When I’m weak, I’m Strong…

I’ve wanted to blog about this topic for a while now and just when I got ready to sit down and write the post things changed and I felt that I cannot write about it, because what do I know after all? Well, things have changed again, for the worse, and then I got some awesome messages to confirm what I wanted to write about originally, so maybe, maybe it is the right time and circumstances to write about this.

In January I was at my wits end. The festive season had just ended and G-force was totally out of his routine. It was so hard to try to stick to any kind of routine when one is constantly either busy entertaining or invited to visit someone else. When we have visitors or when we visit other people G-force generally does not want to nap in the afternoon, and try as we might, he will fight and fight until we eventually give up. Often he also does not want to go to sleep when it’s his regular bed time.  Being out of routine also resulted in him not sleeping well during the night and many nights he would wake me up 2-4 times, often starting as early as 22h00 or 23h00.

By the middle of January I was completely exhausted and felt like I was going to have a breakdown. Well one night when he was once again struggling to sleep and it was 21h30 or so already I just started crying and said to the Lord: “Lord, I just cannot do this anymore! I am soooo tired! I need sleep, and I need to sleep right through the night! Lord, I give up. I have tried everything and nothing works! I don’t know what else to do. I just cannot do this anymore; I now give this over to you Lord, because I have no idea what to do…”

Eventually G-force went to sleep and I stumbled to bed and fell asleep immediately. Much to my surprise DH woke me up the next morning at 6h30 to get G-force ready for school. For the first time in what felt like forever I had slept straight from about 22h00 to 6h30. Immediately I thanked and praised the Lord because I knew it was only due to His grace. This was not a once off occurrence either. From that night G-force’s sleeping habits changed from waking many times a night most nights and only occasionally sleeping through the night to sleeping through most of the time and only waking up once and then only occasionally.

That was until the somewhere in the beginning of April. Slowly but surely he would start to wake around 4 or 5 in the morning and then often he would wake up anytime from about midnight to 2 also. Once again the nights where he slept through were few and far in between. I was at a loss. What to do, because last time we really did not do anything! How to fix this problem? I asked the Lord to help again, because let’s face it, it was thanks to His doing that things got better.

There was absolutely no explanation why G-force was waking up in the night again. We thought that he might be cold, because it was getting colder, but warming his room did not help. Eventually a week ago I finally figured it out.

G-force told me that there is something in his mouth that is hurting it. Sometimes when he has something stuck between his teeth he will come to me and ask me to remove it by flossing his teeth. He wanted me to do that again, but he was pointing to the back of his mouth where his one molar is. So I washed my hand and stuck my finger in there to pinpoint where the problem is as I couldn’t see anything and what do you know? I felt a new molar peeking through. Poor little guy, I barely touched it but he howled in pain. So now we know what is the most probable cause for the poor sleeping. But you know what? We’ve been giving him teething meds on and off already since that was one of the suspects already. We then started to give it to him regularly and even adding another kind, and it still did not work. In desperation I bought a Baltic amber teething necklace last week and he’s been wearing it since Thursday. So far no improvement yet…

Last night he woke up at 22h00, 1h30, 4h00 and about 5h30. Lately I’m also having trouble getting back to sleep once G-force wakes me, fortunately this morning it was at 5h30 and not one of the other times in the middle of the night… I cannot explain to anyone how tired I am. I’ve been feeling like a zombie for about a month already. DH tries to help, but G-force wants nothing to do with him in the middle of the night. He only wants me and he wants to nurse. He refuses everything else.

In January already, after the incident I described, the Holy Spirit reminded me of the following scriptures:

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (AMP):
“7 And to keep me from being puffed up and too much elated by the exceeding greatness (pre-eminence) of these revelations, there was given me a thorn (a splinter) in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to rack and buffet and harass me, to keep me from being excessively exalted. 8 Three times I called upon the Lord and besought [Him] about this and begged that it might depart from me; 9 But He said to me, My grace (My favour and loving-kindness and mercy) is enough for you [sufficient against any danger and enables you to bear the trouble manfully]; for My strength and power are made perfect (fulfilled and completed) and show themselves most effective in [your] weakness. Therefore, I will all the more gladly glory in my weaknesses and infirmities, that the strength and power of Christ (the Messiah) may rest (yes, may pitch a tent over and dwell) upon me! 10 So for the sake of Christ, I am well pleased and take pleasure in infirmities, insults, hardships, persecutions, perplexities and distresses; for when I am weak [in human strength], then am I [truly] strong (able, powerful in divine strength).”

For the first time I really realized what Paul meant when he said; “for when I’m weak, then I am strong…” When we are weak and know it and rely on Jesus, not on our own efforts – that is when we are strong, not with our own strength, but the strength that we receive through God’s grace.

I knew all this yet it once again took quite some time to admit that I am weak, and that I need God’s grace to make me strong again…Last week I came to that point again, and I’m still there. Thankfully Abba, Father God is so merciful, and one morning I switched on the TV to watch a program on TBN, and God gave me three awesome programs to watch, the one straight after the other. The first one I watched was Cref.lo Dol.lar, the second one Joy.ce Mey.er and then the best one, Jo.seph Prin.ce.

I specifically want to mention the program of Jo.seph Prin.ce; it’s called: “Great Grace for your greatest weakness – Sermon # 352”. I can highly recommend that every single person reading this gets hold of this sermon and listen to it as many times as possible. He mentions Abraham and Sarah, Manoah and his wife and Zachariah and Elizabeth, and them being barren for so many years, and how in their weakest moments they were able to have a child, but not any child, these children had supernatural favour upon them. He also speaks specifically to people who have lost a child/baby or who have been barren and prophesies how we will birth champions, just like these people in the Bible did.

I was so grateful for this message – I’m sure God was speaking directly to me – as if he inspired Jo.seph Prin.ce to preach this message for me, but I know it’s not only for me, all of you who are reading this blog will also probably feel the same 😉 !

It’s not just the fact that I’m so tired that makes me feel so weak. I’ve felt weak too about conceiving our second child, and I’ve actually also gave that matter all over to the Lord a few weeks ago, as well as other areas in our lives, like our finances, my business and even raising G-force…

I cannot wait to see manifestation of God’s super abounding Grace in these areas!

(I thought I’ve blogged about Paul’s thorn in the flesh before, but it seems that I haven’t. Many people think that Paul’s thorn in the flesh is some kind of sickness caused by God to make him weak – that is not the case. Paul’s thorn was not God’s doing, and if you want to learn more about what it is then please read this message of An.drew Wom.mack)

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You Are Completely Forgiven:

I want to share this message of Cref.lo Dol.lar today, because it is so important that we all understand that we are completely forgiven of our past, present and future sins.  Jesus’ sacrifice was more than enough – He paid the penalty once for everybody.  The message is called The Overflow of Forgiveness and if you want to order it the order number is #1796C.

“Acts 16:30-31:  “And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?  And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”

What must I do to be saved?  He said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.  How do you do that?  What must I do to be saved?  Well, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ…  Romans chapter 10 says that if you will confess with your mouth that the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in your heart…  There it is again.  Believe what?

Well let’s look at 3 things that I know you have to believe in order for you to be saved.  What do I believe? Specifically what do I believe?

