“… those who wait on the LORD, they shall inherit the earth.” (Psalm 37:9)

The way into God’s rest is in waiting on Him and not to wait on Him is the way to go astray. Going astray is rooted in the heart. Manifestly, any heart that goes astray will miss His way. God is a good God and to end in a bad way is not of God. This is to say what is not good is not God. God is a God of time and process. His time is not like man’s time; likewise His process is not any man’s process. God’s timing is perfect and His process is a preparation for where He has timed for every man to be. Waiting on God can be defined as: to remain unmoving, inactive or in a state of repose, as until something expected happens; to look onward to expectation eagerly. Waiting on God is also putting off further activity until later. Waiting on God usually entails staying for a short or long time and for a definite purpose, that is, for something expected. Without absolute trust in waiting on God there will be no absolute result emerging from waiting on God. The Psalmist testifies, “O my God, I trust in You; let me not be ashamed; let not my enemies triumph over me. Indeed, let no one who waits on You be ashamed; let those be ashamed who deal treacherously without cause.” (Psalm 25:2-3) Trusting in God is what energizes waiting on Him. Trusting in God does have blessings and not to trust in Him will also generate curses. God spoke in Jeremiah 17:5, “…Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord.” As regard to blessing, the same word of God stated in Jeremiah 17:7, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord” How can you wait on whom you do not trust? Evidently, having trust in place will enable waiting on Him.
HOW DO YOU WAIT ON HIM?
Many scriptural passages state that, looking up to God is the way of waiting on Him. Psalm 25:1, “To You, O LORD, I lift up my soul.” Psalm 123:1, “Unto You I lift up my eyes, O You who dwell in the heavens.” In looking up to Him, we render prayer, fasting, spending time in His Word and watching for the manifestation of expectation. God is a God of order and in different waiting there are specified ways of waiting on the Lord.
Waiting in Prayer: Jesus taught about prayer in Matthew 6:5-8, “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. “Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.” Who can instruct or teach waiting in prayer more ideally than Jesus? Praying like Jesus is what will make prayer worth its while. Without doubt, prayer is not in the multitude of our words, but prayer lies in our hearts because the Lord weighs in the heart and not in our outward demonstration.
Waiting in Fasting: Just as Jesus taught about waiting in prayer, He also taught about waiting in fasting. Matthew 6:16-18, “Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” To wait on God fasting will not end in wasting. To fully follow Jesus’ instruction and teaching will absolutely produce an enviable result.
Wait by spending time watching: Micah testifies to spending time and watching, “Therefore, I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; My God will hear me.” (Micah 2:7) In looking up to God and waiting to hear from Him you will see and receive. In your looking, spend time in His living word. He is a faithful God and He will speak His word that never fails.

There are so much to gain in waiting and nothing to lose from waiting on God’s timing.
God’s timing is perfect and His process is a preparation for where He has timed for every man to be.
Tunde

“…Through knowledge the righteous will be delivered.” (Proverbs 11:9)

Indeed and in truth, as it is often quoted, knowledge is power and nothing delivers like having a knowing edge over a confronting situation. Different kinds of knowledge, however, inhabit different kinds of power. If the knowledge you posses are not of God but rather are of wickedness, the power you gain will be that of doing wickedness. However, if your knowledge is that of God, then the power that is inhabited will be the power of God. In this world, wickedness may seem to reign, but it will not last forever. By this virtue, it is always wise to search or seek for the knowledge that carries the power of God.
KNOWLEDGE OF GOD
The Word of God made us to realize in Proverbs 9:10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Evidently, the combination of operating wisely and knowing that God is in absolute control of life is more than enough to overcome in this world of challenges. As an acclaimed believer whose righteousness is in Christ Jesus, the knowledge of God is what will deliver. The Word of God testifies to it: “…Through knowledge the righteous will be delivered.” (Proverbs 11:9)
DEMONSRATING THE FEAR OF GOD
Demonstrating the fear of God indeed and in truth will activate the deliverance of man. It is impossible to demonstrate the fear of God and not rise above captivity. Also, demonstrating the fear of God is to know what God cannot do. The only thing He cannot do is fail. The Book of Isaiah points out what it will take for an acclaimed believer to avoid captivity. Isaiah 5:12-13, “…But they did not regard the work of the Lord, nor considered the operation of His hands. Therefore my people have gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge…” The testimonies in the pages of Bible and all that we can see around us are enough to regard and consider on a regular basis the work of the Lord for our deliverance from captivity. It is knowledge to constantly regard (think highly, to relate) the work of the Lord. Also, it is knowledge to consistently consider (to view attentively, bear in mind) His work. With consistency in operating the knowledge of God, the power of God will not elude us from having a knowing edge over the challenges of life that bring forth captivity.
NOT DEMONSTRATING THE FEAR OF GOD  
A failure not to regard or consider is equal to not retaining Him in their knowledge. A failure to retain Him will generate no power of God. Romans 1:28-32, “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving,unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.” Evidently, in a debased mindset there is no knowledge that operates the power of God. Moreover, no man who walks in any of the above mentioned debase mind activity will be able to operate the power of God.
CHALLENGE YOUR CHALLENGE WITH HIS WORD
What then can be a solution to your challenge? Is your challenge a self invented one or one that is outside of your control? Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Which of the two do you represent? Are you one who love God or one who is called according to His purpose? It is always worth it to search the Scripture and measure ourselves with men and women who have passed in the Word. Evidently, Daniel’s love of God was clear when he “…Purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with wine…” (Daniel 1:8) Daniel was a young man in captivity yet he did not renounce his God but rather served with love. Paul, the apostle, was called. He was in all his ways against the work of God in Christ Jesus. At the time of his calling by Jesus, he was on his way to do havoc in Damascus. The lives of Daniel and Paul were with insurmountable challenges that are beyond comprehension. Daniel loved the Lord and the Apostle Paul was called according to the purpose of God. At the end of it all, we know it through the Bible that all worked together for good for both Daniel and Paul. Search yourself: is your challenge outside of your control or self invented?With wisdom and understanding, have a knowing edge over your challenges. Know it and gain the understanding that, “…The people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.” (Daniel 11:32)

