The reality of who God called Joseph to be was in the seed of the word he received in his first recorded dream.
It was all there. He was that person who would, in the future, save a nation! But he had to go through a process.
I have heard it said often, the larger the prophetic vision, the longer it can take to come about. The bible is full of examples. Joseph is an often-quoted example. He had his dreams, which he blurted to his brothers but there was a period of years ‘from pit to prison to palace’
A prophetic word is truth from beginning to end but it undergoes a PROCESS. We often either do not understand or forget this fact. We expect that because it is a prophetic word that it will just happen, will appear one day like magic God is not magic. He is better than magic. He is a Creator, and creation is a process.
When we receive a word, it is a seed which contains everything necessary for it to come about. In the delivery of a word, there is an impartation of grace to carry it out. That’s when our partnership with the prophecy begins. Oh, you thought when God gave a word, done deal? Yeah, me too.
In Genesis 15 God tells Abraham that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sands on the shore. In Genesis 22 God asks Abraham to sacrifice Isaac the son of promise on the altar.
Read in verse 15 about Abrahams partnership with the prophetic word: Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, 16 and said, “By Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. 18 In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”
The promise was given and there followed the process of time, trials, and tests. The ratification of the covenant made earlier came as a result of obedience. There is a profound simplicity of faith in the following: Gen 22: 4 On the third day (the day of the resurrection) Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance. 5 Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.” 6 Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. 7 Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” 8 Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.”
Abraham’s faith as expressed in verse 5 he says to the young men travelling with him. WE will return to you. As in verse 8 he God would provide the offering even if it meant resurrecting his son Isaac. Was the scope of the prophetic word given to Abraham fully grasped by him? One of his descendants would be God’s son and the true lamb of God who would bring nations to Him.
I think that just like Abraham we do not grasp the magnitude of the prophetic words we receive nor understand the time it will take for the word to come to pass. We do not know that it demands our obedience. We do not realize that God is using the time in between the promise and its fulfillment to make us into a person capable of walking in that prophetic destiny. Lest we think it falls only on us, the Lord stands by to see His word fulfilled despite our mistakes. Remember when Abraham pretended Sarah was his sister? He was Abram and she was Sarai then. Perhaps Abram did not see himself or his wife in their God-given identities and was not able to act accordingly. But God is able to rule above all of our mistakes and cover a multitude of sins. He sees the end from the beginning and calls us forward into who we will be for eternity.
The attempt to articulate the mystery of the tension between the necessity of our obedience and the Lord’s sovereignty over the fulfillment of the prophetic words in our lives is daunting. Perhaps I have scratched the surface.
Are you waiting to see fulfillment of a prophetic word in your life?
Holy Spirit I pray that You give every reader a hunger to pursue You and Your Word, to do all You ask to bring it to pass and to trust You where they fall short.
And God of yesterday, today and tomorrow is able to do immeasurably beyond what you can imagine.
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