Timing is crucial in the development and manifestation of our heart’s desire.
Any development in life is governed by time. In other words, an impatient person cannot wait till the maturity or full development of his desire. Timing goes with patience. An unripe fruit when eaten leads to health complications. The reason is this: any undeveloped or immature fruit which is unproductive hasn’t completely developed nutrients, vitamins and other minerals for growth. The same approach is to the development and manifestation of any dream.
The waiting period has to do with learning from your experiences in life, learning to bury your pride, anger, bitterness, sullenness, and learning to calm down in the midst of any crisis. In addition, we should learn the act of rapaciously reading other healthy books to expand our mind on how to hold on to our impulse when we want to take an immediate decision. And whenever you are wrong, be humble enough to apologise and move on with your life. Many have soiled good relationship with influential people because of their impatience and immature way of thinking or interpreting issues.
Most have quickly entered into some business deals they shouldn’t have, had they waited a little longer. Many wouldn’t have also lost the trust they once had from trusted relations, business partners and other associates, had they held back a quick disastrous and emotional response to a text message. All these are from our immature behaviour toward life’s issues.
Many have also walked out of their marital homes out of wrong timing. Though certain conditions at home may call for temporary separation, inappropriate decisions to rush out of our senses have torn most families apart. Identifying the right time to act is the key to a successful life.
Have you ever asked yourself why Jesus didn’t quickly start His full ministry the moment He was born? Being divine, He had power even to assume an instant physical, mental and emotional stature; however, He subjected Himself to due process of physical growth from childhood, adolescence and to adulthood. That is the principle of timing.
Growing up, He submitted Himself for parental tutelage, serving His earthly father (Joseph) – the carpenter, and learning from the teachers of the law. Don’t forget that with all the gifts of the Holy Spirit in Jesus, He still humbled Himself to learn from the teachers of His time.
At the age of 12, while visiting Jerusalem with His parents to offer sacrifice, He stayed behind to rather learn from the teachers of the law without the knowledge of His parents.
Interestingly, after three days, His parents, recognising the absence of young Jesus in their midst quickly rushed to look for Him. On reaching Jerusalem, they were amazed to see Him under the feet of these teachers who were well-vexed in the Law of Moses (Luke 2:42-46). What was He doing? He was listening, asking questions and learning from these teachers in order to glean wisdom before the start of His full ministry. Jesus knew about timing for the full manifestation of His gifts and assignment.
Although divine in nature, Jesus’ physical body and mental capacity needed to grow into maturity. During Jesus’ time, a child had no social status, making him a less important being. Therefore, Jesus humbly had to go through the process of growing in wisdom, stature, gaining favour with God and with man (Luke 2:52).
You may have the potential of being used mightily by God to be a blessing to humanity. You may have a business idea to turn your fortune around. Yes, you may have a public statement to make either on radio or any of your social media tools. However, you need patience and wisdom. Patience is the ability to wait over and over in brooding over your action until you sense a leading of the Spirit to take off. Your waiting period can take five, ten, fifteen, twenty years or even more to fully mature into a magnificent dream. So, be careful of premature exposure. The fact that you are being used by the Holy Spirit in prophesying or giving out word of knowledge doesn’t mean that you should quickly go and start your church or ministry.
Life is lived in stages and every stage has the appropriate level of exposure. While exposure has its benefits, too much exposure at any stage can be harmful and detrimental to your progress. The butterfly, for example, goes through a life cycle known as complete metamorphosis. The stages of its life cycle include egg, larva, pupa and adult. As it goes through these transitions, it is susceptible and totally unprepared for all exposure to the elements of the weather conditions and all other risks the adult butterfly might often deal with. In the same way, a human foetus is protected in the formative period in its mother’s womb because premature exposure can kill it.
There is a set time for the manifestation of everything God does in our lives. Impulsively exposing yourself can hurt you or cut short your advancement in life.
Timing is important in every facet of life – marriage, education, business, parenting, etc. So many people have died prematurely as a result of following fame, popularity and vain earthly possessions. Some chasing after cars, mansions, money and other frivolous competitions have been crushed at the end of the day. If your priorities are misplaced, no matter how good the primacies are, you will never experience a fulfilled life. In fact, most have lost their image as a result of not humbling themselves to go through the process of maturing into their full ministry. Even at His baptism, when John the Baptist wanted Jesus to baptise him instead, He (Jesus) insisted that John does it in order for Him to fulfill all righteousness. Examine this passage:
“Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. But John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I have need to be baptized by You. And You are coming to me?” And Jesus, answering said to him, “Permit it at this time, for thus it is appropriate for us to fulfil all righteousness.” Then he permitted Him.”
Matthew 3:13-15, International King James Version
Jesus knew the protocol of His ministry and the respect for authority. Meeting John the Baptist at Jordan was significant for Him to give credit, honour and full respect for John’s ministry.
