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Ask anyone who knows me and they'll tell you: I like to see progress. I want to see consistent movement forward - and frankly, the faster the better. It is, in large measure, the way God made me. I suspect I'm not alone in this regard. But with this personality type, comes a danger. It is very easy for us to get frustrated and anxious while we're waiting for God to bring something to pass in our lives.

When God shows you something wonderful He wants to do in your life, when He gives you a vision or a promise, that season of time before it becomes a fully manifested reality can seem a miserable eternity.

I heard one preacher describe that period as being stuck in God's Waiting Room. On more than one occasion, as I've been in one of those frustrating waiting room seasons, I've had someone say, Mac, you just need to let go, and let God.

I must confess to you that my instinct at that moment was not to hug that person and thank them for their sage counsel. I was too busy resisting the urge to punch them in the nose. Seriously though, that little cliche has come my way several times. Perhaps someone has said you need to let go and let God at some point recently, too.

The truth is, there is a solid Bible principle at the heart of that saying. What does it mean to let go and let God? At the end of the day, it is simply about following the command of First Peter 5:7: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

To move out of God's waiting room, to see the promises, visions and dreams He has given us come to pass we are going to have to learn to cast our cares upon Him. But that is often easier said than done, isn't it?

Time and again, God tells us in His Word that letting go is the key to Him being able to do great things in our lives. Essentially, God can't act on your behalf until you let go. As long as you're consumed with trying to make things happen in your own power and on your own timetable, you're not trusting God with it. And trust is the factor you have to have in place in order for Him to move you out of the waiting room and into the next phase of His plan for your life.

Time and again and in various ways, the Word encourages us to let go and let God. For example, in Philippians 4:6 we read: Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (NKJV)

In other words, Quit worrying about it! Of course, that is easier said than done. This is the challenge of dealing with the soulish part of your humanity.

The Need to Let Go
As I have searched the Word for keys to making sure I don't make my stays in God's waiting room any longer than necessary, some truths have emerged that have caused me to see some things in a fresh way.

For example, the Spirit of God has shown me some things in the sixteenth chapter of 1 Samuel that I had never seen before. In this passage, Saul has been God's anointed king of Israel but he's not making the grade. Saul's failure has become a painful thing for the prophet Samuel who had been instrumental in Saul's selection.

Samuel had anointed the man. He had counseled and advised him. And he had hung in there with him through a downward spiral of sins and leadership blunders. Now Saul had completely failed. And Samuel was taking it personally. In I Samuel 16:1 the Lord says to Samuel: How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go; I am sending you to Jesse the Bethlehemite. For I have provided Myself a king among his sons.

The good news is, the plan of God is never dependant on one individual's obedience. God always has an alternative. He never makes His plan subject to human will. Sure, God wanted Saul to succeed. He gave him the opportunity, the anointing, the call. It was His highest and best will that Saul succeed. But Saul didn't.

Does that mean God's plan failed? No, God had another plan. But He had to call Samuel's attention to it, which is why He said, Quit mourning. Go fill your horn with oil and get moving.

We can apply the same truth to our lives. Even if you've experienced failure or mistakes in the past, you can still fill your horn with the oil of the anointing (be filled with the Holy Ghost) and get moving. God's got another plan.

Of course, I don't have to tell you how your soul is going to respond to the need to change. The soulish part of your being often has difficulty making these kinds of adjustments. And, as it was with Samuel, it can be a mournful thing when change is required to move higher in the plan of God.

This is especially so when you are tied to another person or situation that you don't want to let go of. The truth is, the soulish part of our being tends to become comfortable in certain conditions, in certain relationships and in doing things a certain way. So when the plan of God calls for you to move, it can trigger a powerful desire in your soul to hold on to where you are. It can actually result in a type of mourning or grieving. In extreme cases, it can move into a form of oppression and heaviness that is absolutely incapacitating.

It can be hard to break soul ties. We develop dependencies so easily. But until you break them, you're not going to get out of God's waiting room and you will be mournful even as Samuel as our example was mournful over Saul.

Things Change With God
I can tell you right now if you have a dependency of this sort, it is almost a certainty that you are going to have to get rid of it to move higher in God. It's the only way God can stay in the proper place in your life. It's the only way He can speak into your life freely.

I must tell you, when I ultimately made the decision to sell my aviation business interests and move fully into the ministry, my soul mourned. It was a grieving that lasted until I realized the dangerous effect it was having on me. Of course, in the intervening years, I've experienced more joy, more thrilling challenges and more gratification than I ever would have known had I remained tied to the comfortable, familiar past.

Here is the simple truth: God never changes, but things change with God. If you're going to experience His best, you're probably not going to be part of the same prayer group for fifteen years. You're not going to have the same close friends you had when you were a baby Christian.

Still, when it's time to move on, it isn't going to be easy to do. When it's time to move up to the next phase of God's plan, there are going to be some soul ties that have to be broken. There will be some things that must be worked through. And invariably you're going to have some people telling you, You're missing God.

Now I don't want you to think I have to change all of my relationships now. Get out of all of my prayer groups and Bible studies No, I'm not suggesting that. But you must be aware of the power these soulish dependencies have to keep you from moving on with God when the time comes.

A Tie That Binds
Finally, one of the most treacherous areas where unhealthy dependencies are possible is the material realm. In other words, money. That's why the Lord devotes so much attention to the subject in the Word. Time and again, He warns us not to trust in uncertain riches.

This is the reason we tithe and give. It is designed by God to keep you from being dependent on your bank balance rather than the Lord. The sad fact is, Christians who are in bondage to material things measure everything God wants them to do by their bank balances.

Certainly, you can't ignore the natural fact of how much money you have in your bank account. You can't write checks when there is no money. But the key is to come to a place of trust. Yes, it's important to budget and use money wisely, but you mustn't look to your present situation as the upper limit of what your experience of prosperity will be.

Your covenant makes that determination, not your wallet. False dependencies of all types must be broken because they are the things that rob us of the peace of the contentment you must have to make it out of God's waiting room.

Breaking Free
I want you to prayerfully ask God to show you where these dependencies exist in your life, because they have to be broken. I'm convinced that when they are, you'll be surprised, no, you'll be shocked at the warfare and stress which you had blamed on the devil that seems to lift. All along it was nothing more than a direct result of taking the care of something to which your soul was trying to cling.

I'm absolutely convinced that one of the greatest sources of care, concern, worry and difficulty is the failure to realize these dependencies exist. Simply say, Lord, I have a little dependency here I need your help with and I believe, in the name of Jesus, the anointing will destroy this yoke. And set yourself free. Free from condemnation. Free from worry. Free from turmoil. Then let go and let God.

Mac Hammond Ministries
All rights reserved. Used by permission.

 

Author Biography

Mac Hammond
Web site: Mac Hammond
 
Mac Hammond is the senior pastor of Living Word, a large and growing church in Brooklyn Park (a suburb of Minneapolis), Minnesota. He is the host of the Winner’s Minute, which is seen locally in the Minneapolis area on KMSP Channel 9 at 6:44 a.m. and 11:11 a.m. He is also the host of the Winner's Way broadcast and author of several internationally distributed books. Mac is broadly acclaimed for his ability to apply the principles of the Bible to practical situations and the challenges of daily living.
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