroom. They nodded off.7 This particular setting doesn't depict them in a place of rest, which would be good, but rather a state of idleness and laziness. They enjoyed the life of ease. They kind of got caught off guard when the call came that the bridegroom was coming. The foolish virgins certainly had not made purchases while they had the time and opportunity to. They were lacking the oil which was necessary.8 I'm sure they were wishing they would have done things different after they showed up late and the door was shut.
As Jesus delays His return, are you in a place of passivity or activity? Oil (the Holy Spirit) increases in our lives as we actively surrender to the Lord and walk in obedience to His will. This is a costly affair in which we can pay now or pay later.
After Moses, who is a type of Christ, spent time with God up on the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments, he came back down only to find that the congregation got a little antsy. Moses was taking too long. In the postponement they started to partake of, or join in, some activity that was impure. They were playing with fire. God's Word says that the Israelite children sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. This playing was a form of spiritual fornication. The children of God were now flirting with, or making sport with, another god (spirit). God's children were in a state of defenselessness. Their spiritual discernment was void. They entered into a state of looseness. They had abandoned themselves to the experience at hand. They had cast off all restraint. I'm sure there was great excitement and stimulation as they “worshiped”.9
There is much available in these days to dabble in while we wait for our Lord's return. Ezekiel speaks of a people set apart to God who will teach between the holy and the unholy and will cause the people of God to discern between the unclean and the clean.10 This is relevant for us in our day.
What are you joining in on? What will you join yourself to, or allow to be joined to you? We all so desperately want God to move in our midst. We all desire something fresh in God. I'm afraid we will jump on board with just about anything that makes itself available if we aren't careful and in an attitude of testing the spirits.
There are “moves of the Spirit” going on right now as you read this, in different parts of the body of Christ. My question is this: are the children of God sitting down to eat and drink of the flesh and blood of Christ;11 which would mean walking in the way of the cross displayed by crucifying their flesh, or are they sitting down to fulfill the lusts of their flesh and of their idolatrous spirits with something termed “this is God”?
The works of the flesh are laid out clearly in Galatians 5: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, to name a few. Please understand, all these mentioned are also attainable in the spiritual dimension. We need to be aware that all of this above mentioned spiritual idolatry is happening all around us. We have outward image worship taking place and magical mystics are on the loose. There are so called “men of God”, manifestations and angels that are taking a place of preeminence above Christ. There is an increase of spiritual uncleanness throughout the body of Christ like I've never seen.
As the Lord delays His return many are running after the experience(s) of some god (spirit). Others are running after the experiences of God instead of the God of the experience(s). What will our choices be?
My hope and prayer is that we will not compromise in the flesh or the spiritual in the day of delay.
1 Genesis chapters 15,16,17
2 1Samuel 8:4-5
3 1Samuel 10:1, 8
4 1Samuel 13: 8-9
5 1Samuel 13:11-12
6 Judges 7:4
7 Matthew 25:5
8 Matthew 25:8-9
9 Exodus 32:1, 6, 25
10 Ezekiel 44:15, 23
11 John 6:53-56
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