The Prophetic Delay
Sunny but still cold
The other morning my son Titus came bursting into my room saying “Mommy its sunny, its sunny.” I found it sweet that such things excited him. I got up and got everyone ready for the pre-school run. I looked out the window and he was right it was a beautiful sunny day.
As we went to get in the car I felt the chill of the wind. Titus words to me that morning sent me into automatically dressing us all for a warm sunny day. It wasn’t until we got outside that I realised that it wasn’t as warm as it looked. Because it was still early morning I ignored this fact and assumed that it would warm up. A few hours into the morning routine I realised that it was freezing. Sunny yes but still cold outside.
After we warmed up inside with a hot cup of tea I felt God speak to me about this funny chain of events.
God started sharing with me how there’s a delay from the prophetic word given and the actual reality people experience. So many people have been told prophetically “it’s sunny” or in other words “hope is here” or in biblical language “winter is over” but as they step out into their reality it feels as if nothing’s changed. Others have been prophetically given a vision or a calling that seems to have not taken effect – yet. There’s a discrepancy between what’s been said and what’s experienced.
So I asked God what should we do about this.
I felt Him say three things are key and I hope these are helpful to you as they are with me:
1. Understanding that this timing issue is part of the way the prophetic works is helpful. Some people can get disillusioned when the word and their circumstances don’t match up. But actually the truth is that the prophetic operates in the future not the now. There will always be a time delay of some sort.
2. Knowledge of what’s actually taking place is helpful. And what’s actually taking place is change. Once a true prophetic word is released about the future, the wheels have been set in motion – and that’s a good thing! Like the story of Daniel’s prayer – his first utterances of need set the heavenly resources into action. But it took 21 days for the angel Gabriel to reach his reality (Daniel10: 10-13). We need to accept that there will be a time delay from the prophetic word spoken to it impacting our reality. But we must also be fuelled by the knowledge that all sorts of spiritual fireworks are going off on our behalf to bring that future into the now. There’s no passivity with the prophetic word and all heavenly efforts are in full effect.
3. Wisdom is needed to know what to do and how to be during a time delay. We mustn’t be stupid and dress up for the sun when it’s still cold outside. This will just make us grumpy. Selah. But we need to choose to believe more in what we ‘see’ over what we ‘feel’. If God has spoken, He has gifted us a vision that is more powerful and real than anything we feel day to day. It’s a vigourous force loaded with heaven’s resources that will come into being – in it’s timing. We need to fix our mind on what we know will happen and let it energise us. We need to allow ourselves to dream of what it’ll be like and be lavish in how we immerse ourselves in this vision. We need to sit outside all wrapped up in our cold environment and let our face soak in that sunshine. And when we do – a warm glow enters our hearts that keeps us going.