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Are you feeling the pressure to make quick decisions as the new year approaches? As we step into 2025, this episode promises to change your perspective on the virtue of patience and the significance of waiting on God’s perfect timing. Explore the contrast between the peaceful assurance of a shepherd’s voice versus the anxiety-provoking roar of a lion, as we discuss the importance of discerning divine guidance in our fast-paced world. Learn how the often-overlooked virtue of endurance can prevent fear-driven decisions and help cultivate spiritual fruit.

This episode also emphasizes aligning our actions with God’s timing rather than rushing into plans and seeking divine approval afterward. Through relatable anecdotes like travel delays, we highlight how life’s timing challenges can test our faith and patience. Using the metaphor of a horse and its rider, we explore the importance of waiting for God’s direction before taking steps forward. Trusting in a God who operates beyond time requires submission to His plan, which in turn fosters perseverance, steadfastness, and peace amidst frustration and setbacks.

Finally, reflect on the dangers of forgetfulness as we revisit stories from Exodus and Jeremiah, which illustrate the consequences of acting outside of God’s guidance. These narratives remind us of the importance of continuously engaging with spiritual truths. As we look forward to the new year, I offer encouragement and guidance to help embrace these insights. Stay connected by visiting my website, jaimeluce.com, to share your prayer requests or praise reports. Let’s step into 2025 with confidence, knowing that everything will unfold as it should in God’s perfect timing.

Where to dive in:

(0:00:00) – The Importance of Waiting on God (10 Minutes)

This chapter addresses the importance of discerning God’s voice and timing as we approach the new year, 2025. I highlight the contrast between the calm guidance of a shepherd and the fear-inducing roar of a lion, emphasizing that God’s voice brings peace, not anxiety. As we anticipate the new year, the key to experiencing breakthrough and finding answers lies in being ready yet patient, waiting for God’s direction before making decisions. I discuss the challenges of waiting in a fast-paced culture that craves instant results, and stress the significance of endurance, a virtue often overlooked in today’s society. While waiting is not easy, it cultivates spiritual fruit and guards against rash decisions driven by carnal emotions.

(0:09:55) – The Importance of God’s Timing” (15 Minutes)

This chapter focuses on the importance of aligning our actions with God’s timing and plan for our lives. We discuss how often people rush into their own plans, seeking God’s blessing after the fact, rather than first asking if their plans align with His will. Using the metaphor of a horse submitted to its rider, we explore the concept of waiting for God’s direction before moving forward. Personal experiences with travel delays illustrate how life’s timing challenges can test our patience and faith. We emphasize that, despite frustrations and setbacks, trusting in God’s perfect timing is crucial. We must avoid letting fear and anxiety dictate our decisions, as faith requires us to trust in a God who operates outside of time, ensuring everything happens as it should. Through submission to His plan, we can cultivate perseverance and steadfastness, finding peace in His guidance.

(0:25:07) – The Danger of Forgetfulness (15 Minutes)

This chapter takes us on a journey through Exodus 24 and 32, highlighting the profound moment when Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and 70 elders of Israel ascend the mountain and witness the God of Israel. We explore the significance of this encounter, noting the sapphire pavement under God’s feet and the extraordinary experience of the elders who saw God without facing death. As we move to Exodus 32, I reflect on the fleeting nature of human memory, especially regarding spiritual experiences. Despite the short time—about a month and a half—between witnessing God and Moses’ return, the people forget this monumental event, underscoring our tendency to forget divine revelations if not consistently revisited. This serves as a reminder of the importance of continuously engaging with and meditating on spiritual truths to retain them.

(0:39:46) – Waiting for God’s Instructions (14 Minutes)

This chapter takes us through a reflection on the consequences of making decisions outside of God’s guidance and the importance of listening to His direction. We explore the story from Jeremiah 42, where the remnants of Judah seek the prophet Jeremiah’s help to beseech God for guidance during their time of fear and uncertainty. The narrative illustrates how they promise to follow God’s word, regardless of whether they find it agreeable. However, they are reminded that obedience to God’s instructions is crucial. God assures them safety and prosperity if they remain in their land but warns of dire consequences if they choose to flee to Egypt. The message underscores the importance of patience in waiting for God’s timing, as shown by the ten days it took for Jeremiah to receive God’s word, and emphasizes the significance of trusting in God’s promises even when faced with fear.

(0:53:27) – New Year Inspiration and Guidance (1 Minutes)

This chapter serves as an uplifting and motivational guide for the new year, offering a strong word of encouragement and instruction. I encourage listeners to take these insights to heart and use them to be blessed in their journey. To stay connected, I invite you to like, share, and subscribe to receive notifications for new episodes. Additionally, I welcome you to visit my website, jaimeluce.com, where I am eager to hear from you. Whether you have prayer requests or praise reports, feel free to send me an email, and I will personally respond. Thank you for joining me, and may God be with you.

