Because we live in a physical world and relate to the unfolding of time based on clocks and calendars, we can wrongly discern what we perceive as a delay. If we are not careful, we can wrongly interpret a delay as a lack of fulfillment of what God has promised.

The Epistle to the Ephesians provides insight into how the timing of God functions. What God promised to take place on Earth does not originate in our circumstances. Heaven is their place of origin. Our declarations and decrees are offered by the inspiration of the Spirit asking us to bring the reality of Heaven to Earth. We do this by announcing what God has decided to accomplish apart from what we currently see which is telling us what we are believing for is impossible. 

Our prayers, declarations, and decrees provide a landing zone for the fulfillment of God’s promises once a battle in the heavenly realms that is linked to the fulfillment of our promise is complete. This is why Paul spent the first three chapters of Ephesians informing us of the absolute authority of Jesus. All things opposing His have been placed under His feet in a place of submission. He also addressed the reality that you and I as believers are seated with Him on His throne in that place of authority. 

Paul explains how this works. “God’s purpose in all this was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was his eternal plan, which he carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord” (Ephesians 3:10-11). The victories of our faith are showing the unseen rulers and authorities they are defeated. This happens each time we exercise our faith, even when the fulfillment of a promise is not yet fully developed.

In the previous chapter of Ephesians, Paul wrote, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” (Ephesians 2:10). The Lord is painting His masterpiece of victory on the canvas of His redeemed ones to display on Earth the victory of Jesus Christ over all things that oppose His will. 

This display of God’s masterpiece is not hanging as a lifeless image of our lives in some spiritual gallery. These masterpieces are alive and on display to give notice and cause “all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places” to view their defeat. Once we see that victory it changes everything, even how we process delays. When we are given the green light by the Lord to prophesy on Earth that a battle has been won in the heavens, something shifts in our world. Something also shifts in our hearts.

The word “variety” Paul used in Ephesians 3:10 has been translated as “many-sided.” We can become discouraged, even feel defeated, if we interpret what is happening regarding the fulfillment of a promise by relying on our limited view of a much larger many-sided reality that is still developing.

If the Lord has given you a word to speak about a promise, speak it out with confidence and never give up. Choose to remain within the frame of your faith and obedience. Within that frame is where God’s masterpiece is being painted. Together our multi-sided expressions of faith – the masterpieces depicting each of our lives – are what God will use to fill the gallery of His victory on Earth as it is in Heaven.