We praise the Lord that you’ve joined us for Part 2 of ‘How God turns our offering into a supernatural blessing’. Tonight once again we learn about how the sacrifice or vow that we make unto the Lord God Almighty is turned into a wonderful blessing for all eternity, just as we discover, in the lives of Abraham and Hannah. Let’s listen.
“For you to go the next level, I want you to offer up that Isaac, to show whether you are going to be worthy of the greater blessing that I have for you.” See, if Abraham kept Isaac, who was the promised child, and did not offer him up to the Lord when the Lord commanded him, he would have had that natural blessing of having the heir, but he would not have had the supernatural blessing. So the edification to build up the whole earth, to build up the family and generation of Abraham, to give multiplied blessings, he had to obey God and give that up.
Hannah on the other hand was not commanded by God to do this sacrifice. But she perceived in her spirit that, “I need to do something for the Lord. I’ve come to the point where I am at an impossible juncture. I cannot have a child. There is something in my life now that I need to have done, but that is impossible and only God can help me. But I feel in my spirit that the Lord is moving me to make some sort of commitment, some sort of vow, some sort of offering up to God”. It’s not always money; it has to do with the deeper things in our lives.
Let’s read 1 Samuel Chapter 1. [King James Version]
1. Now there was a certain man of Ramathaimzophim, of mount Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephrathite:
2. And he had two wives; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah: and Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.
3. And this man went up out of his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the Lord of hosts in Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the Lord, were there.
4. And when the time was that Elkanah offered, he gave to Peninnah his wife, and to all her sons and her daughters, portions:
5. But unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion; for he loved Hannah: but the Lord had shut up her womb.
Now, here is a case where the woman is quite obviously loved by her husband. She seems to have everything that she needs but she doesn’t have a child. Now, that was a social taboo especially in that culture in that age and also today in many circles still. But even barring that, it is a deep source of pain in the heart for those who long to have children and cannot. Here comes the Lord, working in Hannah to long, to call upon Him who alone can do the miracle. Now it says here that she was under persecution.
6. And her adversary also provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the Lord had shut up her womb.
7. And as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the Lord, so she provoked her; therefore she wept, and did not eat.
8. Then said Elkanah her husband to her, Hannah, why weepest thou? and why eatest thou not? and why is thy heart grieved? am not I better to thee than ten sons?
No answer.
9. So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh, and after they had drunk. Now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post of the temple of the Lord.
10. And she was in bitterness of soul. [King James Version]
This is the corner we are speaking about. Being squeezed into a position, where there is deep distress. “Lord, I am longing for something in my life. I need a breakthrough. I need a miracle. I need Your hand to come in and do the miracle.” Hannah was purposely put into that place. Notice, it doesn’t say in the scriptures that she had a genetic problem or that her husband had a physical problem. Notice that there is mention of none of these things there. But, it says clearly that the Lord shut up her womb. Clearly, the Lord was the one who gave Isaac to Abraham, and he was the same God Who came and demanded that Isaac be offered up. We don’t understand many times in the human frame of mind, why God allows certain hard situations, where we can’t seem to prosper in a certain area, or we seem to be on the verge of losing something that we were waiting for and holding on to dearly. But the Lord is saying, “That’s the very thing I want you to give up.”
In our lives, there was a point in which our oldest child, who is also named Samuel incidentally, the Lord asked my wife actually one day if she would be willing to place Samuel on the altar. Now, as I said this is not a simple, “Yes, Lord, whatever you say.” It was a deep deep thing from the heart because the price we knew could be martyrdom. When the Lord asks for something, He wants it totally. And we thought that if the Lord would call our firstborn to go the field, somewhere across the ocean, and he was caught in a situation where his life would have to be offered for the sake of the gospel, then this is what it entails. Now, that is something very, very grievous to the human heart to have a child which we also asked of the Lord for, therefore we named him Samuel. We asked the Lord for the child. And the Lord gave the child; we dedicated the child to the Lord’s service. And the Lord came back and said, “You have dedicated him to My service, but have you placed him on the altar? Have you totally consecrated him, no matter what, even if it means that his life would have to be given for My sake and the gospel's sake?” It took a brief time of intense struggle for my wife, not because she didn’t love the Lord. She loved the Lord with all her heart.
