Even If You Don't See Something, Say Something.

“What can we do for her?” Elisha asked Gehazi. Gehazi replied, “I do know that her husband is old, and she doesn’t have a son.” “Ask her to come here again,” Elisha told his servant. He called for her, and she came and stood in the doorway of Elisha’s room. Elisha said to her, “Next year at this time, you’ll be holding your own baby son in your arms.” “You’re a man of God,” the woman replied. “Please don’t lie to me.” But a few months later, the woman got pregnant. She gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had promised. (Second Kings 4:14-17)

“Don’t get my hopes up.”

What a response to a prophetic word! After all, the woman knew that Elisha was a man of God. She had made an incredible sacrificial offering on his behalf by building an addition to her home for his personal use. And her compassionate service resulted in her receiving a prophetic word. But, as Pastor Richie shared with us this past Sunday, in the face of being told the deepest desire of her heart would be fulfilled she replied, No thanks. Don’t resurrect my pain. It’s too late for me.

Isaiah 43:18-19 says, “Don’t think about the past. I am creating something new. There it is! Do you see it? I have put roads in deserts, streams in thirsty lands.” God invites us to use our eyes of faith to look into the future; to see what He sees; to bring Him offerings of praise and gratitude for the new thing that He is doing in, with, and through us.

How do we respond to God’s promise of doing something new? The easy response is to push away the prophetic word. For those of us who have lived through decades of unfulfilled dreams, it is indeed a painful thing to pick up the promise again. We are weary of the disappointments. We are afraid of being hurt again. We have decided that the dream, as exciting and fulfilling as it seemed, is no longer worth the wait. We are done. In our minds, it’s over.

But Scripture calls us to be concerned not with what is on our own mind, but what is on God’s mind. What has God said? What is His opinion? What word has He put in the mouths of His prophets concerning your dreams?

It’s hard to be hopeful after so many years of disappointments. But in the prophetic realm, we are no longer dealing with the fickle heart of man nor the instability of world systems. We are dealing with God, King of glory and Lord of all the earth. His word stands forever. His word is absolutely trustworthy. And if He says a dream is restored, then it is restored. No riders, no qualifiers. What shall our reply be?

There were a couple other instances of prophetic birth announcements in the New Testament, found in Luke chapter 1. Zechariah responded to the word of the Lord with doubt in his heart and was chastised for his doubt. Mary responded to the word of the Lord with humble acceptance and was commended. In both cases though, without respect to the faith level of the person involved, the word of the Lord came to pass.

Perhaps that can be our thought to meditate on today: The word of the Lord comes to pass. It may take a year, or ten, or forty, but God can be counted on to do what He says. Let us cast away doubt, embrace faith, and rejoice in the good He is sending to His people.

Mary said, “I am the servant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to what you have said.” (Luke 1:38)