Stay.

So Abram said to Sarai, “Indeed your maid is in your hand; do to her as you please.” And when Sarai dealt harshly with her, she fled from her presence.

Now the Angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur.

And He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?”

She said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.”

The Angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand.”

Then the Angel of the Lord said to her, “I will multiply your descendants exceedingly so that they shall not be counted for multitude.”

And the Angel of the Lord said to her:

“Behold, you are with child, And you shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael Because the Lord has heard your affliction. Genesis 16:6-11

Hagar was running. She was running far from responsibility and from a place where she no longer felt like she belonged, nor was she accepted or felt loved. We cannot judge her! We’d feel the same if we felt this out of place. Hagar was an Egyptian maid to this family, far from home, and she was put in a bad situation. It was no asking of her own. It was her masters idea. I’d want to run too!

This is about Hagar and the by-product of abuse and wrongdoing. It’s not specifically about Abram and Sarai whom she served, but what this did to Hagar. God had made Abram and Sarai a promise that they they (Sarai through Abram) would bear a promised child but Sarai got tired of waiting and took matters into her own hands. Abram was to be the father but Sarai was to be the carrier. Not another woman, the promise was to be through them and we only cause problems when we go around God and not only for ourselves, but often for others!

I heard a message recently after writing this, on the topic of “right seed, wrong womb!” They caused a lot of wrong fruits to be produced from a situation than should have never been allowed. Nevertheless, God brought good from all the mess. Because truth is, we’re all a mess. It’s easy to say that Sarai caused the mess but Abram followed suit, just as Adam did.

We need to know what is right and stand up for what we know is right, and not give in. Otherwise, consequences come.

The Bible says that the promises of God are yes and amen, and that even though those promises seem to tarry, they will come. But only if we act and follow accordingly to His will and commands. It’s a promise If we follow but will not happen before it’s due time, no matter how hard we try to force it. That’s when frustration instead of trust comes in, and results from not being willing to wait. Gods already got a promise and a due date but often we grow weary of doing well, and therefore we wanna do or fix it all ourselves. We can’t make it happen. The problem is, no matter how hard we may try, we can’t birth a promise from a seed of sin. What we sow, we also reap. You can’t plant a bad seed and expect good fruit, or plant one type of seed and expect another type of fruit. It just doesn’t work, period!

So Sarai used Hagar since she couldn’t conceive and her poor (not so poor) husband who knew better followed his wife rather than God. That’s where we fall short, when we want to avoid confrontation and so put others before God to please them. We want to avoid strife with them but yet willing to put a wedge in-between us and our Creator. We are to put no one before Him. We are just as accountable for not doing what we know we should do as we are doing what we know we shouldn’t do! Just setting the stage here for Hagar! Stay with me….

So what happened? Hagar was gonna give birth to a baby (Ishmael) that was no doing of her own. She conceived. She felt like she had no choice in the matter which sometimes victims of abuse don’t. And then the fight was on.

It didn’t seem fair that Hagar had to bear all of this alone. After all, it wasn’t her idea and she didn’t have any other choice but to consent unless she ran. They owned her and fighting it would have not ended well. Where else was she to do? Where else was she to go? She was given to them as a gift. Sometimes we can stand up but sometimes innocent people are the tool and resource to someone else’s madness and manipulation, and they end up suffering for it if not handled properly. But there is hope! Take heart. It doesn’t end all bad. The world is fallen and we all sin and fall short. That’s where and the very place that God's mercy and Jesus’ work step in. Grace.

When Hagar found out that she was pregnant, she despised Sarai. What went from probably a good relationship, suddenly propelled into hate for her, for putting her in this situation. Ever been there? Love went wrong. How can you hate and despise someone so much that you once loved so deeply? Hurt! Betrayal! It came from a place that once loved and because love was taken advantage of, it got hurt. Where hurt isn’t mended, it soon turns to infection. That hurt will soon turn to hate and that hate will eventually turn to bitterness and bitterness destroys good. It doesn’t usually happen overnight but it can happen quickly!

