The Change in the Waiting: The Purpose in the Process
“God often requires us to change while we are waiting.” ~WENDY POPE, Wait and See, 2016, p.114
Wait. It is a word that makes the average person cringe especially in the face of something their soul longs for. And I don’t care how you spell it–weight or wait–the word just hurts. But more so than wait or its twin sister weight, change can be a doozy as well.
Change is the process that takes place in the transitional cocoon of waiting. Change is what is required within the space between promise and manifestation.
Some of us hear that we need to change and we think, ‘Hey, I’m a pretty good person. Why do I need to change?’
The reality is that our level of ‘goodness’ (which only comes from Christ living in us anyway) has nothing to do with why we must change. A little girl must become a woman before she can bear a child and properly raise it. A boy must become a man before he can become a strong and sound husband, provider, and father.
The beauty is that the promise given unto us, the dream of becoming, is born from the potential that is already alive in us. It just needs to be cultivated and that takes time. That requires the change born out of the wait.
“Change is the process that takes place in the transitional cocoon of waiting. Change is what is required within the space between promise and manifestation.”
You decide you want to be a doctor. So you go to school for several long years and change while you wait for your graduation–the proof that you are ready to practice medicine. You have dreams of being a pilot, so you change by way of learning how to fly.
Wait. Process. Change. Promise!
The simplest example of this is found in the life of the caterpillar. The caterpillar is born with the potential and the promise of flight, but he cannot take to the skies unless he changes into a butterfly first. He must wait so that he can change.
In order for him to do this, he must yield to the process of change, and wait so that he can take hold of the promise.
3 THINGS REQUIRED IN ORDER TO CHANGE WHILE IN THE WAITING
BOUNDARIES: (Psalm 16:6) “My boundary lines fall in pleasant places
—surely my heritage is beautiful.“~TLV. When God sets our course, He does so with a path in mind and this path is designed to get us to His and our desired location in Him and in our place within the Kingdom.
But, we can only reach this place of inheritance when we submit to the ‘boundary lines’ set before us. Just like the caterpillar must yield to the confines of a cocoon, so too must we yield to the boundaries set by our loving Father during our time of waiting if we expect to change for the promise.
PRESSURE: (II Corinthians 4:7-16, I Peter 4:12-13) The cocooned habitat of the caterpillar is comfortable for only a while. Soon as wings and other appendages begin to form, the boundaries become tighter and the pressure is put on.
The same is true for us and praise the Lord God Yeshua Jesus for it! When certain situations become too comfortable our desire to leave them begins to decrease. That dream of flying starts to pale in the comfort of being securely suspended.
But when the pressure is on, when the changes that have taken place in us and in our friend the caterpillar become evident, the desire for the promise increases. The blessing of the pressure can also be seen in the transformation of dusty coal into diamonds.
No pressure, no change.
The right amount of pressure for the proper amount of time and we end up with bling instead of coal!
STRUGGLE/RESISTANCE: (Romans 5:1-5) Becoming a butterfly is a great and glorious result of change but wings and legs unused and untried are useless. They are not strong enough to take to the promised sky, let alone walk.
In order for the butterfly to survive in its new level of existence and promise it must have proven the strength of its wings and legs. It is in the struggle to be released from its cocoon that his legs and wings develop the needed strength for walking and flight.
As children of God, destined for promised lands and beautiful inheritances, we must do more than ‘look the part’ for our new positions within the Kingdom.
Our faith and trust in the Lord God Yeshua Jesus must be developed in order for us to survive the attacks and temptations that will come our way even before we cross the threshold into our promised lands.
THE TREASURE IN TRANSITIONS
We have to encourage ourselves in the truth that there is treasure in our transitions of change. There is purpose in our process of waiting. Our waiting is never wasted if we do it with Christ at the center and our faith yielded to His way.
I Peter 5:6-7 says, “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you.“
Our Heavenly Father knows that the waiting can get rough at times, but He also knows that it is worth it. Even He waited for the right time to come in the form of a baby, born of a virgin to redeem a sin-stained world to eternal life and everlasting relationship with Him (Galatians 4:4-5, Romans 5:6).
Had King David not waited in the pastures where no one saw him fighting against lions and bears, living under the likely mocking and criticism of his seven older brothers while developing his devotion to God the Father, his capacity to lead and care for a multitude, and his skill as a marksman, he would have never had the faith to defeat Goliath or the trust in God’s faithfulness to keep him while he overcame the harassment and threat of death that came from King Saul during the many years that followed.
All of these things, the boundaries, the pressure, the struggles, were the very things that caused King David to change from shepherd of sheep to the shepherding King of the whole of Israel. It was in the process that his ‘wings’ developed the tried and trusted faith and ability to fly!
You and I are given the same opportunity in our faith-walk, to change in our wait to be ready for the promise. I pray that if you haven’t already, you would humble yourself under the loving hand of the Father, allow Him to guide you in your change and trust that at the right time your wings will have the strength to fly into your promise!
SCRIPTURES OF ENCOURAGEMENT:
~Poiema, Poetry in Motion
-–Candice Coates is an author, blogger, and contributor to Ambo TV. To read more from her, follow her blog at www.icameforthesoup.com