Author: thejosephfactor

Gen. 25:21 “and Rebekah his wife conceived.”

Conception is an immaculate and holy act.  God has chosen in creation that replication and multiplication are preceded by intimacy.  Rebekah’s conception was dependent on intimately knowing her husband who points to the love Christ has for His bride.

Many ministries and Christian leaders hold their Savior safe at arm’s distance and therefore never experience intimacy and fruit as He desires.  We must let the Lord in the door to the secret places, in the door of our bedroom, in the door of the heart, as Revelations 3:20 explains. 

But this chamber room of our heart is more than having a simple meal together.  Song of Solomon details the romance of the Beloved and His bride, “He knocks, saying ‘Open for me, my sister, my love.  My dove, my perfect one; for me head is covered in dew, my locks with the drops of night…” (Song 5:2)

Jesus first visits us in intimacy before He impregnates us with vision.  Rebekah is a type of the church, and Isaac’s deep love, commitment, and intimacy foreshadow the relationship Jesus would long to have with His believers.

If you are hungry for vision and purpose, if your heart longs to discover your destiny, begin by discovering the secret place of intimacy with God. Often, I have discovered that my lack of direction in ministry can only be clarified when I draw intimately close with Jesus.

This intimacy and romance is the foundation of our prayer life. I remember my prayer partner Eddie and I looking forward to the time we would draw near to the Father together.  We would be giddy knowing He wanted to spend time with us, that He was looking forward to hearing our prayers, that we would lay our hearts and tears out before Him, and that from that posture He would lead us.

This same longing we had to be with the Father was much like the longing I had to be with my wife in the early days of our courting.  I would rush to get to the car to leave campus, speed along any open roads, wait impatiently at red lights–all because I was so excited to see Amy.  When is the last time you felt that longing for prayer?

Dryness and a barren lifestyle are the result of a formal and cold love for God.  He longs for hot, passionate, emotional connection to His people, and from that passion, purpose is born.  Rebekah conceived due to the love of her husband, and we also must nurture that intimacy if we are to birth the purposes of God.

Gen. 25:21 “and the Lord granted his plea.”

God delights to answer prayers.  We need to record His answers to our prayers as an ongoing testimony of His faithfulness.  In Malachi 3:16 “Those who feared the Lord spoke to one another. And the Lord listened to them; so a book of remembrance was written before Him.”  As you venture into new territory, begin recording His answers to prayer in your book of remembrance.  I have such a journal for every season in our life.

God comes through when we wait for Him.

He delights to answer prayers.  Our founding Pastor tells a story of God challenging him to simply pray for socks.  “Socks,” you say, that seems so insignificant.  But to ask God clearly and specifically for such a random item puts our faith and prayer to the test.  I did the experiment early in college just because I believed. 

The next week, my roommate Dave, an unbeliever at the time, pulled out a pair of hand-knitted, bright red, Elf socks from his grandmother and asked me, “Hey, do you want these socks?” 

God grants our petitions because He is a Father who delights to give His children good gifts.  Let that heart of a Father be the foundation of your coming to Him in prayer.  Record the list of His answered prayers, and allow His faithfulness in the smallest matters to build our faith to ask for greater things.

Gen. 25:21 “because she was barren;”  

If you are looking to pioneer a ministry or movement, begin first with barren ground.  God loves to move among the unreached, hardened, dry, and forsaken sectors of society.  When Isaac looked at Rebekah, there was no natural hope that she would conceive. However, in this place of desperation and dryness, the Lord poured out an answer to prayer.

The church of Jesus Christ is called to the dry places of the earth.  “The gates of hell” are her target, which shall not prevail against the Gospel message covering the earth as the waters cover the sea. To birth and bring to pass what God plans in these last days, we must be willing to step into the most forgotten and forsaken places to see life come forth. 

The history of the church has been to go to the unreached.  Paul said his aim was not to “build upon another man’s foundation” (Romans 15:20) but to “to preach the gospel in regions beyond you.” (2 Cor. 10:15) Jesus was compelled to go from city to city to the lost sheep of Israel and ventured to find other places that had not yet heard the message.  “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but the sick.” (Matt. 9:12)

Martyrdom, persecution, and rejection have forever produced the most fertile soil for the Gospel, but instead we want to plant churches where life is rich, easy, and comfortable.  Perhaps the impotency and apathy of our modern church planting movement stems from our lack of desperation without God’s intervention.

A barren situation is the most fruitful scene for the supernatural to manifest.  We have seen barren works of God that turned into the manifestation of God’s power.  One of the saints of our age, Mother Teresa, accomplished her most significant work by sowing into the outcasts of India.

If you desire to see harvest, do not find an already plowed field where a seed can easily sprout and grow.  That would be a natural pattern.  Instead, our faith like that of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob calls us to find the most unlikely, impoverished, hard, and barren land and begin tilling. 

“For more are the children of the desolate and barren than the children of the married woman.”  (Isaiah 54:1)