Tarrying – The Art of Waiting on the Lord!

from The Patmos Paper E-magazine

In today's hustle and bustle society it is hard to wait for anything. We are living in an instantaneous world: instant coffee; microwaveable meals; instant entertainment via TV; and instant news and information via cell phone and tablet! Yet one of the first things the Lord did after His resurrection was tell the disciples to wait:

“And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me;” Acts 1:4

The disciples had to go to the upper room and wait. Of course they did more than waited, they prayed. But after ten days of waiting and praying, He sends the Holy Spirit and empowers them for the ministry.

God's timing is not like ours. He is never late. When Lazarus was sick, word was sent to Jesus. Jesus could of rushed to the city of Bethany and healed him but He had something greater in mind. He delayed in getting to Bethany and Lazarus had died. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” But Jesus wanted to allow Lazarus to die so He could raise him from the dead. Jesus performed may healings but few resurrections. Jesus delayed his trip to raise Lazarus from the dead. No doubt the sisters were expecting Jesus to rush to them but they needed to wait to see a greater miracle.

Waiting on the Lord is often difficult but the rewards are far greater when we do. In the holiness movements of the early 1900's William Branham and others believed in Tarrying for the Holy Spirit.

Tarrying in the dictionary is defined as “staying longer than intended; to linger in expectation ; to wait”

They did not just lay hands on people and move on to the next guy like we do today. They tarried as long as it took till the Holy Spirit fell; the person spoke in tongues or they fell under the power of God.

One of my favorite books is called “Remarkable Miracles” by G.C. Bevington. Bevington lived in late 1800s- early 1900s and he traveled around the Ohio Kentucky countryside and prayed for people. When he was invited to preach he would crawl into a hollow log and pray for hours till he got a release from the spirit then he would go pray and people would be totally healed.

He once crawled in a hollow log and prayed for 6 days. When he got hungry and did not feel a release yet, he would ask God to provide and God sent squirrels to feed him acorns and nuts three times a day. He spent nearly ten days in that tree when he left and had a mighty revival.

He once went to pray for a lady that had been a invalid for nine years but her unbelieving husband chased him away. Bevington crawled in a haystack and prayed for three days and then under the anointing he went and prayed for her and she was healed. Her husband was so astounded when he came in and she had prepared him dinner that he ran out to find Bevington and got saved.

He once was standing on a chair cleaning a stovepipe when he fell and passed out, then woke up in excruciating pain. He was in so much pain he could hardly pray. A local doctor gave him an xray and told him he had three broken ribs. They were going to send him to a hospital but when he found out it would cost five hundred dollars and it would take seven months to recover. He refused and went into his bedroom and layed on the floor and prayed for 32 hours and had a vision of him being a piece of wood on a lathe and God was trimming shavings from him. God was humbling and shaping him. He heard his ribs coming together and got up and was healed. The doctor did not believe it so Bevington started pounding himself in the ribs. The doctor took another xray and sure enough his ribs were normal.

Most people have heard of Charles Finney who had great American revivals in the early 1800’s.

But few have heard of Daniel Nash. Daniel Nash was Charles Finneys personal intercessor. Nash would go into a city before Finney and bring one or two other intercessors and they would rent a a place and pray for days or weeks and wait on the Lord until they got a release in the Spirit. When they did, they called for Finney to come to that city and Finney would hold a revival. The move of God was so powerful because a few men waited on the Lord and prayed until they felt like they got the victory. They had cleared the atmosphere and prayed down the power in those revivals. Finney owes much of his success to this faithful Intercessor who knew how to wait on the Lord!

We not only wait in Prayer but sometimes we must wait for his promises. Abraham had to wait many years for a child in his old age to fulfill the promise of God for a promised prodigy.

David was anointed by Saul as king but had to wait many years before Saul died and he could rightly take the throne.

Finally we are to wait faithfully for the return of the Lord! He will come in His own time!

Perhaps we have gotten away from waiting on the Lord. Perhaps it time to tarry a bit until we sense the release of the spirit and the power of God to move. Lets find God's timing on all things and we will see a greater work in and through us.