Living In The Will of God, Part 7: Reading Our Circumstances
By Charles Price
Acts 20:22-25; 21:7-15
Now if you have your Bible with you, I am going to read from Acts Chapter 20.
(Please forgive the frog in my throat this morning - hopefully it will not jump out and I lose my voice altogether. I have to speak at a mini-mission fest in Hamilton tonight. So I value your prayers for the physical ability to do that.)
But Acts Chapter 20, and I am going to read first of all from Verse 22. The setting is that Paul is on his return leg to Jerusalem after his third missionary journey. And he calls in the port city of Miletus; that's where his boat docks. And he invites the leaders of the church in Ephesus, which he founded earlier, to come down and meet with him.
And he says some very straight things to them. But in Verse 22 where we come in midway through his speech to them, he says,
"And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there.
"I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me.
"However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me - the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace."
And then go to Chapter 21 and Verse 4. Paul then left Miletus. He moved on, docked at Cos and then at Rhodes and then at Patara, where he changed boats. Then he sailed past Cyprus, landed in Syria and went up to the city of Tyre. And here he is in Tyre and in Verse 4 of Chapter 21 it says,
"Finding the disciples there, we stayed with them seven days. Through the Spirit they urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem."
You notice the contrast there. Earlier, "compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem." Now, "Through the Spirit they urged Paul not to go to Jerusalem."
Then down to Chapter 21 Verse 10 where he goes down the coast from Tyre to Caesarea, which is on the central Judean coast.
And in Verse 10:
"After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.
"Coming over to us, he took Paul's belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, 'The Holy Spirit says, 'In this way the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.'
"When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem.
"Then Paul answered, 'Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.'
"When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, "The Lord's will be done.'"
Now keep your Bible open at that passage.
We have been talking for a number of weeks about living in the will of God. I took a few weeks to look at the big picture with you as to what the will of God includes. And then the last couple of weeks we have been talking about the issues of personal guidance.
And what we have talked about I want to phrase as questions.
First question: what is my vision from God? And you may remember we based that on Paul's statement to King Agrippa in Acts 26 when he gave his story of meeting Jesus on the Damascus Road, how his life was changed; he was given insight into what his life would consist of. And he says to King Agrippa, "I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven."
We talked about having a vision from heaven. We looked at other folks in the Bible who similarly had a sense of direction given to them by God.
Last week we asked the question, what do the Scriptures say? We looked at David's statements in Psalm 119, "Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." He also wrote, "Direct my footsteps according to Your Word."
And we will never find the will of God outside of our regular reading of the Word of God because the Word of God is the primary means by which we understand the will of God.
And we live within the general will of God revealed in His Word if we are going to experience the specific will of God that He has for us personally and individually.
Now today I want to ask you another question: what do my circumstances say?
In other words, in discerning the will of God, what role do my circumstances have in helping to clarify and determine what it is that God's will and purpose for my life is?
And I have chosen to read this rather extraordinary story here in Acts Chapter 20 and Chapter 21 where Paul is on his way home from his third missionary journey. He calls into Miletus; he meets the Ephesian elders there and he tells them unambiguously,
"Compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem."
This is not a whim or a fancy of his own. "This comes from the Spirit, it is compelling, I understand it, I know it, and I am going to Jerusalem for one reason: the Spirit of God is compelling me to do so."
Well that is in Chapter 20; that's all well and good. But coming into Chapter 21, he arrives at Tyre a little while later and there,
"Finding the disciples, we stayed with them seven days and through the Spirit, they urged Paul not to go to Jerusalem."
This also is not a whim of the believers in Tyre. This was not some protective instinct that is being drawn out where they say, "Paul, don't go to Jerusalem because you are going to face hardships there." It says specifically, "Through the Spirit, they urged Paul not to go to Jerusalem."
Now here is the dilemma: "Compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem."
"Through the Spirit they urge him not to go to Jerusalem." Paul is undeterred by that. He ignores the warning. He goes down the coast to Caesarea and it's in Caesarea that this prophet Agabus, who is a prophet who occurs earlier in the Book of Acts as well, comes to Paul in Caesarea. Taking Paul's belt, he tied his hands with it and his feet with it and said,
"The Holy Spirit says, 'In this way the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.'"
And then Luke adds this little comment. (Luke writes the Book of Acts.) He says,
"When we heard this, we..."
(That is, the team travelling with Paul - that included Luke)
"...we and the people there..."
