DEAD VISIONS
1 KINGS 3: 16-21
Now two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. One of them said to him, “My lord, this woman and I live in the same house. I had a baby while she was there with me. The third day after my child was born, this woman also had a baby. We were alone; there was no one in the house but the two of us. During the night this woman’s son died because she lay on him. So she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while I your servant was asleep. She put him by her breast and put her dead son by my breast. The next morning I got up to nurse my son -and he was dead! But when I looked at him closely in the morning light, I saw that it wasn’t the son I had borne.”
There was a case in the newspapers of a woman who decided to steal another woman’s child in a hospital where the two had gone for maternity services. Funny enough, the two had children of different sexes; one had a baby girl while the stolen one was a boy. It was this time, after reading the story that I realized the similarity of the story to the one quoted above in the devotion. In Africa, male children are valued as a ‘valuable asset’ in some societies. A man who has male children is highly esteemed than one who has daughters though the trend is slowly changing hands. Some men divorce simply because their wives have ‘refused’ to bear male children. Others have really struggled to an extent that their wives have become exhausted from bearing children as their husbands search for male children.
People should know that children come from the Lord and He gives them at His own time. Women who have female children should learn to accept their gifts of girls, for there are some who do not even have children. Men should largely accept the fact that the sex of the child largely relies on them according to science. Some women who have girl children are traumatized. It is even worse for those who are barren. The fingers are pointed at that mamma who doesn’t bear children even if the problem is with the man. Men tend to think of getting an extra wife, others marry as others get involved in extramarital affairs so that they can bear children. How sad.
In 1 Kings 22:29-33, Jehoshaphat went and fought another kings battle. He ended up crying out like a baby. This is a situation I was likening to those Christians who take other people’s visions and try to operate them as their own. There is a pastor friend of of mine who started a lunch-hour meeting in the city. It picked on well and when other pastors saw what was happening, more than ten lunch-hour fellowships were started all-over the city, some with misleading doctrines. It is o.k. for ministries to have meetings in a city, but one should be careful on his/her calling as you may take that which does not belong to you and end up being frustrated. The Lord intends to bless that which He has put in you. Stick to your calling brother.
Another friend of mine was being advised, during his wedding, to ‘stick’ to his car and not to ‘drive’ other people’s cars since vehicle owners know their cars better as some have to be given a push to start while others just crank on ignition. There are many Christians who lay on their visions and kill them in the process. They end up hijacking other people’s visions. They copy ideas they know little about, they end up with ‘barren’ ministries since they rely on tactics which are not original. it’s a time for ministries to keenly look at their visions in the ‘morning light’, you may be struggling nursing a dead child while your own is alive, kicking, in somebody else’s arms. Open your eyes and ask God to help you identify your office, otherwise you may continue mourning over that which you should be celebrating for. Stick to your calling and vision and stop being a ‘copy cat’. mind your own business and you will succeed, don’t fake things up.
After the prostitute took time over the dead child, she realized that the child she was holding was not hers. Do not start accusing God over your demise. The problem with most Christians is that they do not take time in scrutinizing issues. They rush at making decisions some of which affect their lives continuously. If Jacob could have looked at Joseph’s gown closely, (Genesis 37:31-33) he could have realized that the gown contained a goat’s blood, after all, he had the experience of looking closely at Rachel and realized it was Leah! (Genesis 29:22-25).
