Stephanie Ike Okafor - How To Wait On God

When you understand that God, there was a season that you have marked and it's simply for me to be patient in that process and to wait. Well, now, why does God ask us to wait? And how do we wait? Because many times when we think about this idea of waiting, we think of it in a passive way. What does that mean? What does that look like? Doesn't mean I don't do anything and I just pray? What exactly is that one? I'll share a story with you because there are two key things I want to extract from that story. I've been having. Shoulder pain on my you know, my left shoulder for some years, and it's something that I had been waiting on God for to heal. Like I will literally, like you know, outside of the anointing of God. I'm a big kid, you know, so I will literally wake up and be like, all right, God, come on, today's the day. Today, it seems like a good day for healing. You know. I would testify, come on, somebody, and I would leave my hand out there, and nothing happens. I said, well, okay, you know tomorrow and there's another good day. And we've danced that you know, dance for some years, and he just you know that's not moving on this for now. And so there was a particular time I was at a conference. This was last year. I was at a conference and I was thinking about it. I was like, I was just like, God, come on, now, how long is it gonna take you to want to heal this arm of mine? Come on, somebody. And not too long after that, during the altar call at the conference, the Lord began to speak to me said I'm gonna use your left hand. I'm gonna instruct you to use your left hand to do certain things at the altar. I don't want you to touch anybody. And I was like, okay, that's what we're gonna do. And so I get to the altar. People come to the altar for healing for different things and the Lord now says, now take out your left hand. So I took it out and whoever was standing in front of me, and it. Looked very interesting. One of my best friends was with me. She's like, what's Stephanie about to do? And he's like, now move your left hand to the left and then I'll move it and the Holy Spirit would hit the person in that direction. Then another person. Now he says, now move your left hand to the right, and I will move it and the Holy Spirit will hit that person to that direction. And it was happening like that, and when they would get up, they got up with a testimony. Oh the pain that was here has gone. The pain that was here was gone. The pain that was there was gone. And I was like, oh, Amen, Ay, praise the Lord, Praise the Lord. And I'm over here, like, who. Still there? All right? And so I was like, Okay, We're gonna keep trusting. And waiting and you know, praise God. And after the conference, I asked the Lord. I said, come on, God, what was that about? And he showed me something. Because it never it never wavered my trust. I still believe. I was like, God, whenever you're ready, just tell me now. And he said, Stephanie, you get it now. He said, it's not always about miracles. It's about you trusting me, because the miracle is not I'm not the one doing any miracle. The Holy Spirit is doing it through me. I'm asking for a miracle. So while I'm performing miracles through the Holy Spirit, I'm like God, but here I am. The one in need as well. And I said, I'm gonna keep trusting you, And he said, it's not always about what I'm about to do for you, but I just want you to be in a position that you keep trusting me. Why am I saying this because when it comes to how we wait, Number one is. To quiet your soul. You see Psalm thirty three twenty says this, our soul waits for the Lord. He is our help and shield. What does it mean for your soul to. Wait on the Lord? Earlier while we were worshiping, I was sharing with you that the soul is the place of your intellect, your emotions, your history, your knowledge, all of that. But in the presence of God. You need to know how to shut that down, how to quiet it before His presence so you can hear clearly for him. If I was listening to all the thoughts in my head, I would not have done that. I would even use the Bible to back up my disobedience. I would say, Oh, Heavenly Father, your word says you sense your word and heal their diseases. I'm gonna send the word right now. I don't want to use my hand to do anything, because that would be my doubts. God, How could you use my hand if my hand needs healing, that would be what my intellect will tell me. I had to quiet my soul to hear what the Lord wants to say. You see, that's why it's important that at the start of your day that you spend time in worship that quiets your soul, in worship that rids you of self consciousness, that when you are so conscious of God, you can hear him say, strike again. I know your experienced failure in this a lot of times, but strike again, because there is something our pastor says that I love so much. He says, if it's not the door, then it's the door that leads to the door. And it doesn't matter how many doors you have to open to lead to that door that you're waiting on. But another reason why we have to quiet our soul, family, because you have to recognize not every thought is your own. Jesus gave us a mystery. He said this, a house divided against itself