In the Waiting

Moses asked God a question. He said, please show me your glory, glory being the manifestation of God's splendor and God's beauty and God's greatness. Glory is a revelation. So Moses wants to see something that God has to reveal. That's why he asked, please show me your glory. I just want to have the simplicity of a Samuel who says, Lord, first of all, the answer is yes. But for the request, because you are Lord, I'm servant and I'm going to do what you told me to do. I'm going to start today by telling you a little bit about how we got here. I asked the Lord, how am I supposed to fit everything in today? And he said, oh, I'll give it to you. Just say what I got to say. But the story and the testimony of how we got here is some of what he wants to say. Because I believe it's important for your local church to understand and to know what God is doing when he calls people up and out. Not just so that you have the full story, but because if it's going to touch you in any single way, you better be ready to take a part in it. Amen. So about a year and a half ago, a little over a year and a half ago, my husband, Seth, and I began to sense a season shift. We knew things were changing. And to be completely honest, it wasn't all the most spiritual, like dream with the wind and the hair and the Holy Spirit, you know, just smacking me across the face. It was that, but it was also the reality that our older children were going to move into the season of life where we needed to get ready for the launching phase. High school was coming, college, things like that. And so we began to pray for the season shift. We needed breakthrough in my husband's career. Because if you haven't caught on yet, we have four beautiful daughters, which means there's four beautiful weddings coming. And as far as I'm concerned, if my husband wasn't about to get a breakthrough in his career, they had a backyard and they were all going to share my dress. Just kidding. They both are like, no, that's okay. So we needed a breakthrough in my husband's career. And we talked to Pastor Lau and Pastor Allison over the last year and a half, sensing it. They prayed with us. They help us. We even made it known to our staff team because Pastor Brian would often lead us and say, hey, we want to be interceding for one another as well. What are you believing for? And so we would pray as staff for that. Everybody knew when it came to Pastor Michelle is pray for Seth's career and home. So here we are living in answered prayers, but it doesn't look quite the way we thought it would. But that's okay. Because God's word does not delay. And oftentimes it doesn't show up the way that you think.

Amen. But here's what he wants to say. I'm sure I'm going to show up. I'm going to show up. So 22 years ago, my husband received a word at the church that we met at in San Antonio, Texas. That's where we're from. Okay. And he received this word about being the red Pegasus from one of the pastors. Now, listen, I got introduced to the Pentecostal charismatic church at 18 years old. I'm here to stay. I love it. Holy ghost party all the time. Every time my children are here, my grandkids will be here. My great grandkids will be here, but I am me. And if the word sounds weird, I'm going to say it's weird. And so we met at 24 and he tells me this word and, you know, we're getting to know each other. It's charismatic dating right there. And he's telling me about this prophetic word he received. And he's like, yeah, she said that, you know, pastor Angie said that I was the red Pegasus. And I was like, that's weird. We're not engaged. So, all right, let's ride with this. We'll be married 18 years in the fall. And so for almost two decades, yeah, praise God. And y'all, my husband's becoming the silver fox that I always knew he was. So it's just getting better. So for almost two decades, this weird word of a red Pegasus would come in and out and we would go, okay, it's interesting. So last year, this red Pegasus and this red horse start to appear. everywhere and we go to church here so it was really everywhere on people's t-shirts and all these things and the thing that was the most interesting

