Experts in God's timing

[Ebn Barbara]

“ So we departed from Horeb, and went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw on the way to the mountains of the Amorites, as the Lord our God had commanded us. Then we came to Kadesh Barnea, And I said to you: You have come to the mountains of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us. Look, the Lord your God has set the land before you; go up and possess it, as the Lord God of your fathers has spoken to you; do not fear or be discouraged… Nevertheless you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God; and you complained in your tents, and said: Because the Lord hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us… And the Lord heard the sound of your words, and was angry, and took an oath, saying: Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see that good land of which I swore to give to your fathers… Then you answered and said to me: We have sinned against the Lord; we will go up and fight, just as the Lord our God commanded us, And when everyone of you had girded on his weapons of war, you were ready to go up into the mountain, And the Lord said to me: Tell them, Do not go up nor fight, for I am not among you; lest you be defeated before your enemies. So I spoke to you; yet you would not listen, but rebelled against the command of the Lord, and presumptuously went up into the mountain, And the Amorites who dwelt in that mountain came out against you and chased you as bees do, and drove you back from Seir to Hormah…
)then later on, God said to them) Rise, take your journey, and cross over the River Arnon. Look, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land. Begin to possess it, and engage him in battle. This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the nations under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you, and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you “ (Deuteronomy 1 : 19 – 44, 2 : 24 – 25).
The Bible is full of precious promises God gave to His people and children, but God with His unreachable extreme wisdom made a timing and a method to fulfill each promise, and He sent us His Holy Spirit to teach and guide us, until each one of us fulfills His plan and will personally, and as a group (churches, ministries, missions, cities and countries etc …)
What I want from this message is to show you the importance of God’s timings, and the importance of strongly respecting these timings, and the danger of surpassing them.
The Bible is full of certain assurance, that without God’s power, His people and children can’t conquer new territories or succeed in any work they do, especially on ministry level and the spreading of the Kingdom, and I have chosen you this passage because it proves what I am saying:
“ We have heard with our ears, O God, Our fathers have told us, The deeds You did in their days, In days of old: You drove out the nations with Your hand, But them You planted; You afflicted the peoples, and cast them out. For they did not gain possession of the land by their own sword, Nor did their own arm save them; But it was Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your countenance, Because You favored them “ (Psalms 44 : 1 – 3).
Practically we must know that the people were the ones who fought, and killed the enemies, and went and conquered the land, and also practically as believers in the New Testament we see that we pray, intercede, fight, preach the word, win souls to the Lord, but as the word of God says, it is God’s hand that does all these things, in the spiritual unseen realm.. for the Lord says: my hand drove out the nations and afflicted the peoples.. my right hand my arm and the light of my countenance saved the people, and God is the one who’s confirming our work today in winning the souls with signs and wonders, He is the one who attract the souls to Himself and opens their hearts, so they can know Him and receive His salvation.
The passage we quoted from Deuteronomy, confirm these tings too, Moses told the people, go and own the land that the Lord our God gave us, he also says to them:
The Lord will put our dread and fear upon the face of our enemies..
so after this clear speech, there is no way for doubt and wonder, for victory and success come from God’s hand, when He is pleased with us and with what we do.
This passage teaches us something very important about God’s timing, and the importance of being committed to it in order to receive these promises, and win the land and the souls.. As well as it reveals to us the danger of missing this timing.
God asked His people to climb the Amorites mountain, because He gave it to them, but they refused to fulfill His order in His determined timing, they rebelled against Him, and by this they brought His anger on themselves.. and when Moses told them that God is angry with them, and that He decided not to let them enter the land, they said to him:
We have sinned against the Lord, we will go up and fight just as the Lord our God commanded us.
They decided to follow God’s command by going up to the Amorites mountain to conquer it, and girded on their weapons of war.
But Moses told them what God said:
Do not go up nor fight, for I am not among you; lest you be defeated before your enemies..
The timing wasn’t fit anymore for the Lord.. and the Lord won’t be among them.. and if we went back to the equation we’ve put earlier, that victory comes from the Lord, not from the arms and weapons of warriors, we would realize that they will be defeated.. but hey didn’t listen to Moses, nor respected God’s timing and command, so they were defeated like Moses told them:
And the Amorites who dwelt in that mountain came out against them and chased them as bees do, and drove them back from Seir to Horm.
How dangerous it is not to yield to God’s timing beloveds.. it brings a great defeat..
If we continue looking at this passage, we would read that the lord went back and asked them to go fight the king of Amorites, because He had given back His land to His people.. read with me what the Holy Spirit wrote so carefully:
“ This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the nations under the whole heaven ”.
This day exactly.. not yesterday.. not tomorrow.. this day..
The same people.. same weapons.. same strategy.. they didn’t succeed when they moved outside of God’s timing..
But in God’s right timing.. everything succeeded.. so let us learn !!!
God chose the sons of Issachar among all His people’s tribes, and He made them experts of the times:
“ Of the sons of Issachar who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, their chiefs were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their command “ (1 Chronicles 12 : 32).
This verse came in a passage talking about crowning David as King.. and the Word of God has determined the role of each tribe in this ceremony, some to hold the shields and the spears, and others to take care of the lining, and others of the crowning… but Issachar is the one who determined the times of this crowning according to God’s plan..
The word says: and all their brethren were at their command !!!
God didn’t give leadership to the armed ones, neither to weapons which we know determine the outcome of war.. He gave leadership to the experts in the times.. because as we’ve mentioned earlier it is God’s hand that determines the outcome of battles not weapons.. what matters is to know the timing of God.. for this reason leadership was given to experts in the times..
How important is this speech, and how humble we should be under the hand of the Holy Spirit, so He might reveal to us the real meaning of these words.
The kind David fell in the trap of not respecting God’s timing, and he paid a very high price:
“ It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold “ (2 Samuel 11 : 1 – 2).
And if you continue looking at the rest of the passage and forward, you would find out that David sinned with that woman and she got pregnant, and David ordered her husband to death, and then he was strongly punished for that..
It was time for the king to go out for war, but he didn’t respect the times, and we read what took place as a result.. so let’s be careful..
A stronger warning, that came from the Lord Jesus Himself, when He said this to Jerusalem: “ For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation “ (Luke 19 : 43 – 44).
This is exactly what happened to Jerusalem 70 A.D, when the roman general Titos conquered it, and did to Jerusalem what the Lord already foretold.. the Lord didn’t say because of your sins, although they are the real reason behind what had and still is happening to the whole world.
But the punishment came because they ignored God’s timing, they ignored the timing of His visitation, because God gives time and wait for people to repent and turn back from their sins, but there is a definitive time to fulfill the punishment on evil, and this what Jerusalem ignored at that time, so destruction came upon her.. these words need a deep work form the Holy Spirit, to plant it in our spirit, till we know the real and practical goal of it.. So let’s ask Him to..
The book of Ecclesiastes says:
“ To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven “.
(Ecclesiastes 3 : 1).
To everything.. not to one thing but to everything.. every.. to everything there is a time.. there is othing in God’s plan that is not connected to a definite time precised by the Lord, and He surely reveals it to us, for this is His heart’s desire, and He wants us to be experts with the times, discerning the times, so we can succeed in all we do.
The Lord said to His disciples:
“ Do you not say: There are still four months and then comes the harvest? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest “ (John 4 : 35).

