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One of the reasons so many ministries become discouraged and too often fail is the inability to understand God's timing. Having lived for the Lord for over 25 years and served Him in ministry for over 20, I admit that there are very few times when God acts when I think He should.
In my own ministry, this has caused me much grief and discouragement. I'm an action person. When I see a job that needs to be done, I find a way to get it done before others even realize there was a need. It drives me nuts when I see other people drag their feet when there should be action in a needful situation. So waiting on God who does not operate in the same time zone as I do has been very hard. (CAN I GET A WITNESS?)
To fully understand the timing in which God operates, we must turn to the scripture. One translation of 2 Pet 3:9 says, "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone come to repentance." 2 Pet 3:9
When I read this scripture I have to admit that my mind wants to argue with the writer. In my carnal thinking, I feel that God is very slow in nearly everything that He does. My natural mind believes He is slow to punish the wicked. It thinks that He is slow in His return. It sees the suffering in the world and does not understand His absence of immediate help to the starving and sick.
However, the reading shows me that He is not slow in keeping his promise, "as some men understand slowness." The real problem is not with God, but rather with me. I am "some men". My understanding of when He should act is obviously not His understanding. You see, He sees this world and all that goes on in it from a completely different perspective than I do. My perception is from that of a carnal, mortal who's understanding is limited. His is from that of being an eternal, Holy, all knowing God.
This reading lets me know that God and I share the same burden to see the lost saved, but that my understanding of slowness is inaccurate. I have for most of my life felt that things should happen almost immediately. However, as I have gotten older, I have learned that most often that is not even possible. I have had to learn patients. I have had to wait on people to change. I have had to learn to wait on circumstances to become so difficult for people that they are forced to change their thinking so change could come.
Peter 3:8 lets us know that with the Lord a thousand years is like a day. Evidently, time is not something God has to worry about. He does not make decisions based on the clock, calendar or length of men's lives. He is not in a hurry. He is patient. Time is not a factor for Him. It is for me. It is for you. It is not for Him.
When I pray, I ask God to do things ASAP. I'll say things like, "Lord, I need this bill paid by the first, can you help?" or "Father, we really want to be in the house we are building by the end of next year."
Now understand, a God who sees no difference between a thousand years and a day is not going to be in a hurry to get my bill paid by the first of the month and neither is He going to be in a rush to get us into the house by the end of the year.
He does not operate within the elements of or for the purpose of time. He only operates within the confines and boundaries of a redemptive purpose. Peter 3:9 lets us know that his purpose is not timely, but redemptive. It only has to do with souls and spiritual maturity.
If we have a lesson to learn by waiting, then He makes us wait. If we will grow spiritually or mature in our faith by His delay, then He delays. It really has nothing at all to do with our immediate physical needs. It has everything to do with where we are at in the redemptive process.
Look at Moses. 40 Years in Pharaoh's court and schools of higher learning. For what? So he can be a lonely Shepard for the next 40 years. Now I have to admit... at about the end of the first year in the desert watching sheep when I was trained to lead a nation, I would say, "God you messed up!" Moses was put into a position in that desert where he was forced to learn to wait on God to the point that he had to release all personal understanding of time.
This was going to be absolutely necessary when he began leading the nation of Israel in the wilderness. Forty more years of waiting on God in the wilderness was going to be the result of his 40 years of waiting on God in the desert. God knew that the nation of Israel had to learn the same lesson of waiting on His timing and He needed Moses to lead the nation since he had already learned that lesson.
Neither was God going to give them the promised land over night. Ex 23:28-29 tells us that He would not drive their enemies out in a single year, but rather little by little until they had increased enough to take the land.
The motive for God's delay has nothing to do with purposeful impediment. He is simply waiting on our maturity level to rise to a place where we can then take the land (revival, finances, etc). If God were to give many of our churches a one thousand soul revival in a single year, we would lose most of those souls as few churches are genuinely prepared to handle that kind of immediate growth.