(That is, the Christian believers in Caesarea)
"...pleaded with Paul not to go to Jerusalem."
In other words, his whole team of friends and folks in Caesarea unite unanimously, "Paul, do not go to Jerusalem. You are going to get into trouble when you get there. You are going to be bound and imprisoned."
And Paul said, "I am not interested in your opposition to this. I am ready to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." And so he insisted on going and they came to an agreement they had together, and the agreement was simply this: the Lord's will be done.
"But Paul, you are stubborn. You think this is the will of God. We are protective of you. We discern that is the will of God. But whatever happens we are going to entrust you to the will of God."
Now here is a very interesting dilemma when it comes to guidance and knowing the will of God. And Paul went up to Jerusalem and he ran slap into trouble. He was arrested. The details we won't talk about all began with Christian believers in Jerusalem falsely circulating rumours about Paul.
He was detained in Jerusalem initially. Then he was taken down to Caesarea, which was the Roman capital of Judea. He was kept in prison for two years and at the end of two years he appealed to Caesar in Rome. Because he was a Roman citizen, he had the right to appeal to the highest court, which was Caesar himself.
He was shipped to Rome. He had to change boats several times. The boat sank once. He ended up spending the whole winter in Malta. So round figures - the best part of a year getting to Rome.
When he got to Rome, Caesar wasn't interested in talking to him. And the Book of Acts finishes very anticlimactically with Paul, the great hero of so many of the chapters, spending two years in prison in Rome. And it closes without any indication of what happened to him after that. Five years in round figures - two years in Caesarea, two years in Rome, best part of a year on the way to Rome. Five years of seeming wasted life.
He had a driving vision ("compelled by the Spirit I am going to Jerusalem"). To Paul it was consistent with the Word of God to take the gospel into the world as he had been told to do.
Then in Tyre, through the Spirit, equally godly men persuaded him not to go to Jerusalem. He does not receive their unanimous advice. He goes down to Caesarea. They equally unanimously tell him he should not go, but he does; runs into trouble.
There are some interesting dynamics here. And as you and I seek to discern the will of God, reading our circumstances can be one of the most difficult things in the world to do.
And I want to tell you honestly, and I will point this out at the end, that when I began preparing this message a few days ago, my expectation of where this message would go is actually almost the reverse of where it had to go as I studied what the Scripture says about this. And I'll show you why.
You see we need to learn to read our circumstances wisely. In Proverbs Chapter 3 Verse 5 and 6 it says this:
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths."
The assumption there is this: that as you acknowledge Him in all your ways and God directs your paths, and you trust Him will all your heart, you are going to discover you are going to fly in the face again and again of your own understanding, your own human wisdom.
You see if people leaned on their own understanding, much of our Bible would have to be emptied of some of its key stories. Noah would never have built an ark if he leaned on his own understanding. Abraham would never have left Ur of the Chaldeans not knowing where he was going, not knowing why he was going, not knowing what he was going to do when he got there. He would never have left had he leant on his own understanding.
Moses would not have led Israel out of Egypt if he leant on his own understanding. He said to God, "Who am I that I should lead the people of Israel out of Egypt?" If he leant on his own understanding he would have never gone.
David would never have gone to fact Goliath if he leant on his own understanding. Everyone from the king down advised him he was being foolish.
Paul would have stayed in Tyre and not gone south if he had leaned on his own understanding.
You know sometimes - and I want to show you this morning - that as God leads us again and again, He doesn't lead us around obstacles; He leads us to obstacles. And in those obstacles we are tested; we are strengthened; we are tried. And I want to use Paul as an example of that.
We can be motivated by vision, we can live consistent with the Word of God and yet our circumstances fly in the face of that vision.
And then when that happens we have got some hard deciding to do - what am I going to do?
Ian Thomas said to me many years ago when I was a young man, something which I found tremendously helpful; he said, "Never ask as your first question about anything, 'Is it possible?' Ask as your first question, 'Is it right?'"
He said to me, "A thing doesn't have to be possible; it just has to be right."
Possible things are not always right; right things don't always seem possible. But if we live in the realm of the possible, we live in the realm everybody on the street lives. But the Christian is called to live in the realm of what is right. And sometimes what is right defies natural understanding.
