3 - 2 - 1 - Wait!

I was at Open Door church the other day with Andrea and we were listening to a prayer meeting in the sanctuary while we worked in the kitchen with a few other people. The church was considering a change in direction and we heard person after person tell about visions, pictures or prophetic messages that they had received about this matter. I posed the question: How much confirmation do you need before you take action?

For me, I've always been fairly practical. If God says go, I confirm it and then away I go. Visions can be good indicators of God's will but so are basic issues like money or work schedules. My approach contrasts sharply with others for whom patience is the key before deciding major changes.

Take the example of Jesus walking on water during the storm in Matthew 14:22-34. Peter asked if he could walk on the water with Jesus, which I'm sure is the first thought that would cross anybody's mind. Jesus answered yes and so Peter got out of the boat and did just that, at least for a while. In a situation like that, the water's not going to get any more solid if you wait and pray.

As another example, David was still a shephard boy and he saw the Israelite and Philistine armies lined up while he brought his brothers some food (1 Samuel 17). Snot-nosed punk that he was, he asked why everyone was afraid of Goliath, this giant that challenged any Israelite to a fight. David was brought before King Saul and David immediately offered to go out and fight this monster himself. That certainly wasn't a wise choice on the face of it but it's not like anyone else was going to do it. Some would call that kind of action impetuous or idiotic but hey, faith in God can make you take wild chances sometimes. It seemed to work out all right for him.

On the flip side, Jesus didn't begin his ministry until he had fasted and prayed for forty days in the desert by himself (Matthew 4:1-11). Moses' first trip up Mount Sinai took forty days as well, all in preparation to receive the ten commandments and few other rules (Exodus 24:15-18).

The moral here is obvious: You should either pray for exactly forty days or you should take action right away. (Heh.) Seriously, though, it's a question of extremes. On one hand, God does expect us to step out immediately in faith sometimes and if we don't then we miss what God had for us. On the other hand, timing can be everything in certain situations and being too eager can stop something before it starts.

Since I have often preferred the direct approach and preferred to take action, I've been burned by my presumption at times. I can think of specific examples in my life in which I mistook a message from God as "Go!" when in fact he was just revealing something that I needed to pursue in prayer. Sometimes this approach works very well and other times it doesn't. Sometimes a leap of faith is needed to see God move and sometimes we just need to take it one step at a time.

I can likewise look at examples from my family or friends and see times when action was needed but was not taken. Patience and prayer were the name of the game but problems still mounted until things blew up. Waiting is not always an act of wisdom and it sometimes disobediance instead. Sometimes this approach works very well and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes years are needed before we see God move and sometimes it only takes a day.

I was chatting with my dad about this earlier and it's interesting to see how I have been growing in the "wait and see" part of my life. Some of my friends and some of my experiences with Open Door church are certainly helping me grow in that and I'm grateful. Is God counting down to the start of a race or is it a countdown to another countdown?

"Wait!"

"Go!"

Just help me to hear the difference, Lord.