Three years ago I attended the General Conference of the church organization I am a part of. It was hosted in Toronto, Canada. On the last day of that conference a crusade service was held in which around 400 new converts were filled with the Holy Spirit speaking in tongues in a single service. (I have rejoiced over that service every time I think of it.) This last weekend I attended that same conference in another city and had the opportunity to speak to a friend who pastors one of the churches in Toronto. I asked him how many of the converts from the crusade in Toronto 3 years ago are still attending the churches there. He told me that the only people who are still attending any of the churches are people who had previous connections with the church or where the church has developed relationships with those new converts.
We want revival now. We want everyone to come to Truth today. So does God. But we are not waiting on Him. He is waiting on our congregations to mature to a level where they can do the work of evangelizing and then also be able to maintain the growth that God would give.
How many of the hundreds of people who received the Holy Spirit that night would still be a part of the church today, if we would have spent more time preparing the churches to maintain the growth that was coming, before it happened. I pray that the Lord would forgive us of our arrogance and ignorance in this area. How many souls will be aborted before we realize the absolute necessity of training the church to maintain growth and become spiritually mature?
Would God bless our evangelism efforts more if our level of maturity was to a height where we could actually keep those souls who would come in as a result of that miracle?
Many of us are big on telling the numbers of converts to our churches. We need to get big on the percentage of people we keep. That shows our true level of maturity as a church body. I hear few churches brag on their percentage of converts who are still with them after 5 years, but I hear a lot of churches bragging on the number of people who get saved in one service.
God's timing is not about time. It is about the redemptive process. When we are ready for the growth, it will come. He does not delay. He is not late. He is waiting on us church. Let's prepare Him an habitation.
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Any licensed or ordained minister in the U.S. who performs ministerial duties and who is employed by the church qualifies for a housing allowance which is a great tax benefit. Housing allowances are not taxable to federal or state income taxes, so you can save taxes by utilizing the housing allowance. In general the rules are as follows.
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But God is good isn't He! At the end of a second very bad day, I got to hold my baby girl in my arms and thank God for keeping her from certain death. Holding her, I realized that by all rights, we should be in a hospital room seeing the worst.
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Ever had one? One of those days where you wish you would have stayed in bed? I had one last week. Well, actually I had two of them in a row. My boy Jeremy had just gotten the cast off his arm from the break he received when he fell out of the tree 2 months ago. So, Thursday evening, we decided to take our dirt bikes out and go riding. We had ridden about an hour when Jer flipped his bike on a jump and it landed on his foot, thus breaking it. So to the house we go to get a few things before we head to the emergency room. Before we leave the house though, we should let Molly out. Molly is our 5 pound Maltese. The baby of the family. She is almost ready to come into the house when the neighbors dog comes over and mauls her. She wasn't hurt badly, only bruised and frightened, but we don't have time to comfort her because Jeremy is needing to go get X- rays. This has turned out to be a very bad day.
I wake up Friday morning, thinking, ok the worst is behind us. It's a brand new day, right?! Wrong. All I did was turn my head and sneeze. That's all. But now my neck has gone into a spasm and the vertebrae are out and I can't move my neck in any direction more than an inch without causing excruciating pain. So I lay on the bed for an hour. Unable to move. (6 days, and 2 chiropractor appointments later, I'm still in pain.) Boy this is starting out to be a bad day. Unable to get an appointment with a chiropractor, I suffered though a very painful day at the computer, with set back after set back on site development. Finally after a long, frustrating, painful day, my wife and I (still suffering) go to bed hoping tomorrow will be better.
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Guessing her time of departure and the approximate distance in the trip, I called the State Police and told them the situation and to look for her on Route 65 between Rensselaer and Lowe, about a 60 mile stretch. Amazingly the phone rings 10 minutes later and the fire department has found her 1 mile off the exit ramp from Rensselaer To our relief she is bruised, but ok. God really had his hand on her. She hit the guardrail at around 65 MPH, completely destroying the guardrail and totaled out the car.
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Steps To Turn A Plateaued Church Around
Has your church hit a plateau? Here are a few steps we believe will help:
- Pray! Pray! Pray! Pray for wisdom specifically and continually. Pray to the Lord of the Harvest for ministry helpers.
- Seek a God- given vision for growth and philosophy of ministry (core values) and continually communicate them to the church.
- Pray that God will help you identify a core group of people in your church that embrace your vision and core values of ministry and will begin to make positive change in the church......