1. I believe that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Personal saviour who died for all of my sins on the cross.
2. I believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation and that once I receive Jesus I receive eternal life.
3. I believe that my sins have been forgiven, past, present and future.  That  on the cross at Calvary and as a result of it, today, God is merciful unto all of my unrighteousness and as far as my sins and unlawful deeds – He remembers them no more.

In fact that part is the last line of the new covenant in Hebrews Chapter 8 that says the only way you will benefit from the new covenant of grace is that you have to believe that He has been merciful to all of your unrighteousness and that your sins and unlawful deeds He remembers no more.  In fact if you don’t believe that God has been merciful to all of your unrighteousness and if you don’t believe that your sins and inequities and unlawful deeds He remembers no more the new covenant won’t benefit you.  You won’t benefit from the good and the blessings and the unmerited favour that the new covenant offers to you.  It won’t work.  At all…

So a whole lot of things working in our lives that as far as the new covenant is concerned and we will go over there in a moment but a whole lot of things working in our lives are going to be based on whether or not we believe it.  So when somebody says they believe in Jesus they ought to know what they believe…

He is my Lord and personal Saviour.  He died on the cross for my sins.  He is the one that allowed me to be saved and salvation can only be through Jesus.  We are not mixing all the religions together to please everybody – Jesus is the only way!  We can only be saved through Jesus, I have eternal life through Him, but now this third area is so important, and I am finding the more I preach this the more people are trying to come up with ways to say; “We really don’t believe that God has forgiven us of all our sins.”  I can’t tell you how dangerous that is to not believe that.

Now this is where the last clause of the new covenant applies, the part about believing that He has been merciful to all of your unrighteousness and your sins and inequities He remembers no more.   So what I would like to do is, let’s go to Hebrews Chapter 8 and kind of pull everybody up on this new covenant.  Let’s start at verse 6…  Man, I believe in Jesus, oh I believe in Jesus, Hallelujah!  Thank God for all of these wonderful principles we have learned of all of these years, but you know what, it’s going to come down to one person:  I believe in Jesus!  Turn to your neighbour and say; “Jesus did it all!”

Hebrews 8:6-7:  “⁶ But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.  ⁷ For if that first covenant…”  Now the first covenant he is referring to here is the covenant of law that came by Moses, “now if that first covenant had been faultless then should no place have been sought for the second.”

Well that makes sense; if there was nothing wrong with the first covenant then we wouldn’t be talking about a second covenant.    Now there was nothing per se wrong with the first covenant except the fact that it was so perfect that men couldn’t keep it.  So that was the fault that was found with it, it couldn’t be kept.

Hebrews 8:8-9:  “⁸ For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:”  So this is a new covenant we are talking about the old one is getting ready to pass away.  “⁹ Not according to the covenant that I have made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt because they continued not in my covenant and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.”

The amplified says; “It will not be like the covenant that I made with their forefathers on the day that I grasped them by the hand to help and to relieve them and lead them out of the land of Egypt, for they did not abide in my agreement with them, and so I withdrew my favour and disregarded them, says the Lord.”  They did not abide in the agreement, so I withdrew my favour.  I’m not going to make a covenant where man’s faithfulness will determine My faithfulness.  I’m not going to do that.  This covenant is not going to be about man doing his part in order for me to do My part.  That is not what this is going to be about.

This is a new covenant and he goes on in verse 10:  “¹⁰ For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:” So here is God saying; “all right I’m going to write my laws in their minds and their hearts.  Well what is it?  Is He going to write the 10 commandments?  No He is going to write the law of love, the law of faith the perfect law of liberty, God is going to put it in there, by the Holy Spirit He is going to put it on the inside of you.  Romans 5:5 says; “He poured His love into your heart by the Holy Spirit.”  So the love of God is going to be written on your heart and not just on stone but in your heart He is going to write it, but now look what he says, Hebrews 8:10-11: “And I’ll be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:  and they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his bother saying, Know the Lord:  for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.”  God says I’m going to teach people to know me.  Isn’t that something?  God says in this new covenant, now this is going to be hard for you to hear this, “I’m going to be serving you.”  Yeah…  In this new Covenant I will, I will, I will…  In this new covenant I’m going to be faithful to you. In this new covenant your faithfulness doesn’t get the opportunity to determine my faithfulness.   In this new covenant I will and I will and I will…

All right, but watch this now:  In this new covenant God makes it very clear what our part is.  Our part is believing.  In this new covenant that is our part.  In this new covenant our part is believing – our part is to believe OK?  Hebrews 8:12-13: “For I will be merciful to their unrigteouness, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.  In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old.  Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.”  All right now verse 12 is so important because this is where the last clause of the new covenant applies, in verse 12 it says, that He will be merciful to your unrighteousness and your sins and unlawful deeds He will remember no more.  And God is saying; “I need you to believe that.”  That the ignition to the new covenant working is going to be based on you believing verse 12.

Just like it’s important for salvation and being born again for you to believe what you believe about Jesus, in order for this new covenant to release the blessings of the new covenant, release the goodness of the new covenant, to release the unmerited favour of this new covenant in order for that to happen in order for this unmerited favour to be released in order for the blessings to be released in order for the goodness to be released He says you are going to have to believe that God has been merciful unto your unrighteousness and your sins and unlawful deeds He remembers no more.  If you don’t believe that you will short circuit and find yourself in a situation where you are not receiving the goodness, the blessings and the unmerited favour from this new covenant and it is all based on verse 12.  That is the trigger point.  That is the part he is asking you to believe.  He is not asking you to, with your self effort, to do what would happen in the old covenant – Do good, get good – do bad, get bad.  In the old covenant your faithfulness determined God’s faithfulness, in the old covenant what you did would determine what God could do, He said that’s passed away.  That’s decayed away.  He said what I’m going to do is  – if you would just believe that I am merciful unto your unrighteousness, and if you would just believe that your sins and unlawful deeds are remembered no more, then I can be your God and I can write on your heart and I can write on your mind and I can lead you and I can show you and I can teach you to know me and I can do all kinds of things I just need you – listen to this – to get out of my way!

I’ve been studying for some sermons on the Abrahamic covenant of grace and I went back and studied the Abrahamic Covenant and there was not one thing that Abraham did to deserve anything that God did.  In fact when God showed up to Abraham he was worshipping the moon!  He didn’t deserve anything that God did for Abraham, it was all unearned.  Nothing!  In fact you’ll find Abraham in the midst of disobeying God, in the midst of being dishonest and God blessing Him.  Yeah!  Yeah!

God said; “I want you to leave, go for yourself,” the amplified says, “get away from you relatives” and as he was leaving Lot was going with him!  Lot was right there with him and God said I’m going to bless you.  And then if you go on to the next chapter and they come before Abimelek and Abraham starts to rising a scheme, “You are a good looking woman so we need to get ourselves together, now lie about who I am.”  And God blesses Him!  And then in the next chapter there is strife between Lot’s camp and Abraham’s camp, there is strife there and God blesses them!  Then He goes and tell them that they are going to have a child out of your own bowels, you know you are going to be blessed with your own kid and they laughed!  They didn’t even believe it and God blesses them!  The only time God couldn’t do anything for Abraham was when he tried out of his own effort to make what God had promised come to pass – when they had Ismail.

