Seattle Services
Ephesians 4:20, 21 Amp. But you did not so learn Christ! Assuming that you have really heard Him and been taught by Him, as [all] Truth is in Jesus [embodied and personified in Him].
Each day, as we walk out the hours that God gives us, do we ever think to stop and say, “Now, did I learn Christ in what I just did? Is that the way of my Lord?” Are we making ourselves more conscious every day, in every way, to live and walk before Him? Learn to love His Presence so much that you judge yourself, and ask yourself, “Did I so learn Christ? Is that the way He taught me to walk?” Make yourself sensitive to His ways. In order to do that, where do your eyes have to be? That is right. They need to be on Him. Isn't that exciting? I cannot think of a better place for my eyes to be than on Him. I love it when He is ever present, and I do not like it when my mind has strayed.
Even now, Jesus is in the midst of this congregation. He is here in His manifest Presence, He stands in the back of the room. He is here to allow you to become sensitive to Him, and He desires that you recognize when He is here. He wants you to know, suddenly in your spirit, that the Lord has come. He also wants to teach us His ways. He wants to teach us truth and to help us love and desire truth. He wants to teach us to put everything aside that does not bow the knee to Christ. He is a good God and a supreme Teacher.
What I am going to tell you is true, as the Lord sees it. One of the biggest problems that the Church has today is that we are not on the quest for truth. We are willing to settle for comfort, for an appeasement of our own will, or we are satisfied with coming to Church and getting a touch from the Lord. We are willing to settle for a day that just goes well for a change, but we are not on a quest for truth. The Lord Jesus Christ wants us to quit settling and to come up higher. He wants us to walk in a place where we walk and live in truth. As I was contemplating all day about what I would give you, the Lord quickened to me this message. He said, “I am truth. All truth is in Me. Talk to them about truth.” So this is from His heart to your heart so that you might align your path more perfectly in the Lord's way and so that you might identify the Lord Jesus.
My people, Israel were down at the bottom of the mountain. They had just seen the most outstanding deliverance any people have ever known. He made Himself a name by what He did. He disciplined Egypt, and He pulled His people out that they might know Him, at the very least, as Abraham knew Him. After all, they were the offspring of father Abraham. He wanted the entire nation to come to know Him, serve Him, and love Him at least as much as Abraham had done. He pulled them out of Egypt by a mighty, outstretched hand. He did it in such a way that Israel would forever know that He had taken them out of the world, separated them from every other people on the earth, and took them unto Himself.
He could have delivered my people many years before. He could have. Eighty years before, He could have delivered them, but there was a purpose, an appointed time, and a kairos moment when He would do this in such a way that both the world and Israel would know that Israel belongs to God. We are speaking about the God of love, so may I interject something here? He waited not only because He loved Israel, but also because of His great love and long-suffering, He had allowed the Gentile people of the “Land” a timeline to repent of their sin before He would have to root them out. Their cup of sin had not yet come to fullness. Love was waiting for both Israel to be ready and for the Gentile Nations’ cups to fill before their destruction would finally come.
I am feeling the distinctive character of God’s love in my heart right now that made Him wait. I am also feeling the love of God that made Him act, two different sides of His love. Isn't it amazing that God waited, not out of indifference, but out of love? When you read the account of the many decades that Israel was in bondage, you wonder, “If You love, why did You wait?” Since we cannot question God, we automatically say, “Oh, see how God loved. I just do not understand why He waited” But the truth is that He waited because He loved. I am overwhelmed with this truth. God always waits because He loves. He does not wait because He does not know or care. The Scripture says that He heard their cry. (Ex 3:7) You might think that they had to wait until He heard them, and once He heard their cry, He acted, but that is not true. He heard their cry a long time ago, but He waited because He loved. That is the truth.
When has God waited in your life that you thought He did not hear or care? God waits because He loves. Isn't that astounding? I can think of a dozen things that He could have done a year, two years, or five years ago. I would have been so pleased, but He loves me so much that He is going to wait until His perfect moment, and then He will do what His love compels Him to do. And as for you, you have waited for God. He has not ignored you, although it looks like He has. In His perfect moment, He will deliver and come through because the same God who waits because He loves is the same God who acts because He loves. That is the truth about Jesus, the Father, and the Kingdom of God.
Sometimes, when you look at a situation with much suffering, there is nothing you would not lay at His feet to end it. In your humanity, you would do or give anything if He would just move and end the suffering. Even though you do not want to, you end up getting hurt over it because you do not understand.
Some get so weary of waiting that they quit waiting, and they give up. That is what happened to Moses. You might say, “Where is that in the Bible?” What did Moses do when God finally came? He said, “This is not for me. Find someone else.” (Ex 3:11; 4:13) He meant it because he had given up. The hope that he was created to be the deliverer of Israel had dried up in his heart. He truly wanted God to find someone else. But God is so good. He waits beyond our schedule. When He comes, we give Him our bad attitudes, and He forgives and keeps moving on with His plan. When He finally comes, it is always His perfect time to come. He does not want you left behind. Isn't this exciting? “Yes,” you say, “What I have always wanted is to be comforted in my waiting room.” His presence becomes our comfort.
There is a chief purpose in why God waits. Partly it is because of the many preparations He must make ready before His moment arrives. One time I was thinking about some of the wonderful and astounding things that He had done in one of our Gatherings, and He said to me, “Nita, the suddenlies are never really sudden. When it's a big issue, I work behind the scenes for many years—sometimes, even more than a hundred. Then it breaks forth suddenly, and you think that I just woke up.” I laughed because it let me know how well He reads my heart. He prepares sometimes for hundreds of years for one major “suddenly.” I was astounded. I said, “Lord, why did it take so long?” He said, “The hand of progress moves slowly.” I thought, “Are you playing off a human term?” But it is truth that I am speaking to you. All truth is in Jesus.
To be continued next week...
