Far Reaching

” –  ” will you be willing to put your trust in God… even when nothing is happening?

How many times do we go through this emotional roller-coaster, how many times are we left to our own devices? it seems like he is there,  we see and hear him, then silence and what do we do?   does it sound familiar,  all you have to do is wait!

I focused on the question of whether the 120 disciples in the upper room did the right thing in choosing Matthias as Judas as successor. Hey I am not going to bring a judgement, just a reflection and a question that poses itself over our lives.  They were “between the times“—following Jesus’ ascent and before the Holy Spirit’s descent.    Between times, have you ever thought of people’s’ graves or epitaphs “David Smith 1934 – 1998,  the person’s whole life is concluded with  a hyphen.   all you have done, all you hoped for, all you waited for summed up in ” – “.  How long is yours?  ” – ” what have you done?  ” – ” sums it all up, we are all marked with the same mark are we not? at the end of the day a ” – “.   So what happened in your ” – ” did it all just roll by,  did some one take hold of your life and formulate it, or did you design your own ” – “?.

Between times, between two dates I wonder what are life’s’ joys, trials, advances and successes and of course some set backs,  where are the places and times when God  shows himself?   I think it all comes down to how I conduct myself in the between times.

Consider these thoughts:

• When nothing is happening we often tend to make things happen. The disciples had no direction or instruction to do what they did, that I can see, to choose Judas’ successor. The 120 may have felt a need to do something during the time they were waiting for the promise of the Father (see Acts 1:4).    Been there?  Abraham was….. and in that between time was when he agreed on a plan to produce a son?
• When we get simple instructions from God we should take them with both hands. Their instructions were clear and simple: Don’t leave Jerusalem, and wait.     Complicated or what?   there must be more we say inside our selves!
• When nothing is happening but we are obedient, it is God’s problem, not ours.

When I’m in South Africa I am asked,  when in the UK I am asked, in the USA I am asked…..”What are you seeing amongst the churches in this nation or that one today?”  “What is God doing in UK, Africa, Asia?”    We have great pockets of God at work right in front of us along with behind the scenes, many will say your missing it if don’t you know about this place or that ministry?……But the the answer is: “Not a lot these days”, now before you go down my throat and defend what your involved with, this is not a denial what God is working in lives and places but let me say something,  Certainly when you compare what is happening to what is coming! If we sum up whats happening in light of what God has  promised, we have to get real.     I thank God for bright spots in the world, the places where God is manifesting his rule and his power, the great testimonies of his love and grace don’t misunderstand me!   But as the saying goes, “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

I think we are somewhat in the position of the 120, God is working and yet we still  have to be obedient to wait and to work — between the times. The awakening that will shake the world has not yet emerged.    But boy can you feel it rising, we call for a wave of God, deep movings of God to be seen, evident on every shore of every country.   I long to see a moving of God, not just captured in one place where the Christian world runs to, to see, copy and glean from, but  what i call a NOAH revival when the deeps open up and the rain from on high meet and the whole world at one time is flooded with God himself, for this must be revival “God Himself” this is my definition……. when every historic well, every visitation of the past, every uncompleted work of God on earth explodes together when no man or movement can take it up and market it, or promote it as a product of a ministry or a place, but God himself comes to all these places at one time Azusa, South Wales, Hebrides…. on and on the list goes, where God came himself……. and now they all break-forth at one time no one but God will own that!   then we will see a restorative work to herald the Christ, a restorative work of God!   So between times let us do all we have been told, being attentive, obedient, which at the end of the day is true worship is it not, to sing songs is a wonderful medium to communicate heart and emotions by but with our obedient hearts its just singing, with obedience its powerful, while looking for the promise that is coming.