And now you take that Abrahamic covenant of grace – I can’t help but give you a little bit of it, I’m so overwhelmed with this.  Part of that covenant of Abraham dealt with the slavery of Israel in Egypt so all the way up to Moses’ time when the children of Israel were being delivered out of Egypt He was honouring the Abrahamic covenant of grace.  The Bible says he brings them out of Egypt and there was no feeble one amongst them.  They weren’t even feeble!  There were nobody hopping, they were all straight, it was all good!  It was all good!  There was not even one feeble one amongst their tribe! Nobody died on that journey, nobody died!

If you will read it carefully, man, they got to the red sea and what are they doing?  Murmuring!  You brought us out here to die! It seemed like every fresh murmur produced a fresh mercy of God!  They murmured and look what God did!  He opened the red sea, and he dried it up because he didn’t want their feet to get muddy when they walked through.  What?    Then they got over there; “we are hungry!  You brought us out here to starve us!”  And they started raining down murmurings and guess what God did?  Rained down manna.  It was all grace.  It was all grace and it was all good in that neighbourhood and you know they were complaining and you know they had unforgiveness, you know they had problems with their leadership and God just kept blessing them and kept blessing them…

And look at His presence – His presence was right in the middle of their camp – a cloud by day and a fire by night right in the middle of camp!  The presence of God was right there, they murmured and the presence of God was still right there!

And watch when it changed… When they said; “we can do all that you said.”  Immediately everything changed.  The cloud got thick, God said now tell them they can’t come here no more. If they touch the bottom of that mountain they are going to die.  No, they can’t hear from me no more, because you want to judge you based on your own merit, all right I will give you the law!  This law will bring you to an end of yourself.  Just like with Abraham when I waited 13 years from 86 to 99, when you don’t have any more self effort to depend on and then you are going to have to depend on me and then I will introduce myself to you as the God who is mighty in every area of your life!

I don’t want us to make the same mistake!  Religion keeps telling you to get in God’s way, religion keeps trying to tell you that you need to do these things in order for God to this, religion keep trying to tell you you’ve got to do all of these requirements to do that and God is saying I can take care of all of that.  God is saying, listen, I can help you to fulfil all of the law, and all you have to do is receive my love.  I didn’t tell you to act like a fool!  I’m telling you to yield to me so that I can lead you and guide you in the way that the law has tried to lead you and guide you and you keep trying to come up with a way to help me.  Don’t you know who I am?  Don’t you know where I bought you from?  Don’t you know there are a 1000 ways for me to knock you off before 8 o’clock tonight!

Would you please believe me!  Believe me!  Believe me!  I sent you a helper.  Are you trying to help me?  Believe me, let me do my thing… Then go and tell somebody about it.  How hard is that?  Obey my voice.  Walk with me.  Talk with me.  Fellowship with me.  I’m going to show you things that you know not off.  That is why He wants you to walk with him.  So that He can show you.  So that He can talk to you.  So that He can say it to you.  We are coming to a very rich tender time in the anointing where if you will give the Holy Spirit the opportunity, he is going to lead you and guide you to some truths that is going to take you in places that there would be no way for you to get there in the natural if you will begin to trust him.

But here is the thing you’ve got to trust more than anything: That God has been merciful to your unrighteousness.  You know when it comes time to get healed you cannot be sitting up there thinking about maybe this is a get back for something I did 2 years ago.  When there come times when there is a shortage in your life and the money is not there you cannot be sitting back there thinking about that it was something that I must have done last week.  You can’t do that, because it immediately short circuits what is necessary for that new covenant to begin to operate.  That’s got to be a settled issue.

Then you see Jesus in the gospels trying to demonstrate over and over again when it came to this man that appeared before him who was sick and he went up to him and said your sins are forgiven, and then the church folk had a fit; “who are you to forgive his sin!”  And Jesus knew this and you see this pattern all through the Bible even in the book Psalms (103) you see this pattern where there is forgiveness first and then a great healing took place.  Forget not our benefits, who heals all of our diseases… Yeah!  Who forgives all of our iniquities, well which comes first?  The forgiveness of all of our iniquities and then the healing of all of our disease and then our life being redeemed from destruction and then he crowns our head with tender mercies and loving kindness and then he satisfies our mouth with good things so that our youth is being renewed like an eagle.

But where did it all start?  It all started with you first of all understanding that He has forgiven you of all of your iniquity and then he will heal all of your diseases.  Because the issue that keeps so many people down is they don’t believe that God has forgiven them and you know what happens?  You vacillate from deliverance to bondage because you are not sure that this is the truth.  Every night you go to bed clean.  Every night you go to bed pure.  You live your life under a waterfall of forgiveness.  Do you understand me?  That is how you live your life.  If you keep going back to maybe there was something I didn’t do that is blocking this blessing from my life, you are dealing with a major issue of the new covenant not being able to function in your life.  God is not trying to get you back for sin that Jesus has already paid for.

Based on the new covenant of Grace what does God want you to believe?  He wants you to believe with all your heart that he meant every word when he said I will be merciful to your unrighteousness and their sins and their lawlessness deeds I will remember no more.  In the new covenant there is nothing for us to do but to believe this (gesturing to his Bible)

So its time for you to be healed.  Lord I thank you!  I believe that you have been merciful to my unrighteousness and my sins and iniquities you remember no more.  Hallelujah!  Thank you for healing!  That is all that is needed!”

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Consider ONLY the Promise:

I actually wanted to post this message of Dr Cref.lo Dol.lar (Because of your Unbelief Pt 2) the other day, but I couldn’t find it in between all the other recordings I have, and like I said then I felt compelled to share that other message. Well, yesterday I wanted to look for this message again, but once more I had no idea where to look for it. I just thought to myself; let’s start at the message we recorded on the first of March. Guess what? That was the message I was looking for! The very first message I opened, was the one I couldn’t find earlier this week. It can only be the Holy Spirit’s guidance that led me first to the message of Walking in the Supernatural and now this one:

“Go to Romans chapter 4. I want to show you something that … I don’t know, I never thought about this before, not in this perspective since I’ve read this scripture. Verse 19: “And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb:” Now we know the story, God told him that he was going to have a son, he is a hundred years old, his wife is old, everybody is old, everything is dead, and here is one word that I never… watch this, watch me use this word – I never considered – and it’s the word consider.

Let me give you the definition of this word and then you will understand what he did to not have unbelief. This word consider means; “to think carefully about, especially in order to make a decision.” To consider something means I’m thinking carefully about this, especially in order to make a decision. Here is another definition I like; it means; “to bear it in your mind…” To bear it in your mind. You’ve heard people say, “now, bear in mind, now…” Consider means to bear in mind, it means to contemplate. When you are contemplating something it means you are reflecting on it, it’s what I was doing with that polyp. Now, now watch this, this is so awesome…

So why is it that a hundred year old guy and a ninety year old woman, how is it that they can get together and give birth to an impossibility? I’ll tell you how, because Abraham would not contemplate, or would not bear in his mind, or would not think about the deadness of his body! He would not bear in mind; he would not contemplate, reflect on or think about the deadness of Sarah’s womb! He only thought and contemplated and reflected on what God promised. When he refused to consider the deadness of his body and when he refused to consider the deadness of his wife’s womb it kept unbelief out of the equation. And when unbelief is successfully kept out of the equation, mustard seed faith can go to work, and give birth to impossibilities.

