Saturation - Week 1 - Wait and See

In the fall of 2007 I was just a few weeks out of our field supervisor school with my job with Halliburton and I received a very interesting phone call. On the other end of the line was a lady from Colorado that had gotten my test scores from my class in Oklahoma and was wanting to know if I would be interested interviewing for a lab position they had opened at their Brighton yard.

I had an interest at that time in petroleum engineering and Brighton just so happened to be where the company sent their young field engineers to train. When I arrived in Colorado it was a rainy and drizzly day. I drove to the hotel and remember asking the front desk… I’ve never really heard a whole lot about Colorado or what this state is known for… what’s something to do before I leave.

And the desk clerk looked at me and said, “oh, were known for the Rocky Mountains. Let me give you a room overlooking the mountains. I went to my room, put down my luggage and walked over to the picture window and looked out into the horizon… and I saw something that did not impress me….. All i saw was clouds and rain. To be honest, I never really expected much.

I’ve lived in the mountains my whole life. I know what mountains look like. I know what their like. Trust me… i’ve experienced mountains before. We’re known for our lush green mountains in West Virginia. And Honestly I know mountains very well because I experience them. When I was a kid, I had to walk up them my entire life both ways just to go to school. But that night, I went to bed and never thought one moment about it.

I woke up the next morning, I walked downstairs, ate my breakfast and then proceeded to get ready for my interview. But Before I left my room, I like to open up the curtains. There’s just something invigorating about letting the sun and light into a dark room and just kind of picks you up emotionally. As I opened those curtains, i just stood there, and I saw something... I couldn’t explain.

I don’t believe that there is anything you can do to prepare yourself when you see something you can’t explain. You just stand there in awe.. and marvel over the amazing thing you’re experiencing. Have you ever had those moments when, for whatever reason. You turn a certain way and something catches your eye and then when it comes into full focus of what it is, it now catches your attention?

And it mesmerizes you. It was like the first time I seen my wife. I still remember the day i showed up in her dorms at Lock Haven. And here she came up from the basement with her pink top, blue jeans and open toed hills. I was instantly in love with her. It was like the first time I saw our kids when they are born. Or even when we look up and we see the moon large, full of a radiant light reflecting the suns rays and it’s breathtaking…

And what do we do in those moments when we see the moon? “We grab our phones”, because We want to capture this amazing moment and we aim and shoot and we get the most horrible looking picture you can take. Our eyes and brains have been creatively designed to see and to witness something absolutely amazing, but our phones do not capture what we are seeing with our eyes in full detail and perfection.

But on that morning the clouds rolled away and I saw something in the far distance that I wasn’t able to see the day before… I saw for the first time the snow covered Rocky mountains. Like the ones you see in paintings. That’s what having a vision from God is like. One moment you can’t see anything in the distance. You don’t know which way to turn, you don’t know which way to go.

You find yourself asking God, Hey… things around here doesn't look good. The horizon is hazy, the distance looks cloudy. There seems to be no hope. And when we look around, we see nothing but corruption. The authorities are corrupt. The leaders are corrupt. The people are not following God’s ways and just living life carelessly for themselves and for their own comfort.. They’re not searching for you, Lord. That’s what Habakkuk is dealing with.

He’s face to face with corruptions. The leaders of the nation, the leaders of their faith and the people are rejecting God through the decisions of their lives and he laments to God, he pours out his heart to God, he asked God why? Why Lord… How long Lord do I need to call for help. How long Lord will I witness violence everywhere. Everywhere I look all i see is corruption and violence.

When are you going to come with justice. And the Lord answers Habbakkuk.. the Lord tells him… I'm doing something… In chapter one verse five he said… look! Here’s what I'm about to do… but here’s the thing… you wont believe me. Remember, Billy Graham preached this message and i shared it with you last year at our annual meeting. Even if I told you my plan, you wouldn’t believe it.

