Little by Little – the Way of the Kingdom

Exodus 23:30 (KJV)
30 Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased, and you inherit the land.

As believers we spend much of our time waiting for the manifestation of God’s promises in our lives. In fact, one well-known minister of the gospel says that the majority of our lives are spent living one day at a time uneventfully– waiting on almost everything we are believing for. It would be helpful to see what the Bible has to say about “the wait.”

In Exodus 23:23-30 the Word tells us all we need to know about “the wait” in the way God dealt with the Israelites. It tells us that He was going to give the Israelites the Promised Land. He told them that they would have enemies to face as they entered the land, but that He would destroy each one of them. And, it tells us how He planned on doing it – little-by-little – which is a good definition of “the wait.”  Finally, God told the Israelites why He was doing it that way – to allow them to receive their inheritance.

We can be better prepared to deal with “the wait” in our lives by meditating on this passage and receiving the revelations within it. First, we must remember that God always has a plan. According to Jeremiah 29:11, it is a good plan to give us a “future and a hope.” While His plan is good, it will not come to pass without a fight. There will be opportunities to give up.  As with the Israelites, God wants us to look to Him to fight the battles (2 Chronicles 20:15). Ours is a fight of faith; believing God will do what He has said He will do. There may be things we do in the natural realm to help bring the promise into manifestation, but we will act based on the leading of Holy Spirit, not out of our own wisdom or strength.

Now we come to the most challenging part of God’s plan – “the wait.” We must remember that “the wait” is His idea. That can be challenging because we live in a day and age where a microwave mentality is prevalent. We want what we want now. Rarely do things work that way in the kingdom of God.

 In light of that, a change of perspective will help us while we wait for God’s promises to manifest in our lives. As always, God has our well-being in mind when He does anything. In verse 30, He explains His reason for driving out the Israelite’s enemies little-by-little. He was giving them time to grow (in population) to be able to sustain the victory as they inherited the Promised Land. The same is true for us today. While our growth does not involve population, we most often need time to grow spiritually to be able to handle the promises of God in our lives. Growing spiritually always comes about through intimacy with the Lord. As we progress through “the wait,” what results is what one minister of the gospel calls “relational breakthrough” as opposed to “circumstantial breakthrough.” It is during the “little-by-little” progression where the circumstances don’t change, that we can rejoice because our relationship with the Lord is growing. Our focus shifts to the upgrades in our relationship with Him, and as our relationship grows, our faith likewise grows. Our confidence in what God promised gets more deeply anchored. Not only will the circumstances change and the promise be realized, but our relationship with the Lord will have grown to new levels. Ultimately “the little by little” yields to “much and much more” in the Kingdom of God!

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