Watch and Wait

The Lord has been speaking loudly in the last few days.  His word to us is to ‘watch and wait’. Habakkuk 2:1 reads, “I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.”  Isaiah 64:4 reads, “For from days of old they have not heard or perceived by ear, nor has the eye seen a God besides You, Who acts in behalf of the one who waits for Him.” 

What does it mean to ‘watch and wait’?  Oswald Chambers offers this explanation, “Waiting means standing under, in active strength, enduring til the answer comes.”

So the question is, “What do we do while we wait?”  When Saul was blinded on the road to Damascus, God sent a man to announce to Saul or Paul that his sight was restored. That man was Ananias who was a devout man.  He gave Paul some great counsel…this was divinely inspired counsel. Acts 22:14-15 reads, “Then he said, ‘The God of our fathers has chosen you that you should know His will, and see the Just One, and hear the voice of His mouth. [15] For you will be His witness to all men of what you have seen and heard.”

God has many of His saints in a holding pattern. You are like a 747 circling Atlanta airport. You are waiting…speculating if there is going to be enough fuel to last!  When you don’t know what to do, do what David did.  We were reading in our morning devotion in I Chronicles 14:10…which says that David inquired of God.  In fact, twice in this chapter, David inquired of the Lord.  Each time God told him what to do and each time, David obeyed completely.  There will be times when you inquire and God will impress you with specific orders for the day.

But what if He again says, “Wait”?  What do you do then? Let’s look at the counsel that God used Ananias to give to Paul. In these two verses, God uses Ananias to tell us four things we are to concentrate on.

1. To know His will.  All of us have been chosen of God…to know His will…His person, His salvation, His sanctification, His mysteries, His revelation, His commandments—all that is involved in the will of God.

2. To see the Just One: the Messiah, the Son of God Himself, the Sinless One, the Righteous One.

3. To hear the voice of His mouth: knowing Him personally, fellowshipping with, praying and sharing with, being guided and directed by, being instructed by.

The first three on the list are of major importance before we attempt to do the fourth one. The first three can be summarized by a simple command that Jesus gave in John 15:4 when Jesus said, “Abide in Me and I in you.”  This is where you spend time with God.  While you wait on God, you spend time with God.  This is His prime motivation for getting you to wait…He longs for your company…your presence…He desires to be with you and know you and let you know Him.  Waiting before the Lord is not wasted time…it is power time…because everytime you spend time with the Lord, you have a similar experience as Moses did. Exodus 34:29-30 reads, “Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the Testimony were in Moses’ hand when he came down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him. [30] So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.”

4. To be a witness.  I believe that our witness is needed in two places. 1. In the world…for the world needs to know Jesus Christ as the only Savior for mankind. 2. In the Church…for the church needs to know that God can be trusted. When you act in faith and share your story of faith, you witness to the goodness and greatness of God. The Church needs to see this now more than ever!  Live you life in such a way that the world knows that God can be trusted!

I know that some of you may be wondering, “Is Billy and Sheilah off their rocker?” You have wondered how long will we wait on the Lord.  You may be saying, “Just…do something!” I want you to know that the temptation for us is to jump right now…and do something in the flesh…or to confer with flesh and blood. Let me assure you that our ‘holding pattern’ is not in vain. Sheilah and I continue to meet the Lord early in the morning. These times are the grandest times right now…more than it has ever been. God’s presence is more intense now than ever. True…we don’t have a clue what He is about to do. But I have this feeling that God is enjoying our presence even more than we are enjoying His.  Wow…that is unbelieveable!

So until He delivers His Word to us and opens a door…we continue to seek to know His will, to see Him, to hear His voice and declare a witness that God will sustain you…provide, prepare, and protect you and declare a witness that Jesus is the only answer to man’s dilemna.