Fulfilment of the VISION, PROMISE, or PROPHETIC WORD

How do we get to the fulfilment of the vision, promise or prophetic word received from God?

Habakkuk 2:1-3, NKJV | I will stand my watch And set myself on the rampart, And watch to see what He will say to me, And what I will answer when I am corrected.

2 Then the Lord answered me and said: “Write the vision And make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it. 3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry.

The prophet talks about a vision—what is a vision? What God has in mind here is for us to write the vision down. The vision here has to do with purpose; vision has to do with purpose and destiny; every prophetic word and promise given to you by the Lord ultimately has to do with your purpose and your destiny in Him. For example, if God has promised you that he is going to heal your body or that he is going to use you in a very prominent ministry, it has nothing to do with you or what you may want for yourself, but it has to do with the purpose and destiny that the Lord has set for you even before you came into this world. And in verse 3, it says, So even though it delays, wait for it; it will surely come. The promise that the Lord has given you will surely come.

In Proverbs 29:18, it says, Where there is no vision, the people perish, this is why vision is very important. What this portion of scripture is saying to us is that the vision, or God’s word, or God's promise to us, is its own witness that it is going to happen. God can hardly wait for it to happen; He can hardly wait to bless you or to give you the breakthrough you’ve been asking him for, but God has things in place, and all of His words must be fulfilled in time. Although it may seem slow or delayed, it will happen exactly when God says it will.

When receiving a vision or prophetic word from the Lord, it is crucial to confirm its authenticity. The Bible advises testing the word, and the Lord will confirm it through the mouths of 2 or 3 or your Pastor. The vision will not contradict the Lord's word, and it will provide peace. However, there should be a deep spiritual witness, so be careful about this. But when the word is spoken and the vision is provided, you must put your faith into practise once you have confirmed that the vision and the message that you have received are inspired by the Lord. And we must run with this vision, writing it down on the tablets of our hearts. How can we go about doing this? We breathe, act, and live as though the word were already true. We embrace it and believe it regardless of what people may say or what your circumstances may require of you. This is how we run with the vision. 

The Lord will position you in the right position to receive the fulfilment of the promise. However, this involves a process, and this is where some of us may stagger. You see, in order for you to receive the promise, the blessing, and the fulfilment of the prophetic word, you will need new wineskins to contain it. The old has to go—old mindsets, old ways of thinking and doing things, old habits and sins. You need to be ready to receive the blessing, or it will kill you. It will destroy you, and this is what happens in the in-between period. The time of waiting for the fulfilment of the promise is usually a time of preparation, and this can involve correction from the Lord. It is often a time of breaking before the making, and this time of breaking is often not pretty. It may involve struggle, turmoil, and pain. This is often a time where God requires us to examine our lives, our hearts, our minds, our thoughts, our attitudes, our words, and our actions—things that may be displeasing to Him, things that offend Him, things that defile us. Sometimes we may have to get rid of offence and forgive people, and not only that, sometimes we may need to ask someone to forgive us. It's easy for us to say, Oh, I’ve forgiven them, but sometimes perhaps we need to humble ourselves and go and ask for forgiveness. The closer you get into the presence of God during this time of breaking, during this time of preparation, the deeper you go on to introspection and searching your heart like David prayed in Psalm 51.

Psalm 139:23-24, NKJV | Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; 24 And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.

In Habakkuk 2:1, the prophet is wanting to hear the voice of God, and he’s examining himself. He says I’ve done everything I know how to do; I’m really yearning to hear the voice of God; I want to hear what he has to say; I’ve already examined my heart; but perhaps there are things that I’m blinded to; and what if the Lord puts his finger on certain things in our lives, and if he corrects me, how will I respond? That’s what the prophet Habakkuk is saying here: The Lord is bringing us to total submission and obedience to Him. The process of breaking can often be painful, and sometimes God may want to deal with certain fears and insecurities that we may have. It's easy to just focus on the struggle and say, Oh, look at what’s happening to me—all I’m experiencing is pain—and that’s contrary to the prophetic word that I received—to that vision I received—where is God in all this? But in actual fact, the Lord is working in and through you to prepare you to be able to receive and contain the promise.

This is why the Bible says in Isaiah 55:8, NKJV | “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.

