Date: November 8, 2018 ()

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Today I am going to talk about the importance of waiting on the Lord. There are all kinds of stories in the Bible of people that God said, “Now, go now. Now is your time.” We have stories of people who waited and waited. We are going to look at some of those people today. What did they have to go through? It was not any easier for them to wait than it is for you to have to wait on God. What are you going through right now? Maybe you are waiting on God for your children to get straightened; maybe you are waiting on God for your job to change; or maybe you are waiting on God for your marriage to change. There is always that waiting period when we have to trust God. We have to stay strong and we have to stay in faith. We cannot back down or cannot back off of it. We have got to keep going.

With God’s timing, there is a purpose for us in the waiting. There is something that needs to happen in you. If you need change in your life or change in your situation; you may be thinking if they would just change, everything would change. However, God says no, you cannot count on that. You have to change. You continue to think I do not need to change. They are the ones that need to change or that situation is what needs to change. God says, “No, there are some ways you need to change. In this waiting time, if you will cooperate with me, I will help you wait. I will change you and you will like how you change.”

(As we look at this in-depth way of the Lord I want you to look at this picture. Look at the man waiting on God. Do you feel that way? Have you ever felt like that? I have really felt like that. One time a lady came up to me at church and she was trying to describe that picture that you are seeing.) She said, “Betty, God has shown me a picture of you. You and all your friends were sitting in this waiting room. One by one God came to the door and motioned for them to come in. One by one they went in. Finally, Betty, you were the only one waiting.” That lady did not know me very well and yet she described exactly how I was feeling. It was a great comfort to me. When you are waiting and nothing is happening, God will send you comforting words. That was a vision He gave her. Somebody can have a dream about you. You can have a dream. When I was waiting on this minintry to start, one of my friends called me. She said, “Betty, I had a dream about you last night.” I said, “What was it?” She said, “It was kind of crazy. You had gray hair and you had on a pink maternity shirt. You were sitting on this stool. I kept looking at you thinking that you are old, but you are going to have a baby. What do you think it means? Do you have any idea?” Of course it did not mean anything to her, but I knew exactly what it meant. I was a grandmother still thinking that God’s real release in my life had not happened yet. That is what it was. It was a baby ministry starting. This ministry has now begun and it is wonderful. I felt like I had waited until I was gray-haired and waiting for that baby to get born.

