Are you waiting for God? Has God told you He is coming for you? Has God told you that you will be healed? Are you waiting for a breakthrough? Has Word been spoken over you in regards to a promise or a task?
1 Kings 17:12 "And she said, As the Lord your God lives, I have not a loaf baked but only a handful of meal in the jar and a little oil in the bottle. See, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and bake it for me and my son, that we may eat it and die."
God told Elijah to go to the widow for He had commanded her to feed him. We have to assume that God had talked to this gentile widow. God must have told her that a man of God was coming and when he got there, her provisions would not run out and that her and her son would be provided. It was a time of famine. But by the time Elijah got there, the widow was down to her last handful of a meal. She must have grown weary as she waited. When Elijah spoke to her, she responded sarcastically. She must have been a bit upset thinking God was not coming with her answer. She said, "I am gathering only TWO sticks." Imagine that, only two sticks to make a fire. She was angry and distraught. She basically remarked sacrastically that she only needed two sticks and after eating the tiny portion, she and her son was going to die.
When we wait for God, we can grow weary and at times we may just want to give up and die just as the widow had felt. Many of God's servants have gotten angry and given up. It is a hard thing to learn to wait upon God. He at many times of our lives come at the end when we are left with one small meal or our last dollar and not before. He may come when we are at the edge of the Red Sea with no options and with no boats or bridges in view.
This is why we must persevere until the end. Even if someone died, we will have to still hold on to faith because God can still raise the dead. But it is a very hard thing to learn to wait upon God because at the same time, your flesh is being crucified as you learn patience. Your flesh wants to run away. And as you wait, friends such as Job's will come along and make remarks that will try to put you down and test your faith.
One trap we must be aware of is our impatience. It is not that God is late, it is that we are just too impatient. God has His appointed times. But as we wait, He is refining us. We are going through the FIRE of God. The Fire purifies and burns the chaff. But many may jump out of the Fire because the heat and pain may be too intense.
When God's people were in slavery to Eygpy, they cried out to Him. But of course there were no fast food drive throughs, microwaves, or one hour church services to get God's people quickly into the Promise Land. In fact, it was only a couple weeks journey. However, the journey took God's people in circles of 40 years in the wilderness. The promise was made but it was then up to God's people to obey and learn what needs to be learned instead of sinning, complaining, and grumbling. Sin and lack of faith made their journey much longer. The Promises of God are all conditional to our obedience.
As we go through our seasons, we must learn to wait for God's appointed time. It is natural to start calculating dates, numbers, and so forth. It is not a good thing to estimate God's time. I have experienced that God takes a lot longer than we anticipate or hope. If we set dates on our breakthroughs, promises, or even the year of our rapture, we will generally end up getting disappointed. I have learned that He comes at our edge. All we must know is that a promise is made and God's Word is good. He is faithful. As we wait, we are to Rest in Him and to rest in Him is to do the Father's business. It is to do His Will that is has been preordained for your life. As we rest, we learn to persevere and endure overcoming in all things.
Paul said we are running a race. Genearlly, in a race, everyone tries to make it in the fastest time. But the spiritual race must be runned with patience. During the race, we are being refined and molded. Our flesh is being crucifed. If we run the race in haste looking for short cuts, grumbling, and complaining, it will actually take us longer. And if worst, we may just die in our own sins in the wilderness. We must understand that many of God's people during the wilderness did not make it to heaven. They had died in their sins.
Hebrews 3:7-13 (Amplified Bible)Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: Today, if you will hear His voice, 8Do not harden your hearts, as [happened] in the rebellion [of Israel] and their provocation and [a]embitterment [of Me] in the day of testing in the wilderness,9Where your fathers tried [My patience] and tested [My forbearance] and [b]found I stood their test, and they saw My works for forty years.10And so I was provoked (displeased and sorely grieved) with that generation, and said, They always err and are led astray in their hearts, and they have not perceived or recognized My ways and become progressively better and more experimentally and intimately acquainted with them.11Accordingly, I swore in My wrath and indignation, They shall not enter into My rest.(A)12[Therefore beware] brethren, take care, lest there be in any one of you a wicked, unbelieving heart [which refuses to cleave to, trust in, and rely on Him], leading you to turn away and desert or stand aloof from the living God.13But instead warn (admonish, urge, and encourage) one another every day, as long as it is called Today, that none of you may be hardened [into settled rebellion] by the deceitfulness of sin [by the fraudulence, the stratagem, the trickery which the delusive glamor of his sin may play on him].
When you make it through your seasons, you will receive spiritual, financial, and physical blessings as you move from Glory to Glory. The harvest is at the end. But it is at harvest time when the enemy attacks. You can not tell the corn, tomato, potato, fruits or wheat to grow any faster. They will come to maturity and ripen at their appointed times. Persevere brothers and sisters. I know it is hard but you must hold on. Ask God to carry you through the last steps. Let God be Glorified.
Isaiah 40:28-31 (Amplified Bible) Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, does not faint or grow weary; there is no searching of His understanding.29He gives power to the faint and weary, and to him who has no might He increases strength [causing it to multiply and making it to abound].(A)30Even youths shall faint and be weary, and [selected] young men shall feebly stumble and fall exhausted;31But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] shall change and renew their strength and power; they shall lift their wings and mount up [close to God] as eagles [mount up to the sun]; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint or become tired
Glory to Him
Fire of God
Steve Yong Kim
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