“I don’t understand it, God said that He would do this and it didn’t happen. God let me down!” Many times people feel that they have received direction or promises from God only to find out later that “these words” didn’t seem to come to pass. What happened?
Two things come to mind concerning this. First, it could be that you or someone else thought you heard or misheard God, when that wasn’t really what God had said. Often people’s desires for something are so strong that they hear or sense what they “want to sense” but It is not God. Every directive word from God needs to be evaluated by other mature believers and leaders to see if that word is in line with God’s character, His Word and the purposes of God for the individual.
Secondly, it could be that the word or thought was from God, yet it still may not come to pass. In 1 Kings 18 we have the account of Elijah and king Ahab. Because of the wickedness of the king there had been a drought on the land for three years. In verse 1 God speaks to Elijah, “Go, present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the earth.” Did you notice that Elijah had a specific command to fulfill before the rain would come – he needed to present himself before the king, but in reading chapter 18, we see that there were many other things that he needed to do i.e.; challenge the king and the people, repair the altar, douse the altar and sacrifice with water, pray so the fire came, destroy the false prophets, then pray seven times for rain to come. The direction from God seemed simple, “just present yourself and rain will come”, yet much more needed to be done before the rain came.
Many times the promises from God do not come to pass, not because God has failed on His part, but because some of the necessary, yet unspoken steps which we need to accomplish have not been done. Some understood steps like studying, saving money, getting an education, working on relationships, consistent prayer, removing false idols of the heart, etc. need to be worked at to enable the full “word of God” to come about.
Lord, we want to see all of what You have spoken come to pass, help us to know what unspoken yet understood details need to be fulfilled. Help us to faithfully do our part, so You can do Your part.
Hello Pastor Keith. Thanks for this post. The “understood steps” really spoke to me.
About a year ago as plain as day I heard God say to me “you think that is good, you haven’t seen anything yet” then showed me a number that was beyond anything I have ever dreamed of. It came to me as I was reflecting on some recent success on a exciting and financially rewarding case I was working on.
This really freaked me out and has left me questioning how and when. So reading about the steps that we need to take has help me and I want to thank you for that.
God Bless!