WAITING FOR WHAT ?

Jn.1:10,11 – He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.

Everyone has their version of what revival looks like when it comes. I remember an evangelist friend of mine calling me in the early days of the outpouring in our church, he wasn’t happy with the joy and laughter and had been to another church who was experiencing outpouring minus the laughter. He was telling me, “Frank, this is real revival, they are not laughing”. Every time I think of that conversation I just have to laugh, apparently this evangelist had a version of revival in his head and what was happening at Victory just wasn’t it. That was the same problem the nation of Israel had at the appearance of Jesus, they had been praying and waiting for the Messiah but when Jesus appeared His ministry was not what they expected. They missed their moment because of preconceived religious ideas. Here is how Jonathan Edwards described the same exact problem during the Great Awakening in the 1700’s.

“Some convince themselves that they are acting prudently by waiting to see the results of things. They wait to see what fruits those who are the subjects of this work will bring forth in their lives and conduct. I plead with them to consider whether this justifies a long refraining from acknowledging Christ when He appears so wonderfully and graciously present in the land. It is probable that many of those who are thus waiting know not for what they are waiting. If they wait to see a work of God without difficulties and stumbling blocks, it will be like a fool waiting at the riverside to have the water all run by. A work of God without stumbling blocks is never to be expected. “Such things must come.” There never yet was any great manifestation that God made of Himself to the world without many difficulties attending it. The works of God, like His Word, seem at first full of things that are strange, inconsistent, and difficult to the carnal, unbelieving hearts of men. Christ and His work always were, and always will be, a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense, a snare to many.”

What a disturbingly funny image, a fool waiting by the river waiting for all of the water to pass by. I think I have met that person before. The conclusion I have come to is that the Lord does what He wants, when He wants, and how He wants. He doesn’t ask my opinion about any of that, He just does as He pleases. We live in a critical time, possibly at the end of the age, hopefully we will stay out of the way and allow God to be God. I think some unusual things will break on the scene soon and probably will not be the way any of us expect it to be.