Lance Wallnau

Timing is Everything

3 Ways to Keep Your Faith Alive in the Face of Unbelief
Have you ever had a time when you doubted God’s direct word to you?

One of my favorite testimonies of timing in the Bible is that of Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist.  In Luke 1, an angel visits Zechariah and foretells that he and his wife, Elizabeth, will have a son.

“…the angel said to him, ‘Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.   And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God,  and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.’
And Zechariah said to the angel, ‘How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.’  And the angel answered him… ‘You will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.’”    -Luke 1:13, 17-18, 20 [emphasis added]
Zechariah’s response revealed something. During the time period between his original asking and the moment of getting the answer, he was no longer hoping or expecting anything. The angel told him, “Because of your unbelief, you’re going to be mute until the baby is born.”  Zechariah’s words impacted the angel and the angel impacted the situation. Words can affect manifestations! Making him mute wasn’t a judgment on Zechariah, but rather it was God’s way of protection, preventing him from talking his way out of the manifestation.  
When the baby is born, in a beautiful prophetic moment, Zechariah writes, “His name is John.” Often, you can’t name the thing that God wants to do in your life until the fulness of time and the period of contradiction is completed.  When Jesus took up a towel and washed the disciples feet Peter protested the role reversal but “Jesus replied, ‘You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand’” (John 13:7; emphasis added).
*Remember this: Sometimes it isn’t the prayer that's wrong but rather the time for its fulfillment.  
How do we partner with God in His timing?

  1. Keep your faith alive.  Zechariah had fallen out of faith with his own prayer.  Fan the flame of faith within your own spirit.  Be assured that God has heard your prayers and knows what is in your heart. He is faithful! Ask the Lord to confirm if the thing you seek is something Heaven wants you to contend for. Ever consider how some answers to prayer fall upon our children? (Hebrews 11:13). Some, as was the case with Zechariah and Elizabeth, come in a later season of life. (It’s interesting that Elizabeth was ready and her husband wasn’t!) And yet, some answers come unexpectedly and sooner than we think.
  2. Endure the contradiction.  Don’t be like Zechariah.  His response to the word of the Lord unauthorized or interrupted the manifestation.  Watch your words and remember that what you speak has power to either interrupt or partner with God in what He is doing—in HIS timing.  Don’t talk your way out of God’s blessing!
  3. Cooperate with divine timing.  Thirty or forty years ago I prayed for things that are just now becoming a reality.  God might have a season of fulfillment in mind for something  you’ve been seeking the Lord for your whole life, but when the time comes you’ve forgotten that you prayed for it!  It is also possible that we are the delay in the timing. The children of Israel lost time wandering around in the wilderness of unbelief. Let’s believe that God is going to do the things He says He will.  We can trust His divine timing.

Question: What is God stirring within you even now?  
Tell me here and comment below!
As One!
Lance

55 thoughts on “Timing is Everything”

  1. Georgette Thompson

    This is such an awesome word and speaks to my life because it has been my testimony that I have only spoke on in the last couple years, other than one or two close friends. Timing has always been a big thing in my life and I never understood why. This story has always had such significance but again, I never fully understood why. I’ve been in the convergence zone when understanding and fulfillment have been coming together to explain some things to me. I’ve been in a time of rest waiting on next steps and believing for the manifestation of the awakening in the Church, America and the world. I have been sowing awakening into ministries and people through giving and my prayers. My mom had a stroke 2 1/2 years ago which catapulted me into this season and she is back in the rehab hospital because she fell. My 14 year old son is at a slightly difficult age and isn’t as gung ho on Godly things as I would like. I lost one client last year because of changes in their circumstances and just found out I’m losing another because they are moving. I’ve had these people for ten years. So these contradictions are where I am at right now as I watch the awakening breaking forth all over the world. I long for something new to do so I’m just waiting on God by studying and learning as much as I can in order to prepare myself to do what He makes available as I trust Him for new opportunities and financial breakthroughs.

