On July 20, 2008, Kim Clement stood before his congregation and delivered a message that cut straight against the headlines of the day. The economy was rattled. Fear was in the air. And the media, he noted, was churning out a “relentless flow of bad economic news” with the dire suggestion that there was “no easy way out.”
Clement’s response? God has a different report. And His Word is the final one.
God Does Not Operate by the World’s System
Clement refused to let worldly circumstances set the spiritual temperature in the room. He reminded his listeners that the prophetic voice exists precisely to contradict the spirit of fear and prognostication that floods through media and culture.
“God does not operate by the system that is a relentless flow of bad news, suggesting there is no easy way out,” Clement declared. “I’ve got some good news for you. There is an easy way out.”
This wasn’t mere optimism. For Clement, it was a matter of prophetic jurisdiction — the idea that when God has spoken a word into the atmosphere, that word carries authority over every competing voice.
The Power of ‘Suddenly’
One of the defining themes of the message was the word suddenly — a biblical pattern Clement urged his audience to trace through Scripture for themselves.
“Go to your concordance at some time and put in ‘suddenly’ and see how many times God did things suddenly,” he said.
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He illustrated the point with an unscripted prophetic moment at a meeting in Bakersfield, where he called out the name “Sarah” only for a stranger’s cell phone to ring moments later with a daughter-in-law named Sarah on the line.
That was God in action: immediate, unpremeditated and impossible to manufacture.
Speak to the Storm, Don’t Let It Speak to You
Drawing on the story of Jesus calming the storm, Clement challenged believers not to be positioned by their crises, but to position themselves and speak to them instead. The disciples’ cry of “Lord, do you not care that we are perishing?” was, in his view, simply the storm talking.
“You have the power to address what is taking place instead of it addressing you,” Clement said as a call to prophetic authority that was as practical as it was spiritual.
‘Then the Lord Intervened’
Perhaps the most stirring passage in the entire message came near the close, when Clement pointed to what he called one of the most repeated phrases in the Bible.
“One of the most common phrases in the Bible is: then the Lord intervened. I don’t care what mess you’ve made — then the Lord intervened. I don’t care if you’ve fallen to the ground and you think you’ve messed up your destiny — then the Lord intervened.”
He swept through Israel at the Red Sea, David and Goliath, and Gideon’s army whittled from 32,000 down to 300 — each time arriving at the same conclusion: God loves to show up when the odds are most impossible. “He loves to show up, show off and take all the credit,” Clement said with characteristic delight.
Carry the Presence of Your Future
Clement closed with a theologically rich teaching on metamorphosis — the Greek word behind Romans 12:2: “be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” He used Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration as his anchor: the idea that Moses was carried out of time, given a glimpse of Christ’s glory and descended the mountain literally shining with the light of an event that hadn’t happened yet.
Just as Clement pointed out, believers are called to celebrate in advance, give in light of the future they’re carrying, and act as though the promise has already arrived. “If your present circumstances dictate to you,” he warned, “you have no prophetic inclination whatsoever.”
God is not surprised by anything. And in a moment, suddenly, He can change everything.
Abby Trivett is a writer and editor for Charisma Media and has a passion for sharing the gospel through the written word. She holds two degrees from Regent University, a B.A. in Communication with a concentration in Journalism and a Master of Arts in Journalism. She is the author of the upcoming book, The Power of Suddenly: Discover How God Can Change Everything in a Moment. For interviews and media inquiries, please contact [email protected].
