When God Says “Wait”

0:00:00 – (Steve Gray): Hey, are you waiting on God to do something big in your life? You don’t want to miss the next podcast. More Faith, More Life. I’m going to teach you how to turn your waiting into receiving. Hello, everyone, and welcome again to another More Faith, More Life podcast. Of course, I’ve got Kathy with me. She’s been with me the last weeks and I enjoy it so much. Kathy, as long as I can get you, I’ll probably put you on here unless I get somebody else on here, because I enjoy having you on here and I think it helps everybody that’s watching to see us work together and just show how our lives have been put together. Of course, this has been an exciting time in our lives as we see that we are history makers. Whether we’re in the forefront, whether you’re on the front lines or the back lines or you just voted.

0:00:49 – (Steve Gray): You made history if you voted yes. And then now we’re in the history of what’s next for people. We see what’s next for our government. Our government’s racing ahead, right, with all kinds of changes that I’m happy about and I think are needed. Common sense things, as they say. But of course, now we’ve got other areas in our world. Now we have to get the church to catch up because we’ve been in this lull of government and inflation and strange teachings in public school and all that stuff. What’s going on in our school, all that.

0:01:31 – (Steve Gray): Now all of a sudden, everything’s changed and we’re in a new, kind of a new era right now.

0:01:37 – (Kathy Gray): Yeah, we are. You know, our nation is in a new era and we’ve been waiting and waiting and hoping and many praying for about the past four years for a change, for, for God to intervene against all odds, really. And we’ve. We just waited four years and now our wait is over. Yeah, it’s over. But it took time, you know, and sometimes people wondered, said, when is this going to be over? You know, we’re. We’re hanging on, but how.

0:02:10 – (Kathy Gray): How is it going to be? When is it going to be?

0:02:12 – (Steve Gray): And now, of course, we’re like, the news media is amazed. People are amazed of what took place. The masses of people that apparently had been waiting, masses of people that have been waiting and all of a sudden they come out and vote and all of a. What. Where have all these people been? Well, it’s just a great surprise, but there were people, a lot of people waiting that now come out. And change in our country is changing now, of course, our world as the church world.

0:02:43 – (Steve Gray): And we can be in a waiting period for me, Kathy, I want to see the churches of America step into as much. A renaissance. Renaissance has changed. A renaissance of conservative renaissance. There’s a renaissance of religion right now. But you know where it’s at. It’s not in the churches. The renaissance, the revival, the. The rejuvenation of spirit and prayer. At the inauguration and events, people are praying, they’re saying the name of Jesus, they’re exercising their faith, they’re outspoken again. They’re singing songs and saying what God’s done for them and all that.

0:03:26 – (Steve Gray): How wonderful. But now the church is still in old lull of what’s been happening the last four years. That cloud is still over the church. The church now needs to break out, but now we have to figure out how. So we are. Have been. The church has been and we are right now, I hope it’s our turn, but we are in a waiting. What is the church going to do across the country? And I’m talking about all denominations. We can’t let just this fiery preacher here. Well, let’s hope he gets it. But this one that reads liturgical prayer.

0:04:02 – (Steve Gray): He reads these prayers every morning on Sunday morning. Fine, fine. We need to have something God happen. We need a God. We need something as dramatic that has happened in our government to happen in our churches to affect the world and to help change the people. We’re changing our government, but we’re not changing our hearts. If we don’t change our hearts, Kathy, we’ll still have shootings, we’ll still have terrorist acts, we’ll still have dangers. We’ll still be saying, are we going to be attacked by another country? See, we’ll still have. Because it’s the hearts of the people that are fighting each other that are hating each other.

0:04:39 – (Steve Gray): So I am so excited that the government is changing, but now the church is the place that changes the heart. The government changes laws. Right. The government changes the way we do life or what we, you know, how we handle money, the stock market, whatever. The government regulates and does things and protects us and, and all those kinds of things, and changes the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, whatever it does.

0:05:07 – (Steve Gray): What’s the church? Where, where, where is the church? The church has been historically the power that changes a nation. When our country was founded, it was founded on Christian values. Whether you agree, you know, some people don’t like them, I don’t. Doesn’t matter whether you like them or not. It happened. And our great universities that we can Name today, Like, can you name Harvard.

0:05:32 – (Kathy Gray): Yale, all those Ivy League ones, they.

0:05:37 – (Steve Gray): Were all started by theologians who are bringing people in, education and God together. Well, obviously that’s been lost. Now, our gosh, our colleges, and especially the Ivy Leagues, they’re out of their minds. They’re out of their minds what they’re doing to people and what they’re saying, well, they’re going to have to wake up because people are going to quit giving them money. Money will talk to them.

