The journey from barrenness to living in the fullness of the promise.
Our very first message this year was entitled – 2010 a Year of Breakthrough!
However, we have met a lot of opposition and resistance and have seen very limited breakthrough thus far!
Now, whenever there is a mismatch between the Spiritual and the Physical, we have to understand that the problem does not lie with God – the issue is not on the side of the Spiritual.
If I turn on the light switch of my bedroom and nothing happens – I do not declare that electricity does not exist, or that electricity has lost its power – I check the light bulb!
The wonderful truth is that once the bulb is replaced, and I turn on the light, then light immediately displaces the darkness, completely.
There is no contest, darkness does not put up a fight, or refuses to leave – light is so superior to darkness that the darkness is completely and instantaneously displaced by light!
Therefore I want us to find some keys from the Word of truth in our pursuit of breakthrough in different areas – spiritually, physically, financially, relationally, etc.
Virtually everyone here has received a word or a promise from God at some stage; yet very few are actually living in the fullness thereof at this very moment.
We know that the following are three different aspects: God’s will/word/promise, God’s way and God’s timing – and when things do not turn out as we have expected, we often put it down to God’s timing – and it might well not be God’s timing yet, but it might just be that something else is the missing ingredient!
Let’s spend some time in looking at what else might be the missing link between receiving God’s promises and living in God’s promises.
Firstly, we need to understand the difference between God’s provision and God’s promise:
Many of us have experienced and testified to the provision of God – supernatural provision falling out of the sky almost. (Examples)
Biblically, I am reminded of God providing for the Israelites while in the desert; Ex.16:4 literally reads: Then the LORD said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day.”
It literally fell from the sky into their serving bowls, into their laps and for the lazy ones who lay outside with open mouthes, it would have fallen into their mouthes!
In 1 Kings 17 we see again that God provided for Elijah: “The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.” (vs 6)
When God provides, you and I have to do nothing more than receive His supernatural provision – God is the active agent, all we have to do, is to receive.
*But God does not always provide, sometimes He promises!
Gen.12:1-3 God’s promise to Abram (Read)
God makes an incredible promise to Abram: “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
None of us will mind receiving this promise of blessing from God over our lives.
Listen to God’s further promise to Abram in vs 14 of chapter 13: “Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted.”
This promise is repeated in Gen 15:5 “He (God) took him (Abram) 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.”
*But the thing is that the fulfillment of a promise does not fall from the sky!
These verses contain incredible promises of great blessing and fruitfulness, yet the reality presented a very different set of facts:
These are the wives of Abram, Isaac and Jacob who were to give birth to the children of the promise – the offspring that cannot be counted:
Gen. 11:30: “Now Sarai was barren; she had no children.”
Gen. 25:21a: “Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife (Rebekah), because she was barren.”
Gen. 29:31: “When the LORD saw that Leah was not loved, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.”
God makes a promise of incredible blessing and fruitfulness and yet it seems impossible to even get off the ground!
*Right here, we have an immediate choice to make, do we believe the Word, the promise of God, or do we doubt, do we settle for something different, something less, or do we fight in order to live in the fullness thereof?
If something is worth having, then it is worth fighting for! (Marriage, children, employment, family holiday, a quiet evening with your spouse, etc.)
When it comes to a promise of God – like the Promised Land – then He expects us to want it and to be willing to fight for it!
In the promises of God there are always a co-labouring with God.
We will be successful, because God did in fact promise it, but we have to go after it!
God’s provision is like a gift wrapped and brought to you, placed in your lap, all you have to do is to receive it and to open it – the giver has done everything for you.
God’s promise on the other hand, is like a gift-voucher – you need to receive it and then to go and choose your gift – you are involved in the process, you get to play an active part.
Mostly you really like the gift voucher gifts, because you end up getting exactly what you want – you choose the colour and the style, etc.
Yet when someone comments on that beautiful scarf, you mention that “this is what I got with the voucher that my Dad gave me” – it is still a gift.
God also promised the Israelites land of their own – the Promised Land – and when they arrived they expected a beautiful wonderland of cultivated fields ready for harvest, lush pastures filled with herds of sheep and cattle, donkeys and camels, streams flowing everywhere, wells dug, homes built, infrastructure in place, yet somehow uninhabited – just a big banner with blue balloons on the sides saying “Welcome to the Promised Land!” gently swaying in the wind!
Deut.1:6-8 reads: “The LORD our God said to us at Horeb, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Break camp and advance into the hill country of the Amorites; go to all the neighboring peoples in the Arabah, in the mountains, in the western foothills, in the Negev and along the coast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the Euphrates. See, I have given you this land. Go in and take possession of the land that the LORD swore he would give to your fathers – to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – and to their descendants after them.”
They decided to send out twelve spies and could not wait for them to return with all the good news of abundance, after all, they have just slogged through the wilderness where God rained down bread and meat on them daily and where water poured from a stone, and if that was the wilderness, imagine what this place is going to be like – a permanent fun fare with swings, ponies, candy floss and a merry-go-round!
Then, after 40 days of waiting for the spies to return, they finally saw them, returning with the spoils of the promised land – carrying a single cluster of grapes between two men on a pole, and others carrying figs and pomegranates!
They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.” (Num.13:27-28&31-33)
Why? What went wrong?
They expected provision and they got a promise!
They expected a gift, but got a voucher! Expected land, but got a title deed!
