Peace, Waiting on God

How shall they hear without a preacher

?A preacher, in Scripture, is a herald—a man who stands in the open and announces the King’s word with weight. He does not own the message. He publishes it. And “hear” means more than sitting under sound. It means to take the Word in until it can produce faith.

Without such men, transformation stays shallow and the revival we already taste cannot come into its full strength. The greatest need of this hour is not more methods or music, but men anointed by the Holy Spirit who will preach the whole counsel of God with fire and love.

Look at Acts.

Their preaching brought conviction. Multitudes were added—not as casual attenders, but as people devoted to the apostles’ doctrine and to Christ. Even those chosen for daily care were men full of the Holy Ghost. This was not a program. It was the kingdom of Jesus Christ, and they risked their lives for His name. The same word that saved also stirred opposition, because truth exposes sin and demands an answer.

Listening to men preach the Word with power has marked me, changed me, and deepened my hunger for holiness.

God has not changed. “The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it” (Psalm 68:11). From the throne the word is still given. He still looks for a company who will announce it with zeal.

What happens when that company is missing? Amos warned of a famine “not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD” (Amos 8:11). Buildings may fill with entertainment, yet God has chosen “the foolishness of preaching” to save them that believe (1 Corinthians 1:21). When performance crowds out proclamation, people starve and the church loses power to change a culture.

Paul said, “Woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!” Jesus said the harvest is plenteous and the labourers few—so pray the Lord of the harvest to send them. Tozer saw churches becoming poor theaters while few dared raise a voice. Some still think we have enough preaching and only need better programs.

This hour asks for a certain kind of man: one who hates sin with fire and loves the sinner with kindness.

Will we settle for entertainment, or cry out for heralds—truth like an arrow, hearts full of love, lips filled by the Spirit—until mouths are stopped and many call on the name of the Lord?

Aaron Beiler

Faith But Without Patience

Faith believes the promise. Patience endures the delay.

We have heard a lot about faith.

We have heard far less about patience.

Patience: the characteristic of a man who is not swerved from a deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith by even the greatest trials and sufferings.

Scripture will not separate the importance of both faith and patience. Abraham believed God—and it was counted to him as righteousness. That is the verse we have focused on. The verse we think less about is this: after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

Many believers embrace the pursuit of faith in God for great things—promises, deliverance, revival, and manifestations of the glory of God. Less are willing to endure the patience those things require.

Preachers often call the people to believe God for the promise. Very little is said about the patience that is required to see the fulfillment of what is believed for. Therefore, many have stumbled when the expected outcome did not come without perseverance and tribulation. We have been taught how to believe a promise. We have been far less taught how to remain when the promise does not come on our timetable.

Abraham did both. Scripture says that is how he obtained what was spoken.
“That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises… And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.”

When impatience tries to help God

Faith without patience grows restless, then looks for another way. Hagar was that way.

Abraham had a promise from God. The years passed. The womb remained closed. In the silence he and Sarah reached for a way to help it along. Ishmael was born—and a great grief entered the house. Impatience did not merely delay the promise. It left a sorrow that patiently waiting would not have created. Quiet years did not cancel what God had spoken. When Abraham ran ahead of God, he did not fill a gap. He multiplied grief.

Many still believe. Fewer endure the silence.

Persevering to wait on God is evidence of strong faith.

A person can say he has great faith. That is proved only when he can endure the trials. He must overcome satanic resistance that opposes the purpose of God. And he must endure with patience before seeing the desired outcome.

Abraham, through faith and patience, received what God had spoken. The first without the second created a problem. The two together inherited the promise.

What “much patience” actually is

Paul commends God’s servants first by their patience, not by their gifts.“in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses…” (2 Corinthians 6:4).

The word "patience" is hypomonē—remaining under pressure without collapsing or quitting. It is not just tolerance. Rather, it is the steadfastness of a soul that is not swerved from purpose or loyalty because of trials. English “patience” is often too weak for what Paul means. This is the power to remain under real pressure.

Paul’s usefulness in the Kingdom and Paul’s suffering went together: labors, stripes, prisons, shipwreck, hunger, false brethren, and “that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.” He did not treat these as interruptions to ministry. He treated them as the setting in which ministry happened.
“We glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;-
”Romans 5:3–4

Near the end he could say, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” He could say that because the faith had been tested by intense trials.

So it was with Job.
“Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.”
James 5:11

The end of the Lord was tender mercy. Before the fulness of that mercy was revealed, patience was required.

Wait for the promise

“Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49)

The tomb was empty. Faith knew He was risen. They needed to "tarry" until the promise came.

