Letting the Prophetic Play Out

This is sort of a “How-to receive a prophetic word” part 2. In that post, I touched on not trying to make a word come to pass, but here I’m going to flesh out the reasons why a bit.  First let me start by re-sharing what I’d said initially.

Another good thing to remember is you will never need to MAKE a word of the Lord happen. If it’s the Lord, it WILL happen. So never feel like you need to “help” God along – when we do, we tend to make Ishmaels. Wait on the Lord. Wait.

We often “think” we know what God means by what has been said in a particular prophetic word, but often we misinterpret or misunderstand, which is why we shouldn’t try to make a prophetic word come to pass.

There is a principle here which simply put is that since God is sovereign, what He has ordained will come to pass. We don’t have to force anything, just walk out our lives as we would allowing Him to lead – He is big enough that we won’t miss His plans. I’m not saying go do whatever you want and God will bless you, or that if He’s given a conditional word to you that you don’t need to follow the condition (e.g. Deuteronomy 28, IF you walk in obedience THEN He will bless you), but simply that His will WILL prevail so you don’t need to strive to make it do so.

Resist Trying to Make a Prophetic Word Come to Pass

The story of Abraham and Ishmael is a great example of trying to make a prophetic word happen. When Abraham didn’t see God’s word to him (that he’d be a father to many nations) coming to pass in the timing he expected, he decided to “help” by having relations with his wife’s maid to conceive a child. And he did, and yes nations have come from that offspring, but later his wife conceived and from that child came the 12 tribes of Israel. So if Abraham had not tried to help God, he still would’ve been a Father of nations. And given the strife that Ishmael and his descendants have brought, it could definitely be argued that wasn’t God’s perfect plan (Think here of the perfect, good, and acceptable will of God from Romans 12:2).

Misunderstanding Prophetic Words / Be Aware Not to Assume Meaning

One danger when we try to “make” a prophetic word happen is what we see in the story we just shared, but another problem is we may have misunderstood the prophetic word to start with. This is the issue that came up for me in recent years, which is what prompted this post.

  • Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” John 2:19
  • “This fellow said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days.’” Matthew 26:61

We of course know that Jesus was referring to his body as the temple that would be destroyed, but to those present when He spoke, they thought He meant the temple building where they gathered.

It is common for us to THINK we know what God means by something (this happens a LOT when people are giving a word), but unless He has given the interpretation we should never assume we know what He means. We should always wait and watch for His words to come to pass.

My Misunderstanding of a Prophetic Word

So all that being said, let me share my personal example. In the six months before my 40th birthday (2011), I received like 8-10 words that I would have a baby (I share this in a testimony on a Dyed4you blog post at about the 12:40 mark). There were so many reasons this was unlikely, the primary reason being my husband had a vasectomy over a decade earlier and though sometimes they reverse naturally, that typically happens in the first two years. So the statistical probability that we would get pregnant were slim and that doesn’t even take into account my health, which wants conducive to getting pregnant.

In the fall of 2013, my husband and I renewed our vows and that night we conceived. I suspected within a week and laughed to myself about the possibility. One of the other issues we would’ve had in having a baby was that my dog at the time was NOT good with children and was possessive of me.  That may not seem like a big deal, but a 130 lb dog is a BIG issue! I loved my dog and would never have gotten rid of him, which would’ve posed a dilemma. Sadly, less than 3 weeks after conceiving he passed on.

There were other things that happened at the time that also pointed toward the conclusion I was expecting. It never occurred to me I wouldn’t go full term. We had tons of prophetic words and tons of things appearing to confirm those words. But just past the first trimester, I miscarried.

I was obviously sad, but also just really, really confused.  I’d just left my job in expectation of needing to raise our little one (I know that seems early, but there were other factors dictating the timing, but the pregnancy was the primary factor in the choice to leave). Couple all this with a ton of hormones and you can imagine the hot mess I was!

Revelation of the Word’s Meaning

Something a friend said to me as I was at Destiny Church‘s Prayer Room was what finally gave me revelation. She said our baby had a destiny in the scheme of eternity. We spend so much time focusing on the natural realm, we forget about the spiritual one. Clearly Father wanted Allen and I to have a child, but not for us to hold and love here on earth, but rather for eternity. This also made me pause to think of all the other miscarried/stillborn/aborted babies. Each of them has a role in eternity. After all, we’ll spend a lot more time there than we do here in this blink of time on earth.

So all that to say, the fulfillment of God’s word to us came to pass though it looked nothing like what we expected. And now we have two children awaiting us in heaven. I’m excited to see the role Father has for them.

In Conclusion

To wrap all this up, when receiving a prophetic word, don’t assume you know what it means and don’t try to make it come to pass but rather watch and see how God brings it to pass.

Father, we ask that you would give us the patience to wait and see you move, the humility to wait on You to understand what You mean, and the willingness to receive any explanation/interpretation You want to give. Thank You for communing with us. We love You and desire only to see You glorified and moving in our lives.

A Cool Confirmation (an addition on 2/22/16)

The day after I posted this blog I went to read a blog post from my pastor and it had an awesome confirmation to what I shared here along with a little extra piece of revelation so I wanted to share it too. In his post The Two-Sided Coin of Faith Part 1 he shared the following (emphasis mine)

…when the Father gave me the submarine vision through my daughter Sierra, I was quick to get busy to figure out how to make the vision come true (just like a true works person). But then the Father showed me one night in prayer that if there was something that I could do on my own to bring this level of breakthrough, then HIS power would be in vain. This was a lightbulb moment.

Love that revelation that we can’t “make” prophetic words happen because the whole point of them is for Him to show His power. That is beautiful. Thank You, Father!

3 Replies to “Letting the Prophetic Play Out”

  1. Pingback: Radio Silence | Meghan W

  2. I don’t even know what to say, except thank you so much for sharing such a personal story, and using it to teach & exhort us. I’m SO blessed to call you my friend <3 Thank you for once again letting the Father use you to encourage us.

  3. Pingback: Overview of Genesis 16 – Meghan W

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

31 − 28 =