Focus: Don't Keep Them Waiting Forever! (Pt.3)

Text: Rom.8:19

"For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God."

The world in which you live waits anxiously for your manifestation as a child of God. Even your brothers and sisters in Christ want to experience the manifestation of the Spirit through you. Paul says that "the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal" (1Cor.12:7). The Spirit wants to manifest Himself through you so that others may experience and enjoy God in the Assembly of God's people. 

Eugene H. Peterson translates that Scripture thus, "Each person is given something to do that shows who God is…" God makes Himself known to others by His own children - His adult sons. The psalmist tells us that "out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined" (Ps.50:2). God delights in shining forth from His own sons.

Paul also talks about "the manifestation of the truth," and God does it through us (2Cor.4:2). He tells us that the church is the custodian of the truth. 

The sons of God love the truth and speak it in love to others.

The sons of God also wait for our adoption or our positioning as sons by our God and our Father, and that happens when our body is clothed with the garment of immortality. Paul says, "And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body" (Rom.8:23).

The sons of God also await the imminent return of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul declares, "So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1Cor.1:7). Again he says, "For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith" (Gal.5:5). The righteousness that is produced by faith in Christ is rooted in eternal hope. Paul puts it yet in another way in Philippians, "For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ" (Phil.3:20). We anxiously anticipate the second return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The author of Hebrews puts it this way, "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation" (Heb.9:28).

Christ will in the near future manifest Himself for us. The Spirit in the present is manifesting Himself in us and by us for the good of others. Also, in the present, Christ longs to manifest Himself through us to the world, and as sons of God the people of this world are waiting for our manifestation.

It is time for each of us to let the world see God in us. We cannot keep them waiting forever. They want to see divinity in our humanity. They long to see the change that is taking place in us - change that is radical and awesome. I implore you not to keep them waiting for eternity to see your transformation. Show the world the miracle that you have become! Show them that in Christ you have become a brand new person! Let your light shine before men! Keep no one in doubt of who you are as a child of God! Don't show the world the wrong you! Don't confuse them!

by Bishop Moses E. Peter