Delay not Denial.

In the couple of months before this blog went live, I began to get so frustrated that it wasn't happening in the time-frame I expected.

I kept thinking 'God, this would be a good time so why is nothing happening?'. Because in my mind I was available, I had written the posts and I was 'ready' for it to be published.

I didn't understand why there was a delay when everything in the natural seemed to suggest that 'this' was the best opportunity for success.

I've found that often when something God has promised us or told us to walk towards is delayed, we immediately think it's his denial.

We think we've totally read the situation wrong, that it wasn't really God speaking to us and maybe we should just turn back and give up.

In a number of areas of my life, I thought this was the case. But there was something in my spirit that knew I was meant to keep going, keep believing even though nothing seemed to fit into my plan.

Still, in my humanness I kept second-guessing what God had told me and asking God to confirm AGAIN what he said! I thought 'isn't this what people do - ask God for a sign?'.

But all that happened was that God went silent. So all I could do was start reflecting and analyzing what had been going on.

I thought maybe if I work out where I went wrong, then things will either start happening or the door will just get closed. Yet the more I thought back, the more I was certain that this was exactly where I was meant to be!

'So what was going on - how had I done what God had told me and still not seen anything happen?'

'We can make our plans,
but the Lord determines our steps.'
Proverbs 16:9

Then God reminded me of this blog. The blog that I had spent months preparing for, frustrated that it was taking so long to get fully ready. I knew that God hand was all over this but I kept thinking that the timing was so wrong!

Yet, literally as soon as it went live every single post seemed to be so perfectly timed. As I look back, I just know it was so meant to go live when it did!

But did it make sense in the natural? Not at all. Yet, I've learnt that doesn't matter when God's hands are in it.

That's when I got the revelation that Delay isn't Denial. Delay is a blessing. It's the season where God specifically equips everything in you that you will need to outwork his plan!

'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.'
Psalms 37:23-24

Delay, if it's God will, will only cause you to be more passionate, more persistent and more sensitive to his voice. It allows you to value the weight of the word and promise fully before it comes to pass.

It allows you to let your spirit become prepared for it, before your flesh starts walking in it.  Delay forces you to be fully reliant on God because your plan is suddenly totally shattered.

Delay isn't denial friends. Delay is God's way of telling you - what I've promised you is so valuable and incredible that I want you to be fully equipped to walk in it before I give it to you.

'He has made everything beautiful and appropriate in its time. He has also planted eternity [a sense of divine purpose] in the human heart [a mysterious longing which nothing under the sun can satisfy, except God]—yet man cannot find out (comprehend, grasp) what God has done (His overall plan) from the beginning to the end.'
Ecclesiastes 3:11

So be patient friends, it's in these seasons where we learn to truly and completely trust God and I promise that when we will look back, we'll be so glad we did.