“Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things?Shall a land be born in one day? Shall a nation be brought forth in one moment? For as soon as Zion was in labor she brought forth her children.”
Isaiah 66:8
Hello Friend,
What a joy it is to share this month’s DISCRNR’s Exhortation Podcast. This one carries a piece of history and is prophetic.
Here is the question I’ve been carrying that we’re going to explore: Can a nation really be born in a day? And are there any parallels between what we are seeing in Iran and what we have seen in Israel?
A Nation Born in a Day
Can a nation really be born in a day? Or is it more like the way most women give birth? With a slow buildup, false starts, even a trip to the birthing room before it is truly time?
And yet, when it is time, it is time. When it happens, it happens, and in that sense, it sure seems like the baby is born in a day.
You may remember, I’ve taught for years on what I used to call the eight barren women. I’ve come to believe I need to change that. These are the eight fruitful women, because they did not remain barren. And one of my theme verses comes right out of that study.
Isaiah 66:7–8 says:
“Before she was in labor, she gave birth; before her pain came, she delivered a male child. Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children.”
Notice something simple but important: this is a question, not a declaration. “Shall a nation be born at once?” And what are questions for in the Bible?
The questions are invitations, invitations into dialogue.
Prophetic Words Are Invitations, Not Absolutes
Here is something I wish a few hundred thousand people could hear: very few prophetic words are absolutes that will come to pass no matter what.
Even when a prophetic word is clear, true, and authentic, it is most often an invitation. The utterance of inspired revelation is rarely an automatic declaration that will be fulfilled regardless of anything else.
Prophetic words are invitations to inquire: What are the conditions that need to be met to unlock the fulfillment? They often carry unspoken conditions. They often carry a time stamp you cannot see. And most of the time, they do not come with an exclamation point that says, “Thus it shall be, no matter what.”
This matters, because so much confusion comes when someone says, “So-and-so said…” and yet we don’t know the time stamp, and we don’t know the conditions, because even in the Word of God those things are usually not spelled out.
Remember Paul’s words: we see in part, we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
So look again at the verse. It answers the question partly by letting us peer into the equation. “As soon as Zion travailed” — there is a timeline, and there is a travail — “she gave birth to her children.”
Israel: The Greatest Prophetic Event of Our Time
Many Bible teachers believe modern-day Israel is a fulfillment of this very passage. If you don’t hold that view, that’s okay.
People worldwide have asked me for the past fifty years, “What is God’s greatest prophetic event?” I always give the same answer: the greatest prophetic occurrence in the past hundred years is the restoration of the Jewish people to the land of promise, which today is the nation of Israel.
Over the years the word aliyah (ascent) has become dear to Jewish people and believing Gentiles alike. It simply means going from a low place to a higher place, the process of returning to the homeland.
For Such a Time as This
Another verse for today comes from Esther.
Esther 4:14 asks:
“Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
Are we in one of those kairos moments? Whether it was Esther and the company of women who were prepared, and the scepter was lowered to her, are we standing at one of those critical junctures? Is the remnant body of Christ, the intercessory bride, being invited to approach the King and ask of Him? I believe we are.
The Apple of God’s Eye
Another verse I want to share comes from Zechariah 2:8, which came to me in an encounter years ago in Kansas City, right before we moved to Nashville.
Avner and Rachel Boskey, who have now lived in Israel for years, were leading worship at Belmont Church on Music Row. I saw a vision of a great eye looking at me. As I kept looking, it grew clearer, and I saw into the center, the pupil. There I saw a Star of David, and in the middle of the star was a printed reference: “Zech 2:8.” I didn’t know what it meant, so I had to look it up.
Zechariah 2:8 reminds us that Israel is the apple of God’s eye, and it carries a warning:
“…for he who touches you touches the apple of His eye.”
Do not poke God in the eye. And one of the ways it can be done is by wrongly touching the centerpiece of His sight: Jerusalem.
It Was Never an Easy Birth
When Israel was birthed as a nation, it was not an easy thing. On May 14, 1948, the United Nations affirmed that Israel could be a nation. The very next day, on May 15, the War of Independence began, as multiple nations gathered to devour the little one that had just come forth.