About your host: Jaime Luce’s testimony has daunting personal mountains and treacherous financial valleys. She was trapped in day-to-day stress and couldn’t see a way forward. But how she started is not how she finished! And she wants you to know God has a plan for your life too, no matter how tough it seems. Today, Jaime has been married to the love of her life for almost three decades, owns two companies, and has become an author and podcaster. God’s way is always the blessed way!

Free chapter of Jaime’s new book: You Don’t Need Money, You Just Need God: https://jaimeluce.com/book/

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Full Transcript

This transcript is auto-generated and not perfect. We hope it blesses you.

0:00:00 – Jaime Luce
The Lord never screams. He’s a good shepherd. You don’t hear shepherds screaming at the sheep. They simply speak to the sheep, they simply act and do the things they need to do to care for the sheep. But a lion roars. The devourer comes to bring fear. So if I feel like I hear this, you better hurry up. You better get this done. If you don’t, you’re going to miss it. I know that’s not the voice of God. I know that’s the voice of the enemy pushing, trying to get my flesh stirred up so that I’m anxious and in fear and that I take measures and steps that will actually cause a wrong outcome or cause me more confusion and trouble.

Welcome to the Jaime Luce Podcast. Thank you for tuning in today. This is well. This is probably airing for you the 31st of January.

So this is New Year’s Eve and, of course, everyone wants to have their message for the new year, 2025. And I really did hear the Holy Spirit speak something into my spirit for you today, and so I kind of want to start this by saying that the key to a prosperous 2025, the key to a breakthrough year, the key to answers to long-awaited questions, is going to be that you are ready but willing to wait for God’s answer. Wait for God’s answer. The key is going to be waiting on God’s timing. Waiting on God’s timing Whether your outlook for the next year is hope-filled, with a new government administration coming in, and hopeful for the things that that might mean for the country. Whether you’re looking at this spiritually and what has gone. You know the things that have happened and gone on in this past year. You’re ready to put behind you, you’re ready to start something new, whether you were battling some things before and it’s time to make those changes. It’s time for growth. You’re looking to a new season. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what position you’re coming from. It doesn’t matter what you’re hopeful for. It doesn’t matter what you’re walking away from. What will matter and what will bring actual answers that do what you’re looking for, the actual things that you need actual breakthrough, actual provision, actual answers and knowing the steps for the strategies that are coming to you for this coming year. It’s going to be crucial to know the timing of God. Timing is everything. We understand this in so many things, but the hardest thing about timing is sometimes that means there’s a waiting period and nobody likes to think of starting a brand new year.

It’s almost as if we could see the horse in the gate and the horse is stomping. You can hear the breath and they’re ready to run. They’re ready to hear the bell and the gate to open. They’re ready to race. They’re ready to hear the bell and the gate to open, they’re ready to race, they’re ready to go after it. And though that’s a wonderful position to be in, ready to hear your instructions, ready to hear the word go, ready to hear what God has to say, ears that are perked, a spirit that’s attuned, and you’re ready to take the new year and we can be kind of chomping at the bit to hear him and go. You know, it’s like being in a relay race and waiting for the baton to be handed to you so you can run. It’s wonderful to be in that position, ready to run, ready to receive your instructions, ready to get what you need to go forward. But what we don’t like about those instructions many times, and what we don’t like about being in the wings waiting for the baton, and what we don’t like about having a gate in front of us that is closed and it hasn’t opened yet, what we don’t like is waiting. We don’t like waiting. It’s, in our culture, so strong.

Waiting, I don’t think, used to be as big of a deal in generations gone by, because they didn’t have everything provided for them within moments. They didn’t have, I mean, food was prepared at home. You didn’t go out and make food, so the preparation took time. It took time to cook the food, it took time to set the table. It took time. All of the preparation took time. And they didn’t have your drive-thru restaurants. We didn’t have. I mean, you had to write a letter, take it to the post office and have it mailed and wait for the mail to be delivered to have someone read mail. Take it to the post office and have it mailed and wait for the mail to be delivered, to have someone read mail and then to respond. We didn’t have FaceTime and phones where we could just instantly text somebody or try to get a message immediately.

We all know how we can’t stand that when we are in a hurry and we text somebody and they don’t text us immediately back, we get upset, which is terrible. It’s terrible. We expect everybody to be on our time clock. We want things done as quickly as possible. We want it our way, we want it fast. But in generations before us it wasn’t so and there was an understanding about the scripture that says you have need of endurance.

