I was almost in tears when I could not express myself after the fight with my secondary school mate during my second year at Community Grammar school, Okpo, Kogi State, Nigeria. I knew I was innocent, but beyond been innocent, I needed to talk. Nobody else could figure out what the problem was; my senior students who were perfects that year expected me to talk, speak out, but since I was short of words, lacking knowledge in the recommended and acceptable language of communication in the school community which is English language, although I was not at fault, the girl I fought with was the one who stepped on my toes, yet I was punished instead, and my mate who could speak English like the birds was exonerated.

 

I was already about to be promoted to form three, but was only passing through school, the school was not passing through me. As old as I was then, having gone through primary school to second year in Junior secondary school, the knowledge to say good morning in English language was difficult for me. It was so bad that writing my own Personal Name was harder for me than anyone should expect a day-old child to walk home from the hospital behind its mother.

 

I exhausted every option that I could without getting better, it was to me then the darkest and most silent night. I prayed, I wished I could do it, I struggled to overcome it, but I was unable to surmount my inability. My expectation was so high in my dry tears, but no one told me it could be better one day. I was left alone to bear my cross, that made it so intense on me than it would have been if someone had care to help me through as I was zealous to come out of that waiting moment.

 

I sacrificed my little lunch money and the bicycle— my dad's bicycle— I used then as my means of transportation to the school, for my friends, those I thought within me could be able to help my situation. But my friends enjoyed as much sacrifice as I was ready to make to get helped by them, yet failed their own side of the bargain. They were only interested in the eating of the milk, but wouldn't feed the hungry sheep.

 

When I had finished the best, I could do for myself in that situation, but didn't know how to turn to God for help, I decided to let it be. At the point I almost thought all hope was lost, the invisible hand of the Lord stirred up the heart of my father, my biological father, and he decided, with no genuine reason to me; the reason he gave me even up till now it's not making any sense to me. He said that I should be transferred to one of his sisters who was living in Otukpo in Benue State, Nigeria, a neighboring State. Eventually, I relocated from Kogi State to continue my education in Benue State. I didn't know why, but the invisible hand of destiny rose on my behalf, and to the glory of God that relocation helped me, and it marked the beginning of my total turn around in the world of knowledge generally. I am already a university graduate. I graduated with Second Class Upper (2.1) in Business Administration from Kogi State University, Anyigba (in 2016), and I also finished with Upper Credit (B) in Mathematics and Economics from Kogi State College of Education (in 2008). To God alone be all the glory.

 

The foundation was almost distorted, but not the Divine ordained foundation. The Bible says, “when the foundation be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” Yes, they won't be able to do anything, but when the destroyed foundation is not the Divine foundation, the moment the Divine ordained foundation kick starts, it is able to restore every other uprooted foundation; be it academic, economic, marriage, health, business, ministry, and the likes.

 

Whether we like it or not, one thing is certain, and no one can separate himself or herself from it until Christ returns or we return to Him: Some of our expectations and prayers may never happen when we wish there do, some might never even happen in our lifetimes which we may never be able to fill in the gap of the most popular question but why...........? And often times, we might not see any sense or reason such prayer should be delayed at all, or why help should be far when it is most needed.

 

Lest we think we are just the only one facing such a time, no we aren't the only one. That has been the trend, we are only privileged to be partakers of such unprivileged and unfavorable times for the purpose it serves. Job is a good example of an actor of an unpleasant time in the past, but the beauty of the dry time and waiting moment of his life was that, he knew God was watching his time in his hand, although, it didn't make any sense, but he waited to see the end saying, “For all the days of my appointed times, I will wait until my change comes".

 

Definitely, it is the purpose of God in our dry and waiting moment that is the sense in times when it seems God does not add up, or make sense in our current circumstances or present experiences.

 

It is in human, or common for the sons and daughters of men to think of doing a particular thing at a particular time or age, and when it seems such expectation is not coming through, worries and complaints may become the next phase or page that will open up with questions like God, why me? When will my change come, will my change ever come? Do God still remember me? When shall my night break, will my morning ever come? I am tired, I am losing my mind, I am weary.

 

 But regardless of the choice we make in any dry moment, when nothing including God, Himself is no longer making any sense to us at such a time, God is not new to the form of man, He is always in the known of the behavior of man in the earthen vessel, and always have our realities before Him saying "For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope." According to His Word for us in Jeremiah 29:11.

 

One thing God will never do is to abandon us when it seems we can't see the way, the path He is leading us at a time, no matter the pressure that our present circumstance is exciting on us. He will always help us out with His counsel such that will refocus us and align us to the perfect future He is taking us, either as an individual, a family, a community, or a nation.

 

The Word of God is meat indeed, and He will never forsake the hungry and the thirsty souls, nor thrust us out because we are overloaded with so much cares, or we have become weak from the pressure we face daily. Here is the counsel of God for you and I regardless of what circumstances we are believing that God should come through for us: "Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5 NKJV).

