Saturday, February 4, 2012

When The Promise Tarries Part 1

Ever felt like you've been caught in the middle between the promises of God and the fulfillment of the promises?
Why do the promises of God go unfulfilled altogether, or seem so delayed from their manifestation?
Is there anything that can be done to help the manifestation of the fulfillment along?


These are some of the questions that I've heard repeated so often in 33 years of prophetic ministry. I want to take a moment here and try to shed some light for clarification on these questions that we all have asked at one point or another without going into a theological thesis on the subject.


In Habakkuk 2:3 we see a promise concerning this very subject: "For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry."

First of all we need to ask ourselves a question that needs to be asked and all too often is not is, "Has God really said" or is the promise simply wishful thinking? This requires an honest answer if we are ever to truely enter into what He really has for us. For example, I cannot count how many times I've run into people who are merely in love with the thought of having a global ministry versus those who are actually called to one. It's been my observation that in most cases, the ones who are called, don't want one, and those that want one aren't called to have one.

Don't confuse being in love with an idea with a calling. We need to be very cautious of "hearing" from God about what our flesh wants to do! Know the difference. I've seen many fall into this type of deception only to find ultimate failure and misery in the end.

Secondly we need to understand that we have our time table and God has His. His time table includes a season or seasons of preparation to receive the promise, so that once we recieve the promise we can maintain it and walk in it. When we obtain His promises He doesn't want the enemy to be able to come in and easily just take them away from us. Instead, He intends us to hold on to and maintain the ground we take as with the Israelites when they took possession of Canan. Before David could take the crown of kingship, he had to be prepared, before Moses could lead the Israelites out of Egypt, he had to be prepared. Therefore preparation is absolutely necessary.


1 comment:

  1. I struggle with this because I have been decieved before in the past over something I wanted so badly that I thought it was the Lord promising and speaking when it turned out to be the enemy baiting me. I was very disappointed and hurt and struggled with trusting God over any promise concerning my life. I am at the brink of a breakthrough and know God has confirmed it several times. I still struggle with timing of when the promise will be fulfilled and manifested. I want to learn what Rees Howell learned with God about timing and seasons of promised provision or blessings or healings. My faith is stronger but I want to understand discerning the season and timing.

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