“Wait on the Lord, and keep His way, and He shall exalt you to inherit the land.” (Psalm 37:34)

Several weeks ago, Sulojana and I were driving to the United States on the QEW (Queen Elizabeth Way), the main highway in our area.

We had carefully chosen to leave at a time when the traffic would not be that heavy.

As we got on to the QEW at St. Catharines, we hardly encountered any traffic at all.

It was only when we got past Niagara Falls that I began to notice the brake lights of cars slowing down ahead of us.

We were forced to slow down to 40 km/hour or less in a 100 km zone.

Of course, we suspected an accident somewhere down the line.

Sure enough we saw some flashing lights in the distance that seemed to confirm this suspicion.

As we got closer though, we realized that the blue lights were not from police cars, but snowploughs.

The photograph accompanying this DWOD is a close representation of what we spied with our eyes that afternoon.

Three snowploughs side by side, clearing the snow off the pavement.

On the one hand, it was frustrating to be slowed down.

Yet, on the other hand, we realized that this temporary inconvenience would actually help us make progress faster as we headed further down the road.

None of us likes to be slowed down as we move towards our destiny, do we?

Yet, isn’t it true that sometimes we are forced to crawl rather than speed on this journey?

We would rather get there sooner than later.

Are there times when God slows us down one stretch of the highway, so that we can speed up when we get closer to our destiny?

This was certainly true of Joseph’s life, wasn’t it?

The dreams he saw clearly pointed to a destiny where he would be lifted high above the rest of his family.

Of course, the journey did not start out well when his brothers threw him in the pit and then sold him as a slave.

Things started to look up when he was entrusted with the management of Potiphar’s household.

But, when he turned down the advances of his master’s wife, he finds himself in prison after being falsely accused of sexual assault.

Joseph must have wondered about all these slowdowns on the road to destiny that were happening even though he was doing all the right things.

It was only in retrospect that Joseph could see that there was a purpose behind the delay in the fulfillment of his destiny.

God had to clear the way for him to become Prime Minister of Egypt, just as the snowploughs had to get the snow out of the way for us to speed into the U.S.

The timing had to be just right.

Have you noticed how quickly his promotion came about? In a mere matter of minutes, he had moved from the prison to the palace. Wow!

Perhaps you are at a point in the journey where you are frustrated at being slowed down in the speedy pursuit of your destiny.

If you, like Joseph, have been doing all the right things, and honouring God every step of the way, then take heart!

It could very well be the case that God has dispatched heaven’s snowploughs to pave the way for you to accelerate into your destiny…praise God!

“For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him”. (Matthew 6:8)

“Oh! I see you’ve got the Flashlight app on your phone, eh?”

“Yup!”

“I’ve thought about downloading it, but haven’t done it yet. Not sure I will.”

Frankly, this little snippet of a conversation was not even meant for my ears. It was part of a longer exchange between my son and his cousin while we were visiting my sister a week ago today.

Normally I would have completely ignored this conversation. But for some unknown reason it got my attention.

I sensed this urgent nudge in my spirit to check it out.

I quickly went to the App Store on my IPhone and looked for it.

Apparently it would turn your phone into a bright flashlight.

I checked the price. The price was right. (Free, in case you were wondering!)

Do I need this or not?

It was as though I heard a voice say: “Just get the App.”

Before I could change my mind, I quickly downloaded it.

It was now time to head home, so I didn’t even have a chance to test it until we made it back home two hours later.

I was impressed with the bright light that my phone emitted.

I knew it would come in handy sometime in the near future. Better to have a flashlight than not for that rare occasion, eh?

Well, I didn’t have to wait all that long.

The very next night, I was at the “More” service at Lakemount Worship Centre in Grimsby.

At the end of the service, my friend Clint Barley, who serves on the Pastoral Team at Lakemount, offered to give me a tour of the renovations and additions that were in progress.

We kept walking from one room to another with running commentary from Clint. Soon we came to a set of stairs that would take us one level down.

“Oops, I think I left my phone in my office. Do you have a light in your phone?” queried Clint.

I smiled.

“Of course, I do, Clint.”

It took me a couple of minutes to get to the Flashlight App and get the light to come on.

“Oh! I see you’ve got the Flashlight app on your phone, eh?”

“Yup.”

That’s when I realized why God had allowed me to eavesdrop on the conversation between Sathiya and Jacquline and then prodded me to download the app.

Believe me when I tell you that without the flashlight, we would have never made it through the rest of the tour safely.

Isn’t it kind of God to give us these nudges in advance?

Have you experienced something similar?

Would you please share with the rest of your DWOD family how you have experienced the truth of Jesus’ words: “For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him”. 