0:06:06 – (Kathy Gray): Quit sending your kids to them. Like, that’s the big deal for their lives because they’ll come out unbelieving and humanist.

0:06:14 – (Steve Gray): Now, anytime a person is in the waiting mode, because we’ve been in the waiting mode as you and I, at least usually for our nation, and now we’re seeing breakthroughs. But during that waiting mode, where was I? Like, I’m looking at weird legislation and telling me maybe I won’t be able to keep my gas stove. I’m going, what? You know, like, I’m thinking, what are you talking about here? There’s so many other things we should be dealing with. You know, until I’m at. I’m like, what?

0:06:44 – (Steve Gray): So I’m waiting for some common sense. But I did not despair. I was not crushed under it. I did not worry. I was not afraid. And the reason why is because the way you survive waiting for what’s coming is by knowing the person who’s bringing what’s coming.

0:07:03 – (Kathy Gray): Amen.

0:07:04 – (Steve Gray): So I was hopeful and patient. How do you stay hopeful and patient and waiting? Because you’re not waiting for an event. You’re not waiting for that job, Kathy. You’re not waiting for the raise. You’re not waiting for your marriage to get better. You’re waiting for the person, Jesus Christ, to increase in your life and increase. You increase by the spirit of God. That person never changed. The person is still going through troubles and tragedies and difficulties through history, but Jesus has still been there.

0:07:35 – (Steve Gray): So how I through this time when we went through pandemic and we went through terrible inflation has still have to be corrected and better get better and threats of wars and rumors of wars and all that kind of stuff, Jesus stayed the same. I can wait. I can wait in hope. I can wait without fear because he is going to come around. His truth is marching on, as we’ve been saying and they sang at the inauguration.

0:08:02 – (Steve Gray): And we know that the kingdom of God is advancing. So when we see and we feel like there’s been some retreat or confusion or what the heck is going on in our country, all these what, what legislation, who’s being pardoned, all that kind of stuff. The kingdom of God is advancing. I just need to wait for its moment and stay faithful and solid on the Jesus who hasn’t changed and the God who never changes.

0:08:29 – (Kathy Gray): Well, you know, Steve, Isaiah 41:3 says, said, those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength and they’ll rise up like wings on eagles. And so many people think that the word wait, which we’re talking about today, that some people think wait is like, okay, I’m just going to sit here. Okay, God, whenever you want to do this, whenever you want to change me or anything, you know, whenever you want to save our nation or wake up the church, well, I’m just waiting. God, I’m just waiting.

0:09:00 – (Kathy Gray): And that’s not what it means. That word wait means it’s an action word, like not sitting dull, but pressing forward with excitement and serving. It means you wait on. At a restaurant, there’s a waiter, they wait on you. Well, they’re serving you. They’re making you comfortable and feel important and feeding you something. Well, that’s how it is supposed to be. When we wait on the Lord, we are in hope, we are in expectation, and we’re serving him the whole time.

0:09:34 – (Kathy Gray): And those are the people that will that kind of waiting. God’s timing, they’re going to get the strength. They’re going to be the ones exalted.

0:09:44 – (Steve Gray): So when we talk about waiting, whether on the Lord or waiting for something else to happen, or waiting to get that raise, are you saying we should try to take it out of the time frame and say waiting? Waiting is not. Waiting is about what you do while you’re waiting in time. While you’re waiting in time. You wait is what you do while you’re waiting.

0:10:08 – (Kathy Gray): That’s right. It’s a doing word. It’s not sitting like a bump on a log, but it’s a doing. And you’re actively seeking the Lord and declaring your trust in him and in his timing. And while you’re talking with hope and expectation and worshiping him, reading your Bible out loud unto the Lord that is waiting, that is serving him and hoping in him. You know, can I. Here, I’m your waiter. Let me give you an uplift, Lord.

0:10:40 – (Kathy Gray): Let me acknowledge who you are. You’re an important. You’re important to me, Lord. You know, like you’d say, you’re an important customer, but I’m going to wait on you, Lord. I’m going to serve you.

0:10:51 – (Steve Gray): I had a waiting experience, not with God. But the other day up here at the corner where we go a lot of times and turn and head out to the interstate and there’s that left turn there.

0:11:00 – (Kathy Gray): Oh my.

0:11:01 – (Steve Gray): And I went there and I was sitting there and you know, it’s kind of a long light anyway if you get stuck there. And so I need to like a left hand turn. I’m sitting and sitting and sitting. Okay, so I was doing that this time and the car in front of me was sitting and the. And the light turned green to do the left turn. And I’m sitting there. I got my turn signal on. I don’t know if they did, but they’re just sitting there and sitting there and sitting there and sitting there. And you know what was happening to me while I was waiting.

