(My affiliate links for Amazon products are included in the post. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.)
I came across this, written eight years ago today, and considering the fact that one year later God told me to write my first Context for Kids curriculum book (affiliate link) then my Context for Kids YouTube channel and website, and now I have the Context for Kids radio show (airing on two stations and also on my podcast channel) and will be speaking to a homeschooling conference next month–well, I figured it was good encouragement for those of you still waiting on your promise from God. Or it could be your second or third promise because those trip us up too–especially when that promise comes from the dream of a scholar whom you have admired for many years. Not sure I even want that one to happen or how it would but then I never saw any of this coming or wanted it either.
****
There’s this phrase I use, not sure where I got it from, but someone undoubtedly coined it long ago. It’s a great one.
“Creating an Ishmael.”
I say it whenever our impatience causes us to jump the gun on the huge deliverance planned for us when it looks as though we have been cursed, or forgotten, or when we feel there just isn’t time left for God to deliver us from our circumstances and deliver on His promises. But I don’t say it with judgment or a scowl because the people who judge Abraham and Sarah harshly have probably never had anything withheld from them–possibly because nothing great will ever be demanded from them or come from them. I am wondering if I can think of anything amazing that ever came to anyone in the Bible who didn’t have to suffer and wait for it. Offhand, I just can’t think of anything really. Except that Adam and Eve got the Garden right away, and we see how well that went.
An “Ishmael” is what we create when we try and force a blessing, when we figure we know what form God’s blessings *should* take and according to what timetable they *should* arrive. Disappointment driven by sorrow and humiliation coupled with hopelessness can really push a person towards taking matters into their own hands, which is what Sarah and Abraham did when Hagar became a surrogate mother in a misguided and impatient effort to speed up what was meant to be a purely miraculous event.
In a perfect world, Abraham and Sarah would have welcomed Isaac into a world that never heard the cries of baby Ishmael. Perhaps Hagar would have married another servant and lived a more contented, uneventful life. But that isn’t what happened, not by a long shot.
Perhaps it would have, in a world where Sarah was not branded as a failure, either by herself or others, or in a world that is willing to wait for the fulfillment of promises. Abraham and Sarah have done nothing that we all have not done in one form or another, even if we do not see it. After all, how many times have we seen someone have a dream or a prophetic word that they decided that THEY had to bring to pass? I have been a part of two congregations where a building plan inspired by a prophetic word completely altered the course of a local assembly, and the course of a minister’s life, and not for the better. And the words might have been very valid! But fulfilling such things in the flesh, as Abraham and Sarah did, is not a valid option. You see, God does not need our interference when He has promised something, He needs us to prepare ourselves and wait for Him to make it happen.
About 10 years ago I had a dream that I have never understood the interpretation of, although my husband and I have chatted about it often. Last year, a sister of mine from Africa, who I have never met, had a confirming vision. I want to use it as an example of how we could have mucked everything up, and still might muck it up, for all I know, if we get impatient.
I was sitting in an upper room watching a movie on one of those screens they used to have in school, the ones where you would pull them down from above. The movie was about a man and woman who were raising 100 children, none of them biological. I saw their tiny little house, I saw toys out front, and thought about how much I admired them. As the movie ended, I realized it was about my husband and me.
At this point, we had our two children, neither biological. I was greatly confused and yet it was one of the most vivid dreams I have ever had. So, I tucked it away. Now what could I have done? I could have said, “well this means this and in order for this to happen, that has to happen, and I had better get to work.” Fortunately, a few days earlier I had left the church system due to the first of the two situations I spoke of earlier regarding building plans hurting a congregation (or in this case destroying the congregation) by compromising a minister. I had seen firsthand what happens when we assume and do not wait–we screw everything up. David (the pastor) didn’t have to do God’s work for Him, and I wasn’t going to repeat the mistake. But over the years, I started wondering as I saw nothing happening and I got older and older.
Then in January 2013, my friend from Africa, a minister, sent me this about a vision she had while praying, “I SAW A LADY WITH SO MANY KIDS, MOST OF THEM WHEN BABIES. YR NAME WAS WRITING UNDER THE PICTURE BOLDLY WITH CAPITAL LETTER. THE SPIRIT OF GOD WHISPERED TO ME, “TALK TO HER.”
I told her the dream I had had so long ago and that I had feared that in waiting, I had missed my calling in life. We were both very glad that I had waited and she had not waited!
Now again, I had a choice, but not coincidentally, I had just come out of my second incidence, a few months before, of a minister going forward in his own power who was hurting people and himself in the process trying to make a word come to pass himself—one promising an international ministry when, strangely enough, he already had one but I suppose he thought there should be more nations than just two. My choice, in light of these failures, was to continue waiting or to make something happen. I chose to wait, based on scripture and personal experience.
I think of my life over the past 10 years if I had rushed forward and created an Ishmael. Perhaps I would have become a foster mother, and maybe my immaturity and woundedness would have been magnified, and my spiritual journey stunted in my zeal to lean on my own understanding. Not to mention what I would have done to those poor kids. I know in my heart now that path would have been a disaster. But still–what does it mean? Who are my 100 children? Are they really babies?
I can tell you this, that when my sister in Africa confirmed the dream for me, I decided it was time to grow up in a big way. I decided something I was incapable of deciding 10 years ago–that those 100 children, whatever they represent, need someone to care for them who doesn’t have a ton of issues to inflict on them. So, I started preparing myself to be their mother, whatever that means. When I decided to change for them, things started changing for me. And a few weeks ago my husband had a dream where we were living in a tent that kept getting bigger with more and more people in it — which reminded me of this:
Is 54:1-2 Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord. Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;
And still I do nothing, except that my efforts on the behalf of my promised children have been redoubled. With every new reminder, I become more and more determined to prepare myself and wait for God to prepare the circumstances, even though the temptation becomes greater and greater to make it happen myself. Fortunately, after all these years I am still clueless as to what it all means, or I might have created an Ishmael already.
You see, creating an Ishmael happens when we start changing our circumstances, but creating an Isaac happens when we allow God to do His thing, according to His timetable. We believe that changing our circumstances is the same as cooperation and obedience when, in reality, we are usurping the authority of God. We are saying that we don’t think He can get the job done quickly enough to suit us. But the timetable is EVERYTHING. The time between promise and fulfillment isn’t the curse, it’s the blessing. If a woman only had a week between learning she was pregnant and giving birth, she would not be prepared to be a mother — UNLESS she had already spent much time in preparation before she ever got pregnant. That is what the promise is for, to give us the heads up to prepare ourselves, and not to make us hopeless and impatient. It’s about walking in trust.
Some promises, some “children,” are too darned special to be given to people who are not prepared. The longer the wait time, the graver the responsibility, in my opinion. Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Samson, Samuel, John the Baptist — great men who needed extraordinary parents refined in the fires of disappointment and the agony of waiting. How many years did David spend on the run when he could have killed his rival and grabbed the crown? There is no verse saying that God helps those who help themselves, but there is this one:
Is 40:31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
It is the ones who wait who will stand strongest, who will soar highest, who will run with endurance, and will simply walk. It’s all about how we walk. So don’t give up hope, you are not forgotten, you just may be being prepared for greater things than those who appear to have it all so easily but might only be succeeding through charisma instead of promises. And when you get it, remember to keep waiting and remain patient, because the next promise can trip you up just as easily as the first one. Just because we trusted and were patient once, doesn’t mean that our Isaac can’t have an Ishmael for a younger brother instead of an older one.