What was done to Hagar was not right. It reminds me of the story of Leah. She was the one who was wrongly treated, though Rachel was hurt too. Leah did not have a choice. She was used and Jacob was tricked into marrying her! Not only was she used but by her own father! She was used as a tool in her father's hand to deceive and do wrong for his good. He used a good woman. Leah didn’t have a choice in the matter but later she learned she had a choice in accepting God’s perfect love and healing from that love that God showed her, especially when she learned she couldn’t make her husband love her. Unfortunately, it’s those we love the most that can also hurt us the most. We are all human, and the good news is, God loves us with everlasting love and He brings healing in the deepest places of our pain and most secret hurts.

So did David’s son, Amnon, take advantage of an innocent soul. He had his way with his sister Tamar and oh what scars it left. His infatuation with her seemed like love but quickly turned to hate and rejection! He hated her for what he had done! These are good people done wrong. Good people, not only in the line of fire but used for ammunition. There are lots of good people that are being used and abused every single day. The innocent used for hurting peoples tools and punching bags. Thank God that He never leaves us or forsakes us. My prayer is that this message will bring hope and healing to someone and in turn from that someone to many more! God doesn’t want us to stay that way.

There is good news and that good news is: God redeems and God pays back what was lost. Even though it may not be the original, it can be better because He takes and makes us whole again, and we learn compassion and to see things from a whole new POV. He heals and He is a God of restoration and wants to heal us from the inside out.

Jacob looked at Leah with a despising heart more than desire! He was cheated, tricked, and lured. He had children with her and did the thing you did in those days but his true desire was for Rachel. It hurt Leah.

I pose a question. Do we serve God more than we serve our desires? Do we desire to please Him? Are we willing to wait and work with Him despite what’s been done to us or do we want to run as far as we can from it (the situation at hand that we don’t want to deal with or try to confront, and still seem to make no headway!)? Leah finally desired to please God more than her husband and at some point, Jacob wrestled with God (an Angel) to get his desires aligned right.

The problem with this is, where do we run to? Where could we go but to the Lord? If we aren’t whole healthy and healed, we usually run into more trouble. The same kind of trouble, or worst! But I’m jumping ahead of myself. We don’t want to birth more Ishmael’s (Hagars to be son) out of more worst decisions. We will because they always spiral and it’s a domino effect until we seek God to stop it and over time heal. We will keep attracting what was done to us until we realize we are more than what was done to us. We are His. This leads me to the next part. Thank God Hagar had a God encounter!

Because Hagar despised Sarai, Sarai told Abram to bear her responsibilities and turned the tables on him. Instead of admitting her wrong and taking responsibility for it, she told Abram to basically take care of it. Abram didn’t want it either so he gave it back to Sarai.. We do the sin but we don’t wanna deal with the consequences of our doings. Often, someone wants to do wrong but doesn’t want to take responsibility for what is right or making it right so they make an even bigger mess by leaving it undone. They don’t want to feel the repercussions or to participate in the consequences. They want out easy but that’s not the way it works and that’s not the road to healing.

Sin has repercussions. No one can do our part or carry our load for us. They can help us but they aren’t our out. The fact is, seeds bear fruit and from one seed comes many fruit. It can be alot to try to figure out how to untangle and we can’t figure it all out or do it alone. We have to be honest with ourselves and honest with God. We have to dig deep and be raw. God will work with us and He already knows all, He just wants us to first confess it so we can then deal with it. What we don’t acknowledge, we don’t heal.

Sarai was mad because Hagar hated her for what she had done. Although Hagar wasn’t at fault, we are at fault for how we heal and respond. I’m sure she was only doing the best she knew how to do. She belonged to them and couldn’t escape that fact unless she ran, and she did. Which is what she probably wished she’d done in the first place.

We can run but we can’t run from our God-given duties. They will catch up and circle back to us sooner or later. Thank God Hagar’s encounter came sooner rather than later and God cared enough to meet her right where she was (in her running and wandering) instead of where she could have ended up. Things would and could have been worst later on if she’d continued on her journey. We will see that God was stopping her before it was too late.