0:11:29 – (Steve Gray): Okay, so I probably should have laid on the horn, yelled, screamed, done a little road rage or something, you know, but you know what was happening to me? I’m sitting there and I’m watching, I’m thinking, this is a long light. I’m sitting at this turn signal, left or arrow, and that car’s not moving and it’s just sitting there. And I could feel myself sinking. I’m like, they’re not going to move, are they?

0:11:55 – (Steve Gray): They’re not going to go. I’m going to sit here. And of course, you know what happened the last second they take off. And now I’m sitting like this light, I’m going like. And you know what that can happen to people waiting for the next thing they’re realizing. I’m waiting and waiting. The life is going on. Time is passing. I’m not going to make the light, am I? I’m waiting. It’s not going to happen this time. It’s not.

0:12:21 – (Steve Gray): Now the light’s going to turn green again. I just have to wait. But I felt myself sinking like I missed it. And now I have to wait more. And I don’t like this. So one of the things that people make a mistake that people make in the waiting period is losing heart. They just give up, lose heart and just sink. Like I did. Like, I won’t honk, I won’t fight, I won’t press. I’ll just. I’m going to miss this light. I’ll just sit here.

0:12:46 – (Steve Gray): And so they lose heart and they give up and they just sink. And then the other mistake that people make is when waiting for what’s coming is to go ahead and jump and make a mistake or force something or say, well, since that’s not happening, it must mean that this is supposed to happen. And they end their waiting Period. Right before we started this, we talked about waiting. You could talk about it.

0:13:11 – (Steve Gray): Abraham got a promise from God that he was going to be the father of many nations and have a child in his old age. But Sarah, his wife, didn’t want to wait.

0:13:21 – (Kathy Gray): No.

0:13:22 – (Steve Gray): What happened?

0:13:22 – (Kathy Gray): Well, she got impatient and she started manipulating things. She made a big mess. And instead of waiting for the seed of Abraham to be born and become the inheritor, well, she forced him to have a little affair with her maid. And there we have. Now we have Ishmael. We have Hagar’s mom and Ishmael. And that started a ton of trouble, which we are very much still experiencing for generations. And now it’s happening there in the Middle East. We’re seeing that strife and that striving and the hatred against, you know, God’s people instead of coming together.

0:14:04 – (Kathy Gray): And we’re seeing that still today. So, ladies, please do not push your husband. Do not manipulate your husband. Husbands do know timing better than we do. Often. I’m saying that as a wife, and I’m saying that publicly to my husband with, you know, sometimes women, they can’t wait as long.

0:14:26 – (Steve Gray): Yeah, I think she did get a little pushy with him.

0:14:29 – (Kathy Gray): She did.

0:14:29 – (Steve Gray): And do we get the feeling that he probably would have waited without nudging? Probably he could have made a mistake himself. But we see that his wife came up with the big idea and it’s a huge mess even today. And eventually, though, they get it right. Because the son has to be born when they’re too old or both too old. It has to be born out of death. In other words, he said, her womb is good as dead and I’m as good as dead.

0:14:56 – (Steve Gray): Well, that had to happen because God’s going to bring what, life out of death? God’s got to bring the resurrection. It can’t be that there’s any place to squeeze out and say, well, it would have happened anyway. Cause Jesus wasn’t really dead or whatever. And so God had to bring out, say, Abraham, you have to be good as dead to bring life. And Sarah, you have to be good as dead to bring life. Cause I have to bring life from death.

0:15:22 – (Steve Gray): I have to do it. Have to do it to show how I do it. So you can be a history maker and show that. So that’s why they had to wait until Isaac was born. Because he was born when it was impossible, Possible. So.

0:15:36 – (Kathy Gray): Oh, wow. So I know times in our lives, in our ministry and our walk together, that there have been times when we’ve waited for specific things or specific actions from the Lord. And just that waiting, waiting, waiting thing, and sometimes wondering, you know, what’s going on. But then as we’ve learned to wait, I tell you what, there have been many Isaacs in the spirit realm given to us, you know, and if we had been impatient or jumped ahead or, you know, taken on more ministry than at our character stages, we were able to.

0:16:16 – (Kathy Gray): We wouldn’t have hardly any Isaacs, but we got them now because we waited in hope on the Lord for the children.

