DELAY IS NOT DENIAL

DELAY IS NOT DENIAL

Sunday Evening Service, March 9, 2014, the Year of Our Lord

Pastor Carolyn Sissom

Last Sunday evening, Prophet Emmanuel Ssontongo gave our church a word, “Delay is not Denial and that which appears to others as “dead” is only “sleeping.  Through this the Lord will glorify Himself.” (Paraphrased)

Do not be discouraged by seeming delay.  Let the value of the blessing you seek, give fresh impulse to your prayers.  Ask again and again.  If you have the Word of promise whether a Word of knowledge, the written Word of God or a Prophetic Word spoken by a prophet, hold fast to the Word, declare it, and proclaim God’s promises in the midst of your “day of trouble”, though all appearances are against you.

We can never pray in vain.  However, we can pray amiss.  “You ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts.” (James 4:3)

 But if we persevere in praying and draw near to the Lord Himself, with clean hands and a clean heart, our prayers will never be in vain.

James 4:8: “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.”

Perhaps, the reason the Lord delays an answer may be that we may learn to persevere in asking---that “patience may have her perfect work”; that we are kept dependent upon Christ, sitting daily at His feet. 

I know there is a doctrine that you only have to pray once and not bring it up again.  Well, even a single prayer touches the hem of His garment and brings the answer.  But there is a time when we cry out as Jacob did “I will not let you go until you bless me”. 

The work of the Holy Spirit is omnipresent as we sit daily at the posts of His doors.

Proverbs 8:34-35: “Blessed is the man that hears me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.  For whoso finds me finds life, and shall obtain favor of the Lord.”

The believer advances, step by step.  This morning Robert Steele led us in the song, “Sometimes by step”.  This is the faith and encouragement the Lord is speaking to His Body.  We advance step by step.  Each progressive movement, though small and imperceptible, yet one by one, leading our steps are leading us up to unknown heights, bring us deeper, higher and wider into the Glory of God.

My spirit was so touched by that song this morning that I am going to take a short side-trail and highlight the Word of God so profoundly penned by the writer’s ink horn in the Hand of the Lord.

(Lyrics)

“Sometimes I think of Abraham

How one star he saw had been lit for me”

Genesis 15:5: “And the (Lord) brought (Abram) forth and said, “Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if you be able to number them: and he said to him, So shall your seed be.”

We are the seed of Abraham and one of those stars he saw by vision was lit for us.

(Lyrics)

“He was a stranger in this land

And I am that, no less than he.”

Genesis 15:13: “The (Lord) said to Abram, know of a surety that your seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years.”

The land was Egypt metaphorical of the world systems.  Like Abraham, we who are the seed of Abraham through being “born again” into Christ Jesus are strangers in the world systems.

Chorus

“…I will seek you in the morning

And I will learn to walk in Your ways

And step by step You’ll lead me

And I will follow you all of my days

Heb. 6:12-15: “…do not be slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.  For when God made promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no greater, He swear by Himself, Saying, surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.  After he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.”

The more close and frequent our communion watching daily at His gates and waiting at the posts of His doors, the more the Holy Spirit consumes our souls and we are filled with “the peace which passes all understanding”.  In His Parousia, alone with our loving and tender Redeemer, we have “joy with which a stranger cannot intermeddle”

Proverbs 14: 9-10:  “Fools make a mock at sin; but among the righteous there is favor.  The heart knows its own bitterness; and a stranger does not intermeddle with its joy.”

By the name of Jesus, we receive answers to our prayers, relief from troubles, and the blessed abiding assurance of Jesus’ unchanging and eternal love.

Faint not, neither be disheartened.  With the Divine promise to rest upon, you have a certainty that your petition may be granted.  Delay does not mean denial.  If there is a delay, it is because this delay is in the judgment of Infinite Mercy and Goodness, better for you than an immediate answer.  “The righteous cry and the Lord hear.  He delivers them out of all their troubles.”  Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”

The Lord’s promises are sure.  He is first a prayer-hearing, a prayer-answering God, then a very present, help and comfort; and at last a delivering God.  “The salvation of the righteous is of the Lord; He is their strength in the time of trouble.”

Since we are the children of God, we must be prepared that before we enter into the fullness of our Kingdom blessings and glory, we must expect to endure tribulation.  There is not one among the pilgrims Zion-ward---the fairest---the youngest---the happiest and most hopefully, whose feet, sooner or later, will not have to pass through the deep waters of trouble and sorrow.

We are told, that of those who have entered heaven---of that mighty palm-bearing multitude, who have “washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb” one universal characteristic is, that they have come “out of great tribulation.”  There are those who attribute this verse to a future time of great tribulation.  I believe this is the number of the saints through time so numerous that no man can number and so diverse that all nations, kindreds, people and tongues have their representatives.  This multitude contains not a single individual, who has not come “out of great tribulation”.

Do not shrink!  Pray that when trouble comes, we may be prepared.  God may be pleased to keep trouble from your door.  If so, praise him for every day that is free from trouble.  Do not seek trouble, give place to it or be a trouble maker, but rather take thankfully the blessings so graciously bestowed.  But should He give us “the bread of adversity and the water of affliction”, come boldly and pray that He will enable us to bow with submission and that in His own good time, He will be pleased to deliver us.

In His Parousia, we learn the truth that these “light afflictions which are but for a moment” are intended “to workout for you a far more exceeding, even an eternal weight of glory.”  We will take our place triumphant on the summit of Mount Zion, there to partake of the joys which are at God’s right hand, and of those pleasures which are forever more.

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, our refuge and defense, the strength of our heart and the rock of our salvation, enable us every day to put our trust in you.  Teach us with full assurance to look up to you as our reconciled God and Father in Christ Jesus, who is willing for his name sake to supply our utmost need; and graciously remember Your Word unto your servants, on which you have caused us to know that you will keep in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon you.

We confess O God, that many in Christendom have been prone to trust in the creature more than in the Creator.  Many are leaning upon broken reeds, and hewn out empty cisterns.  Many turn for support and comfort to an arm of flesh; instead of acknowledging you in all their ways.  Many walk in the light of their own eyes and after the imagination of their own hearts.

Pardon, O God, our nation, our people and our churches for the sake of Your beloved Son.  Lead us by the teaching of the Holy spirit to trust in you with all our hearts.  Increase our faith in the promises of your Word.  Give us grace to cheerfully cast upon you all our cares and troubles, humbly to commit to you all our interests, and earnestly to seek the aid of your strength and the guidance of your wisdom in all our undertakings.

Keep us from all murmuring or unbelieving misgivings, under the strokes of your chastening hand.  Take away all hardness of heart.  May we experience all of your dealings tempered with gracious love.  Give us an unwavering trust and confidence in your faithfulness, and help us to feel assured that nothing befalls us but by your direction; nothing is appointed, but that which is for our good.  May we delight often to anticipate that happy time, when we shall trace with joyous hearts, the long line of unbroken love and unchanging faithfulness.  When we are your light, we shall be one with light.

Carolyn Sissom, Pastor

Eastgate Ministries, Inc.

www.eastgateministries.com

Scripture from K.J.V.