Date: November 8, 2018 ()

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How is your life going? Do you feel like you are just waiting, waiting, waiting and wondering why God will not answer your prayer? What is taking so long? What do I need to do? Why won’t things happen? Maybe you are a teenager watching this show and you are thinking, “I just cannot wait until I get grown. I am going to do everything I ever wanted to do the way I want to do it.” Maybe you are a child watching this show and you are thinking, “When I get big I am going to do this.” We are all interested in timing whether we realize it or not. We all have things that we want to happen that have not happened yet. God has timing, he has perfect timing in your life, in my life, in the things he wants to do in the world and even when Jesus comes back. We will be looking at God’s timing from all kinds of angles. We are going to study people in the Bible where timing was critical to what they did with their lives. Maybe yours is like that. Maybe what you are waiting on is something that is not even destined to happen yet.

For instance, I believe that the passage that tells about the man that owned a vineyard and had work to be done. He went out and hired people at 9 o’clock in the morning and then at 12 o’clock and then at 3 o ‘clock and some at 5 o’clock. He said, “I am going to pay them all the same.” And the 9 o’clock people really got upset. They said, “Listen, we have worked all day in this hot sun and you are paying those people who came at 5 o’clock the same. It is not fair.” The man said, “Didn’t I agree to pay you a certain fee? Can I not pay people what I want to pay them just because I want to be nice to them?” There are some of you who have waited a long time to do what you think God really called you to do. Maybe you even feel like you are still waiting. You might think that you missed it. But I do not feel like it is ever happened and I have ever really done what I am supposed to be doing. What is God’s timing in my life? What does God show us in his Word about timing?

Do you feel like time is just ticking away? I ask people who are older how old they feel. My step-mother is 95, and I will say, “Inez, how old do you feel?” And she will say, “50, I feel 50.” She is not 50, but she is aged in a great way. My mother-in-law has also aged in a great way, and now she is 90. Time is just ticking, ticking, ticking away. Both of these women have lived for God, both of them. They have done different things, but what they did was what God wanted them to do with their life. It is been a beautiful thing. And there was a timing in all of it.

It says in Ecclesiastes 3:1, “For everything there is a season. A time for everything activity under heaven.” On my website (www.bettyswan.com) there is an audio of Bill Weiss talking about when God took him to hell. He actually is a Christian and was a Christian when this experienced happened. One night he came home from church; and in the middle of the night he just started dropping down into a tunnel. He had an out-of-body experience where was in hell. Then God took him up above the earth and he saw the earth. He saw how God does things. I said to him, “Bill, out of everything that happened, what impressed you the most?” He said, “The first thing is that there are billions of people in hell. And not one of them can say God didn’t give me a chance.” So you see, they each one had a time for salvation. I am sure they had many times. And yet, they always said, “no.” He said, “The other thing that really impressed me was when God took me up above the earth and let me see how He does things. I was amazed at how detailed He is.”

Of course He knows when a sparrow falls and how many hairs are on each head, because he is so detailed. He said, “You know, the way that God cared about people with the detail in their life, Betty, I could see how God has time under control and how He knows exactly what He is doing.” So, you see, even the things that you have waited on for so long, there is even a perfect timing for that. There is a right time for everything under the sun. You can be a person that gets impatient and you try to rush God. You try to make things happen sooner than you should. If you have ever done that, you know it did not turn out as well. It is like eating a half-baked pie, it just does not taste good.

Once when I was going through something really hard, I said, “Lord, I want to go through it trusting you the whole way.” But it got hard; it got really hard, and then it got harder. And then it got really, really hard. One day I was crying in my kitchen, and I said, “Lord, I am so tired. I am so tired of this. I just want it to be over.” The Lord spoke to my heart and said, “Your tears do not move me, Betty.” Now it is not that God was not compassionate, loving and tender. That was not what He was saying to me at all. What he was saying to me was that He had a plan and I was not going to make Him do the plan ahead of time. So maybe that applies to you.

