) I was reminded of a post I wrote in September of 2008, most part of which is the title above.
I trust these simple thoughts will perhaps encourage someone today that is needful of some help in these areas of waiting and going, and listening and speaking.
must be as ready to wait as to go,
as prepared to be silent as to speak”
Lewis Sperry Chafer
How’s that for a thought? So often we are taught to “Go, go, go! for God.”, “Get involved everywhere”, “Put your name down for as many ministries as you can.”, “If you’re not getting involved, then you are not growing and fitting in.” Has this happened to you? Have you been pressurised to join in because it was expected of you, because it’s the ‘done thing’ without giving it a second thought as to what God wants for you?
I sometimes think that we must look like a trail of ants going on and on about our business, doing this and that and keeping busy, busy, busy for the Lord and if you are like I was until very recently, you are might well be saying to the Lord while looking over your shoulder, “Lord, are you keeping up?”
I tried, without realising it, to fit God’s vision for my life into my vision of my life, instead of the other way round. Living like this is so exhausting because we do it in our strength and not in His and we burn out, because in the process, we often neglect our relationship with Him because we are so busy, busy, busy.
I believe God wants us to be so in-tune with His Spirit that we know exactly what, when and where we are meant to do, say or be. That’s how Jesus walked, lived and spoke. That is the intimacy He is looking from each one of us and with each one of us. So how do we get to that with Him? Certainly not by doing, doing doing. Angus Buchan says “A good idea is not always a God idea.”
Just because there is a gap in a ministry or a need to be met, doesn’t mean we can rush right on in and go for it. Has it been taken it to the Lord to see what He thinks about it then waited on for His response? Sometimes He says “No”. God does say “No”. Are our lives so given to Him that we can hear that “No”? Can we hear Him when He says “Be quiet, don’t speak now.”? He sees the big picture of what is going on, we see the little picture often only of what we can see right in front of our eyes at that moment. Isaiah 40:31 says “But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.” (NKJV). In His strength we are renewed when we wait for Him.
A friend of mine started going to a bible study for ladies and for months she just sat, saying very little. She went to the Lord time and again, asking what her purpose was for going seeing as she was not saying anything much or contributing. He was silent, so she carried on going as she was clearly not told to “Stop going”. She has walked closely with the Lord for many, many years and has so many riches to share with brothers and sisters. One day she was bursting to make a comment or two to one of the ladies and she sensed the Lord saying to her, “So, are you going to give out your wisdom and experience or Mine?” The comment died in her mouth before she opened it, and she had to do some soul searching with Him about her spiritual pride which the Lord showed her had started creeping in. And she sat silent for weeks more until one day, the Lord ‘opened’ her mouth to another of the ladies who was struggling with an aspect of her life and the Lord gave her exactly what she needed, by what was said. If she had spoken before, she might have interfered with whatever the Lord was busy doing in her life at that time and she would have prevented her from going through what was necessary for her growth in the Lord. It is about His perfect timing for each life and our utter obedience to His voice.
Our obedience to God in absolutely everything, it is crucial in our walk with Him. We have to do everything we do and say, as ‘Unto the Lord’, but the problem sometimes comes in when we can get all ‘puffed up” with self-importance or feel spiritually superior to another or get overenthusiastic without using His wisdom in a given situation which can happen so easily – our flesh is very strong. There is no space in our hearts for ourselves, they need to be so surrendered and submitted to Him, that we can get to the place where we know instinctively when the tiny voice of the Holy Spirit is directing us.
I have blundered many, many times over years in my walk with the Lord, by not listening or not hearing or being too enthusiastic and not waiting, and even, I am ashamed to say, spiritually proud. It is only by the patience and grace of God that I have been able to learn and move a bit further along with Him than where I was before.There has been lots of heartache and agony of realisation afterwards, that where I barged in was not what God had wanted.
I am so grateful to the Lord that in everything we can give thanks and we can repent and can move on with Him in confidence, without feeling condemned. As we grow in Him and make ourselves wholly available to Him, we learn slowly how to “live and move and have our being in Him.” (Acts 17:28)
1 Kings 19:11-13 reads: Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the LORD.” And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice. So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him, and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” .
That’s the place we all need to strive to get to. If we are so noisy and busy in our lives, we will never hear the still small voice. Can you hear it? Ask Him to open your heart and ears. He will do it.
Bless you
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