Be it as seemingly insignificant as a hungry person waiting for food to get ready or as important as a “barren” woman waiting to conceive, waiting is not usually very easy.
The act of waiting is one that humans do not find very pleasing.
How awesome would it have been for us not to have to wait for anything?
I mean, it would have been magical to have everything we want at the bat of an eyelid. Unfortunately, that is not how life works.
Life operates on a principle of SEED > TIME > HARVEST.
Whatever you do, TIME has to take its course and this time is called the “Waiting Season”.
Some seasons of waiting are short and not too challenging but others are very tough and may threaten to rattle your foundation in God and your peace of mind.
I don’t know what you’re waiting on God for in this season but I’m here to encourage you to keep holding on, as He who has promised is faithful to bring it to pass and unto them who believe, there shall be a performance.
Whether it be a job, promotion, child, admission, appointment or miracle you’re waiting for, below are very beneficial and productive ways to get through your season of waiting.
Intimacy with God
When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
Isaiah 43:2
This is the time for you to get into God as much as you can. Convert your anxiety and passion into a pant and thirst for God. Spend time talking and listening to Him. Dedicate special times to going on walks and dates with God. Listen to His heart as you open up yours to Him. So many things may be threatening to rip you apart, physically or mentally, take them before God and let Him bring comfort to your heart. Let your season of waiting be a season of intimacy with your creator.
Prayer
Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
Philippians 4:6
As you wait, you must not fail to give yourself continually to prayer and supplication. Don’t get tired of bringing your petitions before God. At this point in your life, your prayer life will be threatened the most. You must not allow the enemy get a hold of your prayer life. Your priesthood is affected when you prayer life gets attacked.
Study and Encourage yourself in God’s Word
For the LORD will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance.
Psalms 94:14
This is the time for you to dig into God’s Word and search for His reassuring promises for you. His promises never to leave or forsake you, (Heb 13:5, Deut 4:31, Deut 31:6-8, Josh 1:5), His promises to be with you always, (Matt 28:20) And so on. Search out the reassuring promises of God for you and be comforted in them.
Declarations
Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;
Romans 12:12 Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;
Colossians 4:2 Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving;
Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:18
Your waiting season may not seem like a reasonable time to thank God but trust me, it is. As you navigate your way through the season, give thanks to God continually because that is what He wants you to do.
Songs of Worship and Praise
Psalms 28:7 The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him. Psalms 118:14 The LORD is my strength and song, and is become my salvation.
Serve
In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.
(Acts 20:35, ESV)
This is a time when you should give yourself to service. Don’t sit around acting needy, instead, give the little you can to people and dedicate your time to serving God’s purposes. Join a workforce in your church, volunteer for a good cause.
Meditation and Visualization
For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.
Proverbs 23:7 KJV
Your mind should not be barren as you wait. Take advantage of the attracting power of the mind to create your reality. Do not accommodate fear or evil thoughts of what could go wrong. Instead, visualize the great things that God has in store for you and attract them with your mind.
Put on the Shield of Faith
Above all, lift up the [protective] shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one . Ephesians 6:16 AMP
Be at Peace
And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7 KJV
Please share with someone in their waiting season ❤.
I’d like to start by thanking everyone who disturbed me until I saw the movie. You guys are the real MVP. It was so worth it.
Everyone who told me about this movie told me that it left them in tears. But like the boss that I am, I said I wasn’t going to cry since every other person did.
Brethren, I’m glad to announce to you that I teared up! Guysss! I shamelessly cried hot tears. Tears of pain, joy, faith, awe and so much more.
Let’s delve right into it.
Breakthrough is a 2019 movie culled from a real life story of a young adopted boy called John Smith who fell into an ice lake and died.
It is a story that talks about an “impossible” situation.
My summary of this movie is “When the Doctors said No. God said Yes”. Doctors described John Smith’s case as a bonafide miracle. Because he was dead but miraculously, his pulse returned after his mother prayed.
After this, he was still in coma and his chances of surviving were low and even if he did, he was supposed to end up with some sort of “neurological disorder”.
But God stepped in and three weeks later, John walked out of the hospital with perfect health. The movie was directed by Roxann Dawson and Produced by Pastor DeVon Franklin.
I’m not going to run through the whole plot but
you can visit Wikipedia. They did justice to that.
I’m here to share lessons and my thoughts from the movie. To enjoy this review I’d like to plead with you to see the movie first. You can watch it on YouTube. But if you haven’t, you can still read on. Just read the plot above and get the movie as soon as you can.
First, I’ll share a few random unnecessary things I took note of while I saw the movie.
1. John Smith is a veryyyyy fineeee young boy. What! I had to look him up on google after the movie. He was the perfect boy for the movie. His finess made me cry more during the whole thing. ?
2. Mrs Smith is like those women in church who don’t just allow young people breathe. They grew up on hymns and slow Christian songs so they frown on any song that is not boring.
