Chapter 11 “Tarry”

Did you know that your promise, or miracle, or mountain moving doesn’t immediately reveal itself—even if it’s been completed in the spiritual realm? Very often, there is a considerable waiting period for it to manifest itself in the natural in order, for us and everyone to see it.

There are references to this truth all throughout the Bible, and yet, when sitting in the midst of our wait, we very often forget that God is a God who usually instructs us to wait, and for very good reasons. The main reason is timing: “For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry—wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry” (Habakkuk 2:3 KJV). However, did you know that many Christians choose not to wait? We know this is true, because Paul wrote to the early church concerning this very thing. He said:

“Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary” (Galatians 6:9).

“But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary of doing good” (2 Thessalonians 3:13).

We see this truth even earlier in the Old Testament. Look what it says in this story about Daniel. “He said to me, ‘O Daniel, man of high esteem, understand the words that I am about to tell you and stand upright, for I have now been sent to you.’ And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood up trembling.

“Then he said to me, ‘Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this and on humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words.

“‘But the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for twenty-one days; then behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia…for the vision pertains to the days yet future” (Daniel 10:11–14).

Rarely is the vision we see, or the promise that we receive, for right now. Though the urgency in our spirit, and the enthusiasm we feel, makes it appear as if the promise is for now, usually (maybe almost always) what we can easily envision and what He’s promised us is for later, even much later, set for an “appointed” time.

If you’re like me, it’s while you and I are in the midst of that wait, while our mountain tarries, when we begin to wonder if we heard from the Lord correctly. We wonder if we have done everything right, and we wonder if this promise we have believed God for was really for us.

Yet, as the verse above bids us, we must not give up “though it tarry—wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry [dawdle, delay or linger]” (Habakkuk 2:3).  These were the instructions that Jesus gave to His disciples, when He knew they would need the Holy Spirit, its power, and its strength. The disciples had been told “it” “something” was going to come, but I am sure they had no idea what that “it” would really be.

After His death, during the time when He had reappeared to them in bodily form, “Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, ‘Which,’ He said, ‘you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now’” (Acts 1:4–5). Once again, it’s important that you wait, no matter how long you wait.

What Are You Waiting For?

Over this past weekend, I was enormously blessed to attend a wedding that a very special and particular bride had waited for—for YEARS. The main reason she waited so long was due to the fact that she is an heiress, worth millions. Though she had been formally engaged at least twice before, each time, at the last minute each had been men marrying for money. So, with an intensely broken heart, along with her broken dreams, both weddings had been stopped by her father. When our family first met this dear young lady, she was just recovering from her second attempt at getting married, wanting desperately to be married like her younger sister.

As we became close friends, she confided in me that for years she wanted to believe that there was really someone out there for her, someone she could live with “happily ever after,” but the right man eluded her. To help her wait, God had brought dozens of faithful people into her life to speak the truth, and I was blessed to be just one of them. For years, she and another close friend of mine studied A Wise Woman. [Our mutual friend was a strong believer in this workbook; having gone through the chapters with her ex-daughter-in-law, she was blessed to see her son’s marriage restored and a restoration baby that soon followed, due to studying the truths in “Fruit of the Womb.”]

They told me they met weekly, both determined that she would be the right wife when God sent her the right husband. Also, to help this happen, she came forward faithfully to pray at the altar, Sunday after Sunday, for that right man to come into her life. Then, just a few years ago, that “right man” seemed to appear, only to disappear just as quickly. Everyone was heartbroken for her once again.

Then, just this weekend, after all these years of waiting, after all the tears, every single sorrow vanished in an instant, and they were replaced with tears of joy, when we all sang the precious hymn “Great is Thy Faithfulness” at her wedding. It seemed like a dream, when I watched the man whom God had chosen for her (a pastor of Teen Challenge, whose family had been praying for him for just as many years to find the “right woman”), her groom, look at her with the love in his eyes that I have rarely seen in a man, any man.

Update: The money this couple inherited had allowed them to devote themselves to philanthropic endeavors—by donating money to good causes that He laid on their hearts, often traveling together to some of the poorest areas of the world to put God’s money to work.