Of course there are some ways in which we look at our circumstances and there is an obvious message to us. For instance if I suddenly had this fantastic desire to be an opera singer, there's nothing unbiblical about singing like that, so I am okay; that's my vision, the Bible's okay. But all I have to do to discover that that is not God's calling in my life is to stand up and sing, and I won't demonstrate what would happen if I did. Obviously there are some circumstances which say no, you yourself are not the right person for this because these are not your gifts, your abilities, your temperament, whatever is needed.
But what do you do when you have a vision that is compelling, you believe it is from God, you have consciously and conscientiously spent time in the Word of God, and the Spirit of God has confirmed this to you, and yet it flies in the face of reason and logic and even of possibility?
Well in that spirit of obedience to God and dependence on God - I am not talking about our own agendas now; I am talking about agendas that come from God - obedience to God and dependence on God. I want to suggest three key responses that I trust might be helpful to you and that we can learn from this story and other stories in the Bible.
First of all, I would say, be waiting; don't be in a hurry. Be watching - keep your eyes open. And be willing - let it go any way that it goes. Be waiting, be watching, be willing.
First of all, be waiting. You know sometimes we have a sense of direction from God and we don't know for sure. Then we wait. You know when Saul of Tarsus was converted on Damascus Road he was given this vision which he said to King Agrippa, he had not disobeyed, that he would preach to the Gentiles. It says that straightaway he began to speak in Damascus, so he began to act straightaway.
But then he went back home to Tarsus. Tarsus is up in today's Turkey; that's where he came from. And it's hard to reconstruct exactly how long he was there. He went down for about three years into Arabia first, by the way, spent time in the desert.
Then he went back up to Tarsus and he got a job as a tent maker. His training was as a Pharisee. He had trained in Jewish theology. Now he left that behind. He began to become a tent maker.
And it was at least 12 years later - it's difficult to be sure of the timing - but at least 12 years later Barnabas, who had met him when he was a new Christian and who liked him, was in Antioch leading the church there. He said, "I need somebody to help me. I will go to Tarsus and see if I can find Saul", which he did and brought him back to Antioch. And Saul worked with him for a year in Antioch.
Now he had to wait for 12 years and all he did was go back home and make tents, waiting. He knew what God had told him about the big picture ("you are going to preach to Gentiles, you are going to be imprisoned, you are going to face kings and governors") but he waited.
There is a great story in Jeremiah 32. Read it sometime later; I'll just tell you what it is. But it is a great story for this reason: Jeremiah says, "The Word of the Lord came to me saying, 'Your cousin Hanamel will come and ask you to buy a field at Anathoth.'"
Now the significance of that is that Jeremiah is telling everybody that Babylon is going to take us into captivity, part of the judgement of God on us as a nation. They were at this point already heading down towards Jerusalem and Judea. And everybody is now fearful of what may happen.
And the point is, "Your cousin is going to offer to sell you a field at Anathoth. Buy it." Of course you don't buy something that is going to become occupied territory a few weeks later because then it will be worthless. "Buy it; keep the deeds, and one day you will come back and own it. And you are sending a message out to the people that there is a future beyond the captivity in Babylon."
So Jeremiah said, "Okay." And then it says a little later in that chapter in Verse 8,
"Just as the LORD had said, my cousin Hanamel came to me in the courtyard of the guard and said, 'Buy my field at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin. Since it is your right to redeem it and possess it, buy it for yourself.'"
In other words, the cousin came and said exactly what God had told Jeremiah he would say. And then it says intriguingly, Jeremiah says
"Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD."
Now the New International Version is the only translation as far as I can see that doesn't put the word 'then'. But every other translation rightly says, "Then I knew this was the word of the Lord."
So what did Jeremiah mean earlier when he said, "The word of the Lord came to me saying, 'your cousin Hanamel will come and ask you to buy a field at Anathoth?"
What he is saying is there is some instinct, there is some sense, there is some impression that is put onto him that this is what is going to happen. "And when it came to pass, then I knew this had been from God."
And sometimes there is a sense of direction, there is sometimes a pull and you are not 100% sure this is certain to be true in my life and then in the course of time, the circumstances fall into place and you say, "Aha, now I know that this was a word from God."
And there are many times when God speaks and you have to wait.
Abraham was told by God, "You are going to have a son. From this son will come a nation. This nation is going to be a source of blessing the world."
And he waited 25 years before that son was born. God told him this - he was already an older man - had to wait 25 years. In the meantime he did blow it because he couldn't wait any longer and he produced a son through the maid Hagar.
