Waiting For Confirmation

(Text Version)

2 Cor 13:1 NKJV

“By the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established.”

Seeking the Lord through confirmation is a very important and exciting concept. The idea of seeking Him for confirmation comes from the scripture, “In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.” When we are seeking God’s guidance, or questioning whether we heard the Lord, we need to verify that He has spoken and that we understood what He said. This is a Biblical concept and He wants to make us strong and stable in our hearing His Words.

His Words will become like a hook, a nail, or an anchor on a boat. If something comes against us to rob us of that Word, (“hath God said?”) then we can run back and check that nail. Yes, His Word is secure and strong, bearing up against the weight because it has been confirmed, clarified and established. It is safe. Enough time has been given for Him to make His Word sure. It is settled, strong and stable. If a storm comes against us, we can come back to that place and know His Word is solid. Confirming and establishing is HIS business. He wants that. Your part is to give Him time to do so.

He can bring confirmations to us in any form. The 101+ Ways God Speaks book is a list of confirmations, because it contains the many ways God speaks. If we receive something He has said to us, and it isn’t enough for us to stand firm, then He will come again. He is very patient with our needing to be made firm in His Word. He will speak the Word to us as often as HE knows we need it for it to become that anchor. The emphasis is on the He knows, because being confirmed is a very cozy place to be; our human nature likes to stay there! There comes a time when HE says it’s time to move on and GROW. The confirmations stop (in relation to that particular Word) because He knows what He has given is exactly enough to last through the obstacles that will come against it.

I have a delightful story which spans a thirteen year period concerning the Lord’s timing, sprinkled with His confirmations, all having to do with the launching of my first book. The Lord had previously given me a “writing” promise of my launching out on the wings of faith. Being given a picture-vision of a space shuttle, I knew it had something to do with that promise. Then later when we purchased a computer and turned it on for the first time, there was a beautiful scene of a space shuttle on the screen! I was tickled at the confirmation.

One day, feeling I had waited forever for His promises to come to pass, I was watching my son play a computer game; the scene was inside a space shuttle. There would be a few paragraphs of text, then a menu would pop up saying, “Do you want to wait or continue?” He had a choice to click on one of the boxes. He clicked on “Wait.” Recognizing the allegory of the connection between the space shuttle and the word “Wait,” I certainly was interested in the outcome of this! To my dismay, this same process of text, with the same question must have repeated seven times! Each time he clicked “Wait.” I became frustrated watching, and asked him, “What are you waiting for!” [It was more of an exclamation than a question!] He simply replied, “For the countdown to start.”

Boy did that get me. It was another confirmation from the Lord: “Yes, you will launch out, but no matter how frustrated you are – it will be in My timing!” I got the point and was tickled at His humorous way of confirming me once again. Years later, when it WAS time, He certainly reconfirmed His point, as you will see with the following confirmations.

As a background to this story, I had previously placed a little note in my Bible that was a prayer request to the Lord. I asked that when it was time for the book to go forth, He would send me at least three out of the ordinary confirmations that it was time. That little note stayed in my Bible over the years. Then suddenly it was time and His series of confirmations came.

I visited a church and my eyes glanced at the banner on the wall. It said, “Now is the time.” It was so quickened to me that I recorded it in my journal. A short while later I attended a conference at the same church, and the guest speaker looked up at a wall banner and read out loud, “Now is the time.” He said that was an interesting confirmation, because earlier that morning he had heard the Lord say those exact words. Then I took my little niece to church there. During the service, she drew a picture of that banner hanging on the wall, and wrote, “Now is the time.” I just shook my head and grinned.

During the same week she drew that picture, I received another set of three out of the ordinary confirmations all in one day. I was listening to a tape and the speaker broke his train of thought and said out of the blue, “Oh by the way, there are some of you out there who have been waiting upon the Lord for the right time to be launched into ministry.” Then he yelled very loud, “THE TIME IS NOW!” Then he yelled a second time, “THE TIME IS NOW!” I was covered in goose bumps, and the Lord thoroughly had my attention. Then the man paused a long quiet pause and literally bellowed a third time, “NOW! CONSIDER YOURSELF TOLD!!!” I was really laughing and very blessed by this as I knew these were very special love gifts from the Lord specifically answering my prayer requests of long ago.