cannot stand. But in that statement is the mystery that we were not created to be divided against ourselves, because we are created in the image of God, and God is one. They said that the spirit, the spirit of God, is the spirit of unity. So to be created in his image is to be created in oneness with yourself. So when you have thoughts of doubt, fear, failure, anxiety, depression, and all these things, it is not yours. And the biggest tactic of the enemy is to hide his thoughts as your own. You see, when Adam and Eve had sin and they fell in the garden of Eden, and the Lord was looking for them, He. Says, Adam, where are you? And Adam did not say where he was. He said, we realize that we are naked, and now we're hiding because we're afraid. And the first thing God said in response to that, who told you? Who told you? Because God recognized you have submitted yourself to something that has infiltrated your mind, and now you think you're the one who thinks you're naked, so you have to hide. But it is not even your thought. There is a thought that has come into your mind that doesn't belong to you. And it is the enemy's greatest tactic because he thrives in darkness. He is the puppet master behind the scene. He doesn't show his cards, no, he hides. That's why you would read when the Bible talks about spiritual warfare. A lot of it points to the mind casting down imaginations. So when you're having that imagination of yourself failing, it's not yours. And the deception is for you to believe that it came from you. And now you're taking ownership of what was planted. And so you have to quiet your soul so. That you are not distracted by lives that did not even originate from you. Every single time that a thought comes into your mind that causes division amongst what God has said to you, that causes you to be divided with yourself, that brings about doubts and frustration and anxiety, I want you to start rebuking that thought. Because it did not come from you. It doesn't belong to you, and if you believe it is yours, then it will take root. And so we wait by quieting our soul. Because when I quiet my soul, I realize it doesn't matter how many times it feels like I've been trying at this thing. God. I trust you, God. I believe you're gonna do it. Every time you lead me to do something, I'm gonna move with excitement and joy. I'm not going to be haunted by my past. I'm not gonna be haunted by the mistakes I made. I'm gonna listen to your word and I'm gonna follow after that. And the second thing, family and how to wait, is to cultivate patience. Now, patience is very fascinating because this is what the Word of God says about it. And James one two to four it says, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. You see, patience just like waiting. It's not passive. Sometimes when we think about being patient. You know, for me personally, there's always this image about a doctor's office, just waiting to see your doctor, waiting to see your dentist. It's just like waiting in an office for an appointment, just waiting, reading the magazine and just waiting to be called. But that's not what patience is about. It is active endurance. It is the ability to endure against circumstances, temptations, distractions that might come your way that regardless of what is tempting me to come out of the walk that God has called me to that I'm gonna stay right here. You see, the word for patients in the Greek actually gives us this understanding of to remain under Imagine this, there is a lot burden on your shoulders and you have to carry that thing, and it gives this understanding that it's not for you to run away because it got too hard, or to run away because you're like God, I don't know if I can take it. But it's to say, Lord, no matter how heavy this feels, I'm not going anywhere. It is stay in power. Patience is what allows you to see things through. It's not just what makes you waiting for God to do something. No, it causes you to see things through with God because it's when you say, God, I'm not going nowhere, no matter what this looks like, I'm staying right here. And then the beauty is that it tells us that let patience do a perfect work in you, so that you would be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. You know, the people that couldn't exercise patience. Whether the Israelites when they were in the wilderness, majority of them, they were in the wilderness and they did not want to en what it meant to wait in trusting how God is going to lead them into the Promised Land, and so they started falling for the lives of the enemy. How is it that you prayed for God to deliver you from a bondage and now you're desiring to go back to it. This is what it looks like when we're like, God, you know what saved me from this crappy relationship and that God gets you out of it. But then you get you know, you start feeling lonely and whatnot, and then you get a text you up and you're like, you know, kind of no block block blah blah blah black. How do you ask the Lord to set you free from something? But because things get too hard, you start running back to it. You receive the message about when God told you to go from one city to the next, but then the burden got to heavy. You're like, God, I don't think this