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In the Waiting
By Gary Khan
When I was in my early twenties, God gave me a word and a picture regarding His destiny for me. It was overwhelming and compelling, and I have spent the rest of my life waiting for Him to fulfill that vision. Yet it eludes me. Time is creeping forward, and I seem to be standing still, wondering when I will see the fulfillment of that promise from God.
Have you ever felt that way? God drops a word into your heart, a promise for the future, and then He goes silent and seems to have forgotten about what He said. For me it has resulted in doubt storms that rage within me. That doubt sometimes leads to rash decisions when I decide to “help” God fulfill His promise by forging ahead of Him.
Abraham had a similar experience. God spoke to him about his descendants being as numerous as the sands of the seashore when Abraham had yet to father even one child. After God gave him that word, decades passed with no fulfillment in sight. Abraham had to live in the waiting, and in that time of waiting he did some things we would be wise to avoid. The story can be found in Genesis 15 and 16.
Abraham Doubted
Abraham made some major moves, literally, as a result of God speaking to him, moves that seemed to lack any immediate payoff.
Let’s put ourselves in that situation for a moment. God speaks to us regarding a major life change; then He goes silent. How many of us would obey Him right away? Or would we walk around wrestling with doubts about whether we really heard from God? How many of us are not doing the majority of what He has asked us to do right now because we are doubtful about the outcome?
I can hear it already. Some of you are thinking, But Abraham is different. He had God show up in person so he should not have doubted. I do not get personal visitations from God.
Maybe we won’t get a personal visitation like Abraham did, but today we have God’s Holy Spirit. He lives in us and is with us, leading us and guiding us into all truth. Conversely, imagine you did receive a visitation from God for a moment, but then you had to walk day in and day out in the reality that what God told you would happen has not happened – even though it has been years of waiting and various attempts at fulfilling His promise. In those “day-in and day-out” moments, doubts begin to visit, making statements that throw God’s promises into question.
Did I really hear God, or was it the pizza I ate that evening?
Really, I know God can do anything, but would He do that for me? I’m not that special. Maybe I’m doing something wrong. Remember, “God helps those who help themselves,” so if I want to see this happen, then I need to make it happen.
We need to learn to anticipate those doubts. If you are like me, you want God to reassure you every moment until the promise is fulfilled, and then you want Him to continue to reassure you that everything is on track. We want constant reassurance — but God wants us to trust in Him. The need for constant reassurance does not build our faith in Him.
Dealing with Doubt in the Waiting
The enemy’s tried-and-true tactic is to cast doubt on what God said to us. It’s a trick as old as time. In Genesis he asked Eve, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1, NIV).
We need to recognize this tactic and be prepared to deal with it. In the New Testament, James tells Christians that we can be victorious over Satan and his doubting trick: “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7, NIV).
Submit and resist. We submit by believing God’s Word, and we resist by standing on that Word in faith and declaring it over our lives. We resist when we live in the reality of what God has spoken instead of reacting to the doubts Satan is stirring up. We can win over doubt, and the way we win is by reminding ourselves and the enemy of God’s Word to us.
When Abraham and Sarah were plagued by the doubts that came up because of God’s silence, they would have done well to remind themselves what God had said to them. They would have saved themselves a lot of trouble and heartache. The same goes for us. The enemy is looking to steal, kill, and destroy the work of God in us, but God has promised that His Word will not return empty. How do we remind ourselves of God’s precious promises?
- Memorize His Word and repeat it as needed.
- Read it often and hold on to His promises. He will fulfill His Word to us.
The doubts will keep coming, one after another. The enemy’s incessance combined with the seeming slowness of God and His silence lead us to a crossroads where many of us act on our doubts instead of standing on God’s promises. That never ends well.
We will encounter these realities if we trust our plans over God’s:
- We can never see the big picture like God does.
God is not bound by time and space and sees how every little thing affects the big picture; we can never do that. When we choose to trust our plans instead of God’s plans, we take huge risks. We may be able to plan three steps ahead of us, but even that is fraught with trouble because we can never predict how a person may react to something we do, and we do not know what will happen in the bigger scheme of things.
- Our motivations become a problem.
When God plans, He is weaving together a masterpiece that will be for the good of all humankind. When we plan, we are usually concerned with ourselves and getting what we want. Just look at what happened with Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, and Ishmael.
