Waiting on God is an Act

It certainly was amazing what God had in mind regarding my house.

"Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who wait for Him (those who love Him)."

All He was waiting for was for me to step out on His word.

Just think: if I had taken the approach of getting a job to earn the necessary funds to do the repairs, I would still be working to this day, and yet I still would not have saved enough money to commence the repairs.

God meets every believer's needs supernaturally - not just mine.

It happens to every believer. God leads all His children supernaturally - not always spectacularly - but supernaturally none-the-less.

We were having a prayer-time at Adam and Michele Walker's parents' house years ago, when Leanne Slinger saw a vision that I am like a crab.

She prophesied, "Just because you walk sideways (instead of forwards like most other creatures), does not mean that you do not get to cross the finish-line!"

The vision made Leanne laugh because the prophecy was somewhat of a vindication of the way I functioned at the time, even though it was different.

God gives to each of us a calling that is as different to each other's as God's creatures are different to each other: some creatures walk forwards, crabs walk sideways, others fly, some swim, kangaroos hop.

But regardless of our diverse and unique functions, there is a modus operandi that I think is common to all of us - and that is, that each of us has the privilege of hearing and acting on direct instructions from our Master.

That's the beautiful key we've all been given. We can all hear from God.

What we do will be different for all of us, but why we do it can be the same for all of us. We do it because Jesus told us. What we do, we can do because we've heard from the Lord.

That privilege is for all of us - no matter what our calling in life is.

So this reconciles the "hands on" way to meeting your needs with the waiting on God way.

It's not a question of either/or: it's neither the "hands on" way nor the "wait for God to do it" way - it's the "hear from God and act on His Word" way that yields supernatural results.

And hearing from God and acting on it is something all of us can do!

For some, God may lead them to get a job or to start a business.

At one phase of my life, God's will for me was to work full-time in a Customs and Freight-forwarding Agency in Brisbane.

During those days, I didn't need to hear God say to me again every morning, "I want you to go to work today".

I only needed to be led once, at the beginning; and then, after that, I just kept working every day - until six years later when He moved me on.

Then there came a phase in my life when the Word of the Lord came unto me to give notice in my job and do other things, and trust Him. I acted on His instruction - and to this day He still meets all my needs.

Either way - at either phase of my life - I was acting on His Word - and it was still God who provided my needs.

At one time, He met my needs primarily through my salary. Now, He meets my needs primariliy from extraordinary sources. But at both times, my provision began with acting on a word from my Lord.

As brother Hagin said, "Some people look for the spectacular and miss the supernatural".

The way God provided for me whilst working in that job in Brisbane wasn't spectacular but it was supernatural - because God helped me get that job (that's another story); God helped me do it, and through it, God provided my needs.

The way God met my needs after I left my job was perhaps more spectacular, but not any more supernatural.

I was equally dependant on God in my job. The only thing that changed was what He asked me to do.

When God met all my needs in Ipswich recently, I didn't exactly do nothing.

In the first place, it took faith not to go get a job! You understand how people pressure you to get a job in such circumstances. It would have been easy for me - with my Edwards DNA (lol) - to go get three jobs and save the money. But an inner witness stopped me.

To refuse to get a job was every bit as much an act, as getting a job would be an act.

It took moral choice to instead wait on God and eventually make those appointments to start the repairs even though I had no resources.

And I actually had to step out and go to Ipswich. Nothing would have happened if I was still sitting around waiting for the resources to come to me supernaturally before I stepped out. The resources only started flowing after I started making steps.

But when I stepped out, they were steps of faith, not of independance. I wasn't making plans in my own mind or strength, but I was acting on His instructions which I received whilst waiting on Him. I was acting on a word from Jesus - I wasn't acting independantly.

My objective by going to Ipswich was to do what He said as much as to seek a result.

Faith is an act. Faith is acting on the Word. Faith, like love, is not known except by word and deed.

We have the privilege of hearing His Word as much through an inner guidance as through the written Word. Every believer has the inner witness.

In the Scripture below, Peter threw the net twice.

Both times, he had the same desire: to catch fish.

But both times did not yield the same result.

The first time, he was acting independantly. And he caught nothing.

The second time, he was acting on an instruction from Jesus - which is faith. And he caught a great number of fish.

What made the difference was becoming intimately intwined with the words of Jesus.

You and I have the privilege of becoming intimately intwined with the words of Jesus - and act out of that - with thrilling results.

Neither the "hands on" approach nor the waiting on God approach can yield supernatural results on its own. Living a life that acts out of being intertwined with Jesus' specific and unique instructions to us, is what yields supernatural results.

Luke 5:4-6

4 Now when he [Jesus] had left speaking, he said unto Simon,
Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.

5 And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled
all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I
will let down the net.

6 And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude
of fishes: and their net brake.

Peter had worked all night and caught nothing. He had tried the hands on approach, and discovered it has its limitations.

But then he acted on a direct word from Jesus - he did the same action - but this time he got a different result.

Notice, Peter still had to cast the net. Peter couldn't sit around waiting for Jesus to make all the fish jump into the boat. He still had to do something. In this case, he did exactly the same action. But this time he was doing it because Jesus said to do it, and not because it made sense, and this time it worked.

• he had come to the end of his own effort
  
• now he heard directly from Jesus
• what Jesus asked Peter to do didn't necessarily make sense to Peter
  
• but he acted on it anyway, just because Jesus said so
• and the result: a great catch of fish
  

Each of us has the privilege of hearing from Jesus and acting on it then reaping the results - whether we are called to go to work, to start a business, or to preach the Gospel.

Many people who claim to be "waiting on God" are not "waiting" for Him at all. God is waiting for them. Because waiting on God is an act. Some of these people are like a boat rusting on the beach above sea level, waiting for the tide to come in.

Waiting on God means that we take time-out to hear His plan, and then ACT ON ANY INSTRUCTIONS HE MAY GIVE US. Waiting is not the opposite of action - it is the opposite of independant action.