This past week I heard a sermon called "Grace to Overcome - Wrestling til the breaking of the day." It was talking about the battle of Eph 6 and how like Jacob wrestling with the angel (Gen 32), we can't give up...but must persist until the blessing comes. The speaker brought out some interesting points that I hadn't thought about before.
All through scripture we see different woman in the "agony of barrenness" - they desperately wanted children, but they could not have children. And yet, it was from these very woman that men of supernatural strength, power, and blessing of God were born. Take a look!
For starters, we have Sara - who was barren until she was 90. Of herself she was incapable of having children, then God intervened and Isaac was born. Rebekah was barren, then Isaac prayed for her and Esau and Jacob (Israel) was born. Then Rachel was barren, then God blessed and Joseph and Benjamin were born - Joseph later being a deliver of Israel. Monoah's wife was barren and then she birthed Samson (another deliverer of the nation). Then Hannah was barren and then after pleading with God, she had Samuel, a prophet of Israel. Ruth was barren & widowed (double curse), and then she found mercy with Boaz, and they begat Obed who begat Jesse, the father of King David which was in the line of Christ. Elizabeth was elderly and barren, then the Spirit of God intervened and she had John the Baptist. Mary...well, she wasn't exactly barren, but she hadn't had relations with any man...and yet she received the crowning gift of all mothers - she received seed of the Holy Spirit itself. And of course, Christ was born!
The significant thing to note though, is that ALL of these woman were unable of themselves to have the child that God intended them to bear...most all of them (besides Mary), the world termed "Barren & unfruitful." (And then Mary, they labeled an Harlot - how much more shameful would that be....it's not that you couldn't have children, but you went and had one illegitimately!!)
Anyway, not to digress. Each of these woman could have remained barren, and accepted their lot with complacency...and yet they were NOT willing to stay in this state. They cried out to God, pleaded with God, like Jacob wrestled with the angel, for God's blessing. And God heard. He was just waiting for them to ask....for He had special plans for them, and it was their barrenness that he turned into glory as He birthed supernatural men from them - all important leaders in Israel and the nation!
Rachel's actual cry to God was, "Give me children or I die!!!"
As I've been realizing more and more the calling God has on each of our lives, I've been realizing more and MORE how utterly impossible this calling is for us to fulfill. IMPOSSIBLE!!! Yes, totally impossible, at least in our own strength! What God wants to do in and thru our lives can ONLY be birthed supernaturally, by His spirit and power...but how do we grab hold of His Spirit and power? It seems impossible...and as we wrestle with the Holy Spirit, we realize the significance of our own barrenness. We know what God is calling us too...but it's preposterous! We just can't do it!!!!!
"This day is a day of trouble and rebuke and blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth and there is no strength to bring forth." Isa 37:3
Yep, that's us...God wants to birth something supernatural through our lives, but there is no strength to bring forth this "child." As the speaker challenged:
Are we shamed over our childlessness? Do we weep in the anguish and shame of our ministries that conceive not the new life, the new birth in others? Are we not grieved over our impotence, our infertility, our inability to beget children in the faith? Are we not yet fed-up with our weakness to pray and see liberty won and captives set-free? Are we not yet sickened that this world sees nothing marvelous or powerful in our lives to cause them to wonder what it is that we possess? Are we not shamed that this world sees us not as a threat, but merely as a nuisance? May we, the barren in Israel, cry out in supplication. May we echo the demand of Rachel unto our Bridegroom – “Give me children or I die!”
God has incredible things in store for our lives.....SO MUCH BIGGER than anything we have yet seen or comprehended....yet we too often have settled, not realizing that there is sooo much more and we must seek after it, plead for it, pray for it, cling to the promises until God brings this forth.
The Blessing is for those who overcome. If we don’t persevere until the breaking of the day, we cannot expect to receive this hallowed name reserved for those willing to prove the glory of God in their spirit, soul, and bodies. The Christ-Life is a life of wrestling in Faith. First, we wrestle for the power and then we wrestle, enabled by the power of God, against all that would dare stand against His rule and reign, His Kingdom and His Glory.
"Through faith, Sara also herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised." Heb 11:11
Sara had FAITH...faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the WORD of God...and she clung to God's promise until He proved faithful!
The following are some challenging thoughts that the speaker shared that I think we should all contemplate:
You only possess that which you have faith to possess
§ What do you believe God’s inheritance is? How far do you believe it reaches this side of Heaven?
§ Do you believe God is able to perform that which He promises?
§ Do you believe enough in your God to actually do what He asks you to do in order to see those promises realized in your life?
§ Are you willing to wrestle for the blessings of God’s Kingdom? Are you willing to travail in order to prevail? Or are you one that believes baby’s are delivered by storks?
§ Is it possible that what the Bible promises is actually true even though we haven’t witnessed it personally in the Church’s we attended growing up?
§ Are we willing to be like the first generation of Israel to cross-over the Jordan, and allow God to do things before our eyes that we, personally, had never seen Him do before? May the reality of the Kingdom come to earth in our generation, and may we not just talk about the reality of the Kingdom in eloquent prose.
This should be soooo encouraging to all of us...for while we've seen a lot of the "faith life" in our generation, we must realize there is sooooo much more! (And I want the MORE!!!) However, as I'm reminded anew, we can't birth what God wants to bring in our lives to in our own strength. It is only when we cry out to God in shame and anguish, pleading for MORE, and recognizing our own inability...then when we have come to the END of self, the end of our own strength, He can step in with all His almighty power!
So, my encouragement to all of you...in the past, you may have looked at this "barrenness" as simply a curse - but it's actually an exciting thing - because IF you FEEL BARREN right now spiritually, that means you are at the point that God can actually BIRTH something supernatural in your life...it's an opportunity for God to work miracles and wonders. But we MUST cling to Him, plead with Him...search for Him, seek for Him... "Give me Children, or I die!"
Then, when the child comes forth, we will rejoice that God allowed the season of "barrenness" to bring us to HIM...for truly, no good thing can come, except by HIM!!!
[Come to think of it, both my brothers were born from a time of "barrenness." After I was born, my mom had been told she probably wouldn't be able to have more children due to her health struggles. She didn't even have a "monthly menstrual cycle" for years. So we adopted when I was about 10 years old since she couldn't have children! Then.... "Wah-lah" - she got pregnant. No warning or anything! Brother number one was born. Then the next year, she got pregnant again with number two! It was suppose to be physically impossible...yet it happened! That means God must have some supernaturally special purpose for BOTH of my brothers and for their lives. For, if it had been left to the natural and to the doctor's predictions, they would never have been born! But God knew better!!!!!
Wow!!! I need to call and tell them about this amazing discovery!!]
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