Equipping young women professionals with young families to find fulfillment, contentment and joy as mothers and home makers without losing sight of who they are as women.

Volume 13, Issue 12: When God Gives You A Word Part II

This is a follow-on article to one of last week's posts. Please start with "When God Gives You A Word" then come back to this post. In that post, we spoke about how you know that God has given you a word, what happens in many cases and what to do.

In this and the in next two posts, we will highlight five examples from Scripture of when God gave a Word.

1. God's word to Abraham and Sarah (Genesis 12:1-3, 15:1-6, 17:15-16)

God promised Abraham and Sarah a child. That promise took around two decades before it came to pass. Abraham was 75 years old when God told him that he would make him into a great nation. The passage of time caused them to doubt and they tried out an alternative. Sarah gave her servant Hagar to Abraham to have a child for her. But this alternative didn't replace God's word. Ishmael, the child that was born to Abraham from that arrangement at the age of 86 had to be sent away.

God qualifies for his word. This couple didn't meet the prerequisite qualifications for having a child. They were very old and Sarah was barren. But that didn't hinder God from giving the word and fulfilling it. Isaac was born to them when Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah 90.

When God gives a word, he sustains it. It was through Isaac that God promised to make Abraham a father of many nations. When Isaac was probably a teenager, in a test of his faith, God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. After a display of Abraham's obedience, God provided the animal for the sacrifice and Isaac lived

2. God's word to Joseph (Genesis 37:2, 5-10, 41:39-44, 42:6)

During his teen years, God gave Joseph a word through dreams, that he would be a leader. What followed is that all that could go wrong went terribly wrong. His brothers threw him in a pit, then sold him to slave traders.

A slave in Egypt, Joseph was put in charge of Potiphar's household. But Potiphar's wife gave him a hard time and eventually falsely accused him of a terrible crime when he wouldn't give in to her seduction. And he wound up in prison for a crime he did not commit.

While in prison, the people he interpreted dreams for forgot about him when they were released. It was more than a decade later that God's word to Joseph came to pass. He became second in command to Pharaoh, and his brothers bowed low to him when they came to him in Egypt to buy food during a severe famine.

God fulfilled his word to Abraham and Joseph to the letter. When God gives us a word, nothing can stand in the way of it's fulfillment. Not the passage of time. Not our lack of necessary qualifications. Not opposition. God is able to override protocols to bring to fruition what He has spoken.

When God gives you a word, hold on to it, travail for it, pursue it, persist in it and keep praying for it. Refuse to drop the ball just because it looks like nothing is happening. When God gives you a word, don't give up on it unless He says so.

For His Glory,

Lillian Chebosi