Call of God: Tension of Waiting & Going

When there is a true call of God on someone’s life, there is a tension at times between the promises and the fulfillment. Throughout all the great stories of the Bible and even more contemporary ones, a great call may be given at one point, but the full fruition of that call may take decades upon decades to be seen.

In all the great stories of history, there is usually a great vision at the onset and then many years of trial, perseverance, hardship, and seeming failure before even a glimpse of the vision begins to happen.

Many people lose hope after years turn into decades and some lay down the promises altogether. Sometimes, that is even a necessary part of the process—the seed falling to the ground and dying so that it can bring forth fruit. Many times, God uses the seeming death of a promise to ground us in our identity in Him—apart from the call or assignment.

Some people say that we need to launch out and make things happen. Others say that we should wait, pray, and watch. For someone who is truly seeking the will of God, they may get tossed around a bit trying to decide whether they need to sit back and receive more training or go out and start working.

Different voices all say different things making it hard to decipher the right path. However, the truth is that life happens in seasons, and we must be faithful to the season we are in at the time we are in it. God is not looking for the most intelligent people or the most talented—He is looking for the most obedient.

If we learn to hear God’s voice for our own lives, and obey it no matter the cost, then we will find that everything will turn out right in the end. If God says to sit in a prayer room and pray, then do it. If He says to get out on the streets and go, then do it. We have to realize that there are different seasons in life for everything.

Many times, there is a tension between waiting for God to move and God waiting for us to move. There is also a reality of us moving without God. Either extreme is dangerous. Launching out on our own strength making the promises happen is how Abraham got Ishmael. We must learn to allow God to lead our lives so that we get the Isaacs and not the Ishmaels.

However, there is also a reality that we have God living on the inside of us and He is waiting to break out at any moment. He is not waiting for us to become the perfect vessel for Him to use us—because that is never going to happen.

God can use the tension between waiting and going in our lives to create a friction that sparks into the fires of refinement. He will have vessels for His glory that are completely surrendered to Him. We must learn to listen to His voice and give our all to Him in every season—in the time of waiting or the time of sending.