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What it is like to have a desire met by God
Have you been asking the Lord for something for a long time? Do you believe your Christian life will be fulfilled upon receipt of it?
You and Hannah have something great in common. The Lord has given you a desire that only He can fulfill. He does that with each and every one of us so that we can see clearly what He desires for us. Let’s see how He lead Hannah to Himself and fulfilled His desire for her.
Our Biblical Ground Work: 1 Samuel 1-6
Around 1200 B.C., in the mountains of Ephraim, lived a man named Elkanah. He had two wives and loved one more than the other, Hannah (sound familiar). Pininnah, his second wife, began a rivalry with Hannah because Hannah was barren.
Elkanah brought his family from his city yearly to worship and sacrifice to the Lord of hosts in Shiloh. On this particular year Hannah was at her very lowest emotionally and brought her petition to the Lord at the tabernacle. She couldn’t eat and cried bitterly. Her husband was of no consolation and Pininnah was torturing her because of her barrenness.
She went to the tabernacle to pray, alone, to the Lord of Hosts to beg Him for a child, a son. “O Lord of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall come upon his head.” 1 Samuel 1:11
The Lord was indeed gracious to her and she became pregnant with a son. She cared for him and weaned him. She brought him to the tabernacle of God and gave him to the service of the Lord when he was approximately three years old. She continued to care for him by bringing him clothing every year. This child grew in favour of God and man. His name is Samuel, the greatest prophet to God in all of history.
Our Biblical Life Lesson: As His desire for you grows, so will your desperate need for Him.
There is nothing that we desire that the Lord has not put into our heart to desire. He gives us a deeper desire for it and the eyes to see that only He can provide it. He then rewards us with it and many more after that. Hannah was rewarded with three more sons and two daughters (1 Samuel 2:21) for going to the Lord.
Her great work for the Lord has never been forgotten. Hannah’s name means grace and it was God’s grace that brought her to the tabernacle to pray. And His grace that gave her peace as she walk away from Shiloh. He was with her all long. Using Pininnah’s chastisement to want Samuel more. Using her husband to drive her to the tabernacle to pray. Using Eli to bless her.
Every bit of it was God’s grace. I don’t know where you are at today but God is behind it all. What are your desires? Is everything happening right now driving you to desire it more? Come to the throne and boldly ask for it.
I invite you to come in deeper with me in The Bible Gals community this week as we learn the Biblical Power Tools for valuing our integrity while valuing people.
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Day by Day
There is no better story than the story of Jesus. He, not only told us to live in the world, but live in the Kingdom of God as well. The next best story is the story of our life. Our life should emulate the life of Jesus so let us combine our life with the life of Jesus. The story of His life should match the story of our life, minus one thing; the knowledge of God. We must grow in the knowledge of God, so we can hear what the Father says to us and do what we see Him doing. This is always easier said than done, but let us at least attempt it every day in our life. We will join the story of the gathering of a group of Christians already in progress.
A group of Christians were pondering the need to pay taxes to the government that was corrupt beyond measure. They talked with each other and prayed about their feelings when one of them was reminded, by the Holy Spirit, about a story Jesus was involved in. He relayed the story to the Christians about how Jesus was being test, just as they were, to go against the government. “Jesus didn’t gall for it so neither will we,” he said to the group. They all agreed together as one and paid their taxes. They gathered themselves into Christ on this day and did what they were supposed to do to leave a legacy of righteousness so when the fulness of time comes, they will be missed by all those they have touched. They are going to be gathered together by Christ on earth today and in heaven later. It won’t hurt them to bring a little heaven to the earth while they are here.
The legacy they will leave is the prayer and supplication they have sent up to the ears of God for their brethren and their neighbourhoods. They thanked God for the government and all they do to keep them safe as well as all the people who have crossed their path over the years. They pledged to be accountable for each other in the coming years that they would not put the world in front of Jesus nor their brethren. The Lord will be their Shepherd through all time until the end of time as they know it. They know they will walk a path not sanctioned by Jesus, but they have each other and Jesus to reason with as they find their way back. They have scarlet gowns they will put on sometimes, but Jesus will wash it clean in our repentance.
