ALL IN TIME

One of my easiest times of God’s drawing me in my late teens was when the late Sammy Hall came to our high school in Fayetteville, NC and put on a concert. Wow he was great he had the entire school student and staff on their feet in the gym and to think he was singing Christian music. He shared his testimony of how drugs and alcohol almost ruined his life many of the kids were crying (me included) then he sang a song called, “Plenty of Time” that talked about the many chances this person had to accept Christ, but at the end of his life all he had was time separated from God. Chance after chance to give their heart to the LORD, but they were young and had plenty of time. The last verse goes something like this; before I knew what happened my life seemed to pass away and millions were gathered there for it was judgment day and now here I stand with nothing but time. You know time is an amazing thing in our lives. Did you know time is the only thing in our lives we cannot get back once it passes? Time is not owned by man, but is owned by God. I hear people say (even I have said this before) I would like to go back to the good old days when life was much simpler or when the Spirit of God would fall in a special way, well this is impossible because there is no more good old days anymore they are over we cannot go back. The falling of the Spirit is not dependent on a certain time, but on our willingness to become the vessel it requires to be to have the Spirit of God to fall on and move through. The same for the future there is no future there is only now. Time consists of only the here and now. There is no past or future only the here and now. In Romans Paul said, “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. 12The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. 13Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.” (Romans 13:11-13) Did you know many people do not know what time it is? Many people are asleep and do not know it is time to wake up before it is too late. Paul said it is “high time to awake out of sleep” or at the beginning of the fourth watch (the morning watch) of the night when it is the darkest. Unless we wake up we cannot “cast off the works of darkness” and “put on the armour of light.” There is a divine spiritual principle operating here, we must first put off, take off, or cast off before we can put on. And unless we wake up and put on light we will always walk in darkness. Time is defined two ways in the Bible. The first way we can find in Matthew when Herod was talking with the Wise Men, “Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, enquired of them diligently what time the star appeared.8And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.” (Matthew 2:7-8) Here the word “time” is Strong’s #5550, chronos; time either long or short. It is where we get the word chronological or to order of things like; 1, 2, 3, 4 or young to old, day to night, etc. This use of time by God establishes a continuous physical order to our lives and even our universe that can be used to establish a beginning and an end. We see this use of time when God established seed time and harvest. It is a time that physical processes function within and cannot move outside the limitations and restrictions of its sequencing. Now there is another understanding of time used in the Bible that has more of a spiritual usage. Again in Matthew we read, “And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way. 29And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?” (Matthew 8:28-29) Here the word “time” is Strong’s #2540, kairos; a fixed and definite time, the time when things are brought to crisis, a limited period of time. Here Jesus is passing by and some demons cried out to Him questioning Him whether or not He has come to cut their time short. I find it amazing the demons knew of their time to operate and knew of the time in the future when they will be tormented. This word for “time” is more spiritual in nature and projection. It is for a defined duration and for a limited span unlike “chronos” which is continual and must operate well within the bounds of physical order. In Ephesians we read, “Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. 15See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, 16Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. 17Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.” (Ephesians 5:14-16) Time is often tied in Scripture to sleeping or people asleep spiritually. Time also is often tied in Scripture to God’s will. Here Paul encourages the Church at Ephesus to “redeem the time.” Here the word “redeeming” is Strong’s #1805 which means; to make wise and sacred use of every opportunity for doing good, so that zeal and well doing are as it were the purchase money by which we make the time our own. This can only be done in “kairos” time because this redemption is a short time of acting. All that we do in God spiritually must be done in “kairos” time. God has an appointed time for us to do things and when this time is over we have moved outside the will and purpose God has ordained. When we moved to Germany and started Christliche Gemeinde Stuttgart it was for a period of time. I was not to keep pastoring even though I could and I am sure God would have still continued to bless, but that was not what God wanted for me, my family, and others. I have seen this play out time and time again in my life and in the lives of others. We have a limited amount of time to do things for God on the earth. We have even less time to do specific things God has purposed and planned for us to. God holds everything in His balance scale of time and He expects us to know what time it is and He expects us to move with Him in whatsoever He is doing in and through us. This time thing is amazing. We think we have tomorrow and like Sammy Hall’s song we have “Plenty of Time,” well that is wrong thinking my friend. God’s word tells us that He does not promise no man (mankind which included women) tomorrow. In James we read, “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” (James 4:14) In other words our life is like smoke or steam that appears for a short “kairos” of time. I like the question, “For what is your life?” Wow what a question. The answer can be answered by different people in different ways, but all must answer the question it is bound up in this thing called time and in time the answer will be revealed. One thing for sure whatever we do for God we must not be slow at it and not waste time. Remember time once spent can never be recovered, but how funny it is that we can waste something so precious as time. Let us purpose in our heart not to waste the time God has given us. Let us redeem (is a money term) the time God has given us and yield the investment God is looking for in us and the time He has invested in us. You know our salvation is expressed in term of money, our redemption is a term whereby something was bought back. Jesus bought back (redeemed us by the time spent on the cross) our soul through His precious blood. Our life is a mirror in time a reflection of what is. Walter Beuttler said the Holy Spirit was like a camera He revealed an image of reality. So we must desire to become the expressed image (that mirror) of the Father and in time we will be that image as we are changed from glory to glory. Written by David Stahl