God promised Abraham and Sarah a child. But as the years went
by, nothing happened. As the years of childbearing passed, they began to wonder how God
could ever fulfill His promise. They reasoned and agonized for months and finally decided
that they had to give God a helping hand.
As a result of their own carnal reasonings, they did what a lot of us do today when we
have a faith-crisis, they came up with their own plan. It was to employ Sarah's servant
girl, Hagar, as a surrogate mother. The child Abraham fathered by her was named Ishmael.
We don't like to admit it, but today this same kind of thing still happens-even in our
church business meetings and missions work, in our fund-raising appeals from the pulpit,
and in our communications. We can't wait for God, so we do things our way. And then like
Abraham, we seek God's blessings on our efforts. . .
Ishmael was born to Abraham when he was eighty-six years old. In Genesis 17:1 we find that
Abraham is now ninety-nine years old and obviously impotent. Now the chosen time has come
for God to act. There was nothing left in Abraham-absolutely nothing that could help him
or Sarah to have a son. The Bible says she was ninety, well past her childbearing years as
well. Isaac was to be born miraculously so all could see that this new race was a people
of grace, created by the grace and mercy of God.
As God's people for this present age, we must also forsake our Ishmaels and be circumcised
in our hearts. Only as we learn to depend on God will we father no more Ishmaels of our
own. How dare we run to the world for their expertise as if God is helpless to do His
work? I am convinced that we have been deceived by the powers of darkness. For too many
years, we've been transferring our faith from God to the methods of modern business,
management, marketing and science. No wonder we're not praying today. No wonder we're not
spending nights in prayer waiting for God to show us His plan. No wonder the authority,
power and glory of God are gone from our assemblies and missions. No wonder we're victims
of every new fad, philosophy and pseudo-theology that comes along. Our dependency on self
is producing a twentieth-century baby boom of Ishmaels!
Reference Used: The Road To Reality by K.P Yohannan
From: A Revival Source Center