Right Place Right Time (2 page)

Holy Spirit — Agent Of Divine Appointments

Now, the word “time” in Hebrew is
’eth
, which simply means “timing”. It is interesting that the first time the word
’eth
appears is in the story of Noah and the ark. Everyone knows the story of Noah. He knew how to float his assets when the world was in liquidation! He prospered during a crisis. Finally, when the rain stopped and the waters began to subside, Noah sent out a bird to see if there was dry land. But he sent the wrong kind of bird. You see, he sent a raven and ravens are scavengers. There were probably lots of dead bodies floating around for the raven to feed on!

But the second bird he sent out was a dove. Now, doves are not scavengers. So they are the right kind of bird to send out to look for evidence of life. Remember that doves are also pictures of the Holy Spirit. The dove found no place to rest outside the ark, so it returned to the ark, indicating to Noah that water still covered a lot of the land. After seven days, Noah sent the dove out again. This time, it returned with an olive leaf in its mouth. (Genesis 8:11) It is from this verse that you have today’s peace emblem — a dove with an olive leaf in its beak. So now, Noah knew that there was evidence of land and life.

Now, when did the dove come back to Noah? Genesis 8:11 says that it was
“in the evening”
. It is here that you find the word
’eth
, which means “timing”, appearing for the first time in the Bible. In other words, the “timing” was “in the evening”. Or we could say that “in the evening” was the “right timing” because that was when the dove returned with good news.

Now, notice also that the first mention of “timing” or “right timing” here has to do with the Holy Spirit, represented by the dove. What does this mean? It means that it is the Holy Spirit who orchestrates the “right timing” in our daily lives! It is the Holy Spirit who places us in the right place at the right time. It is the Holy Spirit who causes us to experience divine appointments or God appointments.

It has nothing to do with your abilities or your smarts. Only the Holy Spirit can put you in the right place at the right time and cause you to prosper. And as long as you are a believer washed by the blood of Jesus, you have the Holy Spirit inside you to lead you and place you in the right place at the right time.

A Shunammite Woman’s Divine Appointment

In 2 Kings 8, there is an example of a woman being in the right place at the right time. But let me first give you the backdrop to this story. Elisha was a prophet of God who experienced double the miracles of his master, Elijah. Why? Because Elisha was hungry enough to ask God for a double portion of the anointing.

In 2 Kings 4:8–37, we see one of these miracles. God used Elisha to raise a boy from the dead. The boy’s mother was a kind Shunammite woman. Elisha would pass by the woman’s house regularly. She and her husband realised that he was a man of God. So they built a small chamber in their house for Elisha to rest in whenever he liked.

Now, the Shunammite woman and her husband could not have children, so Elisha blessed them with the blessing of the Lord and the woman soon gave birth to a boy. The boy grew up and one day, while playing in a field, he suffered a stroke and died later on his mother’s lap. To cut a long story short, Elisha raised the boy from the dead. 2 Kings 8:1–3 tells us what happened next to this woman:

¹
Then Elisha spoke to the woman whose son he had restored to life, saying, “Arise and go, you and your household, and stay wherever you can; for the Lord has called for a famine, and furthermore, it will come upon the land for seven years.”
²
So the woman arose and did according to the saying of the man of God, and she went with her household and dwelt in the land of the Philistines seven years.
³
It came to pass, at the end of seven years, that the woman returned from the land of the Philistines; and she went to make an appeal to the king for her house and for her land
.

Now, this woman had left her house to escape the famine because the man of God had told her to. After seven years of being away, she returned to find that other people had taken her land. So she went to make an appeal to the king of Israel for her house and land. Now, while she was on her way to the king, the king
happened
to have a guest with him. And the guest
happened
to be Elisha’s servant, Gehazi.

Look at 2 Kings 8:4:
“Then the king talked with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying, ‘Tell me, please, all the great things Elisha has done.’”
So Gehazi told the king how Elisha had restored a Shunammite woman’s dead boy to life. And while he was telling the story, the same Shunammite woman whose son Elisha had restored to life was visiting the king to make her appeal!

2 Kings 8:5–6 tells us:

⁵
Now it happened, as he was telling the king how he had restored the dead to life, that there was the woman whose son he had restored to life, appealing to the king for her house and for her land. And Gehazi said, “My lord, O king, this is the woman, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life.”
⁶
And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed a certain officer for her, saying, “Restore all that was hers, and all the proceeds of the field from the day that she left the land until now
.”

My friend, talk about timing! The king could have invited Elisha’s servant to have an audience with him at any time during the seven long years of famine. Why did it happen right when the Shunammite woman turned up to appeal to him? We don’t know. But what we do know is this: God is the one who coordinates timing! When He wants to carry out His will in our lives, it happens according to His timing. My friend, your life is not an accident. Your picking up this book is not an accident. Your life is like a tapestry of miracles!

‘I Delayed This Flight For You’

God is amazing. He can even cause delays to work for you. When our daughter Jessica was only two years old, my wife and I took her on a holiday. And it was the first time we took Jessica on a plane. I couldn’t believe the amount of things we had to pack for her. Wendy and I shared one piece of luggage, but Jessica had two large pieces of luggage!

