Recently, I’ve recognized troubling tends in our Christian culture. They’ve permeated our churches, ministries and small groups. These mentalities are choking the growth of Christians everywhere, and we must combat them in our own lives.
We Want The Promise of God Without The Wait
In the Christian church, we are big on promises from God, whether it’s a promise of a marriage or future children, but we aren’t patient enough to sit back and wait. The very fact that God has given you a promise is gift enough in itself.
God told me in 2003 through His Word and His Spirit (which will never contradict each other) that I was to start a women’s ministry, but that promise didn’t come to fruition until 2009. I had to wait and wait and wait.
During that time, I clung to God’s promise in Habakkuk 2:3, “Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come.”
We want the promise of God, but as soon as we get the word from the Lord, if it tarries two weeks, three weeks or, God forbid, a month, we start complaining about the God who gave us the promise ahead of time.
If you have a promise from God, there will, 100 percent of the time, be a waiting period. I’m sorry it’s hard. I’m sorry it’s long. But the promise is gift enough for you to be patient and wait expectantly. Don’t wait discouraged. Don’t wait complaining. God doesn’t honor that. Wait knowing that it is a privilege to a have a promise from God and that when He sees fit that promise will come to fruition.
We Want A Stage Without Stewardship
I’ve heard this a lot working with young women, “God wants me to be a Christine Caine or a Beth Moore.” They want to be the leader and to be out front, but they decline helping with the small things because “God told me I was going to be bigger.”
They have got it all wrong.
Look at what God tells us in the parable of the talents in Matthew 25: 14-30. If you want anything great, you have to steward the small. If we steward our one talent well, God will put us in charge of more. Odds are, you’re not going to be given a huge platform the moment you feel God calling you to leadership. You have to start small.
When you successfully steward small things, He will give you more. It is a process, but our Christian culture tells us to go for the stage without stewardship. Why? Because stewardship is work.
We Want Revelation Without Study
We have been bowing down to the idol of revelation. We say to God, “Give me a word. Speak to me a word. Encourage me immediately.” We scour the social media accounts and podcasts of our favorite Christian leaders for a truth we need to hear. It’s like we are surviving spiritually soundbite to soundbite; image to image; Facebook post to Facebook post.
You can have a revelation from God any day of the week, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, if you do the work to dig into the Scripture of God that promise not to return to Him void. You can speak to God without social media.
God bless the men and women who are sharing God’s truth on podcasts and social media – I do it myself – but you need to find your own revelation. It is going to be greater and stronger than anything others can share. It will challenge you more. Doing that work is going to change you.
We are revelation obsessed and not a student of the One who brings the revelation. Study the Word. Become intimate with the Lord, not someone’s social media feed. We are biblically illiterate in our Christian culture today. We need to get back to digging deep into God’s Word and stop being spoon fed.
It’s time we get serious about study in our Christian culture. It’s time we start being faithful in the small things, and waiting on Him expectantly to fulfill his promises. Walking with the Lord isn’t supposed to be easy. It is a daily commitment, and we have gotten lazy. Recommit yourself to Him, and you will see his hand in your life.
–
Autumn Miles is the author of “Appointed: Your Future Starts Now” and the founder and CEO of The Blush Network, a conference ministry dedicated to spiritually challenging the way women think. Autumn is an accomplished speaker who leads women’s conferences nationwide through The Blush Network. She is also the host of “The Autumn Miles Show,” a Christian radio show on Salem Radio Network in Dallas, Texas and sits on the advisory council for the women’s ministry department at Liberty University.