Christian Living
Heeding the Voice of Sarai
Scriptural Reference Genesis 15:1-6, Genesis 16: 1-2
One of the fascinating things about God is that when he gives you a vision or makes you a promise, he does not give a lot of details. He only reveals to you the END result. You can see where you are now. And you can see your final destination. But you don’t know how God is going to get you there. You don’t know how God is going to manifest the promise. Abraham didn’t know how God was going to give Him a son. All He knew is that God said he would have his own biological son as an heir. Abraham took God at His Word and believed in the Lord and had faith that the promise would come to pass.
Later on, we see that Sarai, Abraham’s wife, made a proposal to her husband. She told him to go and impregnate her maidservant Hagar, so that she could build a family through her. Genesis 16:2B states “Abraham heeded voice of Sarai.”
It’s amazing that as close as Abraham was to God, he heeded the voice of Sarai. Why did he accept her proposal? Putting myself in Abraham’s shoes, I honestly believe that Abraham thought this was the way God was going to bless him with the son that he was promised. After all, God didn’t say that the son had to be born of Sarai. He said that the son would be biologically Abrahams. With my spiritual imagination, I can hear Abraham saying, “Ah Lord God, I see… so this is how you’re going to do it.” The bible does not state whether or not Abraham took Sarai’s request before God in prayer. Maybe he did and maybe he didn’t. But if he did take it to God in prayer, he obviously didn’t stick around long enough to hear God’s response. Sarai’s voice sounded so much like God, that Abraham proceeded forward with boldness thinking that this would be the means God would use to give him this promised son.
The bible states that God’s sheep know His voice, and the voice of another they WILL not follow. It does not say they CAN not follow. Although God’s sheep know His voice, we must understand that the devil also knows God’s voice. And in addition to him knowing God’s voice, he is the master of deceit. It’s interesting to note that one of satans many job descriptions is that he roams to and fro on Earth AS a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. What does a roaring lion have to do with God’s voice? I’m glad you asked…
First of all, let me clarify that the devil is NOT a roaring lion. He just acts like one. It’s the roar of the lion that causes many an animal to become lunchmeat. What does a roaring lion do? They first of all have to set their eyes on their prey. When they have locked in on their prey, the lion will crouch down real low to the ground and begin to roar as he turns north, south, east, and west. The prey does not know which direction to run because he cannot discern where the voice is coming from. So he stands there paralyzed in fear, listening to the voice until finally he is killed. The revelation here is that the enemy is going to send voices from all directions to try and get you off of the path that God has chosen for you. God is telling you to do one thing and the devil is telling you to do another. And if you don’t have a prayer life, you will end up confused and so paralyzed with fear that you are afraid to move. You become afraid because you don’t know which voice to follow. And if you go the wrong direction, you will find yourself staring in the face of an enemy that wants to devour you.
As you grow in your walk with God, the devil knows that you will do whatever God tells you to do. He knows that you know God’s voice. And being that God has done such a wonderful job of crucifying your flesh, the enemy knows that the only way that he can lure you in is to make you think that you heard God. So he disguises his voice. And you find yourself out there in the world doing things that God has not told you to do. There will be confusion and chaos around you and you wonder why God is not helping you. The answer-because he never told you to do the thing in the first place.
This is where Abraham missed it. Because he heeded the voice of Sarai instead of God, a counterfeit promise was born. This counterfeit promise, also known as Ishmael, caused a lot of unnecessary drama in Abraham’s life. Drama that could have been avoided had he not heeded the voice of Sarai. We CAN follow the voice of a stranger if we don’t take every single thing to God in prayer. I urge you to never get so comfortable in your relationship with God that you don’t pray when you feel you have heard His voice. Don’t automatically assume when you hear a familiar voice that it’s God. As the songwriter says, “Oh what peace we often forfeit. Oh what needless pains we bare. All because we do not carry EVERYTHING to God in prayer.”
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