The Power in the Wait

THE POWER IN THE WAIT - Coastal Community Church Blog

Reading time: 03:40
Pastor Mark Rowan spoke about the Power of The Wait on Sunday the 20th January.

We constantly have to wait. We wait at a doctors or dentist or in a traffic queue. God uses waiting for His good purposes in our lives.

Its good to consider two key questions:
How do we wait on God?
How does God work in our waiting?

Isaiah 40:31 New King James Version (NKJV)
31 But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.

The context of Isaiah 40:31 is that God’s people are being held captive by the Assyrians in Babylon. Isaiah encourages the people to wait on God. As they do this they will not grow weary and God will deliver them. There is a time and season for everything. Throughout the Bible God tells us to wait.

The key to God’s anointing is to wait upon God. 

How do we wait on God?
The dictionary defines waiting: as, “pausing with great expectation”.
We get into the ‘secret place’. Waiting on God means getting alone with God in His presence. It’s a place to stop and yield to Him. As we spend time with God we lay down our agenda and seek His will. It’s a time to pause.

Psalm 62:1 New King James Version (NKJV)
Truly my soul silently waits for God;

Our soul is our emotion and intellect. As we wait on God we quieten our thoughts and emotions. As we wait we worship God. As we wait on God we can talk to Him and listen to what He wants to say.
As we wait on God he reveals more of Himself to you.

Psalm 46:10 New King James Version (NKJV)
10 Be still, and know that I am God;

There’s Power in the Waiting
God is always working in our waiting. As we wait in His presence God produces patience. As we wait God can do His greatest work in our lives. God will show us what He is calling us to do.

God asks us to be patient and draw on Him. God is outside time and His ways are not always our ways. God uses His timetable to bring about the results for us to bring about His will.

God works in the waiting. Noah waited 120 years before the floods arrived. Abraham waited 14 years for the son God promised him. Joseph was in prison for 13 years. As these men of God waited, God was working. As each of these men waited, God He renewed their strength.

Isaiah 40:31 says, the Lord shall renew their strength. ‘Shall’ is a promise. God will rent your strength. When we wait on God, something powerful happens and God renews our strength. Renew means to give fresh strength, to revive, to revitalise and to awaken.

In the world we get physically stronger as we lift weights and change our diets. In the kingdom of God our strength comes from waiting in the presence of God.

Isaiah describes those that wait on the Lord shall “mount up with wings like eagles”.
The Hebrew culture saw eagles as strong and courageous warriors. They protect their young. They can weather all storms by flying above the storm, gliding on the thermals. As their feathers get old they renew them.

If we try and do things in our strength we will get tired and weary. When we wait on Him he will supply the strength and power to accomplish His will.

The impact of waiting

Many of you have seen the film "Chariots of Fire", an outstanding film about a Christian, Eric Liddell. Liddell refuses to run in the prestigious 100 meters in the 1924 Paris Olympics. He refused because it involved racing in a pre-heat on a Sunday, which he believed to be an ungodly use of Sunday. 

Liddell was probably the fastest man alive at that time and had been the favourite to win the race for Britain. The Press and even the Prince of Wales tried to talk him into running but he refused. Instead, he went to the Scottish Presbyterian church that Sunday. He read the lesson from Isaiah 40 verse 31, which seem to capture the situation.

However, he was given the chance to race for Britain in the 400 meters a race he had never even run before. And God honoured him for his stand. Liddell ran the 400 meters at a 100 meter pace. The experts thought he was running the first 100 meters too fast and would tire later in the race. But it wasn’t to be and he won with a new world record.
As Liddell waited on God, trusted Him and  he became the fastest man on the planet. 
Have you neglected the secret place? Do you make time to wait on God?

Matthew 11:28 New King James Version (NKJV)
28 Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Find a quiet place today to switch off from the business of life, make time to be with God, lift your hands and invite the Holy Spirit to speak to you as you rest in His presence. 

There is power in the waiting. 

God is always working in our waiting.
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