Sarah was not concerned with God’s great plan of bringing salvation to the world through Abraham. Her motivation for a child was to unburden herself from the stigma of not being able to bear a child for her husband. When it seemed like God was taking too long, she decided on a plan to get that child through a surrogate. Hagar was her handmaiden, so she was with Sarah all the time. Hagar probably saw Sarah’s sadness and heard her as she sobbed and complained about how she could not have a child for her husband. I don’t know whose idea it was, whether Sarah suggested it or Hagar offered it, but however the idea was conceived, I can safely say that Sarah was not thinking about Hagar’s well-being. She simply saw her as a means to an end.
One of the problems that occurs when we doubt is that instead of trusting God’s timing, we run ahead and use people around us “in the name of God,” leaving a trail of destruction and brokenness behind us.
- People don’t always respond the way we expect them to or as they promised they would.
Hagar may have told Sarah she would do this as her friend and handmaiden. She may have had good intentions. As a kid hearing this story, I simply assumed that Hagar got pregnant after a one-night stand. But the reality is that Abraham probably went in to Hagar more than once, and when Hagar started having sexual relations with Abraham, things changed. It always does when you start having sex – because God made it that way.
When Hagar discovered she was pregnant, things changed even more. She began to believe that she would now mean more to Abraham and Sarah. But the sad reality is that in Abraham’s and Sarah’s eyes Hagar was always the slave girl, still just a means to an end.
Not only did Hagar not respond as planned, but Sarah did not respond as she thought she would. Sarah could not and did not predict that she would become extremely jealous of Hagar. She watched every night as Abraham went in to Hagar. After a while it started to get to her, no matter how enlightened she thought she was. She kept telling herself it was for a greater cause, but I can guess that something changed in the relationship with her and Hagar as well. Hagar probably started acting less like a slave girl and more like an entitled family member. She probably started using more familiar language with Sarah, and Sarah began to get insecure and jealous.
“Who does this girl think she is? Abraham is my husband! She needs to remember her place!”
When Hagar found out she was pregnant, Sarah may have thought to herself, “I should be happy, but I am not. I am angry that this woman is stealing what should be mine! I hate her!”
These are not the feelings Sarah thought she would have when she laid out the scheme to do God’s job for Him, but that is the problem. We are far too shortsighted to be the Master Planner.
- Our bad decisions give God a bad name.
After Hagar gave birth to her son, Sarah grew jealous and began to treat her badly. I wonder how Hagar saw Sarah’s God then? After all, Sarah must have talked about the Almighty as loving and caring, one who protects and provides for those who follow Him. Yet, here was Sarah treating Hagar with disdain and dislike. People often determine the character of God based on how we His followers treat them.
One of my closest friends had a sign in her kitchen that read, “If mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy!” Those words are true, and Abraham found that out. Sarah demanded that Hagar and Ishmael be sent away because she did not want “that woman” and “that boy” around her precious Isaac. She made life difficult for Abraham. Finally, he reluctantly gave in and sent Hagar and Ishmael away. The crazy thing is that God agreed with Sarah’s conclusion (maybe not her actions) and told Abraham to send them away. Let’s speculate a bit with some understanding of human nature.
Abraham, distressed about having to send Ishmael away, had a conversation with him:
“Son, I really don’t want to do this, but you know Sarah. She is going to make life difficult for me. The truth is I would put up with her, but God told me to send you away, so I must do it.”
What do you think Hagar’s and Ishmael’s impression of God was? I would think that they would believe He did not care about them. They would see Him as mean and vengeful, unkind and manipulative.
Thirty years have passed since that word God gave me regarding my destiny. I have made many of the mistakes that Abraham made, but here is the good news: God’s promises to us are ironclad. He will do what He says He will do. So in the waiting, trust that He will accomplish what He said He will do. Resist the doubt the enemy stirs up that causes us to want to run ahead or give up completely. Abraham may have doubted and made a few missteps along the way, but thankfully he corrected his course, and God was faithful to fulfill His word.
