When purpose is out of reach….

“And Bilhah became pregnant and bore Jacob a son.

And Rachel said, God has judged and vindicated me,

and has heard my plea and has given me a son; so she

named him Dan [judged].

And Bilhah, Rachel’s maid, conceived again and bore

Jacob a second son.

And Rachel said, with wrestling [in prayer to God]

I have struggled with my sister and I have prevailed;

so she named him [this second son Bilhah bore]

Naphtali [struggled].

Genesis 30:5-8

 

I am sad to say this but Rachel was wrong! God had not yet

answered Rachel’s prayer for a child! She may of thought

God was answering her prayer but He really hadn’t. God

would answer her prayer by giving her Joseph and

Benjamin. So what was happening here?

How did she get so lost concerning what God had promised

her?

 

First, there was Leah, she was giving Jacob sons, a lot of

sons…..haha

In her day that was a good thing. Everything was going

right for her in that respect and she needed it to go right

because her husband Jacob loved Rachel more but she

was unable to give him children.

 

It must of been hard for Rachel. She was being taunted

by her sister most probably. She was looked down by the

community for not being able to bear children and to make

it worse, her prayers to God didn’t seem like they were being

heard. So she did what a lot of us do, she settled. She settled

for whatever came! The deception was so bad

that she thought God was answering her prayer through her

maid. Jacob was having sex with Rachel’s maid who was

bearing children and Rachel thought, God was answering her

prayers!!

 

I don’t blame her at all. I understand totally! I remember a time

I prayed to God for something and I got something close to

what I was praying for and I settled. I told myself God answered

my prayer but I was wrong. I deceived myself. But that’s not even

the crazy thing about this whole situation,

 

I had settled a lot!!!!

 

It’s crazy to think but I have done that so many times but God

doesn’t want me to settle. He doesn’t want you to settle. An

answered prayer is not “almost getting it”, or “it’s close

to the thing I prayed for so it’s all good”.

So in Rachel’s case, an answered prayer was giving birth to

Joseph and Benjamin! Nothing less would do……

 

Where have you settled in life? God doesn’t give half – baked

answers to prayer.

Don’t compromise on your standards. Don’t compromise

when it comes to God’s promises. He is faithful friends.

It can be hard waiting for God to come through but He

will come through. He knows you have been waiting. Like

I said in one of my previous posts,

 

“Waiting is one of the processes God uses to bless us.”

“Because He loves us, He makes us wait”

 

If you are discouraged know this, God will come through

for you. He will give you a complete, more than you ever

imagined, beyond expectation kinda answer!

Trust Him to complete what He has promised in your

life. It’s not easy but hold on.

God’s plan for our lives

will always be too much for us, but it’s like that because

God wants us to come to Him. He wants us to trust Him

and He wants us to realise He is the only One who can bring

what He has promised to pass. When it gets hard don’t

settle, trust Him!

He has heard your cry and prayer…..

 

Rolain

 

photo credit: google images

 

 

When you look at what is in your hands…..

I have been looking at my life and all the things that

need to be done. I have seen the plans I have and the

things I want to do and have realized things are not

adding up.

I am not earning the salary that will help me get all the

things I need, that will get me to the places I want to

go.

In other words, I don’t have much in my hands as far

as resources are concerned. Money, knowledge, skill

and so on.

But does that mean I should give up?

Does that mean I should dream small?

Does that mean I should change the way I pray?

Does that mean I have to abandon some things?

 

You might be in the same boat as me. You look

at your life and you don’t have enough. You don’t

have much in your hands. What do you do?

Some people tend to make their dream smaller.

They pray pocket sized prayers to fit what they

see in their hands but is this what God wants us

to do????

 

As I was thinking about all this I realized something,

God doesn’t want us to down size anything!

He didn’t make a mistake when He gave us the desires

that are in our hearts.

So for example,

If I have a desire to travel the world but I don’t have the

money right now it doesn’t mean I should abandon the dream!

The enemy would like us to give up on the dreams that

have been planted in our hearts but don’t.

 

God is not looking at what is in your hands to bless you.

He is not waiting for you to get everything in order so

He can bless you! (We are surely doomed if He is waiting

for us to get ourselves sorted out!) He is not waiting for

you to get the right salary so He can start opening doors

for you…!!! Get that kind of thinking out of your head right

now. It will stop you from getting God’s best!!!

 

You must stop looking at what’s in your hand if you

want God to move and bless you!