They love the Lord but they love boring too and they think we should also. If they see you singing Christian rap or anything like it, you’re toast. They’re always eying everyone and angry at everything in church. Wave your hands if you know someone like that.
Those women need to LOOSEN UP! Old ideologies, old mindset, old behavior. No room for change. May we not become like that when we’re old. Can I get an Amen?
3. The song ministered at their church was amazing. “This is amazing grace”. Such a powerful and interesting song. It sounded like one of Hill song’s. While I was trying to look it up online, a friend sent it to me on WhatsApp (shout out to Ibara). You should be able to find it on google.
4. Pastor Jason’s young daughter is such a mood. I love all her vibe, especially during the worship session in church.
5. I love Pastor Jason. He’s like those youth pastors that parents don’t like because they don’t “look like it”. They love the Lord and teach sound doctrine but they choose not to wear the big suits and ugly trousers. They’re usually on jeans and tees with a very stylish haircut and nice strides. They appear this way to be able to relate to the younger generation better and it works 100%. I know Pastors like that but I won’t mention names before Pastor Rampy thinks I’m talking about him (lol).
And that’s it! Those are a few random things i have to say about the movie.
Now to the life lessons. It is a faith based movie and in my opinion, it did justice to its name. I culled out a few things believers should take note of and apply to their lives.
Lessons
MIRACLES HAPPEN. This is the major lesson from the movie. A lot of people have made it look like miracles are a lie. Even our own lives have attempted to prove God unable. Situations have come and we’re almost believing that praying is a waste of time and there is no place for miracles.
I see a lot of jokes online especially by Nigerians saying that prayer is useless and is the reason our country is backward and I just sigh.
Prayer doesn’t negate the place of our own work and partnership with God but prayer is very potent. Prayer changes things and causes miracles to happen. Your situation is not beyond God’s ability. Your heart’s desires are not impossible. My God is omnipotent. He does ALL things.
This movie strengthened my faith and made me believe more. I recommend saying a prayer after seeing the movie like I did. I was spurred to pray about certain impossible situations in my life and I did just that.
Other lessons;
1. Let go and let God. Joyce Smith tried to handle things by herself at the hospital. She kept being stubborn and persistent thinking she could force God to work. My brethren, you can not force God to work. There’s a difference between faith and insisting that something happens by force on your strength. We must learn to trust God with situations and let him work. Surrender to Him and ask Him what He’ll have you do. He leads and we follow.
2. Intercession: This is like the major theme of this movie. Right from the point when John fell into the water, a woman standing in front of her house, witnessing the incidence began to pray. Intercession simply means praying for someone whether the person is aware or not. I find myself doing it a lot. Wherever I am and I see or hear anything unpleasant or tragic about someone, I bow my head and begin to pray for the person. It’s very powerful. God moved when everyone began to pray for John Smith. The whole community gathered and sang Hill song’s Ocean and they prayed for John. This was the part that made me tear up.
3. Love is important. Full stop.
4. Having a community of believers around you is a necessity. One of the ways to ensure you keep thriving in anything you do is being surrounded by people who do the same thing. As believers, we must avoid isolating ourselves. The Church is a place of solace and rest. A place to be energized and strength but even more, it is a place of support. When John got into that situation, his community of believers rose up for him and where there for him.
5. Some bad situations come to work on us. So even when we pray, God doesn’t change the situation immediately because he’s trying to change US.
Joyce Smith thought she would always have everything under control and decide how things turn out but John’s situation taught her otherwise. She was a woman who loved the Lord but she had some character flaws which were thoroughly dealt with during John’s time in the hospital.
6. It is really important to speak words that are positive and life giving like John’s mother did. “You have a purpose and you are loved”. This aided John’s recovery in the hospital.
7. God still talks and appears to people. The atheist who saved John’s life from the lake heard God speak.
I love the fact that the movie Breakthrough didn’t attempt to answer every question people had like when John’s teacher asked why God didn’t save her own husband who died and when the atheist kept questioning God’s existence.
We can NEVER fully understand everything, no matter how much we try to question God. What makes us Christians is our ability to trust God even when we don’t understand certain things.
Faith is not just about things going our way. It’s about our assurance of God’s love and presence regardless of how things go.
I also love the fact that the movie didn’t end at John’s miracle. They went on to show the questions and mockery people threw at him afterwards.
That was very realistic for me because miracles don’t end it all. After miracles, we still face certain challenges like the wagging tongues of men.
It went further to prove that miracles don’t really change people. It takes the Conviction of the Holy Spirit. Even after the plain miracle that happened in John’s life, there were still people who didn’t believe.
I’ll stop here. You should see the movie. To say that I enjoyed this movie is an understatement. My favorite scene was where the community gathered outside the hospital to sing and pray for John.
Chrissy Metz (Joyce Smith), from left, Marcel Ruiz (John Smith), and Josh Lucas (Brian Smith) in a scene from Twentieth Century Fox’s film “Breakthrough.” Photo by Allen Fraser
Have you seen Breakthrough? What was your favorite scene?