What kind of a Scripture would encourage you to hang on and wait? This first Scripture Psalms 27:14 says, “Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord.” In the 1970s, God gave me that verse. I had just gotten filled with the Holy Spirit, baptized in the Holy Spirit, totally believing in healing, miracles, signs, wonders and demons going out of people. I just believed the whole deal. I read the Bible. I said I believe. God began to speak to me. I went to a church in another town with some friends who were speaking. While I was sitting in the audience, the Lord spoke to me in my heart and said, “Go up and be anointed for a healing and deliverance ministry.” I thought, what does that mean? I just sat there. And I heard it again, “Go up and be anointed for a healing and deliverance ministry.” I went up to the two pastors that were praying for everybody in this little church. I said, “The Lord has told me to come up and be anointed for a healing and deliverance ministry. Do you know what that means?” I had been attending a church that did not even know what being anointed for something meant. I did not even know how you did it. They said, “Oh yes, we know what it means, absolutely, let us get some oil.” They got some oil and anointed my forehead. They prayed over me to have this ministry. I turned around to go back and sit down in my seat. One of the men grabbed me and said, “Wait a minute, wait a minute. If this is really the Lord, you need to get busy working. We have all these people we are praying for. There are too many of them for us to handle. You start praying for people.” I agreed and just started. Anybody that came up, I prayed whatever I thought I was supposed to pray. I remember one of them was a woman who came up to me and said, “I have a spirit of fear that I am going to be attacked by a man. It just overwhelms me.” I said, “Sometimes I kind of have that fear. Let me pray for you. You spirit of fear that is paralyzing this woman, you come out of her right now in the name of Jesus Christ. Get out of her.” As I prayed for her, it left me too. I could feel it go. I just worked my way down the line praying for these people. I thought, “Oh boy, I am doing it. Here we go, Lord. This is going to be exciting. I wonder what’s going to happen next.” As I walked out of the church, I just happened to glance down at the Bible, there was just a Bible open like this you know, just right here where I could see. And, would you know, it was open to that verse. Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, be of good cheer (we know that), and he shall strengthen they heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. And I knew God was speaking on me and saying, “Wait, it is not going to start fast. You are going to have to wait. And God is going to strengthen your heart.” I had to learn what strengthening your heart meant. I did not even know what it meant. You know all of this is so new to you when you are starting. You have to learn a lot. What did I have to learn? A lot. I had to learn how to really believe the word. I had to talk to people who were involved in ministries like this. And, I had to pray about it a lot. I had to get ready for how God wanted to use me. I had to just be ready. I do not know what else to say. Do you know what else there was? I had to wait on God’s timing for when He was ready to do it. How long did I have to wait? About five years. That seemed like a lifetime to mean. It is like, Lord I am ready, I know you told me. How long do I have to keep waiting, waiting, waiting? But, what it was, and I did not realize this, it was a lot bigger than me, it did not involve just me. There came about the inner healing and deliverance ministry that began to rise up all over the world. I was just one of many people being called to that ministry. I was not the only one. There were thousands of people being called to it. God had a lot to do to get everything in place to get teachers raised up to teach people how to move in it. I was taught things by a couple in another town, that, in Lubbock, that I have used to this very day. What I learned from them I had to first of all apply it to my own life. I had to go through an inner healing and deliverance myself. And see how it changed my life. And it did change my life dramatically. It was wonderful. And if you’ve never gone through it, I encourage you. Never think that just because you are a pastor or a Sunday school teacher or some big work in the church that you do not need it. Everybody needs it because everybody’s had hurts and everybody has had the demonic come against them. Maybe just in your mind, but you have an enemy and you have to learn how to stand and fight him till he leaves you alone. And I had to learn all of that, but out of that I have had the most amazing ministry. It is all been primarily inner healing and deliverance. I assumed it was going to be outer healing and that I was going to have this outer healing ministry like Benny Henn or something. I mean I was all ready for it, I thought. But, it wasn’t that.

You have to look and see what is an open door when you are waiting on the Lord? Where do you see an open door? Go that way. My first open door was with single adults. Then it was women friends that I had. Because we were all so excited, there were about five of us that found out about all this inner healing and deliverance, this was in 1984. We were so excited. Oh my goodness, we just could not wait to pray for people and tell everybody look what’s happened to me it can happen to you. I will even tell you a funny story. Because it was so powerful, when it finally started happening, after all this waiting, and we were beginning to understand you really cannot step out into your biggest ministry without going through this kind of stuff because it is things that can waylay you as you move in your ministry, so you might as well go through it. We were so excited about that that we said you know what we are going to do; we are all going to be stepping out in our ministries we need to really anoint each other with oil. And we do not need this little dabble, let’s get busy with it. We got these towels and they happened to be my good towels and we got this big bottle of Wesson oil, I mean you know these kind that are about this big. And we would set each other down in the middle of a circle and we’d just dump that oil all over our heads and it would just roll down off our head and down on our shoulders and we loved it because it felt like that’s probably what they really did in the Bible. When they poured that flask of oil on David or whoever they anointed. We felt like that’s what they really do and we want to do it like we think the Bible did it. Well, I can tell you this, I had to shampoo my hair about ten times in one week to get all that oil out and I do not know how many times I had to wash those towels because all five of us went through it and those towels just got oil, oil, oil in them. What a wonderful experience. What a wonderful memory.

Who are some people who had to wait in the Bible for a long time? You know who I think maybe the longest was? Who do you think it is? Noah. I cannot think of anybody that waited 120 years for something to happen. That was a long time. Do you know where it is likely that Noah was building that ark? Maybe in Turkey in the desert. It had never rained before. Now what if you heard God tell you to do something and it was going to happen way down the road and God says, “Okay, the next thing I want you to do is start building this boat and I am going to tell you how to build it.” You are out in the desert building a boat, what do you think people would say to you? What do you think they would think about you? How hard would it be to wait on God to bring this all about? Maybe that boat was harder than you thought to build, of course it took longer. A long time. And Noah had to remain faithful; he had to remain in faith, believing that what God had said was really going to happen. Do not you think there were times with people mocking him and going on about their business that he thought what in the world am I doing? Why am I doing? Did I hear God? Or did make that up? Haven’t you been like that? And it says that in the days of Noah people were marrying and burying and partying and eating. There was Noah out there; hammer, hammer, hammer. Hammer, hammer, hammer. Building this thing. They probably caught, you remember Seward’s folly when they were buying Alaska, America was buying Alaska and they were going why are you buying snow? It was not, was it? And it is like that in life. So much of the time you have to endure mocking. It is hard, but God will always encourage you and he always rewards faith. Do not ever forget that. That’s that verse in Hebrews that says he rewards faith. So you want to hang in there.