Waiting produces something in us. It produces the necessary fruit of the spirit in us. Now I’m not telling you that your whole next year is going to be a time of waiting. In fact, that’s not what I’m going to be talking about. What I’m talking about is understanding that you don’t move, that you don’t take the next action, that you don’t make the next decision until you’ve heard what God has said. You wait until you get an answer. You wait until you get an answer. Until you get an answer, you wait until you get an answer.

And not learning to wait creates in us some wrong reactions and we can make some possibly wrong decisions, because it puts a pressure. It puts, it pushes on us and it is something that stirs up the carnal man’s nature. And what do I mean by that? It can stir up emotions like anger and frustration. It can make you nervous or anxious when you’re waiting and you’re not getting the answer you want right away. We have become. There are studies that have been done that prove that being on your phone and social media have a very strong effect on the dopamine hits in the brain.

We are producing within ourselves an addictive behavior that is just the same as being addicted to a substance. As being addicted to a substance, and that behavior is something that pushes and says I need, and it drives and feeds flesh. It is completely contrary to what the spirit of God is doing within us, that when we act or when we make decisions, we are not to be doing them out of reaction, but out of a meditative action that has received instruction from the Lord. If I want it to go well with me, if I want this next year to go well, I have to be so diligent to be taking those possible decisions and possible action places for me before the Lord and waiting to hear what his response will be to me before I go in and make that decision. Now we’re going to look at that in scripture. That’s going to be in the book of Jeremiah, but I want us to start in Exodus, because not being someone who is willing to wait on the Lord, willing to wait for his yes or no, willing to wait for him to say yes, but not this way, do it that way.

I’m not going to look at this today, but King David had a war and a battle he needed to fight and he asked the Lord, should I go up and should I fight this battle? And the Lord said yes, but wait. So I want you to do it, but I want you to wait and I don’t want you to go. He told him exactly where to go and he said but I don’t want you to go until you hear the rustling in the mulberry trees. When you hear the wind come through the mulberry trees, that’s when I want you to act, that’s when I want you to move. You know it’s like a sneak attack. If you’ve watched any action movies where you’ve got an enemy fighting the one we’re rooting for right, and they’re under attack and they need to be able to fight back. And they’re hiding and they’re waiting for the exact moment to come out and be able to wage their um, their action, their, whether it’s defensive or whether it is to take territory or whatever the, the reason there is a waiting and a uh. You can picture the person you know hiding behind the tree or hiding behind the stack of boxes in the attic. You know, and they have to come out and be able to. They don’t want to get hit and they need to be able to take action at the right time.

Timing is everything and it is everything in our lives. The timing of God is what determines success. God has a plan for your life and this 2025,. God wants to see you prosper in this year, but it’s going to be because you have decided that you are going to move. When God says move, You’re going to stop. When he says stop, you’re going to wait for his instruction. You’re going to wait for his instruction. So many times people get tripped up in life because we get an idea. We run out to go do the thing that we want to do and instead of saying, god, should I do this? We simply pray the prayer. God, will you bless this? I’m about to go do this, bless this. We want God to bless our plans instead of asking the Lord Lord, is this your plan? I want to do your plan. If you can get that right, I promise you you will see the right answers and the right playing out of whatever needs to take place in your life. You will see the right outcomes if you will submit to God that you’re going to do his plan.

It’s a total place of submission. It’s, yes, being the horse behind the gate, but the horse is completely submitted to the one riding him, okay, so we have to understand. Yes, I’m waiting for the bell to ring so I can begin to go. I can do what God’s. We have to understand. Yes, I’m waiting for the for the bell to ring so I can begin to go. I can do what God’s called me to do, but I have submitted myself. I have been broken, so to speak. I’m not a wild horse. I’m not going to go out there and just run all over the place and buck everybody off. I’m going to be submitted to the writer, to his control where and how fast, and what I do is under the control of the one riding me. So if God is determining your direction, then you have to be completely submitted to him and then that way, when the gate opens and the bell rings, you’re able to run with full energy and force to win the victory that is set before you.

We’ve recently had to take several plane flights where where we were going meant that we had to take connecting flights. Now, I don’t know if you travel very much, but connecting flights are a bear, because if anything happens on that first flight, you can miss your second flight and it just makes the certainty of getting where you need to get on time almost impossible. We went through that back in July trying to get to my father-in-law’s 90th birthday party and we were continually delayed and barely made it. We were supposed to be there two days prior, so we had time to decorate and plan and get everything done. We did not make it until 3 am the day of the party because of delays happening at the airport. And I had to take another trip recently, my husband and I and the same thing happened to us there. We had delays and the frustration I understand your frustration, so please be willing to hear me out on this.