wasn't necessarily that it started appearing it was actually that my husband had started to wrestle with the prophetic and when I mean wrestle I mean he wanted to intimately understand because really that's what wrestle is wrestle isn't necessarily complaining and my husband was wrestling with the prophetic because he wanted to lead us as a family that didn't just know the Lord's voice but that we knew his heart because sometimes when you separate the two you get it twisted okay so that was what was interesting to me was that he was wrestling with the Lord and all of this starts coming about everywhere and it's amazing and he tells me about it and I'm like okay I'll keep praying for you and at the exact same time how many of you know when the Lord is moving there's a lot of stuff that happens at the same time sometimes it starts to feel like pressure started to feel like pressure I was happy that my husband was seeing this prophetic word coming in and out but at this exact same time this breakthrough and this crying out and this fasting and all this waiting on the Lord to show up for our season shift wasn't happening so last fall we met with Pastor Lyle and Pastor Allison and said we need our pastors we need some guidance we need some leadership and we have amazing pastors and they shepherded us in that moment and they looked at us in the eyes and they said oh it's coming and Pastor Lyle looked at my husband Seth square in the eyes and he said the Lord is coming there's a job that's gonna call you and in between now and then get ready build something get smarter get certified do something so we left that meeting we felt encouraged Christmas time comes and over the break my husband starts to explain to me this essentially this position he's created for himself in software engineering and AI integration and that's about all I can give you I'm gonna screw the rest of it up because that's about as long as I can pay attention to when he starts talking but I have a counseling degree so I know how to make eye contact and go mm-hmm I hear what you're saying what I hear you saying is you're smart and you're sexy that's what I hear we get through the conversations all right I mean I knew the Lord was doing something cuz listen Seth is the smartest guy on the planet and I like to

say if you don't think he's the smartest guy on the planet it's just cuz you're not that smart so he tells me this and then all of a sudden at a gas station we see the Red Pegasus because you know what at this point I just want to Google it I'm done with the over spiritualization I just want to Google it well Google says the historic revolving neon red flying horse on top of the Magnolia building which has become an iconic symbol of the city of Dallas well at that time again we're feeling pressure in the waiting I'm starting to complain if I'm being very honest about how long it's taking and we are not putting two and two together and we look at each other we say yeah legacy Dallas we have a 12 city vision of course we're on board we're called here it's gonna be amazing pray for the people that the Lord is bringing in well I look at Seth and I go we're not moving to Dallas Dallas is boo-boo Dallas is trying to be everything but Dallas I'm not living there and Seth looks at me he goes yeah we wouldn't live there like great so we keep going the Lord has something to teach us today about maturing while we wait so months keep going on and in March we celebrate our oldest daughter's quinceanera and for those of you who are not Mexican or want to be Mexican um it's our it's the 15th birthday the coming of age to a young woman's celebration in our culture it's a beautiful party well it was the week after that that our whole life changed there was a company that reached out to my Seth to my son he is my son to my husband and I'll never forget it because he sends me a screenshot of it and all I remember reading was we don't have anything remote and we don't have a position I was like I don't care my parents are still here I'm still nervous when my dad is around I need to take them to eat good food and not fake Mexican food like that's all I'm worried about okay and my husband's like I haven't had any my husband had had nothing for eight months silence silence and some of you are sitting here this morning going I still haven't gotten a call back I've had no interview he had nothing and he said I'm just gonna take it for the practice I said take it for the practice meet us at home we got to go to dinner with my parents he goes

okay well when he gets home they sent him this pseudo offer I didn't even know this was a real thing the world is crazy a pseudo offer maybe if we could we'd love to and I I see that and I'm like, of course you love Seth. Everybody's supposed to love Seth because again, if you don't love Seth, you're just stupid. He's gonna pastor you by just sitting in front of him. It's just that gleam, silver flux that just looks at you and you go, I repent. He gets me every time. No, we're not having any more kids, stop it. I knew it, I knew it. No. So I actually don't find out what I'm about to say next until after we had committed to the transition after we talked to Pastor Al and Pastor Allison, but my husband tells me, hey, I interviewed with the vice president of the company and in that interview, it's virtual, he told me, Seth, I want you to take a look at this room. This is my favorite room to interview everybody in and we paint all of our rooms Texas themed. He turns the laptop around and it's a big red horse. I think God was saying something. I immediately text Pastor Allison, we got to talk now. She texts back, are you okay? And I'm like, I don't know. In between the days that we get to meet with them, they actually send him an official letter.

