God's Timing

Romans 11:33 How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!

What’s it all about, this thing named ‘a calling’ from the Lord? When you ‘know’ what it is the Lord has chosen for you to do in a deep spiritual way, reservations take a backseat to determination and you march on, head up, trusting He will show you the way. At least that is how it was for me. God’s vision for my life of service became my vision and I was determined to be faithful to that even though it seemed as remote and unrealistic as it could be for a little girl from small town Texas.

Catching a vision of the special contribution God wants us to make through our lives is exciting and inspiring. Once the initial ‘honeymoon’ phase of recognition has faded, we ask ourselves: Now what? What happens next?

Usually, the next step after catching a vision is to see it die. There is a special reason for this: our vision often contains a combination of godly concerns and human perspectives, so God engineers a way whereby the godly concerns remain and the human perspectives are changed to divine perspectives. His way of doing this is to cause the vision to die. This is a Biblical principle that can be traced from Genesis to Revelation. The vision Abraham received of being the father of a great nation "died" when he found his wife was barren. The vision Moses received "died" when he was rejected by his people and was forced to flee into the desert for forty years.

Why, we ask, does God bring a vision to birth and then allow it to die? For this reason: the waiting time in which we find ourselves during the death of a vision is God's classroom for the development of godly character in us. It is in the waiting time, as the vision "dies” that such qualities as patience, persistence, perseverance and self-control are built into us. We are molded by His hands so we are able to be more useful. Obedience and willingness to follow the vision came first, now we are going through refining process. He, alone, knows what will be required of us and what we lack to face the challenges ahead. His judgments and plans are perfect; we tend to get a little 'jiggy' about things and jump in the deep end before we learn to swim.

Has God given you in the past a vision of something that you knew was definitely from Him - but now the vision has died? Then don't be discouraged. This is the way God works. He is using the waiting time to change your ideas to His ideas and your perspectives to His perspectives. It's not 'over' by any means; things have not even begun to happen! Hold on for the ride of your life!