The Right Place and the Right Time

Yesterday, we saw that time and space are always interrelated. This same truth was stated many centuries ago by Solomon.

“To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.” (Eccl. 3:1)

It is not enough merely to do the right thing or to have the right purpose. In order to enjoy success and the blessing of God, we must do the right thing at the right time, and we must carry out the right purpose at the right season. When God says, “Now,” it is vain for man to say, “Later.” And when God says, “Later,” it is vain for man to say, “Now.”

It is the God-appointed ministry of the Holy Spirit to reveal to the Church not merely the right thing or the right purpose, but also the right time and the right season. Many sincere and well-meaning Christians who have not learned to make room for the guidance of the Holy Spirit encounter continual frustration in their lives simply through seeking to do the right thing at the wrong time and to carry out the right purpose at the wrong season. In this connection, the prophet Isaiah poses a very searching question.

“Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or as His counsellor has taught Him?” (Is. 40:13)

Yet this is just what many Christians are doing today: They are seeking to direct the Spirit of the Lord and to act as counsellor to the Holy Spirit. They plan their own activities, conduct their own services and then tell the Holy Spirit just what, when and how they expect Him to bless. In how many congregations today is there any real room left for the Holy Spirit either to direct or to intervene?

The result of this wrong attitude toward the Holy Spirit can be summed up in one word: frustration.

Such believers may have a genuine experience of the new birth and even of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. They may be perfectly sincere in their profession of faith in Christ. Nevertheless, in their daily lives they lack either victory or fruitfulness because they have overlooked this one cardinal rule of Christian living: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God” (Rom. 8:14).