“…Not one promise from God is empty of power, for nothing is impossible with God!”
Luke 1:37
God is Good!
I was listening to a sermon from Bethel this morning where the bulk of the message handled the death of a young member of their congregation. It’s been a big topic this year: Death and Resurrection (of people, of relationships, of ministries, of dreams…) and in this last week I saw a lot of Social Media posts about the prayers for resurrection for this member of their church.
Which kinda bugged me…
I believe God does miracles for a few reasons. One is to teach us, another is to create a testimony, another is for proof for unbelievers… and so on and so forth…
But is praying for the resurrection of a believer not selfish? They are with God now, in heaven… why bring them back here?
Unless it is because their purpose has not yet been fulfilled?
Which nicely tied in with something else that I have been trying to grasp and get a solid hold on during this year. God’s word spoken over a person or a situation.
If I believe God has spoken… and it doesn’t happen… did I hear wrong?
A specific situation this year (a troublesome team member), I prayed for a situation and clearly saw how the person changes and becomes a team player and the atmosphere changes in the office. How she becomes a shelter for the new people coming in and takes them under her wing.
But just a few weeks later, I heard that she resigned.
This really knocked me over, and I pretty much stopped telling people if I think God has a word for them. Frankly, I stopped asking God because I don’t want to speak words that are not true.
But I realised something… a prophetic word is NOT a foretelling of the future… and it is not a prediction either. It is a word of knowledge. It is to uplift and to strengthen the Body of Christ.
Bill Johnson explained it in terms I understood this morning:
Think of the Word of God is a seed. It has everything in it to become an oak tree ( Luke 1:37, the words to Mary) The Word already contains the power to become what was spoken!
BUT … Free Will…
The word can be spoken that I will be a problem solver, but I can choose to become a complainer and a problem instead.
The Word of God is a seed that contains all the power to become that which is spoken, but unless I take the actions to keep that seed inside the purpose for which it was spoken, it will not grow. It will not become!
AND in the same way… I cannot force a seed to grow. I can create the environment around it to grow. I can protect it, I can care for it, and above all, I can prepare for it. But it will not grow faster than is natural. A bonsai tree in a pot can look like the real thing, but it’s not very strong and it’s not very big.
In the greek, this verse is one of a few places where the impossibility of the result is emphasised by a double negative, literally “Impossible to Not Become” – all it requires is that I remain faithful to the word that was spoken… Even if it takes the rest of my life to grow, it may grow slowly, but it will grow strong.
“…Not one promise from God is empty of power, for nothing is impossible with God!”
Luke 1:37
