Delay is not Denial
Delay is not Denial
Our "instant" and "quick-fix" Western consumer society is jeopardising the integrity of genuine prophetic communication. All too often in our day, a prophetic word is given "the flick" if it does not provide immediate gratification, or does not come to pass speedily. Also if the job is not being done according to resident expectations a replacement prophet is often drafted in.
Consider, if you will, the following statistics. Jeremiah prophesied 70 years of chastisement from God for His backsliding People. (Jeremiah 25.1-13) This prophecy was fulfilled...but not until 89 years had gone by.
Isaiah foretold (Isaiah 44.28) that a chastened Israel was going to be restored to God and The Land; this would be decreed by a Gentile king, Cyrus of Persia. Isaiah’s prediction was indeed true...but it "dragged its heels", so to speak, for 163 years.
Delay in the fulfillment of prophecy is not automatically a denial of its validity. God works according to timetables very, very different from our own ... of even the most enlightened and sanctified among us.
"But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as 1000 years; and 1000 years as one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness ..." (2 Peter 3.8-9)
"For 1000 years in Your sight are like yesterday when it passes by, or as a watch in the night." (Psalm 90.4)
Late last year the deposed dictator of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, was executed with indecent haste by hanging. I "saw" two things that week,
- The "Christian" West missed possibly its greatest opportunity ever to preach the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to the Muslim world, by failing to extend mercy to a man who showed no mercy to anyone, anywhere, anytime in his entire life.
- I "saw" something akin to burning phosphorus or napalm falling on the United States of America. This material clung to and burned everything it fell upon. It burned to the uttermost.
I was very disappointed by the first insight; but aghast at the second. In fact I was so appalled, I just buried the image. Apart from anything else, I did not want to be perceived as anti-American. I honour the USA as God did when He transplanted the Protestant Reformation there via the Puritan pilgrims. I also honour America for being a driving-force in world missions, especially during the 20th C. Further I honour America for owning and pressing forward the Pentecostal-Charismatic Revolution during the 1930s and 40s when it was so bitterly persecuted by the religious establishment.
But then, what you "see" is what you see!
 William Branham |
"I saw this United States burning like a smolder; rocks had been blown up. And it was burning like a...a heap of fire in logs or something that just set it afire. And (I) looked as far as I could see and she'd been blown up."
At the very least I hope that these visions will provoke decent men and women of Christian goodwill everywhere to fervently pray for the United States of America and the Church in that great nation, especially along the lines of Psalm 143.10-11,
"Teach them to do Your will, for You are their God. Let Your good Spirit lead them on level ground. For the sake of Your name, O Lord, revive them. In Your righteousness bring their souls out of trouble. In Your loving kindness cut off their enemies, and destroy all those who afflict their souls. For they are Your servants."
Amen and amen.
