When Jesus says something is going to happen and it doesn’t.
Friends, does it ‘throw’ you when a ‘expected event’ doesn’t eventuate? How do you ‘deal’ with it? Do you feel disappointed, let down or outright cheated? I mean that’s if you wanted the event, if you didn’t want it you’d be relieved, right? But what happens when this so called event you are waiting for is coming from heaven? Do you call God a liar?
Friends, these are the issues I would like to address today, what happens when it doesn’t happen?
I had a friend ask me a question and I’d like to share it with you today, it just may be the same question burning in your heart also.
We were waiting for a much anticipated event but it’s ‘appearing date’ kept getting shuffled about.
“The whole time thing is getting really confusing. One minute they (the organisers) are saying it’s going to happen any day and the other minute they are saying they are going to bring it forward. Bringing it forward sounds like it was planned for a time in the future – not ‘any day’. A little while ago they said possibly one date, now they say another date, they are bringing it forward – that means they never had it planned for the initial date. What is causing the confusion here? Are we really overtime and waiting on someone or something that is delaying things and the organisers had planned for it to have already started or was it always planned for a time yet in the future? This on again, off again is getting confusing.”
Friends, today I am talking specifically to the christian believers (please friends if you are not a believer, I encourage you to give your heart to Jesus and I pray you find peace within these pages), yes, we know Jesus is coming back to this earth to redeem His children and take us home. I believe we are all weary of the fight and I know I for one am straining for home. Let’s turn the above statement into one of the all time questions, one very dear to my heart, “why hasn’t Jesus come?” and “what is the ‘Time Delay’?”
While we are looking at this question in the context of Jesus’ second coming delay, this question can be related to so many more events. Say for instance you need to be somewhere, or the timing of a particular event is crucial to your plans. Well friends this letter will address these issues also, we are looking at time delays in general, just using the second coming as a example.
Let’s listen in to someone’s personal concerns:-
“The devil gets in your ear telling you that they, the organisers, (or in this case we are using the second coming so we will swap out ‘organisers’ for heaven) don’t have any idea and that you can’t believe anything they say. I just don’t want to end up in a situation where I can’t believe them because they’ve proved themselves unreliable. I do not want to ever disregard them because I don’t trust them, but sometimes I feel skepticism at their words. So how do we look at these ‘Time Delays’?”
I believe the main answer to this conundrum is the human involvement.
Not everything follows the original plan A, often we can end up at plan B, C, or D. See heaven is working with the human race and as we were created free we have the power to choose and unfortunately not everyone ‘chooses’ to work with God. This may hamper plan A, but it doesn’t stop Jesus, He has plan A to infinity. Often Jesus goes with plan A, knowing full well it is going to fail – but – someone within that plan had desired to work for Jesus. Jesus gave them that opportunity within plan A, at the last minute that someone pulled out, leaving the plan hanging in the balance. Now Jesus knew full well that the ‘someone’ mentioned was going to bail out, but if Jesus hadn’t given ‘someone’ their desired opportunity they would have accused Jesus of being unfair, at never giving them their ‘desired opportunity’. Jesus had to ‘show’ them they couldn’t do it otherwise Jesus was left open to accusation. A lot of the things we do or the moves we make are to justify Jesus in the heavenly courts. Let me give another example of this, let’s go to a short allegory to try to ‘explain’ what I am trying to portray.
“Say for example Sally (not anyone’s real name) had been impressed to buy a surplus of food and keep it at her house, it was to her understanding for a event where food would be in short supply and she was going to help others. The food went out of date and it was all thrown out. This was a trial for Sally as she had gone to a fair bit of expense, but trusting in Jesus she moved forward. Now as this is a allegory I’ll ‘explain’ what happened that Sally could not ‘see’.
The people she was going to help had turned their back on God, so Jesus couldn’t help them – but – there was no way anyone was going to be able to accuse Jesus of not helping them. In the heavenly courts when that incident arises and the accusations are directed at Jesus, all Jesus has to do is point to Sally, all He has to say is “look, I had plenty of provisions in supply, you failed to trust me and you turned your back”. It is a bit of a long winded example but I hope you understand, heaven is constantly under attack, accusations run rampant and while we may not understand the process, we may not understand why we are instructed to make such a move, why our direction has been changed or why there is a ‘Time Delay’, heaven does understand and heaven is working toward a greater purpose.
I believe a lot of what we do is to justify Jesus and heaven. The above example happens many times in different ways, each time coming back to the same spot, we did it to justify heaven and ‘give that person their opportunity’. The other factor that plays a major role in this is the devil. He (Satan) knows once Jesus is on His way that his reign is over, so Satan stops at nothing to try to block Jesus and to a large degree he succeeds.
Let’s go to another example in a attempt to explain ‘Time Delays’.