is for me, man, And before you even consult the Lord, you're already packing your bags. Patience does a perfect work in you. What was it about the Israelites that couldn't allow them to wait? They allowed thoughts to infiltrate their minds. They thought they needed the promised Land more than. They needed the one who gave the promise. They thought the promised Land gave them the greatest sense of security forgetting the one who I mean literally patted the Red sea for them. That the Bible even says this, and I want you to read this in Psalms one oh six thirteen. They soon forgot his works. They did not wait for his counsel. They were so impatient about God. We just need more works. We need because I can't remember the last thing you did. It was so long ago. I need. I need something new because you need. It's almost like you're looking for God's hand to validate you, to feed you, to give you some kind of meaning about your life. Not realize it is the presence of God that has everything you would ever need. So when the Bible says that patience does a perfect work in you, A great example is David, like we talked about earlier, because what is it to lack nothing? It's not vague. You see, David said this, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. And a better understanding of that is the Lord is my shepherd. I don't even have an understand I don't have a reality of lack, the idea of lack does not even I can't even comprehend it. The Lord is my shepherd. There is nothing that I lack. David did not need the position of king to feel better about himself. David, because when you lack nothing, you cannot add anything to me. When I lack nothing, there is nothing you can give me that will make me more me than I already am, because I have realized that everything I need is in God. It is in my relationship with God. That is why, David, the one thing he said, do not take away from me is your presence. He did not care about anything else. That is why even when he became a king, when he was praising God, he lost track of himself. He got naked, not to you know, you know, public indecency or anything like that, but he was just so happy to worship God that his clothes came off of him. He lacks nothing, he said, this position doesn't mean nothing to me. Take it. You could keep whatever you want to do with it, because when you lack nothing, then you recognize that everything God gives you is stewardship. It doesn't add to me, it doesn't take from me, but God what do you want me to do with it? Because every blessing and everything that comes from the Lord is a platform for kiss Kingdom to come on earth as it is in Heaven. It has nothing to do with. Our personal desires or whatever we're trying to show up to the world. And so what God is perfecting in you in the waiting is to get you to the place when the thing that you long for does not add to you, and the evidence of disappointment and anger and frustration shows that you are still on a journey of maturity that when you're just frustrated God, I'm so anointed by now. I should be doing X, Y and Z, And God says, oh, you're not ready. This cake is still halfway done. When you're like, man, God like, oh did you hear the way I just sank yesterday. I should be on the stage somewhere, He's. Like, oh, you were not. Ready, because your lust for the stage would have the stage controlling you. This is why you would see people that started on fire for God, and when opportunities came, you could not tell the difference between them and the people they were called to impact because the lust for the stage, the lust for the crowd. The lust for approval also. Was the reason they lost their discernment, lost their conviction, lost their way, and now it was all about whatever would get them more more applause, more applause, more and. More more more. I remember a friend. Of mine and he was so hungry for fame. And I kept telling him, I said, I am praying. So much for you that God will not open the door, and not just that God will not open the door, that even Satan will not open the door. Because there are some doors that open up to you. And it looks right because you see in the beginning of a thing. The Bible says that Satan appears as an angel of light. There's some opportunities. They both look like God. It's like, oh, this this looks okay. But the closer you get to it to examine its fruit is when you recognize, nah, bro, this don't smell right, This don't look right. This is gonna cost me more than I think. But the problem is when you're so hungry for it, you can't even see it right. He was so hungry for fame, and that was just like God. If you could even shut the devil down to not even open up a door for him. But I believe there was something God wanted to show. Him, so the opportunity came into his life. It was so clear this was not from God, but because it will get him on the stage, he ran to it. A couple months later, he tells me, he's like, I'm so far from the person I was. I said, what do you get yourself caught up in? Started doing drugs, hard things? And why did he do that? Because he found himself around people that he admired and he idolized for years and he's in the same room with them and they're doing it. So he's like, I don't want to look like, you know, I'm weird