Can a Prophetic Word Have an Expiration Date?

In this special excerpt, Sean Bolz answers three questions submitted by our Partners.

Below are some notes from our Partners-only Monthly Mentoring Session. These sessions have been recorded and you can access them by becoming a Partner today! Find out more at DougAddison.com/Give.

Question: Is there an expiration date on a prophetic word?

Shawn’s answer:

This is such a great question and there are a couple of ways to look at it.

If you had a prophetic word that involved a church you’re no longer involved in, or maybe your husband or wife passed away or whatever it is, and you wonder if the word can happen now … Because it felt like it was linked to somebody or was linked to a covenant relationship, or it was linked to a purpose …

God can always recreate it, and He will recreate it to the full capacity as if it was never needing to be recreated. That’s what redemption is.

Restoration means to restore you to the point of regaining what was lost.

Redemption means He’ll restore you in a way that even though He may not be able to restore the exact circumstance, you will feel complete again.

Sometimes we wonder if there’s any way for a prophetic word to happen. We read the biblical stories of Sarah and Elizabeth giving birth, and those stories remind us that prophetic promises can happen even if we feel old.

Maybe God was inviting you into something when you were twenty. Perhaps He was telling you to pursue music, and it would have made a big difference then for your calling. And now, if you pursue music, it’s not going to arrive at the same external route as it would have when you were in your twenties.

Sometimes certain things that God was inviting us into back then aren’t necessarily what He’ll bring us back into … but He’ll still give us the same impact or fulfillment that we see in John 10:10:

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

I think it doesn’t matter what we end up doing with God, just enjoy Him in it.

We can miss out on those invitations by not stepping out. Just like if you’re singing a song, and it’s your turn to sing and you don’t, the whole song has to come all the way back around for you to sing it again.

It’s messy sometimes … Sometimes they have to start the song over or whatever.

I think there are times in life like that, but God will bring either a restoration (which means he’ll bring the song back around) or redemption. You might get to start a new song in this season.

And I’ve seen a lot of people in this season who felt like they were passed over … like it was too late, or things weren’t gonna happen for them, especially for marriage. But we’ve been seeing many older single people get married right now. It’s been awesome!

I keep hearing testimonies every week from people saying that they’ve met “their person.” And these people felt like they would never have a family!

One of my favorite stories, recently, was from a woman who was around fifty who thought she was never going to have children of her own and she’d had a prophecy about family and children. And then she married a man whose wife had passed away, and his kids and grandkids embraced her fully. His family became hers. It was a God thing, and they loved her so much, it was as if she had birthed them all.

We are seeing incredible promises being fulfilled in ways that we never would have imagined, but they’re being fulfilled in greater ways than we could have ever imagined.

Question: How does an intercessor deal with hope deferred?

Shawn’s answer:

You really have to sanctify your desires, because sometimes we can imagine what we think the Lord wants as intercessors, especially when it’s black-and-white justice. You might think, “God wants these kinds of people in jail” or “God wants children at risk to be saved.”

And so, then we have an expectation of how we think things should happen. And we have to surrender our expectations to say, “God, you’re going to do this in a way that I couldn’t imagine. You’re the Father, and You care about this more than I do.”

An example might be when I’m not seeing any movement forward or any measure forward when I pray about human trafficking. And I’ve been on assignment as an intercessor for 25 years against human trafficking.

Something I did was that I connected to every ministry who cared about this issue, and I asked to go on trips with them. I went to Thailand and South America, and I learned awareness. We were with a church in LA that trained people with the local FBI on how to do anti-human trafficking. But still, 320,000 kids were trafficked this year. And that’s after we got more laws in place and some good stuff happened. But in my heart, I was thinking, “How did this happen?” And then I thought, “God, this is not my watch. It’s really Your watch. What do you want me to do in this situation?”