Logic and sight determine the time for harvest, but the Lord is leading us to a deeper view, to a vision in spiritual realm, not according to our natural sight and hearing, but according to what the Lord says and reveals, He said to them: lift up your eyes.. lift them up.. to heaven, from where true divine timing comes only..
You say in four months by sight.. but I say: Now.. and this is what I am aiming for in this message, to be experts in the times, to fulfill God’s plan in its time, to know the time of our visitation, not to loose our opportunity, and not to face the dangers we spoke about..
Some of you might say:
“ God is merciful, He gives many chances, and if we sinned and didn’t respond to an opportunity or timing, He will give us others for sure ”.

I am not limiting God’s grace for it is unlimited, and no one know its riches, and it is not I who will tell God what to do, and what not to do, but I am telling you what His word says about this.. and I am inviting you to be like Moses who said:
“ The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law “ (Deuteronomy 29 : 29).
This means we should leave the secrets which the Lord didn’t reveal to us for Him, and we should leave His unlimited and rich grace for Him, but let us do what He revealed to us in His law, and what He revealed to us here, is to be experts in the times, respecting His timing very seriously with commitment without surpassing it, to succeed and not to reap dangerous damaging results..

Where are we today from this words, and what should we learn?
Today the Lord is saying to us: this is a time of visitation for His church in Lebanon and in the region, time to reap what we’ve sown for years.. the Lord heard our prayers.. He saw our tears, and our cry went into His ears..
And He told us in the beginning of this year:
“ Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you… The Gentiles shall come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes all around, and see: They all gather together, they come to you; Your sons shall come from afar, And your daughters shall be nursed at your side. Then you shall see and become radiant, And your heart shall swell with joy; Because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, The wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you… The glory of Lebanon shall come to you… Also the sons of those who afflicted you Shall come bowing to you, And all those who despised you shall fall prostrate at the soles of your feet… Whereas you have been forsaken and hated, So that no one went through you, I will make you an eternal excellence, A joy of many generations “ (Isaiah 60 : 1 – 15).

Let us trust God’s word.. and respect His timing.. standing fast in the face of what comes against it.. lifting up the shield of faith against all circumstances and all the fiery darts of the enemy.. persevering in prayer and intercession and warfare lead by the Holy Spirit.. in order to reap all what the Word promises us.. and not to miss the time of our visitation.