In that letter, it's everything we've been praying for for almost two years, but in the words of my husband, we don't move for a job, we move for the Lord. So we emailed back 17 different, to be frank, demands. And I was like, we are out of our mind. And Seth was like, no, we're not because if it's God, we'll know and if it's not, door shut. And I said, okay, this is crazy. So we email him back, my wife's a pastor, we don't move in two weeks, our kids are here, we've been here for 10 years. If this is a move, this is gonna be like summertime. They emailed back, not only saying yes to every single thing we requested, but they offer him the position that requires 10 plus years of senior level work. My husband's only been in software engineering for three. So we meet with Pastor Al, Pastor Allison, and with tears in all our eyes, they go, it's time. This is God. So here we are today in the midst of preparing for our move because God said, I'm not 22 years too late, church. I'm not late, I'm right on time and I don't delay. Some of you have been waiting for 22 years on a word that you've wondered, is he still interested in answering me? And I'm here to tell you today, get ready for your word to be answered. Because our God is in the business of coming through. Isaiah 22, 22 says, I will place on his shoulder

the key to the house of David. What he opens, no one can shut. And when he shuts, no one can open. And some of you need to hear today, when the door opens, nobody else opened it for you, he did. And when it shuts, that's your no, don't overthink it, move on. But man, what do you do when for 22 years, it's silent? It's silent. No sign, no dream, no prophetic word that reignites your faith for it. What do you do when it's silent? Because when it was silent for us in the waiting, and that's what I believe the Lord wants to talk to us about is in the waiting. Because in the waiting, hell came from my family. Last year, I got a text from one of my older sisters, Christy, she texted us, pray for Genesis, my niece. She's been admitted to the hospital, trouble breathing with the flu. I'm thinking, all right, we'll pray. My sister's been a hospital administrator for 25 years. My brother-in-law's a doctor, we're not worried, we're fine. Until within hours and days, we get a text that says, get on your knees, they told us she may not make it. And I go, what on earth just happened? We're crying out for breakthrough, and I have to watch from Tennessee, my niece, maybe not make it? We intercede, we're surrounded by our faith

and our family and our friends. We just celebrated her 16th birthday this past May. She's as good as ever. She's gonna start playing volleyball again. Well, then our second oldest daughter, Elizabeth, starts struggling. She's TMJ, in Jesus' name, she's gonna be healed. But it starts right here. It starts locking on her so bad that there are days she can't eat. We get into this rhythm where she'll just say, Mommy, it's locked. And I'll go, okay, I'll start praying. And if I'm near her, I just start to massage her because I know what's really going on. You can't have my daughter's voice. Yeah. So praise God, the night terrors stop. Her locked jaw is happening less and less as time goes on, praise the Lord. But again, my husband, nothing, nothing. This is in the waiting. This is before the quinceanera in March, nothing. And I'm like, what is happening? Why? I would wake up in the middle of the night and put my hand on my husband's back. And I would say, I need someone to know who my husband is because he's not made to be ordinary. And he's not made to just make it.

And I need someone to tell him, not just that he's worth it, but he is gonna come in and affect a change that they can't deny. And then on February 15th of this year, our oldest turned 15, it was her actual birthday. And that was what almost took me out. On her 15th birthday, we rested at home and I'm making her cake and I'm icing it. And the three of us are in the kitchen, my husband, myself, and my daughter, Liv. And our other three girls are in the living room watching a movie, getting ready. I'm gonna finish the cake, sing happy birthday, come on out. And my daughter begins to talk to us like a young woman. She's talking to us about stressors and things she's concerned about. What if God doesn't give daddy a better job, mom? What if he doesn't? What if we don't buy a home and we stay? We've always told our children, we've been more than blessed with where we are. We're not gonna complain, but yes, we're praying. And all of a sudden I turn around from icing the cake and she's like this and she goes, I think I'm gonna pass out. And I look at her and she turns as white as the wall behind her. And I turn to Seth and I go, Seth, catch her. And I see out of the corner of my eye,

she starts to convulse. And none of our children have ever had a seizure. And I see her body just seizure out and she collapses. My husband catches her, he throws her to me. I flip a chair around and I just hold her head here and I have fingers here. And I go, it's okay, Michelle, don't freak out. Girls are over there. She just fainted. I'm talking myself through this. And I go, live. And she doesn't answer me. I go, live. And she won't answer me. And I put my fingers here and she's not breathing, nothing. And for the first time in my adult life, I close my eyes and I say, God, don't you dare. Don't you dare, not right now. Not right now, not my baby. And within seconds, it felt like days, she, where am I, I don't know. The EMT comes, they check her out. You know, we end the night in the hospital, they come back. They don't know they're declaring in the spirit, but they're declaring, she's not gonna have to suffer with this for her whole life. Her brain scan's clear, everything's fine, but do watch her for a couple of weeks. She's fine, as healthy as ever. She's strong.

