Now is the time.......................Ruth Johnson

 "And the Lord answered me and said, 
'Write the vision and engrave it so plainly upon tablets 
that everyone who passes may (be able to) read 
(it easily and quickly) as he hastens by.  

 For the vision is yet for an appointed time
 and it hastens to the end (fullfillment); 
it will not deceive or disappoint.  
Though it tarry wait (earnestly) for it, 
because it will surely come; 
it will not be behindhand on its appointed day."

                                           Habakkuk 2:2-3. (AMP)

I’ve written three books averaging 175,000 words each and published over a five year period, and yet the fourth book, having started in 2013 a continuation of the third, still isn’t finished. I know the beginning and the end of all six books in the series, but weaving the storyline together is always a mystery, and one I really enjoy.  Last August I put time aside to write the final five chapters and prayed for inspiration. I awoke one morning with an extraordinary idea, discovered it would fit with the area and previous book, but needed research and help from the fire brigade.  The Lord then fulfilled a Jer.33:3 “When you call I will answer…” for within minutes a friend told me she was in contact with a man who in the 70s was a fireman!   

Little did I know how difficult it would be to write several scenes at the same time, and had to consider timings, where each group was, what they knew, heard or saw.  I’d one character making a suggestion, only to realize he’d left the scene earlier!! 

The Lord knows our beginning and end, and in writing I’m seeing the complexity of being a creator as I work out the plans and purposes for people with diverse characters and personalities. I have had to invent backgrounds for the main characters, a family tree of names, dates of birth, marriage, death, and remember their particular speaking nuances, personalities and past experiences.

Then I ask, who will read my books?  Why do I put aside hours to create?  Publicity is difficult or expensive.  Opportunities to sell books seem to shrink.  Yet this month I have been drawn to the above verses Habukkuk 2.  And the aim of my books is to take ordinary lives and show through difficult times our loving heavenly Father is always with us.  Through an easy and quick read my desire is to reveal He loves us, and, in retrospect, we will see how ‘all things work together for good for those in Christ Jesus’ (Rom.8).   

I am sure as Christians our writing desire is to touch peoples' hearts and see lives changed by the knowledge of God.  For many of us that vision has indeed tarried.  So I was greatly encouraged when a friend sent me this excerpt from a prophetic word written in Charisma Magazine on 13^th July.

 "I saw angels scavenging through trash cans, old filing cabinets and  dusty warehouses, picking up rejected manuscripts of books, songs, screenplays  and artwork, and then declaring, "These have been written and created ahead of  their time—but their time is now!  I saw "publishing angels" sitting on stacks of books, but these angels are now arising! These authors were strongly anointed as those who were seemingly born out of season, and their divine projects were ahead of their time, but their time has now come to be  published and to be heard abroad.  Some writings will ultimately end up in kings' palaces as well as the prisons and rescue missions of the earth, for kings sit in both  places. World leaders will find these divine writings in their laps delivered by the hands of "dignitary angels."