Wait on the Lord till He speaks

I was reading this morning:

Jeremiah 42:7 “And it happened AFTER 10 DAYS that the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah’.

and I heard God say to me: See, even the best of the best prophets of mine did not hear always instantly from Me. So don’t give up too quick when you inquire of Me and there seems to be no answer yet.

We need to be patient as we wait for God to speak to us. Jeremiah was one of the most amazing prophets the world ever had and he had to wait 10 days before God spoke to Him a message for the jews who sent him to inquire of the Lord. If he had to wait, maybe we have to wait too. The problem is, too many of us give up asking and waiting too early, before God decides to speak.

I remember a time in Romania, when we were pastoring, God had a strategy in mind to help us win more souls, apart from the ones who were already saved. Even though I was praying 3 hours a day, only maybe the last quarter of an hour I would spend waiting to hear from God. I did not seem to know any better.
Fast forward some years later, we already delegated the church to another pastor and I was living in Sydney. I came out of church one Sunday morning and out of the blue God dropped a bomb shell over me. He told me that if I just used the strategy of having people over for dinners, lunches more often, then trying to get them into a church program that I thought could be good for them, I would have won more people to Jesus. When I thought about the Romanian culture, I thought: Oh, no! He is right! The Romanian culture is such that people open their hearts over a meal a lot more than in a meeting. How could I have missed this! The conviction hit me!

I immediately came with an excuse before God: BUT GOD (typical line that says something is wrong with your thinking), I said, this did not come to my mind. You can’t hold me to account for something I did not know.

His answer I will never forget, it was so piercing, but kind and gentle in the same time: You would have known if you would have sought Me more.

I struggled to take this, because I thought: Come on, God, 3 hours of prayer a day and abiding in God throughout the day is not enough seeking? But it was not the quantity He was referring to. It was the HOW. I did not seek Him for answers. I asked for an answer, but I did not wait to hear the answer, I did not seek the answers by waiting on Him for each issue to hear what to do to see it happen in an effective way. I did not put myself in a position of active listening on purpose, to hear the answers I was seeking. I asked, left them with Him, waited for 15 minutes to see if He wants to tell me anything for the day, but not waited specifically to hear on each issue.

What makes us think that if we do lots of talking AT God that we will end up wiser by the end of the prayer time. We need to talk but we need to listen as well, and I would say since He is the wiser one, we need to do more listening them talking.

Prayer is a dialogue with God. A dialogue involves both parties actively taking turns at speaking and listening. If one of the parties dominates the conversation, what chance has the other party to have its say? And if the other party is the Wisest of All, how much do we loose by dominating the conversation and not letting Him have a chance to tell us what we need to hear?
It also puts the light on how full of ourselves we are and how we think we know what we need to ask and what we need to do His work. He might show you you need something you were not aware you need, and much more than you realize. Let Him illuminate you.
Let God speak more and you listen more. Guess whose going to grow wiser fast!