Between the ages of twelve and thirty, Jesus had more “silent years” — eighteen years when nobody heard anything about Him. He had to be doing something. What? After His parents found Him in the temple when He was supposed to have gone home with them, they took Him back with them: And He went down with them and came to Nazareth and was [habitually] obedient to them; and his mother kept and closely and persistently guarded all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom (in broad and full understanding) and in stature and years, and in favor with God and man (Luke 2:51,52).
This is another way of saying, “He grew.”
Just as Jesus grew during this quiet time, so you and I must grow in many things, and the silent years help provide that growth.
John the Baptist experienced the same thing: And the little boy grew and became strong in spirit; and he was in the deserts (wilderness) until the day of his appearing to Israel [the commencement of his public ministry] (Luke 1:80).
Here is a man called by God from his mother’s womb to be the forerunner of the Messiah — a mighty man of God — but we hear nothing about him from his birth until the time his public ministry began. What happened during all those years? The Word of God says that he grew. He grew in wisdom and became strong in spirit.
We don’t always start out strong. We gain strength as we learn and go through various things. It is a principle of life that everything grows. Faith grows, wisdom grows, along with knowledge, comprehension and understanding. Discernment develops as well as sensitivity to people and to God. The Word of God teaches us, but so do life’s experiences, as we see in Proverbs 5:1: My son, be attentive to my Wisdom [godly Wisdom learned by actual and costly experience], and incline your ear to my understanding [of what is becoming and prudent for you].
Moses was called, but he needed to learn some wisdom about how to handle what he was sensing: One day, after Moses was grown, it happened that he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens; and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of Moses’ brethren. He looked this way and that way, and when he saw no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand (Ex. 2:11,12).
Moses did not kill this man based on any instruction from God. He was moved by his emotions. He felt compassion for the Hebrews — he was sensing his call to be their deliverer but he got ahead of God. Shortly thereafter, he encountered two Hebrew men quarreling and fighting; and, once again, he got in the middle of it and tried to bring peace. (Ex. 2:13.)
They took offense and one of them said to Moses, … Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian? … (Ex. 2:14). Moses realized that what he had done was known and he fled into the wilderness lands of Midian. He married and lived there for forty years. During those years we hear nothing much about him. They were “silent years.”
But then came the burning bush incident in which God told Moses what He was called to do. The Bible reports that when God called Moses, he was at that time the meekest man on the face of the earth. (Num. 12:3.) Something had happened to him during those silent years. I believe he was getting his equipment. He was being prepared for the call that had always been there.
Joseph had a dream he shared with his brothers, who became offended. They were jealous, but many of us might have been also. Joseph probably should have used more wisdom and pondered the things he dreamed in his own heart. I doubt that many brothers would be excited if one of them announced to the others, “I saw you all bowing down to me.” How could Joseph use wisdom he did not have yet? Gaining wisdom requires time and experience.
You probably know the story. Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery, but told their father that he had been killed by a wild animal. As a slave, Joseph was taken to Egypt, and because God’s favor was on him, he was placed in a position of authority everywhere he turned.
He even spent years in prison for doing something for which he was not guilty; but God was with him through it all. At the appointed time, God promoted him, and he finally had so much authority that only Pharaoh himself had more authority in the land than Joseph.
Believe me, when our time comes, no devil in hell and no person on earth will be able to prevent God from promoting and blessing us. But if we try to get where we are going ahead of time, it simply does not work. We will be miserable, and, we will hinder God — not help Him.
There is an appointed time. Only God knows exactly when it is, so settle down and enjoy the trip.
Enjoy where you are on the way to where you are going!
I remember the “silent years” in my life — years when I knew I had a call into ministry — but nothing was happening. Those were years when I was believing but not seeing.
We all have times when we feel that nothing is happening and it seems that no one, not even God, really even cares. We can’t seem to hear from God. We can’t “feel” God. We wonder if we are a little “flaky,” or maybe we never heard from God after all.
Those are times when it seems as if God has placed us neatly on a shelf, and we wonder if He will ever use us, or if we will ever experience our breakthrough.
Waiting! Waiting! Waiting!
It sometimes seems to us that we have waited forever. We grow weary and don’t feel that we can hang on much longer, and then, something happens — maybe just a little something.
Like the Prophet Elijah, we see a cloud the size of a man’s hand on the horizon (1 Kings 18:44), and it gives us confidence that it really is going to rain.
Perhaps your “cloud” is a special word from God that someone gives you, or perhaps you are touched by God in a specific way. Perhaps a gift comes — something for which you have been believing — that only God knew about, and it encourages you that the Lord knows that you are alive and waiting.
Maybe you are called to preach and receive an invitation to speak at the men’s fellowship or the women’s prayer group at church. The invitation renews your hope that doors are beginning to open.
