Will It Happen? (God's Timing)

Hey, what's up? This is Tim Pratt Jr. I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to this content today. I hope you hear something that adds value to your life, shaping your perspective, faith, and hope, as well as the application to see and do in this thing that we call life. Enjoy. What's up everybody? So this is episode 2, Will It Happen? . So one Sunday recently I preached a message by the title of This Time Around. I was kind of wrestling with calling it The Rematch, and it's kind of starting with the same passage of scripture— maybe not really, it started in the same chapter of Joshua 6, but it was more so like key verses out of 6, 7, and 8. And that's not this episode, but as I was studying it, the Lord had took me in a different direction for this particular episode in the context of will it happen God's timing. And so in this one, I want to deal with more so the things that we are called to basically conquer, if I may say, by the grace of God, whether that be your, you know, the degree of financial stewardship, a business, moving up the corporate ladder, things in ministry, whatever that may be, whatever it looks like for your life. You might be struggling with something that you're trying to do and it just seems like all hell is breaking loose. You know, with, uh, Pastor Darius Daniels mentioned satanic severity. It's basically the revelation that— it's the revelation of the enemy anxiety because he know if you accomplish what you are called to accomplish, it's going to do great damage to his kingdom. That's another episode for another day because I like that. But in this— in the context of this episode, I want to specifically deal with the walls of Jericho. But a lot of times, you know, as I've grown up in church as well as just been in Sunday school, or more so just grown up and grown— have grown up in the local building, and because we are the church, but I'm not gonna get into that right now. But you get my point. I've always been told that, you know, especially a lot of preachers, when they get to that point, many different preachers, it's like, and the wall fell, and you know, I shout, ha ha ha, you know, all that type of stuff. And God said, and you know, and I'm not knocking that at all, because I like it if they still teaching sound doctrine, teaching the word. I'm not just saying to sit up there clown entertaining. But however, in this episode, what I want you to really look at in all truth is that a lot of times when it comes to us people of faith, something we supposed to accomplish, and we say— and I, this is basically— give me some room because you have to teach the whole counsel but rightly divide the word of God, rightly divide the truth. And I was talking to a friend, like this was some months back, and they had mentioned that like, they was like, man, I'm not trying to hear all that faith talk, man, because they ain't doing it. I got enough of that, you know. They was like, hey, that's not the problem, like I'm out here trying to get this money, you know, and on and on and on. And that's— I get the point. It wasn't a time for me to insert and be like, well, the Bible said this. No, no. I get what they're saying because it's some truth to that. Because now, you know, I'm saying, a lot of people, especially older Christians, you know, my generation and others younger and, you know, a little bit older, of course, we live in the information age. So we are more knowledgeable of things now, and that's primarily because we can get on Google. You know, back then they had to actually go search it out. Like, I was reading a book To the Hell with Hustle, and it was talking about how, like, you know, Justin, basically like a 2-3 months timeframe, if we just truly listen to podcasts, listen to books, read books, study articles, Google stuff, we have— we can basically have more access to information in 2 to 3 months than people had 50 years, you know, back then. And so we can't really penalize them because they could only do— they couldn't do what they didn't know. And so now that we do have all this information, like I always say, anything to its extremest is when it becomes a cancer. So we have all this information now, but what we're dealing with is like, I think we know too much sometimes. And we are more confused than ever because it's always something, a book or another book or a podcast or another podcast or blog, another blog that's going to contradict what we just heard, if that makes sense. But getting back on point is that with us, especially in the church, the local church, we feel like because God's word is complete, Jesus finished it all. We still don't have to do work. And so that's why I want to use this, this, this passage out of Joshua 6 when it said— when the Lord was speaking and he said, you know, now the gates of Jericho were securely buried because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in. Then the Lord said to Joshua, see, I have delivered Jericho in your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for 6 days. Have 7 priests carry trumpets of ram's horns in front of the ark. On the 7th day, march around the city 7 times with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout. Then the wall of the city will collapse, and the army will go up, everyone straight in. And that's Joshua 6:1-5, NIV version. As I meditated on this passage, we know that God gave Joshua a plan to walk around it 6 days, one time, 6 days, and on the 7th day walk around it 7 times, and then on that last time, you know, shout, and when you do this, the wall will come down. Okay, let's stop there. Let's park there for a second. Matter of fact, let's park there but back up a little bit, put it in reverse. As I was studying this, I kept basically overlooking this part. Then the Lord said to Joshua, see, I have delivered Jericho into your hands. The Lord was speaking from a finished place, a finished— just a complete work, if I may say. However, he still went on to give Joshua a plan. So oftentimes in life You know, we feel like, okay, the Lord told me this is mine, I'm gonna accomplish this. But it— throughout scripture you also see instructions. Now we might not agree with them, those instructions, but they're instructions nevertheless. And that's where we often get derailed, or the part that we don't want to focus on. Because just throughout my lifestyle myself, if the Lord tells me you're going to be a great businessman, a real estate investor, you know, or whatever, and then he said, this is what I want you to do next, All I really want to hear is like, the Lord called and told me I'm going to be a great businessman or real estate investor. That's all I wanted. That's all I hear. A great leader. But then he says, Nick, this is what I want you to do. Now I'm like, I'm out here, I'm studying all these books, I'm studying this, and there's not nothing wrong with that. But I believe at the