The delay is ending
“Oh no, that’s still cold,” I said, frowning, with an unevenly heated mouthful of leftovers on my tongue.
Kyla and Kaiah, our teen daughters, laughed at me.
“You always do that, Mom,” they said, which is totally true. Somehow, I let my empty, growling stomach lie to me over and over again. It consistently convinces me that skimming off a minute or two of microwaving won’t make much of a difference. And each time, without fail, the fruit of my impatience is immediately apparent. My prize is a forkful or spoonful of halfway-heated food to chomp on as a reminder that I should have waited longer.
Hunger is a powerful thing. Esau sold his birthright to his brother Jacob for a bowl of stew (Genesis 25:29-34). Instant gratification is appealing because nobody likes delays. Not me. Not you. No one. We want what we want, when we want it.
But delays are unavoidable—in the natural and the spiritual. In Daniel 10, we see what a spiritual delay looks like. The Bible says Daniel was in mourning and was praying to God for understanding. For 21 days, he fasted, didn’t groom himself and sought the Lord earnestly. Finally, in a vision, after three weeks of travailing, a divine being showed up and told Daniel something that still fascinates me every time I read it.
In Daniel 10:12, he said, “…from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words.” Though the response to Daniel’s prayer was immediate, verse 13 explains, “But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia.”
The “prince of the kingdom of Persia” was not a physical entity. This was a description of spiritual opposition delaying Daniel’s divine answer. But the delay came to an end. The set time arrived for God to break through the opposition of the forces of darkness.
In your own life, though you may not see the actual spiritual forces working against you, you can see the impact of those forces in your life. Right now, the enemy may be attacking you in various ways, doing whatever he can to oppose and hinder your destiny.
That's alright. Daniel’s vision serves as good news for you. It is a reminder that although God sometimes permits the enemy to delay some things for a moment, it won't last indefinitely. What God has for you cannot be denied. Satan can't stop your set time.
“Some things have been a long time coming, but your change is here. For someone reading this, within the next few days, a breakthrough is coming!”
The adversary can only hold up your divine release for a season. But his time is limited. There is someone who knows deep within their spirit that this word is just for you. If that's you, God is making something very clear: the delay is ending.
You’ve been waiting for God to shift things in your favor. It was hard, but you didn’t give up. You wouldn’t back down. Satan tried to distract you, but you didn’t lose focus. You didn’t abandon your faith. It was hard. It got frustrating sometimes. Honestly, you could hardly believe God allowed the trial to last so long. It was unfathomable that you had to wait for such an extended period. You wondered, when will God move for me? When will it be my turn? How much longer? What’s the hold-up? You were praying, praising, anticipating and being positive. You did all you could.
Now God is about to do all you couldn’t.
The delay, for you, is over. The Lord, by His authority, has declared it to be so. Do you remember when the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate told Jesus he had authority to crucify him in John 19? In verse 11, Jesus said, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above.”
That word authority used by Jesus in the Greek language is “exousia,” meaning the power of judicial decision or the power to decide against one. In other words, Jesus told that high-ranking government official that he didn’t have the power to determine the fate of the son of God, except that which was granted by the Father. Though Christ submitted Himself to death on the cross, He knew that it was the will of God and not the power of man that determined the outcome.
The same is true in your life. The enemy can’t just come in and ride roughshod over you. He has to get a permission slip signed by God before he gains access into your life.
Friend, what you’ve been going through, God allowed it. The weapon that was formed against you, God allowed it. The attack that came, God allowed it. The momentary upset, God allowed it. The extended period of delay, God allowed it.
But now, He's disallowing it.
All along, God had Satan on a very short leash. And right now, the Lord is yanking the enemy by the neck and demanding that he get back, loose you and step out of the way of the move of God. Satan must be subject to the will of the Father.
Ultimately, the test was building your character. The process was good for you, though it felt awful to you. The wait developed the fruit of the spirit within you. You passed your test. Now God is saying the delay is ending. You’re going to get everything He has for you.
To remind you of this truth, I’m stirring the first half of Isaiah 54:11 ESV into your cup of inspiration, which says, “No weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed.”
As you drink down the contents of your cup, rejoice over your new season of release. Really rejoice. Confess that no weapon, no delay, no attack, no opposition will stop the manifestation of the blessings God has set aside for you.
A new day has come. You endured and now it’s reward season.
Let's pray.
God, I have been waiting a long time for breakthrough and it feels like, in some areas, the struggle is intensifying. Despite that, I choose to believe your word. I expect my season of release and breakthrough to manifest. And as an act of faith, I praise you for it right now and declare that the delay is over and my day of triumph is already here. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
