FFM Teaching Of The Week: WAITING ON THE LORD - PART 2: CONCLUSION - BY ELI MILLER

Note: Hey people I want to give a shout-out to Eli Miller, one of my peeps from International Team Ministries, who appears as a guest author on Todd Bentley’s Fresh Fire Ministries’ Teaching of the week. His article deals with the timely and crucial issue of “waiting on the Lord” and I highly recommend that you tune-in to this series.

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In this week’s lesson the blessing of the Lord will overtake you as Eli guides you into three more dimensions in waiting on the Lord; dimensions that will encourage and empower you to devote yourself entirely to God’s purposes. You will discover, as you take steps to wait on the Lord, just how your relationship with Him will become progressively deeper and more precious. Eli’s biography is at the close of this teaching.

WAITING ON THE LORD
PART 2 - CONCLUSION
By FFM Friend & Guest Author: Eli Miller

Let’s begin where we left off from last week’s lesson. I explained that the prophet Samuel was an example of someone who had learned how to discipline himself so well spiritually that God did not let even one of his words fall to the ground (1 Sam. 3:19). As well, I said that when we have been exercised to wait on the Lord to this extent, we can be assured of absolute accuracy in the words that we speak too.

As that revelation sinks in let’s review the five topics of discussion outlined last week, and then we’ll go straight into the next three dimensions in waiting on the Lord.

1. All Creation Waits on the Lord
2. Getting More Specific
3. The Pain of Waiting
4. Waiting in Astonishment
5. Waiting in Absolute Silence

6. JOINED TO THE LORD

Once we’ve learned to wait before the Lord in such disciplined silence [as outlined in the previous segment], we are ready to go a step further and be even more perfectly joined to Him. This next step in the waiting discipline is where things start getting really exciting!

The Hebrew word for it is QAVAH (kaw-vaw). This word means: to bind together (by twisting), to collect, to expect. (In addition to wait, QAVAH is also translated look, gather, and tarry.) The multiple meaning implies joining or inter-twining several entities together, and causing them to lose themselves in the one new expression.

Unfortunately, many times the English language does not convey the full implication of an original word of Scripture, and consequently, much of its meaning is lost in the translation. So as we read a particular word, it only registers in our mind in the way that it is recognized in our understanding at the present time.

The Psalmist used QAVAH in Psalm 39:7 to express the idea that he had become so disciplined in spirit that he was now “entwined” with the Lord: “And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in You.” Because he had already learned to discipline his tongue from even speaking good until the Lord moved upon him (verses 1–3), he and the Lord were now joined together in deep union. His hope and strength was no longer in himself; it was completely “wrapped up” in his God.

Jesus revealed that He had the same kind of union with His God when He told Philip, “…he who has seen Me has seen the Father…” (Jn.14:9). His own life and actions were so lost in the expression of His Father’s life that He was a continual revelation of the Father.

Isaiah sheds some light on how to get into this extent of disciplined waiting: “The way of the just is uprightness: O Most Upright, You weigh the path of the just. Yes in the way of Your judgments, O LORD, have we waited for You; the desire of our soul is for Your name and for the remembrance of You. With my soul have I desired You in the night; yes, by my spirit within me I will seek You early…” (Isa. 26:7–9).

Isaiah says he waits for God’s judgments in his life, and as he does, he is being joined (QAVAH) to the Lord. His soul desires Him in the night, and with his spirit will he seek Him early. To put it another way: In the night, in the morning, and in the daytime, he will seek the Lord so that he might be perfectly joined and knit together with Him.

God’s emphatic response to such devoted seeking of His will and purpose is expressed a few chapters later: “…they shall not be ashamed who wait (QAVAH) for me” (Isa. 49:23). What a promise! When our only desire is to be joined and knit together with His purpose, God assures us that we will not be ashamed for having waited on Him!