I believe this year God wants to give birth to some impossibilities in your life. But He is not going to able to do it until we refuse to bear in mind the contradiction. We can’t think about the contradiction. We can’t think about the thing that goes against the promise. Here is what God is saying; “I need my people to only think about my promise. I need my people to only reflect on my promise. I need my people to only bear in their mind what I promise.”

So what the devil’s saying? The devil is trying to play the same trick on us that he did on Adam and Eve. They were only God conscious, they only contemplated God, they only reflected on God, and he shows up in the garden one day with the contradiction to what God said; “hath God said…?” And that was enough to get their thinking on what he said and get their thinking off what God said and what happened? The presence of unbelief began to short circuit their faith that had given them just the total, complete immersion in the presence of God.

See, it’s not that we are trying to be deep when we say; “you might not need to be around this, you might not need to listen to this, you might not want to look at that…” Why? Because the introduction of the contradiction is going to and could bring in the presence of unbelief.

If you find yourself – and this is what’s so wrong with the church – you see people wanting to put the scriptures in a certain place – “we are in church now and I don’t want to hear that.” Do you see the problem here? “We are in church and I don’t want to hear no scripture now.” You know what they are doing? Instead of hearing the scripture they are probably entertaining, contemplating, and bearing in mind the contrary to the scripture. You need to hear some scripture when you are acting crazy. Because what we are trying to do is stop the presence of unbelief.

Abraham focussed, listen… If you read Abraham’s life, if you read Romans chapter 4, Abraham looked like a perfect person, but if you go back to Genesis then you will see… You’ll try to figure how did they write that about Abraham? Because God is not recording a bunch of mistakes in heaven. You understand what I’m saying? So He is not trying to talk about all Abraham’s mistakes. Everything that it said in Romans chapter 4 about Abraham, it seems to contradict itself in Genesis. This man of faith – was not a man of faith at all in Genesis! They were laughing at God when He made promises, all of that stuff – you wonder where do they get that from. But this guy finally got it. I am only going to consider what God promised.

And you know what? In this economic time, don’t consider the decisions they made in Washington DC. You only consider what God says in His word; “You give and it will be given unto you, I’ll supply all your needs according to His riches in glory,” that’s what you consider. You don’t consider how much you make, you don’t consider how much your pay check is going to be, you’re not going to consider how much lesser your pay check is going to be.

You only consider what God said, you know what, when you consider what God says, and that is what you are contemplating, and that is what you are meditating on then that is what you are going to get! You will give birth to an impossibility! But that can’t happen, that can’t happen if you’re believing that God will supply all my needs and at the same time; “O, God is going to take care of me financially” but at the same time; “O dear God, did you hear how much my taxes are going to be…”Real Christians who want results are going to have to be willing to become more diligent about thinking and contemplating and reflecting on the promises of God ONLY.

That is why Jesus said, when Jairus’ daughter was on her death bed and a servant from Jairus’ house came in Mark chapter 5 and said; “your daughter is dead, why trouble the Master any longer,” and the Bible says that when Jesus heard that, immediately He said; “be not afraid, only believe.” Or another way is He said; “believe only.” In other words, don’t let an outside report distract you from where you are going. “You believe Me enough to come and find Me, to bring Me back to your daughter, and you are so focussed on I know…” This is what he told him, he says, “I know if You come and lay hands on my daughter she will be healed and she will live.” That is what he believed and then in the midst of him being focussed on that and contemplating and thinking that, there is somebody that came from his house and said; “She is dead. Don’t worry about it anymore…” And Jesus said, “wait a minute, if you just only believe, and not let this fear come in, you can have what we started working on before we met that woman with the issue of blood, she had it…”

There are too many miracles that we are reading about in the Bible for us to not know what we need to do to experience those things right now! How come we can’t experience it right now? I’ll tell you how come, because we keep letting the contrary come and counteract what we ought to be focussed on. I would rather have this many people as a member of Wor.ld Chan.gers Minis.try believe in God, than have 40 000 of them who don’t. I want to raise up some people who want to believe God, some people who will say; “You know, I know what you just told me, but I’m just trusting God!”

The Bible says about Abraham; “he considered not his body being dead nor the deadness of Sarah’s womb,” so what happened? As a result of Him not considering the contrary, notice what happened: “He did not stagger after the promise,” next verse, “he did not stagger after the promise in unbelief.” He did not stagger in unbelief; he did not stagger in unbelief! Why? Because he put a guard over his thinking – be careful how you think. Be careful what you hear. He put a guard over his thinking, and he refused to think anything except what the Word had promised him…

This is how we are going to get ahead ladies and gentlemen. It’s not much information, but its knowing how to practically function and operate in this information.”

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Receiving Blessings:

I want to share a part of a teaching from An.drew Wom.mack again, How to receive God’s best, about receiving blessings from God and how we are still blessed even though we don’t deserve it and what stops the blessings in your life:

“Here’s the thing you’ve got to get:  the blessing of God is not dependent on your holiness.  Whether or not you are worthy of it.  Abraham was blessed by God and Abraham wasn’t the greatest man around.  Abraham lied about his wife – twice, and was willing to let other men take… as a matter of fact she went into the harem of other kings.  Because Abraham was chicken and wouldn’t stand up for his wife and afraid somebody would kill him to get to his wife, she was so beautiful.  The first time that happened she was in her 70’s, the second time he was afraid somebody was going to take her because she was so beautiful, she was in her 90’s…  Boy, that woman was blessed!

But Abraham, you know what, even though he didn’t do things right and he wasn’t the holiest man, he believed God and he believed the promise that he was blessed and because of that God didn’t rebuke him for what he did, He rebuked the kings!  And He told that king; “you are but a dead man for that man’s wife.”  And the king said; “I didn’t know she was that man’s wife, he said; ‘she was my sister!’”  God said; “I know you, I know you weren’t guilty that’s the reason I’ve warned you, but if you don’t turn her back over to her husband I’m going to kill you and everybody in your house.”

You know why?  Because God had said in Genesis 12; “I will bless him that blesses you and curse him that curses you.”  God put a blessing on Abraham and even though he wasn’t holy and he didn’t always deserve it, once the blessing is given it cannot be reversed!  God doesn’t give the blessing based on your goodness or worthiness.

Religion has basically taken the power out of the blessing because we say we’ve got to be worthy of it.  No you aren’t worthy of it, it’s not because you are worthy, it’s because God is Holy and God said this and once God has spoken a blessing over you, you are blessed regardless of how good or how bad you are, it’s just a matter of will you believe it.  The only thing that can stop a blessing of God is your unbelief.  Not your sin, not your unworthiness…  Man that is one powerful truth!”

I want to end this message with the following scripture; Galatians 3:10-14 (NIV):  “¹⁰ For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.’ ¹¹ Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because ‘the righteous will live by faith.’ ¹² The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, ‘The person who does these things will live by them.’ ¹³ Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.’ ¹⁴ He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.”

