The Day of New Beginnings
Waiting on God
Isa. 40:
30 Though youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous young men stumble badly,
31 Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.
There is a waiting upon the Lord we should be familiar with and practice daily. It’s the waiting silently before Him and learning His voice and how to abide in His presence. It could be called the prayer of listening. Waiting before the Lord in this manner teaches us how to focus and to get in tune with what He is speaking and doing. There is another realm of waiting upon the Lord, however, and that is what this message will focus on.
God has a way of speaking His word to us and suddenly disappearing. Many times great promises and revelation will come to us and we receive it expecting an immediate fulfillment. After the initial joy subsides from receiving the revelation, we look around and realize nothing more seems to be coming on the subject. This isn’t because the Lord has forgotten His word, or has become lax in fulfilling it; rather it’s designed to create that word in us.
We must learn to wait for the Lord. He brings about the fulfillment of His promises in our lives in a manner that deposits something of His own nature in us by the time that promise is operating in our lives.
Notice verse 30: Youths growing weary and vigorous young men stumbling badly points mystically to the flesh nature and its inability to attain the promises of God. We experience many pressures and trials as God fulfills His word in us. The Adamic nature is incapable of standing under those pressures. What God is always seeking is the strengthening of the inner man, not the outer one.
2nd Cor. 4:
16 Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.
17 For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison,
18 while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
It’s in the inner man, our spirits, that we inherit His promises. The afflictions we suffer in our quest to walk in His word create in us an eternal weight of glory. We must understand these afflictions are not nuisances like flies buzzing around our head, but are ordered of the Lord. Trying to shoo the flies away only perpetuates their existence.
Eph. 3:
14 ¶ For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,
15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name,
16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,
17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
Verse 16 references being strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man. Notice carefully the verses that follow. They describe the results of this strengthening. The capacity to comprehend with all the saints the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that we may be filled up with all the fullness of God, is the result.
Let’s return now to our original text in Isaiah. Those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength. New strength denotes strength from outside of us. As we learn to wait for God, His strength is imparted to our spirits. Those who wait for Him will also mount up with wings as eagles. This points to our ascension in the realm of spirit.
Let’s examine now the waiting on the Lord itself. How do we wait upon the Lord in such a manner as to see His word fulfilled in us? Waiting upon the Lord is not a passive waiting while being preoccupied with other things. Waiting upon the Lord becomes one of the most intense things we will ever do.
Psalm 42:
1 ¶ <> As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God?
3 My tears have been my food day and night, While they say to me all day long, "Where is your God?"
4 These things I remember and I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go along with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God, With the voice of joy and thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival.
5 Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him For the help of His presence.
6 ¶ O my God, my soul is in despair within me; Therefore I remember You from the land of the Jordan And the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterfalls; All Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me.
8 The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime; And His song will be with me in the night, A prayer to the God of my life.
9 I will say to God my rock, "Why have You forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?"
10 As a shattering of my bones, my adversaries revile me, While they say to me all day long, "Where is your God?"
11 Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.
This psalm is a pure expression of what it means to wait on God. The psalmist begins by voicing his extreme hunger for the Lord. “As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?” It’s our hunger to walk in God’s word that keeps our spirits focused on Him. Waiting on God is characterized by hunger. Notice the Psalmist’s heartfelt question, “When shall I come and appear before God?” To appear before God means standing in His presence having become one with the promise given us. Let’s read a passage from the Song of Solomon that expresses this concept perfectly: "O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, In the secret place of the steep pathway, Let me see your form, Let me hear your voice; For your voice is sweet, And your form is lovely (So. 2:14)." This is the bridegroom speaking to His bride. It is a mystical picture of what we have been talking about. Notice its in the clefts of the rock, in the secret place of the steep pathway that the bride appears before the bridegroom. The bride only appears before her bridegroom when she has ascended through the hardships of His calling upon her. This is established in the previous verse: “Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come along!" The Lord is calling us higher into Himself. He woos us with His promises but ultimately its His very presence that is our fulfillment and reward.
Let’s now continue to examine Psalm 42. Take another look at verses 5-7.
5 Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him For the help of His presence.
6 ¶ O my God, my soul is in despair within me; Therefore I remember You from the land of the Jordan And the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterfalls; All Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me.
