Delays

Have you felt that your ministry has been delayed? The older you are, the harder it can be to deal with delay. When you’re young and are asked to do the Tearcraft stall and open up the building you just think – I can do that! You’re not thinking of yourself as a leader at that moment, there’s not much temptation to over-inflate your role. But later, if a senior leader gets ahead of themselves and their ability or anointing, it can become a limiting factor to their ministry.

Eventually, after much delay, Joseph is brought out of prison to serve in one of the highest offices in the land. He is given responsibility over the nation in a critical time with prophetic fulfilment of his early dreams when his brothers come seeking help in the context of the famine.

Then there’s the story of David. Where’s David at the start of the story? Not even asked to the meal with the rest of his brothers when the important priest visits, because he’s the youngest and is looking after the sheep. And even when he is asked for and is anointed for kingship by Samuel, what does he do? Returns to the sheep! I found that so helpful and have applied it to my life at various times. If you try to grab at the opportunity in church life, it slips away.

So, the principle is – upon successful completion of a ministry task, a leader is usually asked to do something else but not before there is some form of testing.