The Word of His Power Part III - Suddenly

We saw last week, from Isaiah 48, that when God speaks, a living thing is created.  In the moment when a Word proceeds from His mouth, something alive with the very Life of God is initiated and set in motion.  Once His Word is released in time and space, there eventually will come a moment when He will act suddenly on what He has spoken.  "I declared the former things long ago and they went forth from My mouth, and I proclaimed them.  Suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.” (Is. 48:3 emphasis added). 

God spoke through the prophet Habakkuk “For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.” (2:3 emphasis added).  Once God sets His Word in motion, there will come a moment in time when suddenly He will act upon His Word and it will come to pass!

However, in our humanness we get impatient with the passage of time, and when (in our extremely limited understanding) we estimate that too much time has elapsed between God’s speaking and His acting, we conclude that the Word has failed.  We forget that “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.”  He is not bound by time and space as we are in the natural realm.  The Apostle Peter reminds us: “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.”  

So when God speaks forth a Word, and that living, created thing is released and set in motion, we must remember that there will be a “suddenly” when He is going to act and it will come to pass!  The period of “time” that passes between God’s speaking and His acting in no way disqualifies, invalidates or negates the “suddenly moment” when He sovereignly chooses to enact His Word and bring it to pass.  One of the greatest examples of this is the passage of time (4,000 years!) between His speaking of the Promised One in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:15) and the sending of His Son “when the time had fully come” (Gal. 4:4).  

It is a tremendous encouragement to recall God’s promise concerning the word which goes forth from His mouth: “It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”  Once His word is released from His lips, there is guaranteed a moment of impact when that word will become tangent to time and space and it will come to pass.  In fact, not only will His word come to pass, but we are also guaranteed that it “will never pass away!”

In the illustration below, you can see that somewhere above and outside of the natural realm where we live, there is a moment when God speaks forth a word from His mouth and sets in motion a created living thing.  You can also see from the diagram that ultimately there will be a moment of impact, when His word “touches down” and comes in contact with our world, coming to pass in time and space.  As well, you can see that there are a number of other things that take place in-between the creation of that Word and the “suddenly” when God brings it to pass.  These other intermediate steps, which we will be discussing in the weeks ahead, are extremely important to understand, and help us to be properly postured for optimal participation when the “suddenly moment” arrives.

Pastor Scott

"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all." (2 Cor 13:14)