We had a connecting flight and we were just trying to get home and our flight was delayed multiple times. And the first couple of times where we really thought, okay, we’re going to make it because that flight, our connecting flight, is delayed, so we’re going to be okay. We are literally on the plane, descending, looking at the flight times and thinking we’re going to make it, the gates close by, we’re going to make it, we’re going to get on our next flight and we get landed. And while we’re landed we realized we’re not pulling up to a gate, and we sat on that tarmac for 40 minutes 45 minutes, something like that and we missed our flight. We had landed, the frustration of knowing we had landed, we had time, we were right there, but the doors were not open and we missed that flight and had to make preparations to stay overnight, had to catch a flight the next morning, and so waiting is a difficult thing for us because in our flesh, we’re upset.

We think our plans are wrecked, everything that we had set out is not happening in the time frame that we expected it to happen, and in order to accomplish whatever it is that we’re trying to accomplish, we think the timing has to be what we have set out for it to be. And, folks, I just want to correct that in us, our father in heaven has a timeline for our life. He has numbered our days, he knows the number of hairs on your head, he has a plan for your life and he’s never late. So we can allow circumstances to make us think that we’re missing the boat somehow and we’re not going to get done what needs to get done, and we have got to learn to follow the spirit of God and be settled in ourselves for the waiting. Because if you allow your anxiousness to take hold, fear will take hold like we had sitting there anxiousness and fear. We’re going to miss our flight. And many times what fear will do is, if you allow that to stay, if you allow fear to be the pusher and the motivator, then you’ll jump out and make a decision and possibly get hurt. You’ll do something that will cause an effect that you don’t want to take place.

So it is imperative that we do not allow the emotions and turn of events, or lack of turning of events, to dictate. That’s why the scripture tells us that we have faith not by what we see. We don’t walk by what we see. We walk by faith, because faith says the God who created me has a plan for my life, stands outside of time, he’s never late, he’s never early, he does things according to his plan so that they are perfectly displayed, perfectly made manifest, that they perfectly happen the way they are supposed to happen. Happen the way they are supposed to happen. And it is our duty to be the submitted one to his plan and allow the work of the Holy Spirit to bring peace into our spirits that we end up having, instead of being hindered in perseverance and steadfastness, we actually grow in our perseverance, in our steadfastness, that we do have need of endurance and we have to allow the work of the fruit of the spirit to take root in our lives. So if you want a different year this year than last year, you need to allow the Holy Spirit to do that work in your spirit. You need to allow the fruit of the spirit to be your motivator so that you aren’t pushed.

I’ve mentioned this before, but this was something that my mother used to always say to us regarding the Lord and the enemy to know what’s going on. The Lord never screams. He’s a good shepherd. You don’t hear shepherds screaming at the sheep. They simply speak to the sheep, they simply act and do the things they need to do to care for the sheep. But a lion roars. The devourer comes to bring fear. So if I feel like I hear this, you better hurry up. You better get this done. If you don’t, you’re going to miss it. I know that’s not the voice of God. I know that’s the voice of the enemy pushing, trying to get my flesh stirred up so that I’m anxious and in fear and that I take measures and steps that will actually cause a wrong outcome or cause me more confusion and trouble.

I could give you a million examples of how we do this, and I’m sure that you could think of your own, where you just made it happen and you just did it and then it fell apart and it didn’t happen the way it was supposed to. Well, that happens many times for all of us and it is living in that already and not yet state. It is the tension we wait in faith. On that. I am ready to move when God says move, but I am submitted to the waiting until he does. It’s what Joseph went through when the scripture says that while he waited, while he had to wait through all that time and difficulty, slavery and imprisonment and the things that he dealt with and the betrayal, but it says the word of the Lord tested him in that time. He was waiting for the promise of God and he was being tested by the time and circumstance. Folks, if we want to win the prize, we have to be willing to wait on God’s time, and I want to show you this so critically in a couple passages here. So if you go in your Bibles to Exodus 18, I’m sorry 19, exodus 19.

This is, moses has led the children of Israel out of slavery, across the Red Sea into the desert, protected from the enemy, led by a pillar of fire protection at night and the light and then the cloud by day. They would follow this cloud and this pillar to know when to break up camp and move, which meant that they didn’t move until God said move Again, part of the lesson of God’s timing you don’t get up and just break camp because you don’t like where you’re at. And they complained and grumbled along the way we don’t have enough water here. So God provided water. We don’t have what we need, we don’t have this, we don’t have that. They were always complaining about whatever the issue was at hand, but God was always faithful during that time to see them through.

When we come to chapter 19, moses’ father-in-law, jethro, has just given him advice on dealing with all the demands of settling the disputes and what was going on with the people. And in 19 it says on the third moon, after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. They set out from Rephidim and came into the wilderness of Sinai and they encamped in the wilderness. There, israel, encamped before the mountain. This is Mount Sinai. While Moses went up to God, the Lord called to him out of the mountain, saying Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the people Israel, you yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagle’s wings and brought you to myself. Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel. And he goes on to tell them what the Lord said.

