Wait

Bible commentaries list seven different Hebrew words for the word ‘wait’. Its most frequent use defines the ATTITUDE of a soul that is ever looking toward God; for most of the Hebrew words the meaning implies a listening ear, a heart responsive to the leading of God, a concentration of one’s spirit on heaven, and the patience inherent in an active faith.

To wait also describes a yearning and an eagerness for the truths and love of God to be revealed to self- as well as for our adoption as sons and daughters and, ultimately, the redemption of our earthly bodies.

Furthermore, this word also describes the longsuffering and patience of God toward His rebellious people (Isa. 30:18, Peter 3:20) and Christ’s waiting for His Bride. So, in our faithful waiting, we are becoming as Christ since it is an ever-present aspect of His very nature.

Dutch Sheets describes five meanings in one of his online sermons:

1. Waiting PATIENTLY – as did Moses on Mount Sinai for the Ten Commandments.
2. Waiting – TRUSTING.
3. Waiting LONGINGLY – Father God loves it when we have a deep longing for HIS PRESENCE as our first priority and need in our lives. We are commanded to QUIETLY WAIT and LISTEN (Dutch Sheets says there is a point you reach in your waiting where you truly only want HIM more than any program or ministry endeavour and where you, experientially, understand that, when you have His Presence, you also have everything else – Seek Ye first the Kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you.
4. Waiting – until there is a BRAIDING TOGETHER.Note Proverbs 16:3–

“Roll your works upon the Lord [commit and trust them wholly to Him; He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your plans be established and succeed.”

This passage is revealing our braiding together with the Trinity where our thoughts become as His thoughts as we wait upon Him; and, in Isaiah 40: 28-31:

“Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, does not faint or grow weary; there is no searching of His understanding. He gives power to the faint and weary, and to him who has no might He increases strength [causing it to multiply and making it to abound]. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and [selected] young men shall feebly stumble and fall exhausted; But those who WAIT upon the LORD [ who expect, look for, and hope in Him] shall change and renew their strength and power; they shall lift their wings and mount up [close to God] as eagles [ mount up to the sun]; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint or become tired.”

Here we are braided together as we are promised that, if we wait for the Lord, we will be changed to become like Him in strength and power, we will become as eagles who run and walk and never become weary, as He never becomes weary. I had an open vision several years ago where I was shown thousands upon thousands of heavenly eagles walking in perfect formation up to the top of a mountain (signifies His Kingdom) – these eagles were massive in size and stature, perfectly aligned, with no need to talk or be led from the front. Their sense of a united purpose was breathtaking and the beauty of both their strength and gentleness was overwhelming. They were braided together in perfect peace and they never tired or stopped walking. This is what we are becoming as we wait upon the Lord.

5. WEIGHT – when you have reached the place where your maturity, hunger and desire are walking with the Spirit at a certain level you will become pure enough to CARRY HIS GLORY; Hebrews calls it a substitive Presence and this Presence is associated with carrying His authority. We are to BECOME CARRIERS OF HIS GLORY through our processes of WAITING and practising the 1 – 4 aspects of this BEING before Him. This movement toward an ever-increasing weight of glory necessitates our waiting – our LOOKING ALWAYS TOWARD HIM – rather than at our distresses and trials of life; being patient, trusting, longing of His Presence, braided and so glory carriers. The eagles in the above-mentioned open vision were, indeed, carriers of this glory and there is nothing more magnificent and powerful.

2 Corinthians 4:17-18 – “For our light, momentary afflictions (this slight distress of the passing hour) is ever more and more abundantly preparing and producing and achieving for us an everlasting WEIGHT of glory [beyond all measure, excessively surpassing all comparisons and all calculations, a vast and transcendent glory and blessedness never to cease!]. Since we consider and look NOT TO THE THINGS THAT ARE SEEN BUT TO THE THINGS THAT ARE UNSEEN; for the things that are visible are temporal (brief and fleeting), but the things that are invisible are deathless and everlasting.”

Aren’t these two passages most wonderful! My spirit soars every time I read these scriptures. I have had one other open-vision in my life; this one occurred over 25 years ago. I was shown a Christian community, followed by a bus moving toward God’s mountain of Glory, followed by a scene of unutterable darkness and despair with legions of wounded, sick and dying people streaming into this huge warehouse space. On the mezzanine level people were being raised from the dead as we simply looked at them (the greater glory) while, downstairs, everyone was healed as we gazed at them – no touching was necessary. The weight of God’s glory was so manifest in us through Christ, His Presence in us, we needed nothing else. As people were healed the colour of the Lord began to replace the darkness that had pervaded the scene. This is what, I believe, we are to know asChrist’s body on earth at this time in His history. We have been destined for His Glory to be manifested upon the earth before His return. One thing to note was the meaning of the ‘bus’ – the Spirit revealed that, if we ‘mixed’ our faith by letting those who did not believe in Christ and His resurrection upon the bus, the buswould topple and we would not arrive at the place of being able to carry His glory to this degree. We have to be pure in order to actually know and witness His glory. Here is another vision, sovereignly given, revealing that WEIGHT that comes from a life of waiting, revealing the action of the scriptures that say ‘wait for, hope for and expect the Lord’ (Psalm 27).

I believe Kinsman Farm is to be a DOORKEEPER ministry, a ministry (like many others) that assists people to go into the PRESENCE of the Lord by His Spirit and ‘fix our gaze’ upon heaven. To this end, one of the things we are learning is how to sit in silence with the Holy Spirit and meditate and contemplate together before the Throne of God. This is a WAITING upon God in anticipation, trust, longing and love – looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith:

Hebrews 12:1-3 –“Therefore the, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who have borne testimony to the Truth], let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with PATIENT ENDURANCE and STEADY and ACTIVE PERSISTENCE the appointed course of the race that is set before us, LOOKING AWAY [from all that will distract] to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith [giving the first incentive for our belief] and is also its Finisher [bringing it to maturity and perfection].”

We believe that, as we continue to WAIT upon the Lord by His Spirit in this time, and as the Spirit continues to help us strip off and throw aside our WRONG WEIGHT (sin and sinful nature), in order for the DESIRED WEIGHT (His glory) to come upon us in increasing measure, we are practising a form of waiting that is helping us to move forward in faith with patient endurance and active persistence the part of our race that stands before us – we are learning to look together only to Jesus and hold fast to Him.

Hence, we meet together to practise the first four types of waiting with an expectation that God’s glory will ultimately be manifested and experienced in our lives (of course, it isn’t this simple as works of service and many other aspects of our faith are also involved – however, we believe God’s word asks us to look to, and gaze upon). We meet to function as did the Mary’s in the Bible who sat at Jesus’ feet and simply delighted to be in His Presence, to be with in love more than to do, Our Lord said of Mary, ‘Mary has chosen the better thing’.

One final point. The glory ‘hovers/broods’. It is a birthing term. An intimate term. This word was used when the Spirit hovered (Gk ‘episciato’) over Mary and she became pregnant with Christ. We, as a ministry are called to ‘sow the seed of Mary’, to sow the ‘weight’ of God’s glory and be a carrier of Christ- just as Mary was in the natural, so we are to be in the Spirit. We will do this as we WAIT and believe what He has promised us in His word. We aren’t there, of course, but we believe in His word and wait in faith. As we grow Christ in us to the point of being FILLED so that His glory spills out of us, but His PRESENCE also, then, comes WITH US we will truly fulfil His mandate for His church on earth. May we all fulfill God’s mighty call and run the appointed course of the race He has set before us at this time. Amen and amen.