The same day I received a letter in the mail from a friend. As she was sitting in her chair, having just finished reading a draft of my manuscript, the Lord literally opened her sense of smell and she smelled the herb Thyme. [This is pronounced TIME.] She sent me this as a Word that the Lord was saying IT WAS TIME, along with the allegory of the different uses of thyme as a herb. That night I went to bed early and cuddled up in my blankets and pillows and pulled out a notebook of past rhema. I turned with anointed hands to a page and my eyes bugged out. On that particular day’s entry I had written about cleaning out our camping trailer, getting it ready to sell, and I had found an old, yellowed, crinkled hand written note by Anna. Before I read it, I knew it was something she had heard His still small voice say to her in the middle of the night, many years ago when we were camping. On the note was one sentence: “Now is the time!” (Her note is a perfect testimony of how the Lord’s Word never gets lost, but bears fruit in the exact time and season of His purpose.)

During the same two week period that I received all these “NOW IS THE TIME” Words, a magazine came in the mail. On the front cover was a full page picture of a space shuttle. The headline read, “Launching into 1997.”

The final two weeks prior to sending the book to the printer, He sent me four more confirmations. A friend, not knowing my decision to go ahead and print the book by July 1997, told me, “The Lord has a Word for you. He says, ‘Now is the time!’ ” She did not know the above story and I did not tell her as we were in a meeting. I just smiled, thinking I can hardly wait for her to read this!

A week later, I was in the midst of cleaning off my desk and came across the original note I had in my Bible. I started to throw it away and just couldn’t do it. I read it once again: “If it is not time for the book, I ask that when it is, I will have three obvious, out of the ordinary confirmations, following Your still small voice to me. In Jesus Name. (signed) Sandy.” Thinking about the fact it had been in my Bible for thirteen years, I said, “He’s answered this, I guess I don’t need it anymore.” It was a reluctant, kind of sad thought as I stood over the garbage can. It was like letting go of an old companion. — Not the piece of paper, but what it stood for – the joy of seeing the Lord bring His promises and confirmations to pass.

I thought, “I have really been blessed by all His confirmations to me. But I’m just not ready to give this note up yet. Maybe He will bring me one more!” I felt kind of guilty thinking that when I had been given plenty. But you have to understand that thirteen years is a very, very long time to wait. And the child in me just wanted one more – not for the lust of a sign but for the joy of relationship. What I didn’t realize when I was thinking these thoughts, was that He heard me. It look Him about eight hours to answer that thought.

The next morning I was creating some flyers for the back of the book. I decided to search for a graphic in one of my graphic books. I opened the book to the section I wanted and my eyes fell on the following three graphics, in the order in which you see them here. Note, I did not look for the graphics, my eyes just fell on them, one, two, three. By the third one I was hysterically laughing!

(The graphic said Now is the time.)

After I was through laughing, (or so I thought) I glanced again at the “Plan Ahead” graphic. I suddenly noticed the calendar was the month of July. I was so tickled! July was my hopeful book launching date. He had previously given me rhema that I interpreted to be that month. However, for the most part, they were Words needing interpretation because they were not plain speech. I needed confirmation that I had interpreted them correctly, and here it was right on the page!

All these confirmations were so precious to me. And even more delightful is my truly receiving His love behind them. Do you see that it is the same wonderful God, regardless of how long it takes for Him to answer our prayers and desires? Do you see His love behind all these wonderful and precious out of the ordinary confirmations? All those years I had turned to the note in my Bible expecting God to answer it and He certainly did not disappoint me. He chose some very out of the ordinary ways!

In His loving kindness,

~Sandy~

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