Then we go over to chapter 20. The Lord gives Moses, while he’s up there, the 10 commandments. He actually, at one point, has Aaron come up. So Aaron is now a part of this. And they receive the Ten Commandments. They get the laws you see in chapter 21 and 22,. The laws being given, same thing with 23 laws about festivals and Sabbath. Then we come over to chapter 24, and chapter 24 is where the covenant is confirmed. This is when God speaks to the people through Moses, tells them this is everything God said. The people say we’re going to do what God says. They’re excited about it. They start working on getting the Ark of the Covenant put in the tabernacle and we go through all the items of how God wants the tabernacle. So go all the way over to Exodus 32.

And I was reading this and the Lord had already spoke to me. I think I mentioned it in one of the previous last two podcasts. But the timing of God and waiting on the timing of God. I mentioned it, so it’s been stirring in my spirit. The Lord had been talking to me about it. But this morning when I read this, I realized, oh my gosh, here it is again and it is in such huge. It is a well-painted picture for us.

And I knew he was saying if you share this, they can get it, because so many times when we are looking at somebody else in their life, we’re watching somebody else’s life from a different perspective. We’re not in the mess, we’re outside and we’re looking in. And when we can see others do this, it becomes obvious to us they shouldn’t have done that right there. They should have waited, they shouldn’t have moved. What are they doing? And we can see it clearly because we are outside of the mess, but when it’s us, it is so difficult sometimes for us to realize we are doing those same behaviors.

And I wanted to read this to you because I want you to see this is what we do and I want you to take a good hard look at yourself. I want you to examine the decisions you’ve been making. Have you been running ahead and making these decisions without, first of all, the counsel of God and whether this is his plan or not, but then waiting on his timing to move? So let’s look at this. This is when we see the golden calf enter the scene. Chapter 32, verse 1 says enter the scene. Chapter 32, verse 1 says when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, so Moses had, we just saw that he was up there for 40 days. The scripture said Hi, my name is Jaime Luce.

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Exodus 24. This is really important. This is really important. I don’t want to miss this. When the covenant is confirmed.

Let’s look at chapter 24, verse 9. You will see something amazing. I’ve read this a million times Not a million, I’m exaggerating, but I’ve read this probably several dozen times and it never stood out to me like this today. It says then, moses and Aaron, nadab and Abihu, which were Aaron’s sons, and 70 of the elders of Israel went up, meaning went up the mountain, and they saw the God of Israel. And they saw the God of Israel. These elders not just Moses and Aaron and the priests, his sons, but 70 elders, the heads of the families of Egypt and those who were considered elders and leaders amongst the people of Israel these 70 elders saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet, as it were. This is what they saw a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness, and he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel. He didn’t kill them. To see God meant you’d die. He didn’t kill them. They saw him. I don’t know how they saw him exactly, if it was in a vision, because we know when Moses wanted to see God, he only allowed him to see his back parts. So what they’re seeing is not the totality of God, I’m sure. However, whatever they’re seeing, they saw God and they’re seeing this very clearly that his feet. They’re seeing his feet, and that his, the pavement that his feet are on, are like sapphire stone, and he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel. They beheld God and ate and drank, so they were having this covenant meal. They have received all the covenant that God has spoken to them how they are to live unto God and unto each other. They see God. These men have seen God. Now this is going to be really important when we jump over, so lock this in. They’ve seen God 70 elders and Aaron and Nadab and Abihu, as well as Moses. So that’s in chapter 24. They have a feast before the Lord. They eat and they drink. He does not touch them, but he allows them to see him. Okay, jump to Exodus 32.

Now, after this happened, moses goes back up the mountain. He’s there for 40 days and 40 nights. So what? We’re talking a month and a half, right, a little less than a month and a half and a month and a half. I just think about that for a minute. So the time that passes from them seeing God, about a month and a half passes Not a real long period of time. Now, I say not a long period of time because if you’re the one on the mountain for Moses, he’s on the mountain.

God is giving him very distinct, clear instructions on how to lead this people. It’s like a crash college course, to put it mildly. So a six week course, five weeks, six week course, kind of like how, if you take a class and you got seven weeks for your online. Cram it in seven weeks course. This is what Moses is doing, so this doesn’t seem like a long period of time to accomplish all that God is giving to him in order to know how to lead a couple million people okay to a promised land, how to deal with everything they need to deal with, how God wants it done, how they are to deal with one another. That’s a lot of information for him to take right down. I mean, it’s recorded for us to take right down and be able to know what took place. That is not a long period of time by Moses standard, by God’s standard, who’s outside of time right.

