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Waiting on God Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; on You I wait all the day (Psalm 25:5). In the beginning Adam was filled with the life, energy and peace of the Spirit of God as he walked with his Creator in the Garden of Eden. When Adam walked with God he was in total harmony with Him and His creation. As he tended the garden he flowed in the strength of the Spirit of God that was in him and one with him. As questions awakened in Adam’s heart the Lord’s thoughts entered his soul like rushes of joy that worked peaceful fulfillment in his heart. In tending the garden Adam and God found complete fulfillment in their great fellowship. Adam was so full of life that he lived 930 years after sin entered him and the discord of sin entered his soul. When sin entered Adam, he fell from perfection in God to sinful flesh outside of God. When he was ordered out of the garden he could no longer sense God spontaneously with his senses because they were dead to Him. He was dead to God because he was outside of Him, a branch severed from the Vine. Then men started to call on the name of the Lord in prayer to establish some lines of communication and fellowship with Him. Faith is the doorway into the realm of Spirit where God dwells. From the day of the transgression onward all men had to approach God in faith if they were to please Him. Through faith in God and in His Son, Jesus Christ, you enter into the Spirit where God dwells in heaven. When you come to Christ you are joint to the Lord and you become one Spirit with Him, one with the Spirit of Christ.
Your spirit is quickened to God because of righteousness. Since your body is still mortal it is void of perfection of eternal life (immortality), meaning that it is dead to God because of sin (Romans 8:10). Your soul is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be (Romans 8:7). However, there is hope that we will be alive to God, in spirit (already alive if you are born again), soul and body when the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead will quicken your mortal bodies (Romans 8:11). Then you will be alive to God as a total man, as it was in the beginning (Romans 8:9). For the moment you relate to God with that part of your person that is alive to Him, which is your spirit. Through faith you present your soul to God, which is enmity to Him, as if it is a friend of Him by meditating on things that are true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtues and praiseworthy that you may be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Through faith you present your body, which is dead toward God because of sin, as being alive from the dead and the members of your body though dead, as instruments of righteousness to God. Therefore, by faith you should live your life on earth as if you are in heaven. It is the will of God for men while being on earth to live with their spirits in heaven. No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven (John 3:13, emphasis added). Jesus told Nicodemus he is on earth and heaven at the same time. Through faith you can have a life in the Spirit (heaven) while being on earth. You can train your spirit to be aware of the Lord all the time. Waiting on the Lord is one of those methods to train your spirit to be aware of His presence all of the time.
Waiting on the Lord has as many facets or faces, as there are dimensions in love. So waiting on the Lord is an expectation to experience Him. Since your body is dead because of sin you cannot experience the Lord with your physical senses and you cannot physically be aware of His presence, but that does not mean He is not there. Because your spirit is alive to God, due to righteousness, it is the part of your being that can experience God who dwells in the Spirit where the kingdom of heaven is. For this reason our walk with the Lord is not through our physical senses but by faith, which is in the Spirit. Because God is Spirit and one with you, He reveals Himself to you in your spirit through the Holy Spirit. You were previously dead in your sins and thus your spirit was dead to God and to the things of the Spirit, which belong to the kingdom of God. Unless you are born again you cannot see the kingdom of God or experience God. Unredeemed man has no access to the third heavens where God dwells, the true realm of Spirit. When you come to Christ you can by faith enter the realm of Spirit where God dwells and He will reveal His glory to you. You can experience God because the Holy Spirit has quickened your spirit unto Him. In Christ the veil of separation is removed and you have access to God. Christ is one spirit with you and He lives within you. You also have the assurance that He will never leave you nor forsake you. Christ within you is the guarantee that the presence of God will always be within you. So waiting on the Lord is one of a few ways to grow into an aware of His presence in you. It is also to grow into an awareness of your own spirit, in other words, that part of you, which is alive to God.
He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him, for your Maker is your husband. Waiting on the Lord is to grow into awareness that you are one spirit with the Lord, which refers to a very intimate relationship, so pure, so perfect. The body of Christ is involved in a wedlock relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. That means they are bearing His name. Eventually you will be saved to the uttermost. Your whole spirit, soul and body will be preserved blameless at the coming of the Lord. Your spirit is now alive to God because of righteousness, but your soul and body will also come alive to God when you will be adopted as a son, which is the redemption of your body (Romans 8:23). This is the hope of the bride of Christ that they will be one with the Lord, spirit, soul and body (Romans 8:24-25). Then you will be with your physical body a member of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. Now you do not see it yet for you have only received the firstfruits of the Spirit, therefore you know in part and you prophesy in part and you live only with the spirit part of your person in the Spirit. Your soul, which is enmity to God, is in the soulish realm and your body, which is dead to God because of sin, is in the natural realm. Your soul and body, which is dead to God, you present alive to God in faith as if they are alive, as if you have attained to resurrection life and have been made perfect. Faith procures substance in the books of God even if you have not yet received the promise (Hebrews 11:1). When the perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. I say these things that you may know what is the exceeding riches of His grace and what is your hope in Christ. Revelation is given that you may relate to the Lord more accurately. I tell you this that while waiting on the Lord you may relate to Him in hope of a complete redemption of the whole man. So your hope is to be one with Him, spirit soul and body.
