I’m going to come right out of the gate and blow your theology out of the water. Waiting on God is not a passive activity that you engage in by quoting scriptures you halfway believe and praying prayers that do not ignite your spirit. Waiting on God is an active display of trust. It’s you maintaining the mindset of victory in the face of pending defeat. But not just for a day, a month, or a year. Sometimes, it’s seasons, decades, lifetimes. At times, so long that the victory will be seen by others, but not you.
In the current society, waiting for anything is unheard of and people have very low tolerance for waiting. The word patience is a dirty word. It’s almost considered a violation of human rights. But the truth is that patience builds character and faith. When you are operating in patience, it gives you time to see things for what they really are. Even though patience is an uncomfortable state, become comfortable with being uncomfortable. Truly yielding to patience can produce some powerful results, if you can tolerate the wait.
In my experience, God hasn’t given me step by step details regarding the path I should take. It’s usually this big idea that my little brain sees as inconceivable. But what He has given me, and you, is His word and His Spirit. If we spend less time whining, begging, doubting and complaining in prayer, we just might find the direction we’ve been looking for.
- Do you actually believe that God can produce the outcome you are waiting for?
This may be hard to believe, but there are unbelieving Believers roaming the earth. They can tell you scriptures, they can “pray”, but they have no faith in what they believe and/or pray. Or they pick and choose what they want to believe. Make the decision now to wholeheartedly trust in the Holy Scriptures and the leading of the Holy Spirit. Our intellect is never superior to God’s revelation.
2. Couldn’t you watch with me even one hour?
Iconic words of our Savior Jesus. You have to maintain your belief in the outcome even when circumstances say otherwise. You have to continue to declare the Word concerning your situation. This is not to say that you deny your situation. You must be diligent to employ both natural and spiritual strategies to achieve the desired outcome. All that to say, don’t get tired, don’t give up on God’s solution to your situation.
3. Did you do the last thing God instructed?
If you skipped a step from the instructions God has spoken to you, you may have passed your open door. Think back to the last instruction and go do that.
4. Encourage yourself in the Lord.
This is done by meditating on the scriptures that pertain to your situation. It’s super important that you meditate on God’s word and not your current circumstances. (Meditating on the problem is called worry, which leads you down a complicated road and ain’t nobody got time for that.) You can also surround yourself with like-minded people that won’t talk you out of pursuing the outcome God has spoken to you either through The Holy Spirit or the rightly divided Scriptures*.
5. Peace, Love, Joy, Holy Spirit
Peace guards your heart and mind from the negativity of your situation, so make sure you maintain it through periods of waiting. Love covers a multitude of mistakes. If you messed up, pick up where you left off and keep moving forward. The joy of the Lord is strength. Delighting yourself in the one who guarantees your outcome should produce joy, even in troubling times. And the most important person in the earth today is the Holy Spirit. He gives you the inside track on what God has in store. But you have to become a good listener to hear the Holy Spirit.
Waiting on God isn’t really waiting on God. It’s actually Him waiting on you. God created the heavens and the earth and then turned it over to the creation that was fashioned like Him. We must be proactive in displaying the glory of our creator. His ways and outcomes may seem strange to others, but when they manifest, God’s hand is undeniable. So if you find yourself in a period of waiting, don’t wait for your manifestation passively! Figure out what God’s outcome to your situation could be and start making changes so that you begin to fit into His outcome instead of expecting God to agree to your terms.
*Results may vary. The average believer may not have the knowledge base to rightly divide the Holy Bible. It is highly encouraged that you sit under the teaching of a learned believer or minister of the gospel in order to develop the ability to rightly divide the word on your own. No one has perfect theology, the Holy Spirit gives us revelation of how to apply the Scriptures to our lives. Find a great body of believers that embraces the Scriptures and embraces the Holy Spirit.
Florencia C. Robertson is a devoted wife and working mom who has authored 2 blogs focusing on the functional application of the 31st chapter of Proverbs and the daily rush hours for working families of 5-9am/pm. She aspires to complete her first fictional book in the near future. Her previous works can be found at byFlorencia.com. You can follow on Twitter @byFlorencia. Florencia is a native of Maryland and currently resides in Charlotte, North Carolina.
