Waiting On The Lord

Waiting On The Lord

7/8/18

This phrase and topic are bound to cause some level of heartburn in people who believe that sitting around is okay in the eyes of God.  This type of service to God is a gross misconception that has infiltrated the very core of the Church and now is flourishing to an overflowing capacity.  Waiting on the Lord is an active act of obedience to the commands that both God and Jesus have given us to fulfill and if we are not completing this mission on a daily basis then we need to stop and readjust our hearts back to God.  It must be stated that if one is not continually being a witness for God to others that they are not in obedience and thus representing the kingdom of this world.  We still have time to repent and to allow God to restore our hearts back into the rightful place of obedience and then really complete the mission of waiting on the Lord.

How many of us know that a person can have a specific position in the church and still be in direct conflict and disobedience to God?  It is more common than one would think and we have no further to look than in the Catholic Church to see that total corruption lies within the heart of those who consider themselves to be leaders of God’s people.  It does not stop there either, for every denomination has either accepted worldly doctrines or has ignored the sinful lies that our enemy has deemed acceptable.  It does not matter what sin is considered friendly by the world it should not be allowed within the walls of the church building and it most definitely should not be considered friendly to the child of God.  But at the same time, it must be known that those who stand with God should not automatically shun the sinner but to love them as Christ loved the Church and should do their best to show these wonderful people the truth about their lives and their sin.  Yet, we would rather condemn them and turn them away before their world falls apart so who will they turn towards when their lives take this drastic turn?  Our examples that we show them today will determine how they react and who they choose to follow tomorrow and if we are sitting in our pews accepting anything that comes through the doors as truth, all we are doing is fulfilling the will of the kingdom of Satan.

The television series “Band of Brothers” came out almost two decades ago and made a great impact on many lives for it was a series that detailed a single company of men that fought hard and struggled to survive during the days of World War II.  One of the more action-packed episodes was entitled “Crossroads” and it had a great example of leadership and obedience demonstrated that one can give as a testimony of both issues of wartime.  One of the scenes in this episode dealt with an early morning surprise raid of part of the company that involved the men crossing an open field exposing themselves to the enemy even before a single shot was fired.  The leader of the group gave the command to stay in place until he gave the signal for them to begin their own personal advance but to wait for that signal because if they did not and jumped the gun then all means of surprise would be taken away and a disaster for their group could ensue.

As the leader jumped up and began to run across the field alone, he had no backup or protection for he was all alone sprinting across an open field for all who were looking to see.  After a few seconds, one of the soldiers who were behind and in place began to get up for he was anxious to help the leader out, but the commander in charge of the halted group said to wait for the signal.  This must have seemed like an eternity to those who were left to wait for the appropriate time.  Eventually, the leader dropped a canister of red smoke at his appointed time and thus the signal was given to those who were behind him.  The men then jumped up and charged to the leader who was already firing on the enemy.  By the time the rest of the men arrived at the leader’s position, a huge surprise of sleeping targets awaited their eyes and this action proved to be one of the most stimulating and riveting skirmishes in this episode.  Yes, many were killed and wounded on the side of the enemy but to the troops on the side of the Allies, it was a great victory and a wonderful example of both leadership and of obedience.  The men, while in a painful setting had to obey their leader in order to follow their leader and this provides us with a perfect example of what God wants us to learn about today, for waiting on the Lord is done through complete obedience to what His commands are, on all levels and not just one level alone.