Sarai had enough and told Abram that “may the Lord judge between you and me.” What does that even mean anyway???? They were both in the wrong. Sarai schemed and Abram consented. She wasn’t caught “in the act” but she was the producer of it! God sees every part and every party. The knowing. The willing. And the partakers. We can be an accessory to a crime. Don’t be a tool and a fool in the hand of someone own else or their scheme! Abram had a choice too.

Abram didn’t want the responsibility for the outcome, the situation, or the maid. However, I’d say he was pretty wise not to be part of that catfight. So, he gave that one back to his wife and told her to do with Hagar as she pleased. He was saying, “she’s yours, do with her as you wish!” And she did! What about Hagar though? She didn’t seem to get a say. She felt faceless, like she didn’t matter, she was only a tool and used. It didn’t feel good to be in the hands of someone who you knew now didn’t have your best interest in mind and hate would only grow. So she did all she could see to do, she left!

Hagar had to leave and go out, to learn how to come back and handle it the right way! God has a way of dealing with our enemies and our emotions, often through our obedience and submission. I’m not indicating to tolerate abuse or that it’s ok! By no means! But to take responsibility for our part, our duty, and our response.. Even if it wasn’t our fault. If we don’t do it now, we will have to deal with it later after it’s had even more time to grow. Sometimes that requires leaving and dealing on different terms but sometimes it means staying and dealing directly with the problem head on.

“If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble into a safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?” Jeremiah 12:5

In other words, how can we go onto greater which comes with greater issues or problems to solve, if we can’t face and work through what we are going through right now? We can’t. This is not a harsh statement but reality and God is merciful to the sinner and the victim. I’d rather tell you the truth in love than to let you suffer for what you wanna hear and I believe God would say the same. He loves both parties and He knows when we’ve been hurt, abused, abandoned, and done wrong. But that doesn’t mean he lets them get away. HE CARES. He cares so much that He doesn’t want it to destroy us but knows it will if we don’t deal. He wants us to be powerful and not powerless.

We must know that though we are forsaken by others, He promises to NEVER leave us OR turn His back on us. Often people leave us and disappoint us, but He never left. They turned their backs on us although sometimes still present, they’re not really present at all. Here in body but not here the way we need them to be. We can turn our backs on God but He will never turn His back on us. We gotta know this and trust this or if not, we will give up and give in if we think there’s no hope.

This is what would have happened to Hagar. It’s not just about what’s fair. The situation wasn’t fair but there was a deeper issue and God was going to help her heal by going back and doing her duty. He didn’t want this to become her identity. He had more even though it didn’t feel fair or make sense. It’s not about staying in a bad situation, but staying in God’s presence, peace, and will. She was going to learn something. We must seek God for direction and we will find it.

We too have obligations and a duty to God and to honor Him, and if we aren’t clear on that duty, then we will become obligated to the wrong people and things. The enemy loves to come into those precious moments, relationships, and duties and just muddy and mess them all up. So much that we see no way to repair them, so all we will see and try to find, is a way out! Sometimes it is the way out, to get out. But we still can’t run from healing. The truth will always find us at our next location. We must not run from God, but back to Him. That’s when the real healing can begin. Sometimes the way is back to where we started in order to finish the work that God is trying to and wants to do for us. Even if we don’t physically go back to a place, spiritually and mentally we must or we never get to the root and always carry the hurt as an extension which leads to more hurt.

He wants to heal and He finishes what He starts, but that requires us to work with Him. Don’t miss the main point: our duty, obligation and responsibility, and relationships, are to honor Him. Sometimes it just seems that it is to be bound to others and that they always get away with doing wrong, but we show honor to God by serving others! (Ephesians 6:5). Not for their slaves. No! But reality is, we serve God and whatever we do, we do as unto Him. Again, there’s some situations God never called us in so please don’t get that confused. We can be away from someone and still serve them mentally. Unforgiveness is the prime example. We are commanded to forgive and when we don’t, it directly ties us to the very thing we hate. We think we have control but it controls us and until we go back to that hurt and deal and let it go, it will always have a hold on us and us to them until we do!

