Joel Osteen 24th December 2020 Message: Sooner Than You Think
I talked to a man who had a stroke in his early fifties. His family brought him in a wheelchair for prayer after one of our services. He couldn’t use the left side of his body. His doctor told him that with therapy he might regain partial control of his arm and leg in three to five years, but he would never be able to lift his left arm above his head. I encouraged him that the Scripture says, “God hastens His word to perform it” (Jeremiah 1:12). To hasten means He will do it quickly, speedily, in a hurry. I’m not saying we don’t have to wait. There are things that take time. What I’m saying is that when it looks as though an obstacle is permanent, you can step into a destiny moment when God will do things speedily, quicker than you thought. That’s God hastening His word.
I saw this man again six months later. This time he was walking on his own with a big smile. When our eyes met, the first thing he did was lift his left arm way up in the air. He walked over and gave me a high-five. I said, “I thought they said this would take three to five years.” He said, “They did, but it only took me three months.” His therapist told him that in her thirty years of helping people, she had never seen anyone improve like him. God knows how to speed things up.
You may be facing a situation that seems impossible–the people coming against you are more powerful, the sickness, the financial difficulty, the legal trouble. God is saying to you what He said to the people of Israel when they were about to enter the Promised Land, “Today you are about to face people who are greater and mightier than yourself…. But the Lord your God will cross over ahead of you like a devouring fire. He will subdue them so you can quickly conquer” (Deuteronomy 9:1-3). You’re not fighting the battle on your own. The Most High God is going before you. You’re going to come out of that challenge quicker than you think.
Get this down in your spirit: You’re going to quickly conquer the sickness, quickly conquer the addiction, quickly conquer that trouble at work. Behind the scenes right now God is changing things in your favor. He’s crossing over ahead of you and taking care of the sickness, taking care of the trouble. If you stay in faith, it’s going to happen sooner than it looks. God is going to hasten His word. You’re going to see a rapid turnaround, a sudden breakthrough, a speedy recovery.