No More Delay!
I had one part of this prophetic word completed, but it was on October 6, 2018 I received the second and missing installment. That morning, I woke up with a sense of great expectation from the Lord. During lunch, I couldn’t shake the phrase, “No more delay!” This is a decree I have heard issued from many reputable, global prophetic leaders including Chuck Pierce, Dutch and Tim Sheets, Robert Henderson, and others. I sensed an urgency on this statement, with the Lord pushing me to do something about it. “Why me, Lord? These generals of the faith do a far better job at communicating this message than I do!” God didn’t seem impressed with my feedback and, thus, He has not changed the topic.Just remember two things for this word—October 6 (10/6) and the phrase “No more delay.” I want to revisit that statement at the end of this prophetic word and pro vide supernatural confirmation to you that, I believe, affirms this is an authentic word of the Lord for right now!
The Time Is Now!
First, the Lord led me to revisit a portion of Scripture that I had been wrestling with in recent months:
Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord (Haggai 1:2 ESV).This prophetic oracle is intended for a very specific con text—the “these people” of Haggai’s day in regard to building God’s house, the Temple. But I think we could easily see ourselves and our present generation in “these people.” Today, we say things like “It’s not time yet for global out pouring,” or “It’s not God’s dispensation yet for revival,” or “We’re just waiting on God to pour out His Spirit when He wants.” Heaven is ready while God’s agents on earth seem to be delaying things. The problem is that we have embraced a theology that identifies God’s sovereignty as the source of delay—I call this a theology of delay. While God does operate in times and seasons, there are certain things that heaven is waiting on earth for. For example, heaven is waiting on earth to steward the outpouring of Pentecost.
God sovereignly poured out His Spirit two thousand years ago in hopes that His ambassadors on earth, you and I, would actually steward His divine presence well and ultimately bring history into alignment with His Kingdom purposes. It goes without saying that we are seeing delay when it comes to seeing society and culture, let alone the Church, functioning in greater measures of God’s glorious and righteous purposes.
Sadly, delay is often the result of delayed obedience to what God has called us to build. We are not focusing on what He is focused on (the outpouring of the Spirit on all flesh); therefore, we assume, using natural wisdom and logic, of course, that God wants us to build “buildings.” Not simply church buildings, but more so, build natural things with Christian labels as opposed to building Him a place to dwell right in the middle of the gates of hell. The Lord actually desires a dwelling place positioned at the gates of hell—they pose no threat at all to Him. If anything, the presence of a people filled with His presence should pose a threat to the gates of hell. Jesus announced this when defining the purpose of His Ekklesia (see Matt. 16), and this assignment remains relevant to this very day.
Take Your Seat! Displace and Occupy
One thing that will immediately break delay in God’s purposes being done in the earth will be the Spirit-filled community proactively stepping into spheres of society that have seats for Kingdom influence. Originally, I used the phrase “open seats,” but the Spirit corrected me. Most of the “gates of influence” in the earth have seats, but they are not opened. The ones occupying seats of influence in the spirit world need to be displaced by an advancing, imposing Ekklesia. I am not speaking of a natural over throwing; I am speaking of a people, called and assigned to occupy these seats, displacing powers of darkness and then claiming these seats of influence for the Kingdom. It’s time! Either the seats are opened, or, more often than not, they are occupied by forces of darkness. It’s time to dis place darkness and establish Kingdom!
Why Is There Delay for the Purposes of God?
I want to present to you some ways that the Holy Spirit informed me we are perpetuating delay when it comes to the purposes of God being fulfilled in the earth:
We simply don’t “You do not have because you do not ask” (James 4:2 NKJV).
We pray “prayers” infected with doubt. “But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind” (James 1:6 NLT).
We’ve created a theology for When prayer is not answered, instead of contending with greater fervency or asking God for instruction, we settle into a theology that embraces delay as God’s sovereign will.