Moses, at the age of 40 we are told, knew that God would use him to bring the Israelites out of Egypt. But nothing happened for another 40 years.
And sometimes there is a long wait. Paul waited at least 12 years before he began to take the gospel to the Gentile world as he had been told to do. And there is a saying some of you have heard before: "God's delays are not God's denials."
But allow God to delay because God is never in a hurry. We are in a hurry of course. We live in this urgent, instant age - everything is instant in our day. We want to get it all done now if not yesterday.
But actually God does not operate that way and sometimes we have to wait, and we wait until things begin to fall into place.
There is a verse I have quoted to you a number of times in Isaiah 5:19 where God speaks about "woe to those", and there is a whole list of "woes". And this one says,
"Woe to those who say, 'Let God hurry, let him hasten his work so we may see it. Let it approach, let the plan of the Holy One of Israel come, so we may know it.'"
That's Isaiah 5:19. "Woe to those who say, 'Let God hurry. We want to see it."
No, God is never in a hurry. And I know in my own life there have been times when I have sensed that God has whispered something into my heart or a sense that has come to me clearly that something was right, and then nothing happens.
I remember for one thing, it was three years between the time God whispered something in my heart that I sensed was from God until it came to pass.
Another occasion, something that I felt and believed, I waited 11 years until some circumstances began to happen that made this come to fruition.
On another occasion, one that lasted 14 years from the time that God put something into my heart and you waited and waited and waited and there was nothing. That's okay. Just forget about it; get on with life. But 14 years later this thing came to pass and I knew it was right because of what had happened 14 years before.
This is not a whim or a fancy of his own. "This comes from the Spirit, it is compelling, I understand it, I know it, and I am going to Jerusalem for one reason: the Spirit of God is compelling me to do so."
Well that is in Chapter 20; that's all well and good. But coming into Chapter 21, he arrives at Tyre a little while later and there,
"Finding the disciples, we stayed with them seven days and through the Spirit, they urged Paul not to go to Jerusalem."
This also is not a whim of the believers in Tyre. This was not some protective instinct that is being drawn out where they say, "Paul, don't go to Jerusalem because you are going to face hardships there." It says specifically, "Through the Spirit, they urged Paul not to go to Jerusalem."
Now here is the dilemma: "Compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem."
"Through the Spirit they urge him not to go to Jerusalem." Paul is undeterred by that. He ignores the warning. He goes down the coast to Caesarea and it's in Caesarea that this prophet Agabus, who is a prophet who occurs earlier in the Book of Acts as well, comes to Paul in Caesarea. Taking Paul's belt, he tied his hands with it and his feet with it and said,
"The Holy Spirit says, 'In this way the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.'"
And then Luke adds this little comment. (Luke writes the Book of Acts.) He says,
"When we heard this, we..."
(That is, the team travelling with Paul - that included Luke)
"...we and the people there..."
(That is, the Christian believers in Caesarea)
"...pleaded with Paul not to go to Jerusalem."
In other words, his whole team of friends and folks in Caesarea unite unanimously, "Paul, do not go to Jerusalem. You are going to get into trouble when you get there. You are going to be bound and imprisoned."
And Paul said, "I am not interested in your opposition to this. I am ready to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." And so he insisted on going and they came to an agreement they had together, and the agreement was simply this: the Lord's will be done.
"But Paul, you are stubborn. You think this is the will of God. We are protective of you. We discern that is the will of God. But whatever happens we are going to entrust you to the will of God."
Now here is a very interesting dilemma when it comes to guidance and knowing the will of God. And Paul went up to Jerusalem and he ran slap into trouble. He was arrested. The details we won't talk about all began with Christian believers in Jerusalem falsely circulating rumours about Paul.
He was detained in Jerusalem initially. Then he was taken down to Caesarea, which was the Roman capital of Judea. He was kept in prison for two years and at the end of two years he appealed to Caesar in Rome. Because he was a Roman citizen, he had the right to appeal to the highest court, which was Caesar himself.
He was shipped to Rome. He had to change boats several times. The boat sank once. He ended up spending the whole winter in Malta. So round figures - the best part of a year getting to Rome.
When he got to Rome, Caesar wasn't interested in talking to him. And the Book of Acts finishes very anticlimactically with Paul, the great hero of so many of the chapters, spending two years in prison in Rome. And it closes without any indication of what happened to him after that. Five years in round figures - two years in Caesarea, two years in Rome, best part of a year on the way to Rome. Five years of seeming wasted life.
