Here is another nugget from the conference – this time from Jeff VanGoethem:
He started his first session with us by pointing us to Isaiah 8:17 which reads: “I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him.” The context of this verse is Israel’s sin; that is, God had turned his face from them because of their sin. So Jeff’s question to us was: Have we turned God’s face from us? And if so, how?
(My thoughts for a minute: Don’t apply this to America – that is too easy and would miss the point. Each of us needs to personally ask the question, and then we need to ask it as local churches. Have we turned God’s face from us? And if so, how?)
What should we do? Jeff’s answer was to point again to the verse. Wait for the Lord – not just wait around, but wait for the Lord; that is, turn or re-turn our focus to him. And our wait focused on God should be a hope-filled one, filled with expectation that God will act as we return to him.
Are we waiting on the Lord with expectation?
Brian J. Mikul 
‘Are we waiting on the Lord with expectation?’
Pulling at least a little from some thoughts I have had recently, it is hard to do if we have not seen His kingdom. I have caught glimpses of it. It stirs me to want more.
I think God is more interested in winning all of me that He is of me winning all the world. If my focus is on winning the world, then even that distracts me from Him.
The cool thing is, I have found the more of me He has, the more of His life I have in me, the more that life flows through me to others.
You are right to say that we should wait on Him. Unfortunately, that waiting seems to not occur until all other options run out. With me, I had to come to the end of myself. Until then, my waiting was always cut short because I thought I had found the way.
I have appreciated your comments.
Mike