or whatever, so I'm gonna do it too. I said, oh, you. Lost your power, you lost your authority. But in that space, the Lord began to show him. I didn't open these doors for you because you were not ready. And if you're willing remove yourself from it, because there's some things that when you find out that you ran to it, you need to know how to take yourself out, and there is a grace that will make an escape for you. What I want to tell you is that there are certain things that God has not released because it's not time. And if you are frustrated about any. Promise you're waiting on, it is the evidence that it is not time. Because when you get to a place that nothing adds to you. God, I lack nothing. If I never hold a microphone, I'm good. This does not define me. My relationship with you is my everything. That's what I love about that worship What a God. It says, If the highest place I get is at your feet, then I've done it all. If the highest thing that I see is your glory, I've seen it all. If there is only one word that you speak, I've heard it all. Because if that one word is well done, my good and faithful servant God, it doesn't matter whether people told me well durn or not. You see, the enemy would always try to distract you with quick blessings, blessings. That's why when he met Jesus, he said, what. You don't need to die. I could give you all of this right now. If you just bow down to me, I'll give you all of this. He was trying to test him, How far can I go? But Jesus is like bro. If I found it now robbery to rid myself of everything and come on this earth. I left my position as God to come as a human. You think this will add to me? You see where God is trying to take you is to walk like him. There's so much God wants to do in your life. He wants to do through your life for his kingdom. Everything in life is either building God's kingdom or the enemy's kingdom. Never mistaken every single thing. I want you to do something your favorite TV shows, Take a moment and actually think what is this promoting? It could be entertainment for us, but if you actually paused to think what is the messaging behind this show? You would realize. That every single thing is promoting and building a kingdom? But who's kingdom? When you listen to music you enjoy? You dance? Whatnot? We all dance? You know, I'm African, so we dance. Right, But when you listen, take a moment and actually hear the lyrics and then ask yourself what is this building? And I'm telling you there will always be an answer. One of my favorite shows, I was watching it and even my husband. We do that to each other. My husband asked me. He then said, we'll do it randomly. He was like, what is this show promoting. When I thought about it, I said, well, you know, it's not that great, and we talk it and I was like, and then the conviction hit me. You see, what the enemy would try to do is to numb you through life. Numb you. You're just walking like a zombie, not recognizing that every move is actually organized towards building something. Nothing in this life is random. So when you think about your life, don't be a zombie. Don't be a walking dead character. Think about God. I want to build your kingdom. I want to be I want to be used by you. But God, I want you to perfect me. I don't know what's in my heart. I don't know what this thing that I lust for. God, if it would kill me, don't give it to me. But God, perfect me. Get me to a place that I would understand what it means to say the Lord. Is my shepherd. I lack nothing so. That when things are added to me, it's not about it being added to me the person, but it's about how can I use this to build your kingdom? God? What do you want to do with this when you live life that way? When we go back to that scripture in Isaiah sixty four, it would be your testimony, for since the beginning of the world, no one has heard nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen any God besides you, who acts. For those who wait on him. Because in the waiting God says, now, I can trust you with weight, and the waiting. God says no, no, no, no. No, there's something that has been produced in you. I can trust you with wait. Do you know why sometimes even as ministers God does there's a mighty work he does in us. Don't you know that? It is the desire of God for his glory to move in crazy ways. But we don't even know what's in our heart. So God takes us through a process. That process could take years, it could take decades. Because we can't think too highly of ourselves. God takes us through a process before he can release the weight of his spirit on us. So that you don't confuse who is doing what. You don't get lost and think you're the one doing it. And now you are. People start worshiping you and you encourage it. Now, that's demonic. Everything about the minister of the Lord points people to Jesus, not self. So there are things everything about life. There's something God is profecd you because of what he wants to bestole upon you. He says, when you are not lacking, when you when you are lacking nothing, I can't put my weight on you. And there are many areas that God does this in. It's not just a one time thing. There are different areas, different capacities of your life. He does it with your