About the Author
Gary Khan served as pastor of Desert Streams Church of the Open Bible in Santa Clarita, California, for 32 years. He currently serves as the Executive Director of Operations for Marketplace Chaplains in Southern California. He also serves on Open Bible’s National Board of Directors and as district director for the Southern California/Arizona/Hawaii district. Gary is author of the devotionals Greater and Reset as well as his soon-to-be-published book, That Didn’t Go the Way I Thought: Navigating the Ups and Downs of Our Journey of Faith. Gary’s greatest achievement and joy is that of being husband to DeLaine for the past 32 years and father of three amazing kids (two biological and one “adopted”).
I woke up unable to speak. A breathing tube filled my throat. Machines surrounded my hospital bed. I was confused, intubated, and lying in an ICU room with no memory of how I got there. But strangely, I was not afraid. In the middle of the chaos, God gave me an unexplainable peace.
I motioned desperately for paper and pencil so I could ask two questions: What happened? And where is George?
My son’s father explained that I had been in a serious car accident. The car was completely destroyed. I had been found trapped beneath the steering wheel with severe facial injuries.
That morning — January 22, 2026 — had started like any other Thursday. I got ready for work, buckled my 18-month-old son George into his car seat, and pulled out of the driveway expecting an ordinary day.
It became anything but ordinary.
My neighbor, who had left home at the same time I did, later explained what happened. We were both driving around fifteen miles per hour when the car I was driving suddenly lost control. I still do not know why, and I have no memory of the moment itself.
By the grace of God, George was almost completely untouched.
The car hit a cement light pole, crossed into oncoming traffic, and was struck head-on by another vehicle. Both vehicles spun, and the car I was driving slammed into another cement light pole.
By the grace of God, George was almost completely untouched.
The back windshield shattered directly above him, yet the glass never harmed him because of the position his car seat landed in. The entire back left side of the car was crushed inward, but George had been seated on the back right side. Even now, I can only thank God for His protection.
I was taken by ambulance to the hospital and admitted into the Trauma ICU. Doctors told my family that I had suffered severe head trauma resulting in a brain bleed. I was also bleeding internally in my abdominal area, and they began preparing my family for the possible loss of my pregnancy.
… the doctors did not know the God my family and I serve — and how merciful He is.
But the doctors did not know the God my family and I serve — and how merciful He is.
My family immediately began to pray. Members of my church, Open Bible Church of Homestead, began arriving at the hospital, and soon an entire army of people was interceding for me.
During those first two days, I drifted in and out of consciousness and remember very little. But one moment remains clear in my mind: I heard the song “I Surrender” by Hillsong Worship playing in my hospital room. The lyrics, “Like a rushing wind, Jesus breathe within, Lord have Your way, Lord have Your way in me,” stayed with me and brought a deep sense of comfort in the middle of everything happening around me. In that moment, those words became my prayer as I quietly prayed, “I leave this in Your hands.”
After three days in the ICU, I was successfully extubated and began making remarkable progress. Ultrasounds showed a happy, active baby, and the bleeding had stopped.
On the fourth day, I was transferred out of the ICU into intermediate care before eventually moving to the medical-surgical floor. Doctors then began preparing me for maxillofacial surgery to reconstruct my face after multiple fractures.
On January 30, I underwent an eight-hour surgery. By God’s grace, the procedure was successful, and another ultrasound afterward showed my unborn baby remained active and healthy. On February 3, I was finally discharged and able to return home.
Since then, my recovery has gone smoothly. I am now twenty-eight weeks pregnant and waiting expectantly for the arrival of my baby. Through every frightening moment, God gave me strength and peace, and I never doubted His mercy.
Today, I am a living testimony of His grace.
About the Author
Thammy Castro is a behavior technician living in Miami and a soon-to-be mother of two. In her free time, she enjoys traveling with her family. She is a member of Open Bible Church of Homestead, where her parents, Jose and Maria Castro, serve as pastors.
There has been much discussion about the future of the Church. While I’m not a futurist or researcher, I’m grateful for voices that help us think wisely about pursuing the mission of the Church in an ever-changing culture. Researchers like Ed Stetzer and Carey Nieuwhof highlight some encouraging trends, such as revivals on college campuses, rising Bible sales, and Gen Z’s hunger for authentic faith.
I carry deep conviction and a faith-filled anticipation about what I see and am praying for. When I think about the Church and the days ahead, I don’t see a Church in retreat, but I do see a Church being refined – prepared for what God is getting ready to do. A victorious and glorious Church (Eph. 5:27).