 

Perhaps, your nation is going through distress, security manipulations, or your family is going through a serious time that you can't fix, or you are expecting the Lord to turn a situation around; you have married for years, and it seems everyone that married after you are almost done with number of children they have decided to bring forth, but you are yet to receive even as few as one.

 

I say to you, rejoice and be glad, never allow the cares of life belittle the love of God for you, God is very much mindful of you. Could it also be that you have graduated for years and you have been applying for job here and there, but your turn is yet to come, nothing seems to work out; the same job others whose performances and qualifications may not be up to yours will just get with less stress. it is not possible that the Lord should ignore the cry of His children, no way, it is not possible.

 

Are you also thinking your delay in marriage come through might be because you are no more in His book? No, it is not possible, for it is written, "Nothing can separate us from the love that is in Christ Jesus that the Father should cast us off". He loves us the same. Are you looking for healings, financial breakthrough, favor, connections, success in examination, admission, a word from the Lord that will heal your wound and set you on your feet? It can never be late in His will, as long as we are in His will for us, everything works together for our Good. No one can close the door He has opened, and none can open his door before the time He has set in His Will to open it. Times and seasons are key in the dealings of God with us.  Never let your heart be troubled, our relationship with the Father and the Son according to His Will is a reality that can never fail.  He wants us to keep trusting in His counsel for our individual life, and when you do this, you will just see how it all works for your Good.

 

Definitely, it is the purpose of God in our dry and waiting moment that is the sense in times when it seems God does not add up, or make sense in our current circumstances or present experiences.

 

IN THE SET TIMES AND SEASONS, HE WILL NOT LOOK AWAY

 

"To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.” “While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, and day and night Shall not cease.”"

(Ecclesiastes 3:1-2, 4, 7-8; Genesis 8:22, NKJV)

 

Friend, if there is any reason the marriage you thought it should have come through for you for the past two, three, five, or six years as the case may be did not happen as you wish,  in response to your advancement in age, or the dream job you seek is not clicking, or why the last financial freedom you thought would happen didn't happen as rightly thought and expected, or the healing is not as quick as you expected, and all of such breakthrough out of something unpleasant didn't happen, or the insecurity challenges, or economic distress of your nation seems to linger up till now,  it is because God's dealing with us as in the manner of sons and daughters is according to times and seasons. Yes, it is according to time and season of life!

 

Regardless of how rapidly a tree seems to have grown up, it requires time and season to bud, or bear. It requires its time to bring forth its own fruits. Naturally, it is not possible for any tree to bring forth fruits when it is not its season to bear, even men won't expect it to yield so, the tree will not for any reasons trouble itself. Even if a particular tree does not have the potential to bear fruit, as long as it is not yet its time, it has not come to fruit bearing time or age, it stands excused by its owner. Meanwhile when it has attained or come of age to bear fruit, the Sower has to wait for its season before he could crucify the tree for its lack of fruitfulness.

 

God has regard for times and seasons, He has predestined us to bear fruit, and He is much more expectant with eagerness for fruit than we can ever desire to bear or showcase our intentions and abilities. But He won't do it except He has ushered in our platform to showcase our relevance. Friend, whether we accept this truth or not, God knows that it is the truth: do you know that if not that God spaced the period of fruit bearing for plants, if all the fruit bearing plants were to be bearing fruits at same time, there are many fruits that ordinarily from their natural look, taste, relevance, shapes, sweetness, and the likes, they won't have attracted as much consumers like they have due to order and spacing of fruit seasons?

 

Yes, that's exactly how your life and my life (all human life) have been structured for manifestation on the face of the earth. Definitely, it is the purpose of God in our dry and waiting moment that is the sense in times when it seems God does not add up, or make sense in our current circumstances or present experiences.

 

It is not because the Lord loves some people more than some, so decides to favor some more than the others. He loves us the same. It is only possible for all men not to love all men the same, or to love God the same. But in God, love is love: you can't find the love of God for sister Joy weightier or larger in size, or higher in height than God's love for brother John. The love of God for all is same for all because there is no merit to Love; freely we have received and freely we are expected to give.

 

This reminds us of the case of Hannah, the mother of Samuel, in the Book of first Samuel, that great man of God of his generation, the prophet and judge of Israel, He was relevant all throughout his life time. And the Bible gives a very outstanding testimony of his life: "So Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground" (I Samuel 3:19).

 

He was great, right? But do you also know that someone cried and wept, waited and ate the bread of pains, for him to be brought FORTH, to be born? Someone lamented, someone was barren for many years just for him to be born at the right time and season. Someone paid the price for him to be ushered into his time and season. Time, not as regard age but the predestined time of God for his platform to be ready for exploit, outstanding recognition.

