I’ve had God give me a promise which was to be fulfilled on a specific date, and my faith would be deeply shaken when it didn’t seem to come to pass. Then I’d learn afterwards that the thing actually transpired in the spirit realm, and all of the force of the situation or circumstance was gone from that time on, and eventually it happened. Don’t be quick to be shaken on anything when God shows you something is to transpire, even if nothing seems to happen. Remember, maybe God did it a month ago. He laid an axe to the root of the tree, but you can still see fruit and leaves on it, because there was enough momentum of the sap and life coming up that even when it had no root, it took a long time for it to wither and change.
This often happens: the reality takes place in the spirit world first. God cuts the thing off and changes it, then you watch it slowly happen. Remember what Jesus said to Jerusalem? “Behold, your house is left you desolate” (Luke 13:35). It was over thirty years before Jerusalem and the temple fell, but it was done that minute. That is why we are instructed, Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward, For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. Hebrews 10:35.
Sometimes it takes patience; you’ve done it, you’ve believed, and in time it will come to pass. If you build your faith up that it may already have taken place—everything has to have its reality in the spirit realm before it manifests itself in the sensory realm—then in time you see it. “Well, I guess I must have missed the date.” No, you may not have missed it at all. It may take a little time before the answer manifests itself.
This truth can liberate your faith a great deal. Don’t let your faith waver. I’ve seen people get healings; “Oh, I know I have it,” and the symptoms even seem to go. If they let go of their faith, suddenly, it seems like everything is back. If you keep believing and ignore any little erratic manifestation it will clear up. Because God gave it to you, you will have it and walk in it perfectly.
Many times prophecy is in a very positive present tense, yet sometimes it takes years before you see it come to pass. The greatest example of a prolonged time before fulfillment appears is this: in the heart of the Father, Christ was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8), yet in the fullness of time, Christ came and died (Galatians 4:4). How many ages passed before that appeared where we could behold it and see it? Yet everything in the Old Testament types and shadows pointed toward it, for God had accomplished it in His heart. The Scripture says the works were finished from the foundation of the world (Hebrews 4:3). So God the Father had worked this all out completely and perfectly; but then in time it came to pass. We understand the ways of the Lord, the ways of the realm of spirit. We believe for things, but we are not discouraged if our eyes don’t behold it today or tomorrow.
If we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us; and if we know that he heareth us … we know we have the petitions which we have asked of him. I John 5:14b, 15. Once the witness of the Holy Spirit comes to that Scripture you have believed when appropriating a thing in your life, and you have the deep witness that you have prayed within the will of God, then it’s patience, it’s believing, it’s hanging on tenaciously until you literally make it appear.
That’s what Hebrews 11 teaches: out of things that do not appear, God created everything that does appear. By faith we understand that the ages have been framed by the word of God, so that which is seen hath not been made out of things which appear. Hebrews 11:3. Unseen causes, unseen factors in the realm of spirit bring it to pass.
This helps us a great deal. Otherwise, when we pray for something and don’t see it, we think, “I guess that God didn’t give it to me.” If we would keep voicing our faith, and our thanksgiving and praise to God when He first gives us the witness we have it, we would see it evidenced a lot faster. The delays in answers to prayer many times are lengthened by our refusal to hand onto the answer. We cloud it and slow it down, whereas if we would accept it and rejoice, it would be forthcoming much sooner. So don’t waver through unbelief; believe that what God has promised He is able also to perform (Romans 4:21).
Do you think that Abraham delayed the birth of Isaac in having Ishmael by Hagar? I say it’s possible and probable. Don’t set about it in the wrong way, out of unbelief, thinking, “This will never come to pass.” That’s what Sarah did, until she was ready to believe she couldn’t have that son, Isaac. When God gives you a promise, you have to accept it. Don’t waver through unbelief; believe what He has promised He is able also to perform.
Sometimes Satan will move in to aggravate symptoms after God has given you a witness. You pray earnestly for something and think you have it, and something happens to look like the whole thing is nullified. I gave one of the young brothers a word from the Lord, “Before the week is out, you will have a meeting with God.” On Friday he had a meeting with God; on Saturday he had a big blow up with his wife. When I talked to him Sunday, he said, “What’s the use?” But that’s the way it works: God does something for you and you’re rejoicing in it, and the next day it looks as if the bottom dropped out. The thing happened in the realm of spirit, but because it may not have been completely answered in the physical realm, Satan could make havoc of the appearances. These become symptoms, lying circumstances, because Satan is aggravating them to create an illusion so you’ll be filled with unbelief. You are to hang on and say, “I don’t care what you say, Satan, I believe what God did for me.” Immediately the thing will disappear, and you will be able to rejoice in the answer.
Will you accept this and believe it? I’ve seen it work thousands of times. This is not a matter of mind over matter, to any degree. It’s a matter of accepting the reality of the promise in your spirit first. “Faith is the substance of the thing hoped for, it’s the evidence of the thing not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). It’s an evidence, it’s a tangible thing; you believe the reality of it; you know it’s coming. You can’t even see it, but you believe it; it’s real. Once you rejoice in that, there will be no question but what you will see it.
I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Psalm 21:13. There will be many times you don’t see it; but you will faint unless you believe to. Believe that you’re going to see it! Keep remembering that you will receive it in you spirit first, then you will see it manifested around about you. It’s when the heart is rich that the pockets become full.
In the early days receiving the Holy Spirit was such a laborious thing; the state of restoration had not come to the Church that far. In one meeting years ago, I remember a man who asked the Lord for the Holy Spirit, and he had a witness he had it and spent the rest of the time rejoicing. He went home and into the bathroom, locked the door and poured a bath. The next thing his family heard was splashing and speaking in tongues. The experience had finally caught up with what he had claimed, but it was real to his spirit first. You can claim something, such as a gift from God, and once you’ve appropriated the fullness of the Lord, go on your way rejoicing; “Although I can’t see it, it’s the substance of things hoped for, it’s an evidence of a thing not seen. I don’t see it, but I have it!” Then you will see it.
The Lord warned Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. “In the day that you eat thereof, ye shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17). Then he lived 935 years longer. That’s quite a while. Didn’t he die? Yes, he was dead from the day he ate. In his spirit he was dead, dead in his trespasses and sins. Eventually, the body caught up with it.
It is when you fully possess the promise of God apart from anything that your senses witness that you will have an answer. When He has spoken a word, and you accept that word, you have it; and invariably, inevitably it comes to pass. Don’t get the idea God doesn’t answer prayer; He does. When you believe, it will happen. If you’ve had a word from the Lord, it’s inexcusable to doubt it. There is a coexistence of faith and unbelief in everyone. The man with the epileptic son said, “Lord, I believe; help Thou my unbelief” (Mark 9:24). Unbelief is always there; there are just moments you express it more and actually nullify what God would be doing at that moment. However, your unbelief of the past didn’t stop the moment of faith when you believed for salvation or for anything else. When you come to the place of faith, all the past doubt and wavering can never nullify the creative power of faith when you express it.
Whenever you are aware of unbelief, repent of it, so that the force of it is removed, and the root of it is eliminated. So that you won’t grow a future crop of the weeds of unbelief, hoe them out with real deep repentance, and strengthen your faith. In the garden of the heart, everything grows: both faith and unbelief, hatred and love. Constantly take the hoe and hoe out the wrong; strengthen the good. Do it quite deliberately, cold-bloodedly. “This has to go.” Don’t have any self-pity that will allow you the excuse of any of those things.