It is one of the deepest secrets in the spiritual life, to watch the agreement between the inward promptings of the Holy Spirit, and the outward flow and bendings in Divine Providence, and to so time them that they will keep step with each other. In thousands of cases we are liable by the sluggishness of our obedience to linger behind the opportunities of God’s providence or by the impetuosity of our self-life to rush ahead of the quiet movements of God’s will outside of us. In either case we miss that beautiful conjunction of God’s “planets” in the inner and outer life. In the infinite mind of our Heavenly Father, as all creatures and events and possibilities repose on the placid sea of His foreknowledge, there is a proper time and place and framework of circumstance for the appropriate occurrence of all things; as the Holy Spirit has said, “a time to weep, and a time to laugh, and a time for all things.”  

Our incarnate Lord in His humanity is the model Creature of all men and angels, and in nothing has He set the pattern for all created life more perfectly than that of obedience, not only in the outward act, but in the place and time and spirit of the act.  

One of the most beautiful insights into this spirit of moving in God’s time, performing the outward act just when the time-piece of the Father’s will indicated the hour, is found in the account where the brethren of Jesus urged Him to leave Galilee and show Himself publicly in Jerusalem, as recorded in the seventh chapter of John. Things were coming to a crisis in our Savior’s life; the tides of persecution were swelling higher in Judea, and in order to finish His ministry with His disciples and solidify their faith, He purposed to spend much of His time in the secluded retreats of Galilee. And yet He boldly claimed to be the Messiah, the Savior of the world, and its future king, coming to reign as David over all nations.  

It was this seeming disagreement between Christ’s profession on the one side and His conduct on the other that puzzled His brethren and family relations. So they said there is no man that seeks to be known, and obeyed, and believed on by all the world, and yet hides himself amid the peaceful hills and valleys of a farming district like Galilee. Hence, they urged Him to make a great outward show of Himself; run His colors to the masthead; let trumpets be blown; display royal insignia; and let the visible display be at the Nation’s capital in a style equal to His claims. “If thou do these things show thyself to the world.” Now look at this.  

In His inner life He was Lord, Savior, Priest and Potentate over the world, and for all time to come. Yet, outwardly, He was but a servant, a despised prophet, and hounded by the leaders in church and state as a marplot and false pretender, doing His most thoughtful work among the illiterate poor, sick people and little children. What an infinite discrepancy between the inner claims of His soul and the outward adjustment of appearances! It was this that led His own brethren in the flesh to doubt that He was really the Messiah.  

“Then Jesus said unto them, my time is not yet come, but your time is always ready.” What an open door into the Heavenly life these words give us! Jesus was living a life from God, and every movement of it was timed in the will of the Eternal Father, without anxiety, without hurry, without any attempt at open display, without the shadow of foreboding as to the least possibility of failure, as if it had cycles of ages in which to ripen into visible fruitage. It moved quietly, deeply, warmly, like the Gulf Stream of all creation, taking its time to reach and thaw the arctic seas of frozen human hearts, yet moving every inch with irresistible force.  

1. Let us look thoughtfully at the difference between a merely human and an inspired way of living. Jesus told His brethren that “their time was always ready,” because they were still living in the flesh-mind and their conduct was on the mere plain of nature, prompted by earthly motives, modified by outward appearances, and political experiences, and the discretion dictated by immediate surroundings.  

Even multitudes of Christians never think of waiting prayerfully upon God for clear guidance in the ordinary affairs of life. They do not mix God up with every little matter of life, and while believing in a general, overruling Providence, there seems to be a film on their vision which hinders them from seeing that everything is saturated with the ocean of God’s personal presence.  

The brothers of Jesus were reasoning as men and thought their elder Brother was wasting time and influence by delaying to display His authority. It looked to them that the golden opportunity of the new kingdom would wither in the field. They did not understand the doing of things in God’s order. Those who act from self, lay plans, and make complex arrangements to suit their own convenience or their personal interest, can launch their enterprises at any time, without waiting for God. That is what Jesus meant by saying “your time is always ready.”  

That which looks to be the very highest wisdom in man-made plans is utter foolishness to God, and is worse than the toy houses which children make in the sand. In addition to being childish, they are also foolish, and are pervaded with self-will, ambition, pride and disobedience. Jesus said practically to His brethren, “You can go when you please, and come when you please, and make your own arrangements because you fancy that you are free men. You have no one to consult but your personal interest or the drift of popular feeling; but I am not so. I am in the world on a special mission, every step of which was sketched in infinite wisdom before the stars swung in their orbits. I am living for others. It is my highest delight to time all my words and actions to the unseen purpose of the eternal Father.”  

