By Funmi Komolafe

Waiting on the Lord for children didn’t just start.  The Holy Bible has stories of women who were faced with the challenge .   Almost all the women who had it  broke through.

JESUS

Let’s begin this week with a    message by    Pastor    Busola Jegede    during a programme for women:  Daughters of Destiny.    In the message titled,    “ The Man Zachariah”, she made the point that whatever challenges we face, we must not stop serving God.

She made reference to Luke 1 (1-14)    which narrates the story of Zachariah and his wife Elizabeth who had been waiting on the Lord for children.
According to the Holy Bible, Zachariah and his wife,      in spite of the    delay in having children, continued to serve the Lord.

She told the congregation that believers need to back up prayers with faith.

According to Jegede, “ God cannot do anything without    your faith”. She advised that anyone waiting on the Lord for anything should    have no doubt.
Zachariah expressed doubt, as recorded in Luke 1 vs 18, when he asked the angel who brought the good news about a son on the way for him. He said, “ Whereby shall I know this, for I am an old man    and my wife well stricken in years?”.

Are you tired of waiting? No. You can’t be tired.

As Pastor Oso of the Laughter Foundation Cathedral, Lagos often suggests, pray until you get result.Several people in this situation have given up.    They stopped praying.    A lady once got so angry she asked: “ If God would do it, why hasn’t He done it all these years?” This is the attitude      of a person who has submitted to the challenge.

You should not submit to a challenge      no matter how insurmountable it appears.Another way to overcome    is to focus on the solution and not the challenge.
How is this done? Remain steadfast with prayer.Fast, sow seeds, make vows .

There are ways that can lead to one’s break through.Our responsibility-Something we must always remember is that nearly all human beings have one challenge or the other.

Whereas yours may be waiting on the Lord for children, others are waiting on the Lord for marriage partners , financial breakthrough, healing, etc.
Even some of those who have children have challenges. Some have children who are hooked on drugs, others have children who are out rightly disobedient.

Challenges come in different forms.

To have a breakthrough, focus on the Lord    who is able to do all things.
Luke 1 (37)  tells us: “For with God, nothing shall be impossible”.
Have your prayed to the point where    the Holy Spirit speaks to you?  Have you taken your prayer level to the point that  the Holy Spirit gives you  Bible passages ?
Has your prayer level gotten to the point that you sing from your dream to life?

All of these may sound strange but people have had such experiences and have broken through.We must realize that believing God does not begin and end with sermons of preachers.    As      believers, we have our own responsibility.

God has the final say.  Let me share with you, the story of a lady who I will simply refer to as Flora ( not real name).    This lady got married and  was pregnant within the first two months of her marriage .

While still waiting to observe the changes in her body before going for pregnancy test, she had a dream in which two women appeared to her and said “ even you are pregnant”.

One of them placed her hand on Flora and that was it.    She went for a test and it was negative.
She    continued moving from one hospital to another with the support of her husband.

While this was going on, she had another dream in which someone told her: “ You will never have children in this marriage”, but in the same dream, according to the lady, another voice replied: “You are a liar”.

The lady persisted, continued with prayers, worship and service to the Lord.Today, to the glory of God,    she is a mother of children.
Prophetic utterance -While waiting, what do you say to  yourself? It is important what you say to yourself. If you declare that you are a  mother, so shall it be.

The Bible says: “The just shall live by faith”.

Hebrew 11 vs 1 states: “Now  faith    is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”.
Prepare for the birth of your babies.

Take physical steps. Consulting doctors for physical assistance isn’t a sin but we need to back it up with prayer.In seeking physical help, we must also focus on the spiritual.

Place your trust in God, not on human beings. Whatever step the doctor takes would fail if the Almighty God does not back it.

At the risk of sounding repetitive, I reiterate that couples must remain united.
Habakkuk 2 vs 3 states: “For the vision is    yet for an appointed time but, at the end, it shall speak    and not lie; though it tarry,    wait for it: because it will surely come, it will not tarry”.

Be watchful –  To send this message across, I will refer to the experiences of two women .The first is a married woman who I’ll simply call Mrs. M.    She had a child.    In order to manage her home and career, she hired a maid who lived with the couple.

Unknown to the woman, the    maid was no ordinary human being. Mrs. M. had cause to scold her for bad behavior    and the girl told her principal’s  sibling,  who also lived with the couple, that    Mrs. M.    will never have another child because    of some forces ( known  to her). Mrs. M’s    sibling did not take the statement serious but that was the beginning of a new challenge in that family.

For over 20 years, she had no other child.    She moved from one place of worship to another.
By the time she had her second baby, while giving testimony at Laughter Foundation, she told her story and, by then, her first son had graduated.

We’ll return to this      issue in details      in subsequent columns..We need to discuss this issue because the    experiences  of some people have shown that    many of the spiritual    obstacles to a joyful home are the handiwork of human beings.

Were you at the Redeemed Christian Church of God’s ( RCCG) annual programme for women waiting on the Lord,    titled, “ Good News”, and   held on September 4?    If you missed it, you can obtain the DVD or CD and the Lord will give you good news in Jesus name.
Let’s continue to step up    faith, be focused and those who are laughing at you    will soon laugh with you in the mighty name of Jesus.