Isn’t this how Joseph got moved up? Not by honoring his enemies and slave owners but honoring God IN THE MIDST OF it all! we never saw him waver through it all and in his commitment. He was resolute! Though I’m sure at times he wanted to give in. He did it as unto HIM, not them. They didn’t deserve it. God did. What if he would have ran or opted out? He might & woulda forfeited it all. All the blessings and promises! Again, All the promises of God are yes and amen. But, only to those who obey, follow, and walk reverently, and not recklessly, WITH God, and not against.

Too many rebels buck the system because they don’t like authority and don’t realize that ultimately they resist and displease God. They hurt themselves and they fall victim anyway. They become a victim and servant of their circumstance. We must not run from one bad thing to another. It doesn’t work. The way to God and His way is narrow. That’s His design and it’ll squeeze all the self that don’t belong right out of you, if you keep walking it. The broad way does whatever it wants and when, but it doesn’t lead to godliness.

Joseph had the power to stay and it was not sooner, but later, that and when he was finally rewarded, honored, and moved up and out! It didn’t happen quickly or overnight! Yet, he stuck around. And when you stick like glue to what you know God has for you even when all the circumstances and conditions aren’t always just right, you are where you’re supposed to be - Unless listening to this: “you know you’re not where God told you to be and that’s the most dangerous place you can be!” Joseph had a dream and that dream came true. I’m sure he stuck to what he knew God had shown him and he trusted it and it gave him staying power

It’s about sticking around when you don’t feel like it and where you don’t feel like you belong but know you’ve been planted there for a reason. It’s not about feelings but rather truth and life. It’s Not treason. See Queen Esther as a reference! We aren’t always placed where it seems we should be. We also can’t live placed upon feelings or we’d be all over the place. We gotta be firmly planted where we know we’re supposed to be until God says move. It’s also possible to get too comfortable and complacent and refuse to move, or to get comfortable in our misery. We must stay open and ready for God's plan and remain proactive letting Him lead us in every move.

God has the plan to destroy the enemy's plan and can use you but not you unless you will stick around to see. It won’t happen till it does! We must wait till the end, Till the punchline. Don’t close the book till it’s finished. There’s power IN STAY! NOT outside of it.

For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end, it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry. Habakkuk 2:3

Not a minute sooner. Not a minute later. On-time. God’s time. Wait. It’s coming due! We gotta stick it out! It’s possible to outstay worry and wear it out.

The smallest one will become a family of a thousand. And the last one will become a powerful nation. I, the Lord, will make it happen in its time.” Isaiah 60:22

There is hope and there always will be. We are to be prisoners of and hold onto it. Hope is an anchor that helps us to stay afloat and not drift when we have all reason and belief to dart. Help is on the way!

“Do I bring to the moment of birth and not give delivery?” says the LORD. “Do I close up the womb when I bring to delivery?” says your God. Isaiah 66:9

God's will isn’t always ideal or our will. It’s not usually comfortable or as we think it should seem. He clearly told us His ways and thoughts are not our own. We must elevate our way of thinking and seek to align with His.

God wants to plant us. When the seed is planted, we can’t see the fruit of it right away, but He’s causing roots to run deep in those deep dark quiet secret lonely places. He knows that’s where we grow best!

Hagar ran. She fled. She wanted to go far far away to where she felt wanted. The problem was she was an Egyptian, and what if she’d gone back there? Probably going and headed toward worst than where and what she fled from. Maybe God had rescued and transplanted her and knew If she’d endured here, she’d go to greater. It’s a transition and transformation process. The Israelites were delivered out of Egypt and the Red Sea was parted but didn’t mean it was the end of the trials. It was only part of the journey. We face many challenges along the way but we are grow through…

If Joseph would have went back to the homeland where his brothers sold him out, his dream WOULDN’T have come to pass. God didn’t intend for it to be that way. He was meant to be sold out. Because the blessing was in a foreign place. If the place you’re in is foreign to you, you don’t feel like you belong and it doesn’t make sense, yet you know you for some reason you’re where supposed to be, Stay! Don’t move. Get planted.