2. We learn from this account that all true history which will abide the test of ultimate judgment must first be wrought in secret before it is manifested in open events. The brothers of Jesus complained that He did and said so many excellent things in secret. “For there is no man that doeth anything in secret, and He Himself seeketh to be known openly.” God’s method is to work from the inner to the outer, from the unseen to the visible, from the spiritual to the eternal and literal, from the silent to the outspoken, from the hidden kingdom in the heart to the ultimate, manifest kingdom in all the earth.  

Jesus infallibly knew that when words were spoken and actions performed in accordance with the blessed attributes of God, though such actions were done on the lonely seashore, or such words were whispered in the soundless ravines of Galilee, they would in due time, under the fertilizing and cultivating power of the Holy Ghost, come forth in the gigantic forms of mature history, and be uttered in peals louder than seven thunders, when the proper hour had arrived. All great characters are first made in secret. Empires sprout and grow in the noiseless midnight-thinking of imperial minds. Secret prayer manufactures more crowns and scepters than senates or the ballot box.  

Let us be sure that we are utterly yielded to God, working for His dear Son, with a single eye to please Him, and under the guidance of His Spirit. Let us see to it that we make our humble toil to dovetail into the joints of His special providence, and then we need not draw an anxious breath as to whether we are known or unknown, seen or unseen, praised or dispraised, loved or hated, counted a success or counted a failure; we can walk on eternal granite and sleep softly on the downy pillow of God’s promise.  

After we are saved and sanctified we need to learn the depth of this truth in a life of prayer, and devout study of God’s character, and the delicate personal government He exercises over us. There is nothing, apart from the vision of God Himself, more beautiful than the study of God’s administration in each of our lives. And to watch His dealings with us and work in harmony with His will, as to time and place, is one of the special fruits of the Holy Spirit.  

Our intense desire should be not merely to do something for God, but to do it in His spirit, with His motives, and in His time; in other words, it is God in the service that we are after, more than the outward shell of the service. The best part of all that we say or do for the Lord is that which others do not see or hear; it is the secret flavor of pure love which rises like fragrant incense to Him Whom we love and serve. The life of our blessed Jesus, in flesh and blood, is the ornament of all human history, and yet everything that men have seen in that life was as nothing compared to what our Heavenly Father saw in it.  

When we stand on the seashore and watch the far shining waters, and the swell of the waves in graceful measure, and listen to the multiplied voices of its breaking billows on the sand, all we can see and hear is only a tiny fraction of the unmeasured power and character of the sea hidden away beyond mortal vision. It is thus when we come up to the life of Jesus and kneel down on the white shore of that unmeasured ocean of life and love. Though we gaze up and down the shining history from Bethlehem to Calvary, and hold our breath to catch every whispered accent from His precious lips, all we see and hear is infinitely surpassed by that fathomless depth of life which moved on in secret, silent, adorable currents, known only to the three Persons in the Godhead. When we are truly sunk into that life, we gather the habits of the mind of Jesus, and are never anxious about “showing ourselves to the world.” To every impetuous voice we will calmly say, “my hour has not yet come.”  

3. We learn from this incident that the hour did come, and Jesus did go to Jerusalem, but not as His brethren had planned. He did show Himself on the cross to all the world, but not as His friends had expected. God’s full time always comes for everything He wants done. “He also went up unto the feast, not openly, but as it were, in secret. Then the Jews sought Him at the feast.” Every seed that God plants will ripen its fruit at the appointed hour.  

The “naked thoughts” that young Milton said “roved about in his head,” at last found appropriate words in which to deck themselves, and have walked over the world without ever wearing their garments out.  

The kingdom will come. The secret empire which the Holy Ghost has been building in millions of true believers will inevitably ripen into open, world-wide manifestations. That beautiful dominion which the apostles hoped Christ would set up will come to pass a thousand times more gloriously than they ever dreamed of. These secret heart-longings to see the meek and lowly Jesus return and manage this world are engendered by His own Spirit, and though “the hour is not yet,” still the full time will come. This is the hour for us to work in secret, like Jesus in Galilee, and if we fill our appointed service for this present hour, we shall be qualified to fill the right niche in that other hour, when the sons of God are manifested. Moving in God’s time is the only thing that secures everlasting fruit, which will not pass away. It is the easiest way to work, and the most satisfactory.  

To move in God’s time keeps us in harmony with all His providences, and with all other souls who are really walking in the Holy Ghost. It secures us against sudden surprise, and keeps us prepared for emergencies, and saves us from squandering our resources, and wasting our efforts.  

To time ourselves with God’s will is to enter, up to our measure, the true life of our Master.