What does that mean to us?  We can never live a sin free life, and if we try to we will be cursed, because we will break the law, but fortunately Jesus took the curse upon Him, He took all our sins upon Him, and those have been forgiven, once and for all.  Jesus redeemed us, so that we might receive the blessing of Abraham!  We get what Jesus deserves, fortunately not what we deserve!

Hallelujah!  Thank you Jesus!

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Obedience to God:

I wanted to write about obedience to God for about a week now, but I’ve been struggling.  For a little while now I’ve been getting messages on this topic and even in my quiet times I’ve heard the word “Obedience” in my head.  So I know that God is trying to tell me something, but most of the messages were just snippets, nothing that I could write a whole post about, but I think I got it last night, suddenly I realized how I could write this so that you can understand the message I want to convey. 

Genesis 12:1-4 (NIV):  “¹ The LORD had said to Abram, Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.  ²I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.  ⁴So Abram left, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran.”

God asked Abraham to leave his country and family, leave everything that was dear to him and go to an unknown destination, and Abraham went where God asked him to go.  I don’t think we realize just how much God asked of Abraham, the implications and how hard it must have been.   I mean, just think about it, say God asks something like that from you today…  Would you know it was God and would you be obedient?  What would everyone else say to you, if you should believe it comes from God, and you tell them about it?  I’m sure Abraham must have received a lot of criticism and opinions, but he listened and followed God.

Genesis 13:6-11 (NIV):  “⁶ But the land could not support them while they stayed together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to stay together.  ⁷ And quarrelling arose between Abram’s herdsmen and the herdsmen of Lot. The Canaanites and Perizzites were also living in the land at that time.  ⁸ So Abram said to Lot, Let’s not have any quarrelling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and mine, for we are brothers.  ⁹ Is not the whole land before you? Let’s part company. If you go to the left, I’ll go to the right; if you go to the right, I’ll go to the left.  ¹⁰ Lot looked up and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan was well watered, like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, towards Zoar. (This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)  ¹¹ So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out towards the east. The two men parted company:”

Abraham was not totally obedient to God however, God told him to leave “your people and your father’s household,” but he took Lot with him, who was his nephew, his father’s brother’s son.  They were so blessed that the land that God promised to Abraham became too small to hold both of them and for the sake of peace Abraham told Lot to choose a part – there was the fertile valley and the mountains to choose from and what did Lot do?  He chose the best – the valley, for himself and left the mountains for Abraham!  That’s was not nice and very ungrateful from Lot!  I mean – Abraham should have and could have left him in Haran. He would not have been in that situation if it was not for Abraham.  But I love Abraham’s attitude!  He did not complain or even harbour any bad feelings towards Lot.  He was happy to take the mountains!

I wonder if Abraham thought of Lot almost like a son.  Lot was certainly the closest family he had.  I know in my life some of our family members say that I am my niece’s “second mom”, because we are so very close.

Genesis 16:1-4 (NIV):  “¹ Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; ² so she said to Abram, The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her. Abram agreed to what Sarai said. ³ So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife.  ⁴ He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.”

Genesis 16:15-16 (NIV):  “¹⁵ So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne.  ¹⁶ Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.”

Genesis 21:8-13 (NIV):  “⁸ The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast.  ⁹ But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, ¹⁰ and she said to Abraham, Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.  ¹¹ The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son.  ¹² But God said to him, Do not be so distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.  ¹³ I will make the son of the maidservant into a nation also, because he is your offspring.”

We read four times about the promise of children to Abraham, but Sarah got impatient.  She got tired of waiting and decided to make a plan of her own.  She convinced Abraham to go ahead with this plan, and Hagar got pregnant with Ishmael.  This was quite a common practice in Biblical times and is equivalent to traditional surrogacy these days.  I have blogged about it previously and you can read about it here. 

But do you see that the plan of Sarah did not work out well?  There was tension between Hagar and Sarah, because Hager was able to do what Sarah couldn’t.  After Isaac was born Sarah convinced Abraham to send Hagar and Ishmael away.  God did bless Ishmael, because he also became the father to a nation, just not the “chosen nation.”  Ishmael eventually became the forefather of the Ishmaelites and today he is the forefather of the Mus.lims.

Genesis 21:1-5 (NIV):  “¹ Now the LORD was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what he had promised.  ² Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him.  ³ Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him.  ⁴ When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him.  ⁵ Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.”

Isaac was what God had originally planned for Sarah and Abraham.  And it was a great plan that worked out perfectly.  But can you see from the first scripture that I quoted that Abraham was 75 years old when he first got the promise of a son?  Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was eventually born, so it took 25 years for that promise to become reality.  That is a long time to wait on and trust God.

Now I can totally understand that Abraham and Sarah got impatient and I’m sure a lot of us would have made the same mistakes.  Probably all of us, I think…  I know I am tempted every day to take matters in my own hands and to try and make a plan of my own.   It is totally human to do that, but it’s not God’s original plan.  God’s original plan was so much better than what Abraham and Sarah could plan on their own.  Even the situation with Lot didn’t work out well, again because Abraham was disobedient to God. 

I have certainly tried many times to make my own plans and to be honest none of them worked out.  I still don’t have children of my own and now I cannot make my own plans anymore.  God has put it on my heart to stop trying to control or plan things and to just trust Him.  God has shown me through the story of Abraham and Sarah that He has a plan, and that His plan is so much better than any plan I can ever make.  He wants me to be obedient to Him and trust Him.  I believe that God’s promises will come true and if I step out in faith and trust God, His plan will come to fruition.  And I hope that, just like Abraham, that God will bless us richly too, because that is what He wants to do for His children…

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Doubts and unbelief:

I have mentioned guilt and condemnation in the last few posts of mine.  It’s been something that I have been struggling with.  So as always, that is what you are going to hear about, whatever has been on my mind lately. Now you might wonder what that has to do with the title of this post.  Trust me they are related, keep on reading and you will soon see the connection. 

I have mentioned that DH was away – for a whole week, so on Saturday I didn’t really have much to do so I decided to rent the DVD of the Pas.sion of the Chr.ist.  I know it’s a movie that’s been out a long time already, but we have never seen it.  Why?  I thought that I knew and appreciated the big sacrifice Jesus made for us and as I cannot really watch any medical TV series, because I cannot stand the sight of blood and guts, I thought it best not to watch the movie.  But for some reason on Friday I thought that I need to see for myself graphically how terrible the suffering of Jesus was.  As I was alone at home I could watch it without feeling self conscious about crying, because I knew I was going to cry a lot.

The movie starts in the garden of Gethsemane when Jesus was praying moments before Judas would betray him and he would be arrested.  The devil is whispering things to Him.  Things like:  “Do you really believe that one man can bear the full burden of sin?”, and “No one man can carry this burden, I tell you, it’s far too heavy.  Saving their souls is too costly,” etc.  What did Jesus do?  He continued in prayer, in anguish, but he continued and ignored the devil. He asked for help from the Father.  There is this snake that comes from under the robe of the devil and slithers over to Jesus.  I think they wanted to symbolize the temptation, but when Jesus gets up from His knees he crushes that snake under His foot. 