But I go home that night and I don't sleep. I tell God, I'm tired. How long, I don't understand. What we're asking for isn't ridiculous. I'm not even demanding it, I'm willing, I'm not gonna go anywhere. You know my faith is not shaken even by death, but my God, tell me why. And he whispers, Habakkuk. I didn't know the Lord had told my husband Habakkuk. That book became an anchor for us in different ways, but it was, you see, we're gonna dive through Habakkuk with the time we have left, because I believe what the Lord is telling us as a local church and as the church at large is that we have to mature as we wait. If we're not careful, we're gonna wait like the world, and we're gonna complain, and we're gonna grow cynical, and we're gonna have 72 Instagram pastors, but we're not gonna belong to a local church. And we're gonna wonder why we can't hear him as well. We have one Jesus. His voice is who I wanna know. Habakkuk is a phenomenal book. It shows us a dialogue with a frustrated prophet, and it shows us a prophet that runs toward Jesus in his frustration instead of away from him, like another prophet in the Old Testament called Jonah. You see, the difference between the two is that Habakkuk ran toward Jesus,

and I don't know about you, but I've learned over my short 44 years in life that if I run toward Jesus, I get disciplined to hear his voice. If I run away from him, it delays. He doesn't delay, but I delay. We must learn to be disciplined because we're not always gonna be motivated. I don't care what self-help says. You cannot get your nails done enough to motivate you to do something you don't wanna do. I'm not knocking your nails. I got my nails done. Everything's fine. I'm just saying. If you see the chart behind me, I see some of y'all taking a picture. Take a picture of it. I'm gonna walk us through scriptures because the thing that I actually, I feel like what the Lord is showing us is that there is a maturation ladder and a skillset that we must acquire as we go from Habakkuk one to Habakkuk three. If you look here, there's a confession that we find that sometimes comes out of our mouth when we're in these phases with the Habakkuk. In chapter one, it's the struggle. It's the how long, oh Lord, will you make me wait? Well, because the confession that comes out is,

Lord, you confused me. I said that when Seth got a pseudo offer. It's like, that's weird. Stop doing that. Then the perspective, how does that come out of our mouth? Because our perspective is focused on what's around us and we're worried about our circumstance. Well, we go on to chapter two and we see that the watch and waiting for the answer and the vision and God tells us what to do, our confession out of our mouth becomes, Lord, okay, fine, I'll wait for you. But look at the perspective shifts from looking around to looking up so we can hear him and not everybody else's opinion around us about what he told us. There's a certain area of maturity where you don't need to check with 17 people before you confirm what he told you. And then we end with chapter three. Habakkuk started in woe and dismay because God was delayed, but he ends with, Lord, I praise you and now I can look ahead with belief. How do we get there? How can I get from holding my daughter who's lifeless in my arms to, God, I praise you. I will rejoice for I will mount up on wings of eagles. How do we get there? Well, I'll tell you how. Actually, I won't, scripture will.

