"For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak and not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry." (NKJV)
As an AP Language and Composition instructor, I cover rhetoric and the dozens of strategies speakers use to employ effective persuasion skills. One concept we begin with is the usage of kairos - a Greek term for "the opportune or supreme moment." When delivering a speech or conducting any sort of conversation, we must always be mindful of the right time to share. For one to fully receive another party's words, someone can have all the ethos, logos, and pathos utilized to draw someone in, but if the right conversation is presented at the wrong time, it falls on deaf ears. The infamous, "I Have a Dream Speech" and its efficacy is based largely on King's usage of kairos: delivering on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in D.C., during the centennial celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation. This poignant imagery creates the perfect backdrop for his audience's reception and for King's declaration and call to freedom and sanctity of justice delineated within the speech. But what about timing as it relates to a situation? A move? A desire? An outcome? This is when we must recognize that God's kairos is not always our kairos.
When God reveals to Abram (later Abraham) that he would have an heir that "will come from [his] own body] (Genesis 15), and specifically that Sarah would bear to him a son, Abraham did not initially believe this would happen since they were both past "childbearing years." As much as God revealed piece by piece the vision He had for Abraham, it was still difficult to believe what God promised because the timing did not seem to align with their circumstances. In Genesis 17 and 18, God tells Abraham the most important factor about any promise or vision God implants in our hearts: timing. The LORD said three times, "I will return to you at the time of life" and "Sarah will have a son." As much as Abraham was "counted for righteousness" due to his belief, he missed the authority of God's "time of life."
In this passage, the word "appointed" means fixed. God already had a fixed moment in His orchestration upon which the son would come. Because God interconnects people, destiny, purpose, situations, and the like, He knows when the ultimate supreme moment should be for every moment in our lives. The time of life mentioned here reminds me of spring, such as new beginnings and new life, new purposes. Although Sarah and Abraham and pretty much every person under the sun flows in the rhythm of chronos or the 24 hour a day concept of time, God's timing supersedes and regulates that. I find that even in the mundane days of wake up, brush your teeth, go to work, cook dinner or whatever your routine may be, God uses those moments or disciplines to reveal the purpose of planting or sowing, or waiting as it relates to fully receiving and inheriting the fullness of a vision.
Whatever you are desiring for God to bring about in your life, pray first that the motive and intent of that desire is from Him. Then ask God to reveal to you His timing on the fruition of that vision. Remember, God gave Abraham bits and pieces, and not the full vision all at once. Therefore, timing for each piece is key.
"To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under the heaven." (Ecclesiastes 3:1, NKJV)
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