One of the greatest farces of belief in the Christian world is that once we are saved that our job is over and that all we have to do now is sit down and be docile, read the Bible, and wait on Jesus’ return.  We have become so complacent in this lie that we actually have begun the process if reserving our tickets to Heaven by first reserving our places on the pews and thus kicking out anyone else who may be in those places.  If I am addressing anyone of you with this specific example, then good for I shall be stepping on your toes hard enough that you actually stand up off of that pew seat and actually demonstrate that you can get up off your duff and provide the others around you that you do have life within your presence.  It does not matter what God has called you to do for His Kingdom and I understand that there are countless ways to serve in Hid capacity but I can GUARANTEE you one thing and that is sitting on your rear ends in a pew for the rest of your breathing life is NOT ONE OF THEM!  If one does such an act then you are waiting on the kingdom of Satan and thus not waiting on the Lord.  One more detail to remember here and that is if you are not obeying the Kingdom of God then you are automatically obeying the kingdom of Satan.

Sitting in the pews of your local church or reading the Bible and then not actively participating in the eternal harvest that Jesus taught about means that you are hearing what God wants our hearts to understand – providing that the ministers are living by and teaching according to His Word – yet disobeying His command by believing your ticket to heaven is punched.  This picture cannot help but pain a selfish and superficial belief in God and a deep belief in oneself and God wants us to understand that when you accomplish this belief of yours you actually enable fear to rule your life because one cannot have the peace and contentment that God and His definition provides unless you dive deep into His Word each day for direction, knowledge, and security.  True waiting on the Lord is listening to His instruction and listening to His commands and holding those instructions within the confines of your heart for one day God shall ask you to charge to those who need the information that He has given you.  If we do not obey this command of listening and studying His Ways then when the time comes for us to have the discipline to obey in battle we will be like that one soldier who wanted to jump the gun and go out when he was ready, then the spiritual bloodbath will occur and only further devastation will occur instead of an eternal victory.

Isaiah 40:31 is a well-known verse that I have heard taught and have read many times and when God gave me this verse to share with you He did so in such a manner as to place it into an obedience factor that I had never noticed before.  I have understood the waiting on the Lord concept for a while and God has shared the beginnings of this concept to us before but He now wants us to understand just how important it is to not only hear His instructions but to place them into our hearts deep enough that we know to listen for His voice when the time comes for us to witness to whomever God wishes for His Words to be heard.  It is our responsibility to charge into the spiritual realm when God says to do so, not to shed physical blood by any means but to combat the spiritual forces that stand in the way of God’s Kingdom being advanced.  If we are sitting in the pews of our church building and filing our nails with an emery board or walking by those who are openly defying God in the streets and saying nothing to them about such sins, then we demonstrate to them that we only know God on a superficial level and thus can only provide a superficial explanation concerning God and His Kingdom.

Isaiah tells us that when we wait on the Lord we will renew our strength.  How is this possible, someone will ask?  When we wait on the Lord we are actively completing what God and Jesus commanded us to do and when we complete this truth act to the world God promises us that He will give us the strength to not only complete this mission of His but will also continue the added strength afterward as well.  But we can only achieve such holy and pure strength if we are grounded in the Word of God and as the song goes “drink deep in the morning” because it is through this process of study that only provides this spiritual energy.  Each portion of this verse explains what will reside within our lives if we only seek God first and to place Him first in our lives at all times.  On the other hand, this verse becomes dead and will provide nothing in the form of life if we do not have the willing heart to understand what God is speaking to us here.  This verse simply states that when we stay close to God and seek His wisdom through His Word, He is faithful to provide us with His supernatural energy to complete what He has commanded us to do.  It always feels good to see God’s Kingdom flourish and advance and I understand completely what it means to fly as eagles when God is present and providing light to the darkness.

The other day, my mother told me that a lady came up to her and asked if she would be willing to give her piano lessons because she said that my mother played the piano wonderfully.  Mom has never had a piano lesson in her life, conveyed this to the lady and thus stated that she was not qualified to give any lessons what-so-ever.  So how does my mother play so brilliantly?  It is because of her obedience to God and her desire to see the Kingdom of God advance for even though she has never had a lesson in piano, God allows His ability to be directed through her so that others can know Him.  Her example is the perfect example of Isaiah 40:31 being manifested through a person’s life in order that others may know God and His Kingdom.  It is her obedience that completes the mission that God wants her to be and it means that she is not sitting around and just “waiting to have her ticket to heaven punched” either.  Could my mother give lessons to the lady that asked her to provide them?  Of course, she could for she is that talented but it is not what God wants her to do.  It is very important that we understand that when opportunities arise that do not support the calling of God that we know when to obey the leader’s commands; both aspects go hand-in-hand.