Sometimes we get question marks where we don’t see the results, or we don’t hear what God wants to do. We just know He wants to end trafficking. But then we see trafficking is increasing, but probably what’s happening is that it’s increasing a little bit, but also, we’re becoming more and more aware as we go. And that awareness can bring hope deferred.

But at the same time, when the rest of your life is balanced (and not just your inner-story life) and you believe God is moving … In the other areas where you’re seeing God, you can borrow faith from those areas to apply to your intercession.

If it feels like all your life is heavy, then it might be a good time to get some mentoring or counseling. You might consider a different church that might be healthier for you or your life. Perhaps a new home group in your church could be good … whatever will cause you to be around encouraging things.

If you’re not around a lot of encouraging things, intercession gets heavier and heavier.

But if you’re around a lot of encouraging things, you can borrow that encouragement for your intercessory life because intercession is literally the Father giving you the burden that He has for His son—and the reward of a son to be made known to His son.

Sometimes He shows you things that none of us want to look at. But Jesus never looks away from any act of injustice. He shows them to you and if you can’t stay in courage… if you can’t cast that burden back on Him, you’re doing it wrong.

And when I say that I don’t mean it in a negative way, like to shame you. I mean it in a way that’s saying there’s a higher way to do it.

So how can we cast our cares upon God? How do we not build expectations of what we want, but allow God to take the time He needs to do it His way? One of the fruits of the Spirit is long-suffering, and that’s one of my least favorite things. I’m long-suffering by virtue of Him, but not by virtue of me.

Question: How should we “war” for our prophetic word?

Shawn’s answer:

I’m not a big war-for-your-prophetic-word kind of guy. I do think there has to be intentional steps of stewardship with prophetic words.

Some things God is going to do sovereignly because before time began, He planned you. And if you’re in any agreement with Him, He’s so good that no matter how dumb you are, He’s going to make it happen for you!

I’m so ignorant sometimes that He’s just so good at making things happen anyway, even if I didn’t know how to directly say, “Yes, God, make this happen.” He’s such a good Father.

But I do think when He speaks things to us, it’s because He’s trying to develop the character and the life and the love inside us to be able to steward those things well. That’s why He gives us hints and cheat sheets in advance.

For example, when God spoke to me about moving to LA, I was 15, and I didn’t move there until 2006. So from 1980–2006, I lived in other places. And God spoke to me about what He wanted to do in my lifetime in the entertainment industry. And so, part of me was being intentional with that word. I knew when I was 15 that I was supposed to move to LA … eventually.

I wanted to make it happen early. I knew to stay in step with God, but I would go out to LA and visit. I’d go out once a year because it was my vacation spot, and I’d spend time and just do prayer walks and other fun stuff. I’d also accept invitations from churches in LA to minister to.

You might have a prophetic promise over a book you’re supposed to write, a people group you’re supposed to reach, a city you’re supposed to impact, a political office you’re gonna hold, or over money you’re supposed to have. Take whatever steps you can, even baby steps or any faith steps. Learn about it, educate yourself, and then take actual steps toward it and see if God multiplies it, or if He pulls you back.

I don’t think we have to always wait as long as we think we do.

But I did wait, and it was like 15 years before I moved to LA. I felt like I just started right when I was moving out. I was like, oh my gosh, I’m finally here for what I’m called to do.

Shawn finished the session by mentioning that it’s important to steward our prophetic words well.

InLight Connection thanks Shawn Bolz for sharing his heart with us.

P.S. Doug is back from his sabbatical and ready to lead us into an exciting new year of ministry! This is a year full of hope, restoration, and renewed focus. Doug will be personally ministering on the Monthly Mentoring Sessions, and we’d love it if you were a part! To find out more about becoming a Partner and joining these meetings, click HERE. 

Doug Addison is the founder and president of InLight Connection. Doug is a prophetic speaker, author and coach. He is known for his Spirit Connection podcast and blog. He and his wife Linda live in Los Angeles, California where they are impacting the arts, entertainment and media industries.