Have We Birthed An Ishmael or An Isaac?
Gen16:1-16
Ge 16:1 Now Sarai Abram’s wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.
2 And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.
3 And Sarai Abram’s wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife.
4 And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived: and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes.
5 And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee: I have given my maid into thy bosom; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes: the LORD judge between me and thee.
6 But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thy hand; do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face. {as...: Heb. that which is good in thine eyes} {dealt...: Heb. afflicted her}
7 And the angel of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.
8 And he said, Hagar, Sarai’s maid, whence camest thou? and whither wilt thou go? And she said, I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai.
9 And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands.
10 And the angel of the LORD said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude.
Ge 16:11 And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction. {Ishmael: that is, God shall hear}
12 And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.
13 And she called the name of the LORD that spake unto her, Thou God seest me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me?
14 Wherefore the well was called Beerlahairoi; behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered. {Beerlahairoi: that is, The well of him that liveth and seeth me}
15 And Hagar bare Abram a son: and Abram called his son’s name, which Hagar bare, Ishmael.
16 And Abram was fourscore and six years old, when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram.
(KJV)
Mt 3:9 And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
Look at you neighbor this morning and tell them
“I am feeling Pregnant”
Hallelujah!
Praise God I can feel the anointing, The Lord is in this message and God is going to tear down some walls and break some chains off His children today. Something is getting ready to be birthed in the Spirit Realm here at Destiny Church.
Let me share with you that last week I felt we took a step as a church. Not a step in the Physical but a step in the spiritual, I know you could feel it too. Our ministry is being prepared for a birthing experience. As your pastor I have begun to feel the Labor pains of revival. I can feel it inside my soul, deep in my belly; the atmosphere is pregnant with the Spirit of revival.
BUT, in order for us to move into the miraculous we have to do a little house work, if you will.
We need to ask ourselves a very important question. And I believe it’s a question that the entire Church should be asking itself in these last days and here it is;
Have I birthed an Isaac or an Ishmael?
Hallelujah!!!! Glory to the Lamb of God!!!!
I want to teach you today the “Principle of Promise.”
The story of Abram and Sari and Isaac and Ishmael is all about Promise. More specifically the Promise of God. And even more specific the “Principle of Promise”
Every time God promises us something in the scriptures there is ALWAYS a principle that is attached to the promise.
Let me see if I can explain.
Starting in Genesis chapter 12 we have God laying out a list of Promises to Abram.
Notice his name is not yet Abraham.
He is still Abram; you see He hasn’t gone through the birthing process of the promise yet.
Can I get an Amen?
He hasn’t experienced the Labor pains of the promise.
Bless God….
He hasn’t experienced the tough times yet,
He hasn’t gone through the famine yet,
He hasn’t experienced the loss and the isolation yet,
He hasn’t experienced his friends turning their backs on him yet,
He hasn’t experienced grief and desperation yet,
He hasn’t had to lay His son on the altar of sacrifice and be prepared to run a knife though his heart because God was testing his faith.
In order to GET TO your miracle you are going to have to
GO THROUGH something!
If you are going to receive the promises of God you are going to have to endure some tough times. You’re going to have to make it through some famine, and some isolation, and you are going to have to endure some of friends turning their backs on you, and you are going to have to get desperate for God, so that when your time of testing comes you will understand that its not a test so that God can watch you fall!
It’s a test so God can release your promise from Heaven. Hallelujah!!
Most of the time, not all the time, but most of the time, when God promises us something there is a period of time between when the Promise is Given and the time the promise is manifested.
For example: There is a nine month period in Child birth from the time of conception to the time of delivery.
The promises of God work the same way.
In the Christians life, The dash between those two times is called the journey of Faith. Or the Principle of the Promise.
God wants to make sure that Abram understands the “Principle of Promise”
What’s most important for Abram is that Abram begins to understand how faith works.
If Abram is going to Abraham; the father of faith, then He needs to know 1st what faith is and 2nd how faith works.
Church if we are going to experience revival we need to know what faith is and how faith works.
There is a journey that God wants Abram to experience before he changes his name to Abraham. You see in order for Abram to become Abraham the father of faith, God needs teach him what faith is. Abram has to go through the labor pains of his miracle, the journey of testing and trying and waiting before the promise is released in Heaven.
Praise God you aren’t hearing me this morning?
Abraham had to offer his son Isaac on the altar of sacrifice before God came though with the manifestation of the promise.
The blind man had to go and dip seven times in the pool before God came through with the manifestation of the promise.
Joseph had to spend some years in the pit and the prison before he was in charge of the Palace.
Peter had to experience rejecting Christ before he could preach the sermon at Pentecost and watch the Lord save thousands of souls.
Ga 6:9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
My word for you today church is Faint not, don’t give up, and don’t give in because your miracle, your promise is on the way.
My brothers and sisters God has placed each one of us on such a journey. God has spoken to us many promises though his word and through prayer and Prophecy.
We need to understand church that there is a period of waiting before the promises of God are manifested.