Isn’t that true in our lives..lol God says I will never leave you nor forsake you.. but we fear. God says in my presence is peace and joy… but we seem to go find turmoil and let our circumstances lead us into unhappiness. But then God amuses Habakkuk and tells him a part of the plan… and guess what. Habakkuk didn’t like that plan and didn’t believe him. God says guess what…

I'm going to send in the Babylonians in to ransack you. To defeat you… to tear you down and to take some of you away. Habakkuk answers….Where’s the justice in that Oh Lord? You mean your going to send in an army who is more corrupt than we are to teach us a lesson? Yup! Now I want to say this before you start thinking bad about Habbakkuk. We do have a tendency to look down on top Gods anointed and be like…

tisk tisk tisk… but no He’s not believing in God’s plan because he hasn’t lost his faith in God… no.. he stays faithful to God. But just like you and me we sometimes have a hard time understanding why God does things. I’ve said before… Vernon McGee a radio preacher and amazing teacher once said it…. “This is God’s universe, and God does things his way. You may have a better way, but you don’t have a universe.” Right?

I have a lot of ideas on how I would run this world. I think pizza should taste good and help us lose weight. I think lounging at home eating Cheeto’s, eating ice cream and watching Netflix should produce rippling six pack abs. But that’s not how it works. I don’t have a universe. God does, and we live in it and he does whatever he wants, he does it his way.

Because it’s his. So what does Habakkuk do? He does something very important to understand God’s way and God’s direction. He climbs on to the watchtower and he places himself in a place of prayer. He says, I will wait to see what the Lord says. Why would he do that? He does that because he understood that even though God gave him a natural answer.., im going to bring in the Babylonians to correct them.

But also because There was still a Spiritual side to it. Right? We got to understand that prayer is not a part of the natural life. If we go into prayer trying to pray for natural things we find out real quick that those prayers don’t get answered very often. that’s because prayer is spiritual and it’s relational. There is a difference in the Old Testament and the New Testament when it comes to prayer.

IN the Old Testament prayer is based on the character of God. We find in Habbakkuk chapter 3 where he appeals to gods great mercies. But in the New Testament prayer is based on a relationship with God through Jesus. Jesus says, pray like this.. our farther. It’s relational. Jesus teaches us that in John 4 that God is Spirit and his worshippers must worship in spiritual and truth. Jesus didn’t say you must worship in natural things.

If we did worship in natural things then our prayers will be self focused. Lord, I pray for that situation to move. Intentional prayer is the interruption of person ambition. It interrupts our daily life. Our daily life that takes our minds and our hearts off of the things of this world and it redirects us back into the spiritual realm to focus only on Jesus. I worry when I hear people say I don’t like to pray.

Im like why? Why not?? Do you even pray? Let’s be honest… I’ve lived that life where i wanted to pray but I didn’t. I know you have the desire but it just doesn’t happen. I know. I know because I also know the culprit. Pride. Pride tells God I got this. I don’t need you and when i do need you, I’ll come asking. You want God purpose in your life don’t you…

yes… You want God’s presence in your life don’t you? Yes…Well then how do you think we receive those things? By showing up to church once in a while? By praying when you’ve met the end of your earthly provision and your in a no win Situation? By hurting others and not reconciling relationships? By not trusting in God’s plan? Church, Prayer is what developers the life of God in us.

It develops his character in us. The mind of Christ… it comes through prayer. Prayer is what develops the relationship within us. That is why prayer is important in your life. You want to change the world for Christ… then pray! Why would we do that? Because listen. Prayer doesn’t change the world by changing the natural things around us. That’s not what prayer is for. God didn’t give you prayer to move mountains.

That’s not what its designed to do. Prayer changes the world because it changes us. It transforms us. You want to move mountains? What does the Bible say we need to have to move mountains… it says we need to have faith. What do we believe at twin Hills… not just any kind of faith but living faith. Faith in action. Not dead faith but faith that is alive. But what does Jesus say..he says…

Faith as small as a mustard seed moves mountains. Right? This is what I’ve learned in my Christian life. It takes faith to move mountains but before those mountains in your life can be moved, it takes prayer to learn what mountains need to be moved in the first place. Many times we try to move mountains that aren’t even our mountains to move. (Story from David. Sometimes we need to learn to just go around them.