relationships, He does it with your business, he does it with your calling. He does it with your family. When you recognize one of the tests for me in ministry, we gotta pray. One of the tests for me came with family. And see, as a Nigerian, the opinion of your family holds great weight. What they think about you matters a great deal. And it's it's uh, you know, it's very fascinating. You care and you are you are you are you. You are raised in a way because you're raised by community. So family is huge. So you're raised in a way that noe whatever my mom thinks, Oh, I care about that. I honor that. Whatever my brothers think, I honor that. But before I could start ministry, the Lord gave me an instruction. And you always want to qualify your instructions because. You know the Lord will not. When the Lord gives you something, you have to qualify it. The Lord was able to tell me this because of a walk together, so it was I knew it came from the Lord. I'm just trying to give this statement because I don't want people to rush into things that may not come from the Lord and cause problems in your home. Okay, you want to make sure. That you have a track record with the voice of God and the fruit of his word. And God actually, when he gives you mighty things that could disrupt your life, it's not the first thing he says to you. There is a track record with smaller things. Because God does not want you to be deceived or miss him. So when you encounter God. If you encounter God today and you say, God gave you a disruptive word, no no, no, no, no, you got to qualify that. Because God recognizes how even the enemy will try to deceive you quickly. So in his love for you, he doesn't start you with meat. That's how the Bible says, you start with milk and then with meat, even with the word of God. So when God is giving you a word, he doesn't you give your life to Jesus the word that he will give you. Is not for you to, you know, do something crazy. No no, no, no, no no no. You may say what about Paul, But Paul had an experience that was so supernaturally was undeniable. But if you say you give your life to Christ today and tomorrow a voice said something to you in your dream, no, no, you gotta qualify that. Right. But while I'm saying that, it's important because many times I've seen people go in the direction that it was not God. But I had a track record with God and his words and his instructions and the. Fruit of it. So when the Lord told me to do something that was going to cost major disruption with my family, I knew it was him, and it terrified me because I'm like, God, this is going to be crazy. He said, yes, it will be. But he said, in due time, I would redeem you, and I will turn what looks like shame into favor over your life. But why did God do that before ministry? Because he wanted to make sure that the voice of my family, which is one of the dearest things to me, does not add to me. That I'm lacking nothing. That in Him is everything, and I will not be moved by their agreement or disagreement, and so for a season there was a disruption that it caused, and it was one of the hardest times in my life. But God was faithful because he did what he said he would do. And my family came around and they were like, you know what, We're sorry. We didn't understand what God was doing. God is perfecting you through the waiting. If you would cultivate patience, which is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, which is the evidence of your submission and the workings of the Holy Spirit in your life, then there are things that God will add to you because He recognizes it wouldn't take from you. So family, stand with me. Thank you Jesus, Thank you Lord, Thank you Lord, Thank you Lord. Family. I want us to pray, thank you Jesus, Thank you Lord. Now, if you know this world was for you, that you were in a season where you just felt like God, I don't I'm about to throw in the towel. You didn't understand what the waiting season was all about. That's actually it has always been for you. It's what God is perfecting in you and doing in and through you. If you didn't understand that and now the Holy Spirit is giving you a strength through his word to wait, to patiently endure, and not in a passive way, in an active way. If that is you, just lift up your hands before the Lord. Thank you Jesus, Thank you Lord, Thank you Lord, Thank you Lord, Thank you Lord. We're gonna pray Heavenly Father. I thank you for your sons and daughters. I thank you for what you're doing and through their lives. Oh God, I thank you Lord Jesus that you are strengthing their hands, that you are protecting their hearts. And minds to know what it is to wait on you. And I thank you Lord that they're recognizing this is all about partnership with you. It's all about what you want to do through them for your kingdom. So I thank you Lord that there is a renewed focus in their lives, that they would recognize that relationship with you is everything. And Lord God, they will not be distracted by the lies of the enemy. I rebuke every thought, every lie, every deceptive narrative that comes to distract them from what you said say, and you have no place and you will not steal from them what God has planted in them in Jesus' mighty name. Amen Amen, Amen Amen