When I think about the Church and the days ahead, I don’t see a Church in retreat, but I do see a Church being refined.
Jesus said, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18 ESV). That promise has no expiration date. Jesus is still building His Church today.
As the church advances, it will not stand on programs, buildings, or production. . . it will be built on the authority of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit.
Across the body of Christ, there is a growing recognition that the future of the Church will not be built by addition alone, but by multiplication. Disciples will make disciples, leaders will develop and release leaders, and churches will plant churches. There are many voices helping to bring clarity to this, and we are seeing that same conviction take shape within Open Bible through our Mission to Multiply and the Power of We.
So, when I think about the Church and what is ahead of us, what do I see?
I SEE A MULTIPLYING CHURCH
We often measure success by attendance, budgets, and programs. While salvations and baptisms remain central, we must expand the scorecard. As Larry Walkemeyer describes in The River Church, we must move from “lake churches” that gather to “river churches” that send – becoming disciple makers who multiply.
The book of Acts shows us a model of a church that did not just meet but multiplied. The future will not belong to churches that simply gather a crowd, but it will belong to churches that make and send disciple makers. Jesus did not commission us to build an audience. He commanded us to go and make disciples (Matt. 28:19). Multiplication begins there – in intentional, relational, Spirit-led disciple making.
Multiplication is not just a strategy or a motto we adopt. It is the culture of Spirit-empowered, disciple-making churches. The Church I see measures health not only by attendance, but by how many are discipled, equipped, and sent to reproduce what’s been invested in them. This is our Mission to Multiply.
I SEE A SPIRIT-EMPOWERED CHURCH
We live in a time of rapid change. Technology, AI, and social media shape how we communicate and connect. These tools can be helpful, but they don’t transform lives. The Holy Spirit does.
These tools can be helpful, but they don’t transform lives. The Holy Spirit does.
Pentecost was Heaven’s defining moment for the birth of the Church and the fulfillment of what Jesus said in Acts 1:8. The early followers of Jesus did not have the influence, resources, or tools we have today. What they had was the power of God. That has not changed!
In the days ahead, more than ever, the Church will move forward not through innovation alone but through consecration. The church I see is unapologetically dependent on the Spirit of God.
I SEE A COURAGEOUS CHURCH
In the book of Acts, every step forward required courage – Peter and John before the Sanhedrin, Stephen in the face of death, Peter going to Cornelius’s home, the sending out of Paul and Barnabas. These were not small steps; they were courageous steps across cultural and spiritual boundaries. The early Church moved from gathering to going, from addition to multiplication. The expansion of the early Church was not accidental. It followed obedience and courage.
The Church I see will walk in that same Spirit.
Courage to preach the truth in love.
Courage to plant in hard places.
Courage to raise and release the next generation.
Courage to choose multiplication over comfort.
Courage to link arms with others for the sake of the greater mission.
Courage to build the Kingdom over our own castles.
We can stand on His promise and by His Spirit knowing “God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Tim. 1:7 NKJV).
I SEE THE POWER OF WE
As we look forward, one of the strongest convictions I carry is this: our future will be stronger through the Power of We.
Individualism limits impact; partnership multiplies it. When we share vision, develop leaders, and align around mission, we step into something far greater than any one church could accomplish alone. I believe the future Church will not thrive through isolation but will flourish through collaboration. The church I see understands that “we” is stronger than “me.”
When we share vision, develop leaders, and align around mission, we step into something far greater than any one church could accomplish alone.
I am confident in what God has called us to:
The church that makes disciple makers will multiply.
The church that depends on the Holy Spirit will endure.
The church that walks in courage will advance. This is the church I see, and I believe we are being invited to build it together.
About the Author
Michael Nortune serves as president of Open Bible Churches. He has ministered in the local church faithfully for thirty-five years. From his start as a janitor and groundskeeper to church planter and lead pastor of Life Church in Concord, California, Michael has had the opportunity to gain experience in every capacity within the church throughout his ministry. Not only does he have hands-on experience on the local level, but Michael has also led at the district, regional, and national levels within Open Bible Churches. Michael and his wife, Julie, currently reside in Colorado and love living near five of their six children and their spouses. They also treasure the time they spend with their other daughter who lives in Alabama with their first (but not the last) grandson!