Again, and again, we see that God truly is faithful; but unfortunately—no matter the strength of our own faith, no matter how many promises we compile—very often our miracles will continue to tarry long after we believed they would happen. Yet, once His promise shows up, I love how He is also faithful to be sure that those who invested in your mountain moving are there to rejoice with you. I am convinced that this is the entire reason for prayer and sowing into other people’s lives—because it allows us to play a small role in God’s miracle, giving us a front row seat. I believe that just as our tithe or offering is for us to join in and be part of life’s changed investments (which always brings about dividends galore), so, too, are our prayers and our investments of time to teach others. When we pray, when we study alongside someone, we find ourselves rejoicing, just as if that miracle or mountain moving was happening to us!

Though I did not cry when my own sons married, I cried when this precious girl finally walked down the aisle to the tune of Twila Paris’ song, “How beautiful the radiant bride who waits for her Groom with His light in her eyes.” There were dozens of women and men who also cried, due to so many who’d invested into her life over her many years of waiting.

Why the wait? “Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary” (Isaiah 40:31).

Waiting on Us

Though we wonder why we are asked to wait upon the Lord, very often it’s us, you and me, who the Lord is waiting upon. We see it in this verse from Isaiah: “Therefore the LORD longs [aches, yearns, craves] to be gracious to you, and therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; how blessed are all those who long for Him” (Isaiah 30:18).

It’s interesting that this verse tells us that the Lord is a God of justice, because that has been key to my faith in believing that God truly has plans to bless me beyond anything I could ever hope, dream or imagine! “For from days of old they have not heard or perceived by ear, nor has the eye seen a God besides You, Who acts in behalf of the one who waits for Him” (Isaiah 64:4).

About a month ago, my youngest son said something “wasn’t fair,” and I agreed that usually things are not “fair,” since God is not a God who is fair—thankfully—He is a God who is just. I went onto tell him how thankful we all should be that He is a God of justice, rather than fairness; and did he, my son, know the difference? He said that fair was when everyone got the same, but he thought justice meant getting punished.

Actually, I told him, and want to tell you, that God being a God of justice means that eventually (in the end) everyone gets what they deserve, good and bad. And that means that no matter what, it is always worth doing the right thing, no matter what the cost is now. Not only that, but when it seems that other people (especially your enemies) are getting blessed, and you’re not, you can count on receiving, in the end, double. You need to wait with the expectation that something tremendously special will happen, especially if you have the right attitude when something happens that’s unjust, because the right attitude is a reflection of the right heart.

No matter how long you wait, eventually the heavens will open up over your life and shower you with blessings that cannot compare to the suffering or difficulty that you went through. And all those difficulties you encountered along your journey will be a distant and foggy memory, if your heart has been kept right.

Time and again, when doubt would try to cause me to question what I have not yet seen—but what I truly believe, in faith, will happen, and happen soon—the Lord would remind me of the list of injustices that have come against me personally, come against my children, and come against my ministry, especially financially. Therefore, I have the security in knowing that very soon I will receive double what was lost or stolen from me—each and every injustice doubled.

“But you will be called the priests of the LORD; You will be spoken of as ministers of our God. You will eat the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast. Instead of your shame you will have a double portion, and instead of humiliation they will shout for joy over their portion. Therefore they will possess a double portion in their land, everlasting joy will be theirs. For I, the LORD, love justice, I hate robbery in the burnt offering; and I will faithfully give them their recompense and make an everlasting covenant with them” (Isaiah 61:6–8).

If you think this is amazing, He has more. He says that He will doubly bless our mistakes, yours and mine. Look what it says, “Speak kindly to Jerusalem; and call out to her, that her warfare has ended, that her iniquity has been removed, that she has received of the LORD'S hand double for all her sins” (Isaiah 40:2). And precious reader, remember, each and every one of these promises are for you, too. Simply believe them and acknowledge them, which means to speak each to your HH, so that you’ve officially claimed them. Personally, I acknowledge them by thanking my HH for what He’s going to bless me doubly for.

Oh, and for those of you who were thinking that what we all deserve is hell; I agree. Yet, it is because of His righteousness that we benefit as we do, as partakers, meaning we get to share in His blessings. “For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust” (2 Peter 1:4).

“More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” (Philippians 3:8–10). Amen!

So, precious bride, just remember, what you are waiting for is worth the wait. For the vision that God gave you is still yet to come. It is scheduled for an appointed time that only God knows. But in the end, when it appears, it will speak and not lie of His faithfulness.

If you wait, when it appears, it will also prove that you were not crazy when you believed the impossible—that massive mountain moving. And though it tarries—be sure to wait for it—because it will surely come; it will not tarry forever!