Waiting on God (in the sense of prayer and meditation) is a focused listening, where we bind ourselves together with him, we are entangling ourselves together with him, mounting up into the realm of the Spirit.
Waiting on God in the sense of time is waiting on answers to prayer in the natural realm, or situations being resolved. Both principles are important. In the sense of time, we learn how to persist in our faith, even when everything in the natural looks like God has not heard our petitions.
When we understand how God interacts with us, we grow in confidence. We know what God is doing in us, and what he is doing through us. We no longer confuse the two. We spend time in his presence receiving revelation, guidance and love.
This is not usually an immediate experience. Waiting on God (in the sense of time) takes patience, because there is a perfect time for everything.
Ecclesiastes 3: 1-to everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.
We have to resist the urge to doubt God when things take longer to happen than we want or expect. When nothing’s happening, we whine sometimes. Am I even in the right place? I’ve discovered that the more impatient I am, the more God slows things down. He is like a watched kettle on a stove-he never boils when we are in a hurry.
We live in Christ, not our circumstances. He is our rest and peace. We do not try to apply peace to our life situations. Peace comes from the heart, not the head. It flows from our spirit. Peace is relational, not circumstantial.
Rejoicing and true Thanksgiving produce peace and rest. Rejoicing and giving thanks from the heart will always overpower anything negative. Rejoicing from the mind gives only a temporary relief. Rejoicing from the heart changes our lifestyle. Thanksgiving is not casual; it’s an experience of the Lord’s joy that liberates us to rejoice. Joy is the abiding atmosphere of heaven, and so it changes our internal atmosphere permanently. Joy is who God is; rejoicing is our response to who God is! We can abide in joy, simply because he does.
Confidence is a lifestyle that emanates out of our internal abiding atmosphere. Do not just visit the nature of God; Live in him. Abide in him, even as he abides in us-John 15: 1-11. Confidence is the consequence of abiding. Confidence is part of our inheritance with the father. Jesus is our inheritance.
1 Corinthians 1:30-but by his doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption. Inheritance, like guidance, is relational. Jesus possesses everything we will ever need for life and godliness.
Our inheritance and our guidance are tied to our relationship with God. I want to run and not be weary; I want to walk and not faint. This boundless, sustaining energy only comes from spending time with God. We cannot receive it through the laying on of hands or some other form of ministry-it only flows from abiding and resting in the Lord. As mature Christians, we must stop asking people to pray for us to receive something that can only come through our own relationship with God.
Should we pray for people? Of course. But we shouldn’t develop a culture that says a person needs that prayer to survive another week spiritually. Every Christian needs to learn how to wait on the Lord, how to bring themselves to rest in him, and how to simply be still. We need to know how the Holy Spirit ministers in everyday life. We don’t come to church for a spiritual top up; we come to church to top someone else up. We live our lives out in the real world with a desire to encourage, bless and spiritually attract someone was never experienced God.
Imagine a body of believers that came to church ready to give, not to receive. What a community that would be!
I want to be very clear: I’m not saying that people who are in spiritual need shouldn’t come to church and receive prayer. I’m saying that there is a more excellent way, however, and our mission must be to teach everyone how to interact with God for themselves. Sometimes, instead of praying for someone, we should be checking what they believe. What are you not believing about God that is causing you to feel this way or do these things? Are you clinging to an old or incorrect idea about God?
God wants us to be constantly moving forward in our faith. We are called to walk a path of spiritual maturity. We have to grow up in our understanding of waiting on him (in the sense of time). He has made more provision for us then we can possibly imagine.
1 Corinthians 2: 9-eyes have not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him.
But to inherit this gift, we have to live in him. We must enter the place he has set aside for us in Christ. The goal of all our gatherings is to establish each of us in that relationship with Jesus. We have a personal responsibility to the Holy Spirit to learn how to abide and stay in Christ. Taking care of our relationship with him is our top priority.