When you understand the fear of God, you will find the knowledge of God.
Be unafraid live in faith.
Tunde

“…We also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint…” (Romans 5:3-4)

It is better to be lost and found than to be found and then lost. The children of Israel were lost and down in bondage for over four hundred years before God visited them with favor and salvation. They were lost and found; they were set for the Promise Land. He that found the children of Israel will find you. If you have been found by the grace of God from the depth of sin, He wants to take you to an expected end–a Promise Land that was purchased for us by the blood that was shed on Calvary. God that found and brought the children of Israel out of bondage did not mean for them not to get to the Promised Land. To be free from bondage is incomplete until your arrival at the final destination. Many ways lead to the promise land, but the only way that will enable you to get there is the way of the wilderness.
WAY OF WILDERNESS
It is not your choice; it is the choice of the one who called you. To get to the promise land, you will have to go through the wilderness. Any other way will take you back to Egypt. The way of the wilderness is a way of no return. Exodus 13:17, “Then it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, ‘Lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt.’”
WHY WAY THE OF WILDERNESS?
The way of wilderness is for you not to return, but to keep you going. It is the way that God has put everything in place for you to travel within a reasonable amount of time. It is a way where you are going to be equipped on how you will live and enjoy where He is taking you to. Are you on the way to your promise land? On the way, you will bump heads with the enemy because the enemy does not want to see you prevail. However, if the way you have taken for yourself is smooth, with no ups and downs, no head-on collision with the enemy, it may become a way that seems right to you, but you may also be in the same direction as the enemy. You are no threat to the enemy because you are heading in the same place. The way of wilderness, is not a habitation, it is a passage.
CHALLENGES ON THE WAY OF WILDERNESS
The children of Israel, by virtue of disobedience, inability to wait on God, inability to let the past be in the past so the future could emerge in there life, and inability to focus on God for direction, lost track in the wilderness. The journey was to take them eleven days, but they journeyed for forty years. All that started the journey above the age of twenty did not get to the expected end except for Joshua and Caleb. The way of wilderness that we are in is not to kill us, it is to keep us and get us to where we are going. You may have been wondering why you have all these difficulties in your way. If you will only let God take control, then you will see all that you have considered as difficulties to be challenges that will make you grow. Nothing is accidental for us as a child of God. Deuteronomy 8:2, “And you shall remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you will keep His commandments or not.” Do you really trust God as the only God that will always remembers with favor and always visits with salvation?
KEEP FOCUS
In the way of wilderness, when you lose focus, you will begin to complain, you will begin to remember all your past that can easily contaminate your present. You will rebel against the people whom God has put in place in your life as a shepherd. You will not be able to see help where God has positioned help for you. Do not look back like Lot’s wife. Let all your wants rest for now. Philippians 4:19, “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Focus on where you are going. Where you are now is your building process. Believe that God is with you and He shall see you through if you are focused on Him.

“God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”(Numbers 23:19)

