As you’re reading this, there are four angels bound in the Euphrates River waiting to kill a third of the world’s population. God has bound them there to wait for his signal. Even though they’re powerful supernatural beings, these angels have no agency to release themselves or to kill on their own volition; they have to wait for God. Otherwise, their efforts will come to nothing.

The unfolding of God’s plan – and your part in it – is all about timing. There are many lenses to view scripture through, but the lens of timing is one of the most crucial. Jesus was acutely aware of the importance of timing. Despite how eager he was to do his Father’s work, he still had to wait until the time was right. When he tried to start at the wrong time (when he was still a child), he got knocked back. It would be another 18 years before Jesus finally hit the ministry road with God’s blessings.

I think we’ve all experienced getting knocked back by God. I certainly have. The first Bible study I held was a complete bust: Not one soul showed up but me. It was a very sobering and very humbling experience. In hindsight, I’m glad it happened, although I’d be lying if I said it didn’t knock the wind out of my sails for a while. My grandmother used to say “Mistakes keep you humble”, and I was definitely humbled by the sight of that empty room day after day, until I finally accepted that no-one was coming. I was the right person to be hosting a Bible study, just not then.

If you go through the Bible, book by book, and look at the circumstance of timing, you can easily see its significance. Sarah was barren until Abraham’s faith had been successfully tested. In fact, there are many cases of barren women becoming fruitful when the time was right, such as Rachel (the birth-mother of Joseph and Benjamin), Hannah (the prophet Samuel’s mother), and Elizabeth (John the Baptist’s mother). Moses, at the age of 40, tried to assume a leadership role over the Hebrews in Egypt in a bid to rescue them from slavery, but was knocked back by God. He then fled Egypt and steered clear of it until it the time was right – 40 years later – to lead his people to the Promised Land.

The holy angels also have to wait their turn to help and guide people and to reveal secrets. In fact, we all play our part, whether in God’s Kingdom or in the world. Jesus says that those who are only in the world can play their parts whenever they want to – they’re not restricted by God’s timing – but we and the angels have to wait for God’s signal. God tells us many things and then tells us to wait for the signal before revealing them.

You can always tell a false prophet by the way they release information they allege is from God. They will specify a year or a month or even pinpoint an exact day. That’s one of the main indicators of false prophets. Real prophets point to signs that should be looked for; false prophets give dates.

As the world falls deeper and deeper into the new dark age of tyranny, we need to be acutely aware of God’s timing in everything we do. We need to wait for God’s signal before we act. I know it’s difficult for some of you (it certainly is for me) to stay quiet and keep your head down when all you want to do is shout from the rooftops, but shouting without God’s blessings will accomplish nothing but noise, and noise will get you noticed by the wrong people for the wrong reasons.

We need to be patient.

When the time is right for each of us to act, God will let us know, and he’ll do it in such a way that we’ll have zero doubt that he’s giving us the signal. It will be as blatant as trumpets blasting and as personalized as our own thumbprint. We need to wait for God’s timing, like Jesus did. We need to wait, we need to watch, and we need to be ready.

Wait on the Lord

Be of good courage and he will strengthen your heart

Wait, I say, on the Lord.

(Psalm 27)