Slow vs. Late Dominion – Part 2

“It’s not over!” the ministry leader said to me.

This was one of the most prolific prophetic Words I had ever received. It was spoken to me many years ago by someone I greatly respect in a church sanctuary.

Since then, from time to time, when I feel like I’m working to catch up on projects, Holy Spirit will bring this declaration to my remembrance so hopelessness doesn’t set in.

I love how God is so good to help us and that we are never alone.

In Part 1 of this series, we addressed hopelessness—that it’s a lie from the enemy. We touched on God being in our continuance of time and that slow can mean patient; and late can mean from here forward

We determined that God is longsuffering and remains to have a plan for His redeemed ones to partner with Him, even when we mess up. And we determined that repentance is key for coming closer to God and moving toward the fulfillment of His promises.

We saw that God helped Joshua’s army enter deeper into His righteousness as they purged evil from among them to obey Him forward at Ai.

Righteousness, which is God’s way, is God’s standard.

God tests our obedience as we walk with Him on the narrow path. We can stay the course with our eyes on Him, or we can stray and do it our way.

God’s promises fulfilled involve a process we grow through. Staying on the narrow path involves a kind of suffering. Getting off of it does, too. But, with God’s grace-power, remaining on it and returning to it, after we have steered off course, can produce timely fruit.

For example, when we fast forward to Joshua in the ninth chapter, we find that he made a peace treaty with an envoy of deceivers—the Gibeonites (Jo 9:15). Three days later, when the truth came out, he realized his error. Even so, he still made good on his promise to keep peace, as he dealt with their deception swiftly. Joshua turned the people toward good by having them serve God’s house. So, any time lost in the Israelites’ mission to deal with this sin was made up by their increased labor force.

Just like with Joshua, when God is with us in battle, we cannot lose. We can grow wiser and stronger in the journey, as God reveals His strategies to us and we obey Him in the small things that will reinforce His ways in us for bigger things forward—and not just for ourselves.

So, we don’t have to beat ourselves up if we’ve messed up. And we don’t have to sell ourselves short by caving into deception. God always has a solution for a better, higher outcome.

A couple of encouraging scriptures in this regard are:

First, James 1:4 TPT, which says, “And then as your endurance grows even stronger, it will release perfection into every part of your being until there is nothing missing and nothing lacking.”

Secondly, Hebrews 10:36 TPT, which says, “You need the strength of endurance to reveal the poetry of God’s will and then you receive the promise in full.”

So, along our journey to fulfillment, we can be encouraged by God’s truth in Ephesians 2:10 TPT, which says, “We have become his poetry, a re-created people that will fulfill the destiny he has given each of us, for we are joined to Jesus, the Anointed One. Even before we were born, God planned in advance our destiny and the good works we would do to fulfill it!”

With all this assurance, we don’t have to worry about being late in the worst sense of the word. We can arrive by fixing our eyes on God and actively agreeing with His righteous truths—His promises of hope that will come to fruition (He 11:1).

God will not resist us when we humble ourselves and call on His Name for help. He will be faithful to His great nature and lift us from every false burden, so we can begin again, be made stronger by Him and bring honor to Him.

Romans 12:1 TPT specifically reveals God’s strategy of reciprocal honor by saying, “Beloved friends, what should be our proper response to God’s marvelous mercies? To surrender yourselves to God to be his sacred, living sacrifices. And live in holiness, experiencing all that delights his heart. For this becomes your genuine expression of worship.

Pray with me if you will…

Dear Lord,

Thank You for making me courageously faithful. I repent of believing the devil’s lies that I’ve missed it or will miss it. I declare today that, with Your help, Lord, I will not miss your appointed times for me. And I choose to fully trust You to get me where You desire I be on Your timetable. I declare that Your promises are yes and amen. “You keep every promise You’ve ever made to me! Since your love for me is constant and endless, I ask you, Lord, to finish every good thing that you’ve begun in me” (Ps 138:8 TPT)! I choose this day to walk with You in Your truth on Your righteous path of Your faithful fulfillment for me.

In Jesus’ Mighty Name,

Amen.