Have faith—then wait for the promise. The fulfillment of promises is always sure. Patience is required.

Matthew Henry noted that "215 years had passed since God promised Abraham a great nation".

Speaking of patience! After all those years the family was still only seventy! And yet from there God would still make of him a great nation. When God pleases, a little one shall become a thousand.
“A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation: I the Lord will hasten it in his time.”
Isaiah 60:22

God hastens it—in His time. Not in ours.

Why does God make His people wait so long?

Consider a better question: Why does God make promises to us at all? He owed us nothing. He chose, of His own free will, to bind Himself to what He spoke. It is like a rich man making a poor stranger his heir. If the stranger complains about waiting for the inheritance, he shows himself ungrateful. The wait is not the main problem. Our impatience with God’s timing can displease Him more then the delay tests us. His timing is perfect. Let’s trust God!

William Gurnall wrote, "if thou hast sincerely waited on God, and yet hast not received the strength thou desirest, let it be thy resolution to live and die waiting on Him".

Delay does not mean the promise is void.

I write from Lancaster County, out of the traditional Amish religion I once lived, among a people who know how to endure and still need patience and faith for a greater revival.

From my journal, November 2012:

"The journey is difficult and long but by the grace of God we will enter into the glory that God has prepared for us. His strength is manifested in our weakness. Let us lean hard on Him and wait patiently".

Years later, in April 2021, the Holy Spirit seemed to press the same need deeper:

"Seems as if a strong exhortation from the Holy Spirit that my personal greatest need to receive the mighty power of God is to patiently wait before my God".

My focus wasn’t on needing more faith. It was to have more patience.

What the Lord required of me, He requires of His people.

I expect there will be a great revival among the Amish in Lancaster and beyond as we embrace, with much patience, the hard and intense battles we need to pass through. When we have learned, as Paul did, to be content in every situation without wavering in our faith, there will be a glorious manifestation of the promises of God.

And even if we never see the full outcome of the promise in this life, we can still have the testimony of Enoch, who pleased God by faith. As we add a greater and enduring patience to our faith, we will find more grace in His sight. The outcome of a powerful revival will be most glorious.

Delay does not mean the promised revival will not come to pass.

“For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” Habakkuk 2:3

We wait with Christ Jesus

All of this waits on a Person, not only an outcome. The promises of God are yes and amen in Christ Jesus. Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross.

He waited for His hour.

If we wait, we abide in Him.

Looking Unto Jesus:

Running and not becoming weary - Walking through delayed seasons and still not fainting.

The ones who have patience and wait upon the Lord will have their strength renewed, then they will mount up with wings as an eagle.

Do not lose heart.

Remember the patience of Job. Ponder his outcome.

Aaron Beiler

A parable on why anointed preaching still matters.

When the Herald Did Not Come
A story of a hungry city, a silent square, and the word that was never announced
A city waits for the king’s herald while stages fill with lesser voices.

The King had a city He loved.

He also had a word for that city—clear, weighty, and meant to be heard. In former days He sent heralds: men who stood in the open square, not to entertain, but to announce what the throne had spoken. When they cried out, people stopped. Some believed. Some raged. None could pretend they had not heard.

Then the company of heralds grew thin.

The square did not stay empty. Other voices rushed in. A stage was built. Songs were polished. Skits made the people laugh. Programs filled the hours. A comedian could gather a crowd faster than a prophet. The buildings were busy. The people were not fed.

A young man walked the streets looking for bread that was not bread. He heard many sounds and little Word. He did not need another performance. He needed a voice that carried heaven’s authority—someone who would speak so that hearing became more than noise: listening, understanding, faith.

In a side street an old servant still remembered the King’s charge. “How shall they hear without a preacher?” A preacher is a herald. He does not invent the sentence. He publishes it. He does not ask first whether the city will applaud. He asks whether the throne has spoken.

The old servant prayed that the Lord of the harvest would send laborers. He knew a famine worse than empty barns: “not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD.”

One night the King looked over the crowded square and the quiet pulpits. He still gave the word from His throne. He still looked for a company willing to publish it with boldness and love. The harvest was plenteous. The laborers were few.

A man finally stepped into the square. He did not come with a better program. He came with the King’s message—straight as an arrow, heart full of compassion, mouth full of fire. Some were cut to the heart. Some tried to silence him. A few were added, not as casual watchers, but as people who embraced the truth and turned their world the right way up for Christ.

The city learned again what it had forgotten: entertainment can fill a room; only the foolishness of preaching, anointed by the Spirit, can raise the dead.

The question left hanging over every generation is the same: when the world needs heralds most, will the company rise—or will the square stay loud and the people stay hungry?