One of the more frustrating parts of flying is getting caught in a holding pattern over a busy airport. You know you’re right on top of it but you can’t do anything because there’s too many others ahead of you, and so you go round and round until you eventually get cleared to land.
Have you ever felt that about your life in general? Have you ever felt that the purposes of God have marched on and left you behind?
It’s especially frustrating when you can see what God has called you to do, you know the gifts he has given you, you remember the times he has used you, and yet in the moment it seems he has forgotten all about you.
Don’t believe it!
Not a moment of your life is wasted in the economy of God, except for those moments you choose to walk in deliberate disobedience, and even those God can redeem.
There are two seasons for people walking in obedience to the Lord. One is the season of preparation and the other is the season of action. Our problem is we live in an action-oriented society, and if there’s no action we feel we’re missing out.
In God’s plan no action can take place without preparation. Sometimes we feel that the time of preparation is when we are young, and that should release us to a lifetime of fruitful activity. The truth is we live in ongoing cycles of preparation and action. And that means the Lord often takes us aside for a while, takes us out of the activity and excitement, in order to prepare us for what lies ahead.
The next thing is coming, but it requires preparation. And it is in those apparently quiet and sometimes seemingly useless and unfruitful times that we need to learn to listen carefully to the Holy Spirit.
Many years ago, in the midst of a very hard and outwardly unproductive season of my life, my spiritual father urged me to begin to prepare teaching which in God’s timing he would release me to give in years to come. I was so discouraged it took me a very long time to act on his instruction. Yet if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t be in a position to do what I am doing today. Next month, for instance, I am videotaping teaching that will go around the world to large numbers of young people. The teaching was for the most part prepared during that apparently dry and discouraging season.
Much later, I understood God’s wisdom in reducing my outward ministry to release time to prepare that material, which in the end will reach far more people than I would ever have had sat in front of me in the larger congregation I so desperately wanted.
So please take this and apply it to your life. If you’re in a quiet season, know that God isn’t finished with you. You’re not put out to pasture, you’re positioned for preparation. Ask him what that preparation involves, and set your heart to do it with all your might.
And if we don’t give up, in due season, as the Bible says, we will reap a harvest. And the wait will have been worth it.
CONSIDER PARTNERING WITH DAVID & ELAINE CAMPBELL IN HELPING TO SUSTAIN THEIR ACTIVE MINISTRY.
AWAKENING MINISTRIES // FOUNDATION of FAITH Project
Foundation of Faith Project is strengthening generations in faith and bringing beautiful changes to the communities around them. Through teaching, mentoring and coaching, many are finding out who they are and who they are destined to be. They are bringing more to their world. David Campbell is the key leader in this initiative and you can support him financially directly through Awakening Ministries.
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