My Month Of No More Barrenness

I welcome you to a brand new month of November, our Month of No More Barrenness.

“And Isaac intreated the Lord for his wife, because she was barren: and the Lord was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.” Gen 25:21 KJV.“Isaac pleaded with the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was unable to have children. The Lord answered Isaac’s prayer, and Rebekah became pregnant with twins. “Gen 25:21 NLT. I am pleading with God on behalf of someone this month, there shall no more be barrenness in your life in Jesus name. All forms of barrenness physical, mental spiritual academic, entrepreneurial, financial shall come to an end in Jesus name.

Barrenness is not new.

There are at least seven women in the Bible who were initially childless (also referred to as barren). Six of these seven finally did have children after several years, except Mical. In Old Testament times it was a shame for a wife not to bear children (be childless) for her husband. Although many times it was the female in the marriage who was physically incapable of bearing kids, there were no doubt instances where it was the male who could not engender offspring. The first woman listed as being childless (barren) was Sarai, the wife of Abraham, who was later renamed Sarah. She waited until she was in her nineties before she bore Isaac which means laughter. Other women that could not bear children early in their marriages are; Rebecca, Rachel, Mrs. Manoah, Hannah, Michal and Elizabeth. Bareness was not mentioned in the New Testament. It will no more be mentioned in your life.

What is barrenness? Barrenness means incapable of producing offspring, seed, or fruit. Inability to support growth. Unproductive. Unfruitfulness. Lacking in stimulation of ideas. Primary infertility refers to the inability to give birth either because of not being able to become pregnant, or to carry a child to live birth, which may include miscarriage or a stillborn child. Secondary infertility refers to the inability to conceive or give birth when there was a previous pregnancy or live birth. Barrenness is the opposite of fruitfulness. It is beyond having physical children. When somebody’s life does not yield desired result, it is barrenness. Jesus cursed a tree that was barren. Mk 11:12-25.

Types of Barrenness.

When we think of barrenness, most people automatically think of a woman who cannot have a child or of a dry, barren land. But in the Scriptures the term ‘barrenness’ is not limited to the realm of the biological or the landscape. There are different facets and levels of barrenness: Biological, territorial, financial, professional, mental, ministerial, personal, academic, to mention a few. Any field of endeavor where one’s expectation of fruitfulness is not materializing could be regarded as barrenness. I am reiterating this so that we can address them the way physical barrenness will be handled.

Isaac and Ismael Compared

The story of Isaac is well known. He was the promised child. He grew up in a dysfunctional home. His father Abraham was a friend of God. He was called of God with a wonderful promise to form a nation. “And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt

be a blessing:” Gen 12:2. Abraham was a pioneer of faith , he had nobody to learn from, he did not understand why God will make a promise now and it will be delayed. He did not realize that there’s a process to receiving the promises of God. Between the promise and the palace, there is the process. Abraham was not taught that between the promise and the promised land there is a wilderness. This led to the costly mistake of having Ishmael before Isaac.

The story of Isaac and Ishmael reminds me of the story of a father who had two sons. The father we were told was a drunkard, who abused his wife severally and did not care about the children. Nevertheless, when the children grew up one was a fine gentleman and the other was a brute and reckless person. When both of them were interviewed the brute said he was into that life style “because of his father” -that his father treated the mum very badly. The second one also responded he is living a clean life “because of his father”. He stated he promised himself he will not follow his father’s ugly life style. It’s true Ishmael means wild and spiritually is not the promised child, he might have noticed the way Abraham treated his mum - drove her away with a bottle of water and so he went and formed a generation of “wild people” many of whom till today sight reasons to abuse their wives.

On the other hand, the Holy Spirit made me to see the life of Isaac who like the other son said I saw the struggles of my father, I will not go through that route. He must have noticed that father Abraham had a little famine in Bethel and ran to Egypt. Gen 4:12; father had a delay in having children because Mom was barren, he married Hagar and had a child through her. Isaac had the challenge of famine, he was tempted to go to Egypt again, God warned him and he obeyed. Today we read in our text that Isaac’s wife also was barren!