It seems to be in the nature of man to be impatient with the process of God. Man is rarely satisfied with where he is in life and he certainly does not like the word “wait.” In man’s mind the interpretation of the word “wait” is never.
The first sign of impatience was evident in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. Impatience seems to be the result of misdirected ambition. God gave us the anointing to be ambitious when He told us to rule the earth. There is nothing wrong with being ambitious in the context of wanting to please God. That lines up with 2Corinthins 5:9 where it says “Wherefore also we make it our aim, whether at home or absent, to be well-pleasing unto him”.
However, Satan came along and saw an opportunity to invert our Godly ambition into impatience. Impatience usually has to do with self will as well as the judging of God’s timing. There has always been this idea in man that if he could get to the next level (whatever that is), he could be more useful to God.
Eating the apple seemed to be a good idea in order to take man to that next level, so he ate the apple. Mankind was of course deceived by Satan. The root of impatience is to attain something without paying the price. Consequently mankind is prone to fall for the old ‘apple’ trick.
I remember seeing a For Sale sign on this beautiful farm in East Texas which had a gorgeous one hundred year old two-story house. I really wanted that farm. Somehow I justified in my mind that I could serve God better if I could add a retreat center to my ministry and this would fit the bill. I began to pray and God said “No, not now”. I reluctantly said, “Okay Lord I am willing to wait”. However a few days later the banker called and said that he would do the deal for me with nothing down and no payment for a year. I thought maybe God changed His mind—so I bought the farm. I began to pour thousands of dollars into restoring the farm and property and preparing it to live in for my dream ministry. However, it wasn’t long before the bottom fell out of the market and money was short and the value of the farm dropped by a third. I ended up selling the farm for much less than I paid for it and lost thousands and thousands of dollars in the process.
My repentance for the sin of presumption and impatience was deep and sincere. Even to this day I am still sorry for letting myself be deceived like Adam and Eve.
It took years to financially recover from my act of impatience even though my forgiveness was instant.
Since that time I’ve tried to be a good father example of wait to the impatient ones who are following me. However after having said that, the lesson of waiting seems to be a life journey rather than a destination.
Father,
I thank you for teaching me that all my reasoning and jumping ahead of You is an inverted ambition and is the outworking of impatience. Forgive me for this sin and help me to be a better example to those who follow me who are also tempted by Satan to eat the apple. Help us all to be God led and ambitious for Your will.
Amen!
Apostle John Dean Copyright 2009 All Rights Reserved
Alliance International Ministries