On their knees before the Lord, His thundering voice always appears. They do not comprehend the wonders of the Lord sometimes, but they trust Him to provide for them daily as they follow the path set out for them. Still on their knees, they beg the Lord to help them love Him more than they love the world. They ask if the lusts of the world would be removed from them that they would love His people more. They want what He has. He is willing to give it, day by day.
Romans 13:6; Ephesians 1:9-10; 1 Timothy 2:1-2; Joshua 24:15; Isaiah 1:18; Job 37:5-6; 1 John 2:15-16
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His Dream is Deeper!
The Tit for Tat!
Setting her mind on the things of Heaven is one thing but setting her mind on doing what is His way is another thing all together. Leola is working on doing the right thing and has not been able to learn how to set her mind on lining up what she believes with what she needs to do. The struggle in her mind is how she has been used by people before to fulfill their goals without consideration for her goals. It is that whole tit for tat concept; you rub my back and I’ll rub yours. Those concepts are getting Leola nowhere in her life and her bitterness is definitely holding her back. She gave up on her dreams and packed it in because she was being used by so many people to accomplish their goals. Her goals were not being accomplished. She still worked hard for the Body of Christ but not toward the dream she had. She really had no goals for herself anymore which was ironic to her since she taught for years having goals is paramount in our life. What she didn’t understand was her goals need to be transformed into God’s goals. She is rewriting her goals.
Years ago, when God lead Leola to begin teaching life skills, she was very excited to do it. She is gifted with teaching and writing. This was going to be easy to accomplish. She would do fantastic at it and make millions in no time, goal set! Then, Hope Devoted Life Skills Center for Women would open its doors in Essex County with those millions, and women would flock from all over Canada to be trained, another goal set. Franchises would open in every province and women would flourish under the care of Hope Devoted, the perfect vision. Then, Leola discovered the truth. Just because she had the dream did not mean it was going to happen. There have been too many times she worked hard to get somewhere and someone else’s dream advanced instead of hers. She is going to throw in the towel because maybe she heard God wrong. Maybe the dream she had belongs to someone else and not her, taking into account she has seen so many people advance in teaching what she had been teaching for years. She is watching many people succeed in their ministries leaving her behind. It does look to her like she is not going in the right direction. She can see that people are hardly having to work and are successful but she is working hard to get nowhere. The sound of failure is ringing in her ears so loud she cannot hear anything else but God will remove the ringing and start reminding her the old dream is about to come alive again.
Have you ever questioned your directions because it doesn’t seem to be going in the direction you thought it would? For several years I have been questioning and losing verve over my direction. God has kept me going thankfully but I had lost hope in the old dream. I have been praying for someone else to pick it up and was okay with mentoring someone else to do it but at least I was hoping it would get done. I did get to the point of giving up on it! At that point my heart was truly broken because I wanted to do it so badly. I began to pray for a new goal. What am I going to do with my life? Just sit in my Jesus Room and read the Bible? Teach one woman the Bible weekly? Run a retreat for seven women bi-monthly? I’m okay with this but I need Jesus to remove the dream I had from before because it is killing me not to do it! Then, events started happening regarding the old dream because of new events taking place. John 14:26 started coming to life for me. All these years I had been taught by the Holy Spirit the new things I needed to know so the old things I already knew could take place. I cannot describe the moment I discovered this to be happening and I cannot today describe the feeling but I can describe the knowledge. Jesus said it and it will be! I know that more now than yesterday!
The Deep!
