Waiting in habitual fellowship with God – Part 6

Have you ever had a close friend or relative die and you had to visit the family of the deceased? As a pastor, I have experienced these occasions multiple times. More often than not, you will enter a room and meet everybody seated, nobody is saying anything, everybody is speechless, staring straight ahead, looking at nothing. Then after one or two hours of showing your respect to the family, you take your leave. This is exactly what Job’s friends did when he lost all his children, properties and everything dear to him. They sat down silent for seven full days. Nobody said a single word. That is what waiting on the Lord requires. “So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, AND NONE SPAKE A WORD, unto him…” Job 2v13.

As I said in an earlier article, Moses waited in total silence for six days on the top of Mount Sinai, and then on the seventh day, God called him and began to speak to him. Exodus 24:15&16. “Blessed is the man THAT HEARETH ME, WATCHING DAILY AT MY GATES, WAITING AT THE POSTS OF MY DOORS.” Proverbs 8:34

This exercise is to be a daily affair. You sit and wait at the gateways or portals of heaven to hear God speak. We need to develop the habit of devoting at least a minimum of 30 minutes every day of our lives whereby we sit still, silent and quiet before God in a bid to hear His voice.

A pool of water can only give a true reflection of a person when the waters are perfectly still. As far as those waters are being stirred and disturbed either by boisterous winds or by human activity, that pool of water cannot reveal what one looks like. The picture will be distorted. When we are still before God, He will reveal things about us that we never knew.

The Awesome Benefits Of Waiting
• Renewal Of Physical Strength: When we sleep, all the broken down cells in our bodies are naturally repaired. But when we wait upon the Lord, broken down body cells are supernaturally repaired. “But those WHO WAIT for the Lord(who expect, look for, and hope in Him)shall change and renew their strength and power, they shall lift up their wings and mount up(close to God) as eagles (mount up to the sun), they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint or become tired. Isaiah 40:31 AMP

Amplified Bible says there is an exchange of our weakness for His (God’s) strength. The Message Bible says: “He energizes those who get tired, gives fresh strength to dropouts…But those who wait upon God get fresh strength…” Isaiah 40:29&31.

Moses spent so much time in God’s presence. He practiced waiting on God so much to the point that his physical body was rejuvenated and the natural ageing process stopped. “And Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, his eyes were not dim, nor his natural force abated.” Deuteronomy 34:7. In fact, God had to take him or he would have just gone on and on living. At times he waited so much that his physical skin radiated the glory to the point that the eyes of his fellow human beings could not withstand the glare.

This was why a man like John Wesley could preach between 3-5 times daily when he was in his 70s and 80s. He would be up by 5.00am every morning for his quiet time with God. Two hours later, he is on horseback, going to preach the gospel. This kind of strength is not ordinary.

The Bible says those who practice waiting on the Lord shall run without being wearied. Men that practice waiting exhibit tremendous stamina. They can preach day in and day out for hours on end, with seemingly little or no rest. This is my personal experience.

• Heavenly, Divine Experiences And Encounters
Isaiah says “they shall mount up with wings as eagles”. He is referring to Heavenly experiences. In Revelation Chapter four verse one, John received an invitation to “come up hither.” A door opened in heaven and he was instantly caught up to the throne room of God. The apostle Paul experienced being caught up to the third heavens and into paradise (2 Corinthians 12:1-4). Ezekiel the prophet experienced himself being caught up in the spirit and taken in a vision from the land of the Chaldeans (Ezekiel 1:1-3) to Jerusalem (Ezekiel 8:3 & 11 v1). These men had heavenly encounters all the time.

Rev. Theodore Effiong, Assemblies of God Church, Calabar Or Prayer To All Nations (PTAN),
Prayer City, Calabar. CRS
Email: theoeffiong@yahoo.com
Phone – +234 9030012007, +234 7031921770