What do I need to know when I am waiting?

As we discussed in the last blog post, there is something more important to God than our breakthroughs and that is our character development. The breakthroughs He values most are character breakthroughs and He is willing to allow us to wait for our breakthroughs if it is the only way to grow our character.

The upsetting fact is that He will intentionally prolong our wait until we have learned what He intended for us to learn.

David was persevering while running for his life from King Saul when he refused to take his destiny into his own hands to obtain his breakthrough by killing Saul when he had a “perfect opportunity”.

The Apostle Paul was persevering when he ran a tent making business during the day and spent the evenings serving an obscure backwater church for over 10 years before the Holy Spirit sent him out to change Christianity forever. Here is a man who has the equivalent of several earned PHD’s; who has the ability and calling to write the theology that will form the foundation of Christianity for all time; teaching a church of nobodies in a town of nobodies far from the center of the action in Jerusalem [where every brain cell in his head tells him he “should” be].

HUMILITY

1 Peter 5:5-6 “…All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”  Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time”.

There are two kinds of humbling in the Bible, the humbling God brings against us and the kind we can choose for ourselves. If you want to make the wait for your breakthrough as short as possible choose to embrace humility.

David chose humility when he loyally served Saul, a man who was his lesser in every way. Joseph chose humility when he set his God-given dream of greatness aside to serve the prison warden with all of his abilities for more than 10 years. Paul chose humility when he submitted to the counsel of Jerusalem on matters of theology when he knew more than all of them combined. And what is most important to remember about humility – it isn’t humility if it is done with an angry and rebellious spirit. Here is a wise plan of action: whenever you are faced with an opportunity to choose humility, take it!

THANKSGIVING

Phil 4:4-7 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!  Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.  Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Nothing could be clearer than this command to rejoice in the Lord always. We are excellent at bringing our requests for a breakthrough to God, but often it is with the wrong heart. The fact is, God responds very poorly to an ungrateful heart.

Complaining will actually postpone your breakthrough.

This is what happened to Israel at the border to the promised land. And the opposite is true; Jonah complained about God’s commission for him and found himself in the belly of a whale, but after singing a song of thanksgiving to the Lord he was spit out on the beach.

Paul finds himself chained to a prison wall and after singing praises and thanksgiving to God the chains fall off and the door falls off its hinges. David wrote many Psalms of lament while he was running for his life, but they end with thanks and praise to God no matter what his present circumstances.

A friend of mine from San Francisco was in New Orleans during Marti Gras doing street preaching when an angry man came out of the crowd and put a 38 to his head and said he was going to kill him. I asked my friend what he did. He said he looked the man in the eyes and said, “thank you Jesus, I get to go to heaven tonight!” The man just lowered his gun and walked away.

Thanksgiving doesn’t just shorten your suffering it changes your suffering because it changes you. Thanksgiving changes the spiritual climate around you.

The most relevant question we can ask ourselves when we are waiting for our “breakthrough” is,

“What is my Father God trying to teach me through this time of waiting?”