0:16:26 – (Steve Gray): I think a lot of churches need to learn that lesson because we aren’t impatient. I was impatient to the light. I can be impatient because I like to go forward. I like now. Everybody likes to get it done now and see it now. But as a good pastor and a good leader, we need to look and say, this is where our people are. This is where my church is. This is where I want to go now. Let’s go that way. I’m willing to wait to work towards that, develop the people so they. They develop and they’re ready for what God wants to do.

0:16:57 – (Steve Gray): So many people, you know, jump ahead. They want to have revival and that. So, you know, they. They get a guest evangelist in who’s really powerful and exciting, all that. They do a Sunday morning and do a Sunday night. Wow. Oh, we’re so excited. People come back Monday night because it’s the week of revival, you know, that they have at their church, and everybody gets so excited and every, you know, things like.

0:17:18 – (Steve Gray): And then the week of revival ends, and instead of keeping something going that it’s over with. Our revival’s over now. We had it. We waited. We had it. It’s done. And a good pastor says, wait a minute. What we saw when that guest was here, the more energy, the more prayer, the more altar calls or whatever like that. I want that all the time. I don’t want it twice a year with a guest evangelist. I want it to happen when I’m preaching, you know?

0:17:44 – (Steve Gray): And so you set that as a goal, and then you start working toward it and willing to wait for it. When we opened the church in Smithton in 1984, as you may have heard the story, we got offered great churches in Chicago, but we turned it down for a church that was dead. No people, no money, piano and some old pews. Nothing. Locked up for four years. Nothing. 0,00. And God talked to me and said, I’ll tell you what I’d do. I wouldn’t take that church in Chicago. I’d raise the dead in a church built in 1859 that had no people, no money, dead religion locked up. And Jesus told me I’d take that and bring life to it, and I’d bring revival to it.

0:18:32 – (Steve Gray): So we opened that up in 1984 with the idea that God’s going to revive us, God’s going to do something great. And I know it sounded crazy back then when I would stand there in that church in town of 532 people and say, imagine people coming to this church from all over the world. Remember I would say that, and I’d point like this and say, imagine them lining up to get in this building because God so powerfully in the house.

0:19:01 – (Steve Gray): Well, it’s a great thing. They’d cheer and that. Or when we first started, all 12 people would cheer, or 30 people, or 40 as the years went by. But that’s when waiting. I got set for it. And then I waited. And now I’m in a town of 532 people, turned down a huge church, big church with big money and a big city. And I wait and I wait. And guess what? 12 years from that promise, I would raise the dead.

0:19:30 – (Steve Gray): I had to wait 12 years. And then right before he raised the dead, so to speak, with the revival, it even got lower and it got worse before it got better. So you’d think like, oh, it’s almost here. I can feel it. I can feel you, Lord. I can feel. You know, that preacher got up and he said, the Holy Ghost is all over me, you know, and he’s ready to preach. Well, I felt nothing. There was no sign that anything was ever going to happen in 12 years prior passed. And it started like, this is hard.

0:19:59 – (Steve Gray): What’s going to happen, what I’m going to do. But we waited. And suddenly then that year in 1996, now 12 years later, we could say Isaac showed up. What was born out of, what could have been born out of the natural. For 12 years, trying to program after program, I sat and I preached revival and I preached revival until 12 years later, the power of God struck and like Isaac was born. Not the ordinary way, born from above. The power of God came down in that service.

0:20:34 – (Steve Gray): And yep, people from all over the world, every nations all over the world, every state in the union lined up for three and a half years to get in that building. A thousand people every day for five days a week, right? So I had to wait. But I had to not despair while I waited and not give up. And finally God came through. Now, every church probably would have liked to have that happen. Like they’d love to have Time magazine and Newsweek magazine, all the TV and Wall Street Journal, St. Louis Post Dispatch, of course, Kansas City Star. I was going to say, what’s, oh, San Francisco Chronicle, all the papers that made, you know, all the stories, they came and they, or they called me and did stories on it. Right.

0:21:22 – (Steve Gray): Well, what pastor wouldn’t like that? But they’re not willing to wait. So they have many revivals. So they have a explosive weekend. Oh, that was such a great weekend. Then go back to normal. So that’s why people don’t know how to wait. They don’t have to say, this is what we want. And we’re willing to wait for it before the Lord and serve him, though, in the meantime, not just do nothing, which is what most people do.

0:21:48 – (Steve Gray): So now, now we are in a different place. As we learn now, yes, we’ve been waiting. We still need to wait because the church is not ready. The church worldwide or the church across our country, America is not ready for what’s happening in our government right now. I’m saying our government is ready to go. Wow, we have a leader. We’re going to rewrite. We’re going to. What are they, what is all the presidential things that are going on, you know, executive act, executive orders.