Let’s look at all of the things that Ecclesiastes talks about. Do you know who wrote Ecclesiastes? It was written by King Solomon, the wisest man on earth. Ecclesiastes names 14 things that there is a time for. The first one is, there is a time to be born and a time to die. No one knows the day of their death, do they? That is why suicide is so sad and so wrong, because God has a plan for when it is really over for you. When you get to the place that life is so hard that you do not think you can live another minute, right around the corner from that God had victory. If you could just hold on, just hold on. Because you want to go out of this place on the day God says.

I remember what Kenneth Hagen said before he died, “I have decided I am going to be healthy till I die. On the day I die, and it is my day, I am just going to lean back and say ‘let her rip, Lord.’” He said, “I am just going to be out of here.” There is a time to be born and a time to die. Sometimes people have babies and they die early. Sometimes people have miscarriages and they never even come to fruition. The baby never sees the light of day. And yet, there was a time to be born. Is that God, when things like that happen? God is the author of life. God is a good God and the devil is a bad devil. We live in a fallen world. We have physical infirmities that just go with living in a fallen world. I would not blame God for it. But I will tell you, I have had miscarriages. I have had four. I believe God used one of them in my life. I asked the Lord why it had to happen. I believe the Lord said, “Greater love has no man than this, that he would lay down his life for a friend.” I just need to be honest with you, I feel like that experience of that baby not making it caused me to lay down all of these hard defenses I had against God. I was just determined to be hard against him. I felt like I was there in the hospital just saying, “Lord, I cannot fight you anymore. I am so tired of fighting you.” Maybe that child did have a time to be born and a time to die. Maybe someday I will get to heaven and find that out. When you get to heaven and you have all these unanswered questions of why things happened the way they did or did not happen the way they should have; you are going to see that God had everything under control and things happened just the way He wanted them to.

God even says there is a time to plant and a time to harvest. Now, you know that. We live in cotton district where there is a lot of cotton and maize growing. If you try to harvest ahead of time, you are not going to get a good crop. You are going to have little bitty cotton. There are certain times that God wants you to plant and certain times God wants you to harvest, even in the Christian life. Maybe right now you are in a season of ministry where you are just sowing seed and sowing seed and sowing seed. Maybe you are sowing financially because if you have had any teaching about finances and God, then you understand that God says you have to sow the certain kind of seed to reap the certain kind of harvest. If you have sowed and sowed and sowed and not seen a harvest from what you have sowed; whether it is time, friends, money, possessions, or whatever there is a harvest time. Because it says it right there in the word. If you are thinking why does it not happen, just underline that right there. Harvest time comes. There is a time to harvest.

The Bible says there is a time to kill and a time to heal. What in the world does that mean? There is a time to stick up for what you believe in, even if it involves war. It is a hard thing, but God is very realistic. How about a time to heal? I can tell you of one that happened recently. I was in the Philippians speaking and I was just giving a call for healing for anybody that needed to be healed. And God began to give me words of knowledge of different healings that were occurring during the time that I was speaking. And as fast as I could hear them I called them out. Well, I wondered, who got healed? After everything was done, a lady ran up to me so excited. She said, “Oh, watch, watch, watch Betty. God healed me. God healed me. Watch what I can do.” She said, “I was supposed to go on a mission trip to Malaysia and I hurt my back so badly that I couldn’t even move. I went to the doctor and he said ‘Be very careful about bending over, be very careful about twisting your body.’” And she said, “Betty, look. God has healed me. Watch.” And she was touching her toes and jumping up and down and twirling around. You see, there was a time for her to be healed. And the time gave great glory to God. Everybody saw it. Everybody rejoiced with her. It was a beautiful thing, God’s timing then.

The Bible also says there is a time to tear down and a time to build up. Now, is God talking about being rude and just really tearing somebody down? No, not that at all. There is just a time that things are not like they ought to be in your life. And maybe you have built a little castle and it is just still not right. You know, there is nothing worse than trying to build something that God says I did not do it, I wasnot in it, I did not tell you to do it. There is just a time to back up and tear it down. If you are going along somewhere and you cannot hear God, and you think why can’t I hear God? I could hear God before. Go back to the last thing He told you to do and do what He told you. That is when it will start again. When God tells you to tear something down, after that He will say now build it up this way and I will help you.