) Jesus said: For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will. Jesus said, Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother” (Mark 3:35). that’s relationship Jesus said my sheep hear my voice. That’s intimacy. You’re yearning to hear the voice of the one you love. Jesus came to alter us. Because the biggest mountain in your life isn’t that circumstance that seems as high as a mountain....

it isn’t that tough situation that your facing… no, the biggest mountain in your life is you. Trust me, the biggest hurdle isn’t the world, the biggest hurdle isn’t the circumstance or the problem. No… the biggest hurdle in a life of prayer and faith is your limited relationship with Jesus through prayer. You don’t have faith in God’s provision because there’s no prayer life in you. He came to alter us, not alter our situations.

Prayer is not altering things externally, but working wonders within our minds and our character. Prayer is the means where God and us build relationship and when we are in a relationship we learn to see things from other perspectives. When we pray, we see situations differently. We see things from a spiritual perspective. When we pray, circumstances remain the same but we are altered. And since we are altered we move forward by faith and in that process we change the world.

You wan tot make a difference in this world for Christ… get on the tower with God and pray and wait for his vision and direction. Isn’t that the biggest problem with pride? Pride says no, you change for me. Pride says, I have an expectation and so you must meet that expectation and you must change for me. pride says, I will do it my way. Love says: Christ now lives in me..

so I am altered, I am changed. I am different from who i once was and made new into who I am today because of the relationship with Christ through prayer. The same thing happens when we fall in love with someone. We always hear, dont change who you are but we do change. Why? Because we’re in love with them. In my relationship with my wife and my kids I’ve learned this.

I never knew how selfish i was until I got married. I had to learn to change from me to we. I had to change my perspective on how to share because I had a responsibility to care for my wife. But also, i never knew how angry i was until I had kids. man.. kids do some of the weirdest and stupidest things… but they don’t know any better.. They’ve never experienced what I’ve experienced.

And I'm living in the present and my kids are teaching me to kinder and softer. They might not realize it… but by the time grandkids come along they will notice a difference in us. You ever wonder how your parents can whip the tar out of you for being stupid in your youth but when you kids come over to your parents house their eating ice a cream and cookies for breakfast…

because their changed. I mean come one… what happened? My kids think I'm a liar… what do you mean grandma used to make you go out and pick your own switches to get a butt whipped. I don’t see it… grandma lets us pick out what flavor ice cream for breakfast. God help her… I tell my kids all the time that’s not the woman i knew growing up…. That’s just an old lady trying to get into heaven.

Our prayer life leads us into change and transformation. We lay down our pride so that our relationship with God can grow. Our circumstances and the conditions in our natural life stay the same, but we begin to be different, we begin to see things differently. Your heart now beats for Christ. And if we have been born of Christ and Christ is formed in us, instantly we begin to see things differently.

2nd Corinthians reminds us of this. If anyone is in Christ, he is what? …….. a new creation. Habakkuk says, I will wait.. he doesn’t like what the lords says, but he climbs the power and says, i will wait to hear the lords voice. I will put myself in this place of prayer, and i will wait for the Lord. I think we all need to learn to watch and wait at the right place where the Lord puts us.

We are watching for God’s answers and were waiting. If your discouraged right now.. I want you to know its ok…. Habakkuk was discouraged to. But his faith led him back to prayer. And it’s there where we learn to wait to see what the Lord commands of us. A lot of heartache can be prevented in our life when we learn to get in the tower with God. learn to watch and wait.

A lot of times your standing at your window and all you see is fog. But if you wait, and wait patiently and prayerfully, God will part the fog long enough for you to catch a glimpse of the vision ahead. And when you see what good he has for you in the future… then enduring the circumstance we’re in doesn’t seem so bad…. And when we climb back down of the tower…

we can through faith walk in any situation because out of prayer, we carry the light of the Christ into a dark world. How? Because he tells us so… Psalm 119:105: “Your word is a lamp to guide My feet and a light for my path.” Psalm 37:23-24: “The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand.” Both of those things are true because of prayer and relationship.

What will 2022 look like for you? Have you climbed the tower and waited on the Lord? Have you seen the good ahead even though we might walk through a hard year? *