Have you ever had a word from God that never came to pass? Have you promises that have not manifested? We have all experienced delays and had our hopes smashed and experienced, “hope deferred (which) makes the heart sick; but desire fulfilled is a tree of life (Prov 13:12). The kind of hope that disappoints us is really nothing more than wishful thinking. God’s hope is always connected to faith so that it will produce what God has spoken. “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” (Matt 4:4). We don’t live by a word that God has spoken but by a word that He is speaking. We need to continually speak that word to ourselves to keep it alive and in the realm of faith. Jesus is the “I Am” not the ‘I Was” or the “I Will Be”. (John 11:21-25) “Martha … said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died … Jesus *said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha *said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.” She believed that Jesus could have saved Lazarus in the past had He been there and that Jesus will resurrect Lazarus in the future but now “he stinks, for he has been dead four days” (John 11:39). Faith is always a now word and we have to believe now for it to work. Jesus said in Mark 11:24 – “Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them”. We must believe that we receive before we will get. We have tried to believe for the getting and have gotten disappointed. Faith receives what is hoped for now so that faith can produce the manifestation later. We panic that the delay will take too long and our plans or hopes or dreams will never happen. The truth is that God can stretch time and our lives and our strength to be able to receive the word and have it manifest in our lives. Caleb had to wait 40 years to enter into the promise of the land of Canaan yet he could say, “The Lord has kept me alive and well as He promised for all these forty-five years since Moses made this promise—even while Israel wandered in the wilderness. Today I am eighty-five years old. I am as strong now as I was when Moses sent me on that journey, and I can still travel and fight as well as I could then.” (Joshua 14:10,11). God was able to stop Caleb”s aging process so that he would have time and strength to enjoy the promise given to him. God is always able to extend time to compensate for any delay that waiting may impose. “Abraham … at about 100 years of age … his body was as good as dead (before Isaac was born) —and so was Sarah’s womb. Abraham never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God.” (Rom 4:19,20) Yet we see that after Sarah died, 37 year later, “Abraham married another wife, whose name was Keturah. She gave birth to Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah”. (Gen 25:1,2) That’s another 5 sons when he was over 140. Abraham lived another 35 years after that and died at 175. He was about dead at 100 yet could start another family and live another 75 years: that is rejuvination. You have time, because God will give you time. “Through faith and patience (we) inherit the promises”. (Heb 6:12). Don’t worry about delays; they are designed to give you a greater revelation of the Father. We must be like little children: if Daddy has said it; it will happen, because you can trust Him to keep His word. God said, “My word that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” Is 55:11 “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? (Nu 23:19) Trust Him; He is good all the time and with Him you have all the time you need. Love Ken & Jeanne