The Bible also says there is a time to cry and there is a time to laugh. Do you cry easily? How long has it been since you have cried? You know, tears are from God. The Bible says, “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.” It is a sad thing when we are taught that you have to be strong, do not cry. No, that is not true at all. The Lord says right there, there is a time to cry, and it is okay. And there is a time to laugh. Do you laugh a lot with the Lord? Do you laugh a lot in your Christian faith? Oh, I love to laugh. Recently I was in Uganda, getting ready to speak and looked out the window. I saw a beggar going through trash, even picking up a bottle full of some liquid and drinking it. I started crying. I just could not believe a person could be born, live, and die with that kind of a life. It broke my heart. And yet, right after that, I went to the meeting. I saw people laugh, sing, praise God and rejoice. They had been through hard times, too, really hard times.
There is a time to grieve and there is a time to dance. Some churches do not believe in dancing before the Lord. I thank God that I have been in churches that do. I thank God because right there in the Bible it says there is a time to dance. It says it right there. There is also a time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. Now what is that talking about? It is just talking about as you build things, as you tear things down, there are things you use to build with. There is a time to get rid of them and a time to gather them. There is a time to embrace and a time to turn away. God wants you to embrace the things that he tells you to embrace; whether it is a human, a project, ministry or business. Then there is a time to turn away. God will let you know in your heart it is over, you need to turn away.

There is a time to search and a time to quit searching. When I was thinking about this, I do not know if you have kept up with the man named Steve Fossett who had set all kinds of world records for going around the world in a balloon and a plane. Set all these records and then all of the sudden he took off one day. He did not file a flight plan and has been missing ever since. Nobody has found him. They have searched and searched. Where the plane possibly went down is very difficult area. They have never found him. And finally, as much as they searched, they had to come to the conclusion that he is dead and he is missing and he is gone. And they just quit searching.

The Bible says there is a time to keep and a time to throw away. I can tell you the funniest story. I have a friend named Barbara and we have been friends for about 35 years. She keeps things real neat. She does not have many things and is not a gatherer. She came to see me and it was a time I felt like my house was overwhelming me. I was trying to cut down, move down to a smaller house, my kids were grown. She said, “I am coming to see you and my name is Ruthless.” I said, “Oh my goodness, what are you going to do?” She said, “We are going to get rid of all that stuff in your house. It is time to throw it away Betty.” She would pick something up and say, “Do you use this?” “Well, no.” “Bye-bye.” “Do you use this?” “Not in a long time.” “Bye-bye.” And she went through my house over and over and over. I looked like a plucked chicken by the time she got through. But the freedom that was in my life. Well, now that was when I had a big house. Then I moved into a little bitty house. And then I moved into the house I am in now which is kind of an average-size house. Last January I called her up and I said, “Barbara, I think Ruthless needs to come see me one more time. It seems like no matter what I do, more stuff comes into this house.” So she came and she spent about three days with me. She was ruthless again. The beautiful thing about a time to throw away is that you can give everything to Goodwill. You can give it to people who need it and it blesses their life. If it stays in your life, it clutters your life. There really is a time to keep and there is a time to throw away.

There is a time to tear and there is a time to mend. What is that all about? A time to tear is when you have to tear into something and deal with it. You know what I am talking about. You just do not want to do it and yet you need to do it. In doing it you have to take some things apart and really examine them. It can be painful. It says there is a time to mend. What is that all about? Maybe you have been through a divorce, a separation, a business failure or a deep, deep personal hurt. Inside yourself you think I just do not want to be around people. I just need to be by myself. Maybe people are saying to you, no you do not need to do that you need to get out. But you know in your heart I just need to be by myself. And I have been there. I have been like that. I have had that happen to me before where I just went through something hard and I really need it to just be the Lord and me. And yet, there was a definite day that the Lord said to get out and get going again. You never, ever want to stay locked up away from people. Even if people drive you crazy, you have to say, “God made people. God made me to share his Word. I have got to get out and get going again.”

