UNTIL THE TIME HIS WORD COMES TO PASS…
I cannot count the number of times God has given me an important promise, and then made me wait and wait for it to come to pass. As I waited, I questioned whether I had misunderstood God or if I was speaking to myself. In some cases, months passed and in other cases years passed. Waiting on God to fulfill His promises always becomes a period of self-examination. We question ourselves, and often, we even question God. “How can you use me? I have no talents!” We understand that there is no way in the natural to fulfill God’s promises. Our natural mind cannot conceive the things that God has prepared for our destinies. When we give our “all” to God, we place ourselves in the realm of endless possibilities! “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation” (Psalms 91:14-16).
We know God does miracles and makes possible the impossible. Over and over again I have seen God work miracles in my own life and the lives of others. I have seen Him change impossible circumstances into unimaginable blessings. There is nothing too big for our God! God’s work is always beyond – and despite – our inabilities and handicaps. When God makes a promise, we must believe with all of our hearts and pursue the fulfillment of God’s promise. God’s miracles and impossibilities glorify Him and build His kingdom! An exceptional future lies in the promises of God!!!
The day I dedicated my life fully to God, He began to speak into my spirit the first three promises He had laid out just for me. After I totally “dedicated myself to Him,” He made gigantic promises to me. I cherished those promises, though they seemed impossible. God told me that day “If I walked uprightly before Him, He would divide with me the good of the land.” By God giving me His favor, my life began that day to be filled with “God possibilities.” Through the ensuing years, He blessed my silver and gold–though at the time He spoke, I had none.
The second thing He promised me that day was my marriage would never be broken, and it never was, despite the difficulties of the coming years. At that time I saw no danger in the stability of my marriage, but our “all-knowing God” knew that only He could keep it together. The third miracle God did that day was to totally heal me of a very serious bronchial condition. I was very ill, and the doctors had been unable to help me. I noticed as the day wore on that I was no longer coughing, and my strength was returning to me.
As I arose from my knees, I knew God had truly taken charge of my life, and I had a brand new future and all kinds of wonderful possibilities! Those three miracles were only the beginning of a long life lived in the favor and blessings of God. All I had to do was to give myself totally to Him for His purposes and plans, and a “river of abundant life” began to flow from my source in God. Did I have to face trials and tests? Yes, I have been to the very gates of hell, but they could not prevail against me. “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).
God has accomplished all the “good” in my life. I would not trade my life in Christ, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit for all the world’s secular achievements. In Christ, I have absolute security, and satan cannot do anything to me apart from God’s permission. I know that God will work the evil of satan together for my good. I have experienced that phenomenon in my life over and over again. I have been led through doors and into high places that my natural mind could never have conceived. God’s ways are not our ways, nor His thoughts our thoughts, and they reach far higher than ours. God always knows best and gives us His highest purposes. He parts the waters, stills the storms of our lives, and leads us to His highest achievements for God and His kingdom! “And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: who, through faith, subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens” (Hebrews 11:32-34).
According to the prophetic dream God gave to Joseph, after he was tried and tested, he became – by God’s design – second only to Pharaoh in all the land of Egypt. Through Joseph, God saved a nation and peoples from starvation. God was able to carry out all of His plans because Joseph fully trusted in Him, though he had to walk by faith and not by sight. Joseph was willing to suffer or do whatever it took to fulfill God’s plans. He stood with his God until he received the fulfillment of God’s promises. God ordered Joseph’s steps from his birth to his death. He gave opportunities and blessings that no one but the eternal God could give. Joseph could never have imagined the glory and extent of God’s workings through him. “He permitted no one to do them wrong; yes, He reproved kings for their sakes, saying, ‘Do not touch My anointed ones, and do My prophets no harm.’ Moreover He called for a famine in the land; He destroyed all the provision of bread. He sent a man before them – Joseph – who was sold as a slave. They hurt his feet with fetters, he was laid in irons. Until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the LORD tested him” (Psalms 105:14-19).
Everything that God does in our lives is for our eternal good. Joseph’s faith in God led him from slavery to the highest honor in the land of Egypt. “The king sent and released him, the ruler of the people let him go free. He made him Lord of his house, and ruler of all his possessions, to bind his princes at his pleasure, and teach his elders wisdom” (Psalms 105:20-22).
The God of creation and all miracles asks us to yield ourselves to Him for the fulfillment of His perfect plans for our lives. His plans are much higher than ours! There is no way we can fathom the heights or the depths of God’s love or plans for us. Without Christ as “Lord” of our lives, there can be no glorious eternal future, nor can we expect miracles and impossibilities to become possible. “But looking at them, Jesus said, ‘With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible’”(Mark 10:27).
God’s work in the soul and spirit of man will bear fruit that draws attention to his love and creative power in man. God is in charge, and it is up to us to say, “yes” to yielding our life totally to Christ and to seeking the fullness of His Spirit. Any change man makes on his own falls short of the glory of God! Only change wrought through the Spirit of God can do an eternal work. “The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in licentiousness and lewdness, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts” (Romans 13:12-14).
At present I am again awaiting the fulfillment of a prophetic word from God. Looking back over the many times God has spoken an unbelievable promise for my future, I look with faith, excitement and anticipation of the fulfillment of this new word from God. This scripture fully explains how God works as we wait for his promises. “He sent a man before them – Joseph – who was sold as a slave. They hurt his feet with fetters, He was laid in irons. Until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the LORD tested him” (Psalms 105:17). We are to wait in faith, understand when we are tested, and then be patient until God fulfills His promises to us!
I always marvel at the perfection of God’s work. It takes time and a perfecting of people and circumstances for God to complete His perfect work. I feel sadness for the many who have not experienced God’s miraculous work within and through them. Seeing God working everything for our good is an awesome experience. God deals with each of us very personally and shows Himself lovingly in the lives of His children. He sends the Holy Spirit, our divine helper, to teach, lead, and protect us.
Every good and perfect gift the Father sends to us is done through Christ and brought into being through the work of the Holy Spirit. Their work in our lives is an intimate, personal revelation of the love of God and His provision for us. God gives us everything we need to live a life pleasing to Him. Every good and perfect gift from the Father is ours for the asking. God wants to give us righteousness and a super-abundant life. There are no impossibilities with God and He will freely send His favor and blessings upon those who walk uprightly before Him. There are no impossibilities with God!!!
God saved us to do His work in us. We are not “earth-bound” but we are “heaven- bound,” and our lives must be re-created through Christ to glorify God. It is essential to be “full of Christ and the Holy Spirit.” Abundant life begins with Christ in us…..then we have the hope of glory.
We must desire to love God more than we love ourselves and the world, and desire to be filled to overflowing with His Spirit if we are to walk in God’s righteousness. I know seeking God with our whole heart is the key to a Godly life. I HAVE LEARNED THAT THERE EXISTS MUCH MORE FOR US THAN WE HAVE RECEIVED. “If you would earnestly seek God and make your supplication to the Almighty, if you were pure and upright, surely now He would awake for you, and prosper your rightful habitation. Though your beginning was small, yet your latter end would increase abundantly” (Job 8:5-7).
Let us pray: Holy Father, I come in the name of Jesus Christ. It is time for me to fully realize that “I must be about the Lord’s work.” That work must be far more than a passing thought. I am asking You to open the doors of service You have planned for me. Only You can show me the ways and means to effectively do Your will and work. I am serious about serving others and winning souls for Your kingdom. You gave up everything for me, and now I want to give my all to You. Amen.
ANITA