  2. Barbara Moses

    Blessings Lance,
    When I was a child, something traumatic happened to me and I could not speak for a month, I was sexually a salted and the person told me not to tell. When I was a drug addict, I had a visitation from Angels that looked like children and unclean spirits left me. Two weeks before that I was told to stop talking and if I had anything to say write it down.Though my captivity came by not speaking. My deliverance came by not speaking….this was profound to me, and there are times when I go on a vow of silence sabbtacle and is a time of peace and revelations. …….God bless you
    .

  3. Pastor Annie McEwen

    This was just what I needed to hear! I have recently registered my ministry – Lite the Nite Ministries – to sex trafficked people as a full charity in Ontario and its taken 29 years to get here! Along the way, everything I’ve prayed for this ministry has been given to others – at first this frustrated me but I realized that my ‘prayer seeds’ were being scattered and coming to fruition in so many places! He’s a good God! I’m believing that now is my time and your post has greatly encouraged me. Just waiting for the ‘people (who) are prepared, the place (that’s) prepared, the provision finances and income prepared and the promised land prepared for me’, which is a prophetic word given to me a couple of years ago to be fulfilled.
    Blessings

  4. Thank you for such an awesome and timely word. I recently retired as Prayer Pastor (19 years) of my local church. I’ve also served as a facilitator and organizer of many prayer events in my city. I sensed God telling me that the seasons of my life were changing and my life as a prayer leader would take on a different face. I have prayed for and longed for the Body of Christ in my city to become a House of Prayer and have recently sensed in my spirit Him directing me to establish a physical “House of Prayer” in my city – a place where worship, prayer, intercession could be 24/7, as well as teaching. For several years now I have been putting together curriculum for teaching on “Knowing Him,” [published a book “I AM” 366 Meditations and Prayers on the Names of God], teaching on “Becoming Who We Are In Christ,” and on “Prayer and Intercession.” He has even given me the design of prayer stations to establish in the House of Prayer. However, while I do have many components and resources for it, I have no funds to purchase or rent a building in which to establish one, nor do I have funds to maintain a House of Prayer. I am presently praying and seeking Him as to how to begin – if in fact I am to begin now or wait for Him to provide the necessary funds – or even raise up someone else to come alongside and run with it. Do you have any suggestions how I should be praying. I do NOT want to step outside of His plan or His timing. If I am to simply lay the foundation [which I have been doing for several years] and someone else actually build on the foundation laid, then I’m asking that He reveal that to me. Thank you for any response or suggestions.

  5. God is confirming Hus word to me. Faith in Gid also involves faith in His timing. I know He has heard my prayers and I know the answers are in the way in Hus divine timing. He has promised much at at the correct time promises will be fulfilled. Keep
    My eyes on the Lord and don’t give up

  6. Susie Keithley

    I believe the Lord has been showing me there will be safe havens, areas all over this country and the world that will prosper and shelter. Some little and some big. That as we are advancing in this time where light gets brighter and dark gets darker the true church shoulder to shoulder just as in Joel is being brought together stone be stone. I am task for the prep of one of those areas. I don’t have a clear understanding of the physical side of funding yet but am pressing in.
    Thank you for the encouragement to press on. I know time is collapsing, the devil’s attacks try to be distracting and God is more than able to complete what He starts. I appreciate your prayers for me as I pray for you on the front line.

  7. Wow, Lance! Almost 21 years ago, God gave me the courage as a single mother to leave the past behind on the east coast and sent me to the west coast to live the dream of making movies. Time interrupted, tragedies happened but I still got to work in the industry having the time of my life making someone else’s movies. Now, all this time later, the Lord has directed me to take my scripts off the shelf and dust them off. This I believe is His Timing to do what He sent me out to do in the first place. Please pray for funding.