But to the people who are now no longer seeing God, it’s like having a dream, and you had that dream a month and a half ago and you kind of forget it and you think how could you forget that? How could you forget that? But we do. This is sadly something we do as Christians. This is sadly something we do as Christians. This is why God said you need to talk about this stuff every morning and every night. You need to wear it as frontlets on your forehead, you need to talk about it in your rising, in your setting at the dinner table, when you eat, when you go on your walks, no matter what you do, you meditate on the word of God.

Why? Because we’ll forget, we will forget, and it is imperative that we don’t forget and we are, as a people, forgetful people, and God could tell you what he wants for you. Folks, this happens to me all the time. God speaks something to me and it is literally like mind-blowing, powerful, total revelation. If I don’t go write that down, literally, if I do not go write that down and start thinking about that, looking up scriptures to go with that and meditate on that continually, I will forget what he told me. No matter how mind-blowing and powerful that revelation was, we will forget. And powerful that revelation was, we will forget. I don’t understand it. I wish I could explain it to you. Maybe somebody out there is listening who’s much smarter than I am, and I’m sure there’s plenty of you but you have the understanding of how the brain works and what’s going on that we forget. But if we do not repeat these things, we will forget.

It’s why, when you need to make new habits, what does a new year usually cause people to try to do? Break old habits and make new good habits right. We try to make our new year’s resolutions because we want to do things differently. And they say, at a minimum, you have to do something 21 times. Well, they actually say day 17 is really critical times. Well, they actually say day 17 is really critical. Most people don’t make it past day 17. And then it’s not just 21 days. You actually need 60 days to really cement a new pattern in your life. 60 days, okay. Well, moses was only gone for 40, 40 days. But let’s take a look at what took place after 40 days, after seeing God and having a feast in his presence. Let’s see what happens.

When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. So Aaron said to them Take off the rings of gold that are in your ears of your wives, your sons and your daughters and bring them to me. So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron, and he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a craving tool and made a golden calf. And they said these are your gods, o Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

This makes me really angry. To be quite honest, you saw God. You saw what he looked like. You saw that his feet stood on sapphire so clear you could just see through it. You were in his presence and he didn’t kill you. And now you are telling these people that this calf is your God’s, that you’re now reducing God to an inanimate object that represents a created being who has no brain in its head. You have taken your gold, so now what is your attention about? What is gold and shiny and you know, all the glitters is not gold, but the gold that they were searching.

What did this end up doing in them? Producing in them every kind of evil. What they end up doing, then, is having their own kind of feast where they’re all acting out in what could be based off. The words had broken loose in the Hebrew. What could mean that they literally were all acting out in a giant orgy. This is insanity to me.

To see that it took 40 days to forget. Not only did they forget what God looked like, not only did they forget the experience of being in his presence, but you have forgotten that this God was the God who delivered you from slavery, who delivered you from an enemy chasing you and took you through a red sea, an impossible thing to cross. Who delivered you from the enemy. Who attacked you, provided your food and your water from impossible things like a rock. When you wanted meat, he brought in quail, so much you got sick of it. Wanted meat, he brought in quail, so much you got sick of it. This is not just forgetting folks, this is an unwillingness to submit and change course.

And the waiting, the waiting. It was only 40 days, folks. If we do not this is the danger. If we do not wait for God, for his instructions, what were they waiting on? For Moses to bring down their instructions for their life, not just the 10 commandments, but their instructions about everything having to do with their life. What does the scripture tell us? That God has given us everything for life and godliness. He was giving to them every instruction that they would need to live their life in prosperity. He wanted them to never have to deal with an enemy. He wanted them to go into a promised land. He wanted to give them everything that they ever needed and wanted and to live in his unbreakable presence under the covenant that he had established with them. That’s what he. They were waiting for his instructions 40 days. They wouldn’t wait and instead of waiting, they put pressure on Aaron and Aaron fell to the pressure of man.

When you don’t wait on God, you end up people pleasing and it’s a road to destruction. It’s a destructive road for those people, because Aaron was a leader of these people. He is the only reason that God did not take Aaron’s life for this horrible act, which was also one of the 10 commandments that they were specifically told. This is what God said, and all the people said this is what we’re going to do, and they totally break it In 40 days. They break the laws, but it took Moses interceding on behalf of Aaron in order for Aaron’s life to be spared. And it will take the intervention of God so many times in our lives that when we do it wrong, we need God to then turn around and intervene, because we are creating drama and chaos in our life and problems that were unnecessary if they just would have waited, the gold, that they gave up the prosperity, their personal prosperity. They gave up that personal prosperity to create this false God that could do nothing for them. They gave up this was their personal property, their gold, their earrings, their jewelry. They gave up their own personal wealth for this, for this nonsense, for this craziness. And when you chase after things that God has not ordained, or when you get ahead of God and you don’t wait on God, you will end up wasting your wealth and wasting your resource for things that will not produce what you’re hoping they will produce. In your life. We see this also.