That was not an easy birth. And Scripture shows us why the delivery of an answer can be resisted.
A Book of Daniel Moment
In the book of Daniel, as soon as Daniel prayed, God heard, but the delivery of the answer was hindered. There was war in the mid-heavens.
Daniel 9:21–23 tells us:
“…the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, reached me about the time of the evening offering… At the beginning of your supplications the command went out, and I have come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved.”
Look at that at the beginning of your supplications, not at the end of twenty-one days. The command went out immediately.
Daniel 10:12–13 continues:
“Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me.”
God heard. God gave favor. God released the answer. But there was resistance between the heavens on the manifestation of that answer.
Then the answer came forth. And so I say in the name of Jesus: we need heaven’s help.
A Calendar of God
I’m recording this on September 1st. Are there any parallels in this season?
This year, September 11 marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the attack on the Twin Towers. And this same September 11 falls on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of the new Hebrew civil year, 5787. Even those numbers are amazing.
Do you think we need to pray for the shifting of the spiritual atmosphere, over our cities and over our nation? In the book of Daniel, the answer came on the twenty-first day. This year, twenty-one days from September 1 lands us on September 21, the Day of Atonement.
Are we living inside a calendar of God? Do we have an invitation for a nation to be shifted? Not by our striving, but in a God-appointed moment, the way a woman gives birth after a long process?
Iran Will Run With the Gospel
For thirty years, I have released one of my most consistent prophetic words: there will be a move of the Holy Spirit in Iran, and Iran will run with the gospel.
I have said there would be many house churches, and that it would become one of the fastest-growing church movements in the world. That is exactly what has happened. I have been told by multiple sources that the house-church movement in Iran, largely led by women has become one of the most contagious and fastest-growing in the world.
Have These Words Come to Pass?
Now, here is the honest question that today’s critics are rightly asking of prophetic voices, mine included: Is this authentic? Have these words come to pass?
Let me answer simply: not fully, no.
Some of these words carry no time stamp. I never gave prophetic dates. But there is one I did put a marker on, and it troubles me. I have said, in multiple places and quoted by others, that in the forty-seventh year of the Shah’s son, the prince of Iran, in exile in the United States, he would reemerge, and that it would happen under the forty-seventh president of the United States.
Well, where are we? That is now.
Has it happened? Partially, but not fully. And the way things have been headed, we may see devastation and a measure of disarmament without the full change of leadership I believe is the destiny of God.
So have I given a false word? Here is where I have to be real with you. I believe I gave, in part, a right word and I still believe this. What I have said publicly, and still hold, is that there will be a people’s revolution. This revolution has not happened yet. I believe it is stuck, like in Daniel’s story. The word was heard, the answer released, but the manifestation resisted.
We see in part. We know in part. We prophesy in part.
An Invitation to Pray Again
So I bring these things before you in a degree of brokenness, including my own unfulfilled prophetic words. And I believe the Lord is lowering His scepter and giving us an invitation. He is saying, I need you. I need you to call forth for reinforcements.
Because God’s purposes for the Middle East, and specifically for the beautiful people of Iran, have not yet been fully accomplished. And if we simply back out now, it would mean disillusionment and disappointment for millions to whom freedom and liberty were meant to come.
Look at the interplay in Daniel: How did the answer come forth? Was it the sovereignty of God? Of course. But it was also an invitation from God, with man responding and God responding to man’s response.
Daniel 10:19 speaks to us in this hour:
“O man greatly beloved, fear not! Peace be to you; be strong, yes, be strong!”
So I ask you to declare it with me: we call forth the restoration of the awe and the fear of the Lord in this hour. Not just more encounters, but the fear of the Lord. And we call forth heaven’s reinforcement over the nations.
Can a nation be born in a day? It is a question. It is an invitation into a process and into prayer.
Go Deeper
If this stirred something in you, the resource I most want to put in your hands is The Mystery of Israel and the Middle East, full of history, prophetic narrative, and prayer, and so relevant for this very hour.
You can watch the full podcast video of this week’s exhortation below.
God bless you!
James W. Goll
