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Delays
I’ve been without a vehicle for a few weeks now. Thank God I have a brother and sister and brother-in-law that don’t mind sharing their vehicles with me. It’s been kind of hard, but I’ve managed. I’m lucky I work nights, though. We’ve been kind of rotating cars. The other day, I was sitting in my new apartment, and I thought to myself, I should go to the store and pick up a few things I needed. Then I realized, wait a second, how am I going to get there.
It’s been a challenge. Life tends to throw bumps in the road along the way (or 18-wheelers) and you just sort of have to deal with them. I have no control over when I’m getting my truck back, if I do. Those insurance people, gotta luv em. They are always so quick and helpful (me being sarcastic). OK, that’s enough complaining from me this week.
We just had a powerful weekend in San Antonio. Our church, Victory Outreach, had our South Texas Regional Conference and God moved in a tremendous way. There’s so much that I got out of these last few days. All the messages were powerful. Pastor Juan from San Antonio spoke about cutting off all the unnecessary things in our lives. My Pastor Ernie Lopez spoke on taking on the challenge that is set before us.
It was the message that Pastor Sonny Arguinzoni, Founder of Victory Outreach International, spoke that really got my attention, though. He was talking about Fulfilling God’s Destiny in our lives. He talked about four different stages in fulfilling that promise. The Dream stage, where we get the promise, the Decision stage, where we make that choice to go forth with the promise, the Delay stage where we wait for it to come to pass and the Fulfillment stage where it comes to completion.
I want to speak on the Delay stage in the column this week. That point hit me because it seems like that’s where I’ve been for a while now. I’m not even talking about waiting on the insurance people to get my truck fixed, although that has been a big delay in my life. I’m talking more about the music God has called me to do. I know that He’s promised me that He is going to use the music He’s given me to reach the world for Him.
We were working on a project that we anticipated would come out in the next month or so and it seems like things just sort of fell apart. The studio we recorded all of our stuff in was broken into and the guy running the studio is now nowhere to be found. All of our sessions are now gone. We were disappointed and a little bit discouraged. We were getting pretty close to completion and now we have to start all over again. I felt like punching a wall or something. I knew this was going to be a busy month with my sister getting married and our South Texas Regional Conference and our upcoming Mercedes, TX Takeover where our region is launching a church, so we were trying to finish up all the recording before all this took place.
One of the points Pastor Sonny made was, “A Delay is not a Denial.” I’m a very patient person, most of the time at least (well maybe not in traffic, jk). But sometimes it just seems like I’ve been waiting forever. Pastor Sonny started mentioning people in the Bible that had to wait a long time for God’s promise to unfold in their lives. Moses waited 40 years from the time he fled Egypt before he was sent back to deliver the children of Israel. Noah waited 120 years while he was building the ark before a drop of rain ever came. Joseph waited years, being sold into slavery and thrown into jail on false charges, before God’s promise came to pass. And even Jesus waited 30 years before his ministry started.
God uses these times of waiting to build our faith and our patience. He uses them to teach us to trust in Him. He uses them so that we can grow. Sometimes we’re not ready for the promise. We need that Spiritual maturity. We need that closer walk and relationship with Him.
Psalm 40:1 says, “I waited patiently for the Lord; He turned to me and heard my cry.”
Are you at a point in your life where it seems that promise will never come to pass? Have you been praying and asking God for something for what seems like has been forever? Hold on! Keep on believing! Keep trusting Him! His promises are always YES and AMEN. My God always comes through. He is always faithful to what He has promised.
I believe many of you are right at that point of breakthrough. God’s getting ready to pour His blessings upon your life and take you to that next level. Are you ready? Don’t let go before it happens. Don’t give up before it comes to pass. Keep believing. Keep holding on and watch God come through in a miraculous way.
w/muchluv,
geno
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