Sarai was very mean to Hagar and dealt very harshly so again, I’d probably have run too. God met her there in her scared flighty state! Thank God He meets us there! Right, where we are. The Angel OF THE LORD found her by the spring in the wilderness on the road to Shur. First off be sure you don’t believe every encounter but when you are met by the very presence of God, there’s no denying it.

He (the Angelical being) said to her, “Where did you come from, and where are you going?” He was saying Where are you headed??? Why’d you leave??? Seems like a silly question coming from a messenger from God, right? God already knew. He was challenging her to think. Didn’t Jesus ask a man who couldn’t get up if he wanted to get well? You think duh! Of course he does. But God knew. If Jesus hadn’t challenged him, he’d had no more reason to rise. He would have stayed that way.

God sees all. He knows all. He sent the Angel. He just wants us to think about it and question our why and dig deep. Not to run from our problems but rather to Him. What are you running from? Where did you come from? Where are you intending to go away from it? Where can you run so far from problems and thus only run from God, the only One Who can save you? Jonah ran. He ran from the truth but couldn’t avoid the truth in the end. It caught up with him. God loves us too much to leave us that way. Truth is, God wants to save you! If He doesn’t save you from it, He can save you in it! Running doesn’t help, it only distances us from the truth that we avoid, spiritually speaking.

And so she ran. And so she stopped. Thank God we don’t have to run anymore! Thank God we haven’t run too far that He can’t stop us and turn us around whether that be the beginning, midway, or the end!

The Angel told her to GO BACK! What and why????

She was running from her mean, cruel uncompromising, uncaring, unloving, non-compassionate, and out-of-control mistress. But yet He told her to go back. Go back and HUMBLY submit to her control. Isn’t that what submitting is? We can do it the hard way or the easy way. Again, Jonah did it the hard way. Facing what you can’t avoid and will circle back around until the lessons are learned.

If we aren’t humble we may submit outwardly but inwardly we hold back. If our hearts are not in it and our whole heart, then neither are we. We’re present, but not present and that attitude can’t please God! God knows the heart and its deepest intent, need, and desires. That’s why He loves a cheerful giver because it comes from the heart. If the heart isn’t in it, then it doesn’t make true lasting effect.

Don’t doubt that God loves you, even though the process is hard. The enemy wants you to see no way of escape and only doom. That’s NOT what God is doing through your compliance! No! So much more! God had a plan for Hagar and Sarai. She was only part of the story. He works it all (all things) together for our good IF we love Him and walk accordingly. He also had a plan for this servant Egyptian girl! We are still in the state that we got hurt in even if now we are old, if it happened when we’re youny. We get stunted there and no new growth, only deep hurt roots. God is in this story!

The Angel also told her that He’d multiply her descendants EXCEEDINGLY! God can multiply the blessings if only you’ll only submit and obey! He’s not just got one blessing for you. He’s the God of exceedingly abundantly. He manifested Himself through an Angelical being and loved Hagar enough to stop her from running from this trouble and into more. She was going to bear a son and that’s where she needed to be. She couldn’t run or hide from this responsibility.

He came to tell her to stop running and lookin’ for a way out. She would die out there but she would be under the blessing at Abram’s home. It wasn’t time for them to be separated yet: they’d have a part in helping raise the child. The way was back and in. Into submission. Right, where we need to be. Not to man but to God and that was shown through her willingness to comply no matter to who or what that looked like. She’d go back differently! Because now she understood to Who! To Whom she was serving no matter who she served or how they treated her. Something was different. Her outlook. Her attitude. Her point of view. That’s what happens when we encounter God and His truth. It should change us from the inside out and we should never want to go back to that old attitude again! Things would be different from here on out.

Lord change me from the inside out. Start within. Plant seeds of hope and dreams and give me a larger vision I pray. Expand my heart and mind to see things as you do. I open my heart's tent so that You can expose the wrongs and make them right. I roll back the curtain of my soul so that You can come in. I tear up any stakes of doubt or unbelief that I’ve planted that’s caused me to think, be and stay small!