This devo was graciously re-posted by the Salem Web Network, which includes iBelieve.com.

Slow vs. Late Dominion – Part 1

This devotion is purposed to encourage those who feel like they aren’t yet where they would like to be in this new season.

First of all, this new season is just beginning. Therefore, every manifestation God has for us won’t happen all at once at the forefront.

Secondly, God’s timeline will not short-cut our development in Him. Because, to Him, our transformation is more important than our tasks.

Thirdly, revival begins with repentance. Therefore, it’s important to ask Holy Spirit to search our hearts and reveal sins that are unknown to us so that we can come into greater authenticity by confessing them to Him.

An important key to remember here, according to 2 Peter 3:9 NIV, is that “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

The Word “slow” in this scripture (Strong’s #1019, bradunó) means that God is never late with His appointed times. He is not slack and does not loiter. He is patient with us, which means He is long-suffering and forbearing. This means that God refuses to “retaliate with anger, because of human reasoning” (HELPS Word-studies).

In other words, even if we have gotten off-track due to our own rationale (self-righteousness) above God’s instructions, God gives us opportunity to turn back to Him and holds us in His salvation of hope, like a stray lamb.

Holy Spirit will work in us to lead us to repent of anything and everything that we have participated in that has slowed us down, so that we align with Him for promises to manifest. In other words, He makes a way for us, no matter where we are on His timetable.

He is committed to remain with us and not leave us. So, if we haven’t already, we need to settle this in our minds and hearts.

On the contrary, the enemy can try to convince us that it’s hopelessly too late for us, that we’ve missed it already or that we will miss it. He can try to convince us that God has given up on us, because we didn’t get it right the first time or enough times. The devil can try to provoke us with fear to get us out of faith.

But it can help to know that there are other definitions of the Word “late.” In Holy Scripture, “late” can mean the present, henceforth and hereafter (Strong’s #3568, nun). “Late” can mean “now, in light of what has gone before” (HELPS Word-studies). So, in this, we can see hope for a new beginning! We can realize that we’re not too far gone at all! And, in fact, we’re right on time to partner with God and His plan forward from right where we are.

And there’s even more…

Another meaning of “late” is “at the beginning” and “even, in the end” (Strong’s #3796, opse). So, this brings to mind God as our Alpha and Omega, our Beginning and End. Our Finisher, who fulfills His promises to us! Our Completer, who helps us catch up to join Him along His extension of time. Our Redeemer, who invites us to walk out His saving-grace, where we are reminded that God (as Love) never gives up on us (1 Co 13:7).

If you look up the word “late” on Dictionary.com, you will see that every definition contains an element of the continuance of time. In other words, an invitation or event doesn’t just stop due to lateness in the worst sense of the word. It continues on to become the most recent invitation or event.

So, when the devil whispers, “It’s too late,” we need to remember that he is a lying fool, who doesn’t want us to live in God’s grace-power. It’s important that we capture those lies as mental seeds and cast them out. Then declare God’s truth about who God is, who we are in Christ and that God will help us finish well and righteously on time.

God has already factored in our weakness to our timeline. Joshua’s army at Ai is a great example. The story begins in Joshua chapter 7.

There, you will see that, no sooner did they make it into the Promised Land to fight their very first battle at Ai, when the worst of humanity revealed itself through a fighter, whose name, Achan, literally means trouble (Strong’s #5912, Akan). The big mess he created took time and a process to clean up. But God was with Joshua to help him sort through it all.

The point here is that God didn’t cancel His plans for the Israelites because they had to take time out of fighting for their promise to deal with this sin. No, actually, this was part of their fight for holiness! God knew this sidebar event would happen before they even entered into battle.

And yet, God didn’t abandon Joshua in the mission to which they were called and assigned. God didn’t delay them. No, He carried them through the situation all the way to victory. And with a new strategy to go and re-do the mission righteously.

God grew them to become stronger in Him in this journey.

So, the army returned to Ai. They did it God’s way and they experienced manifest victory.

Friends, there’s more to this story. So, join me next week for Part 2 of Slow vs. Late Dominion.

This devo was graciously re-posted by the Salem Web Network, which includes iBelieve.com.