FAITH: A TREE

Jesus stated in the Parable of the Mustard Seed, “…The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, 32 which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree…” (Matthew 13:31-32) As small as the mustard seed could be, when it is sowed it will become a tree. In Jesus’ explanation of the Parable of the Sower, he stated that, “…The seed is the word of God…” (Luke 8:11) It is written in Romans 10:17, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” The point here is, if the seed is the word of God and the seed is what grows and becomes a tree then faith can be liken to a tree. A tree where different sizes of branches shoot out and each branch can be considered a tree because a tree and it is branches are the same. In other words, in faith there are branches such as: contentment, obedience, faithfulness, zealousness for God and more. For every giant that God used or that God is using, there is always the manifestation of one or more of the words that is used to describe the branches that grow out of a tree. Whenever anyone exceedingly demonstrates what the branch represents in their life as a character or principle, it will set them out to be considered as giant to be used by God. For Moses to be called by God as a leader to bring the children of Israel out of the bondage of over four hundred years, God must have seen in him a character of faithfulness as mentioned above. Once in the course of the journey to the Promised Land, God testified of Moses, “Not so with My servant Moses; He is faithful in all My house.  I speak with him face to face, even plainly, and not in dark sayings; and he sees the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against My servant Moses?” (Numbers 12:7-8) This testimony of Moses by God was in response to the dissension of Aaron and Miriam. Aaron and Miriam spoke against Moses because of his Ethiopian woman whom he married. (Numbers 12:1) Also they wanted to know if the Lord had been speaking only to Moses. Evidently for God to have held Moses in such a high esteem, Moses must have taken a step earlier in his life that provoked God’s attention over his life. Every giant in the hand of God demonstrated at some point in life what it takes for God to notice them and set them up for a noticeable exploit to the glory of God.For Moses, contentment can be considered as a major or main character in him that lined him up for a noticeable assignment for God. Exodus 2:21, “Then Moses was content to live with the man, and he gave Zipporah his daughter to Moses.” Moses, having lived in one of the most celebrated locations, the palace of Pharaoh for forty years, ended up in Midian, a strange land. Moses refused to get carried away by the exuberant palace life and could not ignore his brethren’s suffering. In his act of support for one of his brethren, he became a murder and had to flee from the palace because of Pharaoh’s attempt to persecute him. Moses was content to live in the desert, with Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; a strange land. There was no evidence or demonstration of bitterness or complaint with his new family in the land. Moses’ contentment made him and he became Heaven connected for God’s assignment.
WHAT DOES CONTENTMENT HAS TO DO
To be content is to be a provoker of the move of God’s hand for favor, guidance, deliverance, preservation and many more of God’s blessings. Contempt can be considered as a branch of faith. 1Timothy 6:6-7, “Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.” For Moses to have come out of a palace and into a strange land with a testimony of being content, had to have undoubtedly gain Heaven’s attention. Moses contentment speaks a great deal of his character. Faith is what pleases God; Moses demonstrated faith that pleased God. His action demonstrated that he brought nothing to this world and no material wealth could have kept him away from doing what was right when doing right demanded it. Moses had faith and God was pleased to use him for a great and noticeable assignment. Moses was content and he had a great uncommon gain.

Salvation is Supernatural

The salvation of God is always with you, when you believe. If you can believe it, you will see it, irrespective of your situation. God is not limited in his salvation. He permeates everything in life and in death. The truth can never fail: Make the truth of the word of God your virtues; and you will never fail. The word of God in you; makes you a minister. You are a minister of the New Testament, the testament of Jesus. To be a minister of the testament of Jesus is by becoming the incarnate of the testator. Ministers of the New Testament are to conform to the image of the testator. The words that make you a minister are spirit. So you’re a minister of the spirit. A minister of the spirit cannot be a preponderant of the flesh but of the spirit. The Lord is that spirit! Being a minister of the spirit; confers a holy priesthood upon you. The priests of God have spiritual access for spiritual assignments. Your spiritual assignment confers the priesthood status on you. Your first spiritual assignment after you have been saved is to witness Christ to others. This is your greatest spiritual assignment as a believer. Your priesthood responsibility begins by witnessing Christ to others. This responsibility cannot be over emphasize; as it has consequences on your fulfillment on earth, and rewards in eternity. Your commission as a Priest begins at salvation and you automatically assume responsibility. The gifts of some apostles; and some prophets; and some evangelists; and some pastors and teachers; do not confer eternal rewards without the fruits! All are primarily priests; but some are assigned to the different offices for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. The gifts are for administration in the body, for effective priesthood. It is just like the different ministerial positions in the government of the nations, are delegated authorities for effective government and administration. Only some are ministers and governors; but all citizens are required to keep the law. The positions are like the gifts that you have to discover by yourself! The law is to win souls! All are required to mentor souls for eternity at whatever level you’re enabled. The souls you mentor for eternity becomes the hope of your rejoicing and crown in eternity. The crowns of your glory are the souls that go with you to eternity. There is a side attraction for accentuation: “Have you ever noticed that where evil is prevalent, the workers of iniquity are like stubborn goats! They are tenaciously wicked; for the crowns of principalities and devilish hierarchy, in the satanic world. Evil works are like daily bread for food; and like as it were the requirement of ‘holiness’ to be evil. If an evil parent must have their children killed for crowns of principalities; it is done or attempted without the remorse of consequences”. Do not entertain self deceit to disregard the reward of soul winning in eternity. If positions and ranks are valuable in this world, with all the imperfections in the world; the same will be craved in eternity. Any soul that is destitute of rewards shall be destitute in eternity: Because the rewards of crowns are valuable in eternity. If you do not have the reward of a crown; it will be like every one has a uniform and you do not have one. “You’re like a man without a wedding garment, getting married to the Lamb”. Do not think too far; if other consequences might follow or not! It makes you a stigma in eternity! You’re like a black sheep of the raptured!!!

Israel Adegboye