I got such a revelation from watching this!  It sounded just like the stuff that goes through my mind a lot.  (I know I cannot compare my situation to that one of Jesus, but I’m talking about those same type of thoughts) “You are crazy to think that Shumi will be healed!  Look at him!  Why do you think you will be healed and get pregnant naturally?  Why would things change now?  Stop wasting time and go see your FS – maybe he has some ideas to help you.”  On and on, and I realized that although those things go through my mind, I don’t have to accept them.  It becomes doubt only when I act on it.  If I turn to God just like Jesus did, it is not a sin!  I don’t have to feel guilty!  I don’t have to be condemned!  It’s not me that thinks those thoughts; it’s the devil trying to tempt me! 

Now today I read again from “The batt.lefie.ld of the mi.nd and Joy.ce Me.yer explains the terms doubt and unbelief so nicely, so I want to share that with you.

“… O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”  Matthew 14:31

“And He marvelled because of their unbelief…”  Mark 6:6

“We usually talk about doubt and unbelief together as if they are one and the same.  Actually although they can be connected, the two are very different things.

Vine’s An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words partially defines doubt in the verb form as “… to stand in two ways … implying uncertainty which way to take,… said of believers who’s faith is small… being anxious, through a distracted state of mind, of wavering between hope and fear…”

The same dictionary notes that one of the two Greek words translated as unbelief “is always rendered ‘disobedience’ in the R.V” (the Revised Version of the King James translation.)

As we look at these two powerful tools of the enemy, we see that doubt causes a person to waver between two opinions, whereas unbelief leads to disobedience. 

I think it’s going to be helpful to be able to recognize exactly what the devil is trying to attack us with.  Are we dealing with doubt or unbelief?

Doubt

“… How long will you halt and limp between two opinions?…”  1 Kings 18:21

I heard a story that will shed some light on doubt. 

There was a man who was sick and who was confessing the Word over his body, quoting healing Scriptures and believing for his healing to manifest.  While doing so, he was intermittently attacked with thoughts of doubt.

After he had one through a hard time and was beginning to get discouraged, God opened his eyes to the spirit world.  This is what he saw:  a demon speaking lies to him, telling him that he was not going to get healed and that confessing the Word was not going to work.  But he also saw that each time he confessed the Word, light would come out of his mouth like a sword, and the demon would cower and fall backward.

As God showed him this vision, the man then understood why it was so important to keep speaking the word.  He saw that he did have faith, which is why the demon was attacking him with doubt.

Doubt is not something that God puts in us.  The Bible says that God gives every man a “… measure of faith” (Romans 12:3).  God has placed faith in our heart, but the devil tries to negate our faith by attacking us with doubt.

Doubt comes in the form of thoughts that are in opposition to the word of God.  This is why it’s so important for us to know the word of God.  If we know the word, then we can recognize when the devil is lying to us.  Be assured that he lies to us in order to steal what Jesus purchased for us through his death and resurrection.

Doubt and Unbelief

“¹⁸ Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, So shall your offspring be.  ¹⁹ Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead— since he was about a hundred years old— and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.  ²⁰ Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, ²¹ being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.”  Romans 4:18-21

When I am in a battle, knowing that God has promised and yet being attacked with doubt and unbelief, I like to read or meditate on this passage.

Abraham had been given a promise by God that He would cause him to have an heir from his own body.   Many years had come and gone and still there was no child as a result of Abraham and Sarah’s relationship.  Abraham was still standing in faith, believing what God had said would come to pass.  As he stood, he was being attacked with thoughts of doubt, and the spirit of unbelief was pressing him to disobey God.

Disobedience in a situation like this can simply be to give up when God is prompting us to press on.  Disobedience is disregarding the voice of the Lord, or whatever God is speaking to us personally, not just transgressing the Ten Commandments.

Abraham continued to be steadfast.  He kept praising and giving glory to God.  The Bible states that as he did so, he grew strong in faith.

You see, when God tells us something or asks us to do something, the faith to believe it or to do it comes with the Word from God.  It would be ridiculous for God to expect us to do something and not give us the ability to believe that we can do it.  Satan knows how dangerous we will be with a heart full of faith, so he attacks us with doubt and unbelief.

It’s not that we don’t have faith, it’s just that Satan is trying to destroy our faith through lies.

Faith is a product of the spirit; it’s a spiritual force.  The enemy doesn’t want you and me to get our mind in agreement with our spirit.  He knows that if God places faith in us to do a thing and we get positive and start to consistently believing that we can actually do it, then we will do considerable damage to his kingdom.”

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Elderly parents in the Bible:

If you read my blog regularly you might have noticed that my age is starting to worry me a bit, although I try to keep Sarah’s story in mind when my faith falters.  So it’s logical that I would research it and do a post on the older parents in the Bible:

Genesis 11:30-32 (NIV):  “³⁰ Now Sarai was barren; she had no children.   ³¹ Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there. ³² Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Haran.”

Genesis 21:1-5 (NIV):  “The Birth of Isaac ¹ Now the LORD was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what he had promised.  ² Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him.  ³ Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him.  ⁴ When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him.  ⁵ Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.”

I heard the following in a message from Joyce Meyer recently:  The Lord had first asked Terah the father of Abraham to move away from Ur to the Promised Land, but Terah settled in Haran, and did not go any further.  God had to find someone else to make a covenant with and that person was Abraham.  The covenant was a very big promise:  A lot of fertile land, children as many as the stars and incredible blessings.  Terah settled for something less of that big promise God made, but Abraham did not and he eventually received everything that God had promised.  Are you settling or are you going after God’s promises in your life?

According to my reference Bible God used Abraham and Sarah’s infertility to build a special relationship with Abraham, so that Abraham could trust God and take the chance to move away. Because of the trust Abraham had in God he received the blessings that God had promised him and God showed how almighty He is by making Sarah pregnant at an age (90) when it was totally impossible.

In the last few years there have been many reports of older mothers in the news with claims that they are the world’s oldest moms, ladies of 62, 66, 67 and even 70 having babies with the help of IVF and donor eggs and sperm, but all this pales in comparison to Sarah getting pregnant naturally at the age of 90.  It could only have been a miracle from God.

Genesis 25:19-21 (NIV):  “ ¹⁹ This is the account of Abraham’s son Isaac.  Abraham became the father of Isaac, ²⁰ and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan Aram and sister of Laban the Aramean.  ²¹ Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. The LORD answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant.” 

Genesis 25:26 (NIV):  “… Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.”

Isaac was the child through which God’s promise was supposed to be fulfilled, but in spite of that he and his wife Rebekah were childless for 20 years.  I read one theory that in this case it could have been due to male factor infertility, according to the language of the Torah.  It says that Isaac pleaded to the Lord in the presence of his wife, rather than on behalf of his wife, and that God answered him, and not his wife.  Isaac also had no other children, so it could be the reason…

Our scripture says “… because she was barren.”  I don’t think in those times it could really be established with whom the problem was, but the important fact is that they were childless for 20 years before Rebekah had the twins and Isaac was 60 years old already when they were born. 

Luke 1:7 (NIV):  “⁷ But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren; and they were both well on in years.”

Luke 1:36-37 (NIV):  “³⁶ Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month.   ³⁷ For nothing is impossible with God.”

Luke 1:18-20 (NIV):  “¹⁸ Zechariah asked the angel, How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well on in years.  ¹⁹ The angel answered, I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news.  ²⁰ And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their proper time.”