You cannot experience the presence of the Lord while your mind and heart is set on the things of the flesh where turmoil and division dwells. Neither can you come into an awareness of the indwelling Christ if your focus is to be perfected by the flesh. Then it has become a focus on self and not on Christ. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of live (Proverbs 4:23). So your heart can be your enemy or your friend. Waiting on God is a deliberate focus on the Lord where you only seek to be with God, like a wife reaching out to her husband in love. In the day that you seek the Lord with all of your heart you will find Him. It is a search to find Him because you desire to love Him and to experience His love. By night on my bed I sought the one I love; I sought him, but I did not find him. “I will rise now,” I said, “And go about the city; in the streets and in the squares I will seek the one I love. I sought him, but I did not find him. The watchmen who go about the city found me; I said, “Have you seen the one I love?” Scarcely had had I passed by them, when I found the one I love (Song of Solomon 3:1-4a). Sometimes it is a painful longing and desire for Him yet it is with an attitude of rest in your spirit. Waiting on the Lord necessitates perseverance and endurance expressed through faith. This is not a quick fix but a training of your spirit. This is a life long pursuit. It is like training a muscle that was never used in the past. Waiting on the Lord is to abstain from oneself and to be aware of Him. This awareness of the Lord is to take note of Him or to pay attention to Him. This implies that you take care of the Lord while He will keep or preserve you. Waiting also means to seek or to attentively watch the ways of the Lord. He made known His ways to Moses, His acts
to the children of Israel (Psalm 103:7). This is a different facet of waiting on the Lord. This refers to diligently seeking the Lord for divine wisdom and knowledge. In your search after Him, He remains your highest joy and fulfillment. I have some steps to show you how I am practicing my prayer of silence or waiting on the Lord. Firstly, I need to be comfortable. I deem this the same as visiting a very close friend. Normally I will take a shower to get rid of sweat on my body. I normally use cold water at the end of my shower to sharpen my spirit. Warm water tends to make me drowsy, especially during summer months. Sometimes I drink a glass of cold water also. I do not like any bodily distractions when waiting on the Lord. I will switch of my cell phone and go to my big chair. I need to be comfortable and alert in my heart and spirit. I normally wait on the Lord round about 4h00 in the morning. This time suits me best because it is the time when I am physically rested and mentally and spiritually the most alert. And it is also a time with the least distractions. I have friends that normally wait on the Lord in the evening. However, I prefer not to do it after a day’s work and dinner. Then I am not spiritually alert and food also makes me heavy. Besides being tired coming from work, the working day stays to long in my mind. Evenings are also full of distractions, due to dinner, attention to my wife and possible phone calls. There are certain responsibilities in your live that you cannot neglect without leaving the will of the Lord. So I prefer early morning hours. Other times may suit you.
After relaxing myself I need to calm my spirit and soul before the Lord. Up to now I was involved in physical activities to prepare myself to be physically comfortable. I need now to open my spirit to the Lord and enter into a rest or peacefulness of heart and spirit. It is difficult just to start relaxing your heart and to focus on the Lord. So I need to prepare myself spiritually also. I will normally start to pray for about 20 minutes both with understanding and also in the Spirit. I also pray much in the Spirit during daytime. So much so that I occasionally woke up during nights finding that I have prayed in my sleep. I do not say others must do the same. I am just relating to you my life experience. Then I take my Bible and read a passage for 5 minutes and meditate on it for another 5 to 10 minutes. To make everything count I will choose a passage in line with what the Lord is speaking to me. Afterward I will thank the Lord for His goodness and mercy. By now my spirit is open to the Lord. A walk with the Lord is fun and exciting and that is why we must concentrate on those things, where the anointing is. We are different in character from each other and we differ on account of the anointing that is in every individual. Thus the Lord deals differently with every individual as a parent deals differently with each individual child. If we stay in the flow of what God is doing in our lives we will find the joy of the Lord. You must remember God is never boring but in His presence is fullness of joy. If we do not experience the joy of the Lord, we must know we are not in the Spirit. I refer to a deep underlying joy that sustains us regardless of circumstances and not something superficial and shallow.