  8. Thank you Lance for your direction on this topic, have wondered through life carting the same spirit of lack and feeling of not belonging. Parents did not want me, lived with numerous people who only were there because they were paid while being exposed to extreme abuse. Say that only to say, thank you Lord for trusting me to go through and understand how multitudes of people have experienced an abusive formative life, some are crushed, some are angry and abusive back. As Christians are we calming the waves of terror in the world or are we only interested in our little
    religious world? I have a huge contradiction in my life currently, I know what God has called me to do, circumstances would indicate impossible,
    my God is an awesome God who I cast all my care upon Him for He careth for me. Jesus is in my life boat, calming the waves, the evil spirit. I have spoken to the evil spirit in the name of Jesus and told it to go. My God shall provide ALL my needs according to His riches in Glory.

  9. Darlene Bargee

    God has called me to go back to school to become a nurse. I am currently pursuing a BSN. In the future The Lord wants me to build orphanages and hospitals where anyone can come whether they have insurance or not and get the best of care for the money will always be there. The Lord said that I will always have the money to do whatever I want to do. I am moving forward one step at a time.

  10. .This is an inspirational story of my nephew, Kurt Vickman and how he connects with “the dash” and what has shaped and driven him. Stop in at the Good Grocer the next time you are in Minneapolis and meet him- you will like him! A several mountain mover and shaker!
    Kurt Vickman
    Founder & Owner of Good Grocer
    June 11, 2016 7 minute read
    When Kurt Vickman sees that an existing model is no longer connecting with people, he gets to work imagining a new paradigm. That has been the impetus behind all of Kurt’s innovative leadership—from leading the charge on Sunday evening experiential worship services through Upper Room to opening the Minneapolis neighborhood grocery store Good Grocer. Designed to give families access to healthy food at affordable prices through a new working volunteer model, Good Grocer lowers operating costs and prices by enlisting members to help run the store. For Kurt, the model is a personal one; born out of his own journey of embracing his differences and discovering the unique gifts he brings, Kurt’s leadership is built on the idea that no one is helpless and everyone has giftedness to contribute.
    ________________________________________
    HAS YOUR CAREER FOLLOWED THE PATH YOU EXPECTED IT MIGHT WHEN YOU WERE YOUNGER?
    My path early on was characterized by not feeling smart. I remember in 4th grade, they had those star charts where they’d put a star next to your name if you did your times table right. And I remember looking up at my name with one star—and at the name next to mine with eight stars—and thinking, “I am really dumb.” There are words that do something to you, and that word took a long time to shake. I was diagnosed with dyslexia, but other than the fact that I had to go to a special room while my friends were together in their classroom, I didn’t know what that meant. At that age, you just want to be the same as everyone else, and I wasn’t.
    WHAT CHANGED?
    There was an awards ceremony at my school, where 280 awards were given out, with some kids receiving two or three awards. I received none. I remember my father wrote a letter to the superintendent saying I suffered from developmental dyslexia and asking how it would make the few remaining kids feel to receive nothing. What I took away from the whole incident was that my dad believed in me. He believed I wasn’t what others deemed me to be and that I had something to offer.
    HOW HAS THAT SHAPED YOUR LEADERSHIP?
    I think so much of our role as leaders is to believe in the people we lead—recklessly, relentlessly. But it’s taken me a long time to truly embrace my own humanity. I spent the first decade of my adulthood trying to transform parts of myself to fit the norms around me. When I interned at a local church, I worked hard to quit swearing and drinking around the teens. Those weren’t bad goals, but in focusing on cleaning myself up externally, I lost some sense of self. I was trying to hide the recklessness, craziness, and brokenness that made me who I was—but as a leader, and particularly as a Christian, I came to realize that was hypocritical. I can’t pretend to be someone I’m not. Far more than trying to be the perfect leader, I’ve found owning my imperfections creates a healthier culture, one where people can talk things out and authentically engage each other.
    I think so much of our role as leaders is to believe in the people we lead—recklessly, relentlessly.”
    HOW HAS THAT DRIVEN THE DIFFERENT VENTURES YOU HAVE STARTED?