They expected it to fall into their laps, not to have to go and fight for it – after all, God promised!
Only Joshua and Caleb seemed to understand the voucher-system:
“Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes and said to the entire Israelite assembly, “The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. If the LORD is pleased with us, He will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them.” (Num.14:6-9)
How do we cope when we receive a promise – a promise comes with all the backing from God, yet if misinterpreted, it also comes with all the potential for offense, hurt, bitterness, disillusionment and resentment: “But God You said…, You promised!!!”
And some even walk away from God, from the church and from the promises of God.
*We have to learn to be able to distinguish between God’s provision and God’s promises.
We have to know by faith that when God promises, He will come through – but we are required to co-labour, to go and exchange the promise voucher for the Promised Land, or the promised spouse, or the promised career, or the promised healing, or the promised financial breakthrough, or whatever that promise was – it is certain in Him!
Secondly we need to keep going on the journey, we dare not give up, we dare not settle for less!
We have mentioned previously that God leads us out of and that He also leads us into.
He leads us out of a life of sin and death and leads us into an abundant life in the Spirit!
He led the Israelites out of Egypt and led them into the Promised Land.
We dare not ever settle along the road.
When the Israelites did not trust God, they died in the wilderness, not entering the Land of Promise in that generation.
Now back to where we started: Gen.11:31-21 “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. Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Haran.”
Abram’s dad set off towards the Promised Land of Canaan, but settled half way, and no sooner did he settled when he died!
In the next verse God calls Abram, as we saw a little while ago, to get going again, to keep going until he lived in the fullness of the promise.
Abram went all the way: Gen. 13:12a “ Abram lived in the land of Canaan.”
There will always be forks in the road, there will always be choices to make, there will always be other voices of distraction on our journey – that full verse reads: “Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom.” – this is another discussion for another time, though.
We have to fight for the promise – when the Israelites eventually entered the Promised Land after wandering around in the desert for 40 years and an entire generation dying there, they had to fight for it – their victory and success was guaranteed, but they had to fight, it was a promise, yet it did not fall into their laps!
Abram was not only promised land of his own, but also descendants, yet we have read that Sarai was barren – “God promised me descendants as many as the stars of the sky, but I land up with a barren wife!”
Go all the way – keep believing God – do not listen to the voices of distraction that will tell you that you married the wrong spouse – stay away from your secretary, Hagar (Gen.16), stay focused on your journey.
Do not settle for Ishmael (Abram), or settle for Leah (Jacob), keep co-labouring with God until you live in the fulfilled promise.
Gen. 21:1-7 “Now the LORD was gracious to Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what he had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.” And she added, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”
I want us to note that it is incredibly important that we keep fighting – for our own victories in God, are also victories for our spouses; for our children; and for generations to come!
When God’s promise to Abram was fulfilled – it also changed Sarai’s life forever, and it gave life to Isaac!
Husbands we dare not settle for less – we dare not give up the fight – we dare not do it to ourselves, our wives or our children – God’s promise is always much bigger than us: “The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off – for all whom the Lord our God will call.” (Acts 2:39)
This brings as to the third principle – Inheritance – the fight should become easier for each next generation as they stand on our shoulders – as they stand on our victories, as they build on our foundations, as our ceilings become their floors!
This is a huge part of God’s plan – that our victories and our areas of Spiritual authority should be passed on and increase with each generation!
We have seen that not only Abram’s wife Sarai was barren, but also Isaac’s wife, Rebekah, and Jacob’s wife, Rachel.
Gen.11:30 tells us that Sarai was barren, Gen.12:4 tells us that Abram was 75 when he left Haran and Gen. 21:5 tells us that he was 100 years old when Isaac was born.
It follows that Abram and Sarai remained barren and childless for a minimum of 25 years, although it could be longer, as we do not know how long they were married before leaving Haran at age 75.
Gen.25:20 tells us that Isaac was 40 years old when he married Rebekah.
Gen. 25:21: “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.”
I love this verse, because it shows how Isaac’s fighting for his promise, a promise that even in itself was inherited, but it also meant that he was fighting for his wife and for breakthrough in and for her.
It sounds very easy though – he prayed and she became pregnant, but verse 26 places it in perspective, when it says that he was 60 years old when the twins Jacob and Esau were born – he had to fight for 19 years for the pregnancy, 20 years for the birth!
But part of the victory is that it was definitely a shorter time of barrenness than the previous generation!
Next generation – Jacob married to Rachel – from Gen.29:21-28, 30:22 and 31:41 we can calculate that Rachel was barren for a maximum of 13 years.
Each generation had to fight to see their promise fulfilled, but in each generation, the fight became easier – the breakthrough came sooner – 25 years, became 20 years, became 13 years, and eventually we do not hear of barrenness in the next generations.
We need to pass on the inheritance of Spiritual breakthrough to the next generation.
They need to be aware of the promises, aware of the fight, aware of the victories and aware of the ground taken – it is their inheritance!
What promises are you holding onto? What gift vouchers are you carrying with you?
What have you done with them, have you settled for less; have you stopped short?
Or have you become overwhelmed with doubt, fear, offense, bitterness, disillusionment?
If it is worth having, then it is worth fighting for!
The promises of God are always worth having, always worth fighting for.
Remember that your victories also become the victories of your spouse and of the next generation – their inheritance depends on your breakthrough!
“Sing, O barren woman, you who never bore a child; burst into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labour; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband,” says the LORD. (Isa 54:1)