The next step is to empty or clear your mind of all preconceived ideas or doctrines that may stifle the voice of the Lord. I normally imagine myself as knowing nothing from God, except His love, mercy and grace. It is not a blanking out of the mind. Do not attempt doing this because it is dangerous. You must always maintain your focus on the Lord. To empty your heart is to be void of your own ability. It is an attitude where you totally rely on God. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God (Matthew 5:3). Because you consider your own abilities as null and void you place all your hope and trust in the mercy and grace of God. I know nothing else but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I am not seeking any revelation but my heart is set to seek only Him whom my soul loves. O that I may know Him in the power of His resurrection! I can describe this attitude by an experience I had when I was still in my father’s house. I grew up on a farm. The female dog had four pups. My dad told me I could choose one pup for myself but the others he will give away. I had compassion on the weakest of the four pups. I gave this little pup all my love and my attention. However, the strongest of the four was persistently looking for my attention and love. Due to this attitude I eventually choose this little pup to be my companion. This is the attitude that one must have before the Lord. You must be relentless and persistent in seeking His attention while you at the same time trust Him with your life. To empty your heart also means to cease from your labors or to enter into the rest of God. This means to keep silent or quiet and to listen. This is in context of one who is lost in wonder and admiration.
Then, be still or quiet and know that the Lord is God. This is not a place to seek for knowledge of some truths but to know Him. If the Lord shows you something in His infinite wisdom, so be it. This often happens. However, the cry of your heart in this situation is, “Lord show me Your glory” or “O, that you may reveal Yourself to me.” In the beginning your thoughts love to run away. It is difficult to control them. To be practical we must not develop a struggle inside of us. So use your thoughts in your waiting on the Lord to your own benefit. I know somebody that imagines the Lord and him going for a walk. Sometimes they walk in the forest, then on the beach, then in the mountains and then down a river. He is silent all the time, waiting to see if the Lord wants to reveal some secret to him. My sister on the other hand occasionally visualizes herself dancing with the Lord or the Holy Spirit. Use that which works for you. I often choose to be in forests so beautiful that it ministers peace and the presence of the Lord to me. Then I am only aware of Him. Please forget about feelings and let your yearning after God demands that His faith flows through you. His faith refers to you live no longer but Christ lives in you and all of His faith and hope and love flows through you. Sometimes God will bless you with feelings but mostly not. So be faithful and walk by faith and not feelings. Feelings can be deceptive. Later on you will develop a sense of Christ in you spirit but it is rather a deep-rooted awareness and knowledge of Him and not so much feelings. You must remember your spirit dwells in the realm of Spirit but feelings belong to the realm of soul. The spirit and soul belongs to two different worlds, so does faith and feelings.
You may ask for what period you must wait on the Lord. It can be anything between 20 minutes and two hours or longer. It depends on your hunger for the Lord. Why do I say 20 minutes? While I was doing athletics I believed that training for less then 20 minutes did not yield any physically benefits. It may be wrong as far as waiting on the Lord is concerned. In the beginning it will be beneficial if you wait on the Lord for short periods a few times a day. This is to condition your system for this new experience. The secret is enjoyment otherwise you will grow weary of it and quit this way of coming to know the Lord. Be flexible. If one way is not working for you, experiment with some other way until you find what is working for you. Waiting on the Lord is exercising your spirit to be aware of Christ within you and to know His voice better. This is also a way to rid you of carnal selfishness. You give to the Lord your heart without expecting anything in return. He is faithful and He will bless you. If you seek Him with all of your heart you will find Him. When your spirit is exercised in this manner you will unconsciously starting to wait on the Lord. This precedes much time and experience of exercising your spirit in this manner. The more you do it the easier it become. Do not give up, no matter what. You will never regret it. The objective of the exercise is to keep your focus as long as possible, in a relaxed manner, on the Lord. To be singleminded is to be mentally honest, which is a virtue belonging to those who is free from pretence and dissimulation, in other words having a sincerity of mind towards Christ. This quality of focus also refers to a singlehearted faith toward Christ. It is like my dog sitting patiently next to me awaiting my attention or command.