At the end of the holiday, we were scheduled to catch a night flight home so that we could make it back in time for the opening ceremony of a dialysis centre, which our church had raised money to build for our community. On the way to the airport, we were caught in a traffic jam. I thought to myself, “No problem, we’re still on time. We’ll make it.”

When we reached the airport, we rushed to the counters only to discover that they were closed. We eventually found a counter that was still open and asked a man about our flight. We gave him our flight number and he said to us, “Your flight was scheduled to leave an hour ago!” My heart sank. I turned to Wendy, whose responsibility it was to confirm our flights whenever we travelled, and said, “Darling, can you please check the tickets?” Wendy looked at the tickets and discovered that the flight was scheduled for 2130 hours, not 2230 as she had thought! To be fair, this was the first time Wendy had made this kind of mistake. Usually, she is very accurate.

I looked at Wendy and said, “Darling, you can make a lot of mistakes, you can make 1,001 mistakes, but this one mistake is a mistake above all mistakes!” Wendy felt really bad. The man behind the counter must have felt sorry for us. “Look,” he said, “I’ll process this for you, but I can’t check in your luggage because it’s too late. The plane is about to leave, so take your luggage with you, run all the way to the departure gate, and if the plane is still there, get on it.” I was surprised that we could still catch the flight.

So we grabbed our luggage and moved as fast as we could. It was a challenge because it was late at night and it was the end of a holiday, which meant that we were very tired! The gate was also at the very far end of the terminal. When we reached it, a few attendants were still there, so they checked in our luggage and told us to board the plane. By now, I was very annoyed with the whole situation. Some of you may be thinking, “Pastor Prince, you’ve got to learn to be patient.” Well, all I will say is that I have not yet learned how to lie!

You can’t remain angry when you sense God’s love and provision.

Then, I heard an announcement saying, “Ladies and gentlemen, we are having problems with the conveyer belt.” I realised then that the flight had been delayed as not all the luggage had gone into the plane’s cargo hold due to the faulty conveyor belt. Now, I travel often, and yet I have never heard of a plane being delayed because of a faulty conveyer belt! Sure, planes have been delayed for engine trouble or bad weather, but a faulty conveyer belt? Anyway, I was very glad that the plane was delayed so that we could catch the flight and be on time for the opening ceremony.

After another 10 minutes of waiting, I thought, “My goodness, who is delaying this flight?” All of a sudden, I felt the love of God. I felt God saying to me, “I delayed this flight for you.” In total, from the moment we boarded the plane, we had about 20 minutes to settle in, have a drink and do all the things we needed to do to get comfortable before the plane took off.

How could I remain angry when I could sense God’s love and provision? I tried to rationalise the problems we just had: Getting the flight time wrong, dragging extra luggage belonging to a two-year-old, running from one end of the terminal to the other… But if God didn’t think much of it, why should I?

So God can use delays. You might say to me, “But Pastor Prince, when I get stuck in a traffic jam, I get moody. I don’t see any good in it at all!” My friend, trust me, there is always some good happening. Romans 8:28 says,
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
God didn’t say that everything is good. He said that everything works together for good.

God Can Turn A Crisis Into A Blessing

God can place you in the right place at the right time. But there are people caught in the wrong place and at the wrong time. They are like birds caught in a net. Tragedies hit people from time to time. People lose their jobs, marriages fail and sicknesses or accidents take the lives of loved ones.

People say to me, “Evil is increasing around us.” No, my friend, tragedies occur in isolated situations. It is not everywhere. Don’t let the devil fool you. And don’t let fear rule your life. Enjoy the times. If tragedies in certain countries affect tourist numbers there, then take advantage of discounted flights to those countries. Take advantage of the fact that there will be no crowds or long queues at tourist attractions in those countries.

For example, tourism has been affected in Israel for many years. So pack your bags and go see the lovely Bible places there! I remember that when Israel was faced with a crisis at its border with Syria, I happened to travel there with a few others and there were no tourists around. So we had the place all to ourselves and we enjoyed ourselves! We even had the hotel and all its staff members to ourselves! So we were very well looked after.

Now, when everything is going fine, you have got to join long queues at popular tourist attractions. When everything is going fine, and the sun is shining and the weather is perfect, you have got to line up for places like Disneyland.

Timing is everything, as they say. So ask the Holy Spirit to bless you with right happenings and to put you in the right place at the right time!

chapter
3

God Leads Us

chapter 3

God Leads Us

God Puts Desires In Your Heart To Lead You

D
o you want to be in the right place at the right time? Then find out how God leads you today. God wants to put you in the right place at the right time and He knows how to guide you there.

Now, I want to say something about hearing God’s voice. I am a Charismatic, which means that I am a tongue-talking, devil-chasing, mountain-moving, Bible-toting Christian! I also believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. But I am against teachings that make people feel like they are less of a Christian if they can’t hear God’s voice. For example, some church leaders say that if you don’t know how to hear God’s voice, then you have missed God. These church leaders seem to be saying, “You must come up to my level of spirituality because I know how to hear God’s voice.” Others will tell you, “Attend my seminar because I have developed four steps that will help you hear God’s voice. I have five ‘traffic lights’ on the inside of me that help me discern His voice. So come and learn from me.” What these leaders are doing is complicating what God has made simple!