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David used QAVAH twice in Psalm 27 (vv. 13, 14) to encourage himself in the Lord and to declare his confidence in His strength. He could have that confidence because he was being “entwined” and “knit together” with Him to the point where the single strand of his life was being lost in the greater strand of the Lord’s life and strength. As he waited on Him, he found himself being strengthened and knit with the Lord as a three-fold cord! No wonder he could say so convincingly, “And He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the LORD” (v. 14).

There are many more references where QAVAH is used in Scripture concerning the close-knit bond we are to have with the Lord. All of them carry the thought of having become so entwined and involved with His will and purpose that we refuse to act or speak until He moves us. They reveal that the discipline He brings us through teaches us to be quiet and to rest in His greater strength.

One familiar reference found in Isaiah 40:29–31 relates to this level of waiting. Here we see that the “race” is not to the swift, nor is it won by the strong: The race is to those who have renewed their strength in the Lord! They are knit and bound to Him in spirit, and have become so closely joined to Him that they won’t be separated from each other. Their strength is continually renewed and they rise above every adversity as though they had eagle’s wings!

If we’re to finish the race in the way we are called to in these last days, we’ll certainly need the enduring strength of the Lord. But we will not have His strength by just saying some quick prayer when we sense our need for it. It becomes ours when we’ve learned to wait on Him so completely that we’ve lost all confidence in every other source of life and strength available to us — most of all, our own.

There are several verses in Lamentations which contain most of the dimensions of waiting we’ve looked at this far. Jeremiah, burdened with the sins of Jerusalem, called to mind the faithful mercies of the Lord and said: “‘The LORD is my portion,’ says my soul, “Therefore I hope (YACHAL) in Him. The LORD is good to those who wait (QAVAH) for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should hope (CHIYL) and wait quietly (DUWMIYAH) for the salvation of the LORD. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone and keep silent (DAMAM), because God has laid it on him” (Lam.3:24–28).

This sixth dimension of waiting is where we are prepared to enter into our spiritual inheritance. The binding and knitting of our nature with His is to the degree that our weakness has vanished in His greater strength. His strength is now our strength; His work is now our work; His life is our life.

We see this in a few verses of Psalm 37: “For evildoers shall be cut off; but those who wait on the LORD, they shall inherit the earth” (v.9). “But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace” (v.11). “Wait on the LORD, and keep His way, and He shall exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you shall see it” (v. 34).

Not only does this level of waiting prepare us for our inheritance, it is also equated with meekness. Through the strength of our relationship with the Lord, our weakness has been transformed into meekness! And, contrary to the prevalent thinking of our day, this kind of meekness is not weakness: Meekness on this plane is disciplined strength! It is having come to such total confidence in the strength of the Lord that we can be at rest and in absolute peace, regardless of the affairs and actions of the wicked in their apparent prosperity. We know that when they are cut off, we’ll be here to see it, and enter our inheritance.

The seventh level of waiting is similar to the one we’ve just looked at. It could be described as the result of two entities having been knit or pierced together. The Hebrew word used to describe this bonding is CHAKAH (khaw-kaw) which means: to adhere to with the thought of having been pierced (together). It is the word the Lord used to tell the prophet Habakkuk, “For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry” (Hab. 2:3).

7. THE LORD RESPONDS

CHAKAH can also be used to express the Lord’s response to us for being knit together with Him. When we are knit with Him, He is also knit with us! As we wait on Him, He in turn waits on us! When His will and purpose has become ours, our desire becomes His! He desires to be joined, or “adhered” to us as much as we yearn to be joined to Him.

Zephaniah recorded God’s words to wait upon Him until He would rise up to minister divine justice (See Zeph. 3:8, 9). Likewise, when we’ve waited and become fully joined to the Lord (adhered to and pierced through with His will and purpose); He will rise up and consume the adversaries with ALL of His fierce anger! Then, for the first time since the tower of Babel, He will restore a pure language to His people, and we will serve Him with one heart and mind. Because we’ve learned to wait on Him, He will turn, and also wait on us.