The difference between my dog and us is that he can observe me with his physical eyes while we cannot observe the Lord with our physical eyes. Nevertheless, to focus on the Lord is to watch Him narrowly or to seek Him with the eyes of your heart. It is also to observe the ways of the Lord. The Lord of glory is the Word of God. The Lord often reveals Himself in the Word. The motive of our hearts is not to seek a fresh revelation but to seek a revelation of the Lord. O Lord, show me Your glory! The Lord reveals Himself in an atmosphere of rest. Then the Lord appeared again in Shiloh [tranquility, rest]. For the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord. And the word of the Lord came to all Israel (1 Samuel 3:21). When Elijah stood on the mountain, a high place, before the Lord, the Lord passed by. Then a strong wind tore into the mountain but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there occurred an earthquake but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake a fire burned but the Lord was not in the fire. After the fire there was a still small voice, the voice of the Lord (1 Kings 19:1118). Jacob’s prophecy in Genesis 49 points out that Shiloh will come again. There remains a rest for the people of God to enter in. A prophetic community lives tomorrow, today. The mighty ones to come that Enoch prophesied about (Jude 14) see the end from the beginning and always regard it as the present. That is their level of faith. It is for this generation that I am waiting for but always endeavor to walk in its fulfillment today. I saw them in a prophetic dream in the winter of 1973. I saw them revealed in dark times to come and they shone like golden lights. I saw it was those who sat at the Lord’s feet (like Mary) that were counted worthy of this calling while the pots and pans ministries (those busy in the kitchen like Martha) were denied (Luke 10:38-42). It is in
waiting on the Lord, sitting at His feet, that you learn from Him to be gentle and lowly in heart and to enter into His rest. It is the humble and wise that He will entrust with all authority in heaven and on earth but the arrogant and carnal will be denied. I saw how they were caught up in the Spirit and was clothed with sonship. In my dream I saw myself in the kitchen (to busy to sit at His feet and learn from Him) and saw how the sons of God were born in the darkness of the night just before dawn. I was unpleasantly surprised to see that they were far less than I have expected. It reminded me of Gideon’s army. Since that time I am reaching in for this calling of God in Christ Jesus. My destiny is to press in, like Enoch, to receive a testimony that I am pleasing to God and than to be caught up in glory that I may never taste death. I am preaching this word to those who will despise the shame of being called all sorts of names in pursuing Christ as there only goal in life for the joy of this calling of sonship that is set before them. Waiting on the Lord is to direct your attention to God. It is a waiting with a deliberate expectation, in other words it is saturated with hope. It is a constant and persistent expectation like expecting a very valuable item in the post. Waiting on the Lord is also an awareness of His presence. His presence refers to His face or before His throne in the most Holy place. One enters into the presence of God through faith. Your expectation should not be a cloud in the air but a change from within your heart. The kingdom of God does not come with observation but it comes within you. I do not deny that His presence can be so heavy at times that you can be carried away in visions being in a trance. On a few occasions during my lifetime I saw trance related visions. This was during a time when the Lord
gave me prophetic visions. However, this is not the norm. I wish it were! Waiting on the Lord is the Lord’s expectation and His deliberate waiting to be worshiped and to be adored. You can worship the Lord without singing and without words. Worship is a condition of your heart where you say, “He is God let me worship Him.” Let me relate to you a dream that I had many years ago. I dreamed that I thought to myself, “He is God let me worship Him.” The next moment I smelled the incense of that attitude that went up before God. It was a very pleasant aroma. Different from anything I have ever smelled. The moral of the story is that worship is more than just singing and praises. Worship is an attitude of acknowledging God as supreme in all areas of your life. So, in waiting on God, worship is also an attitude of love and adoration. I just want to stress again that one should never blank out his or her mind because it is dangerous. Use your imagination without words, like television that is on mute mode. Be silent and at rest before the Lord. Mainly, waiting on the Lord is a love affair that is saturated with a thankful heart. Mostly, I do not expect anything from the Lord but only to sense His love for me and me reflecting my love for Him. Just to open your heart and love God for who He is, and not for what He can do for you or give to you. It reminds me of a very rich young man that loves a certain lady very dearly. He would normally buy her expensive presents. He was a lover of flowers specially daisies and this lady was aware of his love for daisies. One day he found a very peculiar daisy in his garden. He was so pleased with his discovery of the flower that he cut it and presented it to his lady friend so that she could share in his joy. She was so upset because it
was not an expensive present that she destroyed this beautiful flower in the palm of her hand as well as the excitement in the heart of this young man over this peculiar daisy. I approached the Lord in the beginning with the same rotten attitude as this woman toward this rich young man. As long as I could receive from the Lord wonderful blessings I did not care to wait on Him. I did not know how to be thankful for little things because I was blind toward the small mercies of the Lord and I had not learned yet to share little excitements with Him. I had a road to travel to discover true love – thanks to my wife who has discerned this lack in my heart. Sometimes you may see visions while waiting on the Lord or getting impressions from the Holy Spirit. I also see visions when I am praying. When I see visions while praying I will interrupt my prayer to record my vision in my dreams and vision journal. Not so while waiting on the Lord. This is my quality time with the Lord and I will do so afterward. Sometimes I forget my vision entirely or in part. This does not matter to me because waiting on the Lord is the Lord’s time where I just want to be aware of His love. Knights of the Cross of Christ waiting on God is for you. I salute you in the name of Jesus.