Who’s somebody else that had to wait a long time for something to happen? Abraham. You know he was a real old man when God said, “This time next year you will have a baby. You are going to have a little boy.” Abraham laughed and Sarah laughed because they were old and dried up. And I mean they had not had a baby. They had waited a long, long, long, long, long time. They had not had a baby. Then they tried to help God out. When you are waiting on what God has told you, make sure you do not take matters into your own hands and try to make the thing happen because it is taking so long. Just be sure you go back to God and say, “now Lord, I know you told me this. I am having this thought that I ought to do this.” Let Him tell you no, because if Abraham and Sarah had done that, we would not have the problem with the Arabs and the Jews that we have today. That all takes place because they could not wait on God. They had to wait 25 years. Why did they have to wait so long? Why does God make you wait a long time? He makes you wait not only to grow you in ways that you need to grow, but also for His glory. You see when Abraham and Sarah had this precious baby way, way, way past the time when people could have children, it was a miracle. And everybody knew it was a miracle. And everybody knew this child was a very special child. That was Isaac. He was a special child. Well, you know you could ask yourself, did God stop them from having a baby or was it just their physical bodies and something was wrong with them? They had trouble conceiving because people today have trouble conceiving. Well, all I know is Isaac and Rebecca got married and she had a hard time having babies, so maybe some of that was in there. I just know God had a plan.

Who else had to wait? King David. He knew he was the anointed king. And yet, he was constantly on the run for his life. Now, what did he do that we need to learn from while he was waiting? He never would run down Saul. He always tried to honor Saul. He always tried to fit in with what Saul wanted. He had ever opportunity to tell him, put him down, get rid of him, and he wouldn’t do it. Even with his mouth he wouldn’t do it. So that’s a real lesson for us. When we have somebody that’s in the way of what God has for us and we know it and they will not back down, they will not get out of the way.

Is there an example of somebody in the Bible that couldn’t wait? Oh, there is a lot. One of them is Saul. You know the reason he lost the kingship is because the prophet Samuel said, “Wait until I come. Do not do anything and I will come tell you what to do.” Saul waited and waited and waited. And then he said, “Nope. They’re putting too much pressure on me. I have got to do it.” Samuel came and said, “What in the world have you done?” He said, “Well, the people were putting pressure on me and I thought you weren’t going to come.” Samuel said, “God has snatched the throne from you and given it to your servant.” And he did. You do not want to have that happen to you. Think about Sampson. He wanted a wife. But he wanted a wild wife. He wanted those party girls. He would not wait for that good woman to come along.

What makes you give up on waiting? People pressure, personal internal pressure, getting man’s approval. Make you say, well why are you waiting so long? And so you want that approval. Your faith weakens as you go along instead of strengthens. You have to figure out how you can strengthen your faith as you go along. The last thing is the pressure of the situation itself makes it very hard for you to wait. What all do you wait on today? Well, marriage. I talked with a lady recently that had been involved with two different men. One of them had been physically abusive to her. She had a child by him. Another one had been verbally abusive. She had a child by him. Not married to either one of them. She just couldn’t wait on God’s man for her. And she told me I am miserable. There is nothing more miserable then to be out of God’s will in a relationship with a man. And then of course, people wait on children. God has to open your womb and give you children. Sometimes you are waiting on your mate’s job situation and it is hard on both of you. We have been through that. I have been through it with my husband; he’s been through it waiting with me. Waiting on your ministry; I waited a long time, 30 years. Sometimes you are waiting for people to grow and they’re fighting the growth. Sometimes you are waiting on a material thing; new house, a car, something you want. Sometimes you are waiting to be the leader. You know you are called to be the leader and there is somebody in leadership ahead of you and you think I can do it better, I know I can. Lord why do not you move them out of the way so I can get in there and do it right? And the Lord just makes you wait, because he’s got perfect timing. And you want to be in that. Sometimes you are waiting for money to come in. Now that is a hard one, is it not? You have to be really careful because the devil will come, especially in that situation, and try to get you to get that money in an ungodly manner. And make sure that you say, “If I go down, I go down, but I am not going down in a dishonest way.”