 

Jesus looked up and saw a crowd of people coming

toward Him. He said to Philip, “where can we buy

enough bread for all these people to eat?”

He asked Philip this question to test him. Jesus

already knew what He planned to do.

Philip answered, “we would all have to work a

month to buy enough bread for each person here

to have only a little piece!”  John 6:5-7

 

I feel like this is my story. Situations happen

in my life and Jesus is asking, “where can we

buy enough bread for all these people to eat?”

And I keep making the mistake of looking at what

is in my hand!

What do you do when He asks you that question?

Philip did the same thing. He knew that Jesus was the

Messiah but what was the first thing he did? He looked at

what was in his hands!!!

The truth is, JESUS already knows what He has planned

to do!

He is testing you so you can look to Him! He has so

much in store for you but all those things are in

a realm that are way beyond your capabilities in

every sense of the word!

I am here to say, stop looking at what you have

in your hands!

Your life may not be adding up, you don’t have the

slightest idea where you are going to get money

to go to university, you don’t have an inkling of

how you are going to start that business, you don’t

have enough money to take care of your family.

I am here to encourage you to look to the Lord!

He knows what He has planned to do in your life.

No matter how impossible your situation seems

He knows what He is going to do.

 

Then Elisha said, Hear the word of the Lord.

Thus says the Lord: Tomorrow about this time

a measure of fine flour will sell for a shekel and two

measures of barley for a shekel in the gate of

Samaria!  2 Kings 7:1

 

The Israelites were under siege by the Samarians

with no hope of escape. Food had run out, so things

were getting really bad. Israel was in a really bad

situation. There was no one to turn to. There was

no help coming but despite all those undeniably difficult

circumstances the man of God declares a word. It was

in-conceivable to think everything would be back to normal

the next day.

 

Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned  answered

the man of God and said, If the Lord should make windows

in heaven, could this thing be? But Elisha said, You shall

see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it.  

2 Kings 7: 2

 

The captain looked at what was in his hand. He heard the

word of the Lord but instead of trusting the word

from God he looked at what was in his hand.

The lesson can’t be any clearer. Look to the Lord who

knows what He is going to do. Our job is not to figure

out the “how”. Our job is to trust in the Lord with

all of our hearts even if things don’t make sense.

As sons and daughters of God let us start taking our

focus off what is in our hands and instead looking

to God……….

Rolain

 

 

 

 

 

 

What happened when God said, Yes!!!

“They set out and went to Bethel to inquire of God. The people of Israel said, “Who of us shall be first to

 go into battle with the Benjaminites? God said Judah goes first.” 

The people of Israel marched out against Benjamin and took up their positions, ready to attack Gibeah.

But the Benjaminites poured out of Gibeah and devasted twenty-two Israelite divisions on the ground. 

The Israelites went back to the sanctuary and wept before God until evening. They again inquired of God,

 Shall we again go into battle against the Benjaminites, our brothers? 

God said, Yes, Attack. 

 

And they again inquired of God. The Chest of God’s Covenant was there at the time with Phineas son

 of Eleazer, the son of Araron, as the ministering priest. They asked, 

Shall we again march into battle against the Benjaminites, our brothers? 

Or shall we call it quits? 

And God said, Attack. Tomorrow I’ll give you the victory. 

Judges 20: 18-28

 

This is a very interesting story. It is interesting because,

The Israelites were told to attack the Benjaminites and only after the third attempt were they successful!

THEY SOUGHT THE LORD for direction and it was The Lord who

told them to attack!!!! God told them to attack and they got defeated twice…… A lot of people were killed

during the first two attempts! Was there confusion, yes! But God told us to attack, must have been the thought

on people’s minds. Did we make a mistake hearing God’s voice, must have been another thought. But this is the

point, God had told them to attack!

 

I didn’t get it at first. How could that be? How could God tell them to do something only to fail? I asked

God to show me the lesson He wanted me to learn from this story. The lesson is this,

There may be things you are trusting God for. You may have even heard Him say yes, but that doesn’t

mean instant success. There will be times where you will doubt what God told you to do. But there is a reason.

God wants you to trust Him.

Just because God said “yes” doesn’t mean no problems and trials, and challenges, and questions. Keep on fighting,

Keep pressing on towards what God told you to do. You may be in a place where nothing seems to be working.

Maybe God wants you to keep at it. Don’t lose hope. He has not abandoned you.

You may have lost a lot as you followed what God told you to do and you are now regretting stepping out.

Your story is not over. There is a reason you are going through what you are going through.

He can be trusted…..

Rolain