It is at this point that the pain we’ve experienced as we’ve learned to wait patiently on the Lord really begins to pay off: He is now ready to move on our behalf because of us, rather than in spite of us! Isaiah put it this way: “Therefore the LORD will wait, that He may be gracious to you . . . He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you” (Isa. 30:18a, 19b).

Now that we’ve learned to wait for Him, He waits for our cry so He can join Himself to us by answering our petitions. He adheres to us, watching over every affliction and adversity that comes our way. When trials come, “Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left” (Isa. 30:21).

Oh think of it saints! God will respond to us when we’ve become so ONE with Him, so knit together with Him that we are as inseparable as a three-fold cord! It will have been well worth the patience and the pain we’ve endured; it will be worth the discipline and quietness we’ve known; it will be worth having been made dumb with awe just to be joined to Him in such a way that He is waiting for our every cry!

There is a parallel on this level of waiting that I want to mention before going to the next and final measure. It is the correlation of waiting on the Lord loving and fearing Him. In Isaiah 64:4 we read: “For since the beginning of the world Men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen any God besides You, Who acts for the one who waits for Him.

This verse is quoted in 1 Corinthians 2:9: “But as it is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’” Notice how the Spirit changed wait to love when He quoted it. From this we can conclude that loving the Lord is the same as being knit with Him by waiting on Him to this degree!

Psalm 31:19 adds a further dimension to this thought by stating: “Oh, how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for those who fear You, which You have prepared for those who trust in You in the presence of the sons of men!”

Now we’re beginning to get the full picture of what it means to be “adhered” to the Lord. We can only say that we love Him if our trust and respect for Him causes us to wait on Him in perfect obedience. And we’ll demonstrate that love by the absolute faith and confidence we have in Him. Consequently, we’ll be inseparable.

Romans 12:12 gives us one last point for our consideration: Following some very practical instructions for behavior and inter-personal relationships in the church Paul writes: “rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer.” Besides meaning to be consistently diligent and pressing in with effort, the phrase “continuing steadfastly in prayer” means, to adhere closely to (as a servitor). This sums up what it means to wait on the Lord in this intensity.

8. HEDGED ABOUT AND PROTECTED

The last aspect of waiting on the Lord is really compensation for our undivided and tireless devotion to Him. The Hebrew word for this is SHAHMAR (shaw-mar). It means: to hedge about; to guard; generally to protect, attend to, etc. The first of the many places that SHAHMAR is used in Scripture is Genesis 2:15: “Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.”

This verse reveals the careful stewardship that God connected with SHAHMAR: He had intended that man would faithfully watch over and protect His handiwork, keeping it from contamination by any intruder. But as we know, Adam failed his task miserably.

SHAHMAR is the word used most frequently in Scripture when the Lord admonished Israel to keep, observe, and take heed to His commandments, statutes, and instructions in general. It conveys the principle of taking action out of respect for what is in your charge. Proverbs 27:18 gives us an example of how this works in relationship to waiting on the Lord: “Whoever keeps the fig tree will eat its fruit; so he who waits on his master will be honored.”

This shows us that God wants to honor and exalt us when we’ve learned to properly wait on and serve Him. The problem is that we want to exalt ourselves before He is ready to honor us. Consequently, every time we exalt ourselves, He has to humble us. But, if we’ll humble ourselves and learn to carefully wait on Him until we’re fully joined together, He will honor us in due time (1 Pet.5:6). We must honor Him before He can honor us.

We guard, keep, watch over, honor, and wait on (SHAHMAR) the Lord as we consistently identify ourselves with Him in every area of our lives, wherever that would be. It means simply that we’re not ashamed to be counted with Him, nor are we content to be in the “secret service” any more! We’re so “entwined” with Him that His honor is our greatest pleasure, and when He is disgraced, we are disgraced with Him. Our own ambitions have been left behind, and our only desire is to exalt and please Him.

In Psalm 121 the Psalmist gives us a wonderful overview of the way we will be watched over by the Lord when have learned to wait on and properly honor Him. He used SHAHMAR six times to express his confidence in the Lord’s ability to keep and preserve all those whose trust is in Him. “. . . He who keeps you will not slumber . . . He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep . . . the Lord is your keeper . . . The Lord shall preserve you from all evil . . . He shall preserve your soul . . . The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in . . .”

