You Were Saved, Not Delayed
An encouraging word for those in the preparation and waiting seasons
One key principle we need to understand about God is His timing, and how He views time is different from ours. We linearly view time, whereas God views time in cycles. From the beginning, He set up cycles of day and night, weeks, and seasons. Because we view time linearly, we often can get discouraged when we do not see the fruition of our promises, our purpose seems delayed, or we are not at a particular stage in our lives because we are a certain age and should be doing certain things by now. We get older and think we are “running out of time.” But is this the truth?
The Bible tells us God chose us to be in a relationship with Him even before He laid out plans for this world. As His heirs, we are predestined to play a key role in His unfolding purpose (Ephesians 1:4, 11, Voice). Every detail of our lives was already written in His books, and He has established the length of our lives (Psalm 139:16, Voice). The Bible also says the visions He gives us are for appointed times, and even when they seem to delay, wait for them (Habakkuk 2:3). Appointed times are God’s set times on the earth. Every vision, every promise, and every plan He has for our lives is for a set time. It is in our human understanding and pressures of this world system that the enemy uses to convince us that we have missed our purpose, waited too long, and are too old. The list could go on and on.
For the past twenty-one and a half years of my life, I have been a homemaker. That has been my primary “profession.” Raising a son and running the day-to-day operations of my household has been my purpose. Along the way, another part of my purpose was discovered while changing diapers, cleaning bathrooms, washing clothes, and grocery shopping. When I had my son, I was steeped in shame, codependency, fear, and rejection. The only thing I knew to do at the time was to run back to the religion I learned as a child. For eight years, it helped some, but when the growing desire for MORE began to cry out from within my spirit, a shift happened in my life. That shift led me to a journey with God. Amid field trips, room mom duties, and caring for a home, a deep-seated purpose began to surface. The purpose planted in me from the time I was very young—the desire to teach. I went to college and got a biology degree to be a biology teacher!
As I have gotten older, with a grown son, I have wrestled with God’s timing. During the last twenty-one years, I have studied, gotten two degrees, and laid myself before the Lord to heal my brokenness so that what I teach will be pure and not from mixture in my soul. I have stepped out, taught, and led, but then I have been obedient to return to the secret place to focus on studying and preparing.
As I sat with the Lord this past Sunday morning, I heard very clearly from Him,
YOU WERE SAVED, NOT DELAYED
And this one sentence changes everything! See, the enemy can get in our heads if we keep our eyes horizontal rather than vertical. He gets us to look at things the world deems successful and take our eyes off the Lord.
I share this with you today because I know there are more like me. God has told me that so many have been in the same preparation seasons! So many of us have stayed submitted under the hand of God for refining, pruning, being obedient even when it didn’t make sense, and faithful to our everyday lives and assignments. We have been cleaning our houses, taking care of children, working faithfully at jobs we might not like, but through it all, we have been faithful. It has been in that faithfulness that He has built us, shaped us, and refined us. We were chosen for this shift that is now in our world. There had to be a remnant that went first. A remnant God could trust with the long preparation process to steward the harvest coming in. There had to be a remnant that He could purify so they could see and speak pure words from Heaven amid a wicked and crooked generation. A remnant that can speak pure words when witchcraft fills the airways. A remnant that will have peace when chaos fills the streets. There had to be a remnant who would know the truth, live the truth, and speak the truth.
Matthew 24 and 2 Timothy 3 explain to us what the days we are living in will be like. Due to false doctrine, many think we will be raptured out before all the hard comes. That is simply not true. Matthew 24:29–30 clearly states, But immediately after the tribulation of those days…then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky (NASB).
What is involved in the tribulation of the last days? Matthew 24 says,
Wars and rumors of wars (6)
Famines and earthquakes (7)
Tribulation, hatred, persecution (9–10
Many will fall away (10)
False prophets will mislead many (11)
Increase of lawlessness, and most people’s love will grow cold (12)
2 Timothy 3:1–7 says people will be:
Lovers of self
Lovers of money
Boastful
Arrogant
Revilers
Disobedient to parents
Ungrateful
Unholy
Unloving
Irreconcilable
Malicious gossips
Without self-control
Brutal
Haters of good
Treacherous
Reckless
Conceited
Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God
Holding a form of godliness, although they deny its power
Women will be weak-willed (foolish) and will always be learning, but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth because of their sin and living from what their soul desires.
We see all this happening in our world today, and it is not going to get better—it is going to get worse. However, Isaiah 60 tells us that when darkness covers the earth and deep darkness the people, God’s light will shine on us (1–2).
You were not delayed; you were saved. Saved for this time when God needs a remnant He can shine through as the world gets darker! If you are pursuing God and seeking Him, you will not miss the assignments He has for your life! Trust in Him with all your heart, and do not rely on your own ideas and inventions. In everything you accomplish, give Him the credit, and He will make sure the road ahead of you is smooth. Do not try to decide on your own what is right and wrong; instead, trust Him and run from evil. Depend on Him, and you will have healing, health, and strength (Proverbs 3:5–8, Voice).
Blessings,
Brandee