There is a time to be quiet and a time to speak, it says in Ecclesiastes. I can tell you that is true in a marriage. If you are married you know exactly what I am talking about. There are times you just zip your lip. In fact, with your children there is even a time to speak up and a time to be quiet. I have a friend that said to her teenager, “You see this blood running right down here? That’s me biting my lip, biting my tongue.” I just laughed and laughed. I thought it is the truth. There really is a time that no matter how badly you want to say something, you are going to be sorry you did. You cannot take it back, so you are just going to have to bite your tongue. You just have to and not say it. So there is a time to be quiet, but there is a time to speak up. Sometimes that is even scarier than the being quiet about it. It is like, “Lord give me the courage to say what needs to be said.” Most people hate confrontation. Yet right there it says in Ecclesiastes, there is a time to speak up. This may describe how you feel, “I know I need to speak up. Lord, I know I need to, what do I do?” You ask the Lord, when do I say it? When is the right time? Get them ready for it. God, let me see it through their eyes. Let me hear your spirit going through me so that I do it in love and not anger, but I still speak the truth, Lord, firmly.

The Bible says there is a time for war and a time for peace. People do not want war. People do not like war. Nobody likes war. Yet God says there is a time you have to stand up for what you believe in. But then, praise God, there is a time for peace. As we look over the world today, you see places that maybe five years ago or ten years ago were in absolute turmoil, and now there is peace. My friend said something to me recently that I want you to think about it and see what you think about this. Do you think this is true? She said, “Betty, I have been thinking about it and I believe that there are times God just blows everything up, because out of it comes something good. Things get put in order in a better way, in a way they couldn’t have been otherwise.” You know that is true in nature. We went to Yellowstone National Park last summer. About ten years ago they had a terrible fire there and acres and acres and acres of trees were burned. The person doing the tour that we were on said, “You know, that’s how nature does that. There are little pine trees that will never get enough light. Also, when there is a fire the pine cones get so hot that they burst. They send multiple seeds out and it reforests everything. It just takes time for it to build up. Also it kills off a lot of insects.” So, there is a time for all of this.

If God runs the universe and He has perfect timing for everything, can the devil still mess up your life? He can stop it for awhile and delay it for awhile, but he cannot ever keep it from happening. There is only one person on earth that can keep God’s will from your life and that’s you. You are the only one that can say no and stop everything. Because God will not force his will on you. He waits for you to say yes. So, you can stop it. Maybe all of this time has gone by and you have been saying no. And today God is speaking to you saying, “Say yes and we will go again.” I want to encourage you to do that. I want you to think about saying, “I do not want God to stop His best in my life. I am tired of fighting him. I am tired of fighting everything that’s going on.”

The other situation that occurs is when you are waiting, waiting, waiting and wonder why it will not happen, it seems to me like it just really needs to happen. Well, never forget that God has perfect timing and it will happen just when it is supposed to. You know what else? God can even make up time. Have you seen that happen? You think it is too late. It is never going to happen. I see that happen when people get married late in life. I met a man at the Navigator’s Headquarters who said, “I never got married till I was 59. I married a woman who was 54 and she had never been married. Never ever; never had a boyfriend and I’d never had a girlfriend. I thought I was destined to be alone all of my life and I was trying to be happy in that and then I met this woman.” I said, “Well, how’s your life.” He said, “We are so happy. We are thrilled we found each other. We appreciate each other more than ever, and God has made up time. It is as if we have always been together.” And that is the way God is.

In the first part of Psalms 31:15 it says, “My times are in Thy hand.” My times. Can you say that about your times? The time for you to get married, time to have a house, time to have kids and time to change careers. You know, even Jesus had to come at the right time. It says in the Bible, “In the fullness of time God sent His son. Galatians 4:4 says, “But when the right time came, God sent his son, born of a woman subject to the law.” Of all of time, God picked that particular spot in history for Jesus to be born. There is a set time for the end of time as well, Jesus said. In Ephesians 1:10 it says this is the plan, “At the right time He will bring everything under the authority of Christ, everything in heaven and in earth.” The Lord even has a right time for when He comes back. I have always known, since I was in high school, I am going to be alive when the Lord comes back. I do not know how that is all going to work out, but I think I am going to be. God bless you and God bless the time in your life.

QUIET TIME QUESTIONS

1. What do we know about God and time from Scripture?
2. Compile a list of all the things there is a time for from Ecclesiastes 3.
3. What time of life are you in?
4. Are you trying to set your own times or are your times in God’s hand?

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