Class Notes: 6/13/2012

The doctrine of the timing of God in our study of the Book of Esther and the providence of God

In our study of Esther and the providence of God, we are presently discussing the doctrine of the timing of God.

Last time we concluded with the principle that timing has to do with everything in life so if your timing is off in any area, you will have a problem. Life without doctrine inevitably results in a life of bad timing. You may call it bad luck, be filled with self-pity, or resent others but these reactions are simply indicative of a lack of capacity from doctrine.

Since believers have an eternal irrevocable relationship with Jesus Christ the only timing that counts is God's timing. Any other source of timing will be off. This means that if you are an ambitious Christian who is arrogant, your timing will always be off until your relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ through the protocol plan of God becomes the most important factor in your life.

Grace orientation relies on God for correct timing. Enforced and genuine humility is the basis for grace orientation. God promotes the humble, which means that enforced and genuine humility leaves the matter of timing in the Lord's hands, and avoids the arrogance of inordinate ambition and competition.

A good example of wrong timing is a believer who commits suicide. The believer who commits suicide is out of sync with God's plan. His suicide doesn't hurt God in any way, but he hurts himself because God had a perfect plan for his life, but instead of adjusting to and living in God's plan of grace and God's timing he intrudes with his own arrogant self absorption and commits suicide.

As an illustration of wrong timing, suicide is a situation where the individual in arrogance has lost track of reality, and his timing is so completely out of sync with God's plan that he has no hope and in desperation he takes his own life.

The suicide of a believer does not imply loss of eternal salvation. It simply means that the believer who commits suicide is out of sync with God's plan because in arrogance, he has superimposed his will over the will of God.

This means that he will not receive the conveyance of the greater grace blessings for time and as a result will have loss of rewards in eternity but he has not lost his eternally secure salvation because it is preserved by the omnipotence of God and is therefore irrevocable. 1Pet 1:5; Rom 11:29;

Timing applies to Christians because it is part of our human experience on this earth while we live in the adversity of the devil's world but are not part of it. God uses timing to protect and preserve his people while he simultaneously defeats the cosmic system.

Christians have the opportunity to understand this and benefit from the process when they learn and believe the doctrines of timing, promotion and providence that are the outworking of the integrity or Holiness of God. 1John 5:4-5;

Eccles 3:1-8; teaches the general principles of timing. "There is an appointed time for everything. There is a time for every event under heaven." This means that your life can be in perfect timing and perfect sync with God's plan. Such a life is one of great happiness and blessing.

Mankind is imperfect; therefore, man's timing is imperfect. God is perfect; therefore, God's timing is perfect. Since mankind is imperfect, he must depend on God for perfect timing in life. This is one of the blessings of living in God's plan for your life.

The problem of man's timing is the failure to do the right thing at the right time. People simply don't want to wait for God and God's timing. People are too busy making their own decisions, trying to create their own timing, and trying to fulfill their ambitions and as a result God's plan is being bypassed. Isa 30:18; Net note 41

Inordinate ambition and competition cause people to desire and lust for things, to seek happiness in the wrong way, and as a result their timing is always off. There's always something people want: success, promotion, sex, marriage, travel, etc. It is not wrong to desire these things but pursuing them in our timing rather than God's timing constantly places us in the wrong timing.

In times of historical decline, bad timing makes things worse. If you enter a period of disaster in history and you are functioning in bad timing, you will not be prepared for disaster.

Believers are either using the ten problem solving devices or their own problem solving devices. If you are using your own problem solving devices expect to have difficult times.

If God doesn't promote you, you're not promoted. This doesn't only apply to promotion or success in one's work it refers to the whole realm of one's life

Waiting for God's promotion means faithfulness in the little things so that God can prepare you to have capacity for the big things. But many people are highly unstable because of their lust pattern, their ambition, or their frustrations and as a result are faithless in consistently taking in Bible doctrine in learning and applying the problem solving devices and they do not develop the capacity to deal with the problems of life.

Remember adversity is inevitable but stress is optional. Adversity is what circumstances do to you; stress is what you do to yourself because of lack of confidence in the faithfulness of God.

Faithfulness while waiting for God's promotion means not deviating, or trying to escape or becoming unstable. It means not allowing what you need in your situation to become the basis for making wrong decisions from a position of weakness and functioning under your timing rather than God's timing.

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