Does the Metaphorical Bring About the Literal?

As I walked the dog this morning, I thought to myself, what if the metaphorical brings about the literal? And what if failure to see and adapt to an implication in the here and now, prevents the explicit fact from becoming a reality?

My most religious friends are always counting down the days and hours. They want to know when IT will happen, when HE will come, when the BEAST will fall, and when the prophecies will come to fruition. They dig deep into Daniel, Isaiah, and Revelation, and they watch the red moons and constellations for signs that we are close to the foretold hour.

But I am not convinced that it comes that way since every glory that's foretold appears to be the result of a change in the hearts of the people, and the culmination of a walk of faith.  On the other hand, the fall of the Great Whore appears to be the result of a failure on the part of people to walk by faith and to have their hearts be changed.

In short, what if the thing that everyone dreads and anticipates comes to fruition exactly because they wait for it to happen instead of believing that it is already here?

A few examples (and think of people):

What if the metaphorical lions in the world stopped eating lambs? Might that not make the lambs less afraid?

Or what if the metaphorical lambs took the lead and stopped being afraid of lions? It might be a bloody road, but sooner or later, an unseen hand would save them or they’d change the hearts of lions. 

I am not even beyond believing that literal lambs and lions might lie down together, but not while Adam, the Lord of the Garden, is warring with himself. Only Man can see the metaphorical implications of prophecy and start the ball rolling for the rest of creation.

And what if the way that literal swords will be beaten into plowshares is by people beating their metaphorical swords into plowshares, by putting away their grudges and sacrificing their political agendas and opinions? What if they were even willing to lose the war, as Christ did, and lay down their lives, their homes, their families, for the sake of peace? Unthinkable! But how in the world will Christ ever reign on earth for a thousand years without people being willing to lay down their all upon the altar that he established by his own sacrifice of life, home, and family?

And what if, instead of looking to the literal sky for Jesus coming in the cloud, we saw him already, in the misty (cloudy) place of our imagination, calling us from behind the veil to step out into a road of faith that leads to the Holy City of God. Might people who could do such things one day see with their eyes the very thing they saw with the eye of faith?

And this makes me wonder if this is the way it comes about. What if all of these end-time glories are reserved for those who can see them early? 

And what if waiting for the literal fulfillment of end-time prophecies makes us blind to their fulfillment when they come, or worse, agents of the end-time doom and destruction foretold? 

After all, remember that when Christ came the first time, he didn’t come in the way that people expected. They missed the literal Man Himself when He was right before their eyes, and some even sought to destroy the one they saw because they were waiting for another. 
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Might not we also bring about great destruction if we don’t see Christ, already, coming in the cloud?