Isaac dug out again the wells that were dug during the lifetime of his father Abraham. The Philistines had closed them up after Abraham’s death. Isaac gave them the same names his father had given them. Isaac’s servants dug wells in the valley and found a well there with fresh water. (Genesis 26:18-19 CEB).
I came to faith as a teenager and had very few church experiences up to that point. My earliest formation as a Christ follower took place within Open Bible church settings, where I found deep community and meaningful spiritual experiences that I continue to value. At the same time, as in many modern evangelical churches, there was limited exposure to the ancient liturgies and historic practices of the wider Church.
These traditional cornerstones that were foundational to ecclesial life for millennia had been almost eliminated in the churches I attended. It seemed to me that these practices were at best met with ignorance and at worst with grave suspicion. The predictable result was that any real understanding and appreciation for ancient liturgical practices was absent from the first two decades of my church life. I rarely thought about things like Ash Wednesday services, the Book of Common Prayer, and Advent, and if I did, it was with a healthy side dish of uninformed judgment. I viewed Lent the same way I viewed lentils: it was a cold and exotic experience that was both frightening to prepare and painful to consume.
I viewed Lent the same way I viewed lentils: it was a cold and exotic experience that was both frightening to prepare and painful to consume.
This was my context as a few of our church staff began asking whether we could introduce some of these ancient practices into our church worship experience. As you might imagine given my church background, it took me a while to warm up to the idea. I began a process of asking questions, listening, and learning, even reaching out to an Anglican priest friend to hear his take on the value of these long-held traditions. Through all this, Christ in His goodness and patience has allowed us now to incorporate many of these practices into our regular church experience. As a result, I am happy to report that we are experiencing wonderful depth and meaning in our gatherings as we’ve adopted and applied some of these long-proven elements of discipleship.
Our time of worship now always includes the public reading of a Psalm (a practice we have adopted from the Book of Common Prayer) to bring us back to the ancient hymn book of Israel. We have a fresh understanding of what it is to give up something physical in order to gain something spiritual as we fast in the forty days of Lent. Christmas time and the lighting of Advent candles help us celebrate Christ’s first arrival while reminding us to await His second arrival. And Ash Wednesday, with its outward sign of repentance and mortality, leads us to humble ourselves before God, understanding how desperately we need His saving grace. Finally, the celebration of life on Easter Sunday has far greater meaning now because it is preceded by the sobriety of the death we remember on Good Friday.
This is not to say that incorporating these elements has always been smooth. We’ve learned to introduce them slowly and with great attention to the “why” behind the “what.” Along the way, we’ve had our share of growth opportunities and mishaps. One example happened early on in our journey, when we tried to introduce some ancient call and response types of prayers. The practice led several people to worry that we had become a completely different kind of church. We haven’t yet reintroduced those prayers in our services.
We have found that moving slowly and consistently, explaining the meaning of the practices, and laughing at ourselves through our failed attempts have been the key ingredients to discovering the power of these ancient gifts.
Another example took place during last year’s Ash Wednesday service. During this type of service, ash is used to mark the sign of a cross on each believer’s forehead. This marking symbolizes our own mortality and repentance, as we take up our cross and turn from our sins. Well, our beloved worship leader wanted to add scent to the ashes to create a fuller sensory experience. To do so, he incorporated essential oils, including cinnamon, into the ashes. Little did any of us know that undiluted cinnamon oil burns on the skin. Talk about your full sensory experience. All of us in the service sat wondering what it reveals about our spiritual condition if the ash cross on our forehead feels like it’s on fire. There was a great sigh of relief when our executive pastor let people know what had happened, and a mad dash to the bathrooms ensued as people quickly washed away the painful marker. The next Sunday I formally apologized for turning their Ash Wednesday into a Rash Wednesday.
In these moments and more, we have found that moving slowly and consistently, explaining the meaning of the practices, and laughing at ourselves through our failed attempts have been the key ingredients to discovering the power of these ancient gifts. Just as Isaac reopened the ancient wells of his father to discover pure water, we too can rediscover the meaning of these ancient practices in our churches and experience their fresh water again.
About the Author
Aaron Sutherland is the founding pastor of Cove Church in Eugene, Oregon, and the Director of Multiplication for Pacific Region Open Bible. Along with his wife, Paula, he finds great joy in watching God reveal the new stories being written into the lives of people from every corner of the world.