Time and timing (specifically) are two of the most elusive concepts. The time factor has been explored, dissected and beaten pretty severely as we would a piñata at a child’s birthday party. We humans, have had an unrelenting need to see ALL the candy that is inside of that thing, we don’t care if anything remains after we are finished, we must have that CANDY! And after all of our detective work, we are not much closer to understanding, harnessing or staying on top of time. But timing is a whole other creature in and of itself. Timing is a perfect combination of being at the right place, at the right time, with the right people, doing the right thing, leading us into the fulfillment of the promises of God - timing is essentially as they say, everything. As followers of Jesus, we of course have our own unique understanding of timing as belonging to God Himself. We call it God’s timing and we know this in particular to be perfect. So the break down for us becomes something like this: time (as Ecclesiastes so poignantly describes) is as human as we can get - the ebb and flow of the ups and downs in one’s lifetime is described as purposeful time (Ecclesiastes 3); timing, on the other end of the spectrum is all about things we cannot put our exact pin pointed finger on. Timing is divine in nature and the supernatural is our way to track it down. So then how are we able to live out our time here on the planet, while at the same exact moments, walk in the perfect timing of God?
Jesus wasn’t too big a fan of restrictions and restraints. From His birth in a barn to His trek and camp out at the local synagogue, Jesus never acquiesced to time and His timing was spot on at every turn. The first miracle that Jesus ‘happened upon’ was in fact the act of folding time in order to create a liquid beverage that normally took years to produce, all so that a bunch of people at a wedding would be happy. Talk about setting the bar at the highest level! In one miraculous moment, Jesus would put time in it’s place (under His authority) while He simultaneously utilized the timing of God, and for what? A wedding? Pretty audacious. Up until this point, the only ‘religious’ acts that were done, were done during religious rituals in religious institutions and of course only for Godly works and the Godly people who were there. And yet, Jesus opens up the door into His extraordinary ministry with a toast to newlyweds, meanwhile, making sure that the timing of His Father superseded all the natural time factors.
John 2:1-11 (NASB)
“On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; and both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus *said to Him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus *said to her, “What business do you have with Me, woman? My hour has not yet come.” His mother *said to the servants, “Whatever He tells you, do it.” Now there were six stone water pots standing there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing two or three measures each. Jesus *said to them, “Fill the water pots with water.” So they filled them up to the brim. And He *said to them, “Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.” And they took it to him. Now when the headwaiter tasted the water which had become wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter *called the groom, and *said to him, “Every man serves the good wine first, and when the guests are drunk, then he serves the poorer wine; but you have kept the good wine until now.” This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and revealed His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.”
So as Jesus kicks off His ministry season with the wedding wine, He also reveals to each one of us that time is silenced only by the timing of God and in order to have the timing of God at the ready wherever He went (wherever we go) as He was, we must ourselves be ready at all times. That little interaction between Mary and Jesus is just CLASSIC. We’ve all been there, a mom figure in our lives just roping us into something that we had no intention of getting involved with and there of course, we see the slightest hint of a perturbed Jesus - as He is essentially being thrust into ministry by none other than His MOM! But if we blink we just might miss the moment we’ve all been waiting for. See, Jesus makes His ‘mom’ statement, “What business do you have with Me, woman? My hour has not yet come” and all at once we can see that even though this wasn’t the plan that He intended, He was ready to go. And now we are getting somewhere. See, when we are subjugated to time, be it deadlines or due dates or aging processes or waiting too long or not acting fast enough; whatever it may be or seem to be, we are not in a position to glide into the perfect timing of God. We are as the rhythm-less double dutch jumper who just can’t seem to get in between the two ropes swinging at the same speed from opposing points. So what is the answer? Untangle ourselves from the tyranny of time in order that we might fully know what it is to live according to the timing of our heavenly Father. Although one might think that this is a mastery over ourselves, as we embark on such an undeniably outlandish ideal, we find that this is a master class in the art of keeping out anything that isn’t God or His Word. It’s just as we have written about in blogs gone by, a dividing line of sorts that serves multiple purposes. When we set up boundary lines on our properties, it is as much of an importance point for us to protect that which is inside of those lines as it is to keep out that which would attempt to take away from what we have. Within this understanding, we can see the importance of protection, specifically the protection that we have by way of Jesus as it identifies with that which God is; more than anything else this is the effectual removal of everything that isn't Him.
