Waiting upon the Lord

Waiting upon the Lord

"Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord." Psalm 27:14

Hearing and doing God's will are two distinct steps in the process of obedience. Unfortunately, they often get confused as being just one step. Truth is, the directive from God to do anything by His power is ACTUALLY  a call to PREPARE yourself. For example, when an individual feels the "call" to , let's say, go to an African nation as a missionary, it might do that individual well to take care of a few preliminaries. For example, he might study that nation's culture, learn a few phrases, talk to others who have lived there, raise funds and get a passport. 

So, when we hear God's call to do anything - whether it's a strong unction, repeated signs, or a literal still small voice - this is only 50 percent of the process. The next important step is to know when to make your move. Timing is everything, after all.

There was a time when the Spirit led me to be a scribe for the Lord. Frankly, I didn't know where to begin. I'd been a Copy Writer for Dallas ad agencies, won some awards, but at that point, I was the Assistant Pastor of a 300-member congregation who didn't even own a type writer. As one who lived in a strongly Middle Eastern neighborhood, their men were always asking if I was Muslim. I guess I had "the look." 

Whatever the reason, I felt compelled to design a one-page tract intended to explain the love of God to people of the Islamic faith. As finances permitted, I would buy stamps and hand-address the tracts and send them to people from the phone book who had Arabic-looking names. 

In time, a friend of mine, a Vice President of the company I was working for, crippled from rheumatoid arthritis he contracted as a child, learned about what I was doing and started paying my postage costs. Here I was, a divorced, single man, suffering from a progressively-worstening spinal disease, in tandem with my 89-pound, twisted and gnarled friend, doing what we could to share Christ with the Muslims of our community.

Before I started down this path, another friend had given me a computer which sat in the corner collecting dust for at least 6 months. One day, he asked if I'd ever connected it. Frankly, I was clueless as to how to get that done and, afterward, what I was expected to do with this machine. It's when he told me I could send message out all over the planet I decided I'd better get educated. 

Thus, my online ministry began.

This was a major change for me. Though I began by reaching out to kids in my Youth Group with eMail messages of encouragement, very few of them had eMail addresses in those days (imagine that!). It was when one of their parents forwarded a message to a missionary friend of hers in Sicily, prompting a response from that individual, that I realized the possibilities of ministry by computer. Sicily? The world suddenly became a much smaller place.

Today, 13 years later, God has allowed me the privilege of reaching MILLIONS across the globe via the Internet. 

From this experience, I learned, firsthand, where God guides, He provides. I'd done all the training in my secular life; He provided the tools. Like David, tangling with the lion and the bear prepared him to take on Goliath. 

I'll never forget the New Year's Eve I heard the Father say, "Everything you do, matters." How could  it NOT? The same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead lives in me! Besides, Jesus promised greater things than He did we would do because He went to the Father.

Corrie ten Boom was a prisoner in the Holocaust who lost her sister in Hitler's death camps during WWII. She told the story of her father traveling with her on trains and how she always wanted to hold her ticket from ahead of time. Wisely, her father never gave her the ticket until she was about to get onto the train, afraid she might lose it along the way.

God always does what He does at the perfect time. He is never late, and rarely is He early. Have you noticed? Ask God for the wisdom and patience required in order for you to operate within His will and timing for the events in your life - events that most assuredly always have a Kingdom connection. 

Every blessing,

Michael Tummillo

Founder, The Church @ Work