WHY “PERSONAL PROPHECY” DELAYS IN MANIFESTING
(Part 3)
“And the Lord answered me, and said, write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. 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.” (Habakkuk 2: 2-3)
I welcome you to the third part of the series. In the previous post, we discussed how “Ignorance and Not playing our roles” can cause delay in the manifestation of personal prophecies. Today, we shall discuss how “Doubt” can also cause delay in the manifestation of personal prophecies.
Like we all know, when a prophecy is given, it reveals God’s plan for an individual, a group of people or even an entire nation. The moment that prophecy is released, the enemy gets hold of it. From that day, he starts warring against its fulfilment. In this case, he will attack the faith of the person who has received the prophecy by making him doubt what was prophesied.
The first step we must take towards the fulfilment of a prophecy is to have faith that what we have heard is from the Lord and that he (God) is able to keep his promise to us. That is what God said according to his word spoken through Prophet Isaiah.
“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.” (Isaiah 55:11)
From the above scripture, we see clearly that God will make sure that every word which proceeds out of his mouth is fulfilled. That includes the prophecy concerning you and me. However, the enemy want us to doubt the word of God in order to render it useless. Therefore, if we don’t want the enemy to rob us of God’s blessings, we must have faith in God concerning every word he has spoken concerning us.
Truth be told, except we have faith in the Lord, we will doubt what he says concerning us. When that is the case, we either delay our blessings or completely lose out. The only way to avoid this is never to doubt what God has said concerning us. Whoever comes to God must know that he is able to reward those who diligently seek him.
“But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6)
Our walk with God is one of faith. Abraham received God’s promises because he had faith in him. When the Lord asked him to leave his people and follow him to an unknown land where he will bless him, it was his faith in God’s ability to do as he promised that made Abraham to obey God. In that journey, his faith in God was highly tested. It was the faith he had in God that made him a winner.
The same thing applied when God promised him a child. For many years, the child did not come. Many times, Abraham asked God questions concerning the child.
“After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. And Abram said, Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir. And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.”(Genesis 15: 1-6)
As human, Abraham got frustrated in waiting for a child because it took many years to happen. In all the years of waiting for the prophecy to manifest, Satan must have told him many times to forget God’s promise. However, Abraham kept the faith that God will not fail him. At God’s own time, apart from Ishmael and his other children from Keturah, the wife he married after the death of Sarah, God also gave him Isaac, the promised son, and his joy was full. This shows that without faith, we cannot obtain God’s promise.
It is important to state that every prophecy requires absolute faith in God to fulfil. Once the recipient of the prophecy entertains doubt, the fulfilment of the prophecy begins to delay. This is because every personal prophecy is a partnership between God and man. In other words, when God releases a prophecy concerning an individual, that person has a role to play towards its fulfilment. Satan knows that. Each time a prophecy is released concerning someone’s destiny, Satan will do everything to create doubt in the mind of that person. His plan is to delay the prophecy until the person gives up on it. Once doubt sets in, delay sets in as well.
The majority of the Israelites who left Egypt were denied access into the promised land because of doubt. When those who were sent to spy out the land came back, ten out of the twelve brought back an evil report. Their report from born out of doubt concerning God’s ability to fulfil his promise to them. Their doubt created fear in their minds. That fear would later be transferred to the congregation.
“And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. (Number 13: 30 – 33)
Instead of trusting God and his ability to give them the land, ten out of the twelve spies lost faith in him. They feared the occupants of the land. They described them as giants, before whom they were like grasshoppers. That was a confession of doubt in God’s ability to conquer the enemy for them. Their attitude did not please God, and they paid for it dearly.
Truth be told, “doubt” has the ability to cripple the faith of anyone who has received a prophecy. It will keep the person back from doing his part to fulfil what God has said concerning him or her. When doubt sets in, people become tired of playing their roles towards the fulfilment of the prophecy they have received.
Note that doubt usually brings discouragement. When discouragement sets in, the next action will be to give up on what God has said. Once we give up, the prophecy becomes dormant and delay is the result. This is a strategy Satan has used to cause many prophecies to delay or even terminated.
We must understand that no prophecy runs by itself. For a prophecy to fulfil and also not delay beyond God’s stipulated time, the recipient must run with it by faith. That is possible if we don’t doubt what God has said concerning us. Despite the awkward situations we may find ourselves as we wait for a prophecy to manifest, God wants us to have faith in him concerning what he has said concerning us, That requires faith. If we doubt, we ruin everything.
In part 4, we shall discuss “Warfare against prophecies” which is the main strategy Satan uses to delay or destroy prophecies and how to avoid such. God bless you.
Source: “Truth be told” series
Author: Apostle Frank B. Ogbu
Head Pastor/Overseer
Champion Grace Eternal Ministries
Ayikai Doblo, Amasaman
Accra, Ghana
Telephone: +233 2470 16970
Email: @apostlefrank01@gmail.com
Twitter: @apostlefrank01
Instagram: @apostlefrank01
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