“Seek the LORD and His strength; Seek His face continually.” 1 Chronicles 16:11…………………
“I will speak when I speak,” the Spirit of God told me one day.
The afternoon was especially quiet, a rare blessing for which I was unbelievably thankful. I could hear nothing more than the usual whir of the industrial fan I use 24-7 – and the Lord’s voice speaking to my heart.
Why would God speak this to me? Because I had been seeking Him for an uncomfortably long period of time on a certain matter, and though at times I felt I had heard little bits and pieces from Him and even a possible answer here and there, I had no 100% clarity on His will, His timing for His will, and how to proceed. I had recently greatly escalated my search for an answer by going on a little fast along with several of my friends who were seeking the Lord with me. We were each fasting something different, not necessarily food, but something significant in our lives that would come with a cost to our flesh and carve out space in our hearts and minds to better hear from God. But still, no clear answer. I believed I might have heard the final answer, but I wasn’t sure. The confirmation hadn’t come. And there was God telling me this.
“I will speak when I speak.”
I knew almost immediately He hadn’t just spoken to me, but that He wanted me to share this message with someone, or perhaps even multiple people, reading this message right now.
Shortly afterward, as I continued to think about what the Lord had told me, He said this to me.
“Keep seeking me.”
And there was the message in its entirety.
“I will speak when I speak…Keep seeking me.”
How often, I wonder, do we seek the Lord for wisdom and direction and expect Him to speak to us right when we want Him to speak? To answer right when we want the answer? On our timetable. And to answer the way we want Him to answer, as well. How often, I wonder, do we give up when we seek God for direction and we don’t get the answer “soon enough” or “quickly enough”, and when waiting on Him to answer, waiting any longer anyway, feels too hard, too impossible, too unfair, etc.?
God reminded me that day that He is Lord, that He answers what He wants to answer when He wants to answer, and that we need to seek Him – and to wait for Him. He reminded me that He speaks when He wants to speak, and that we need to trust Him to do just that. Sometimes we get things wrong, and we act like we’re little gods who should be able to wave our magic wands at God and get Him to answer in our time frame. But this is wrong. This is sin. This is pride. This is unreasonable.
Sure, we should seek the Lord! That’s exactly what He reminded me that day we need to keep doing. For as long as it takes. For God to answer and share His heart with us. But we’re wrong when we think we should command and demand God to fulfill what we want in the way of hearing Him.
The Lord is God, God is Lord, and as such our job is to love and trust Him and seek Him and wait on Him and when He answers to submit to Him and to do whatever it is He desires, fully yielding ourselves to whatever He speaks to us.
What do we need? Prayer. Patience. And perseverance.
If you have been praying to God about something, and getting frustrated and upset and impatient and perhaps have even considered quitting in seeking Him, please do not. If the Spirit of God has placed it on your heart to pray to God about something, to seek wisdom and direction from the Lord above in some area of your life, if it His will that you continue seeking Him, trusting Him to speak to you His will in His time, please don’t quit. Carry on! And, if you are led by God to escalate the seeking Him to prayer and fasting, not to prayer alone, please do so. Let the Spirit of God lead you forth. Seek Him, seek Him, and trust that in His perfect time He will speak. He will speak when He speaks. Amen!