Delayed obedience: When we don’t do what God directs, we will experience
We are focusing on building things that God is not focused on—things He has not asked us to build. This is exemplified in Haggai 1, where God’s people were engaged in other building projects beside what God wanted to build in the
Old wineskins and structures: We are unwilling to accommodate the “new” move of the Spirit by allowing Him to interrupt what we are
I’m convinced that for every source of delay, there is a do—something that the Body of Christ can do or execute— that can break or reverse delay. Start asking for things in prayer! Don’t pray prayers infected with doubt but infused with faith! Refuse to partner with a theology of delay when you don’t see immediate, instant results. Do what God says right when He asks you to do it! Build what God is calling you to build, not what you think makes sense or what contemporary Christianity applauds as “God’s building project.” Finally, be flexible to the outpouring of the Spirit—create an interruptible wineskin or infrastructure for God to move on His terms, in His way. Right here, I have provided redemptive solutions that will empower us to break delay!
Two Prophetic Sources That Contribute to Delay
The Lord showed me two sources of reversible frustration in the Body of Christ concerning delay—unfulfilled personal prophetic words and unfulfilled corporate words to the Body of Christ. I repeat, these are reversible as I’m convinced the Lord has redemptive solutions for each source of frustration and aggravation.
Delay of personal prophecy and prophetic words—no more “putting them on the shelf.”
On a micro, individual level, we need to analyze “delay” when it comes to personal prophetic words. We have created an inappropriate doctrine in the Charismatic church that licenses us to put a prophetic word on the shelf when it seems like the timing is off for the word. It was the “right word, wrong time.” There is some truth to this, of course. God operates in times and seasons. There are words whose fulfillment is reserved for a particular season in our lives, mainly because we need to undergo God’s process to prepare us to carry the weight of prophetic fulfillment. I endorse process; I reject putting prophetic words on some kind of spiritual shelf.Consider what happens as we receive prophetic words. We received something that resonated with our spirit, made us come to life, and called us into a new vision of destiny. What happened? We embraced a theology of delay. In this case, we attempted to wrap our natural mind around “how” this prophetic word would come to pass. Because the magnitude of the word seemed incompatible with our present situation or circumstance, we assumed the most logical thing to do was “put the word on a shelf.” In other words, out of sight, out of mind until God sovereignly brings it back into focus or into fulfillment.Yes, God the Sovereign King can certainly do that. But recently, in one of the few, very clear and vivid prophetic vision experiences I’ve had in my life, I saw a library in heaven. This library was filled with beautiful books, old and dusty. It was like the library in Beauty and the Beast. It was stunning, yet heartbreaking as I became aware of how much was stored up in heaven that was meant to find re lease and manifestation in the earth. I realized these books represented unfulfilled prophetic words that had been gathering dust because we embraced a theology of shelving the word of the Lord. There is a sobriety here that should strike us. And yet, the next scene revealed the extravagant mercy of the Lord. I saw the wind of God blow through the library. Dust started blowing off the tops of the books and the pages began flapping open in the wind. God the Sovereign was changing the times and seasons in the spirit. Even though God, in His sovereignty, is the One who delivers a prophetic word to us (through a prophet or prophetic per son), we have a responsibility to respond and participate. The reason we are seeing so much delay is simple—we have not reoriented and recalibrated our lives to accommodate these prophetic words. God is so good, though! He is personally intervening, and with the breath of His Spirit He is blowing those pages open. This is a summons to you—re-visit and review those words! Don’t put them on a shelf in the spirit realm; hold them close to your heart.
