We’ve heard it said so many times that we immediately make an automatic reply. We say, ‘all the time’ whenever we hear ‘God is good.’ So, let’s don’t differentiate: the God who is good does good work. He is attributed with “every good gift and every perfect gift” (Ja.1:17).
Rest Assured: God Knows How to do What Only He can do
There is nothing like a fresh communiqué from God. Call it what you will: He has many ways to release Himself to you. A revelation of the Word (or a rhema). A prophetic word that gets inside of you that neither dissipates nor allows you to hold to previous perspectives. A “quickening” of your spirit that energizes what you are involved with in a confirming fashion. A dream that causes you to wake up in the anointing, supernaturally activating your memory so that you can take note in order to meditate and pray about it. A vision of what you’ve never seen before that allows you to see what God wants to reveal to you. Words that come to and through you in prayer, prophecy, or declaration-decree that you weren’t previously thinking, etc. Rest assured: God knows how to get His message to you; He always knows how to do what only He can do!
Those communiqués are special times which must not only be ignored, but also never allowed to become forgotten. They are benchmarks of God’s standard of blessing and increase that He has designed and desires to establish in your life. They are- in retrospect- milestones of fulfillment in His Truthfulness to Himself and to you when you look back on them thankfully.
Remember: God knows how to communicate with us in ways that change our lives forever- even after He’s already changed our life forever through receiving His son Jesus Christ. In much in the same way we need help with newfound salvation, we nearly always need instructive nurture after receiving specific communication from God. This is because it’s what happens after we receive these communiqués from the LORD that we need help with.
How did the Time Pass so Quickly?
From an early age, I was God-Voice aware and accustomed to Holy Spirit-conviction. I did everything I could to avoid God and His call. It almost cost me my life on earth- several times. If not for His merciful love and providential care, a certain eternity in hell awaited me. God knew exactly how to get through to me in order to turn me to Him. Praying Mother’s ... don’t give up!
As someone who’s not only heard and followed God’s voice for over 40 years but has also released and equipped people to walk in it for almost as long, I have something to contribute that many just plainly just do not. Again- it is God’s ability to communicate that makes the difference (it certainly isn’t my expert ear or perfect 24/7/365 effort). The way I’ve had it explained to me is something like this: ‘the more that God had to do to get through to you, the more capacity you may have built into you for receiving what He longs to impart.’ To me? It’s just a matter of having confidence in God’s ability, not my own.
We Have to Know What Time it is
In gaining and developing aspects of this lifestyle, I have not only personally experienced but have also publicly observed the challenges people face once God has released a chart-setting, direction-altering, or even life-changing communiqué to them.
I have to admit that I’ve taught what happens after receiving from God very soon or sometimes immediately in ways which might seem to be contradictory. But in God: it’s not so much that He’s exclusive in the way He deals with us (always ‘this’ & never ‘that’). What we experience with Him in similar circumstances can vary depending on either what season we’re in or what is next for us on His timetable. Let me explain briefly. (It is simpler than it sounds).
Initial Short-term Fruit
Sometimes when you receive (what I’ll call for the sake of summarizing all of God’s ways) ‘a true word from the Lord,’ you will experience what I have come to call a short-term confirmation (sampler or appetizer) of the long-term fulfillment (which is to come later, even much later). For example, you may receive a word about a dimension of ministry or an aspect of prosperity or an opening for increased relational connectivity, etc. and then immediately begin to see aspects of it start coming to pass.
Hallelujah! God is confirming His word- no doubt about it. But then often shortly afterward, the well will seem to have dried up, the window will suddenly close, the sun will have gone into total eclipse, and it is now ‘full stop.’ Before? It was ‘full steam ahead.’
The challenge is not to see that the fullness of the word has come, but that what you have experienced in that time period is a short-term confirmation of long-term fulfillment that awaits your continued faithfulness. When receiving a long-term word, God often gives us a sampler, an appetizer- if you will- of what awaits in the fullness of His timetable which will coincide with our readiness to carry it continuously and see it bring full benefit in His Kingdom.
