I had a private discussion recently with some friends regarding prophecy, and specifically when they don’t come to pass.  While we didn’t all see eye to eye on every point, I thought it was an enlightening discussion, and I want to share some of what we reviewed with you all.

First, we looked at why prophecies might fail.  The most obvious reason is that the word wasn’t from God to begin with, and therefore had almost no chance of coming to pass in the first place.  While this is a definite possibility, even if a word doesn’t originate from God, we have creative power and can speak forth words of life, calling things that have not yet existed into reality by faith.  Thus, whether a word originates directly from God or not isn’t a guarantee whether it will happen or fail.

Sometimes prophecies fail because there was demonic resistance.  Actually, I personally think this is the primary reason they fail.  When God speaks destiny to someone, the first thing the enemy wants to do is steal it so they can destroy it.  If a prophetic word is given to us, it is so we can apply our faith and action to it, pray over the realities contained therein, and engage heaven to see it come to pass.  It’s often not sufficient to let a word sit there and expect it to work all by itself.

On the other hand, some words simply don’t need an action.  A word that is encouraging or comforting often doesn’t need any response other than to receive God’s goodness in our hearts, but then, those words aren’t in danger of failing to happen either.  If a word does require a response, our best answer is prayer.  As we continue to pray over what God has shared with us, we empower angels to remove all demonic resistance against it, and in doing so we create room in the spirit for it to occur.  On the other hand, failure to do this may result in the word failing.  Does this mean the prophecy was false?  Not necessarily, which is hard for some to hear.  It could be a missed opportunity.

Likewise, as mentioned above it is also possible that the word was false, and therefore didn’t come to pass.  In these situations it means we might have failed to use adequate discernment in the first place.  It’s a fact that people make mistakes, and the prophetic is no different.  I have given people prophecies before that were obtuse-sounding but extremely accurate, and some that were very simple but I couldn’t have missed it further.  On rare occasion I will give a word in a situation where I physically cannot correct myself as the person has already left, and I later think to myself “Wow, how did I miss that so badly?”  It happens.  We all must learn to walk in both grace and discernment.  Grace for when people miss it, and discernment so we know when we are hearing from God and when a word just isn’t what it seems to be.

I remember a while back when someone posted a very drastic prophetic word with specific dates.  He had received confirmation after sign after sign after confirmation that everything he was hearing was correct.  The dates came and went and literally nothing happened.  He was pretty badly beaten down by other people when this happened, which I don’t think was kind or appropriate, but was also somewhat unavoidable.  When prophecies have dates attached it can be that we either heard wrong, misinterpreted what we heard, or heard correctly and something changed.  Prayer alters reality, and even in the face of doom and disaster we can pray and see things change.  Does that mean the man heard correctly?  In spite of the signs it is possible he missed it.  It’s also equally possible he hit it square on and prayer changed the outcome, averting potential disaster.  How do we know which it is?  We don’t—which is why I believe it is always best to extend grace to people when they mess up.  It could be me in that position someday, and I’d rather receive grace, so I should probably give it to others.  We reap what we sow.

One of the pitfalls of the prophetic is that there are so many variables.  More often than not a prophecy is an invitation from God to engage with Him to see His will manifest on the earth.  It’s rarely a statement of absolute that says what will or will not come to pass without fail, and more often it is a telling-forth of God’s highest plan and purpose.  If we engage with God then those plans will probably occur, and if we do not adequately engage then we might miss out.  We could engage heavily and the warfare might just be so intense that it still fails, or the situation could change in prayer and the whole scenarios just ends up very different than we originally thought.  Or, we could sit on our laurels and do nothing and it still happens.  When we hear the original word do we ignore it, or do we activate our faith? And how much of a difference does that even make?

My purpose in making this as confusing as possible is to point out that there are a number of spiritual dynamics at play when a prophecy is given.  It is rarely as cut-and-dry as some try to make it seem, and very rarely is a failed prophecy the result of a false prophet who intentionally misleads.  More often than not it’s the result of any or all of the dynamics mentioned above and then some.  Regardless of the reason that a word doesn’t come to pass, I encourage you to keep your head up and don’t let disappointment get the better of you.  God has good plans for you to bring health, life, and abundance your way.  He doesn’t cause bad things to happen to you, and He only works toward your good.  Draw a bit nearer to Him today and listen with your own heart at the things He would share with you.  Let Him minister to your soul in every place of disillusionment and frustration.  Let Him lead you beside still waters and restore your soul.