Monday, November 12, 2012

Yes. [No]. Wait.





We’ve all heard the saying, that God either tells you, “yes, no, or wait” in response to the things we’ve been praying for.  Now if you’re like me, you get less excited when the answer turns out to be anything other than “yes.” Lol  ESPECIALLY if it’s a “no.”  I mean think about it, if you’ve been praying about something and God says yes, meaning He opened a door and made provisions to that specific prayer…then you know what to do next:  SHOUT!!! Lol.  In the same regards, if you’ve been praying about something and God’s answer is wait, meaning He hasn’t made it completely clear to you on the next step…then you know what to do next: you wait. (Y’all thought I was going to say something deep there didn’t you? Lol). So we know what our action items are when God says yes and wait, but here’s my million dollar question: What do we do when He tells us no? “No” meaning, nothing you seem to be doing regarding that prayer seems to be working.  “No” meaning, you’ve pretended like God hasn’t already made it clear to you that His answer is NO and you’ve told yourself you’re in the “waiting stage.” No basically meaning, NO.  C’mon you get the point lol.

Time to be a little transparent….yes, I’ve fallen victim to placing myself in the “waiting” column when I was in denial about an answer God had already given me.  It’s funny how we think we can change God’s minds on things.  I remember praying to God about a particular guy situation a while back and asking Him to make it clear to me what I should do.  So I prayed and I waited, prayed and I waited, prayed and I waited.  But here’s the thing….the whole time I was “waiting” God was making it beyond clear to me that His answer was no for the relationship.  That’s not the answer I wanted to receive so I actually convinced myself that He didn’t say no, He was just using all of the MILLIONS of red flags to say wait, it will get better.  No my friend, this in fact is NOT how God operates.  When God wants you to move or not move, He will make it plain to you either through His word or through another believer….and we know when God is making something plain to us.  Amen somebody.  
"God is a very specific God, He's too great to give you a general non-descriptive answer...and when something is for you, it will undoubtedly be for YOU."
Now allow me to interrupt your thoughts if I could, because I feel like someone just read that “through another believer” part and got real excited because your best friend told you that God told them you were going to be famous one day in be in front of millions of people.  Now that sounds real good, but the truth of the matter is your friend and any other believer for that matter will always be confirming what God already told you through His word and will be specific to what God has already laid on your heart.  Meaning….your friend won’t be telling you something that God didn’t already tell you. So stop allowing people to come up to you after church and whisper vague and generic blessings in your ear.  God is a very specific God, He’s too great to give you a general non-descriptive answer…and when something is for you, it will undoubtedly be for YOU. I’ve had to remind myself of this quite a few times after I realized “prophecies” that I was allowing other people to speak over me were NOT being fulfilled.
"Eating fruit out of its season is poisonous"
So now that we’ve finally come out of denial to what God is saying, it still leaves us with the question, “now what?” What do I do after God tells me “no”?  Well first before we can really ask that question we have to realize that God never just says, “no.”  He never leaves us hanging out in the open without any resources or direction on where to go next.  Notice, I didn’t mention that He gives us an explanation to the “no.”  God doesn’t always reveal the “why” to us.  In fact, out of all of my quiet time dates we’ve had or the long talks I’ve had with Him in my car and even the low points in my life where I’ve cried out to Him has He ever shared the answers to every question on my test of life with me.  Why? Because it’s not about “why” He said no…it’s about us trusting that He has our best interest at heart and whatever it is that HE has is better. You’re asking for [this] and He wants to give you [THIS]. Yeah that initial “no” may sting a little (or a lot) but I think we can all agree that we want the better God has for us. 
So having said all of that….here’s where it might get a little tricky.  This may sound cliché’ but I also don’t think “no” necessarily means never.  What you’re praying for may in fact be something that God wants for your life….it’s just not for you at that time.  You might ask what’s the difference between “not the right time” and God telling you to “wait?” Well, waiting to me is God saying, “I have what you’ve been praying for but I’m still setting it up, I’m still putting some finishing touches on it.”  Meaning it’s within your possession but it’s being delayed until God finishes working everything out.  Now, “not for you at that time” means it’s going to be given to you….but it could be in a completely different season in your life in a completely different way then what you prayed for….ultimately resulting in “no” for right now.  Either way, if God is giving you the red light whether it be a permanent “no” or a temporary “no” it should no longer be your focus.  A good friend once told me, “eating fruit out of its season is poisonous.”  When we’re requesting something from God, we always have to have the mindset that He honors our request according to His will.  So that means we may not get everything we pray for or when we pray for it….but it does mean God will give us the very best possible thing instead.  Now that’s a win-win situation isn’t it?
So to answer the question, “what do I do when God says no?” It’s simple, accept His answer and pray for redirection. The Bible tells us in Psalm 37:4 to “delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”  When you redirect your focus back on Christ, you’ll find you get more and more of your hearts desires….because it will be HIM putting the right things in your heart to desire.  So be thankful for God's "no" it just means, He loves you too much to let you have your own way.

-Leah

Bible Study
*For more information on this topic, check out the following scriptures:


5 comments:

  1. Hi Leah, I've asked these questions a few times in the past but never really found an answers I can live with. So I'd love to hear your ideas. Here's the questions:

    Assuming you have prayed within God's will - yes, no or wait.
    In reference to the no & wait, how can we tell the difference when God goes silent?
    I assume most people like myself would continue praying & keeping the faith as we believe this silence is God thinking things over in his good time. Hence perhaps giving us a 'wait' answer.

    You wrote, " “No” meaning, you’ve pretended like God hasn’t already made it clear to you that His answer is NO and you’ve told yourself you’re in the “waiting stage.”"

    What if God hasn't made a 'no' answer clear? Does that mean we should naturally accept His silence as a 'wait'?

    And what exactly are we waiting for? Are we waiting for our prayer request to faithfully manifest in our lives. Or, are we being asked to merely 'wait' for God's answer to be a clear 'yes' or 'no'?

    Example: Let's say you were praying about a fight you've had with a close friend. You've tried making up but they are being hostile & wanting space. You respectfully give them space but worry about the future of the friendship. Your friend has issues with ego, substance abuse & blaming others. Your friend isn't walking with God & is emotionally unavailable. Ok, you pray to God for your friends salvation, you pray for advice on how to help and you pray for a healthy friendship in the future. You know from experience that your friend would probably ditch you rather than take responsibility for their behaviour. So you also pray to God that your friend re-enters your life at some point. And doesn't simply abandon the friendship.

    God's answers:

    Yes, they will return & you will be walking together as friends within my will.
    No, they will use this fight to detach from you, never to return.
    Wait, they will return in my good time but you both have other lessons to learn apart first.

    Your efforts to mend the fight & communicate are ignored. So we know that God's answer isn't 'yes'. So you include in your faithful prayer direction for either a 'no' or a 'wait'. But you get no answer from God either way.

    You are technically 'waiting' on God to advise you on whether he gives you a 'no' or 'wait' on the original prayer requests regarding your friend.

    So do you make this a double 'wait' answer? Or was God's answer a 'no' all along?

    How do you know the difference between a 'no' or a 'wait' when there's no guidance from God either way?

    Confusing huh:)




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    Replies
    1. Thank you for your comments/questions! You can see my response here :)http://walkwithme365.blogspot.com/2013/03/wait-what.html

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  2. An outstanding share! I have just forwarded this onto a
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    lol. So allow me to reword this.... Thanks for the meal!!

    But yeah, thanx for spending time to talk about this issue here on your blog.


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    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ha, that's awesome! Thank you so much for reading and I'm glad it could help! Hope the meal was good :)

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