What if we’ve wasted time? What if we’ve been so completely complicit with Kronos that we feel there’s no way left to retrieve our calling? What if we’ve grown old with waiting for God to act and deliver a breakthrough, but we now realise what held us back was a covenant with Kronos?

Can we get more time? If all the days ordained for us are written in a scroll before one of them ever came to be, how can this possibly be?

Let us first recognise that the true Lord of Time is Jesus and that He is also the redeemer of wasted time. Time is His servant, not His master. Nor should it be ours. We too need to redeem the time.

But back to that vexing question—can we get more time? Scripture always frames the gift of more time in the context of the mind-blowingly miraculous, so if we don’t believe God can, or is willing to, do that for us, then the answer is no. But as part of our resurrection inheritance, we are naturally gifted more time. And even though it’s a gift, a bestowal of grace, it also has pre-conditions. Unless we’re ready, we won’t receive it.

Isaiah maps out what we need to do to prepare for the gift of more time. Just as Joshua, in fighting five armies needed more time to finish the battle and so asked for the sun and moon to stand still—for time to stop—so Isaiah promised King Hezekiah that, if he’d ready himself and the nation appropriately, then God would turn back time. He’d signal that He was giving Hezekiah fifteen more years of life by sending the shadow backwards on a stairway that served as a sundial.

In addition, the Assyrian army—all 185,000 of the cruellest troops in the ancient world who were camped down in the valley on the threshold of Jerusalem—would be overcome by heavenly armies.

These things happened. So I guess Hezekiah did as required.

So what did Isaiah recommend? First, remove your false refuges and repent of divination. Second, ask God’s help as sifting and winnowing begins on life’s threshing floor. Third, petition heaven for annulments of all ungodly covenants. Fourth, ask the Lord for a new cornerstone with a new inscription. Replace the old foundation of self with Jesus. Fifth, ask Him for a new covering.

It seems like a lot—an unnecessary lot—when all we need is Jesus. And yes, intimacy with Jesus is enough. Wholehearted, unstinting belief in the atonement is sufficient. But if you’re like me, with deep hidden pockets of unbelief that only emerge during sifting-winnowing, it helps to have guidelines to work through. In that confusion, it’s often hard to hear the Holy Spirit. His presence is all we need. But in the silence, a signpost is helpful, so we can ask Him if it’s the right way to go.

This is Grace Drops and I’m Anne Hamilton. May you prepare to receive His sufficient help today.

Thank you to Lorna Skinner of www.riversofmusic.co.uk for the background music.

More on the spirit of Belial can be found in the paperback, Dealing with Belial: Spirit of Armies and Abuse, Strategies for the Threshold #8.

More on the spirit of Kronos (another face of abuse) can be found in the paperback, Dealing with Kronos: Spirit of Abuse and Time, Strategies for the Threshold #9.

More on most of the pre-conditions can be found in the paperback God’s Pottery: The Sea of Names and the Pierced Inheritance.