I want you to go to Jeremiah, chapter 42. Jeremiah 42. And I mentioned this a couple weeks, either a week ago or two weeks ago, but I want you to see this chapter 42. The background here is that the remnant of Israel has been taken captive to Babylon when Nebuchadnezzar came and took them all into captivity and they don’t want. They’re afraid of being in this place. They’re afraid enough being in this place. They’re afraid enough of the circumstance that they now find themselves in being drug from their homes and their land into a foreign land, and everything has changed for them, and it is a fearful thing, certainly, and you can find yourself in situations very similar that you have been drug away into, whatever these circumstances are, and you’re not sure what to do about it. And they went to Jeremiah and I mentioned this before, but it bears mentioning it again that Jeremiah had been a prophet to them before the captivity, warning them and if they would have listened to him they wouldn’t have gone into captivity. But they refused, which either means that they were so rebellious against God that it didn’t matter what Jeremiah said, they were refusing to listen to God or they didn’t believe that Jeremiah was actually a prophet, that what he said was true. I mean, they obviously didn’t believe him and they didn’t believe that God would intervene or that God would allow the things to happen that did happen.

And we get so shocked sometimes at the consequences that we have to pay for the decisions we made outside of God. And we do have to pay those consequences. God does allow our consequences to come. He’s a good father. He allows us to learn lessons so that we don’t repeat them. And in his goodness and in his righteousness he warned them, but they refused to listen. So now they are taken captive and they go to Jeremiah and they say Jeremiah, please beseech God for us, find out if they’re what we are to do. We don’t know what to do. Jeremiah, please talk to God for us and tell us what he says, and whatever he says we’ll to do. We, we don’t know what to do. Jeremiah, please talk to God for us and tell us what he says, and whatever he says we’ll do. It Sounds just like the children of Israel yes, lord, whatever you say to us, we’ll do. And here they go again. Whatever you tell us, and they specifically say whether we like it or not, we will do what you say. Whether we like it or not, whatever God says, that’s what we’re going to do. Well, let’s read that chapter 42.

Then all the commanders of the forces and Johanan, the son of Korea, and Jezaniah, the son of Hosea, and all the people from the least to the greatest, came near and said to Jeremiah, the prophet plea for mercy before you. Oh, sorry, I read that wrong. Let our plea for mercy come before you and pray to the Lord, your God, for us for all this remnant because we are left with but a few, as your eyes see us that the Lord, your God, may show us the way we should go and the thing that we should do. Jeremiah the prophet said to them I have heard you. Behold, I will pray to the Lord, your God, according to your request, and whatever the Lord answers you, I will tell you. I will keep nothing back from you. Then they said to Jeremiah May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act according to all the word with which the Lord, your God, sends you to us, whether it is good or bad. Again, an extremely true statement that it will go well with us if we obey the Lord.

Verse seven at the end of 10 days. The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah At the end of 10 days. I don’t know if you have I’m sure you have, but I don’t know what your experience is with this. But when, so many times, when we bring a prayer request to the Lord, we feel urgency, I need an answer right now, lord. I need an answer right now. I need to know.

These people were afraid and they went to Jeremiah. Please beseech God for us, please find out what God says to us and folks. It didn’t come right away. It didn’t come when he prayed that prayer. The word of the Lord didn’t come immediately.

Verse seven says at the end of 10 days. The end of 10 days, not even the beginning of 10 days, not even in the morning we’re talking, late, late in the evening. The end of 10 days, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. I’m going to read you what that word was Um, and you’ll see the correlation, but we’ll talk about that. Then he summoned Johanan, the son of Korea, and all the commanders of the people who were with him, and all the people from the least to the greatest, and he said to them.

Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your plea for mercy before him If, if God’s words always are an if, because it’s if you will obey. If you don’t obey, you’re going to get what you get. If you will remain in this land, then I will build you up and not pull you down. I will plant you and not pluck you up. I will plant you and not pluck you up, for I relent of the disaster that I did to you.

Do not fear the king of Babylon of whom you are afraid. I mean, this is a beautiful word. Stay right here. I won’t harm you. It’s going to be okay. It’s okay that you are where you are. It’s going to be okay. I’ve got you. Do not fear those in charge, those who are over you, those with authority. Don’t fear the king of Babylon. Do not fear him, declares the Lord, for I am with you to save you and to deliver you from his hand. I will grant you mercy. That he may have mercy on you and let you remain in your own land. He’s saying I’ll talk to the, I’ll talk to this king, and he’s going to do what I say. And he’ll end up letting you go to your land and stay in your land. This is what he’s going to let you do.

