CHILD OF PROMISE

There is this not so old series that I, for some reason found myself repeating the other day. It’s called ‘Flash Forward’. The entire world blacks out for I think, two minutes and seventeen seconds, in which everyone has a flash forward of events that will happen 6months away, on a specific date at a specific time. Some people see nothing, in which it means they’ll be dead in 6months. Everyone goes into trying to manipulate their future either from not happening, or to happening differently. Some resign to accepting their awful future and gravitate towards allowing it to happen while others decide they’ll run away so that whatever they saw doesn’t happen as they saw it. Those who saw good things ride on that hope and do everything in their power to ensure that the future happens as they saw. Most people end up frustrated or even dead as they try to fix their futures. Come D-day, some events came to pass as seen and some didn’t.

In my walk with God, I have come to know Him as one who communicates with us of future happenings concerning our lives. He is a wise God as not to show us everything for we would all behave like those in that series, trying to manipulate how they will/will not happen. Depending on our spiritual maturity, He may decide to give dates or time duration and sometimes He’ll just give us a small portion. Even with the little we know we still try to manipulate the future. A classic example is the story of Abraham. God had promised him a son and that through him, his descendants would be as many as the stars. After a long wait and seeing nothing, he yielded to his wife’s idea of getting the promise through the maidservant.

There are many things God has spoken to me concerning my life (that I am not at liberty to share with you at the moment). One of the things He has shown me is what He intends to do with the gift of music He has placed in me. That word kept coming over and over through personal dreams and visions, prophetic words from people, through a revelation in His word and even through His audible voice. Instead of asking Him what He wanted me to do in order to rightly position myself for what He was doing, I, like the people in the flash forward series, decided to manipulate it into materializing. I wrote songs, had meetings with top music producers in Kenya, volunteered to sing in gigs, joined a friend’s band, decided to join the church worship team, but nothing seemed to work. I finally gave up and went back to God to seek direction on exactly what He wanted me to do with regards to what He had told me concerning my music gift.

   

I had to let go of everything (all my plans and understanding of how it should happen), for God to work it out according to His plan. Both God and I could not take the drivers’ seat, one of us had to drive, so I gave Jesus the wheel. I made a conscious decision to allow God full control of my entire being. Not to say I have quite mastered letting go of control, but am yielded to let go as God points out the areas I have not fully submitted to Him.

So I quit the band, stopped all meetings with music producers, stopped volunteering to sing and submitted when my pastor told me he wanted me to join the protocol department instead. For some time nothing seemed to happen, then little by little I’d hear heavenly tunes and record them in my phone. After a while the lyrics to the tunes would come to me and I would write them down and record them in my phone. I know something great is in God’s pot!

God then led me to school of worship (which I recently completed), where I’ve learnt so much on music as well as becoming the kind of worshipper that God wants me to be. He then recently instructed me to present a specific song in church as well as accept the request to sing at my friend’s wedding.

They may all seem like small silly things but with God, they play part to the big picture-they are parts of the puzzle. It is faithfulness in the little things that brings about the big things. The big picture He has constantly shown me hasn’t played out yet, but I’ve purposed to allow Him to direct my path to the fulfillment of His promises in my life. I am positive that I will not shipwreck as long as I allow Him to lead me and bring it all to pass in the fullness of time.

 

I am saying all this to say that, we all have a choice to make; to wait on God’s timing or to sleep with Hagar (to manipulate the manifestation of the promise). What you get (Ishmael) may look like the promise, but it’s not. The blessing of God ONLY comes through the child of promise. That is, what is born of Him, not what is born out of our human wisdom.

Nor are all of Abraham's descendants the children of God. God said to Abraham, "It is through Isaac that you will have the descendants I promised you."

This means that the children born in the usual way are not the children of God; instead, the children born as a result of God's promise are regarded as the true descendants.

{Romans 9:7-8 GNB}

So, you may manipulate things (your business, your children, your relationships, your job, your marriage etc.) into happening your own way - the promise coming through your own wisdom, but guess what, God is not in it. His blessing only comes through His promise; manifesting in His own way and in His own timing. God never breaks his promises, He fulfills every word He speaks {Isaiah 55:11}. The problem is that we are too impatient plus we do not fully trust Him to do what He said He would do.

I, like Abraham have had moments of weakness where;

·         I’ve become weary of waiting year in year out,

·         I’ve for a moment  doubted God and questioned the realness of His word,  

·         I’ve allowed myself to believe I heard wrong and gone out to make it happen in my own way,

·         I’ve thrown myself several pity parties and played the victim,

And where

·         I’ve allowed people and circumstances to almost talk me out of trusting and waiting on the fulfillment of these promises.

I’ve on several occasions had to pull myself together and bury myself in the word of God, encouraging myself to go on, no matter what. Encouraging myself to trust in Him with ALL my heart, and lean not on my own understanding; to acknowledge Him in all my ways (to give Him full control of my life), and He will direct my paths. Or like the message translation puts it “Listen for GOD's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he's the one who will keep you on track.” {Proverbs 3:5-6}

God is a covenant keeping God; He is able to do what He said He would do, and able to fulfill every promise to you and I. May we be those ones who will faithfully wait for the child of promise, for truly His blessing makes one rich and He adds no sorrow with it. {Promise 10:22}.

If you’ve already messed up, go back to God. He is ever so loving, gracious and merciful. He will not only forgive, but also restore you. He will turn around your mess into something so beautiful it will baffle you that God could ever favour you that way!

 

Even when you feel like you are running out of time, or like conditions are not favorable for you, make a conscious decision today to fully trust in and patiently wait on God to bring about the child of promise, as He molds you so you can handle what’s coming.  God is faithful, don’t throw away hope!