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To give a little history as to how some of the heavy-handed authoritative traits came into play among pastors you have to trace back to the charismatic movement. Out of the charismatic movement there was the evolving of a concept called “shepherding.”
The Latter Rain movement actually had its earliest beginnings in the late 1800’s and was born out of the Methodist and Holiness camp-meeting environment. It would continue to generate momentum and experience growth during the post-World War II years and be much encouraged by the Charismatic movement in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Marked by extreme excess and abuse of the gifts of the Spirit, this activity led to the production of “prophets” who had little use for personal holiness and consecration. After a while it appeared that they only had a desire for their own personal kingdoms to grow.....
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I’ve heard many people say over the last year that, as we enter into the 21st century, it will not be the size of the church that matters, but its health that will ensure its survival. So, what about the health of the church? May I suggest a few guidelines for assessing the health of a congregation of any size?....
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1. Look for people who can make things happen.
Most of the time, you have to take people at their word. The fortunate aspect to this is when you do hire them, you know within a few days, sometimes hours, if they can make things happen or not. At that time you can make the necessary decision.
This application is not always possible in ministry, but the advice is still the same; Watch what people do more than listening to what they say. Actions always speak louder than words. People that make things happen seldom make excuses. Instead they create their own opportunities when none might have existed.
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It is critically important who you surround yourself with. The men and women you choose to help you reach your goals will make or break you. Here's a few things to look for in potential leaders:
1. Look for people who can make things happen.
Most of the time, you have to take people at their word. The fortunate aspect to this is when you do hire them, you know within a few days, sometimes hours, if they can make things happen or not. At that time you can make the necessary decision.
This application is not always possible in ministry, but the advice is still the same; Watch what people do more than listening to what they say. Actions always speak louder than words. People that make things happen seldom make excuses. Instead they create their own opportunities when none might have existed.
2. Look for people who can influence others.
A person's ability to make things happen is directly related to their ability to lead people. This is called influence. Whether a church ministry leader or a construction crew leader, a leader must be able to influence and persuade people....
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Sometimes you just have to say it like it is. This is one of those times. I offer this to you in a gentle spirit and pray that if you share it with others on your team, that you would do so in a spirit of gentleness and meekness.
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(This is an excellent article for Pastors to share with anyone involved in leadership or ministry in their church.)
Sometimes you just have to say it like it is. This is one of those times. I offer this to you in a gentle spirit and pray that if you share it with others on your team, that you would do so in a spirit of gentleness and meekness.
John Maxwell says “Only do what only you can do.” This is important in the various areas of ministry of the local church. One thing that stops the momentum of a church is various leaders trying to run someone else’s ministry. When God has placed you in an area of ministry within the church, he did not put you there so you could judge other lay ministers of the church. Do your job and let others do theirs.....
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1. Learn that leadership is servanthood. Servanthood begins with security. Jesus knew His position and was willing to not flaunt it. Jesus knew His calling and was willing to be faithful to it. Jesus knew His future and was willing to submit to it.
2. Let your purpose prioritize your life. Because Jesus developed priorities based upon His purpose:
- He successfully dealt with distractions.
- He wisely responded to personal rejection.
- He willingly suffered pain.
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The Top Ten Leadership Principles of Jesus
1. Learn that leadership is servanthood. Servanthood begins with security. Jesus knew His position and was willing to not flaunt it. Jesus knew His calling and was willing to be faithful to it. Jesus knew His future and was willing to submit to it.
2. Let your purpose prioritize your life. Because Jesus developed priorities based upon His purpose:
- He successfully dealt with distractions.
- He wisely responded to personal rejection.
- He willingly suffered pain.
3. Live the life before you lead others. Jesus never begged anyone to believe in Him. He knew that integrity cannot be proven; it must be discerned. He never wasted time with critics. He kept His attention on His goal. He stayed focused.....
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Just Don't Quit!
I would say, each week I get hit with the thought to just quit. But I can't! Not because I don't know how. Not because I'm too tough. Not because I'm too dumb to know when to come in from the rain. But because I know who I am! I know what I am! I know why I am!
Most importantly, I know where I am. And where I am is right in the middle of God's will....
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