Submitting to John the Baptist gave Jesus full acceptance in the midst of all those who had gathered at the Jordan river for baptism. I was not surprised at all that John the Baptist even gave the go ahead to some of his disciples to follow Jesus’ ministry (John 1:35 -42). John knew that it was time for Jesus to start His ministry of reconciliation.
Running ahead of God’s plan has truncated the lives of countless number of people. Running to be heard when it is not the right time, and running ahead to speak when God has not asked you to do so have all ended the manifestation of people’s gifts and dreams. Do you know that Jesus never started His full ministry until the age of thirty (30)? Yes! Look at this:
“Now when He began His ministry, Jesus Himself was about thirty years of age, being, as was supposed…” Luke 3:23
Jesus knew that the duties of priesthood according to Levitical order was at thirty, for other duties and services to the sanctuary, it was twenty-five and later lowered by King David to twenty. In other words, check the list of the successful ministries of all the prophets, judges and other vessels of honour mightily used by God in the Old Testament of the Bible. It took time for them to mature in the delivery of information. Even those who were immature in the exercising of duties had other mature people to guide them. So, take your time.
Learn to be patient in all your ways. Patience is the ability to bear with pain, disappointment, shame and challenges for a long time. The other synonym for patience is long-suffering. It is the ability to endure suffering in the heat of time. It takes patient people to wait till they receive God’s dictates for their lives. I have seen people who should have waited for a heart’s desire to be fulfilled but couldn’t do so and rather gave in to immediate wrong desires and decisions which sadly landed them behind the prison yard or penitentiary. If we choose to wait a little longer, we will probably save a failing marriage, a healthy friendship, a political position, an executive position at the workplace, or improve upon our personal lives from an unfortunate situation. In fact, there are glaring examples that point to the point that if we had waited a little longer, we would have avoided a major motor accident or some other ill-fated incident.
Monday mornings have been described by many people across the globe as the rush moment. Because of the long weekend (from Friday to Sunday), many wake up with a compulsion of getting to the workplace early to avoid lateness. In such a moment, a lot of slip-ups are caused on the road. The urgency to catch a commercial bus, the haste to board a train or the speed to overtake a vehicle has landed a lot of people in big troubles. Therefore, if we had set off earlier on or waited a little bit, we would have avoided a fatal accident. Many years ago, as a school boy, I witnessed an unfortunate incident that has remained etched in my memory since then. A commercial driver in great haste to overtake another vehicle directly ahead of his in order to quickly load passengers, accidently hit a young lady who died on the spot.
As young as I was at that time, I learnt about what long-suffering does to our lives. Many lives are torn apart because most of the decisions we take in times of challenges are taken out of haste. In the long run, it is our dependent who suffers the consequences; other times, it is the society at large that bears the brunt or burden. Sometimes you will hear of people leaving their present office because an action taken by their boss didn’t resonate well with them. Furthermore, I have also seen people who resigned from their well-paid jobs with the anticipation of seeking greener pastures only to be disappointed by life’s challenges.
Once more, I have seen people who, out of frustrations, hurt and extreme anger abandoned their divine vision and work to follow the luxury of worldly pleasures and ended up in pathetic states. The bearing of the fruit of long-suffering must, therefore, be cultivated so that a breakthrough at God’s opportune time becomes a well-celebrated moment. We must learn to be patient. Patience simply means waiting for the right time. There is always the right moment. There is always the right season. There is the right time to be promoted. In fact, there is always the right time to act. However, it comes with uneasiness, leg wobbling and long period of testing. Following the crowd and the trend of the moment may sway you off God’s plan. Your responsibility is to be yourself and depend solely on the leadings of the Holy Spirit.
Conclusion
Any decision taken out of anger, bitterness or extreme emotional pain never gets people anywhere. So develop the habit of exercising patience in all your endeavours. It means you have to refrain yourself from making quick statement without giving it a contemplative thought. Never allow your impulse to lead you in making wrong decisions. For example, if a friend insists that he or she needs an immediate answer concerning a specific decision, you can gently reply by saying: “Not now. But if I can take some time to think about it”. Thinking about a decision may take a few hours, days or a few weeks, especially if it calls for brain-storming from a competent person. So friend, whenever you are irritated, livid or embittered, never be too quick to make a decision. Allow time to heal wounds and don’t be too quick to speak to defend yourself in times of crises. If possible, look for a convenient time to settle squabbles or let go the animosity, acrimony, odium and bitterness. Remember, exoneration or vindication is in the womb of time.
The writer is an Academic, Visiting Lecturer, Leadership Consultant and a Reverend Minister with the WordSprings City Church, Kumasi-Ghana.
Email: [email protected]
Contact: +233 (59) 5 71 08 01
