Our text tells us of a famine condition that existed, and in the midst of a famine condition the man of God speaks a word of promise that has attached to it a (set time).
(Tomorrow about this time)
I want to start this message by saying to you, that for every promise, for every prophecy, and for every dream there is a set time.
That is to say that there is an appointed time for that word or that promise or that dream to be manifested.
It is no different than the natural: When a seed is sown, there is a process that the seed goes through before there can be a harvest.
But as surely as the seed is planted, if it is kept in the ground and properly cared for there will be a due season and harvest will come.
This is probably one of the most difficult lessons there is to learn as a believer. How to wait on God,
We get a prophecy and we think it should happen the next day, and when it doesn’t happen in a week we get concerned, three months we get really concerned, a year and we get worried, 5 years and we think God forgot all about us, or it was just wishful thinking.
I’m here to tell you today that this is part of the process.
Every dream, every seed, every promise must go through this process.
Psalms 105:19 Until the time that his word came: the word of the LORD tried him.
This tells us that Joseph had a word from God, (a dream) and that word from God tested him,
In other words, he was tested by time to see if he would hold to that word (dream) or if he would forsake it.
Time is the great sifter through which all of our dreams must pass.
You see time tests our faith, it challenges us to prove whether we believe God or not.
It is critical what we do during our waiting season.
There is a set time for your word, your dream, your promise to come to pass.
God has established a time for that word to be manifested.
Just as Hannah carried the Prophet Samuel in her womb for 9 months before there was a birth, You and I must also carry the word of the Lord, the dream in our spiritual womb until due season.
You see there are a lot of people that are wanting a birth, but they haven’t really gotten pregnant yet.
You have first got to get pregnant with the promise.
You can have a word for a long time before you get pregnant.
You see you don’t get pregnant just by hearing the word once, that word has to get down into your spirit, it has to affect the way you think, the way you talk, the way you walk.
See when a woman gets pregnant, you can tell it, changes start taking place,
She thinks pregnant, everything she looks at tells you she’s expecting, she talks pregnant, and in a little while she walks pregnant.
And once she gets pregnant, there is a due season for manifestation.
You notice that as she gets closer to due date she becomes uncomfortable, She doesn’t fit in the clothes she used to wear, she doesn’t sit where she used to sit.
See when you are really pregnant with the promise, you start out growing some things.
In other words You are not satisfied with things the way they’ve always been, there is a divine discontent and divine dissatisfaction that begins to grow in you.
You have an expectation of something greater, and that expectation of something greater is making you uncomfortable where you are.
A pregnant woman has a tendency to experience extreme mood swings, For no reason at all she may just burst out crying.
That is true spiritually too, when you are near delivery or manifestation there are strong emotions that begin to stir in your spirit.
It may be crying one minute, and shouting the next,
Just as in the natural there is a struggle before the birth, so it is in the spiritual (There is usually a great warfare just before manifestation)
We need to realize that just before manifestation satan will do everything he can to get you to cast away your confidence and to abort your promise.
God gave a word of promise concerning a turn around, God established a set time and said (tomorrow about this time where there has been famine there will be plenty, where there has been lack there will be abundance).
For those who believed God this brought great joy to their hearts, but the truth is that from a natural perspective nothing changed for the better when the word was spoken (in fact before the breakthrough came it actually got worse than ever) even to the point of cannibalism, they were eating their own children.
When every natural evidence disputed the word of God, and when from all visible circumstantial evidence it looked as if it was getting worse instead of better.
All of a sudden the report came from 4 lepers outside the city gate, that there was food in abundance, and in an instant the famine was broken and the word of God was manifested at the set time according to the word of the prophet.
But what I want you to see is that while everything inside the city was getting worse, and every natural evidence was disputing and defying the word of God.
Outside the city gate God was working.
He inspired 4 lepers to get up from where they were and go to the syrian camp
As they walked God caused the syrian army to hear a sound as a great army marching toward them, and they fled in fear leaving an abundant supply of food and other things behind them.
The point I am making is: Just before your breakthrough you are likely to experience the greatest contradiction to your promise.
This is where like the Pregnant woman in labor, It is time to push.
It is time to praise like you have never praised, it’s time to bless the Lord, It’s time to pray like you have never prayed, and confess the promise, and stand on the word, and declare the faithfulness of God.
This is a most critical time, because it is during this time that many abort their promise.
They have come to due season, but everything looks worse than ever, and many begin to believe what they see hear and feel in the natural and they abort the promise of God.
Listen to how the bible says it:
Gal 6:9 let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap (if) we faint not.
That word faint means: to loosen, dissolve, to crack, to break down,
What this word is saying is; You can actually come to your set time, be in your due season for manifestation and because you faint =, crack, dissolve, loosen, break down (you can abort your promise).
This is what happened to the first generation children of Israel (they came to the border of their inheritance, the promise land) They had come to due season.
But instead of pushing through to the birth of their promise
They aborted it.
I came with a word to encourage you: If it seems that all hell is broken loose against you, you ought to praise the Lord, because that is the greatest evidence there is that you are on the verge of manifestation, (You are in your due season) your set time is come, and this is no time for fainting (This is time for pushing)
push through till you break through.