But if you say, here’s the opposite of this, is the backside of the, if, the second side to the coin. But if you say we will not remain in this land, disobeying the voice of the Lord, your God, and saying, no, we will go to the land of Egypt, where we shall not see war or hear the sound of the trumpet, or be hungry for bread, or we will dwell there, then hear the word of the Lord, o remnant of Judah. Word of the Lord, o remnant of Judah. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel. If you set your faces to enter Egypt and go live there, then the sword that you fear shall overtake you there, in the land of Egypt, and the famine of which you are afraid shall follow close after you to Egypt, and there you shall die. All of the men who set their faces to go to Egypt to live there shall die by the sword, by famine and by pestilence. They shall have no remnant or survivor from the disaster that I will bring upon them.

And it goes on. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel as my anger and my wrath were poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so my wrath will be poured out on you when you go to Egypt. You shall become an exaggeration, I’m sorry a horror, a curse and a taunt. You shall see this place no more. The Lord has said to you O remnant of Judah, do not go to Egypt. Know for a certainty that I have warned you this day that you have gone astray at the cost of your lives, for you sent me to the Lord, your God, saying pray for us to the Lord, our God, and whatever the Lord, our God, says, declare to us, and we will do it. And I have this day declared it to you, but you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord, your God, in anything that he sent me to tell you. You never listened to what I say. Now, therefore, know for a certainty that you shall die by the sword, by famine and by pestilence in the place where you desire to go to live.

I know how heavy that is, but here’s the truth. Isn’t every circumstance that we find ourselves in we desperately want it to change a heavy situation? Are you facing anything heavy today that you need deliverance from? I have a question for you Are you there because you disobeyed the Lord and you didn’t wait for his instruction? Did you not wait on the timing of God? Or are you there and you did hear the Lord and now you’re waiting to get out? You’re waiting for new instruction. You’re waiting for deliverance, whether you’re there because you got yourself there or whether you find yourself there and now you need out this new year.

Folks, if you truly want a new year, a new set of circumstance, a new plan, a new strategy, new blessing, new provision, whatever it is, restoration, whatever it is, restoration, whatever it is that you are in need of for 2025, I’m telling you you must wait for the word of the Lord. It goes without saying that you need to obey it. But I’m bringing this to you. I wanted you to understand the timing 40 days, 10 days. Don’t jump ahead. Be patient. The love of God that covers us, that leads us, that protects us, that love, according to Corinthians, tells us that love is patient. It’s patient, it waits. Corinthians tells us that love is patient. It’s patient, it waits.

I don’t want to go out and create a golden calf that doesn’t even represent the God I serve because I wasn’t willing to wait. I don’t want to turn from God and allow myself to go back into my old habits and my old ways. I need to wait on the Spirit of God. Use this brand new year, take the month of January, set your heart to know what God says for your life this year, for the direction you’re going, for the plans he has for you, and wait for his instructions. Let the patience of God have a work in your spirit, let the spirit of God grow, grow in you, that the fruit of the spirit be made manifest in your life, and when you do the blessing that God has promised you will come upon you and overtake you and you will see a radical difference from last year to this year. Make it your decision today, no matter what pushes on me, no matter what person or voice or decision, whatever someone is saying, I’ve got to have your answer now. No matter what the answer, no matter what’s pushing on you, make it your determination this year you’re going to wait on the timing of God, and I promise you, when you do, you will see and experience the results that God has promised you. So here’s to a happy new year.

Happy new year, I pray. All of God’s blessings on you. Let me pray for you, father. We thank you for the lessons that we have learned, for your sustaining power that has carried us over this last year, whether we abounded or we were abased. This last year, we are believing you, lord, to hear from your voice, to know your direction, your strategies, your plans, and that we would have ears to hear that we would wait on you, just as Jesus knew my time is not yet. Certain things were not allowed to take place because his time was not yet. There is a time, though Israel waited in silence for 400 years, the Christmas song broke out of Emmanuel, god with us, because the timing of God had come, deliverance had come, the answer was made flesh and dwelt among us. So, god, we submit this year into your hands and I pray for every single person under the sound of this podcast and under my voice, single person under the sound of this podcast and under my voice, that they will know your words, your timing, your plans, and they have determined in their heart to wait on you and they will live in the promise and blessing of God. And we give you all the thanks and the praise for it. And in Jesus name, we pray Amen.

Thank you so much for being with me today. I pray this was an encouragement, a strong word of instruction for you today for this new year. Take it, use it, be blessed by it. And you can do me a favor hit that like and share button. You can hit the bell, get notified whenever we have a new episode come out. You can subscribe. Go to my website Jaimelucecom J-A-I-M-E-L-U-C-E. I’d love to hear from you. If you have any prayer requests or praise reports, please let me know, send me an email and I will respond to you. Thanks so much. God be with you, amen.