    With each thing I’ve started, I’ve always felt some sense of disruption—that the existing way of doing things was no longer connecting authentically to people’s needs or longings. Working in student ministry, I realized students were graduating and leaving the church. My friends saw the Christian faith—the very thing bringing me life—as irrelevant and full of hypocrites. I longed for them to be able to connect with it authentically, but to do that I would need to create an entirely new experience of it. I began a congregation called Upper Room that would meet on Sunday evenings and connect people with a fresh experience of church.
    That same sense of disruption is what led me to create Minneapolis Market, now Good Grocer. I saw a neighborhood full of people who would buy healthier food for their families if they could only afford it—and I saw a faith community with an opportunity to go beyond just talking and preaching to living and acting in love. We opened a food shelf where we handed out thousands of pounds of food to lines of hundreds of people every week, and it felt good to “do good.” But after a while, I started to realize I might actually be hurting the people I was “helping.” I realized I saw them—standing there in line—as helpless, with nothing to offer, and it was eroding something in them. Once again, I felt that familiar disruption. What if I could see them as helpful instead? What if we could create a completely new model that empowered their authentic giftedness instead, a model that would blur the lines between charity and business, between recipients and contributors, between “us” and “them”? That’s what Good Grocer is.
    WHAT IS THE PROCESS OF INNOVATING A NEW MODEL LIKE FOR YOU?
    For me, the vision always begins with the physical space and the ability to see what it could be in its resurrected form. When I looked at this big empty space on Lake Street, I could envision a communal connection happening there. I could imagine people coming into a space that felt beautiful, where they could get the food they need for their families; rediscover a sense of self; or feel safe to ask someone for prayer. The space at Good Grocer allows that—and it was that kinetic building phase that led the innovation of a new model. That is one of the things that always drive me: creating spaces that bring folks together.
    What if we could create a completely new model that empowered their authentic giftedness instead, a model that would blur the lines between charity and business, between recipients and contributors, between ‘us’ and ‘them’?”
    WHAT CHALLENGES HAVE YOU FACED IN BRINGING IT TO LIFE?
    The envisioning part is what I love to do, but once the vision is up and going, I rely so much on having a talented implementer who can ground it—and it’s always a challenge for me to find where I best fit in the ongoing implementation and management of what I’ve started. As a visionary, I love seeing something that didn’t exist come into existence—but the intensity of that vision can sometimes exhaust my staff and give them a kind of whiplash. That’s a part of my leadership I’m still trying to figure out, because even knowing things run better when I’m leading from who I am, I have to be conscious of not outpacing or overbearing the implementation.
    WHERE DO YOU GO FOR INSPIRATION?
    It’s strange, but one of the places I go for inspiration is the cemetery. In Scriptures, it says, “A wise person thinks much about death.” I’ve learned that to be true through two early, deeply wounding, but also very clarifying experiences with death. My friend Spence died of cancer when I was a freshman in college, and my mom—one of my greatest heroes—fought cancer from the time I was in junior high until she died two years after I graduated college. Far from being morbid, these kinds of things have a way of focusing you on what’s most important in life. When I look at their tombstones, there’s a dash between the day they were born and the day they died; that dash is the smallest thing on their tombstone, and yet it’s where they jammed all their living and loving and learning and giving. It reminds me to live a life that matters.
    HOW DO YOU MEASURE SUCCESS?
    Looking back on previous ventures like Upper Room, it was tempting to think it was successful just because it got bigger and more people were involved—and perhaps that was some indicator that God was doing something through it. But what meant more to me was that it started a conversation. When it began, it was one of two churches hosting that model of Sunday evening service—now there are 50 or 60. That’s the dream with Good Grocer, too. We’re trying to fill the gap that exists between food shelves and a regular grocery store or food co-op by innovating a new model that can start conversations and spark others like it. It’s important for me to remember that in this challenging, early stage with Good Grocer when we’re trying to build momentum toward something truly sustainable. Even now, a win for me is if someone walks in the door at Good Grocer and feels completely normalized—not treated like they’re helpless or someone’s cause, but able to buy the food they choose in a place where they belong and contribute.
    Stop by Good Grocer today for some extra fresh produce and neighborly greetings.

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