0:22:18 – (Steve Gray): You’re doing all these executive orders and the nation’s going, yes, yes, yes. Well, let’s just have a few pastors step in their church this week and do some executive orders and say, we’re going to stop having worship for 20 minutes. We’re going to have as long as we want to have it right. We’re going to, we’re going to stop, we’re going to stop getting out in an hour. We’re going, we’re going to stop feeling sorry for you. We’re going to stop treating you like losers. We’re going to start expecting you to be a servant of the most high God. Get your stuff together, put on the whole armor of God, stop being deceived, stop whining, stop complaining.

0:22:51 – (Steve Gray): There’s an executive order we could use from some pastors, but the pastors are so afraid that it. So they’ll, they’re going to try to. That’s. That’s what’s going to happen. We are in a waiting period of an outbreak of God’s spirit, an outbreak of a renaissance of the spirit of God revival, where the fire of God’s in. People. People want to talk about God. People want to come to church. People want to hear a sermon. People want to hear prayer. They want to worship God.

0:23:19 – (Steve Gray): It’s going to, I’m Praying God, it’s going to. Praying, Kathy. It’s going to be old fashioned to look at your watch at a church service and say, what time does this thing get over? Right? How long, how fast can we get in? Cause I got important stuff to do and people are going to want to be in church. They’re going to come early, they’re go. They’re going to bring their neighbors, they’re going to bring their kids, they’re going to bring their teenagers, and we’re all going to have a renaissance.

0:23:43 – (Steve Gray): It’s going to be an executive order from the throne of God. But we’re going to have to wait. You know why? Cause our churches are so coddled, so lazy, so whiny, so puny that they’re so stressed right now, Kathy, that we couldn’t ask them to stay longer. We can’t say we’re going to do more. We can’t say we’re. We’re going to have a. How about we have a midweek prayer service? I can’t. I can’t handle it now. I can’t hardly make it, and I’m.

0:24:12 – (Steve Gray): All right. Well, pastors, you’re going to have to start sowing the seeds of revival and give us some time to adjust until we say the waiting period is over. See, here’s the mistake that churches make, Kathy. Churches always give themselves more time. Jesus said this. He said, you say you got four more months. He said, I say the harvest is ready now, Kathy. I say the harvest is ready now, but we’re not.

0:24:39 – (Steve Gray): The nation is changing. The voices are rising, the people are calling. Celebrities are using the name of Jesus publicly. And we can’t even hardly get our pastors to say the name of Jesus. People want to know truth. They want to move forward. So we are at a place of waiting. Yes, but it’s time for the church and the leaders to follow the leading of the cry of the people of our nation. We want some common sense religion. We want to connect with God.

0:25:11 – (Steve Gray): We want to get our lives on track. We want to be wholesome, we want to have values. We want to send our kids to school and know they’re safe. All those things, right? Our nation is there. Our churches are trying to get there. And the leaders need to say, our time of waiting is over. It’s time to make our move. And if we’re not ready to make our move, then we need to set a goal and say, this is where we’re going to be in a year. We’re going to be a church on fire for God and we’re going to start working towards that.

0:25:44 – (Steve Gray): And just like we had to wait for one administration to end. Right now we need some church administrations to end. And we need a renaissance, a revival of the preachers and people of God to rise up and say, yep, yep, we want something. We want something born of the Spirit. I don’t want to go to a church born in the ordinary way. Anybody can build a church built on business model, but not very many men or women out there can get the power of God to break out of heaven.

0:26:20 – (Steve Gray): God, break forth and come down among your people and show us that we can say, God is among us again. Right? People are trying to make America great again. Listen, guys and gals, we better make the church great again. It can no longer be the whining bunch of people just hanging on, bickering among themselves on Facebook, telling how much the church ruined their lives, hurt their feelings, or didn’t get them what they want.

0:26:52 – (Steve Gray): Ah, we are on the edge of something big. Come on, let’s get a revival. Let’s get the churches now to follow the pattern of the nation. The people of America have spoken. Now let the church folks rise to the occasion till we can say, revive us again. Will you revive us again, O Lord? And. And the Lord says, yes, I will revive you again. Well, tell your friends about this. About. We’ve been talking about this great stuff. Tell your friends you better listen to this. Cause this guy and this gal and this group, they’re moving on and they’re going to teach us the way to revival.

0:27:29 – (Steve Gray): All right? So tell your friends to meet to watch this podcast. More Faith, More Life, and their life will change. More faith is going to produce more life, and it’s going to change the world. See you next time. Bye!