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12 Days of Prayer Week 11 Day 5




12 Days of Prayer Week 11 Day 5

Abraham Believed The Prophecy & Received

Rev. Dr. Teresa Allissa Citro


“The LORD had said to Abram,

'Leave your country, your people and your father’s household

and go to the land I will show you.

I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you;

I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing'

...So Abram left, as the LORD had told him."

Genesis 12:1-2


God’s call on the lives of Abraham and Sarah was an incredible one. There’s no mistaking what God said, and no second-guessing what God meant. Abram was married to Sarai.


However, years passed. Now Abram and Sarai were old. Abram was eighty-six, and Sarai was seventy-six. They took the logical approach. Sarai was too old to bear a child. Therefore, Sarai thought, “God didn’t mean for me to have a child. I now have a servant. It’s culturally acceptable for her to have a child for me. Abram, you go into her. Maybe she’ll conceive on my behalf.” Many people make huge mistakes based on cultural practices as we see here in this story.


“So Sarai said to Abram, 'The LORD has prevented me from having children. Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her.' And Abram agreed with Sarai’s proposal.” Every time I read this verse, I want to ask Sarai, “Oh my God, what were you thinking sending YOUR husband to sleep with another woman?” Was Sarai out of her mind? For me, yes! Never in a million years would that have been my advice to my husband.


Sarai panicked, and so did Abram. I’ve heard people say, “Abram agreed. He must have wanted her.” I hate when people add their own thoughts by making an accusation; there is no basis for such an accusation. This was a huge mistake that Sarai made. Wives, be very careful what you lead your husbands to do. God’s timetable hijacked by human timelines becomes the devil's tool of destruction in your life.


Hagar conceived and Abram became a father at the age of eighty-six. There was a celebration in the family except this was not how God had planned it.


Now, fourteen years later, there was another encounter with God.


“And I will bless her and also give you a son by her; then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother (of nations; kings of peoples shall be from her.” Genesis 17:16


See, God had made a promise and was specific about what was to come from them. It’s very interesting to me that God not only told Abram that Sarai would give birth but also, He was changing both their names to Abraham and Sarah. There are no coincidences with God. It’s very obvious that God meant they would have a child as a couple to fulfill this great promise. A great nation was going to be born through them.


Abraham and Sarah made a huge mistake by involving Hagar. They caused themselves a great deal of pain and left this world with huge problems of brother against brother, nation against nation. We are all paying this price.


It’s very easy to fall into this terrible deception of the enemy. Time goes by, and we think that we heard wrong from God. So, now, we move with our carnal self. We think we have to bring about our own destiny. It’s not for us to fulfill our destiny according to our own timetable and understanding. We move in His thoughts and in His ways according to His perfect timing to fulfill our God-given destiny.


Let me share part of one of the greatest testimonies that I have. Ten years ago, God told me something. I was completely shocked by what He told me. It was scary to me. I asked God, and I asked friends if they thought it was God. God confirmed many times that was His will for my life.


Meanwhile, I fasted and sought God because it didn’t feel right in my spirit, but God kept on telling me, “I placed you on this road. Keep going. Do not do anything. Just stay on this road. I will bring about that which I promised you." Imagine my shock seven years later when I was praying, and God said, “I’m removing one of the two from your life. Only one can bring you into the destiny I have purposed for you.” I panicked. I didn’t understand. I called my friends and was terribly upset by what I heard. Three days later, God permanently removed one, just like He told me.


I went into months of questioning God. “How could you allow me to hear wrong when I questioned this from the first day?” Just a terrible time that lasted exactly one year of questioning God. Finally, out of the blue, the head of a prominent denomination sent me at random a video of a preacher. The text read, “Teresa, I feel in my spirit you need to listen to this message.” The person had no idea what happened. I listened to that message. The minister called a person from the audience and the person he called out had done to someone what the person did to me. I was shocked.


The minister said, “You did this, and you caused this issue. And now you're not where you were meant to be. You completely missed the will of God in your life. Because of this, you have been suffering. God will forgive you and God will bless you in other ways. However, because you missed God’s will on this, you cannot ever go back. Now you are paying the price of this mistake.” The person started weeping. What that person did could not be undone. Please hear me. Sometimes we miss it so badly that it can’t be undone. We are always forgiven, but the consequences are great as in this story of Sarah and Abraham.


I’m trying hard to keep it confidential here, but you get the idea. God said to me, “You did not hear wrong. You heard very right. It’s the other person that sinned. They missed My perfect will for their life.” Then, God asked me another question, “Did you suffer one day being on this road? Were you hurt in any way? Did you regret staying on this road? Does this reject negative on you?” I had to answer, “No, Lord. None of the above.” God said, “I honor obedience. My hand kept you from all danger because you obeyed.”


Do you see what I’m trying to tell you? It seemed from a world perspective that I missed seven years of wasted time, but I didn’t. I was right where I was supposed to be. You know why? God had warned me right up front. “If you move from this road, I have placed you on, you will get Ishmael. You better wait for Isaac.” I was scared to death because of what happened to Sarah. She didn’t wait. She moved by flesh and got into trouble, not just her, but her husband, her son, and all of her descendants.


Bad choices come back to harm us. We can’t undo that which we choose to disobey God on. We must obey and wait. We will never miss the will of God when we obey, even when we don’t understand. Maybe those who were meant to fulfill their destiny with us miss it, but they do not stop us from fulfilling ours.


When God speaks to us, we must wait. We can’t jump to conclusions because it’s not done on our timetable, and we assume that we missed it. God has us on roads of protection. We don’t understand why at that moment. We must remember God’s wisdom has no bounds or limits.


God was gracious by confirming that I did not hear incorrectly. I just had to wait one year to understand, but a book came forth through this ordeal. God honored my obedience.


We have to learn to wait on God. My friend missed that which God had wanted. Regret, humiliation, embarrassment, and missing out was their portion, not mine. God protected me because I waited. Choose to do that which He asks of you.


Wait! Stop! Listen! Believe God.


 


 

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