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GOD'S PERFECT TIMING

by Sheila Dougal  
1/21/2007 / Devotionals

There's a common phrase I keep running into in my study through Moses, and now Joshua (It's also caught my attention in teachings I've heard through Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther). It's the phrase, "three days." So I did a search this morning and found a treasure!!!

Here's some nuggets of what I found:

1) Three means triad. Days means a day, a year or a time. The Trinity's way is no formula. God's perfect timing could be a day, a month, a year, a season...it's His time.

2)When God's people aren't freed to openly worship and serve Him because of the "abomination" or plague or sin of those in authority over us, God will bring us out of that situation in His perfect time. He would not have us bring a joyful offering of His gifts amongst the suffering of abomination in our authority figures. He will free us as we stand unwaved by our "rulers" opposition, saying "We will go from here." Then He'll take us into a season of His perfect timing to a place He will have searched out, a resting place where we can bring our offerings of worship and gifts to Him. (Exodus 3:18, 5:3, 8:27)

3) As I wait on the Lord daily, my service is to be a step of faith forward which shows I really believe I'm being taken to the promised land. Those steps of faith forward are during the season in the desert, and they begin daily with meeting and hearing from the LORD by prayer and His word. When God's Word speaks an instruction, when His word comes before any action, then I can move out by faith. His word, His promise will go before me to find the next place to rest in the desert season, and ultimately at the end of my journey in the promised land. Everywhere I walk forward by faith in the desert, led by God's word, I will be under His covering. I'll know I'm walking by faith in the right way because I'll be in the shade of His authority. Protected by His covering. If you're a wife, this is your husband. If you're a child, it's your parent. If you're a worker, it's your boss. If you're a man it's Jesus' Himself. These are the coverings of the Lord, that keep us from sweaty labor. These are what keep us cool and in the shade. Authority over us isn't slavery, it's protection, and whether the authority over us treats us as slaves (as Pharoah did) or like the cloud in the wilderness who gives us shade and a cool place to serve God, God will have us honor those people and believe God for His deliverance and provision. Even Moses asked Pharaoh, "Please, let us go..." (Exodus 3:18) before he finally had to say, "We will go!" (Exodus 8:27). All these things happened in the Numbers 10:29-36 story with Moses and the Israelites in the "three days" timing. God's perfect timing.

4) Jesus freed us from the slavery of the system of pride of this world (Egypt) while it was yet hopeless, He led us through, and His "three days" in the grave was wilderness to us. We camp at the place of bitter waters. There at the cross, out of Jesus gushed torrents of living water (John 4:10; 19:34), but it was bitter, sad, painful, hard to swallow. We had to see our Savior beaten, bruised, rejected and dead. We have to drink the bittersweet waters of the cross. It's the only way for us to be saved, it's the only water there is in this dry and barren existence. Same is true of my spiritual journey. I too have to take up my cross and follow Jesus (Matt.16:24). The sweet waters of life will come in accepting the bitter cup handed to me. With the cross of Christ applied to it, it'll become sweet, and out of me too will flow streams of living water(John 7:38). This comes out of the example set for us in Numbers 33:8, see Exodus 15:22-26 for the bitter waters made sweet account.)

5) In God's perfect time, "three days," the Trinity will bring God's people over the Jordan (the place where the cross of Jesus, the revelation of God came down, the place where we take up our cross and follow Him) to go into the promised land spiritually and literally at the rapture or the death of His saints. The time of "preparing provisions" in Joshua 1:10-15, where we get this example, literally means to be firm or established with meat or food. This is a time for God's people to be feeding on the meat of the Word and be made firm and established by it.

6) Joshua made a covenant with the people outside of Israel, and did not take counsel of the Lord first. So the covenant stood when, though they deceived Joshua and his men, they came and told Joshua they feared for their lives because of him and the power of God that was with him. So Joshua and the leaders made them Israel's servants, they would do the physical labor to cut wood and carry water for God's people to minister at the altar of the Lord. This has been the case with me, and God's people. Though Jesus, our Joshua, has inquired of the LORD and sought His counsel and it was the Father's pleasure to save the neighbors of Israel, the Gentiles, who feared the power of God in Jesus, Israel has objected. We have become a supplier of Israel, we are those who serve to provide for Israel through prayer and the leaving of our testimonies. When the church is gone Israel will see that we are like Gibeon (meaning a hill) in this passage from Joshua 9:15-27, a city on a hill (Matt.5:14). We have loved them and worked for their provision. I also see this as how it plays out in the life of a believer who makes a covenant of marriage, or some other bond, with an unbeliever. It's not right, it's not the wisdom of God sought by us, it's just our own doing without God's counsel. Yet, in God's grace, if that unbeliever wants to stay with us, even though it's obvious we are separate from them, if they honor the power they see in us because of God's life in us, then though they may not yet fully believe themselves, they will serve the believer. Their work will provide supply for the believer's ministry to God. This is one reason it's so difficult and unadvised by God to yoke yourself with an unbeliever. Not because God hates the unbeliever, He loves them. But if they are yoked to the believer they will always feel as though they are the servant, the slave, the measly worker. My own life is a testimony of this. Yet, God has and will bless the one who serves His people willingly, and I believe will draw them up onto a hill like Gibeon, and make them an example when they themselves believe. May my dear husband be blessed! He provides by his labor the allowance for me to serve the Lord in being a keeper of this home, a teacher to my children of the Lord's Way, and a minister in praying and even teaching outside of these four walls. May God make James a city on a hill!

Sheila Dougal is a 32 year old wife and mother living in Goodyear, Arizona with her husband James and their two sons. She enjoys serving in the women's and children's ministries at her local church, and writing on her website www.wifeofvalor.com.

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