There is a season of faith that must be established in the life of the believer, before God releases all his promises.
As the church we love to hear about the promises and the blessings, but we don’t want to hear about the Labor pains and the testing and the trying and the waiting and the Journey of faith that we are on, and how God needs to teach us a few things before he releases our promise from heaven, we want it now, we want it without prayer we want it without fasting we want it without seeking we want it overnighted, UPS’D and microwaved. But unless you are reading a different Bible than mine God doesn’t work that way.
Oh and I know that is a very unpopular thing to say in today’s church. But I am not here to win a popularity contest; I am here to be your Pastor, your leader, a person who guides you in spiritual truth. And it’s more important to me that you hear the truth than you hear a bunch of ear candy, or a sugary sweet Gospel.
He is more concerned with the Principle and the journey than he is about the Promise.
One thing the christian must understand is that all the promises of God are yes and Amen. So when you accept Christ, all the promises are legally yours. You have full legal right to all the Promises of God. So the issue is not the promise itself but the season of faith that must be established before the promise is manifested.
To best illustrate this example we need to look at the Story of Abram Sari Isaac and Ishmael.
Two sons, one promise,
what promise?
The promise given to Abram in Gen.13:16 and I will make your seed as the dust of the earth so that if a man can number the dust of the earth then shall your seed also be numbered.
And also found in Gen 15:5 and he brought him forth abroad, and said, look now toward heaven and tell the stars if you are able to number them and he said to him so shall your seed be.
Here we have the promise of God to Abram “that his decedents or his offspring would be so many that he couldn’t even begin to count them,” it would be like trying to count the grains of sand or the stars in the sky.
BUT, Abram was an old man and so was his wife Sari.
In the physical there was no possible way for them to bare children.
So we find Abram in a predicament. A quandary, we find him in one of those seasons of faith that God puts us in before he can release the promise in our life.
And he finds himself asking this question: Do I wait for the promise of God to manifest in my life, no matter how unbelievable or crazy that promise may seem at the time?
Now remember the promise was that Abrams children would be to many to even count, but Abram decided to do what many of us decide to do during the period of time between when the promise is given and the time the promise is manifested,
And that is we take things into our own hands.
We try to play God
And we begin to operate in the flesh,
Thus cutting ourselves off from the promises of God.
And so enters the question of the day
Have you birthed an Isaac or an Ishmael?
You see Abram took things into his own hands and decided he couldn’t wait on the promise of God, he couldn’t believe God for the promise that God spoke to him, he felt there was no physical way for Him and Sari to have children so he began to operate in the flesh.
You see the truth is, there was no physical way for Sari to bare children, but our God is not a physical God, He is a Spiritual God and if he says something you can take it to the bank that is it’s going to come to pass.
All Abram had to do, was nothing, nothing except sit back and rest on the promise of God.
Can I get an Amen?
Next time you find yourself in the season of the Principle of the Promise just sit back and rest on the promise of God.
Yes you might not know when or how it’s going to manifest but rest assure if God spoke it to you its coming your way.
But Abram didn’t do that.
He decided to play God.
My friends I have learned that every time in my life that I try to play God I fail miserably.
“There is a way that seems right unto man but the end of that road leads to death.”
I have learned to let go and Let God be God. He’s much better at being God than I am
Have you birthed an Isaac or an Ishmael?
The story goes on to tell us that Abram sleeps with his servant and they bare an illegitimate son who’s name is Ishmael.
In closing this morning, let me see if I can wrap all of this up,
Abram received the promise of God,
Abram decided not to wait for the promise, but took the promise into his own hands.
Thus bearing and illegitimate son of that promise.
Abram has another son miraculously with Sari through the manifestation of the Holy Spirit and the Promise of God spoken to him.
So wee see two son’s one promise.
One son is the seed of the promise and the other son is the illegitimate seed of that same promise.
One is the royal line of Promise and one is the wild line of the promise.
Follow me here…
When God speaks a promise to us, either by his Word, or through prayer or prophecy.
We will either give birth to an Isaac of that Promise or an Ishmael of that promise.
We will either choose to wait upon the lord and let God Be God and Let him birth the seed of Promise in our lives the seed of Isaac.
Or we will take matters into our own hands and try to play God and begin to operate in the flesh and give birth to the illegitimate seed of the flesh Ishmael.
We will get results either way.
But I have to wonder, how many of the problems that we face in life, and in our families and on our jobs, and in the church and in the ministry, are due to the fact that we have given birth to a lot more Ishmaels that Isaacs.
And instead of receiving the promises of God we are left trying to clean up the messes of man.
How many times have we as Christians chosen to take things into our own hands and had to clean up the mess that ensues because we chose not to wait upon the lord and his Promise.
But we choose to do it our way.
God never intended for there to be an Ishmael in your life. He only intend for their to be an Isaac.
He wants to give you all the promises of Heaven but he is waiting to see what you give birth too first.
Listen to the words of the prophet Isaiah
Isa 40:31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint
