My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defense; I shall not be moved. (Psalm 62:5-6)
Waiting on the Lord is one of the hardest things for the flesh to embrace. One of the biggest obstacles to moving into the new season, and moving into greater glory and harvest, is impatience. Impatience caused Moses to be set on the backside of the desert for forty years as the Lord dealt with his life and character. Impatience caused King Saul to presumptively take matters into his own hands when it seemed Samuel was delayed in his arrival to bless the troops before battle (1 Sam. 10), thus causing a hardening of his heart in pride and ultimately losing the kingdom. Impatience by the newly saved Saul of Tarsus caused unnecessary turmoil and problems for the still infant church in Jerusalem, causing the senior leaders to send him back home to Tarsus for the discipline of silence and solitude (Acts 9:27-31). Part of the Lord’s refining process to prepare us to enter into the fullness of His presence and purposes is learning to wait on the Lord. There’s nothing more irritating and deadly to the fallen nature, but conversely reviving to the Spirit of God within us, than waiting on God. Waiting on the Lord is part of the sifting process where the precious (His presence within the believer) is separated from the worthless (that which is under the dominion of the world, the flesh and the enemy). This has always been a necessary stage in the sanctification/training process in a believer’s life before moving forward into the fullness of the Lord’s purposes.
Most, if not all of those whose hearts beat after the Lord, desiring to fulfill His desire and His purposes, have been going through this process over the last few years. While I was out for a prayer walk one morning recently, the Lord asked me three questions that determine whether I am ready to move forward into a greater manifestation of His presence, power AND engagement with the enemy. I submit them to you as He did to me….
- What is the Lord sifting from your life that must go in order to move forward into this next season? Before we answer that question, it would greatly behoove us to seek Him and what He sees as to what He wants to separate, because it may not be the obvious. Sometimes what we ask Him to help us remove from our lives, He pays no attention to because it’s a fruit and not a root. Only the Holy Spirit can reveal the specific thing that is hindering us from moving forward, and He will reveal it. Warning: it’s usually something we think is ok and actually of value to Him! It can be humiliating to actually find out the source of the hindrance.
- What of the past, good, bad or otherwise, are we still grasping to? We must let go, not only of failures, but of victories as they could become monuments to nostalgia and sentiment that will block the narrow gate we must pass through into the new season (Phil. 3:7-11).
- What aspect of Himself is He trying to form in you to move forward? He will only release authority and power to that which is conformed to His image. The greater the transforming work of the Holy Spirit within, the greater the fullness of His kingdom and purposes are released and established.
What are we waiting for?