He had a driving vision ("compelled by the Spirit I am going to Jerusalem"). To Paul it was consistent with the Word of God to take the gospel into the world as he had been told to do.
Then in Tyre, through the Spirit, equally godly men persuaded him not to go to Jerusalem. He does not receive their unanimous advice. He goes down to Caesarea. They equally unanimously tell him he should not go, but he does; runs into trouble.
There are some interesting dynamics here. And as you and I seek to discern the will of God, reading our circumstances can be one of the most difficult things in the world to do.
And I want to tell you honestly, and I will point this out at the end, that when I began preparing this message a few days ago, my expectation of where this message would go is actually almost the reverse of where it had to go as I studied what the Scripture says about this. And I'll show you why.
You see we need to learn to read our circumstances wisely. In Proverbs Chapter 3 Verse 5 and 6 it says this:
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths."
The assumption there is this: that as you acknowledge Him in all your ways and God directs your paths, and you trust Him will all your heart, you are going to discover you are going to fly in the face again and again of your own understanding, your own human wisdom.
You see if people leaned on their own understanding, much of our Bible would have to be emptied of some of its key stories. Noah would never have built an ark if he leaned on his own understanding. Abraham would never have left Ur of the Chaldeans not knowing where he was going, not knowing why he was going, not knowing what he was going to do when he got there. He would never have left had he leant on his own understanding.
Moses would not have led Israel out of Egypt if he leant on his own understanding. He said to God, "Who am I that I should lead the people of Israel out of Egypt?" If he leant on his own understanding he would have never gone.
David would never have gone to fact Goliath if he leant on his own understanding. Everyone from the king down advised him he was being foolish.
Paul would have stayed in Tyre and not gone south if he had leaned on his own understanding.
You know sometimes - and I want to show you this morning - that as God leads us again and again, He doesn't lead us around obstacles; He leads us to obstacles. And in those obstacles we are tested; we are strengthened; we are tried. And I want to use Paul as an example of that.
We can be motivated by vision, we can live consistent with the Word of God and yet our circumstances fly in the face of that vision.
And then when that happens we have got some hard deciding to do - what am I going to do?
Ian Thomas said to me many years ago when I was a young man, something which I found tremendously helpful; he said, "Never ask as your first question about anything, 'Is it possible?' Ask as your first question, 'Is it right?'"
He said to me, "A thing doesn't have to be possible; it just has to be right."
Possible things are not always right; right things don't always seem possible. But if we live in the realm of the possible, we live in the realm everybody on the street lives. But the Christian is called to live in the realm of what is right. And sometimes what is right defies natural understanding.
Of course there are some ways in which we look at our circumstances and there is an obvious message to us. For instance if I suddenly had this fantastic desire to be an opera singer, there's nothing unbiblical about singing like that, so I am okay; that's my vision, the Bible's okay. But all I have to do to discover that that is not God's calling in my life is to stand up and sing, and I won't demonstrate what would happen if I did. Obviously there are some circumstances which say no, you yourself are not the right person for this because these are not your gifts, your abilities, your temperament, whatever is needed.
But what do you do when you have a vision that is compelling, you believe it is from God, you have consciously and conscientiously spent time in the Word of God, and the Spirit of God has confirmed this to you, and yet it flies in the face of reason and logic and even of possibility?
Well in that spirit of obedience to God and dependence on God - I am not talking about our own agendas now; I am talking about agendas that come from God - obedience to God and dependence on God. I want to suggest three key responses that I trust might be helpful to you and that we can learn from this story and other stories in the Bible.
First of all, I would say, be waiting; don't be in a hurry. Be watching - keep your eyes open. And be willing - let it go any way that it goes. Be waiting, be watching, be willing.
First of all, be waiting. You know sometimes we have a sense of direction from God and we don't know for sure. Then we wait. You know when Saul of Tarsus was converted on Damascus Road he was given this vision which he said to King Agrippa, he had not disobeyed, that he would preach to the Gentiles. It says that straightaway he began to speak in Damascus, so he began to act straightaway.
But then he went back home to Tarsus. Tarsus is up in today's Turkey; that's where he came from. And it's hard to reconstruct exactly how long he was there. He went down for about three years into Arabia first, by the way, spent time in the desert.