Luke 1:65-66 (NIV):  “⁶⁵ The neighbours were all filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things.  ⁶⁶ Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, What then is this child going to be? For the Lord’s hand was with him.”

Both Elizabeth and Zechariah were “upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly.”  Luke 1:6 (NIV).  So their infertility was not due to sin in their lives (you can also read  this post).  It also says that both of them were old, so old in fact that everybody talked about it.  They were so old that Zechariah could not help but to question the angel Gabriel.  As punishment for that he could not speak until his child’s birth.

It was such a miracle not only for this couple, but for everyone around them, that it could not be disputed by anyone.  This created an expectation that this child would be someone great one day, and he was – he was the forerunner of Jesus Christ – a very important job!

I love Luke 1:37:  “³⁷ For nothing is impossible with God.”  This scripture is so apt in all of the above examples, not only in Elizabeth’s case.  It could only have happened with the help of God, no other way, and it just shows that indeed nothing is impossible with God!

Fortunately we are not as old as these people from the Bible yet, so I’m going to keep them in mind for inspiration.  We have a lot more in our favour, so if they could get their miracles there sure is hope left for us!

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Childlessness was not the only option in the Bible:

Remember this post?  It’s one of my favourites because so many people commented on it and I loved to get everyone’s opinion.  It’s a topic that I’ve been thinking about for many years and when I got some insight into alternatives for the infertile people in the Bible I couldn’t wait to share it with you… 

Traditional surrogacy:

Genesis 16:1-2 (NIV):  “Hagar and Ishmael ¹ Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; ² so she said to Abram, The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her. Abram agreed to what Sarai said.”

Genesis 30:3-7 (NIV):  “³ Then she said, Here is Bilhah, my maidservant. Sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and that through her I too can build a family.  ⁴ So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife. Jacob slept with her, ⁵ and she became pregnant and bore him a son.  ⁶ Then Rachel said, God has vindicated me; he has listened to my plea and given me a son. Because of this she named him Dan.  ⁷ Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son.”

Genesis 30:9-12 (NIV):  “⁹ When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her maidservant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife.  ¹⁰ Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son.  ¹¹ Then Leah said, What good fortune! So she named him Gad.  ¹² Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son.”

Modern traditional surrogacy is done via IUI.  The eggs of the surrogate mother are inseminated with either the husband’s sperm or a donor’s sperm.  In the biblical times there was no IUI, so it was done with intercourse.  I’m sure a lot of modern women today are thankful that we don’t have to do it that way anymore! 

In my reference Bible it says:  “According to an ancient text from Nuzi from the second century BC it was customary for a barren woman to let her slave have intercourse with her husband, and to claim the resulting children as her own.”   An Assyrian text from the 7^th century BC has even more detail and roughly translated it says:  “if Subetu does not get pregnant and give birth, she may appoint a slave in her place.  Through the slave she (Subetu) will bring sons to life and the sons shall be hers.  If she likes the slave she may keep her, but if she hates her, she may sell the slave.”  

From the above verses you can see that both Rachel and Lea named the sons and it even says: “Then Rachel said, God has vindicated me; he has listened to my plea and given me a son.”  Rachel is claiming the son as her own.  I always thought that the slaves were more like concubines, and the children were seen as their children, but it seems that was not the case.  I wonder if the slaves had any say in the matter.  I think not…

Adoption:

Genesis 48:5 (NIV):  “⁵ Now then, your two sons born to you in Egypt before I came to you here will be reckoned as mine; Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine, just as Reuben and Simeon are mine.”

Jacob had disinherited his eldest son Reuben, because he had committed incest with Jacob’s concubine.  Jacob gave Josef his brother Reuben’s portion as well as his own portion of his inheritance, but instead of it going directly to Joseph it is given to his sons Ephraim and Manasseh, whom Jacob had adopted. 

Exodus 1:22 (NIV):  “²² Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: Every boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.” 

Exodus 2:2-10 (NIV):  “² and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months.  ³ But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.     ⁴ His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.  ⁵ Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the river bank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her slave girl to get it.  ⁶ She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. This is one of the Hebrew babies, she said.  ⁷ Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?  ⁸ Yes, go, she answered. And the girl went and got the baby’s mother.  ⁹ Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you. So the woman took the baby and nursed him.  ¹⁰ When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, I drew him out of the water.”

Jochebed, Moses’ mother made a plan to try and save her son from the decree of Pharaoh.  She must have known that the Pharaoh’s daughter would go to bath at that specific spot, and she must have know that Pharaoh’s daughter would take pity on her baby.  I’ve read in one article that the Pharaoh’s daughter might have been infertile, as the argument is that someone who has children of her own might not accept a stranger’s baby as her own so easily.   

Esther 2:7 (NIV):  “⁷ Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah, whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother. This girl, who was also known as Esther, was lovely in form and features, and Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter when her father and mother died.”

Enhancing fertility:

Genesis 30:14 (NIV):  “¹⁴ During wheat harvest, Reuben went out into the fields and found some mandrake plants, which he brought to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”

The Dudaim or Mandrake plant was traditionally believed to increase a women’s fertility but was also know for its aphrodisiac qualities and believed to remove sterility in the East.  It’s not commonly used anymore, but was also used for its anaesthetic qualities and could cause hallucinations if ingested in sufficient quantities.  The mandrake fruit would have been ripe between April and May for a very short time and it was quickly eaten by birds and animals.  Harvest time was late May to early June, so it was very unusual for Reuben to have found some.  That’s probably why Rachel wanted them so desperately.   

Ironically the mandrakes did not help Rachel to get pregnant, but Leah did get pregnant when Jacob visited her tent that night.  Rachel did conceive another boy at a later stage though only after Leah had another two sons and a daughter.

So you can see from the above that there were alternatives for the childless couples in the Bible.  They   could adopt, have a child though a slave or even use some herbal remedies (we only have proof of the mandrakes from the Bible, but there could have been others).  Why do some people expect us then to just have faith and pray for our own babies in today’s day and age? 

I’m convinced that our modern methods of ART are better than the traditional surrogacy method of the Bible, and  maybe we should remind the critics of ART of that next time they want to voice their opinions on a matter they know nothing about…

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Let God turn your misfortune around:

I mentioned yesterday that I’ve been looking for some encouragement in God’s word lately and yesterday I read something in my reference Bible that I want to share with you. I looked in the concordance and by chance I saw this: “Infertility was seen as a disaster” it was under “mother” where I didn’t think to look, because that’s the last place I thought I would find comfort.

Genesis 12:1-3 (NIV): “The Call of Abram ¹ The LORD had said to Abram, Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. ²I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

The explanation for the above verses is so good I’m going to quote it from my Bible: “God’s new approach in the way he worked with humanity starts in a totally different way that we would expect, namely with the need and shame of two people. In Genesis 11:30 it is emphasized that Sarai was barren (“³⁰ Now Sarai was barren; she had no children”). Unlike today it was a real disaster to be barren in those days. A child was the parent’s investment for the future, their pension, their support in their old age, their heir and the one that will continue the family name. It was seen as a big scandal, especially if a woman was barren. Abram and Sarai were in a difficult situation, but for God their shame was a way to reach out and start a new relationship with mankind. Their situation was a way to enter into a relationship where God could isolate Abram, to teach him faith and trust, and where He could shape Abram to be the father of a new beginning. Abram had a choice – he had to take a gamble if he wanted a solution to his problem. He had to let go of the three things that gave him security – his country, his tribe and his family, to go to a foreign country. If he is obedient his greatest desire, descendants of his own, would be given to him, he would be blessed and even other nations would be blessed through him.