Basically what happens is heaven has a plan for the final outcome, for example, the second coming is set in concrete, it cannot be changed, it will happen. The plan to get there is flexible. I believe if they could take out the human involvement and just fight it out in the skies this whole drama would go a lot better, but they have to work with the human factor. Now Satan forces his subjects, Jesus doesn’t, hence all the chopping and changing. Joe wants a go but when he sees how hard it is he pulls out and Jesus is off to find Ben, does Ben still want a go? Yes, let’s give Ben a go, oopsy it’s too hard and Ben signs off and Jesus is left looking for the next person. But if neither (Joe or Ben) were not offered a go they would have questioned Jesus “why?” and Jesus would be left trying to justify Himself. Jesus knew Joe and Ben couldn’t do it but Joe and Ben didn’t, they had to be shown, it had to be proved. Hence the changing of plans. Plans are also juggled around to try to put the devil off.
But back to the time line, getting to heaven is a given, how we get there changes, Jesus has to battle with the devil every step of the way and so often the devil forces a change. So, when we may be ’expecting’ a event, it isn’t set in concrete it is just the move Jesus is trying to make and we must be ready regardless of whether He succeeds and we are on our way or not, but so many times now the devil has destroyed Jesus’ plans. Jesus will win, we will be on our way but time and time again people are slipping out of the fold, not ‘being in position’ or the devil has just destroyed another plan and Jesus has to take a diversion. Jesus is at the disadvantage as Satan can force people and Jesus will not. Christians reading this who believe in the prophet Ellen White will remember that Jesus was supposed to come in her day and the devil stalled it all. Well he delayed it in the past and he (Satan) thinks he can do it again. But Jesus has told us and shown us that this world can no longer go on, therefore Jesus is coming we just have to adjust to His movements.
So friends I hope that by the above examples you can ‘see’ why Jesus has ‘Time Delays’. Let’s just take a quick peek at another ‘factor’ that may ‘throw’ us. Take for example the ‘sudden change of direction’. We need to be able to change direction suddenly, we must be standing ready to take a detour without question. We may be impressed for example, to go to the beach to meet someone. On the way you get another impression to go somewhere else first, you may or may not ever reach that ‘first’ destination. We may never find out why we had to change direction we just have to trust Jesus and follow His impressions. See for example the person at the beach may have given Jesus a ultimatum saying “I want to see someone or else”. Jesus is sending you but before you arrive that person has given up and left. There is no point for you to go as you are no longer needed but in the heavenly courts Jesus can say to that person “friend I had someone coming, they were on their way”. This is just a possible scenario but these are the reasons we get ‘tossed about’.
So the ‘Time Delay’ we are looking at today is just the next move they (heaven) are endeavouring to make, unfortunately humans and the devil are blocking heaven’s attempts. We don’t necessarily know why things change, we don’t ‘see’ everything or every move Jesus makes but as christians we need to stand ready, we cannot be like the five foolish virgins, asleep when the bridegroom cometh.
The other ‘time’ issue I have come across and would like to address today is their ‘soon’ and our ‘soon’ are a long way apart. There are also other things in play that we as humans will not understand till we get into heaven. Let’s go for a example. We want to go to the circus to see the elephant, we set a date, it’s going to happen. The day comes and we get a call from the circus to say the elephant is sick, do we go? Is it a go? No. There is so much more at stake for Jesus, yes He was planning, for example, a event in January, yes He is running it soon. These ‘times’ Jesus gives us are not ‘definite’ but they are extremely likely and as we must be ready Jesus continues to send through “stand ready” warnings. People are going to sleep left right and centre, Jesus may be prepared to run it tomorrow and have someone step out of line, Jesus is out to save everyone, hence the ‘event’ stalls again. It hurts, I know, we are all standing ready the ‘delay’ is not on us but we are out to save souls also. The main thing we need to do is just trust in Jesus, I believe Jesus is juggling time, I know we don’t always understand His reasoning but we do trust His judgement. The main thing we need to understand is that Jesus is juggling a lot, the second coming (as we are using in our example) is set in concrete, Jesus is coming soon and we have to stay ready but these ‘times’ Jesus gives us are variable, and if something in the chain of events falls off the travelator belt the ‘time’ is stalled.
This friends, is the ‘Time Delays’ I am referring to, friends things change and sometimes confusion ensues, “do I take that path or not? I’m sure I was supposed to go down there?” Then the devil comes in to confuse us. Friends it doesn’t mean something has ‘gone wrong’ just because plans change or a event doesn’t occur, it only means there has been a time delay or plans have changed. These plans are going to change as we are fighting with the devil. It is really important that we learn to accept change and change direction suddenly, this path through is winding indeed and our paths are going to change suddenly depending on what the devil is doing. Think of it as playing a game of dodge ball, we are and will be constantly dodging the moves of the devil.
Friends, in this world we are walking in we are not walking alone, I have mentioned the spirit world in most if not all of my letters and it is no different here. I am a Christian and I have chosen Jesus as my Master and I serve under His command and alongside His angels. Friends, this world isn’t going to last forever, Jesus is coming to take us home again. Till that day I encourage you to accept the ‘Time Delays’, expect a change of plans, put your hand in the hand of our blessed Saviour and allow Jesus to guide us through.