Why do God's Promises take FOREVER to Come to Pass?
3 Keys to Speed Up Your Breakthrough.
Key number 1 is: Have NOW Faith.
One of the traps I have noticed many believers fall into (including myself) is the “one day” trap. We tend to cast our faith out into some arbitrary date in the future. We can see the promise but it's always a future event. I can see myself healed (one day). I can see myself free from this addiction (one day). I can see myself prosperous (one day). Insert your own promise here (one day).
The problem with this one day theology is that tomorrow, one day is still just as far away. Next week, one day doesn't seem any closer. Ten years from now, one day still feels just as distant as it did when the promise was birthed in our hearts.
I'm not sure why we push our promises out into the future realm. If we can have faith for it one day, then why can't we have faith for it today?
The bible says in Proverbs 13:12 that, "hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life." (NLT) The Passion Translations says it this way, "When hope’s dream seems to drag on and on, the delay can be depressing. But when at last your dream comes true, life’s sweetness will satisfy your soul."
So many believers live in a depressed state because we've pushed our faith out to the one day realm. I'm not saying that every promise or dream will come to pass overnight. However I am saying that some dreams are delayed far too long because we don’t have NOW faith.
Key number 2 is: Move in the direction of promise and do the work required to become the person who can carry that dream.
Now, some dreams do require us to mature and grow into the person who can carry that dream. In this case there is a future date for the promise. That date has action steps attached to it though so it is not arbitrary. There’s a reasonable delay required for preparation. God is not going to make me the top heart surgeon in the land if I haven’t first done the work it takes to get me there. We must go through some things and persevere through the challenges, obstacles and road blocks that stand in our way. James 1:4 says, "perseverance must complete its work so that you can be mature and complete not lacking anything."
The second thing I've seen believers do before crossing over into their promise is quit at the first sign of opposition. You've seen it too. Some of us start out on our journey of faith dreaming of the promised land flowing with milk and honey but at the first sign of giants and battles we want to go back to the dessert. We give up and spiritualize our lack of pursuit by saying, "it must not be the right season." We can mistakenly believe that if God wanted us to have it, it would not be this hard.
May I remind you that perseverance is an action word? In order to persevere we may actually need to scale that mountain, fight that battle, kill that giant or at the very least pass the test. When God gives us a promise He expects us to move forward, to fight for it, to learn that material, to become the expert, to contend for it and believe it is ours even in the midst of the challenges we have to overcome to get there.
So yes, some dreams have a future set point but there is no time for the heart to get sick if we are moving forward and getting closer to the end goal. When we see victories and progress along the journey we can see the dream taking shape.
If you believe your promise is to be a wealthy giver into God's kingdom, what direction do you need to move in to create the wealth God has put on your heart to give? God is not going to direct someone to give you money so that you can give it to the kingdom. Why would God need you to be the middle man? He can just direct the individual to give it to the kingdom directly.
He may inspire you to build a business or create something that will generate wealth for you so that you can bless the kingdom with that. So your obstacles to overcome and persevere through may be deciding what business to venture in to or how to market your business or how to steward your finances well until finally you are at a place where your dream can become reality.
When we see people become an “overnight success” what we cannot see is the thousands of hours of learning and maturing and perseverance it has taken for them to get to that moment that changed everything, not to mention the sacrifices they had to make to scrape together the finances to invest in their dream.
This may take years, but while you are in motion and actively pursuing your purpose your heart will not grow sick. Too many of us sit on the sidelines waiting for things to happen miraculously. God can do it supernaturally, but He cares too much about us (and those connected to our lives) to give us something we do not have the maturity or skill to handle.
Key number 3 is: Pursue wisdom.
Another area that can seem to trip us up on our way to the promise has to do with our character. Character is comprised of our attitudes, our speech, our level of obedience to God and our moral fabric. God let the Israelites wander around in the desert for 40 years because of their corporate character flaws.
[Side-note: be careful who you hang around with because you may be held back from time to time due to the character flaws of those you associate with the most. Perhaps their bad attitudes have rubbed-off on you or perhaps not, either way you can still be deemed guilty by association.]
We've heard this said often, "be careful that your gift doesn't take you where your character cannot keep you." Our gifts will open doors for us, but gifts alone are not markers for success. Many have risen to places of prominence and esteem and then because of flaws in their attitude, their morality or their unwillingness to obey the Lord, they have not been able to maintain their positions.
God is merciful and kind and His mercies are new for us every single day, but we must not be deceived. His plans for us are good, but we are the ones responsible to pass the tests set before us and the temptations of the enemy.
Many of our character flaws come from unhealed beliefs or past traumas and wounds in our souls. Some come from willful sin and disobedience. Others still can come from learned behaviour due to our up-bringing. I truly believe that no one wakes up in the morning thinking, "I wonder how badly I can treat people today." Hurt people, hurt people and all of us have been guilty of hurting others from time to time. God knows all there is to know about us. He knows who we are, what we are capable of and all of our strengths and weaknesses.
It is we who don’t recognize the character deficits we ourselves carry. If we did, we would change them. We don’t want to be a source of pain for ourselves or others. What we want to acknowledge though is that it is our duty to pursue our own healing and wholeness. Beloved, there’s no room for the thinking that says, "well this is just who I am." We can grow beyond that. We do not have to stay stuck in patterns and routines that will hold us back when it is time to advance.
The woman with the issue of blood we learn about in the gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark and Luke had every reason to stay home in bed and wallow in self-pity. The only reason she got her breakthrough was because she got up and moved towards her promise despite her condition. She pressed through the crowd and grabbed hold of her healing.
We all have things in our character which we do not want to acknowledge or even see. It is our job to take the first steps to pursue wholeness in that area. The Holy Spirit will meet us there but we are the ones who have the privilege of choosing to take the steps.
Counselling and therapy are not only for "other people who really need it." If our dreams are important, and they are, then we all have an opportunity to obtain godly counsel and to grow in wisdom by discovering the belief systems that hold us back in life.
The enemy looks for weaknesses to exploit and he loves to wait until we are close enough to the dream that we can taste it to pull the rug out from under us. It is important that we know ourselves well and we get all the healing we need so that when he does come to steal, kill and devour us, we will be strong enough to resist the temptations. The Holy Spirit gives us the grace in times of testing to resist him when he comes.
Proverbs chapter 4 implores us to seek wisdom. I am a firm believer in personal development, spiritual growth and godly counsel to help us break down unhealthy patterns of belief in our lives. You can find some of my recommendations for this on my favourites page on my website.
Listen, I don’t have all the answers, none of us do. All I know is that when my gifts open the doors for me to walk into my promise, I want my character to be strong enough to keep me there. So, for that reason I choose to diligently pursue and invest in tools and opportunities for revelation to come in and set me free from beliefs and patterns that do not serve me. I want to be excellent of soul. I want to have the character it takes to carry the dreams God has placed in my heart.
Proverbs 19:23 (TPT) says, "When you live a life of abandoned love, surrendered before the awe of God, here’s what you’ll experience: Abundant life. Continual protection. And complete satisfaction!" This is a NOW promise. I pray that it manifests wholly in your life today.
Have an awesome week and remember, you are loved and deeply cherished by Jesus and by me!
