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March 9 2024
GODS APPOINTED TIME (PART 2)
Last week I shared eight reasons why some of our Prophetic Promises and Prophecies may have been delayed. This week I’m going to delve deeper into reasons for these delayed destinies. Some of you are wondering why your promise still didn’t come into fruition. You are asking God, why didn’t things turn out the way that you thought they would. You can’t understand why God is making you wait on something that He promised to you so long ago.
The ninth reason is doubting God and trying to fulfill the promise on your own.
There is a story in the bible about a great man of faith named Abraham (Who was formerly known as Abram). God came to him in a vision in Genesis 15, and made a Covenant with him, promising him a son. But his wife Sarai considered her age and told Abram to go have a child with her Egyptian maidservant Hagar so that she and Abram could start a family. In the natural Sarai was way past child bearing years. We should never underestimate a promise from the Lord regardless of our age or current circumstances.
Abram obeyed his wife and had a baby boy with Hagar named Ishmael. This was not the child that was promised to Abram and Sarai. Don’t try to fulfill your prophetic word in the natural. When we try to birth things out of the flesh they are usually not Gods best choice. Although they trusted the Lord all along, they no longer trusted His guidance and provision. The Lord is not a man that He should lie. If He said it, He will bring it to pass. After Hagar conceived, there was a great division between Sarai and Hagar, even though Sarai first wanted her to have the baby.
When Abram was 99 yrs. old the Lord appeared to him again, and repeated that his wife Sarai was going to have a baby boy the following year. He told him that He would bless him and make him the father of many nations. He said: “I am Almighty God (El Shaddai); walk before Me and be blameless. Abraham fell on his face. He then changed Abrahams name from Abram (exalted father) to Abraham (Father of a multitude or "many nations") and his wife’s name from Sarai (princess) to Sarah (noblewoman). He said that she would be a mother of "nations".
Notice that Abraham will be the father of “many” nations because he had both sons. Whenever God changed a person's name, He was changing their identity. He was changing their eminence and giving them a new direction. He was giving them a new authority, and a new anointing. When God told Abram a second time that Sarai herself was going to have a baby, he fell on his face and laughed. Although he was a man of faith, this sounded ridiculous to him.
He said, could a child be born to me at 100 yrs. old, and will Sarai at 90 yrs. old bear a child? The Lord said Sarai will bear a son indeed, His name will be Isaac. He said that He would bless Ishmael, but that His Covenant will be established with Isaac. Then the Lord sent three men to Abraham’s tent, and they told him again that Sarah will bear a child. This was the third time God confirmed His word.
Sarah was inside the tent and overheard the conversation. She laughed to herself, thinking, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure? Then the Lord said to Abraham: "Why did Sarah laugh, saying, 'Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old? Is anything too hard for the Lord?” The reason why they had to wait, was because the Lord had to first establish His Covenant with them and change their identity.
Some of you need to re-establish your covenant with Jesus. Go back to your first love and renew your vows. You’ve got so discouraged because you haven’t seen God move, but you are the one who made the move away from Him. Some of you have been drawn away by an addiction.. An addiction is an enslavement to something in the natural that appears to be stronger than you. It could be anything that stole your time with God.
Abraham and Sarah had Isaac one year later, when Abraham was 100 yrs. old, just as the Lord promised. When the baby was born Sarah said: “God has made me to laugh, and all who hear will laugh with me. She also said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? For I have borne him a son in his old age.” Some of you are up in years, but the Lord will not go back on His promise. You are about to birth everything that Jesus has promised.
Some of you are tired of waiting on God's promise and you are about to settle for an Ishmael. Refuse to give birth to an Ishmael because the Lord has an Isaac planned for you if you wait on Him. If you follow your natural instincts you will not produce what He has for you. Don't try to make things happen in your own strength. Avoid rushing into situations that may lead to undesired outcomes. In the book of Hebrews Abraham. was deemed "as good as dead" before the miraculous birth of Isaac.
By waiting on God, you pave the way for extraordinary blessings beyond your imagination.
John 3:6:
"That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."
Romans 15:4
For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.
Hebrews 11:8-12
"By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude—innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore."
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