Isa.40:31 – 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.
When the Lord begins to pour out His Spirit in public gatherings often times it is so powerful that all we can do is be still and wait. I can remember a service in Sophia, Bulgaria many years ago when I had one of those kinds of experiences. The congregation had been singing for quite a while, enjoying their new discovery of His manifest presence, when the atmosphere began to change. The joy of His presence had been among us for quite some time that morning but now it was so strong that it was hard to even operate in the service. It came time for me to preach and I knew I just needed to just be quiet. I could have pressed on with my prepared message but the atmosphere was too holy to say anything. I remember standing there and laying down on the platform for quite some time. Some may say that this was out of order or some other critical comment but at that moment it would have been out of order to even speak.
What was the Lord doing in that place? Look at today’s scripture, “those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength”. That’s exactly what was happening in that place, we were being strengthened in the Lord.
Waiting on the Lord is a lost art for much of the body of Christ, it should be part of our culture. The church started on the Day of Pentecost in Jerusalem after ten days of waiting. Jesus had told His disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they received the promise of the Father. John had told them that Jesus would baptize them in the Holy Spirit and Jesus was announcing that this was about to happen. What were they to do to receive this power? All they were told to do was to wait. The Father had given a promise that all those who came to His Son would be immersed in the power of the Holy Spirit, that day had come and all there was left to do now was to wait. What happened as the disciple waited? After ten days they were baptized in the Holy Spirit, the world has never been the same.
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Waiting on my Lord in His holy waiting room is much different from the annoyingly late doctors waiting room. My Lord has impeccable timing even though He exists outside of time itself. The impeccable part relates to our circumstance and the delivery of His response. Often available in waiting, His spirit intermingled inside of us, clears out the emotional fears and impatience that come as forks in our path. Waiting with a heightened awareness in silence towards hearing our Shepherds unmistakeable voice, and we sheep know His voice, is our simple yet confident response.