I have heard so many times a demand that is quite shocking: “You have to make God’s prophecy come to pass”. Many self-proclaimed “prophets” who are quick to “prophesize”, in order to cover their false prophecies made in the flesh, recur to the blame game. According to them, God tells you His plan and what He will do in your life, but the fulfillment depends on you.
This “you-have-to-make-it happen” thing was exactly what Sarah did, and we all know the outcome (see Genesis 16). I also did everything to make things happen in my life, and none of them worked (I talk about this in my article Nebuchadnezzar and I). Actually, I am pretty sure that some of the things I did, delayed - or complicated even more - the process I’m in.
When you have a postgraduate degree in Ministry and things start to look bad, and you pray and fast and God seems to be silent, you just get desperate because people have their eyes on you and their expectations are very high. This is exactly what happened to me. I realized that my degrees and theological studies were not bringing about the results all the people around me and I were expecting. This is when I decided trying to “make God’s prophecies happen” with disastrous results.
But, in whose hands is to make things happen? Can we thwart or frustrate God’s plans? I can give my opinion but that is not enough. The only opinion that matters here is God’s. Let’s see what God says in His word about this:
He does as He pleases among the angels of heaven and among the people of the earth. No one can stop Him or say to Him, 'What do you mean by doing these things?' (Daniel 4:35)
Barne’s notes on the Bible says about this verse:
The sentiment expressed by Nebuchadnezzar [in Daniel 4:35] is true in the following respects:
1.That man has no power to prevent the fulfillment of the Divine purposes.
2.That God will accomplish His design in all things, whatever opposition man may make.
3.That He has absolute control over every human being, and over all that pertains to anyone and everyone.
4.That He will overrule all things so as to make them subservient to His own plans.
5.That He will make use of men to accomplish His own purposes.
6.That there is a great and glorious scheme of administration which God is carrying out by the instrumentality of men.
“And none can stay his hand [none can stop Him]” - literally, "none can smite upon his hand"...The truth taught here is, that no one has power to keep back the hand of God when it is put forth to accomplish the purposes which He intends to execute; that is, he will certainly accomplish His own pleasure.
Definitely, as I have always thought, God is powerful enough as to need our help to fulfill His own promises; the verse is clear and all scholars agree with Barne’s commentary on this verse. But there is more Scriptural evidence in which God Himself speaks about the matter; in Isaiah 46, He says:
I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please. (v.10)
In Barne’s Notes on the Bible, he says that declaring future things is a way in which God proves His deity. Therefore, He will never be put to shame. When He declares He will do something, He will definitely do it because this is one of God’s ways to show He is the only God. Therefore, God will not put in human hands His reputation. He also comments:
“My counsel shall stand” - My purpose, my design, my will. The phrase 'shall stand' means that it shall be stable, settled, fixed, established. This proves:
1. That God has a purpose or plan in regard to human affairs. If He had not, He could not predict future events, since a contingent event cannot be foreknown and predicted; that is, it cannot be foretold that an event shall certainly occur in one way, when by the very supposition of its being contingent it may happen either that way, or some other way, or not at all.
2. That God's plan will not be frustrated. He has power enough to secure the execution of his designs, and He will exert that power in order that all His plans may be accomplished. We may observe, also, that it is a matter of unspeakable joy that God has a plan, and that it will be executed. For:
a. If there were no plan in relation to human things, the mind could find no rest. If there was no evidence that One Mind presided over human affairs...and that all things had been adjusted so as best to secure the ultimate accomplishment of that plan, everything would have the appearance of chaos, and the mind must be filled with doubts and distractions.
b. If His plans were not accomplished, there would be occasion of equal doubt and dismay. If there was any power that could defeat the purposes of God...if there were any unexpected and unforeseen extraneous causes that could interpose to thwart his plans, then the mind must be full of agitation and distress. But the moment it can fasten on the conviction that God has formed a plan that embraces all things, and that all things which occur will be in some way made tributary to that plan, that moment the mind can be calm in resignation to His holy will.
In the next verse, God says:
What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do. (v. 11)
Matthew Henry’s commentary on this says:
Nothing can help more to make us easy, than to be assured that God will do all His pleasure. Even those who know not and mind not God's revealed will, are called and used to fulfil the counsels of His secret will.
I would add that in this verse, God speaks in a very emphatic way. He makes a promise to bring about what He, and only He says - not what humans say, not what they declare ignoring His will. In Isaiah 46:11, God makes clear that His purpose, His plan - and only His - will stand. There is no ambiguity here. Only God’s will matters, and He will bring it to reality. And lastly, in these verses He clarifies whose responsibility is to make things happen. He is the only one who will bring prophecies to completion; He is not subject to our approval or help.
For those who say that we can frustrate God’s plans, I remind the following verses:
The Lord does whatever pleases Him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths. (Psalm 135:6)
But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of His heart through all generations. (Psalm 33:11)
For the Lord Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart Him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back? (Isaiah 14:27)
Finally:
You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?” If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. (Deuteronomy 18:22)
