An event happened recently which highlighted to me how God has dates circled for us in His Divine calendar – and how we can speak those times into being through our own declaration of faith.
This event concerns the “Part 2” of a previous encounter with a couple I met while out on a walk several months earlier this year. During this earlier encounter, the wife told me how stressed and upset she was, as they desperately wanted to go back to her home country for a family wedding at the end of this year. Strict quarantine protocols were preventing them from doing so. Visitors – including nationals – entering her home country are required to stay in a specified quarantine facility and there are only very limited numbers of rooms in this facility, allocated on a sort of “lottery” basis. Some people were spending literally hours on end on their phone or computer, even in the middle of the night, trying to get a slot. Some had resorted to paying agencies - at times illegally - to try and short-circuit the process using bots and algorithms (no, you haven’t just slipped into a parallel universe!!) This lady and her husband had themselves spent many hours legitimately online, making repeated attempts but without success. Not only were they desperate to attend the wedding itself, but it was to be a rare opportunity for all their wider family to be together for the first time in a very long time. A poignant reunion.
The lady mentioned the date that would be their ideal date to fly out on, for several different reasons. Just one date. The quarantine would need to fit around that one date. “We are going to pray for this right now!” I exclaimed to them. Right there on the leafy pavement. I don’t remember exactly how I prayed, other than something like “Father, you have circled this date for them in Your heavenly calendar - it has their name on it! No one will take it away from them. You will safeguard this trip and all they will need to bring it to pass. Nothing is impossible for You!” They were both very grateful and relieved to share the burden of this situation in prayer, and off we went on our way.
Last weekend, that same lady spotted me and bounded across to talk to me. I could see she was excited and, as she drew near, she gushed out the words “We got the date! We got it!!” Just a few days earlier, the couple had seen online that the block of dates that included their ideal date was specifically being allocated. Thousands of other people had applied and were in the same queue. Each applicant had a number. There were vastly more applicants than available spaces and our couple’s number was far down the list. They watched in total suspense as their specified date came up on the screen, and then the successful applicant numbers were posted alongside it. Their number was among them!!!! They’d got their slot! Hardly able to believe their eyes, they remembered that we had prayed that this date already had their name on it and what was already “circled in Heaven” would be released on earth – and now it was!!!
They are beyond excited at the prospect of their trip, but they are even more blown away by the wonder-working power of our God! We just needed to get on the same page as Him and release through faith what He had already released n Heaven!