I don't need to write a book about this, it's right here. Habakkuk chapter one, verse two says, how long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Verse three says, why do you make me look at injustice? I believe there are five skills in this book that we must acquire so that we mature as we wait. Skill number one is engage with God. Habakkuk initiates a conversation with God, not 14 other prophets. He doesn't care what anybody else has to say. He's so dismayed and wants to know when the Lord is gonna show up that he goes straight to God. You know, 15 years ago, my husband asked me, I'm an external processor, if you can't tell, and I would external process all my hard conversations and my relational woes, and at one point, he told me, he said, babe, I wanna work this out with you. I wanna hear everything you have to say. I love it, but every time you talk about it, your edge about the situation gets harsher. There's no grace. So my question to you is, have you prayed about this as much as you keep talking to me about it? My answer was no, because I said, I'm an external processor, this is holy. I'm not gossiping, and I had a gentle rebuke from the Lord that said, how dare you blame the way I made you, your personality, on why you're not coming to me first? We have a generation who has prioritized

knowing about pain rather than dealing with it in victory. Don't prioritize the pain. Engage with God. Skill number two comes in verse five. Look at the nations and watch and be utterly amazed. For I'm gonna do something in your days that you would not believe even if you were told. I will take my stand at my watch post and station myself on the tower and look out to see what he will say to me. Skill number two, get to your rightful place with God. Get to where God has called you. Sometimes what that means as you mature is you have to recategorize the friendships and the relationships that you have around you. I'm not saying that everything is evil and now you need to go hunt for people that are trying to keep you down. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that there's wisdom in being surrounded by people who get you quicker to him than to a table where they get to tell you what they think. I fell to my face. When I got that text Genesis may not make it and all I could do was texted by a group of friends What do I do and I sat there and read pastor Allison's text over and over and over But he will but he will but he will and I texted back But what if he doesn't and she was firm, but he will that's the kind of people you need in your life No business trying to opinionate you about what he could or couldn't do Skill number three comes in chapter 2 verse 2 write the vision and make it plain on tablet So he may run who reads it for still the vision awaits. It's appointed time. It hastens to the end

He don't lie If it seems slow wait for it. He does not say consult with professionals He says wait for it It will surely come it will deny it will not delay skill number three Write down what God said and keep it simple Because you're gonna have to remember what he said 22 years of silence We're gonna have to have something to go back on and read and I sure as heck don't want to read some Podcasts I was about to say somebody but never mind Some podcast professional Pseudo-counselor, whoever it is. I don't know. Apparently you can be a counselor if you have like 200,000 followers Do you know what I find interesting? You know what I find interesting. We have a generation I don't think where is it? We're as interested in leading as we are in having followers My husband actually told me that yesterday I was trying to remember I didn't say that my husband said that he said when we don't Engage with God and we engage with everybody else around us It's as though we don't really want to lead people we just want a bunch of people to follow us Write down what God said not everybody else Skill number four Chapter two verse four, but the righteous shall live by his faith. Keep it simple Live by faith not worry And I know some of you are sitting here today going oh the pastor Michelle I'm not gonna make my rent. Oh My pastor Michelle Can I tell you oh but God He's not gonna delay We live by faith not worry and Habakkuk shows us that in order to get to faith. We got to look up not around Skill number five comes in verses 17 through 19 in chapter 3 After Habakkuk declares Oh Lord, I have heard the report of you. You know what I find interesting there Habakkuk actually doesn't declare. Oh, you've answered my every question

he just says I've heard the report of what you can do and That alone is what causes the fear in him to go to him and praise him see sometimes cynicism creeps in We call it discernment But cynicism creeps in and we watch from the outside going hmm, we'll see what they do We'll see what happens and all the while God is saying I'm so sorry You feel like you got to watch from the outside, but I'm right here if you want to come praise Skill number five worship Though the fig tree should not blossom nor fruit be on the vines The produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food The flock be cut off from the fold and there would be no herd in the stalls as far as I'm concerned Habakkuk is saying if there's no life around me and there's no reason that anything on the earth or in the earth is Telling me to have faith. I See nothing. I See nothing. It's what he's saying verse 18 and 19 Yet I Will rejoice in the Lord. I will take joy in the God of my salvation God the Lord is my strength. He makes my feet like the deers and he makes me tread on my help by places Though my daughter lay lifeless in my hands Though my other daughter be tormented at night Though my niece be told she may not make it Though I have family members who still need to come back to the Lord Though I have prayers that have not been answered I will rejoice I Will shout to the Lord in joy because he is the God of my salvation He didn't just promise me he promised my dad a Legacy who will serve the Lord he promised my husband. He promised my children