The ringing in her ears turns out to be the Holy Spirit blocking out any other dream she is dreaming up. She is by nature a dreamer and the Holy Spirit had to step in to stop the dreaming. His plan for her had to happen and He needed her to stop all fleshly dreaming and start conforming to His plan even thought she was convinced it was dead. He has been showing Leola the direction to go, she goes and then He reminds her of the time He told her this exact event would happen. How impossible it all seemed to her from over there, but now that she is here, she can begin to see it happening. She is not as giddy as she was when she was young because she is more mature now. It has all spun into joy rather than happiness. Happy was she to be able to help women when she was young but God has matured her into someone who now sees the joy and the sorrow with helping women become women of God. It is found deeper in her soul rather than more of a surface goal. The goal has to be number one outside of the surface emotions taking place. She needs to keep the goal at the front of her mind and do what needs to be done. It is hard for Leola to describe the feeling. She now knows how shallow and fluffy her emotions and her conviction to be successful were about this deep task she is about to embark on. The Lord could not have that, not for one second! When He sends her to accomplish this goal He needs to know she is committed to His goal for life! He has made His point! She will wait in the deep because that is the only place Jesus is!
I am convinced on this day just as yesterday and the years before God tells us from the beginning what His plan is for us. Thankfully He doesn’t tell us what we are going to go through to get to the deep point where He can actually use us for that task. Sometimes, like Gideon, His plan is quick but then there are others, like Joseph, whose plan is far off. Each one of us has the Holy Spirit living in us and directing our plan daily therefore we can be sure, if we are listening, that He will do what He said He will no matter how long it takes. The Spirit wants us to know that He is taking us through the ringer to get us to the dream He has planted deep in our soul because His dream is deeper than ours. This week get back in touch with that deep dream and live in it!
Meditation verses for this week: John 14:26; Philippians 1:6; 1 Corinthians 3:16
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Our Weapons for War!
We are going to 1 Samuel 17 today to the story of David and Goliath. We think much about this story and the content of it because David is the hero. We love David because he is the underdog in this story but there is so much more to it for us to learn then just that. We are all underdogs compared to God. David displays that we are nothing in our own power but when God sends us to do a job He equips us to do it the way He wants us, in particular, to do it. He gives us our own weapons to fight His battle.
Saul is King of Israel at this time but God has already left him and anointed David to be His King. David knows he is anointed to be King but has become a servant to the man he would replace. God has positioned David into the kingdom but has not moved him into his anointed position. David had gone home to take care of his fathers flock when Goliath becomes a phenomenon to Israel. He comes out 40 days straight and taunts God’s chosen people who respond by allowing fear to overtake them.
Young David is told to bring goods to his brothers and the supply master by his father to the battlefield. Goliath, the challenger, was almost 10 feet tall and the hero of the Philistines but he is no match for God’s man. He was not a hero to David either because he was defying God. Saul, who should have offered himself up to protect his people only offered up his gear and weapons to the man who would kill this hero of Philistia.
God sent David into his battle with his weapons and He sends us into our battle with our weapons. For ten years I heard that our battle should be on our knees but for just as long I had no understanding of what exactly that means. My number one weapon was not prayer it was problem solving. Yours might very well be something else like love, compassion, nail banging or house building. We take what we have as a weapon and use it to solve problems but mostly in the physical world. Our enemy is in the Spiritual world. Once we become Christians we are given a great vision of the Spiritual world and it doesn’t just include God and the angels but Satan and his demons too.
Saul tried to supply David with his weapons to fight but David said he had not tested them but he knew what he had tested and they were tried and true. God gave him the weapons he was to fight this giant with and he gave Saul his. Saul chose not to use his. God gives us the weapons we are to fight with too and they are perfectly suited for us to fight the giant we are fighting at this moment. We are not to use untested weapons of war we are to recognize and use our own weapons because they are what God has given us to fight with. Up until this year I did not fight my battle with prayer nor did I prevent a fight with prayer but I did fight my battles with the weapons God gave me. He has given me a fantastic memory for Scripture! Those were my weapons but now He is giving me a new weapon. This weapon is mine alone and I intend to practice with it and get so good at it that I will be able to knock down any giant.
What is the weapon that Jesus has given you to fight with right now? Do you use it or do you attempt to use someone else’s? Spend the next day or two answering these questions then own the weapon He has given you right now and perfect it’s use just as David perfected the use of his sling. For the battle you fight is the Lord’s and your weapon is from Him so He can deliver your enemy into your hands.
