Every good thing of life that is coming from the Lord to you has a period of waiting, during which you will need to be prepared for it in discipline and character development. God will not bless you with anything that may harm you; especially since He knows that you are not yet ready, to carry the weight of responsibility which goes with it. That’s why you should never be in a hurry for many things in life.
There are times when your ability to wait on the Lord, for the fulfillment of His promises will be to you like, being caught in between the sharp rocks in a hard place. It is the time when your head wants something done quickly about the situation; but inside of your heart you know that you will have to wait for it.
This is the moment when the tenacity of your faith in God is revealed, even as you are waiting on Him to fulfill His promises to you. It’s the moment when many had failed before, as they yielded to the desires of their flesh. It’s that time as you are waiting on the Lord to move on your behalf; when suddenly the enemy begins to come out against your faith, like a flood from every directions of your life.
Most importantly you will need to acknowledge in such a situation, that you are a spiritual man. You are not of this world, even though you are still living in it. You are dead to the world’s nature of doing many things.
Therefore no matter what the enemy brings across your path in life – you’d been destined in Christ Jesus to overcome. You do have the nature of God, the Father in you. You do have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16).
That’s why you are able to walk in the reality of the truth, that your head does not have to be overruling your heart. You can walk in the confidence of God’s perfect will for your life, without being subjected to the dictates of the head.
The problem with many today is that, they are still struggling to identify in order to recognize, the differences between the conflicts of their minds and the solutions, which the Lord is giving to them within their hearts. This is an ongoing battle within them. It is hindering their faith from working for them.
Let hope strengthen your faith
When the enemy begins to put pressure on your faith in God, you need to be putting pressure on the promises of God, to perform for you. This is the time when you need to be allowing God’s promises to saturate your mind.
When you rush to make a decision under the enemy’s pressure against your faith, you may be creating a disaster for yourself around the situation confronting you. It’s impossible to make a conscious quality decision in such a situation, especially when you are still struggling to focus on your faith to perform for you. You’re never called to be in a hurry for anything in life. Neither is God in a hurry to do anything for you. He rules and has eternity with Him. And He is never late. He is always on time. So why are you in a hurry? You do need His word to guide you, so as not to yield to the flesh; but rather to be strong in faith.
As Paul once told the Romans:
“For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.”
Romans 15:4 NIV
You do need endurance in the scriptures to give you hope, so as to be strong in faith. This is the time to begin renewing your mind with God’s promises, until your thought patterns are transformed to align with God’s. You are learning to wait on the Lord. He wants to teach you how to soar like the eagle (Isaiah 40:31).
That’s why you need God’s word to transform your mentality, to start soaring spiritually like an eagle. The renewal of your mind with God’s word, as you are praying in the spirit or in tongues, will let this begin to happen.
Paul continued in his letter to the Romans:
“May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Romans 15:5-6 NIV
Having the same mind as Christ is your goal in waiting on the Lord. The lack of the renewal of mind is what makes a child of God to struggle, while waiting on the Lord to move on his behalf.
For example many do often make bad decisions concerning their marital lives, due to the lack of the renewal of their minds, about the perfect will of God for their lives.
The inability of a Christian to renew his mind, brings him the fear of failure, torment or torture into any relationship (1 John 4:18). But by renewing the mind with the promises of God, that believer is able to stand in the love of God, while waiting before the Lord for guidance in resolving those marital issues.
In most cases it is those who are not really prepared to wait on the Lord, that you will often find running about looking for counseling. They are spiritually bankrupt, so they are looking for a human being to bail them out. They are seeking the voice of God through a human being, when God Himself lives inside of them.
Change your thoughts to strengthen your faith
Faith is of the heart, and not of the mind. Our daily thoughts does has the ability to affect our faith in God, as we are waiting on the Lord. Your thought patterns can either slow down or quicken, the ability of your faith to perform for you. It may hinder or speed up your ability to hear God in guiding and directing you.
In a nut shell your thought patterns reveals who you really are to you. It makes you to begin seeing yourself, like a person seeing through a mirror. Your thoughts reveals what you are really believing in God for to you. It reveals what’s in your heart to God, as you are waiting on Him.
There are Christians who will often act like the people of the world, due to the ungodly thoughts that they are entertaining, while struggling to stand steadfast in faith. They are unable to filter out the filthy thoughts away from their minds, because they are not dedicated to renewing their minds day and night (Joshua 1:8). The process of filtering out those negative thoughts takes place, through the meditation on the promises of God to you.
King Solomon once wrote:
“For as he (a man) thinks in his heart, so is he.”
Proverbs 23:7a NKJV
Your thought patterns reveals what you are really believing God for. It’s not actually what you are saying in those daily confessions, that you do really believe in. Especially if your thoughts and your actions are not matching up with one another. Faith works with corresponding actions (James 2:17). And your corresponding actions are impacted by your thought patterns.