I literally watched God do this type of thing for me for years. I had such a big vision, and I was consumed with it. I was “pregnant” with a dream. Had I really heard from God or was I making it up? I was teaching a Bible study, but I wanted — and felt called — to do so much more.
The “silent years” were very difficult, but very necessary. I was growing, gaining wisdom, experience, learning how to come under authority, learning the Word that I was called to preach.
Many people would like to preach, but they don’t even have a message.
Just when I was about ready to give up, the wind of God would blow by. He would do something to keep me hoping.
God is closely watching over the lives of His children, and He will never allow more to come on us than we can bear. (1 Cor. 10:13.) God provides the way out of every situation in due time. In the meantime, He will give us what we need to be stable and joyful if we will trust Him for it, realizing that He knows best.
Preparation
Remind people to be submissive to [their] magistrates and authorities, to be obedient, to be prepared and willing to do any upright and honorable work.
Titus 3:1
In Luke 3:1-6 God sent John the Baptist to proclaim to the people, … Prepare the way of the Lord … (v. 4). In John 14:2 when Jesus was getting ready to leave the earth He told His disciples: … I am going away to prepare a place for you. In Matthew 20:23, when the mother of Zebedee’s children came to Jesus asking that her two sons be permitted to sit one on His right hand, and one on His left, He said to them, You will drink My cup, but seats at My right hand and at My left are not Mine to give, but they are for those for whom they have been ordained and prepared by My Father.
We get the picture quickly that God does not do anything without first being prepared, and neither will He allow us to do His work without adequate preparation.
In Titus 3:1, Paul wrote, “Be prepared for any upright and honorable work.” And in 2 Timothy 2:15 he instructed his young disciple: Study and be eager a
nd do your utmost to present yourself to God approved (tested by trial), a workman who has no cause to be ashamed, correctly analyzing and accurately dividing [rightly handling and skillfully teaching] the Word of Truth.
Your preparation may mean going to Bible college or getting some other kind of formal training, or it may mean spending a few years working under someone else’s authority in ministry so you will know how to handle yourself down the road. It could mean working at a job that you don’t particularly like, for a boss of whom you are not very fond.
It could also mean spending some years in which your basic needs are met, but you are definitely not living in abundance because you are learning how to believe God for prosperity and how to handle it when you get it.
Many desire to prosper, but not all want to prepare to prosper.
Preparation may take place in a lot of different settings, but the fact remains that we must be prepared.
Each phase we go through is important. There is something to be learned at every step. It is all part of our preparation. We must “graduate,” so to speak, from each phase or level into the next one, and this comes after we have proven ourselves on the current level. Between all of these stages of preparation, there is a lot of waiting.
Unless we learn to wait well, we will be miserable little saints. Miserable people are usually grouchy, critical and just generally hard to get along with. Miserable people usually make other people miserable.
Enjoy the trip! Being miserable will not make it any shorter, but it could make it longer.
“Have a Seat”
And He [God] raised us up together with Him [Christ] and made us sit down together [giving us joint seating with Him] in the heavenly sphere [by virtue of our being) in Christ Jesus (the Messiah, the Anointed One).
Ephesians 2:6
If you have an appointment with a doctor, dentist, lawyer, etc., when you arrive at the office usually the first thing the receptionist says to you is, “Have a seat. We will be with you soon.” The offering of a seat is an invitation to rest while you are waiting.
There will probably be a selection of magazines to read or a television to watch. These are provided to give you something to take your mind off the waiting. If you are busy doing something, the time will go by faster. The person you have come to see wants you to enjoy the wait and not be frustrated by it.
When Jesus finished His work, He ascended on high and the Bible records that He sat down. His work was finished, so He entered the state of rest. Most New Testament references to Jesus in heaven after His ascension, depict Him as seated, as in Hebrews 1:13, Besides, to which of the angels has He [God] ever said, Sit at My right hand [associated with Me in My royal dignity] till I make your enemies a stool for your feet?
Jesus has finished what His Father sent Him to do. Now, He is being told to “have a seat and rest until I take care of Your enemies.” We must understand that the same offer is available to us. According to Ephesians 2:6, we are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus!
When we go into the waiting room to wait for any appointment, we are offered a seat. If we choose to, we can pace around, wringing our hands, checking every few seconds to see if the person we want to meet is ready for us. But there is another choice. We can have a seat and do something to make the wait enjoyable.
“Let Nature Take Its Course”
This is a phrase we often hear, which is another way of saying, “Settle down and let things happen according to the prescribed timetable.”
With each of our four children, I was pregnant ten months. After the birth of the fourth one, my doctor finally said, “You are the only woman I know who stays pregnant as long as an elephant.”
