2022/2023 OPERATION 18-18 – (REND THE HEAVENS 1C)

The Psalmist said, I waited patiently for the Lord. He knew about the blessings of waiting when he penned this beautiful psalm – Psalm 40. There is heavenly protocol; you just don’t stroll into the presence of God anyhow. The modern day Churchgoer knows very little about heavenly protocol. That is why some people pray to God with their hands akimbo. Some even pray with their hands in the pockets! Your relationship with your Father is vertical never horizontal. Even when Abraham became the friend of God, the relationship never changed to being horizontal, it remained vertical.

Learn not to throw things at people. Anyone who does not value your time cannot celebrate your wisdom or even obey your instructions. That was why Adam failed. He was not a worshipper. He never placed value on the vertical relationship with his father that gave him everything. A perfect man in a perfect environment with only one law, yet, he could not keep it. Why? It is because Adam devalued the instructor. Anytime an instructor is devalued, instructions cannot be obeyed.

“I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry” (Psa. 40:1). The Psalmist did not do any other thing, he just waited. When did he pray? When did he fast? When did he cry? He did all these in the waiting! The moment he started waiting, God took note. Everything around the psalmist was tuned to the frequency of heaven. God inclined and heard his cry. May God hear your heart cry this year in the name of Jesus. The key is ‘wait patiently’, not just waiting.

Learn to wait patiently. It is not too difficult. When everything is telling you to move, don’t jump, just wait. It takes patience to walk acceptably with God.

Pray –

• Lord, please search my heart. Is there any toxic spiritual attitude in me? I am sorry for manifesting it in the first place. In your mercy, O God, forgive me. In your mercy, O God, cleanse me. In your mercy, O God, wash me. In your mercy, O God, purify me.
• Help me to know that you are my Father. Grant me the grace to reverence you, to worship you, to adore you and to wait patiently before you so that you will incline and hear my cry, in the name of Jesus.

Remember that Isa. 64:1 is a heart cry. In the place of prayer, God listens more to the heart cry than the word you speak. It is a heart issue and that is why we must get it right at the heart level. The garden of the heart is the foundation of everything that matters in our relationship with God. If you don’t get it right in the garden of the heart, every spiritual exercise will be an exercise in futility even if you fast for one hundred days, it will amount to nothing.

People need to learn that the hand of God that reaches unto the heavens can be shortened by one little iniquity in the heart. Psa. 66:18, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me”.

“Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear”.

Isaiah 59:1-2 KJV

Iniquity can short-circuit the power of the almighty. You must look in the right direction of the garden of the heart instead of going from pillar to post looking for a God that was never lost. May we get it right so that God can answer us by awesome deeds in righteousness as we wait patiently in Jesus’ name.

If you are naturally not a patient person, you cannot hear God even if he screams! This is because the voice of impatience is louder than the promptings of the Holy Spirit. God does not shout; the Holy Spirit is a gentle spirit. God does not shout; he speaks peace. You need the still small voice. God is not in the wind, he is not earthquake or in the fire but in a still small voice (1 Kings. 19:11-13). When he speaks, there is peace. May we not miss it in the name of Jesus Christ.

TO BE CONTINUED.