Someone asked me the other day, how do you know if a prophecy is real?

It's a fabulous question, truly, one that I have tackled and struggled with over the years. But fortunately, as I was writing to her, the Lord gave me the most remarkably simple answer:

Prophecy unfolds.

That's it. A true prophetic word (dealing with foretelling here, not a direct revelation of what is now or of something the Lord wishes someone to personally know) needs nothing but time in order to prove itself the real deal.

Abraham and Sarah had a true prophetic promise, and it came to pass without them doing a thing to make it happen. When they did try to help God along (they must have been pretty stressed out about it), they got Ishmael.

The Isrealites had a true prophetic promise that after 400 years their slavery would come to an end, and it did. But when Moses (prophetically realising that he was the one) tried to make it happen himself, he got 40 years of exile in the wilderness herding sheep. But when it was time, God made it happen.

If you have been told that you are destined to minister to the people of Timbuktu, just smile and tuck it away and politely say, "I am the Lord's servant, may it be according to HIS plans." Don't go rushing out to learn the Malinese language unless He directly tells you to. Don't make plans. Don't buy plane tickets. Don't stress out if you are 50 and it hasn't happened yet. If it is His will, He will make it happen. His prophecy will unfold naturally.

To put it in picture form, forcing the rose open by pulling on petals isn't really productive, unless you want a dead rose.

I cannot tell you how many times I have spoken prophetically over people only to have them go out and get stressed and try to acheive it themselves. And I say, "Dude! I didn't say tomorrow, I just said what is to be! I could be a false prophet and you are getting yourself worked up! Wait upon Him and He will make it happen if what I said is true, but I am not, the last time I looked, God."

So what is it that destroys the promises of God for our future? Religious impatience? Pride? Worry that if it doesn't get done now there won't be enough collateral in our heavenly bank account?

I tell you that God can do more in the last month of a man's life than in a thousand years of anothers if it is His will that it be so!

Moses spent 40 years as a spoiled palace brat. He spent 40 years as a humble shepherd. He spent 40 years serving God in amazing ways. ONLY 1/3 OF HIS LIFE WAS WHAT MOST WOULD CONSIDER ADMIRABLE!

And yet, everything about the first 80 prepped him for the final 40. God doesn't waste days. God wasn't sitting around saying, "Good grief Moses, get it in gear so I can use you!" On the contrary, it was Moses saying, "Dang, I guess He isn't going to use me after all. It is too late, I am just a big old nothing who spent half my life in the pleasures of sin."

Sound familiar? Is that you? Are you a graying shepherd in the wilderness? Are you just a simple nun who is still cloistered in her convent? Are you a disgraced nobody locked away in prison? Are you nothing but a 29 year old carpenter making chairs and tables -- with only a few years of life left?

Think about it... if your life was described would it sound much different from the description of Moses, Mother Teresa, Joseph or Jesus? Can we measure what God is going to do by our resumes today?

We do not see time as God does. We do not see circumstances as God does. And some things are well worth the wait.

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