But, this is what I am speaking of. God takes us through different junctures in our Christian walk and begins to draw us and mold us to be even more like Him. And in every stage, He is requiring a greater consecration, a greater commitment, an offering unto the Lord. Abraham offered up Isaac. It was an offering unto the Lord. It was not simply that I have this money here that I can give to the Lord, but it’s not going to cost me much. The Lord says to us unless it costs us, it’s not a true offering. In Abraham’s life, in Hannah’s life, the Lord came and spoke very clearly through the Spirit or through the voice audibly from heaven, through the angel. That something more is required here. We can never go higher with God, until we say, “Lord, have I done everything you’ve asked me to do? Is there something I’m withholding?” We really and truly need to ask the Lord that, “Father, I say and I sing that I am Yours, that You are mine and everything I have is Yours. But, deep in the recess of my heart, is there something that I am holding back which you have Your finger on, that would cost me too much, would hurt me emotionally too much to give up to You?
Let’s continue reading about Hannah, and we are going to conclude with a few thoughts that the Lord will use, to take us to the next level. Picking up on verse 10, And she was in bitterness of soul. How many times have people who follow the Lord, been ridiculed by Satan and his emissaries in this world, who look down upon God’s children because of affliction, because of a lack of a certain blessing at a certain time. It’s not that the Lord doesn’t have it for us, it’s that the Lord is taking us through that desert, that rough place, till he takes out of us everything that is carnal, everything that has a worldly attachment, everything that is human wisdom laying it flat on the altar saying, “Oh Lord, whatever You require at any moment in my life is Yours. Lord, I mean that.” And God will take us to the next step, the next level.
She wept sore and she vowed a vow. Abraham was demanded of the Lord explicitly, “Take now thy son, thine only son and offer him there for burnt offering on the mountains of Moriah.” Here, Hannah is not told explicitly to offer anything. But, she perceives because she is a spiritual woman that, “Something is blocking this blessing from coming into my life. God is calling out of me something that is affixed to this world, hoping for the natural means. Lord, I am going to give You, this male child, this baby unto You all the days of his life. And there shall no razor come upon his head.” And as she was praying, Eli thought she was drunk. But she said, No, I am not drunk. Verse 15 But, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord. [King James Version]
What do the people of the world do when they’ve come to a hard situation? As it says in Proverbs, to him who has troubles and woes, they go to the wine, the bottle. They go to the movies, they go to the beach, they go to entertainment, whatever it is to take their mind off of their troubles. Now psychologically, it has an immediate but temporal, superficial, you can say artificial benefit. For the moment my mind is diverted, but the problem is still there. Hannah was not a worldly woman. She was a godly woman who knew, “Lord, there is some stronghold in my life that is holding back the blessing.” Now the Lord had shut up the womb. “But, there is something in my heart that needs to be poured out as an offering unto the Lord, so that the supernatural blessing of God can come in.” The birth of Samuel was a natural birth. He was not born suddenly in a fire that came from heaven; he was not birthed unto a virgin Hannah, like the Lord Jesus Christ. It was a natural birth, but it was supernaturally ordained and supernaturally used. That child became a child like no other.
Just as Isaac was already determined by God, in accordance with the obedience of Abraham at every step; because even after he had obeyed the Lord up until that point, when it came to God bringing a bigger requirement, a greater demand, because he obeyed. Explicitly stated in Genesis 22, because even at that point, he obeyed, God unleashed that supernatural blessing. He said, “For, now I know surely because you haven’t held back that which is dear to you, the dearest thing. You had faith in Me; therefore you offered it to me in faith. I am going to reward you. I am going to reward you, more than you can ever imagine. That, in your seed, even through this Isaac, the nations of the earth would be blessed.” Now that’s the first thing that we need to do. We come to God like Abraham and Hannah and we say, “Lord, first of all, I realize that everything I have and everything that I will ever have comes from You. You possess every good thing, Father. So when You ask me to give something to You, it’s Yours anyway.” When we realize that God is giving us an opportunity, God Almighty is giving us an opportunity to give from our hearts the offering, we realize then that He is looking to bless us supernaturally.