Why wait then? Because God looks down and He rewards you for that. Many times God is working on the other end. It does not really have anything to do with you. You are really ready and you are still waiting, waiting, waiting. But God sometimes has to work on the other end. When he has it just like He needs it to be, then He is going to move. Sometimes He can move fast. I am going to teach a lesson on that coming up about when God moves suddenly. Here we are talking about waiting, waiting, waiting. But there are times that He moves suddenly.

You know you are more involved in the lives of other people than you ever think you are. And more than you’ll ever know till you get to heaven. Remember I told you when God said go up and be anointed for a healing and deliverance ministry, I thought it was just me. I had no idea there were thousands of people all over the world being trained by the Lord for this ministry. And that people were writing books about it.

What else can you learn by waiting? You can learn how to get listening ears. You can learn how to hear God better because nothing is happening. When He does talk, you can sure recognize that it is God at least. You can get depth of relationship with the Lord. You know He is really more interested in you spending time with him and really developing an intimate relationship with him. You will always be doing things, but do you take the time to walk with God in such a personal way? I pray a lot, “Lord, I’d love to be like Enoch. He walked so closely with you, Lord that one day he was so close to heaven God said, “Come on home.” And he just was no more. They never found him, he was just gone. Wouldn’t that be something to be like that? To get, and there is another reason you wait, is to get a knowledge of God’s way. People talk to you and tell you what God’s done in their lives and it encourages you while you are waiting and you learn more about God’s ways. Sometimes God wants more people involved, like I was telling you about my situation. Sometimes it is just to test your faith because God does test your faith. He does try you.

There is another one; sometimes it is to purify your life. There are things in your life that just in waiting you begin to say, “Well, as long as I am waiting I am might as well get rid of this.” How do you wait then? With patience, that is what the Bible says. You have need of patience, it is in Hebrews 10. You have need of patience. After you have done the will of God, you will receive the promise. When I was preparing these lessons and I was down taping these, yesterday when I was taping some lessons, that’s the verse that kept going over and over in my mind. You have need of patience, Betty. After you have done the will of God the promise will happen. Do you wait in peace? That probably will hurry up your waiting time more than anything. If you can just get to the place that you are relaxed, confident that God is going to do what he said he’s going to do and you are just relaxed and peaceful, because that’s where God really wants you to be. And then, there is something you probably need to learn about the Lord that a lady in jail told me one time. God is never early, but He is always on time. So He is never late. Sometimes he gets there at 11:59:59 does He not? Why does he do that? He does it to cause your faith to stretch; to cause your faith to grow.

Look at this second Scripture in Habakkuk 2:3, “For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie. Though it tarry, wait for it because it will surely come. It will not tarry.” Maybe you need to write that verse down. Put it on where you shave or where you put on your makeup. If you are waiting that can be a great encouragement to you, a verse like that. Wait for the doors to open, do not push them open. You are going to be sorry. Now, sometimes God says push, go. But I am not talking about that now. In fact, another thing you can do is look for what God’s doing right now and live in the moment of what God’s doing now. Pass this test. Have a good heart, have a good attitude. One time I hated carpet that I had so bad and God said, “Just praise me, praise me.” It was like, Lord how long do I have to put up with this carpet. Please get the carpet out of my house. “Praise me, praise me, Betty. Do not complain.” I did and God did a miracle. I wish I had time to sit down with you and tell you how God got me new carpet. It was not in a way that you could say it was anything but God. It was like a miracle. So strengthen yourself with these Bible verses. Look up “waiting” in the Bible. Strengthen yourself for when God will say, “Now, you are ready.”

QUIET TIME QUESTIONS

1. What can you learn by waiting on God?
2. What can you do while you wait?
3. How do patience and peace factor into waiting on God?
4. What do we know about God’s timing?
5. What do you find when you look up “waiting” in the Bible?

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