Hi all,
Back in 1977, more than a year before we were married, Barb and I received a prophecy from a friend that our marriage would be like the mature, fruit-laden tree in Psalm 1: 3:
“He will be like a strong tree planted by rivers of water that brings fruit in its season. His leaves will not wither and whatever he does will prosper.”
That described our marriage in the mature form before we were even married. The Lord tells us the vision as the mature, and complete form of what it can be.
We didn’t know the character growth, failures, and successes that would be required to see that mature marriage in its fullness. We didn’t see the hardships between that word and the mature marriage. We’ve always been faithful to one another, but we’ve had many hardships along the way.
That’s the trouble with the Lord.
When He gives a word, it is of the finished, mature work. He doesn’t tell you what you’ll have to go through to see it completed. When the Lord God* appeared to Abram in Genesis 15: 1-6, it says He “brought him forth abroad, and said, ‘Look at the heavens, see if you can count the stars. That’s how many your offspring will be.'”
*Lord God in Hebrew is Yahweh Elohim. That is to say, out of the Elohim (Gods) came forth Yahweh as the Yahweh Elohim to be involved with mankind. By 300BC, not wanting to take His name in vain, they removed the vowels from Yahweh to make YHWH, which is unpronounceable. The Latin version of Yahweh is Jehovah.
Offspring as numerous as the stars. That was the finished vision, the completed plan. At that point in time, Abram and Sarai had no children. But the Lord God showed him the finished vision. The Lord did not tell them what they would have to go through to get to that finished vision.
Helping God
When the Lord showed Abram in Genesis 15 that his offspring would be as the stars in the sky, He also told him his heir would come from his own body. He said nothing of Sarai. Sarai had never been able to conceive, and when the Lord appeared to Abram she was well past the season of childbearing.
The very next chapter, 16, opens with Abram and Sarai talking about how God’s promise would happen. Based on the partial information that Abram would be the father, Sarai suggests Abram make a baby with Hagar. He obeyed his wife, resulting in Ishmael. (16:1-15)
In the next chapter, 17, the Lord appears to both of them and adds new information: Sarai will have a baby, and YHWH will change their names as part of the covenant. In a covenant, each covenant head often takes the name of the other as their own. Today, for example, in marriage most often the wife takes the name of her husband. We see this also in the fact we are called Christians, which means ‘belonging to Christ.’ We have taken on His name, and He has taken us as His own.
In this case, the Lord took one H from YHWH to make Abram, Abraham. He took the other H from His name to turn Sari into Sarah – the H sound is an exhaled breath, the breath of God breathing into their bodies to bring them to life so Sarah could conceive and be delivered of Isaac.
When He gave the H’s from His name to Abraham and Sarah, He did not lose the H’s but retained them, bringing Abraham and Sarah into oneness with Him—both God and man sharing the H, the breath of Life, the Spirit of God. Paul would later write of this oneness in I Corinthians 6:17: “He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit.” Later, Abraham would be called upon to do his part; offering his son of promise, Isaac.
You can’t blame them for trying to help God
They didn’t know it was partial information because Lord God told him the completed vision: “Your descendants will be in number like the stars.” Based on the finished vision but given just partial information, they tried to figure out how the Lord God would make it happen and ‘help’ the vision. Many of us have tried to figure out how God was going to do it, and then used our own resources, skills, and talents to ‘help’ the vision come to pass.
A young pastor received a word that he will have a radio and TV ministry, so within a month, he spent all his money, including his mortgage and car payment money, on buying radio and TV time on a Christian TV network. He came to me distraught 30 days later because he had been on the air a month and hardly any money came in through the mail to support his radio and TV shows, and they were going to kick him off the TV for lack of payment. He tried to make it happen, birthing an Ishamel, instead of letting God bring it to pass.
A couple has on their heart and have received prophecies, to buy a guest ranch as a place for pastors, missionaries, and those damaged by the world can come and relax, recharge, and be restored. They sell their home and property in one state and move to a state where the cost of living is lower. They buy a farm, turn the barn into a church, remodel and build several cabins, using the last of their money. They wonder where is God’s support? Their efforts to get local churches to contribute monthly support fail. They are left confused. I’ve seen this scenario at least 6x over the years. They tried to figure out how God would make it happen, then created their own Ishmaels, instead of letting the Lord make it happen.
Our human spirit being one with God, is full of creativity
Our spirit, the human spirit, is capable of creative visions and dreams. We see the vision and then, based on partial information, make an Ishmael and fail. Abram and Sarai mixed 1 part information from God and 1 part what they could do in the natural to make it happen, and made a mess of things.
The ditches along the highway of holiness are filled with people who received God’s vision, have caught the vision in their spirit and imagination, then tried to think how it would come to pass and set about making it happen. The result is always a failure, but we must allow Him to bring it to fruition; we cannot make it happen.
How many of us have had ideas for amazing inventions, innovations that would greatly improve our workplace, or products that meet a need? The idea ‘pops’ into our mind, we perceive it is of our spirit, and our imagination runs with what it can be…that is all part of being one with Christ. We have SO much creativity in our spirits; we can see the finished form and how it will help people, and we can see how it would make money. But is it God telling us to do it?
That’s for next week, and, hindrances to the vision. Until then, blessings,
John Fenn
