Phillip Yancey once quoted “I have learned that faith means trusting in advance what will only make sense in reverse.”
Life requires a lot of faith decisions. The decisions vary in each season of our life.
Sometimes when we make our decision, and the going gets tough, we question if we made the right decision in the process.
And then there are the life events that we didn’t see coming. The curve balls that stop us in our tracks and lead us to make another decision that leads us into another direction.
It takes faith to steer through life as we make new decisions and navigate through obstacles and struggles. I’ve learned the struggle is the place where you find your strength. Struggles help define what matters most to you.
I believe that many circumstances we find ourselves in can be forewarned. We should never underestimate the power of a prophecy spoken to us. God used prophecy to encourage and lift up ordinary people in the Bible so they would stop focusing on their present situation and continue to live in faith for what would be.
Sometimes a prophecy can be fulfilled, without us realising, until we have looked back on our life in reverse.
I had my own little prophetic moment two weeks ago, where at the time, I dismissed the message, but looking back on life, it totally made sense. My moment reminded me God can use anyone (who is willing) to speak to us, and He does care about the circumstances we find ourselves in.
The discovery was made two weeks ago when I had one of my Facebook statuses come up in my newsfeed from 4 years ago.
It gave me goosebumps when I read it.
While I was checking my personal Facebook page, which I rarely do these days because I’m usually managing The Plumbette or Styled by Bec, I had a memory come up.
Four years ago I wrote a status on how I received a letter from my sponsor child in Tanzania. I believed at the time, the translation had been mis-understood.
My sponsor child wrote that he prayed I would have another baby in 2013. To set the picture, I had just had Maggie in the February of 2013. I received my child’s letter in the May. When I read the letter, I thought it was a mistranslation. And posted a Facebook status sharing my feelings on the matter.
The irony here is I did fall pregnant again (unexpectedly) in 2013 and went on to have Phoebe in July 2014.
Was it a mistranslation or a word preparing me for what was about to happen in my life?
Some can put it down to coincidence and reading into things.
But it wasn’t the first time my sponsor child had a ‘coincidental’ word for me.
In 2009, I did a course at my church and one particular Bible verse that stuck out to me was from the Beatitudes.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God”
Many months after I finished the course, I received a letter from my sponsor child. He said he felt led to tell me a Bible verse. And can you guess what it was?
‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God”.
When I looked at the date when the letter was penned, it was written when that verse had become poignant to me.
I wonder how many prophetic words we may be missing because we’re busy or simply downplaying the message as another random communication that may or may not happen.
Trust the words spoken to you of good things coming your way.
Deliver the message if you feel led to tell someone something important.
Don’t think God can’t use you to encourage another person and don’t think God can’t speak through someone else to reassure you.
The problem is a lot of the words from God are being lost in translation. They’re not spoken because of fear for being misinterpreted. Or they’re simply ignored because we don’t want to get our hopes up. I believe God can work through our humanness and the message will get delivered, but in my example, it doesn’t make sense until life is reflected back in reverse.
It all comes down to faith. Believing in what we don’t see, yet hoping for what is promised.
A prophetic word can change someone’s perspective.
God wants to speak to us. Be open to what He has to say, and be willing to deliver or receive the message.
If you have been told a word from God and it seems unlikely to happen and you’re still living in hope, take courage.
God promised Abraham he would be the father of many children, and yet he didn’t have a son with Sarah until he was well into old age.
God told Joseph through dreams he would be a man of influence, yet he was sold into slavery and it wasn’t until many years later the prophecy came true.
Trust God. Hold onto that prophecy.
And if you are in need of a prophetic word for yourself, pray for God to speak to you.
