Many moments for me have been life changing. The moment I said yes to Jesus. The moment I decided to go to college even though I didn’t want to. The moment I said yes to Garry. And even other moments that might not have seemed big at the moment, had a huge impact on my life, like the moment we married, the moment I had my first baby and the moment I decided to write down an experience and then share it. And there was the moment I encountered a life changing experience that I thought was a God mistake, that is also just as powerful. Recently I had a conversation with someone that seemed ordinary. Within an hour and half, I received information that it could have been the last conversation I would have ever had with him. Life can change in an instant! I am so thankful that it wasn’t the last time we could talk!!!!
Many things happen in an instant! A camera flashes in an instant, in about 1/1,000 to 1/50,000 of a second. I didn’t think I could even blink that fast! But it only takes me about 100 to 400 milliseconds to shut/blink my eye. In one minute, you’ll blink 15 to 20 times. (And now while I’m thinking about it, I probably blinked even more.) The main electrical return stroke of lightning takes just a few microseconds. The science of a nuclear chain reaction says the core fission process in a weapon takes roughly a microsecond (what physicists call a “shake”). In this new age of digital data transmission happens because light signals travel through a fiber-optic cable moving at roughly 124,000 miles per second, crossing a room instantly. Gone is the time it used to take a couple of hours to receive an email between neighboring houses!
All it takes is one moment for your whole life to change! God loves to work in “moments.” And you never know when that moment is going to come. And yes, the moment when couples find out they are expecting their first child will change everything. Everything! Their life will forever look different and be different. In one moment, prayers can be answered. 250 babies will be born around the world each minute. It might not seem like a lot for the entire world but multiply that by how many minutes are in a day. That’s about 360,000 babies born every single day. And of those 250 born in an instant minute, statistics show that 113 will be born into poverty, and 15 will have birth defects.
So much can happen in a minute. A minute goes by pretty quickly. But what happens in 60 seconds? A whole lot of interesting things, apparently, from babies being born to earthquakes shaking things up. Here are some interesting things that will happen in the next 60 seconds. UPS delivers about 19,100,000 packages and documents per day, breaking down to about 11,319 packages delivered every minute. A wait can come to an end. Healing can happen. Breakthroughs can come. You can receive your miracle. In one moment, God can change everything for you. All it takes is just one moment. While a normal heart rate varies from person to person, on average, your heart will beat 60 to 100 times per minute and you probably won’t even know it. Blood moves pretty quickly. In fact, it’ll circulate through your entire vascular system at least once in 20 seconds, or three times in 60 seconds. Your heart is always working overtime. In fact, it pumps about 5 quarts of blood per minute, which is equal to about 2,000 gallons each day. That’s pretty fast!
Apple really does make about $70,466 in just one minute, according to TIME. Following closely behind Apple is Samsung, which makes $54,368 per minute. Sadly, according to the FBI, a violent crime will occur every 26.2 seconds. There will also be one murder every 36 minutes, one robbery every 1.5 minutes and one aggravated assault every 42 seconds. One motor vehicle theft will occur every 44.1 seconds. And one burglary will occur every 14.4 seconds, one larceny-theft will occur every 5.1 seconds, and one property crime will occur every 3.5 seconds, according to the FBI. How sad that life changes instantly for so many people.
In just one minute, 144 people will be packing up their belongings and moving them all to a new home. In fact, “8% of the world’s adults—roughly 381 million people—say they have moved from one city or area within their country to another in the past five years,” Gallup pole. And their life has changed again, nearly instantly! Approximately 4 earthquakes of magnitude 2 or greater in the world occur every 60 seconds. In 60 seconds, the world will consume 11.5 million pounds of food. However, during that same minute, the world will also waste about 5.5 million pounds of food. Americans make more than 200 million tons of garbage each year. So, if we cut that down to 60 seconds, that’s 950,186 pounds of trash tossed away each minute in the United States. We help change our world nearly instantly!
Many moments in history happen instantly. When the gun’s hammer hits the firing pin, the bullet exits anywhere from 500 to 700 feet-per-second. It takes roughly a few thousandths of a second for the bullet to travel from barrel to impact. It didn’t take long for history to change instantly for our county when Abraham Lincoln was killed.
On December 31,1879, Edison flipped a switch causing electric current to race through wires at close to speed of light (186,000 miles per second). Although the bulbs Edison used 140 years ago probably took a second or two to be fully lit, the most historical illumination since the discovery of fire took a mere fraction of a second to begin. Beginning in 1894, Marconi started sending transmissions over short distances, and across the English Channel in 1899. On December 12, 1901, Marconi was in Canada when he received a message from England. Taking into account atmospheric interference, the transmission was still nearly instantaneous.
The two atomic bombs dropped in Japan in 1945, Little Boy on Hiroshima and Fat Man on Nagasaki, immediately altered the course of World War II. The bombs instantly caused devastating damage that would last for decades. The complete process, after accounting for the number of generations required for a chain reaction, takes about a microsecond, or one millionth of a second. Physicists at Los Alamos nicknamed this time a “shake”, as in “as fast as the shake of a lamb’s tail.” In just two shakes—instantly, between 60,000 and 80,000 people were incinerated in Hiroshima and 40,000 in Nagasaki.
I love the “Instant” famous Miracles in the Bible—I especially relate through personal experience, to the woman who came to Jesus to be healed of 12 years of bleeding. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind Him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. Mark 5:27-29 NIV At the wedding party at Cana, Jesus turned water into wine instantaneously. Every instant miracle begins with a problem. The woman was desperate, but she let her problem motivate her to seek out Jesus. When you are at the end of your rope, Jesus can help you. Don’t give up; look to Him when things seem hopeless. This woman felt a change happen in her body instantly. This does not always happen in a miracle, but things can change immediately. God can intervene instantly, and in this woman’s story, it’s exactly what she needed. He healed the blind and lame and lepers and even the dead—in an instant! Jesus hasn’t changed (Hebrews 13:8); He still works miracles today. Jesus’ healing miracles were often instantaneous, but others were gradual. God can do both, for His own purposes and for me.
