There’s a saying that God has three answers to our prayers, “yes, wait, or no.” I believe those three should be changed to “yes, wait, or not ready.” 1John 5:14-15(NKJV) tells us, “14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.” When we pray according to God’s Will for our lives, our Heavenly Father will give us whatever we ask, this is what His promise in 1John 5:15 reveals. So, I don’t believe the Father ever tells us “no”. Our responsibility is to seek and know His Will and Word, so that we can align our agenda with His agenda and pray effectively.
When He says ‘yes’
When God says “yes”, we move. We do this because we’ve received the definitive word on the subject. Some of us consume our prayers with questions about the who, what, when, and where, when God has already given us a ‘yes’. He will take care of the who, what, when, and where. Those details will unfold as we remain diligent in faith. Our Heavenly Father is a God of order, and this means first things first. In many cases, He’s already told us that we can have the things we’d prayed to receive, but we haven’t responded to His ‘yes’. We’re in a posture of waiting when we should be in a posture of moving in gratitude for all He has done.
We must respond to God with good works that demonstrate our gratitude. There must always be a response to God for His amazing grace and blessings. If the blessing we desire is in His Will, and we don’t perceive any blockers, then we need to get busy with a show of thanks. If we’ve mistook a ‘yes’ for a ‘wait’, our show of gratitude will open the door for greater revelation so that we can readjust and realign.
When He says ‘wait’
Lamentations 3:25 (ESV) says, “The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.” This verse tells us that there’s a blessing in waiting on the Lord. There can be many reasons why God would have us patiently endure until the manifestation of the blessing we’ve prayed to receive. One of them is because our faith isn’t quite where it needs to be. God doesn’t leave us in that condition. He helps us.
Faith requires focus and focus comes from a renewed mind. God commands us in Ephesians 4:23 to be renewed in the spirit of our minds. The spirit of our minds is the place from which thoughts, motives, attitudes, and behaviors are birthed. Faith in God’s truth, love, grace, and power has to saturate our minds so that everything we do flows from that. Romans 8:7 tells us that if the mind is set on the flesh, it’s a mind that is hostile to God. So, if our minds are taking us in the opposite direction of faith and obedience to God’s Word, they are not renewed in the way that God requires. We have to change that by committing ourselves to read and study His Word.
Another reason that we must remain in wait-mode is because we haven’t yet learned the lesson that God has placed before us. Many times, we don’t even recognize that life is revealing this lesson to us, and that’s an issue, because we’re missing the presented and necessary opportunity to spiritually grow. We think the delay in the manifestation of our blessing is because God is keeping it from us a little while longer, but that isn’t true. Our eyes need to be opened to the reality that we need to grow in the love of Christ and handle some business regarding baggage we’re still carrying.
Your life looks different when you are living by faith during the wait. You’re pursuing God at a greater pace than you’ve done before. You’re keeping your eyes and ears open for a revelation of truth that is going to set your feet on higher ground. You’re learning greater humility and grace, and your commitment to submit to God has increased. You’re praying in the Spirit, and you’re changing and growing in Christ in a way that is very evident. This is what you do in the wait, and these are acceptable responses of gratitude and faith in God.
When He says ‘you’re not ready’
When God tells us we’re not ready, it means that our vision of the blessing is not as aligned with His vision as it should be. We’re thinking it looks one way when it might look another way. We’re not yet at a point where we are willing to full-out surrender every detail over to Him, without reservation or concern. We’re not completely trusting that He always knows what is best for us.
The blessing we’ve prayed to receive will bring some other new things with it, and those things will require more of us. We need to demonstrate that we have the spiritual maturity and capacity to steward whatever blessing we’re asking the Father to give us. Sometimes our level of gratitude, faith, and strength is just not where it needs to be. We’re trying to skip over necessary and fortifying practices because we don’t want to be patient to see what the Lord is revealing. That’s not going to work. When we place the Lord Jesus Christ in the driver’s seat of our lives, we must yield to him. He’s going to steer us always in the direction of truth and readiness, and we must make ourselves flexible to go where he leads.
Whatever the answer is from the Lord, whether it’s “yes, wait, or not ready”, we can’t sit back and do nothing. 1Thessalonians 5:18(ESV) tells us, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” We must think about what it means to give thanks to God. It’s not just mere words, because mere words cannot sufficiently convey gratitude to Him. Giving thanks is action and practice, and whether we perceive a “yes, wait, or not ready”, responding to God by being obedient and doing the good deeds that represent His love are always required.■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
“When God Says Yes, We Move”, written by Reverend Fran Mack. Edits by Kim Times and K. Stephens for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2023. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.