Then he went back up to Tarsus and he got a job as a tent maker. His training was as a Pharisee. He had trained in Jewish theology. Now he left that behind. He began to become a tent maker.
And it was at least 12 years later - it's difficult to be sure of the timing - but at least 12 years later Barnabas, who had met him when he was a new Christian and who liked him, was in Antioch leading the church there. He said, "I need somebody to help me. I will go to Tarsus and see if I can find Saul", which he did and brought him back to Antioch. And Saul worked with him for a year in Antioch.
Now he had to wait for 12 years and all he did was go back home and make tents, waiting. He knew what God had told him about the big picture ("you are going to preach to Gentiles, you are going to be imprisoned, you are going to face kings and governors") but he waited.
There is a great story in Jeremiah 32. Read it sometime later; I'll just tell you what it is. But it is a great story for this reason: Jeremiah says, "The Word of the Lord came to me saying, 'Your cousin Hanamel will come and ask you to buy a field at Anathoth.'"
Now the significance of that is that Jeremiah is telling everybody that Babylon is going to take us into captivity, part of the judgement of God on us as a nation. They were at this point already heading down towards Jerusalem and Judea. And everybody is now fearful of what may happen.
And the point is, "Your cousin is going to offer to sell you a field at Anathoth. Buy it." Of course you don't buy something that is going to become occupied territory a few weeks later because then it will be worthless. "Buy it; keep the deeds, and one day you will come back and own it. And you are sending a message out to the people that there is a future beyond the captivity in Babylon."
So Jeremiah said, "Okay." And then it says a little later in that chapter in Verse 8,
"Just as the LORD had said, my cousin Hanamel came to me in the courtyard of the guard and said, 'Buy my field at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin. Since it is your right to redeem it and possess it, buy it for yourself.'"
In other words, the cousin came and said exactly what God had told Jeremiah he would say. And then it says intriguingly, Jeremiah says
"Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD."
Now the New International Version is the only translation as far as I can see that doesn't put the word 'then'. But every other translation rightly says, "Then I knew this was the word of the Lord."
So what did Jeremiah mean earlier when he said, "The word of the Lord came to me saying, 'your cousin Hanamel will come and ask you to buy a field at Anathoth?"
What he is saying is there is some instinct, there is some sense, there is some impression that is put onto him that this is what is going to happen. "And when it came to pass, then I knew this had been from God."
And sometimes there is a sense of direction, there is sometimes a pull and you are not 100% sure this is certain to be true in my life and then in the course of time, the circumstances fall into place and you say, "Aha, now I know that this was a word from God."
And there are many times when God speaks and you have to wait.
Abraham was told by God, "You are going to have a son. From this son will come a nation. This nation is going to be a source of blessing the world."
And he waited 25 years before that son was born. God told him this - he was already an older man - had to wait 25 years. In the meantime he did blow it because he couldn't wait any longer and he produced a son through the maid Hagar.
Moses, at the age of 40 we are told, knew that God would use him to bring the Israelites out of Egypt. But nothing happened for another 40 years.
And sometimes there is a long wait. Paul waited at least 12 years before he began to take the gospel to the Gentile world as he had been told to do. And there is a saying some of you have heard before: "God's delays are not God's denials."
But allow God to delay because God is never in a hurry. We are in a hurry of course. We live in this urgent, instant age - everything is instant in our day. We want to get it all done now if not yesterday.
But actually God does not operate that way and sometimes we have to wait, and we wait until things begin to fall into place.
There is a verse I have quoted to you a number of times in Isaiah 5:19 where God speaks about "woe to those", and there is a whole list of "woes". And this one says,
"Woe to those who say, 'Let God hurry, let him hasten his work so we may see it. Let it approach, let the plan of the Holy One of Israel come, so we may know it.'"
That's Isaiah 5:19. "Woe to those who say, 'Let God hurry. We want to see it."
No, God is never in a hurry. And I know in my own life there have been times when I have sensed that God has whispered something into my heart or a sense that has come to me clearly that something was right, and then nothing happens.
I remember for one thing, it was three years between the time God whispered something in my heart that I sensed was from God until it came to pass.
Another occasion, something that I felt and believed, I waited 11 years until some circumstances began to happen that made this come to fruition.
On another occasion, one that lasted 14 years from the time that God put something into my heart and you waited and waited and waited and there was nothing. That's okay. Just forget about it; get on with life. But 14 years later this thing came to pass and I knew it was right because of what had happened 14 years before.