The story of Paul in prison is interesting but, in a moment, instantly, it all changed. Acts 16:26 says, “Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.” In a moment God loosed Paul’s chains and Paul received his breakthrough. In a moment he was no longer bound to the walls of his prison anymore but was free.
But that isn’t the only “moment” example. Acts 2, in a moment a sound came from heaven and the people were filled with the Holy Spirit. “And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” The early believers had been praying for 50 days for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. I don’t believe they knew what the timetable was. They were simply obeying Jesus, who had told them to remain in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit was poured out. I tried to put myself in their place and imagine what that must have felt like. They had a promise from Jesus, and they had each other, but they didn’t know when the promise would be fulfilled. So, all they could do was stay in unity and pray. And wait. And wait. And pray. And then one day … BOOM! “Suddenly” happened. The Holy Spirit was poured out. Every believer was filled, and they began to operate in the gifts of the Spirit. People were radically transformed in one moment, and their lives were never again the same. It happened suddenly after a long time of waiting. It happened without warning. SUDDENLY, God came. God has a habit of showing up suddenly, and He’s still doing it today for His family. He does it for me! I never seem to be expecting the suddenly and then it comes! God loves to come suddenly, just as He came suddenly to the early church in Acts.
You may have some dreams you’ve been waiting for for a long time. I do! You may have even given up on some things or simply become content without your dreams. I have! And that’s not necessarily a bad thing, if you’ve settled into a godly contentment where you receive your fulfillment from Jesus instead of from the thing for which you’ve been waiting. Or how about when God removed all the gloom in a moment in Isaiah 9:1 which says, “But suddenly there will be no more gloom for the land that suffered.” In a moment God can take any situation and change it. He can take my depression, sadness, anxiety, sorrow, misery and pain and despair away just like that. He can say one word and in a moment my life will look different forever. One instant. One moment. One encounter with God. And everything can change forever. Just because my moment hasn’t seemed to have happened yet, doesn’t mean it’s not going to. What moment am I waiting for? What is preventing me from believing that God can change my life in one moment? Nothing, I just need more faith that it will come, in God’s timing.
Paul and Silas were wrongly imprisoned, yet they chose to sing and praise God. Then, suddenly, a great earthquake shook the prison, the doors flew open, and their chains fell off (Acts 16:25-26). Just as Peter sat in prison awaiting trial, then suddenly an angel appeared, his chains fell off, and he walked free (Acts 12:7) That’s the power of God’s suddenlies—He moves unexpectedly, in ways beyond our understanding. All through the Bible are accounts of how God often moves suddenly. Jesus arrived suddenly. The Holy Spirit came upon the disciples suddenly (Acts 2:2). Paul was transformed on the road to Damascus suddenly (Acts 9:3). Chains broke, healings happened, storms calmed—all suddenly. Whatever you face today, be encouraged—God is the God of suddenlies. Just as Peter sat in prison awaiting trial, then suddenly an angel appeared, his chains fell off, and he walked free (Acts 12:7), God is preparing your breakthrough too. Even if nothing seems to be changing, keep trusting, keep praising, and keep looking ahead. Because when God moves, everything can shift in an instant.
Whatever you are waiting for today, be expectant. Because suddenly, everything can change.
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33)
“And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying.” (Luke 2:13)
“And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.” (Acts 2:2)
“And suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bands were loosed.” (Acts 16:26)
Lord, thank you that you are the God of suddenlies. Please help me to trust and praise you, even when I don’t see the change yet. I know you are working behind the scenes, preparing breakthroughs, healing, and open doors, so I am choosing to praise you through difficulty and trust that you will move suddenly at the right time.
God can shift our entire reality in a single heartbeat, moving in what the Bible often frames as a “suddenly”. Whether it is an unexpected trial or a sudden breakthrough, our longest seasons of waiting are often punctuated by instant divine interruptions.
We spend much of our lives waiting—waiting for prayers to be answered, for healing to come, or for a clear direction in a confusing time. We measure life in the slow ticking of the clock. Months or years of waiting can feel stationary, as though nothing is shifting.
God is the Lord of the “suddenly, the instantly.” In Scripture, prison doors fly open in an earthquake’s instant, a sound from heaven fills a room, and a prodigal son “comes to his senses” in a single flash of clarity. Just because God is quiet does not mean He is idle. Behind the scenes, He is lining up the pieces so that when He moves, it happens in a fraction of a moment. I need to be able to say, “I know you are working behind the scenes, preparing breakthroughs, so I am choosing to praise you through difficulty and trust that you will move suddenly at the right time.” When things happen in an instant— like a sudden crisis or an unexpected blessing—it reminds me who is truly holding my life’s steering wheel. I cannot make a breakthrough happen any faster or stop the sudden moment when God comes to pour out grace for me. I need to remember “My problem can be the beginning of something miraculous. Just get Jesus involved.
“The God who commands the sunrise in an instant is also carefully engineering the exact moment my story can and will turn. At any moment God can change my circumstances around by bringing an answer to my prayers. Believe that at any moment a breakthrough will come. One moment, just one encounter with God can change you forever. And that one greatest moment, the one I’m especially waiting for, will change me forever so that I can live with Him in heaven. We all will be changed, in a moment in a twinkling of an eye, we will all be changed! 1 Corinthians 15:51,52.
When that moment happens, it will be worth every moment leading up to it that I had to wait.