The Day of the Lord is coming. It is His day. Christ will come back to the earth to restore it by bringing every government and every facet of creation (including all the animals—see Isa. 11:5-9) under the leadership of His righteousness, humility, and justice. He will reign, in joyful partnership with His people, until everything is brought under His feet. Then He will do what no king has done before. He will take it all—every achievement, every government, all the money, all the honor—and give it to His Father (1 Cor. 15:22). “I did it all for love, Father! All along, I’ve been serving You, not Myself. I did it all for You! You are the portion of My inheritance and My cup!”
What does a squirrel have to do with all this? Just keep reading. You’ll see!
In His Day and the ages that follow the Lord will fulfill every promise He has made to us. He has so much goodness stored up for those who live before His eyes and wait for His recompense (Ps. 31:19). No eye has seen, no ear has heard, nor has it even entered into the heart of man all that He has prepared for those who love Him (1 Cor. 2:9). No good thing will He withhold for those who walked rightly before Him (Ps. 84:11); for the meek, those who wait, will inherit the earth and enjoy great peace; and God will fulfill the desires of their hearts (Ps. 37).
So many promises. We are waiting for SO MANY promises in the Word, not to mention the personal dreams that God has planted within our hearts!
Lord, are Your promises for now or then?
Jesus didn’t receive all His promises in this age. Why do I think I will? He’s still waiting… why wouldn’t I? He saw this age as mostly about walking in joyful servanthood—being confident that His Father sees and will reward one day. Shouldn’t I? Is a servant greater than His master?
Neither did the saints receive the fullness of what they were promised…yet (Heb. 11). They are still waiting… Why wouldn’t I?
Now some of the traffic in my soul begins to settle. The “road rage” is receding. I don’t have to grasp or strive to fulfill what God spoke to me. I just need to be faithful in the little things. I just need to be holy in the midst of the pressures. And to just wait…
Does this mean I look for a life of misery? Do we conclude that all God’s promises are for then, not now?
No, no! Abraham and the others of Hebrews 11 would tell us that part of faith-filled waiting is believing that He will break into this age with signs of the age to come. The author of Hebrews calls them “powers of the age to come.” Healings and miracles are powers of the age to come. A little bit of manifest anointing on our ministry is power of the Millennial kingdom when we will see massive results when we sing/play/pray.
God wants us to live in a posture of expectancy for Him to break in NOW with “partial signs” of what He’ll do in fullness one day. He wants to testify of that Day to our hearts and to those who do not yet believe.
And here is how God spoke of this to me through a squirrel:
There are lots of squirrels in our yard. Abby (age 5) and Andrew (age 2 ½) ask on a regular basis to hold them. I got so tired of explaining to them that squirrels always run away from us that one day I told Abby, “I’m sorry, sweetie, but you will not be able to hold squirrels until Jesus comes back to be King over all the earth. Then you will get to be friends with all the wild animals!”
Well, the next day a baby squirrel walked right up to her, as if begging to be held. She picked it up! She held it for a long time. Andrew did, too. They played with it for about 2 hours before we let it go back to its home.
What a laugh! I think God was winking at me and saying, “Now dear, I can break in with powers of the age to come anytime I want to!”
He might have also been asking, “Will you live with a looking heart—eager for Me to testify of the coming Day?”
Yes, Lord, I will! I will believe again that You want to heal today, not just then. I will look for You to make Your name great in our eyes today, not just then.
And at the end of His Day (which I believe is the end of the Millennium), we will all agree with Christ that our Father is our exceedingly great reward! The reason we will love holding squirrels (or living out our dreams) so very much is because we will experience His pleasure as we do it! And forever, living out our dreams will be about fellowship with Him.
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That is so precious and priceless!
Only the Lord can help us live in both expectancy and patience! So help us, God!
Amen!