Reframing Inconceivable

Message by Peter DeWitt

Hebrews 11:11 says "By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised."

When Sarah first heard the word of the Lord that she would bear a son in her old age, she laughed at the promise of God. The Lord said "“I will certainly return to you according to the time of life, and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a son” but God's promise was INCONCEIVABLE to her!

It wasn't until she judged Him faithful who had promised that she received strength to conceive seed and bear a child (Isaac). She had laughed because the prevailing narrative of her heart was that she was barren.

When the Lord told her she would have a child she laughed because God's word did not match her own narrative of barrenness.

She had not yet set her seal upon this: that God is true (See John 3:33). She had not yet entered into covenant with God's words to her.

There's much we can learn from Sarah's faith process but one important question to ask ourselves is "What words or narrative(s) do I no longer measure, because those are the the words I am in covenant with."

Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?” And the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.” But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. And He said, “No, but you did laugh!”

So often in our Christian walk we don't see the fruit of faith and yet like Sarah we deny that we doubt.

Yet God can handle your doubt, your anger, and your process.

In the New Testament God does not record Sarah's doubt but instead the victory of her faith that caused her to become a mother of many nations.

The most major breakthroughs in our walk with God will come from a word that He gives us that at first in inconceivable. 1 Corinthians 13:11 gives us a framework to know how to battle through the process of faith to lay hold of that new that God is calling us into. “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” Paul described the movement from CHILD —> MAN and said that in order to embrace a new identity we need to ask Holy Spirit how we need to change our

(1) speaking,
(2) understanding, and
(3) thinking.

That is how we put away the old things.

When Sarah was barren she spoke as one barren, she understood as one barren, and she thought as one barren, but when she accepted the previously inconceivable word of the Lord she put off the things of barrenness and became a mother of many nations!

"What words or narrative(s) do I no longer measure, because those are the the words I am in covenant with?” Is there something Holy Spirit is speaking to you? Is it current inconceivable to you? God is faithful and when you judge Him faithful who has promised, you too will receive the strength to conceive of what He has spoken to you!


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