Romans 12:12 (NASB)
“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
As we begin to gain this wild understanding, we begin to recognize and realize that time isn’t a healer after all - GOD’S TIMING IS (and it doesn’t take long); time doesn’t have to be as it is in Ecclesiastes, a type of ‘ying to a yang’ - GOD’S TIMING IS THE SAME YESTERDAY, TODAY AND FOREVER ; time isn’t the only one to tell - GOD’S TIMING HAS A LOT MORE TO SAY; time may be marching on with or without us but - GOD’S TIMING IS CONSISTENT. After all, time and timing are cousins, just as their counterparts John the Baptist (TIME) and Jesus (TIMING) were also cousins. Revealing to us the importance of our need to decrease our reliance and allegiance to TIME, as we increase our awareness and obedience to God's TIMING. John 3:30 "He must increase, but I must decrease.” We must continue to remind ourselves of that which Peter was trying to help us understand, as he spoke accurately, about the TIMING of God:
2 Peter 3:8 (ESV)
“But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”
And here we find ourselves right back where we began, in the middle of a wedding reception when spirits are joyful and that party is turning into an all nighter. Jesus took the confines of that particular day and catapulted the whole event into this very same equation. And the clue for us is that He didn’t time travel, He never left that party; He pulled upon the 'God's perfect timing' factor and tapped into the same God who never changes - IN THE SAME WAY HE WOULD AS IF TODAY WAS A THOUSAND YEARS AGO - because timing has nothing to do with time and everything to do with WHAT WE KNOW. Shall we repeat that? Timing has nothing to do with time and everything to do with WHAT WE KNOW. Here’s a slightly different approach, God’s promises are described as being “yes and amen to the glory of God through us” (2 Corinthians 1:20) which is a very cool way of saying that in order to obtain the promises of God we must have them confirmed and solidified within our hearts - nobody is talking us out of these things, they are ours. This being understood, in order to be in the flow of God’s perfected timing in ALL areas of our lives, we must remove that which interferes, distracts from, diverts, attempts to deceive us (all of it) from that which we KNOW. In doing so we are actually shutting down the time factor and replacing it with the TRUTH of God’s timing. Acts 1:7-8 (MSG) “He told them, “You don’t get to know the time. Timing is the Father’s business. What you’ll get is the Holy Spirit. And when the Holy Spirit comes on you, you will be able to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, all over Judea and Samaria, even to the ends of the world.”
If the emphasis factor in our blogs seems to be increasing, this is due to the fact that the necessity factor is increasing more and more rapidly all around us. We aren’t just helping each other to be less human in order to eventually become more like Jesus. We are emphasizing that in order to handle the crazy things that we are in the middle of and that is coming our way, we MUST drop the human elements and fast, in order to do as Jesus did and navigate the world we live in no matter what is thrown at us or dropped out in front of us as a roadblock. We KNOW that IT’S ABOUT TIME that we (the followers of Jesus) must start living our lives (no matter what they currently look like) as though we are in the perfectly plotted and planned timing of God - ahem, because we actually are. These glimpses of aha moments that we experience when reading blogs or the Bible or articles or watching videos - anything that resonates within the core of who we are - this is us in direct contact with the timing of the most high God. Listen, the emphasis isn’t to be placed any longer on our positioning so that we can jump into God's timing. When we are aligned inside of our spirit with His Spirit, no matter where we stand, we are already in His timing. And if His timing truly is perfect, we won’t miss a thing. And once again, it simply becomes a matter of sticking to that which we know. The simplicity of God has no boundaries; time and all of its calculations in all of its quantum-ness is naturally a daunting undertaking; timing on the other hand is just that, SIMPLE.
So once more, with everyone singing along, just what exactly do we know?
WE KNOW THE TRUTH AND THEREFORE WE KNOW GOD.
WE KNOW THAT ANYTHING OTHER THAN THE WORD (TRUTH) OF GOD IS A LIE.
WE KNOW THE WORD, WHICH IS THE TRUTH AND THEREFORE IS GOD.
WE KNOW WHO WE ARE, A REFLECTION OF WHO GOD IS.
WE KNOW THAT GOD'S TIMING IS GREATER THAN ALL TIME FACTORS.
WE KNOW THAT WHEN IT COMES TO THE TRUTH, IT ISN'T JUST ABOUT TIME;
WE KNOW IT IS THE PERFECT TIMING OF GOD THAT PRODUCES RESULTS.
AND WE KNOW THAT GOD'S TIMING IS EVERYTHING.