You may have been quoting all of the promises of God, that you’d learnt by heart with your mouth. But if those promises has not really consumed your thought patterns, then you are not yet standing strong in faith before God with them. You will be unable to walk in the reality of those promises for your life.
You therefore will need to renew your mind, until your thoughts are transformed to align with God’s word. This is because it is what God’s word says about you that matters. God’s thoughts towards you are revealed in His promises to you. By renewing and transforming your thoughts with them, you are empowering your words to manifest with power in your actions; what you are really believing God for.
You see, the only way satan can come against you, is through your thoughts. That’s why it is important to constantly bring your thoughts to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). And you do that before those thoughts starts coming out of your mouth with spoken words.
If the spoken words that are coming out of your mouth, are not in accordance with the will of God for your life; then your thought patterns are not healthy. You do have a relationship with God, but your mind is not yet renewed. The best time to start renewing your mind, is during your waiting season for the fulfillment of God’s promises to you.
Take a lesson from Job’s life
As an example, the scriptures tells us that Job was the most righteous man of his time. He had built up his spirit, soul and body; by exercising his faith on the promises of God to him, to the extent that satan never knew how to get at him.
Eventually Satan had to seek God’s permission to go after Job. A series of attacks came upon him with God’s permission. But Satan never succeeded in getting him to renounce God. It was during those moments when the enemy was really putting pressure on Job’s faith in God to fail; that Job made his stand clear by saying what was on his mind.
He said:
“Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face. Indeed, this will turn out for my deliverance, for no godless person would dare come before him!”
Job 13:15-16 NIV
And again he said:
“I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!”
Job 19:25-27 NIV
The enemy had tried to get at him, through the closest person alive in his life – his wife. Satan had to get into the thought patterns of Job’s wife, in order for him to be able to put words into her mouth, concerning what Job was going through. She had been faithful all her life to God and to her husband, before the flood of the enemy’s attacks came. But at the lowest ebb of Job’s life, during his trial of faith – she caved in to the thoughts of her mind by saying to him:
“Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die.”
Job 2:9 NLT
Can a believer in Christ say such a thing today? Do you know that when a child of God commits suicide, that’s exactly what they are doing? They are cursing God by denying Him the opportunity to help them. They are denying the integrity of God’s word to rescue them.
But such things happens to them initially, through the thoughts that Satan puts into their minds. They never just decided to do such a thing suddenly without the help of the devil. They had definitely struggled with such thoughts several times, before caving in to it, just as Job’s wife suggested to Job.
Judas Iscariot as another example thought about it before committing suicide. He went to those who deceived him into betraying Jesus for help. But the religious leaders refused to help him (Matthew 27:3-5). He could had sought restitution after the resurrection of Christ from the dead. But the thoughts from the devil of hanging himself, was getting stronger on his mind, than the promise of the resurrection which Jesus had given to him. What are you doing to help those who are struggling with such thoughts around you today?
Those words of Job’s wife were very harsh words to Job. And that’s how the enemy often works in bullying people into committing suicide. She must had taken some time to consider those words carefully in her mind, before speaking them out to Job. Was she renewing her mind with the promises of God for her family, while her husband was standing strong in faith before God? It’s important for you to learn from her mistakes.
There are Christians today who are struggling to stand strong in faith, as they are waiting on the Lord to help them. Many have allowed the enemy to take over their thoughts. And the devil is planning for their demise with the thoughts, that he has injected into their minds. That’s his trademark. Jesus said it this way:
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
John 10:10 NIV
The devil is the thief who has come to steal godly thoughts away from the mind of the believer. His goal after stealing those thoughts, about the promises of God for healing and deliverance is to kill and destroy. He wants to take away their access into eternity with God from them.
One thing that we do know eventually about Job, is that his waiting period finally came to an end. God came out very strong for him. His waiting period before the Lord was never wasted.
What are you doing as you wait on the Lord? Check out your thought patterns, as you are waiting on the Lord to do what He promised you. Those negative thoughts do need to be filtered out of your mind, so that your confessions and actions about your expectations, may become stronger than they are right now.
Remember what the Lord said:
“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. “The rain and snow come down from the heavens and stay on the ground to water the earth. They cause the grain to grow, producing seed for the farmer and bread for the hungry. It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it.”
Isaiah 55:8-11 NLT
Godly thoughts are words from your spirit to your mind. They will always produce great spiritual fruit, and cause you to grow in faith towards God. Change your thought patterns to transform your mind and your daily confessions. Your faith in action will then begin to work for you. Your waiting time before the Lord is never wasted. Stay strong in God by renewing your thoughts with God’s word. You will be amazed by what it will do to your faith.