Needless to say, it was a difficult experience. Who knows? Maybe God was trying to teach me, even back then, how to wait properly.
We never learn patience without something to be patient about. Patience is something that has to be worked in us — it doesn’t just appear.
The fruit of patience is in our spirits, because as children of God, the Holy Spirit is resident within us. But for patience to be expressed through our souls (our mind, will and emotions), a work must be done in us.
Once the prescribed time of waiting for the birth of each of my children had passed, I tried everything imaginable to bring on labor. I walked, took castor oil, worked harder than usual, hoping it would help “speed things up.” With one of them, I even went into the hospital so the doctor would induce labor. It didn’t work; I was sent home. The doctor basically said, “Go home and let nature take its course.”
My advice to you from the Word of God and from my experience in life is, “Don’t be in such a big hurry.” You may be “pregnant” with dreams for your life, but you may also be trying to have your “baby” out of season.
We can make huge messes in our lives, and sometimes get upset with God because things didn’t work out the way we thought the Lord said they would. Things will happen as God said if we wait on His timing. We are the ones in a hurry. God is not in a hurry!
In Psalm 37:4 we are told: Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires and secret petitions of your heart.
Stay busy delighting yourself in the Lord, and let Him give you what He wants you to have. If God has placed the desire in you, you can be assured that He will bring it to birth in the right season. Wait on God for direction and instruction on how to proceed, do what He tells you or shows you, but don’t go beyond that.
Learn to “Wait Well”
… See how the farmer waits expectantly for the precious harvest from the land. [See how] he keeps up his patient [vigil] over it until it receives the early and late rains.
So you also must be patient. …
James 5:7,8
Learn to wait patiently. That really means learn to wait with a good attitude.
I have learned that patience is not my ability to wait, it is how I act while I am waiting.
We are going to wait no matter what we do. Waiting is a fact of life. We actually spend more time waiting than we do receiving. Our attitude, and how we act during the wait, will determine whether we enjoy the trip. It will also help determine the length of the trip.
All the things we should be doing while we are waiting are the exact reason why we must wait. I encourage you to think about that statement: All the wrong things we do while we are waiting — things like giving birth to “Ishmaels,” having bad attitudes, being jealous of others who already have what we are waiting for, attending “pity parties” on a regular basis, being on an emotional roller coaster — all these things and more are exactly why we have to wait. They must be dealt with — worked out of us. The simple fact is that preparation is a process requiring time.
Even when we are more mature and ready for some of God’s best, we may be waiting for God to deal with the other people who will be involved with us. There is a multifaceted work that God is doing — an intricate work — and we are better off to leave it alone and let God be God!
There is a purifying work that must be done in our lives to fit and equip us for the thing God has stored up for us, the thing He has put in our heart.
Possibly, most people never come into the fullness of what God has for them. They never see the fulfillment of their dreams and visions simply because they either don’t understand the things shared in this book, or they do understand, and are just plain stubborn and rebellious.
Yes, this inability to “wait well” is one of the major reasons why people don’t enjoy their lives. But, I believe you will be changed as you read this book. Remember, we are expecting signs and wonders in this area to confirm the word being taught.
Here is an example that may help.
When God called us to begin a television ministry in 1993 we accepted the call and the responsibility that went with it. The first thing we had to do was wait on God to get some more specific direction. We knew we were to go on television, but we had no idea how to go about it. I sincerely mean that
; we did not have the slightest idea where to begin.
We found out, from talking with others who had experience in this area, that we needed a producer, so we waited for God to lead us. He reminded us that a man who was currently producing a television program for another ministry had submitted an application to us just a few months earlier.
At the time the man submitted his application we just said, “File it. We aren’t on television. What would we need with a television producer?”
God knew what we did not know, and He was providing for His plan before we even knew what it was.
So we hired the producer, then he began to research equipment packages, and we waited for all that information to come in.
In the meantime, we had shared with our partners and friends what God was leading us to do. We had asked them to give toward it, and we were waiting for the money to come in. We finally got our equipment, and then realized we needed cameramen to go on the road with us and film, so we waited for God to provide them.
Then we started trying to get on television stations. The station managers told us we needed a “pilot” program — a sample of what our program would be like, so we waited for that to be finished. Then we started sending it to the stations and waiting to see if they liked it.
Finally, we went on television — a few stations at first — and waited to see what kind of response we would get.
I hope you can see from this that each phase requires waiting, especially as we leave one phase that is established and move on to the next. Waiting is a fact of life, So be patient, brethren, [as you wait] … (James 5:7). Notice that this verse does not say, “Be patient if you have to wait.”
Learn To “Wait Properly”
Not only must we learn to wait on God, but we find that we must wait on people. We must learn to be patient with life, with people, with systems, with traffic and with many other things.