We receive God's precious and magnificent promises so that we will be partakers in His divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).
God wants your life to look like His. God is Spirit. God is love. God is peace. God is light. God is perfect. God is a concealer of matters and a revealer of truths. His gifts and His fruit are unmatched and He wants you to partake of them. He wants you to partner with all of it. The promises for your life have a fuller purpose than simply your hopes and wants in this world. God uses them to bring forth Christ-likeness within you.
Fulfilled promises are a part of restoring you to your original design. You were designed to be in direct fellowship with God, face-to-face with God, made in His image, co-reigning on Earth in the seen and unseen. You being restored in this way is so important that Jesus was tortured on the Cross so you could receive this restoration. If you are ever wondering if God is invested in His promises to you coming to pass, you need to only look to the Cross. They are both a part of you returning to your original design, the divine nature.
As we prayed and prepared this article God spoke loudly to encourage many to believe again!
He is more than just the Promiser. He is the PROMISE KEEPER. He is invested in bringing His promises over your life to pass.
2 Corinthians 1:20, “For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our amen to the glory of God through us.”
He has already said YES to all His promises over your life! As you see them fulfilled, you bring Him glory.
Purpose in the Promise
In 2 Samuel, we see where the promises of God to David are delivered via a prophetic word through the prophet Nathan. It was a personal, corporate, and generational word. God promised to give David peace and prosperity, which would then create a safe place for His people to settle after so many years of instability. God promised that David's son would build the temple. What a beautiful picture of God's nature. He blesses and prospers you not only for your benefit, but for the benefit of the entire Kingdom, as well as the next generation.
With every promise over your life, you should be asking God how it benefits the Kingdom and the next generation. God will work to protect these promises because He has a personal love for you, His Kingdom, and those who will come after you.
Many have become sick in their hearts and God is about to make them well. Proverbs 13:12, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life.”
So, what do you do when hope deferred begins to set in, when the promise you have been longing for, because of unfulfillment, becomes the very thing that begins to torment you?
Whenever you are in a dark place, God will meet you there and remind you of His promises. When Abraham was in a difficult place, he could look up into the night and ponder the stars, reminding himself of the promise over his life. God promised that Abraham's descendants would be like the stars, unmeasurable. God will give you clues, and like He did with Abraham, will speak to you in a special way that makes sense for your promises.
Many of you have grieved without seeing some of the fulfillment promised to you. It's time to believe again! Reflect on the journey and know, without a doubt, that time for fulfillment is not yet over. God is telling you to stir up your faith once more, because it will take great faith to act and partner with the Word once again.
24 years after God originally promised descendants to Abraham, God came again and promised to touch Sarah's body, blessing her and Abraham with a child. Can you imagine being Sarah and thinking of breastfeeding and running after a toddler? Sometimes we think the season has passed and we don't even know if we want it anymore, but then God comes along and speaks again to reignite the hope and desire once more.
In the 25th year after the promise was originally spoken, Isaac was born! If you are wondering if a promise is still for you, ask God to speak again.
Changing Perspective Changes Everything
So often people look to God to function like a manufacturer's guarantee and warranty. It's a mindset that if you buy this product and it doesn't work as described, you have a written guarantee so you can get your money back. It comforts us and gives us confidence in the product because there is a black and white formula for what happens if things go wrong. But you know what?
The reason we need those warranties is because there is no trust between us. We are purchasing a product from a company, not receiving a promise from our Father. With companies, we need guarantees to feel like we can trust their product. With God, we are not dealing with warranties or guarantees, we are dealing with promises.
If you treat promises from God as though they are guarantees from a company, you are already set up to become disappointed if they don't happen the way you thought they would, or in the timing you expected. If you do this, you also rob yourself of the bigger purposes of the promises He has for you. God wants you to share in His divine nature. He wants you to look more like Him. You are uniquely made so this will look completely different for every individual.
When you truly believe that God is working everything for your good, believing He is fully committed to seeing His promises through for you, it shields you from hope deferred setting in.
When your perspective shifts, you will delight in the journey. The journey is the great unknown part of the promise. It's this unknown piece that is the adventure! It is what makes us look like God, sharing in His divine nature. It is what creates deep and intimate relationship between you and Jesus. This is the entire reason He brings you these promises.
What Is Required of You?
What is God requiring of you to receive the fulfillment? The Word is full of conditional and unconditional promises. There is nothing required, of any human, to receive the promise God made us in Genesis 9:11, the promise that never again will all life and the earth be destroyed by a flood. He just won't do it. However, many of you, like Abraham and Sarah, have personal promises from God that require something from you to see their fulfillment. Sarah and Abraham had to call themselves the names God gave them, not the names they'd had their entire lives.
It is important for you to know what is required of you to receive the promise. Often it is simply moving forward and trying, changing how you see yourself and making sure it's the same way God sees you. And above all, trusting Him before you see the promise.
Abraham and Sarah trusted the promise enough to put their faith into action. They moved forward the best way they knew how by having Abraham lay with Hagar. They did experience consequences because of this but it did NOT disqualify them from the promise. God helped steer them in the right direction. They were willing to partner even though they made a mistake, and God still brought the promise.
Are you dealing with distrusting God or unbelief, and allowing fear to freeze you?When you are frozen, you cannot take the action steps required of you to receive the promise. This is exactly what we see in the generation of Israelites who were too afraid, refusing to enter their promised land. They allowed their fear to break trust in God. God was angry and made an oath that none of them, except Caleb and Joshua, would receive the promise.
Be a Joshua
God was enraged at the Israelites who, after experiencing all of God's faithfulness towards them, still did not believe. This kind of short memory and disaster-based thinking frustrates God.
Reckless faith to partner with what God is saying is beautiful to God. Deuteronomy 1:38, “Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter there; encourage him, for he will cause Israel to inherit it.” God can do anything with someone who allows Him to. Joshua's yes caused all of Israel to inherit their promise. You, too, have the power to determine if you and others will inherit God's promises.
God promises many things for those who love and follow Him. He also has custom promises just for you, just like He customized work for you to do (Ephesians 2:10). These promises uniquely align with how He skillfully wove you together in the depths of the earth (Psalms 139:15). You are indeed His handiwork.
If there has been disappointment in the process, bring it to God. Don't just embrace what God has promised to give you or do for you. Embrace where He is taking you—into Christ-likeness. Ask God what that next step should look like and take the dive into the deep with your God.
