Hello Saints,
A few months back, I read an article where the
brother said you often create an Ishmael on your way to an Isaac.
Naively I said,” not me Lord, I know better”.
After all, we all know that Ishmael was a mistake. He
came to be because Sarah and Abraham wanted to find a way to help God bring
forth the promised son. The only problem was, he wasn’t
the one God had promised them.
How many times have you heard this story in Sunday
school and been told that Ishmael was a mistake and his descendents have
been troubling Israel
ever since. In other words, there isn’t any good that
can come from Ishmael and if you ever end up with one, you are doomed to
suffer for it forever.
No wonder many people wanting to do what they
believe God has told them to do, never start because they are afraid to do
it wrong! Maybe it is time to take another look at this
Ishmael issue.
Do you know that God never chastised Abraham for
having Ishmael? Instead, He actually blessed him to be fruitful and
multiply. Go back and check it out in Genesis 16 and 17.
In that culture, it was acceptable for Abraham to take Sarah’s maid
as a second wife and beget an heir through her.
Actually, in a weird sort of way, Ishmael was proof that Abraham and Sarah’s
faith was still alive. If they didn’t believe God, they
wouldn’t have tried to help His word manifest! God
didn’t discourage their faith, He corrected their direction.
Gen
17:19
And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou
shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an
everlasting covenant, and with his seed
after him.
Gen
17:20
And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him,
and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve
princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.
Gen
17:21
But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear
unto thee at this set time in the next year.
Ishmael proved that Abraham could have a son and forced them to deal with
the problem that seemed to be so hopeless. Sarah was
barren.
Up to this point, Abraham has been the one to hear
from God. Sarah has been able to sit back and let him
deal with it. But now, they have to deal with Sarah’s
barrenness. For the two of them to receive the promise,
they are going to have to move into a place where she can conceive it.
There is a present day truth of God here.
When a man and a woman join together, He calls them one flesh.
We have somehow thought that one of us could move into the promises
of God and the other one would somehow slide in with us.
What God may have graced in the past, is no longer permissible.
There are great promises before us but we are going to have to
receive them together. In John 17:21, Jesus asked His
Father to make us one. Unity can’t manifest in the Body
of Christ and not affect our marriages. We can no longer
ignore our weaker partner (male or female). It’s time to
seek God together and find out how to heal our barrenness.
Then our Isaac will be brought forth.
Paul and I have been praying together as never
before. Whatever God tells us to do, we are committed to
doing. We are determined to receive our inheritance.
You see, even if it has been many years, the promise of God is still
waiting to come to fulfillment.
What has He promised you? What
have you been struggling with for years? Be encouraged.
There is grace to prevail if you will seek Him together.
Your Sister,
Glenna