Thanks in advance.

They caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. (Luke 5:6-7)

The wheat harvest of 1982 in Saskatchewan was something to behold. Lifelong farmers remarked that it was a phenomenon that only occurred once every few decades.

Some even said that they had only heard of such bumper crops. They had never experienced one of such magnitude in their farming careers to date.

Where one would normally see only one combine at work on a field, it was not uncommon to see multiple combines, as in the accompanying photograph.

Farmers teamed up with one another to help take the crop off the field in good time. All one had to do was call upon a neighbour to give them a hand. It was done.

This scenario was very similar to what the fishermen experienced that day when they cast their nets deep as Jesus had instructed.

The haul of fish was so great that they could not bring it all in by themselves.

“So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats.”

Jesus described the harvest of souls in the Kingdom as “plentiful.” (Luke 10:2)

The Greek word “polys” that is translated plentiful signifies a very large number, a “great multitude” as in Revelation 18:2.

The scope of this harvest is so great that it cannot be handled by the existing labour force. That is why Jesus asks us to “pray the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into His harvest.”

The image of the fishermen signalling to their partners is something that the Lord wants to impress upon us, I believe.

The harvest of souls that the Lord desires to give His Church is so large that it cannot be brought in by any person, congregation or denomination acting solo.

It calls for partnership with those in other “boats” to come alongside.

When you study the great revivals of history, you will discover something common to all of them.

They began in one particular location, usually in a specific congregation.

However, the revivals that kept on increasing in intensity and in numbers were sustained only when the captain of that boat signalled to partners in other boats to come alongside them.

One that I am most familiar with happened in Toronto in 1994.

John and Carol Arnott, who were pastoring the Airport Vineyard Church, immediately signalled to their partners in local churches of other denominations to come alongside.

One of the key couples who helped sustain the momentum of the so-called Toronto Blessing, Steve and Sandra Long, were “loaned” by the Baptist Church for that particular purpose.

(Considering how far apart the Vineyard and the Baptist Church were theologically, that was nothing short of miraculous!)

The great move of God that is to come will undoubtedly call for such partnerships as well.

The willingness I see among pastors and leaders in certain areas to minister side by side in unity is a very good sign that God will entrust His harvest into their hands.

When congregations and denominations behave as though they do not need one another, could we be unintentionally delaying the Great Harvest?

I believe that the Lord is calling us to develop relationships with one another right now.

This way, when it is time to bring in the great catch of fish, we too will be signalling our partners, amen?

They caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” (Luke 5:6-8)

How would you respond if you had just witnessed this miraculous catch of fish?

Wouldn’t you at least go “Wow!” for starters?

Wouldn’t you be tempted to jump up and down for joy when you start figuring out how much this catch would fetch you in the market?

OK, let’s say you were not blessed with such an exuberant personality. Wouldn’t you at least spit out a conservative: “Thank you, Jesus?”

Yet, Peter does none of the above.

His response is rather startling, wouldn’t you say? “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”

It would appear that two things happened to provoke such a response.

Firstly, Peter received a revelation of who Jesus really was.

Secondly, he saw himself as he really was in the light of this revelation.

This revelation of the Holy One results in Peter seeing himself as the Sinful One.

Hence the unexpected response.

It is reminiscent of the call of Isaiah as recorded in chapter 6.

When he sees the Lord, “high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple,” only one response is appropriate:

“Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”

Or consider Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus. He knew Jesus as the one whom all these Christians called the Messiah and was determined to snuff out this new movement in its infancy.

When he receives the revelation of Jesus in the blinding light and the voice from heaven, everything changes.

You could say that in this instance, Revelation Results in Salvation.

Pastor Che Ahn once shared that at the end of a service at HRock Church in Pasadena, California, a young woman told him that she did not really need Jesus as she was quite happy with her Buddhist faith.

Che resisted the temptation to convince her that who she really needed was Jesus, not Buddha.

He offered a simple prayer instead: “Jesus, will you reveal yourself to this young woman so she can see you as you really are?”

Then he simply walked away from her and kept on praying for others.

When he came back that way, she was sobbing uncontrollably and wanted to know how she could become a follower of Jesus.

What was responsible for this change?

Elementary, dear Emily! Jesus answered Che Ahn’s prayer and revealed himself to her.

Is there someone you know who needs to know Jesus as their Lord and Saviour?

Are you hesitant about how to impress this upon them?

Perhaps you have already exhausted every resource at your disposal.

How about following Che’s example?

I invite you to pray right now:

“Jesus, will you reveal yourself to ……….. (name) so he/she can see you as you really are?”

I pray that you will discover that Revelation Results in Salvation.