If that is you and you wonder “why did it go ‘all stop?’” It is NOT that the enemy sabotaged you, your flesh cancelled it or circumstances changed in such a way that the word is no longer valid. It IS that God wanted to give you an extended sense of confirmation, an initial fruitfulness (call it “early rain,” even springtime blooming or blossoming if you will). Heaven’s motif is to give you a frame of reference for carrying an ongoing “faith,” standing with Him in “hope” as you walk in “love.” (1Cor.13:13).
Rightfully Discerning Immediate Opposition
There are other times when that true experience with God will seem to be so immediately and cataclysmically opposed that it’s much easier to lay it aside than to carry it. In fact, it can seemingly (or even truly) be snuffed out of your soul even though it has been conceived in your spirit by God’s very own Spirit.
This can happen so quickly that it can truly seem to be the antithesis of what the New Testament refers to as either “suddenly” or “immediately.” Again, if what came was from God, then the question can still be: “what happened?” “Did I really receive from God?” “Did the devil steal it?”
The opposition which causes us to want to ask the above usually takes the form of the unexpected or even traumatic which takes place very quickly after receiving from the Lord. For example, if you have received from God in private you may receive some bad news very soon afterward that not only contends for your focus, but along with it comes a threatening suggestion which intends to replace this new faith with fear, or poison your fresh hope with a lingering despondency, anger, or sadness. If you received from the Lord in public, you may be hit with immediate opportunity for offense, false accusation, jealousy or other such (unfortunately) semi-regular ‘church stuff’ that we all have to wade through at times.
When either of those take place, it is “the devil comes to steal that word” (Mk.4:15). Unfortunately, if that be your lot, the enemy has thought you vulnerable in either matters of being not sufficiently rooted in the Word or being entangled with “the cares of this world” (Mk.4:16-19). In such instances you may need to receive from God again (& even again) because the sad reality is that if your spirit is not strong enough to contend with the lies of the enemy, or your walk is not centered enough to remain free from this world, you will ultimately reject the word in favor of coming into agreement with what comes against it (Heb.4:1-2, 11 see also 1Jn.2:15-17).
The ‘Hook in Your Jaw’ from God
Then there is the let’s call it: ‘what God gives to you in order to ‘get to you.’’ You could also call that the ‘hook in your jaw from the LORD.’ Those are times when that true experience with God will seem to be so completely opposite to what you are already dealing with- that although it will not leave your spirit and you know that it is God- you cannot seem to envision either how God could possibly do that or what the fulfillment of it would look like. Others will tell you to ‘put it on the shelf’ but you really won’t be able to this- even if you want to. Perhaps this is the “He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it” dimension type communiqué (Php.1:6).
Why can’t I See it?
There are various reasons why God may ‘do you this way,’ so trust Him. That fresh word which seems so ‘out there’ opposes what you’re using all your God resources for dealing with, so that could be quite good! It could also be that holding to that fresh word causes you to reevaluate your life a bit. Perhaps not so much what you’re dealing with, but instead: what you are focused on, or spending the bulk of your energies doing.
In that case, the “He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it” becomes an ongoing source of refinement, a benchmark of a different sort: a frame of reference for changing priorities, altering responsibilities, even realigning relationships.
As it says of Joseph in the book of Psalms: “until the time that his word came, the word of the Lord tried him” (Psa.105:19). The ongoing presence of his God-imparted dreams prompted a change in him: bit by bit, day by day, year after year. This culminated when the fullness of time coincided with the readiness of his vessel to be blessed, displayed, and used in the way originally foretold (Gen.37:5-11).
No Matter Where We Find Ourselves
Regardless of whatever extent that all I’ve described may address our current life experience, our past, and specifically our future- we need to keep in highest regard that when it comes to the things the LORD truly releases to us: God is who He says He is, and He does what He says He will do! Stand on what He gives you, sit with Him in the midst of it, remind yourself of it, and thank God for it. And finally:
“For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. For ye shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off” (Isa.55:10-13 KJV).
Bill Click
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