Ever heard someone tell you they’ve got your back? Well today I heard Ruach (the Spirit) say He had my front; in other words since He knows what is going to happen before hand, a path has been provided for me and all that I need along that path. Let me give you a few examples from the Scripture. Jonah is a prime example, Abba knew that Jonah would run from the call and according to Jonah 1:17; He had prepared a fish to swallow him and it would incubate the vision till it would spew Jonah up in the right place. When the drought became great and the brook that Elijah was sitting by dried up 1 Ki 17:9 says that Abba told him to go to Zarepheth where He had commanded (appointed) a widow to feed him. Abba is not taken by surprise by our circumstances nor our choices and so we fall into what I see as future grace, grace which is working to bring about the right future for us before we even know there is a choice facing us. It’s nice when someone has our back, to keep us from unexpected things happening that we didn’t see coming, but to know that my future is being protected, is a great boon to me. While pondering this forward grace I realized that this is one reason why it is important to have the prophetic at work in our lives. True prophecy a word from Abba, given by the Spirit to us, gives us vision into what is happening or perhaps what is going to happen, if nothing else in the way He is leading us; though we may not have knowledge of the end result of our journey. I know for me the prophetic word given by Jentzen Franklin and my prophetic vision, along with other words which were given to me allowed me to walk through the time of illness with a lot more confidence that my front was indeed covered. It helped me to be able to hang on for the long haul, one which was much longer than I had anticipated but made not only bearable but greatly profitable for me even while still going through it. I did not have to struggle with will I get through this but with that settled I could face what was happening and learn as much as possible all along the way. My prayers could be much more diverse with the settling of things in my mind because of the forward grace of a word for the season. This forward grace also had the place picked out for my ‘party’ before I knew that I would be going anywhere. The plans were set, a place prepared and all I had to do was believe the word given me by my Big Brother, Yeshua and the dream would confirm where I was to go. So many times I think even as Christians that we fall into thinking things are left to chance, or we think how nice that worked out so well, instead of seeing that He had things prepared, He commanded people to be prepared for what was coming our way. We have free will choice, a gift that Abba gave us but we must realize that He is not taken by surprise by what we choose; hence He is able to prepare things for us. There are several reasons He will give a prophetic word ahead of time and I’m sure I will not come close to naming them all but a few I’ve seen in my own life. He gave the original prophetic word that I would go through something in order that the illness would not take me by surprise and I would not fall into the trap of thinking I had done something to bring this on myself. He gave me a vision to confirm how things would play out, that I would see things before they ‘hit’ me during this time. He confirmed the depth that I would fall by not only my vision where I looked like I was dead but someone else’s vision that I was very ill and thin. Hence the future grace gave vision to help and prepare me through a time of trouble.
A prophetic word embodying future grace may come in order that we can minister to others. Elijah was sent to a certain widow which even Yeshua mentions in Luke 4:26 that there were many widows but Elijah was sent to this particular one and his going would provide for her and her son through the drought. Abba put Kathy and me together to walk out two different illnesses; but walking it out together was greatly beneficial to both of us. We were and are able to encourage one another and our relationship is deep because of this shared journey. Many people have been sent into our lives to further the ministry that Abba has for us in particular places and it is to be a blessing to them as well.
Recently a young woman in another area has shared dreams she has had about our church. They came as confirmation of certain things and then as prophetic future grace that we even now see beginning. One of the dreams was that the church would be inside out; trees were seen inside the building…we had already gotten words that we would be a church doing work on the outside, more an outreach body so this seemed to come as confirmation. A couple of weeks ago Jose and Katherine got the unction to go and pray in the field in front of the church, they called up and asked is this was something we would do till Abba told us differently. We jumped on the bandwagon feeling that it was a good thing. Jose’s word from Ruach was that if we wanted to see signs we need to be willing to be signs; signs that prayer is out in the open and free to all. We’ve been doing this for nearly two weeks now and our number has grown to encompass others as we’ve gone along.
Dave suddenly got the opportunity to reach out to help someone who we might never have met had he not been helping someone else. An East Indian couple from the Bombay area was in need of help, they have a green card but no driver’s license and Ghandi needed a dentist. Dave went on the hunt but couldn’t find one who would take him so he decided that at least the Emeri-care place could give him an antibiotic and pain med. So off they went. While waiting to see a doc Ghandi told Dave that before Dave had walked into the hotel he had laid down because the pain was so bad and had prayed, ‘God help me, send someone to help me.’ He also said when he saw Dave he knew he was a good man. Outreach to someone we might never have reached but Abba knew Ghandi was going to be praying that prayer when Dave was going to be there! Last night as we were discussing the field prayer Kathy suddenly said ‘I knew we would be an inside out body because of the dream but I didn’t know it would be this soon’. I suddenly realized I had not thought of the dream given a month or so ago as beginning to be fulfilled by our ‘field prayers’. Woo-hoo! Abba sends future grace in prophetic dreams to confirm what we’re doing as part of the bigger plan for what we will be doing and to allow us to walk in more confidence the next time we get a ‘casual’ call, we will know we are already being prepared for such a time as this. We are on the move, we expect future grace to attend us and we rest that Abba has our backs and our fronts!
k