beginning and at the end of the beginning and the end of education, whether it's self-education or academic education or through mentor, whatever, at the beginning and end and all throughout it, you need to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit because that's where those instructions come from. I believe he speaks to us through those, most importantly his word, but I do believe he uses his people. This is not just vertical, it's horizontal. So He works through his people, and we need to be sensitive to that. And so, like, in the passage, like I say, Jericho was already delivered. It was already done in the spiritual realm. Faith— it was, it was accomplished. But then it had to be action after that. You can get into the woman with the issue of blood is another example. She had faith that she could just touch the hem of his garment, she would be made whole. Now, if she didn't touch the hem of his garment, could she have still been made whole? Yes, I believe so, because it's her faith, her faith, her belief, if I may say, her belief, her belief still would have been real, but faith required her to move towards it. And so all I'm saying to make this plain is that if God has called me and told me, Tim, I will make you a great businessman or real estate investor, whatever, a great teacher or great coach or whatever, yes, it's already done. But however, it's a process. I still have to be sensitive to the plan, if that makes sense. Another thing I want to know is that his plan seems stupid. Let's just be real, Walker, because think about it, let's make it relevant to culture. A lot of times if I go outside right now and I'm walking in a straight line, I can kind of gauge and see my success while I'm progressing, I'm moving forward. But then if I go out there and just start walking in circles. First time, you know what I'm saying, that first time around it's like, okay, I'm making progress. Second time I'm like, okay, you know. But the third, fourth, fifth, sixth time, it's like, okay, I feel like I'm seeing the same exact thing. What is going on? But like I say, we're moved by faith, not by sight. It's obedience to God's word, no matter how stupid it may look or seem in a corner perspective. And Paul gets into this and breaks this down with the foolishness of the Lord and the weakness of the Lord. It's basically still greater than us. He can use things that we feel like is stupid to be honestly probably one of the most smartest things you've ever seen in mankind. Not probably, can one of the most smartest things you've seen in mankind because he's God. It's infinite wisdom. So we don't compare in our minds. As intelligent as you may think you are, as well as myself, it will never compare to an all-knowing God. And so as they're walking around, I feel like— not feel, because my feelings can be misguided— by looking at the word I can relate to them in my life because it's like, man, how many times am I going to do this? Lord, okay, I think I'm being obedient. Okay, look, I know I'm being obedient to you, but I'm still not getting the traction I think I need. So how am I going to become this great real estate investor, business leader, educator, whatever it may be that you said that I was going to be? How am I going to accomplish what you said because it seemed like I'm failing. It seemed like I'm moving in circles. And then right when you get at the end, it's just like, well, like, I gotta do what I've been doing 6 days— once a, uh, 6— yeah, 6. I have to do what I've been doing for 6 days one time around. Now I have to take that and do it 7 times. Think about the relevance and like, think about how relevant it is to us. So what the Lord started showing me is that the circle was never about the wall because he said that I have delivered. So it was already done. It was about teaching Israel trust. Are you gonna come basically commit to my word and do what I've instructed you to do? Because if you do that, it's already finished. Now Joshua would have said, man, okay, on the third, fourth day, let's just shout. The wall is capable— was capable of still coming down because he's God. But he didn't follow the instructions. So I don't believe the wall would have came down because it went against what the Lord told him to do. However, God was capable of still— he could have brought it down on the first time. If that— if that make— I hope I'm making sense. And so all I'm saying is that it comes to basically you cannot negotiate with God. He's not changing his mind. You have to do exactly what he told you to do. I'm learning. I wrestle with it all the time. And I'll never forget what I said in that message is that I love audiobooks and reading physical books. It's a, it's a balance. And podcasts and just talking to people and mentorship and coaching and got all this type of stuff. But I would do that so much to the point where the Lord basically told me You seek everything else but me. Let that marinate for a minute. You might not do it, you all might not do it, but I was doing it. And so it was nothing wrong with that, but it had to become— it had to come into the proper order of basically always, like I say, at the beginning and the end and in the middle Everything flows, it starts and ends with him. So some things to know here: a lot of times what we are called to accomplish is wrapped up in simply consistency, and we are great at being consistent at inconsistency. So because that's where the enemy wants to defeat us, we're great at the start of something and then we praise and rejoice at the end of something. But it's just like if you take a person that went through college and got their degree throughout the middle, you know, whether they did it right out of high school, they go back, they have been chasing something for years or whatever. They are a success every single time they get up and say, no matter what, I'm going to accomplish what I believe God has called me to do. It's in the middle, it's in the trenches, because that's where the enemy wants to destroy you at. He not tripping at the start. I'll let them have the excitement, I'll let them, you know, they didn't heard what God called and told them to do, and he didn't gave them a plan. But we gonna see in the middle. I'm gonna meet you in the middle. So that's why consistency is very important. And just to be truthful, I mean, I kind of highlighted this in, in season 1, I think episode 2 or 3, one of those. But honestly, we're not as consistent as we think we are. But that's where grace comes in, because it allows us to basically— it helps us. Honestly, that's, that's what it helps us empower us through his grace and his mercy. But that's not an excuse to just take off. We still have to go back to the intent of the heart. And so you have to make sure that you are committed and stay faithful to what God has promised you and do exactly what he told you. So don't give up, although the word is complete.