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When I first got married my husband would tell me I lacked patience. I did not know what he was talking about, I was passionate, zealous and honestly in a hurry. Possibly the greatest lesson I have learned to date being married is the need for patience. I thought I was patient, I mean it is one of the fruits of the spirit, so it is a requirement for me to be patient. But the truth was, I was not patient, I prayed for patience, but then I was still in a hurry. Impatience is one of the hallmarks of the church today. We get a prophetic word and we want it fulfilled right now; we give our tithes and offerings and we believe we should see 30-60-100 fold return this week. We don’t wait well as believers and I was and can still be guilty as charged.

The Lord is working with us more corporately than many of us realize, because we are so individualistic in our desires, but corporately I believe we are seeing two major themes playing out. One is God is teaching His people patience, for He is God and we are not, so no matter how much we beg, decree, quote and cry, we will not get what He promised us, until He wants to give it to us. Our promise, revival, awakening, whatever it is we want is not stuck in the second heaven as noted in the book of Daniel, it is deliberately being held back by God. But why would the Lord make us wait, because there is a bigger picture going on that we could not see if we were not waiting.

As believers we say, God, we want you to get all the glory! Then we turn around and say, why is this taking so long, where is the manifestation of the promise, and we get disappointed, mad and even want to quit thinking it will never happen. But remember we said, God, we want you to get all the glory! May I suggest He is getting more glory in our waiting than He is going to get in the manifestation of the promise. You see when the promise is manifested we get to share in the glory, for we get to lay hands on the sick and see them recover, we get to access supernatural finances to advance the kingdom. God loves to partner with His people, He is not insecure about sharing His glory with us, that is why He made us in His image, so we can carry His glory, which means share His glory. We are His children, He gets glory when we get glory, He has no deficit or deficiency in us getting glory as we advance the kingdom of God on earth.

So, why the long wait, why the call to Ephesians 6:13-14a “take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm…” and Exodus 14:13 “Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the LORD which He will accomplish for you today;” The reason I believe we are called to stand and keep on standing is because God gets more glory in our waiting then He does in the manifestation. Here’s why, because if we believe even though we have yet to see, if we stand and keep on standing, it tells the devil, our adversary, we trust the Lord even when we have yet to see the promise manifest. Our standing says, God is good, He is a promise keeper, we will not change our mind about Him, even if we do not see what He promises us here on earth.

Hebrews 11:13 says, “All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.” We say we want to live in Bible days, well guess what, that is exactly what we are doing. As we stand and keep on standing, never changing our mind about the character of God, no matter what we see, that is faith. Faith is the ONLY thing that pleases God, faith is what Jesus asked if He will find when He comes back to earth. So, as we stand and keep on standing, God is getting glory in a way that can only come from standing. Like soldiers in the military, we are trained, equipped and ready for battle, but we have to keep standing until our Commander in Chief gives the call the command. Don’t break rank, don’t tap out, stand and keep on standing, for God is getting glory in your standing and He promises we will see the salvation of the Lord! This is the glory of standing!