There is a despair we experience as we wait for the Lord. This despair, however, is a despair only those truly hungry for God can know. It comes when every bone in your body aches for the fulfillment of His word. Notice the despair comes in the soul. Our soul life languishes as God strengthens us in our spirits to appear before Him. The Psalmist encourages his own soul to hope in God. “I shall again praise Him for the help of His presence.” Verse seven says deep calls to deep at the sound of the Lord’s waterfalls. This again speaks to how the Lord reaches into the depths of our spirits to prepare us to stand before Him and walk in His word. The Psalmist then says, "All Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me.” That’s exactly what happens when God prepares us to walk in fruitfulness.
Let’s continue now with verses 8-10.
8 The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime; And His song will be with me in the night, A prayer to the God of my life.
9 I will say to God my rock, "Why have You forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?"
10 As a shattering of my bones, my adversaries revile me, While they say to me all day long, "Where is your God?"
God commands His blessing in the daytime and His song will be with us in the night. As we wait before Him, He sustains us. The Psalmist says,“A prayer to the God of my life.” You can sense the intensity with which he looks to the Lord. Waiting on the Lord is a way of life we enter into. We become dependent on Him for our every need. We come to the realization that it’s only the Lord that can sustain us.
Verse nine is the Psalmist’s soul crying out to God again in despair.“Why have you forgotten me?" Why do I go on mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” It’s like Abraham shooing away the buzzards after he prepared the sacrifice for the Lord. He followed God’s instructions, but no fire or response came immediately from the Lord. The sun finally went down and a deep sleep came upon Abraham along with terror and great darkness. Then God began to speak to him. A flaming torch appeared and passed over the sacrifice (Gen. 15). Abraham waited for the Lord amidst what seemed like neglect.
“Where is your God?” is the response of the flesh nature to waiting on the Lord. If God brought immediate fulfillment to every word He spoke to us, our Adamic nature would only be strengthened, not crucified. An inheritance gained quickly does not serve the purposes of God. We learn to wait for the Lord that he might fully establish His word in us.
The last verse of our psalm has the Psalmist telling his soul, “Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.”
Psalm 80:
1 ¶ <> Oh, give ear, Shepherd of Israel, You who lead Joseph like a flock; You who are enthroned above the cherubim, shine forth!
2 Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up Your power And come to save us!
3 O God, restore us And cause Your face to shine upon us, and we will be saved.
4 O LORD God of hosts, How long will You be angry with the prayer of Your people?
5 You have fed them with the bread of tears, And You have made them to drink tears in large measure.
6 You make us an object of contention to our neighbors, And our enemies laugh among themselves.
7 O God of hosts, restore us And cause Your face to shine upon us, and we will be saved.
8 ¶ You removed a vine from Egypt; You drove out the nations and planted it.
9 You cleared the ground before it, And it took deep root and filled the land.
10 The mountains were covered with its shadow, And the cedars of God with its boughs.
11 It was sending out its branches to the sea And its shoots to the River.
12 Why have You broken down its hedges, So that all who pass that way pick its fruit?
13 A boar from the forest eats it away And whatever moves in the field feeds on it.
14 O God of hosts, turn again now, we beseech You; Look down from heaven and see, and take care of this vine,
15 Even the shoot which Your right hand has planted, And on the son whom You have strengthened for Yourself.
16 It is burned with fire, it is cut down; They perish at the rebuke of Your countenance.
17 Let Your hand be upon the man of Your right hand, Upon the son of man whom You made strong for Yourself.
18 Then we shall not turn back from You; Revive us, and we will call upon Your name.
19 O LORD God of hosts, restore us; Cause Your face to shine upon us, and we will be saved.
This psalm, as Psalm 42, has mystical overtones. Who is the man of God’s right hand other than Christ? While it’s prophetic of Christ, it also embraces those sons brought forth in Christ. The Father strengthens His sons for Himself. This psalm as well as Psalm 42 gives us a revelation of what it means to wait before the Lord. In each psalm the end result is a strengthening to stand before Him. In the Kingdom realm, adversity strengthens God’s sons, not weakens them. One last passage from the New Testament will nail this principle down once and for all.
Rom. 5:
3 And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance;
4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope;
5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Tribulation brings about perseverance. Perseverance is the key to waiting on the Lord. Perseverance IS waiting on the Lord. And look at the result of our perseverance; proven character. Mystically, proven character is Christ’s nature established in us. His nature in us creates a divine hope that does not disappoint. Our waiting on God leads to all His word being fulfilled in us.