We would want to fast forward straight to the blessing—to the fulfilment of the promise—but this is the breaking period—the in-between time—that will lead you to a lifestyle of trusting God, to a lifestyle of operating in the supernatural—this is not the time to give up—when the pressure is at its peak—remember, just like when we are going to shoot the bow—we place the arrow on the bow, we firmly grip, we draw until the pressure is at its peak—and then we release and we shoot—this is exactly the same with what the Lord is doing—He will stretch you—and when the pressure is at its peak—He will release you—he will propel you—into the next! And sometimes, we need to go through a crisis to be able to know and testify that it was the Lord who brought us through it all! The Lord is really teaching us how to exercise trust and faith.

The Lord knows the appointed time. He knows what needs to occur first before we are in a position to receive the promise. We also need to be aware of the fact that spiritual warfare also occurs before we can enter into the promise. The enemy doesn’t want you to receive the blessing and will deceive you into thinking that the Lord’s word for you wasn’t true. He will come at you in all directions and make you question He will try to torment your mind, as the mind is the battleground—but the devil is a liar! And the Bible teaches us how to do battle!

You put on the armour of God. Apostle Paul says, Just as the Roman soldier is properly dressed to do battle, we also need to be dressed for battle. For instance, I will often pray, “Lord, I put on the helmet of salvation that will protect me from the thoughts the devil will try to give me. I don’t want to hear the devil’s thoughts. I don’t want to share my thoughts. I want to hear Your thoughts so that I may be a voice for You. I put on the belt of truth. The battlefield for spiritual warfare is primarily in your thought life. The weapons God gives us to use to demolish arguments are humility, faith, truth, and praise. Take every thought captive!

See 2 Corinthians 10:4–5, NKJV | 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not [a]carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,

We need to understand the authority that we have as the children of God. Just as Esther had, we have access to the throne room, and the only way we will access the throne room of God is through prayer. We need to increase our intimacy with him—behind closed doors where nobody is watching, and the more you pray, the more you become intimate with the Lord, and the more he’s going to reveal His thoughts to you and direct you—he will instruct you and tell you what to do. The Lord will never leave you without an answer, but it takes effort on our part. Worship the Lord daily, pray in tongues (very important), and also pray in the natural, and we need to read the Word every single day. The more you do this, the better you’ll get at it!

So when the enemy comes against you like a flood, we will stand by God’s standard, and what the Lord is saying to us today is this: “I personally guarantee that if I give you a promise, a vision, or a prophetic word, it is based on the reality that I’ve already been in your tomorrow. I already know what’s going to happen there, and so I am sending you a word to your present tight now, telling you that all you have to do is believe this word—believe the vision that I have given you—and act on it. I have already put the right people in place, and I’m pushing back the forces of darkness to make room for favour, and you will receive your breakthrough. This is how sure the word of God is! You just must decide today that you are going to trust God in the process and to trust Him in the breaking.

We often say things like, But I can’t afford it; I don’t have enough money; the economy is bad; I’m sick. I mean, we can go on and on. We always look at the lack, the limitations, and the circumstances. But we, as the children of God, need to look at the scriptures—have any of these things ever really affected the word of God from not coming to pass? Look at the Bible; you’ve got Daniel and Babylon. Talk about everything being against you. Here we see 30,000 captors carried away, and there’s only 4 of them that stand up for God. Daniel and his three friends—but did that stop them? He rose to the top. God literally changed the world through one man who could hear the voice of the Lord and speak it clearly with boldness. The three Hebrew children were thrown into the fire. Jesus comes in there and makes the fire burn the ropes, but nothing else gets burned; they don’t even have the smell of smoke on them. They come walking out, celebrating! Think about story after story after story in the Bible. This is what faith is all about. God gives us these examples while we are still in our present tense because He wants us to understand that when God gave all these people a word, they didn’t know how they were going to get there, but they believed the word. When God gives us a vision, He usually won’t tell us how we’re going to get it. This is the plan of God. He knows how He will get us there, but we just need to believe and exercise faith!

Prayer

Dear Lord, thank you that you want to do a new thing in us and through us. Even if we often get into a rut in our lives, you haven't given up on us. Help us, gracious Lord, to be open to the new wineskins that will be able to contain the new wine. These new wineskins might involve moving, or a new job, or a new spiritual discipline, or all sorts of things. Give us courage to consider what our new wineskins might be. You know how much we become attached to what is familiar. Help us to trust you more fully and believe in Your Word to receive the fullness of each vision, promise and prophetic word You have given us. Amen.