I see the fear of the Lord returning to the delivery of personal prophecy. God, the One seated outside of time and above created order, sovereignly decides to release a sneak preview of His desired future from heaven into the earth through a prophetic vessel. The weight of this should fill us with awe! God delivers these sneak previews of the future through prophets and prophetic vessels—to us! Such words compel us to come into alignment with God’s purpose and destiny for our lives. The problem? Often these words sound bigger than life. Rather than process them with God or pray through them or hold them close so we can wrestle with them, we embrace the theology of delay by placing them on a proverbial shelf. We hide them from view. What’s really happening is God gave us these amazing gifts, prophetic words, and rather than holding them close, working with the Holy Spirit to discern, decipher, and execute on them, we send them back to heaven by shelving them. And the Lord says, “I don’t want these books in heaven; I want these pages to become realities in the earth!”I sensed an urgency in the spirit to decree that now is the time! The wind of God is blowing the dust off the books. It’s a summons to the people of God to revisit personal prophetic words and promises from the Lord, and to hold them near. Keep them close. Yes, there are words that will find manifestation and fulfillment in a certain time; the problem is we can seem to postpone fulfillment, not because the delay was God-willed; rather, our lack of movement and response produced delay. This is not meant to condemn; it’s called to provoke. I sense the Lord calling you to revisit past prophetic words expecting to be spiritually provoked and, yes, even experience a measure of “holy aggravation” over words that have not yet been fulfilled.
I believe the Lord is saying, “Leverage your aggravation correctly!” Again, many have been aggravated over unfulfilled prophetic words, and as a result they’ve rejected them completely or put them on the shelf. There is a holy aggravation that we are meant to live with, actually, that continually provokes us to contend for the fulfillment of God’s promises. Let lack of fulfillment provoke you to cry out, ask, seek, knock, and converse with God until you see transformation.
Delay of corporate prophecy and prophetic words coming to pass
The Lord also took me through a process that I believe is meant to be healing for everyone who has been frustrated over corporate prophetic words that have not yet come to pass. I think of the globally recognized prophetic voices who are continually prophesying words of acceleration, awakening, glory, and breakthrough—and while it seems like the language may change, year after year, overall the realities that these prophets are announcing are the same and have not yet come to pass. This is a just cause for frustration in the Body of Christ. The problem is that much of our animosity gets aimed toward the prophets instead of the delay. We need to let it go and translate it into “holy aggravation.” Leverage your spiritual aggravation; just don’t aim it at the prophets, prophetic words, or even the Lord. Aim it at the delay, as it will provoke you to intercede and seek the Lord for executable strategy so that the words can translate from prophecy into manifestation.The Lord told me, “Prophets will prophesy.” Not very deep, but profound nonetheless. In other words, prophets will continue to prophesy—and often, prophesy the same things—because that is who they are and that is what they do. If the words don’t come to pass, they will continue to declare them faithfully. As they continue to hear the word of the Lord, their voices will continue to roar its decree. Unfulfilled corporate prophecy in our churches, cities, regions, nations, and so forth should provoke and aggravate us, but we shouldn’t aim these negative feelings at the prophets. No, aim your aggravation at the delay and commit to do something about it.
Prophecies demand action—participation. Delay will be broken when we decide to do. We need to execute apostolic strategies to partner with prophetic words. We need to adjust our mindsets and wineskins to accommodate the realms of glory, breakthrough, and acceleration that God desires to bring His people into. We need to readjust and realign our lives to accommodate the words that are being declared over us, if, in fact, we are expecting to see prophetic words come to fruition.
The “Do” of Reformation Will Break the Delay
The Lord is raising up a people who will break delay by doing what they have been called and assigned to do. Pretty simple. Reformation will be provoked by a people who encounter and do, who pray and do, who engage the spirit realm and do. We don’t do something, or work, to gain God’s favor. Quite the contrary. God in His mercy gave us prophetic words and Kingdom assignments to accomplish. We are called and assigned. We are not working to gain God’s favor in order to receive an assignment; we’ve already been assigned. We simply need to follow through on what we have been called to do.I see a convergence coming in the Body of Christ of three realms of function—prophet, priest, and governor, all pictured in Haggai 1. This convergence has the power to break the delays we are seeing, as it brings prophetic words, ministry leaders, and those called to the Seven Mountains into a dynamic reformational alliance. We will explore this further down the line, but it will be this three fold alignment operating in cooperation and harmony that will translate Holy Spirit renewal and revival into societal reformation.
I will share about this at the end of this compilation, as I provide the second part of the prophetic word I received for the coming season.