For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he:  Proverbs 23:7

“Enlarge the place of your tent, And let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings; Do not spare; Lengthen your cords, And strengthen your stakes. For you shall expand to the right and the left, And your descendants will inherit the nations, And make the desolate cities inhabited. “Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed; Neither be disgraced, for you will not be put to shame; For you will forget the shame of your youth, And will not remember the reproach of your widowhood anymore.” Isaiah 54:2-4

We gotta get out of small thinking and mindsets that hold us back when we serve and exceedingly abundantly God! He wants us to make rooms and not to be so narrow minded and small because of our unbelief.

And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!” So God granted him what he requested. 1 Chronicles 4:10

It doesn’t matter where you came from. The truth is, you are His and He is the Same God for one and all.

Greater is coming! Get ready! Prepare! Open up your heart! The empty places will be inhabited by new growth! God is doing a new thing. He must plow us up before He can plant. He must tear up old beliefs before the new is established. Even now He is showing you. Do you believe Him? He’s able! Are you willing? Again, He’s an exceedingly abundantly God. He doesn’t think as we do. There’s nothing He cannot do. He’s not small-minded and doesn’t see things from our low thinking or POV! But He does see and meet us right where we are at so we can rise with Him. It’s time to rise and expand your heart and mind to His level. Let Him work in and through you. Expose what doesn’t belong and fill it with what does!

And the Angel of the LORD said to her: “Behold, you are with child, And you shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael Because the LORD has heard your affliction. Genesis 16:11

This verse says it all! God sees! God knows. He has heard your affliction and He has paid attention. What are you gonna do about it? Keep running or go back to your real hope and place of refuge. Stop seeing it all wrong! See your duty, not your hopelessness, and not your enemy. Have and keep real joy. Deep joy. Inside joy. Not temporary happiness. It’s fleeting and nothing good comes from easy. Joy is deep within. For the joy of the Lord is your source of strength. If there’s no joy in what you do, then there’s no desire, fulfillment, or hope on the horizon. Only doom and gloom, despair and defeat. But that’s not what He died to give! There is hope for the helpless.

Hagar would later on be sent away again. It be hard for both families to live happily together but God saw and met her again, there in the desert where she thought they’d surely die. God is faithful. Even when others aren’t, He is. Now it was time for Ishmael to become his own man. It was all part of the plan.

Don’t despair. He has heard you. He sees what you’re going through. He has a plan for your deliverance but you must cooperate. And the greatest part of all; you are not alone.  He is right there with you. In every season. Every question. Every hurt. Every doubt. Every pain. Every move. Every situation. Every place. There is no where you can run or hide/ He is with you!

If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. Psalm 139:8

He was with David in the field. He never left David even when David ignored his sin. He was with David hiding in the cave, in the palace, and to death. He cares about EVERY ASPECT of your life: every intricate detail, He is woven into every season. He knew your very end from the very beginning and formed you, and knew you before He even did form you. When Jesus was on the Cross, you and I were on His mind. He knew you’d mess up before you did and yet He made you, sent Jesus anyway and Jesus died just for you! You are a very important part of His plan. Every detail of your life matters. If no one else has told you, I will! I’m here today to tell “you matter.”

May we get it (this truth and fact) deep into our hearts and into our heads like Hagar did! God IS IN this story. Your story and His glory! Amen’

Then she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, You-Are- the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, “Have I also here seen Him who sees me?” Therefore the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; observe, it is between Kadesh and Bered. Genesis 16:13-14

El Roi is the Hebrew name for God meaning “The God who sees me.”

Isn’t that what Job saw? He lost almost everything. He took a look in the face of hopelessness. Then He encountered God for real. He once knew about God but now saw Him for what and who He was!

“I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, And repent in dust and ashes.” Job 42:5-6

We think we know but we really don’t know the true depth of His love that Jesus bore.

You’re the God Who stays.

“For I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth!” Job 19:25

He gets the final say.

El Shaddai

God Almighty!

You’re more than enough.

You can.

Beauty for ashes is what you give. The great exchange. Amen.