 

Hannah had some many reasons to say, “I am not doing again”. But she trusted in the Lord her God; she knew there was no way the writer of her script would have made such a terrible mistake with her life to neglect such a vital matter from her script and said to herself, has not the Word of the said, “there shall not be anyone barren in the land, who will not bear?” The Bible recorded that the same way she was troubled in her soul, inwardly that was how her immediate environment didn't help to make her conditions bearable. And because she couldn't bear children at the time and season of men the second wife of her husband tormented her: "And her rival also provoked her severely, to make her miserable, because the Lord had closed her womb" (I Samuel 1:6).

 

Hannah cried, and she won't eat even the best choice meat that was given her by her husband. The husband will give her double portion of everything including attention more than the second wife, yet that wouldn’t stop her from weeping. One day when the husband was overwhelmed with her many tears, he spoke those words to her, "Then Elkanah her husband said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? And why is your heart grieved? Am I not better to you than ten sons?” (1 Sam. 1:8.)

 

This was not the heart cry of Hannah; she was not after all of that. All she wanted was a baby to call her own child. Even if God were to just give her one, just one child, not two, that could make her to calm down for a while, but not having anyone at all, not even a miscarriage, it was a pain in the heart of Hannah.

 

Friend, let me ask you a question, if Hannah were to have born Samuel earlier than the right time and season, where would Samuel have been when the Lord needed a person to fill in the space, the office of Eli and his sons? Where would Samuel had been when the God of all the earth was in need of a man that both him and his household are to be consecrated to the service of the Lord God?

 

I don't want you to quickly forget that Samuel was not the only son of Elkanah, the husband of Hannah. He was not the first son neither, but the womb of Hannah was consecrated to the Lord for this service unto the Lord, just like the womb of our Sister Mary, the mother of our Lord.

 

No one is sufficient for any of these things that he/she may have, but it is given to each one by the One that has appointed according to Divine ordination, not according to the will of man, both according to His endless Wisdom and Mercy. God forbid, but it could happen, it is possible, if Hannah had given birth to Samuel earlier than the timing and season of God, who knows, he would have ended up a polygamist like his father, or even a womanizer like Solomon, or something else. Or ended in one bear parlor or something somewhere. Who would have interpreted to him that it was the Lord calling him? Definitely, except for Divine mercy, he would have missed out on the Lord's counsel for him, because in his days, the Word of the Lord was not common everywhere to pick up like we have in this dispensation of Grace, only a few, as few as one, two, or three that are oftentimes privileged in a generation to receive the Word of the Lord.

 

Dear, as much as your growth is required to pick up your role in the kingdom of our beloved Father, don't assume that spiritual knowledge or maturity is same and one with the time and season for your Divine manifestation, no, it is not. You have to settle this so that the devil won't end up manipulating your innocence, and to engage you with something that is totally different from the Will of the Father for you. Yes, Satan has hurried many of our brothers and sisters into different homes, businesses, unholy means of search for healings, different ungodly financial mediums, just because they thought God was late, or delaying them. Should He that create the time not know the time? Should he that create the purpose not understand the time and season for it? Surely, it is hard for the Lord to forget, and He will give beauty and Glory for ashes and shame at His set times and seasons of events.

 

Our Father has given us this nut and bolt to rest on according to Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 11, it reads, "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope."

 

Do you know that God does not require anything more from us than trusting Him to bring to pass all that He has proposed concerning us before we were ever formed in the belly? Of course, He requires no sacrifice, no offering, but just to have faith in Him that He loves us, and He will not fail to deliver. That's all. Nothing more. The Lord is now asking, "Am I asking for too much?" Indeed, He is not asking for too much. Believe Him, faith is the medium of transaction in the Kingdom, even when you don't have the knowledge of the next event or phase, believe!

 

There is no amount of trust we bestow on God to do anything in our lives and through us that can be riskier than the kind that Jesus Christ demonstrated before us. He trusted the Father to lay down His life even to partake of the death on the cross, He was crucified, buried, He went to hell to get our authority back from the devil, yet He was not doubting, what if I didn't come back, what if I didn't resurrect, what if it was a coup to evacuate me from heaven forever? No, in the midst of the heavy demand, He submitted willing to the Will of the Father for Him, and insisted He must not have it done His way. To believe is not a risk taking, because there is no probability with God. His Word is forever Yes and Amen!

 

You can't do less, Jesus Christ set the pace for us to walk in His foot steps of obedience, it is your turn, it is my turn, we will not be offended in His Will for us in Jesus’ name, no matter how demanding and inconsistent His Will differ from ours; Trust and obey, for our Victory and Redeemer can never fail.

Thanks for the gift of your time, I am John Ojoagbene!

Feel free to share your thoughts or testimony in the comment box below. I promise to respond to them as soon as possible!