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The Investment of Waiting and Listening
Episode #683
01/05/2020
With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
This the continuation of a series of podcasts started in Episode #682
Time spent waiting on God, listening for His voice and His will and His heart, is never wasted. In fact, that time is an investment that WILL pay off!
Martha:
And, and as you say, you listen in the morning. You go to walk and the answer comes down the road.
John:
Yeah! So like this, this is for instance: the other day I was praying for you and we sat there and we were listening and I sat there for a couple hours. And at end of the waiting and, and listening, I left the time with no evidence of anything. I, I…you know. But I, I knew, “Okay, I’ve invested that time; it is gonna pay back.” And I, I know that He is gonna speak. He, He’s gonna speak when He wants to speak.
Martha:
Is that when you called me the next morning and told me what you’d heard about my grandmother?
John:
That’s the second time this happened. The… When… The thing about your grandma, that’s when I knew. That’s when I got this revelation that I needed to bring it to the podcast about listening and that it’s an investment.
But, no, this, this other one… It was that other one and I’ve, I’ve been trying to figure out what that was and, and we need to look back on your notes because there was something really, really powerful that came out of it. But there was couple hours when we waited, and then the next day it came and [snaps his fingers] like that and I was like, “Oh!” And I told you and it was, it was big. I, I wish we could remember right now what it was.
So the Lord, you know, in that moment He didn’t speak anything. But the, the next day, you know, when I was walking I had that flash and I heard His voice. And I’ve, what I find it that He speaks to me a lot while I’m in the way.
Martha:
Um hmm.
John:
I may invest the time now but I may be in the grocery store, I may be at the gym, I may be walking, I may be doing something else and that’s when He speaks. He chooses when to speak. That’s just the long and short of it. He’s gonna choose when He wants to speak.
Martha:
And there’s a certain readiness where we have to be. Sometimes it’s sitting and waiting and He speaks then. Other times you can only hear it when you’re on the move. Your experience shows that.
John:
Well, you have to, I mean… Who…What prophet was it? Was it Elijah, that he was in the way, he was, he was with the ox and he was, he was working? He was doing his life. He was living and then that’s when the Spirit came.
Martha:
Um hmm.
John:
But I know that he would have had many, many times of investing in prayer. It’s not like he just had it, you know, shockingly pop up. It was… He had invested time, invested time and then when he was in the field with the ox, that’s when it came and he said, “Oh!” And there, it was the answer for his life and his calling.
Martha:
And Elijah was sent by the Lord up on the mount, I don’t know if it was Horeb, but to hear Him. And then came a, a storm. He wasn’t in the storm. Then can an earthquake, and He wasn’t in the earthquake. Is that correct?
John:
Yeah, yeah, yeah!
Martha:
Then it was in the still small voice…
John:
Right.
Martha:
…that he heard.
John:
I think that’s the, I think that’s the story. I may be getting the two, Elisha and Elijah, you know, blended there. But regardless I know that one of them was in the field with the ox.
Martha:
It, it was…
John:
With a team of ox and, and, and he, he left that field knowing the will of God.
Martha:
Um hmm.
John:
And he was called while…
Martha:
While in the work.
John:
…he was in the way. In the— Yeah.
Martha:
And that was significant. I’ve read, I think it’s Sparks, about it that he was about his life…
John:
Hmm.
Martha:
…and he was willing to work and so that was part of the criterion of being called.
John:
Well. I don’t, I don’t go when I go, I don’t expect Him not to speak.
Martha:
Um hmm.
John:
I just don’t demand that He does.
Martha:
Um hmm.
John:
Because I have gone and listened and I hear immediately. This particular revelation, I lost it. I told you, I lost it. And then I was praying and then the next morning He woke me up at 4:30 and it was just, bam, right there. And I wrote it down immediately and then, you know, now we’re able to talk about it because… But it was gone. I had lost this whole thing. And I think it’s so key that to know that you’re investing.
Martha:
Um hmm.
John:
I mean it’s, it’s huge.
Martha:
It’s, it’s different than simply waiting. You’re investing is a different way to view it. You will, of course… Your… It’s faith that you will get a return however it comes.
John:
Right.
Martha:
So I think it’s brilliant.
John:
So I’m real excited about this. This, this for me this is pretty amazing and this is… You know, sometimes when you, you function in life and you don’t know how you function until He shows you how you function and then you go, “Oh my gosh, You’ve established that in my life. You put that in my life. This is part of Your investment in me that, that You’re reaping the harvest from.”
And so I’m, I’m excited. And, and so, you know, if there’s anybody out there that has issues with listening, that has a difficulty in waiting and in… You know, I’m telling you back in the nineties I was, I would wait and wait and I literally would leave frustrated and sometimes in tears, because I’m going, “Why won’t You come and talk to me?” But now I realize, “Oh, okay, that was the whole wrong point.” I was showing Him who I value. And then He spoke to me showing me He values me.
Martha:
I’m on the word ‘endurance’. It’s such an important word, isn’t it? And Jesus speaking that word is huge. “If you endure with Me, you will reign with Me.”
John:
Huge.
Martha:
And so, listening is another…
John:
It’s okay.
Martha:
…aspect of endurance.
John:
Um hmm.
Martha:
Can you endure the waiting? Can you endure the patience?
John:
Well, doesn’t that whole train of thought – the patience, the endurance, and the waiting – it all produces faith, right?
Martha:
Um hmm. Yes.
John:
And that’s what pleases…
Martha:
And surrender. Faith and surrender.
John:
And that’s what pleases Him.
Martha:
Um hmm.
John:
So our yielded heart and our surrender and, and our faith that He will supply, that He will be the answer, that He, He is interested. I don’t have to fight with that and wrestle with that, that He’s not interested, that I’m bothering Him or whatever. He is interested. He wants to be more a part of my life than I even want Him to be a part of it.
Martha:
Yes.
John:
So, you know, I’m not, I’m not twisting His arm behind His back to say, “Okay, talk to me, tell me!”
Martha:
“And operate on my time schedule!”
John:
Exactly!
Martha:
Now it’s… I love your word investment.
John:
Well, I think that it, it calls to the, the whole heart of the children that have been raised with absent fathers. You’ve got… I mean you have a whole generation…
Martha:
A generation.
John:
…right now that has absent fathers. Not only in the black culture but in everything. The latchkey kids, that’s all, that’s all me. And now I don’t even know how they are, the next generation. But I do know that when that’s your pattern, that you are raised with…
Martha:
Um hmm.
John:
…then you come away and you say, “Well, God’s gonna probably be exactly the same way.” And you expect Him to be that way. And that was probably my issue, you know?
Martha:
Um hmm.
John:
I, I felt abandonment and rejection rather than… And He was just like, you know, “I’m, I’m… Those emotions aren’t gonna sway Me or manipulate Me. Wait!” And then He speaks. It’s beautiful!
The Investment of Waiting and Listening – Episode #683 – Shulamite Podcast
Time spent waiting on God, listening for His voice and His will and His heart, is never wasted. In fact, that time is an investment that will always pay off. God will answer our prayers and He will tell us His will. When we wait, He pours out beyond even that!