We can never forget that our fight does not rely on the physical aspects (superficial) of our walk with Christ but that on a spiritual level alone.  It is easy for us to take advantage of the current facts in the world and react accordingly, but that is on a superficial plane and should not be fought.  If we abide by such superficial activities then we are once again providing the example of the single soldier wanting to go help the leader before the appointed time the leader commanded us to wait for.  The key here is a simple combat detail that involves obedience, see when any type of signal is given it is done so that usually brings an added surprise to the setting and in the case of the “Band of Brothers” episode the signal turned out to be an exploding smoke canister that gave off a red color in the air.  If the men had been in the immediate area of that canister it would have temporarily blinded them and made them incapable of completing the mission that the leader wanted to be done.  They would have become easy targets for the enemy and thus hurt the planned setting for battle.  The same goes for obedience to God and how we should always be listening to His voice through obedience because as it was stated above that when we do not then something is going to be fouled up and people could be lost for eternity.

It is this type of superficial living that encrusts our nation today and will be the reason that this nation will follow in the footsteps of Israel and not God.  God has provided us with many examples of our greed, prostitution, envy, jealousy, pride, and categorical sin for a long time now and for each example of these issues, we have superficially either dealt with or mainly ignored.  We have come to the point where we do not care to seek any deep meaning to the conditions that we currently face but would rather try to hide them or worse cover them up with flawed human resources.  When one tries to claim that this nation is the beacon to the world they do so in such a way that they exclude God and ignore the true Creator of this nation, a nation that is Created by God has a specific purpose for its presence and if not correctly demonstrated as it was created, cannot expect anything but a devastating fall; ask Israel about this truth.  Israel was destroyed by the Assyrians and taken into captivity, they vowed to rebuild and become stronger instead of rebuilding as God would see them; a true act of defiance on their part.  Once again, we as a nation and as a society are following our own superficial beliefs trying to combat a battle that we are approaching incorrectly and subsequently will suffer huge losses unless we change to spiritual tactics.

So what is the condition of the Church today?  It is a simple question that one may ask of themselves because YOU are the Church.  But many of us refuse to ask such a deep and honest question for they know what the answer will be and what is sad is that many of the people who refuse to ask themselves this question were born and raised either in church or around church their entire lives.  What kind of example does this provide to the world?  It is an example that represents the single soldier who had great intentions but could have exposed the men before they had to be, a condition that would have proven deadly for true freedom for others.  Place this condition and picture on a spiritual level and one will see that a higher price of someone’s eternity is at stake here and cannot be fumbled when combat arrives.  So when we look at the Church, the one spiritual organization that should set the example of difference from the world, how come is it that we see the world overrunning us basically without opposition?

Church, we are the light of the world because we have received the Truth about life through Jesus Christ.  It is our responsibility to teach this light and to show the light of God to the dark world that is around us.  We cannot complete this mission and command of ours unless we understand the depth of God’s Word enough to know how to fight this battle that is around us.  Instead of standing around and watching people unknowingly yet willingly beat and bruise themselves on a physical and superficial plane why don’t we interject and fight this skirmish on the spiritual level, the level where origins are present.  Instead of only providing summer bathing suits during winter time, why don’t we provide the true necessities of clothing that are needed for the appropriate occasion and season?  In this case, we need to be teaching repentance and restoration to the dark world all of which boils down to understanding how to fight effectively on a spiritual level.  God does not wish to see any of His children perish and be eternally separated from Him and by us waiting on the Lord (our responsibility and mission) to demonstrate to them of this truth.

DLB