With this the Bible puts human disappointments in perspective. Need and misery are disastrous only as long as it is seen as a disaster. As soon as we see God’s opportunities as something new, everything changes, life gets new meaning and a personal dilemma turns into a means where God can be praised and others misery can be relieved. The true believer mustn’t get caught up in his/her own troubles and problems; they must see it as an opportunity to a new beginning and to start life anew with full trust in God.”

My reference Bible also referred to Rebecca (Genesis 25:21) and Rachel’s (Gen 30:1-2) stories about their barrenness and I suddenly realised that there was a history of barrenness for three generations in a row, (and not any three generations but of the actual direct line of ancestors of our Lord Jesus Christ) and I wondered why… I’m sure it was no coincidence, my reference Bible says that “the barrenness of Sara, Rebecca and Rachel emphasises God’s involvement with His promise of descendants and the creation of the nation of Israel.” I think God wanted to show that in spite of all the adversities and problems it was still in His power to create a “great nation” out of a line of barren people. We must never underestimate God’s power – He is almighty, He is the Creator of heaven and earth, nothing is impossible with Him!

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Promises from God:

My previous post was about doubts and fears and I described how I asked God to give me a message to help me with it.  He immediately gave me a message and I was so thankful.  It helped me a lot and I was actually satisfied with the answer.  I didn’t expect to get another message about it yesterday in church.

Our minister asked us if we have been waiting for promises from God to come true, and whether we sometimes doubt that it will ever come true.   He preached from Genesis 15: 1-12 & 17-21  (NIV): “God’s Covenant With Abram:   ¹ After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision:   Do not be afraid, Abram.   I am your shield,   your very great reward. ² But Abram said, O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus? ³ And Abram said, You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.    ⁴ Then the word of the LORD came to him: This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.    ⁵ He took him outside and said, Look up at the heavens and count the stars— if indeed you can count them. Then he said to him, So shall your offspring be.     ⁶ Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.    ⁷ He also said to him, I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.     ⁸ But Abram said, O Sovereign LORD, how can I know that I shall gain possession of it?

⁹ So the LORD said to him, Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.    ¹⁰ Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half.    ¹¹ Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.    ¹² As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him.

¹⁷ When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking brazier with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces.    ¹⁸ On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates—    ¹⁹ the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites,    ²⁰ Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites,    ²¹ Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.”

Our minister said that Abraham was promised a heir and land three times before this specific time and here God promises it again for a fourth time.  Yet only 2 verses further Abraham doubts the Lord again.  God then went on to make a covenant with Abraham, so that Abraham can believe that it will come true.

In the times that Abraham lived, a covenant was made between individuals just like it is described in the above verses.  Animals were cut in half and the 2 halves were put down with a gap in between.  The lesser (sometimes the youngest) of the two parties would then walk through that gap and a covenant would be in place.  If that person could not keep to the covenant then he would be willing to be cut in half just like the animal was.  So a covenant was a serious binding contract in those days.  Here God (who is definitely not the lesser party) is willing to make the covenant with Abraham by passing through the animals in the form of a smoking brazier with a blazing torch.

Galatians 3:  6-9 (NIV): “⁶ Consider Abraham: He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.    ⁷ Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham.   ⁸ The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: All nations will be blessed through you.    ⁹ So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.” Paul says here that everybody that believes in God is a child of Abraham, and because we believe we will be blessed just like Abraham.

Now I must say I’ve never heard a specific promise from God that we will have children.  Or that was my initial thought.  But then I started to think back to the difficult time after our first failed IVF.  In that time I realized that I can do everything possible from my side, and the doctors can do everything medically possible, but if God doesn’t want us to have children he will not put that heartbeat in the embryo, so that it can become a baby.  So I asked God to send me to a doctor if or when He thinks I need to continue with treatments again.  I asked Him to do it in such a way so that it doesn’t come from any idea from me.  I believed that if it was His will I could get pregnant on my own.  I believe miracles like that can still happen today!

About 18 months after my failed IVF I was sure I had a UTI one month.  I went to see my GP about it, and she tested my urine and there was nothing wrong with my urine – so no UTI, but I was in quite a lot of pain and discomfort.  My GP was convinced it was due to my endometriosis, and referred me to a FS again.  I went back to the FS that did my first IVF and he said that he was sure I do not have endometriosis, and that he thought I had IBS.  The only thing he could find was a polyp in my uterus.  I was not happy with his diagnosis and I decided I needed another opinion.  That is how I ended up with my current clinic.  The new FS did a laparoscopy and found stage 2 endometriosis and removed a polyp.  I started with my treatments in earnest again.  We have done a laparoscopy, 2 hysteroscopy’s, 3 IUI’s, 2 fresh IVF’s and one FET to date so far in less than a year, all because I believe God sent me back to go for treatments.

I really wanted to give up all treatments after my failed FET.  DH and I actually decided that that would be the last.  But I got some more hope – the FS said that he truly believes that I should be able to get pregnant; it’s just a matter of time.  He told me about a patient of his that only got her baby after 9 IVF’s.  He told me that when he worked in Denmark that they gave packages for 6 IVF’s and that the reason they did it like that was because almost all IVF patients got pregnant by the time they did IVF #6.  He gave me mostly just good news regarding my body and our embryos.  I had also sent a prayer request to Joyce Meyer Ministries as we are partners with them, and they had a dedicated prayer day for their partners on that specific day that we went to see our FS.  I saw the good news as an answer to our prayer request.  So we decided to try again, even though I was scared and felt like giving up so many times during the last few months.

A few weeks ago I got the book “Super.natural Child.birth” and then I learnt that infertility is not God’s will.  Children are his idea and He said to Adam and Eve: “be fruitful and multiply” Gen 1:28.  I saw there were many scriptures saying that children are a blessing from God and that God wants to bless His children.  It is not His will for his children to be barren or even to have miscarriages.

And finally I got this message yesterday.  Do you think it was a coincidence?  I do not think so – even the fact that the message had to do with God’s promise to Abraham that he will get a son, even if it seemed impossible, is important to me.  I realized God speaks to us in different ways – sometimes it will be through something you read in the Bible, sometimes it will be through messages received from preachers, and sometimes in your heart.  I used to think that He needed to speak to me directly in my heart, because I got a message like that regarding a friend’s pregnancy.   I was praying for her and her husband one day, as they had 2 miscarriages already and I heard a distinct voice in my heart saying:  “Do not worry about them anymore – she is already pregnant and this time she will not miscarry”.  About 5 – 6 weeks later she told me she was 9 weeks pregnant.  Her little is girl is 8 months old now.  She said that God must have spoken to me before she even knew she was pregnant.  So I was always hoping that God would give me a message like that about my own pregnancy, but I haven’t had anything like that so far.  Now I think that I was not listening, I was looking for my message in the wrong place…  I’m taking it as a good sign that I got so many positive messages in the last few weeks.

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