Producing the Outcome of God's Purpose - Part II
The Wilderness of Delay
by Dr. John Tetsola

Last month we saw how the manifestation of God’s promise sometimes contradicts our expectations. This contradiction can be clearly seen in the life of Hannah, because although God wanted Hannah fruitful, He made her barren (1 Sam. 1:6). Not because God was insensitive, but because He had a greater outcome in mind. God used the weapon of the enemy (Peninnah) to get a God result (Samuel). As in the life of Hannah, your extended trial could be just the leverage God needs to position you for more than you ever dreamed. Now, let’s see how God uses the wilderness of delay and the pain of a season as preparation for His purpose.

Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart…
Deuteronomy 8:2a

While the wilderness was the school for the children of Israel, today we have the classroom of delay and the pain of a season. Although the enemy seeks to utilize these weapons to destroy us, God has a glorious outcome in mind. For instance, a great man of God once shared that when Moses slew the Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew in Exodus 2:11-12, he may have hoped to deliver God’s people one man at a time, but God had in mind three million at once. For Moses, this meant 40 additional years in God’s school of delay! The enemy’s plan is to wipe you out in the midst of delay, so that you are not entitled to the blessings of your wilderness season. When misinterpreted, delay can be used by the enemy to make your heart distrust, disbelieve, and doubt God’s faithfulness and integrity to keep His Word. But delay in the hands of God and properly interpreted prepares you for the greatness that God intends for your life. Delay is not denial. It is God’s design to manifest more than you ever dreamed, but at the appropriate time.

THE LEANNESS OF A SEASON

And in that day it shall come to pass, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean. At that day shall a man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel.
Isaiah 17:4, 7

Another weapon used by the enemy is the spirit of leanness. Leanness is the lack of fulfillment that’s characterized by the inability to produce. A lean season is when you contain little excess, despite meeting all of God’s known requirements of fruitfulness. Isaiah chapter 17 reveals that when Jacob’s flesh waxed lean, it caused him to look intently to His Maker. While God uses the leanness of a season to drive us to a place of soul-searching and intimacy with Him, the enemy tries to use the season against us. For Hannah, it meant enduring the taunts of Peninnah’s fruitfulness during her season of barrenness, while God prepared her to birth a Samuel. Don't let the pain of one season destroy the joy of all the rest. Instead, allow it to drive you to a new level of commitment to the school of God’s wilderness because God has a glorious outcome in mind.