And he promised you You were in my mind mind. This church was in my mind when I said, Lord, tell me why. And he said, Oh, Legacy Church means a lot to me, Michelle. And I want to do for them what I'm doing for you. You know, there are some things that we learn through the waiting that need to become wisdom so that we take them with us. The Lord told me a couple of weeks ago, Michelle, I want you to take wisdom into this next season, not just knowledge, because knowledge is consumed. Wisdom is applied. How dare we value how much we know over how we get to apply what God has shown us. 22 years of silence. I'm sorry. I'm not going to just have an opinionated conversation with people. I want to go testify and I want to change the soil at what some people have said is unchangeable with what we've been through. Point number two of wisdom that the Lord is pouring out onto our houses. You can't borrow someone else's oil. You don't borrow someone else's oil when you're getting through it. You cannot borrow others oil that comes to this church every single Sunday while you decide to show up once every three weeks. You cannot borrow somebody else's oil who signed up for a group and goes faithfully every time while you signed up for one and you're waiting to see if it falls apart. You cannot borrow someone else's oil that is in this church and not watching from the outside. The third thing the Lord wants to tell us is get to your healing. Don't wait for someone to notice you need healing before you get healing. Deliverance gets rid of the demons. I heard the Lord say deliverance gets rid of the demons, but healing gets rid of the version of you that let them in in the first place. You see, deliverance without healing is an over-spiritualized addiction and inner healing and counseling without deliverance is an over-spiritualized addiction. Don't spiritualize your addiction. Get to your healing. The man at the pool of Bethesda in the New Testament who needed healing was asked if he wanted healing. He gave a bunch of very valid reasons as why he couldn't get there and he was told get your mat, get up. Sometimes we need to be challenged strong enough to see our healing in front of us, not just our hurdles to get to it. The company you keep is what matters. I have friends here on the front row who when I would say, how long? Jess Cole actually texted me one time and said, I've been praying for you and the Lord said, write what he said down. That skill he revealed to one of the friends in my circle. Get friends who will get you to him like that no matter what.

The man who couldn't get to Jesus himself had friends who lowered him down through a roof to get him in front of Jesus and be healed. If you don't have a community that will make sure you get to Jesus no matter what, get new friends. I'm not interested in your opinion about what God's already told me. Get me to him. Healthy friends don't let you stay in pain. And I'm sorry to say, but wallowing with you, validating you, agreeing with you is an empathy that's commiserating and codependent and assess pool of commiseration is demonic, not empathy. The last thing the Lord wants to tell this church is don't watch. Do jump in with both feet. He told Seth and I that 10 years ago when we were praying about where to go to church, he said, jump in with both feet, be a part of this local church because crowds don't deliver people from demons. Disciples do. We're not in the business of you coming to be a fan of this church and just watching what's going on. We are interested in creating disciples who will be equipped to go and do the work of the ministry. So come and be a part of the church. God has called you to. I want to invite you to stand with me because I want to give us a minute to respond to the word. If you feel like you've been waiting, if you feel like you're being broken instead of fortified, today is the day you step into his perspective. Today we stand with the assurance that God is building us to be ready and willing to step into what the fulfillment of his word in our lives is going to look like. We have an amazing, equipped, trained altar team that's coming. An altar team, what I want to ask you to do is just to begin to pray. Just begin to intercede for the men and women because what I believe the Lord wants you to do today, if you feel like I have been waiting for a word for 22 years, Pastor Michelle, it's not been 22 years, but it feels like it's been 40. The Lord doesn't care about your timeline. He wants you here at the altar today to exchange your timeline for his. He wants to release you into his fulfillment of the word over your life. So if that's you today, I want you to come. I want you to come and respond and exchange your perspective for his. Stop looking around at your circumstances going, I'm confused, there's no way this is going to work out. And come today and praise him and look up and listen for what he's telling you. If you need prayer, come, come.

Leave your perspective that limits his work and trade it for praise as we wait as an assured and confident people in the only one who ever died and rose again for our sins. He will not delay. Come to the altar, come and leave here what's limiting his power in your life.