Today we live in a microwave generation where so many people want instant gratification, results and wins.
Our lives have basically turned into one giant vending machine where we expect everything we want in life to be instantly dispensed at the push of a button with little or no effort.
Social media hasn't helped matters, either.
It has slowly conditioned our minds to crave instant gratification and success.
It's urgent to be successful these days.
We basically want progress without process.
But God is a God of process.
Jesus says in Mark 4:28:
“For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.” (KJV)
Notice the process...first the blade, then the ear and finally the full corn in the ear.
This is God's way which is a far cry from the world's way of instant gratification and results.
The world wants the full corn in the ear without the blade or the ear.
This explains why vices like gambling, scamming, corruption, debt addiction, glazed prostitution (Socialites, OnlyFans etc) & sugar daddy/mummy culture is on the rise in our society today.
We've drank the kool-aid that you can skip class and still pass the exam of life, but at what cost?
The truth is godly success comes in instalments...a little bit today, a little more tomorrow and more next week.
In between, God gets a chance to work on you and build your character and capacity to handle the blessing so that the blessing does not become the very thing that draws you away from God and destroys your life.
This is how God had been churning out success stories throughout history.
He makes the vessel useable before He uses it.
Stop just asking God to use you and start also asking Him to make you useable.
Stop just asking God for breakthrough and start also asking Him to build up your character and capacity to handle that breakthrough.
When you're useable, you won’t have to ask God to use you, He will use you.
When your capacity is built up you won't have to pray for breakthrough, you will break through.
A building can only go as high as the strength of the foundation.
So stop worrying about the growth above ground and focus on the growth below ground.
Let God work out all the kinks as He leads you one step at a time...from glory to glory.
The truth is, if it is God, it will take time and you will go through a process.
If it is not God, it will seem urgent and you will try to cut shortcuts and you'll not only mess up, but you will miss God altogether.
So trust God and exercise some patience.
Patience is a virtue that’s very lacking in our generation today.
We've lost the biblical art of patience.
We want what we want and we want it right now and if not right now, we want it yesterday.
But the Bible has a ton of examples of people who paid a heavy price for their impatience.
One of these is King Saul.
One act of impatience cost him the throne.
Sadly, many of us suffer from the same sickness.
I call the King Saul syndrome.
If we pray for something and God is a second late, like King Saul, we take matters into our own hands.
Waiting on God is too much of a chore we’d rather just do it ourselves and try to cut shortcuts.
But the truth is, you can’t microwave God’s purpose for your life.
Moses is a perfect example of this in the Bible.
Moses tried to microwave God’s purpose for his life and it backfired big time.
You see, when Moses killed the Egyptian who was oppressing one of his Jewish brothers, the Bible says he was actually trying to fulfil God’s call on his life.
In Acts 7:25 the Bible says:
"He assumed his brothers would understand that God was using him to deliver them, but they did not."
Moses knew he was a Jew, and he was aware of God’s call on his life to deliver the Jews from the Egyptians but He totally missed God's timing and cost the Israelites an extra 30 years of bondage.
If you check your Bible, God told Abraham, then Abram, that his descendants would be slaves for 400 years. (see Genesis 15:13)
However, the Bible says, they dwelt in Egypt for 430 years. (see Exodus 12:40-41)
Infact, it was exactly 430 years to the day God has spoken to Abram when the children of Israel came out of Egypt.
Clearly there's a 30-year discrepancy and if you subtract the 40 years that Moses spent in the wilderness (Acts 7:30) from the 430 years, you will discover that Moses actually killed the Egyptian and tried to free the Israelites in the 390th year of their captivity.
In other words, Moses was 10 years premature in trying to fulfil God’s will for his life.
If He had just waited 10 years, he would have saved them an extra 30 years of slavery.
Maybe he thought, “God, how many Israelites will die in the next 10 years under the cruel bondage of the Egyptians? Why wait?”
What he couldn’t predict however was how many Israelites would die during the 30 years of extra bondage he caused them.
It's not enough to know God's will for your life, you need to know His timing as well.
You cannot rush God, you can only delay Him.
God works on His own timetable, so you better find out what that is before you go about minting out your own 'Ishmaels'.
"But James, i've been waiting so long!"
Trust me, that's nothing compared to how long others have had to wait...read your Bible.
It always takes years for the Lord to get His servants ready.
It took 18 years for Jesus.
27 years for Abraham.
13 years for Joseph.
20 years for David.
14 years for Paul.
40 years for Moses...the list goes on and on.
Infact, if Moses had cooled his jets and waited patiently on the Lord for just 10 years, his 10-year wait would have been one of the shortest in the Bible.
Instead of having to spend 40 years in the harsh desert, he could have spent his 10-year wait in the comfort of the palace.
You see often times it is portrayed in the movies that it was God who sent Him to the wilderness to prepare Him.
But no, it wasn't.
It wasn’t God who willed Moses into the desert.
It was Moses’ self-will & impatience that sent him there.
God could have prepared Him right there in the palace.
Ofcourse God took advantage of the mess he had got himself into and turned his mess into a message.
Herein lies a lesson for all of us.
We need to trust God’s plan and timing and resist the urge to go ahead of Him or we'll just end up messing everything up like Moses.
Sometimes God’s delay is God’s protection.
Sometimes He knows if He gives you what you are asking for in the state you're in, it will do you more harm than good.
You may ruin it or it may ruin you.
Instead of asking, "Lord when?" start asking, "Lord am I ready for it? Is my heart right?"
Stop asking Him for a 100-storey building when you've hardly laid a solid foundation to hold up a single storey.
If God were to honor such a prayer, sooner or later that thing would come tumbling down like a house of cards.
As much as God wants to bless you, He wants you to be able to nurture His blessing.
Good things take time.
You can't cook a gourmet meal on a microwave.
Break free from this microwave generation mentality and let God take His time with you.
The wins will taste much sweeter and last much, much longer.
God bless you.
Wow