What promises! What security! He said He’d keep us from all evil and watch over our every move! Now that we’ve been completely joined to Him through the discipline of waiting, He begins to “wait” on us by watching over, keeping, and preserving us!

Do we think that such wonderful promises are made to anyone who just says, “Okay, Lord; You said You’ll keep me from all evil and I’m just going to claim it? Praise God, no evil is going to come near me now . . . I’ll just name it and claim it, blab it and grab it and I’ll be protected!”
Is that the way this will work? Hardly. The Psalmist had learned that his help was not coming from the hills or any other natural source: His help came from the Lord God Who had made heaven and earth.

By this time He had enough experience with the Lord that he knew the pain of patiently waiting on his God had been well worth the effort. The times when he looked so foolish by holding his peace from even speaking what he knew would be good; the occasions when his God had so over-whelmed him that he could only tremble before Him in awe; the painful experiences of learning that his own familiar friends had betrayed his confidence and that his deepest trust could only be in his God. Now he understood!

The entire process had knit him so completely to His God, and his own life was so inter-woven with his Master’s life that the two were indistinguishable! His weakness had been swallowed up in the Lord’s strength and could no longer be found! And even now, his God jealously watched over his every move to keep him from all harm and evil!

This is the reason the Lord wants us to learn the discipline of waiting on Him. He knows that we can only be brought into complete harmony with Him through the painful process of seeing every other avenue of hope and expectation cut off. He wants to gather us under His wings as a hen gathers her chickens (Matt.23:37), and longs to be our only source of strength, confidence and protection.

Why does the Lord offer to gather us under His protection? “Because you have made the Lord your refuge, and the Most High your dwelling place, there shall no evil befall you, nor any plague or calamity come near your tent. For He will give His angels [especial] charge over you, to accompany and defend and preserve you in all your ways [of obedience and service]. They shall bear you up on their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone.”

And, because, “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall remain stable and fixed under the shadow of the Almighty [Whose power no foe can withstand]. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, on Him I lean and rely, and in Him I (confidently) trust! (Psalm 91:9–12; 1, 2 Amplified Bible).

IN CONCLUSION

My prayer is that after seeing the importance and benefits of learning to wait on the Lord, we’ll have a fresh vision and desire to put aside every distraction and all busyness long enough to be exercised in it. The hectic pace of the 20th century requires a deliberate effort on our part to be disciplined to wait on Him, but the rewards will make any sacrifices insignificant. As the Apostle Paul put it: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:18).

While we might see that the only way we’ll be able to “mount up with wings as eagles,” and “run and not be weary” is to wait on the Lord for His strength, we can also feel that we just don’t have what it takes to desire the kind of spiritual discipline necessary to achieve it. When we’re honest with ourselves we might become painfully aware that we’re short of the love for the Lord that we need to just be able to stand still and wait for His salvation.

If this is your situation, Paul gave a prayer in 2 Thessalonians 3:5 that you need to allow the Spirit to write on your heart: “And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ” (KJV). This has been a prayer of mine for some time, and I know that as you call upon the Lord for the change of heart that you need, you will not be denied! He is longing even now to bring you another step closer to being covered by the shadow of His wings through the discipline of waiting on Him.

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Eli Miller has been active in ministry for over 35 years. He has pioneered and provided leadership in several churches in the United States and Canada. He has traveled extensively throughout North America, several South and Central American countries, the Far East, Europe and Africa providing Biblical teaching and oversight to churches, as well as speaking in international conferences.

For more information please contact:
INSIGHT MINISTRIES
PO Box 8000-474, Abbotsford, BC
V2S 6H1
Web site: www.insightministries.com
Email: imoffice@insightministries.com

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Tags: Revival, Fresh Fire, Insight Ministries, Eli Miller, ITM, Teaching, Bible Study, Waiting on the Lord