The Microwave Generation
Waiting on God has become a lost art. Why? Because we live in a microwave generation, an age of instant gratification. We want everything right now. But God is not focused on doing things quickly. When it comes to prayer, the posture of our hearts should be one of patient waiting and expectation.
There are similarities between spiritual and natural things. If you were to microwave a steak for five to ten minutes, it would cook, but it would taste terrible. Why? Because the cooking time was rushed. There was no time to let the meat marinate and cook slowly so it could get tender. Microwaving skips the processes that would make steak juicy and flavorful.
Waiting on the Lord is like taking the time to marinate and properly cook a steak. When something is marinated or slow-cooked, it tastes better. It has a richer flavor. That’s how it is with the Lord. When we take the time to wait on the Lord, lingering in His presence, a deep enrichment—a deep “flavor”—comes upon our lives in prayer. This is why waiting should be part of your daily communion with the Holy Spirit because it brings greater clarity, strength, and renewal. It brings you to a place of rest instead of frustration, and both your posture and your outlook will be different because you’re spending time marinating in the things of God.
Do not rush the Holy Spirit in prayer. Do not rush through your time with the Lord. I’m convinced that when we enjoy the process of lingering when we enjoy waiting and just being with the Lord, that itself becomes an answer to many of our prayers. “Marinating” takes place in the Spirit, and we gain a perspective that comes only from our time in His presence.
Many times, the answer we seek comes in the midst of waiting. In those moments, we experience the weight of God’s presence—and in the weight of God’s presence, the heart is strengthened, revived, and renewed.
You may think, “But I thought the heart is desperately wicked. Who can know it?” Jeremiah 17:9 does say that, but that is not the last word on our hearts. Scripture also says later in Jeremiah:
Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, “Know the Lord,” for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.
—Jeremiah 31:31–34
We also read in Ezekiel 11:19–20:
Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God. Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel speak of us receiving a new, born-again nature that is sensitive to the things of God.
I encourage you to spend as much time as you can waiting before the Lord in prayer. Before you ask God for anything, posture your heart to wait. This is thoroughly scriptural. Jesus tells us to ask, seek, and knock (Matt. 7:7). There is a time for asking and bringing our petitions before the Lord. But there is also a time for seeking—a time of waiting on the Lord, enjoying moments with Him, loving Him for who He is, and praising Him because He’s worthy. Waiting is a decision to yield to the Lord instead of taking control of yourself. When you wait on the Lord, you’re saying, “I give up control, and I rest in You.” So, before you ask, before you knock, let there be a time of seeking, a time of expectation in His presence, and a time to marinate and sensitize your heart.
To learn more about Chris Garcia’s new book, Fresh Oil, visit MyCharismaShop.com