Season 4 (Episode 5): Progressive Miracles: Abraham's Promise

Welcome to Pain, Passion, and Purpose. I am your host, Shakeeta Torres, where I share mental health education, biblical teachings, and tips to help you to heal on purpose so you can walk boldly in your God-given purpose. This podcast is sponsored by Empowered Purpose Academy, a certified online Christian academy where we provide services such as certification for Christian life coaches, mentorship for master's level aspiring and existing Christian therapists, mentorship for Christians, and continued education courses for the body of Christ. You can visit www.empoweredpurposeacademy.com to learn more and to download your free guide. If you like today's episode, please subscribe and leave us a raving review so that others can tap into the knowledge and wisdom that will be shared on this podcast. Thank you so much for being here live. Praise God. So yes, I'm live here on, um, YouTube and Facebook and Instagram. So welcome everyone, hello everyone, thank you guys for dropping by. Um, as always, this live will remain up on all my social media channels. Um, that is Facebook, um, it's Instagram, and that is also on my YouTube channel. And so, um, before I get into today's, um, teaching and what God gave me— yeah, I'm so excited about today's message, about the word that God gave me to share with you all today. And so before I get started, I'm gonna go ahead and make a few announcements really quickly, give you about 2 minutes to announce these things, and then we'll go ahead and get into it. But first, I want to, um, tell you guys that I have a new book that just came out, um, called Unashamed. It is a book/workbook for people who battle with shame within the body of Christ, okay? So in this book, it is, uh, my testimony. It's also, um, strategies in there in order for you to learn how to, you know, overcome, um, shame from things from your past. Also, if you've been abused or traumatized in any kind of way and you feel shame of that, that this book right here will help you, okay? It also has prayer in here and the word of God. It's a 3-part, um, book. It's very Um, it's not long at all, but it's very powerful. I've had my husband read it in detail for almost a week for me and make sure everything looked good. And he's like, babe, this is, this is a great book. He said it's straight to the point, there's not no fluff in here, and it's a great tool for you to use to break the barriers of shame. So I'll have the link, um, in the description box on Facebook and YouTube, but on Instagram I can't put it in there, of course, because it's not a hyperlink, right? But, um, you can get the book on my Lulu store, or you can get the book, um, on my website, www.empoweredpurposeacademy.com/shop. That's a lot, right? So thank you all for joining again. Good afternoon, good afternoon. Not sure where you dropping in from, but let me know, let me know in the comments today. Um, the next thing I want to announce is, um, I put this on social media This really like 2 days ago. And so I am, um, working on creating a faith and mental wellness directory. This is for people who are life coaches, therapists, doing pastoral counseling, uh, substance abuse, um, counseling of any kind when it comes to, you know, mental wellness for those who truly invite God into their sessions. Okay, over the years I have been asked oh my God, since forever it feels like. If I knew other believers who operated in this vein in their career and they really allowed God to come into that space. So I'm not going to go into great, great detail about that, but I will probably do a live on that separately to share more. But I also have the link as well if you're interested in joining that directory. It will launch sometime in June, okay, sometime in June. But definitely, um, join the waitlist for that to to stay in the know. Um, the other thing I want to announce is that I am hosting a human trafficking workshop, um, for the youth on June 3rd. It'll be virtual and in person. And so myself and Dr. Hardy, which is also, um, my mentor, we're having this event together in Fayetteville, North Carolina. You can register on Eventbrite. It is going to be, um, in person And also it'll be virtual. So if you want to register for that, it's going to be powerful and amazing to encourage our youth and educate them about human trafficking. And also Dr. Hardy will be speaking about financial stability and the importance of youth having that in order to help prevent them from being trafficked. Okay, that's a whole topic by itself too. Some of you guys may know the nonprofit that I founded in 2020, it's called Doing It for the Kingdom. Our focus is right now is providing education to, um, our city, to our areas, surrounding areas, about human trafficking prevention. And definitely there's some other things that God has put on my heart to do with the nonprofit. But guess what we need? Volunteers. We need boots, we need hands, we need feet for those who are willing to help build the vision. Okay, so separate topic, separate live. Um, also I want to announce, okay, my oil. For those of you who have got the oil so far, thank you so much for your purchase. I've already received testimonies from people. I try to post them as much as I can, y'all, but as you can see, I'm like so busy trying to keep up with everything God is having me do. But with that being said, if you're interested in purchasing the oil, uh, it's also in my shop as well, and the link will be in my description box. And also there'll be a link on Instagram if you go to the, uh, to my bio section, okay? So that's up there for purchase as well. So thank you all for those who have already purchased it. God bless you, and I know that God has something in store for you, okay? So with that being said, I'm going to say a, um, a quick prayer, and then I'm going to go ahead and get into it because this word, it blessed me so much, y'all. And I pray that— and I pray to God that it blesses you too. Okay, and so Father, I just thank you right now for, um, just being here. God, Holy Spirit, I invite you into, um, this live today. Holy Spirit, I ask you to speak to me, even give me more revelation as I teach your word on today. Holy Spirit, speak to your people. God, let this— the word hit exactly what they need in their hearts. God, so Father, I yield myself to you. I yield my gifts to you. God, anything that you want me to do, you want me to say, Father, I would do it. In Christ's name I pray, amen and amen. So, um, with that being said, you guys, um, as you guys know, I have been doing this series called Progressive Miracles. Progressive Miracles. Shout out also to my podcast people too, okay? They will come on and hear this on Sunday, all right? And so this morning, before I begin to study, you know, initially last week I thought that this week I'll be sharing my testimony about another area of which God had healed me from and delivered me. Last week I shared about how God delivered me from anxiety. The week before that I gave another, another teaching about Joshua and, um, you know, the walls coming down, and God gave me teaching on that. And so it has been a journey for me as well, like from week to week I don't always know what it is that I'll be sharing, okay? So this morning was no different. I had what I thought what God wanted me to say, and after going into prayer and just spending time with him this morning Um, I said, God, do you want me to share my testimony again? And he said no. And I'm like, okay, God, what you want me to share? And I heard Abram to Abraham. And I said, okay, Abram to Abraham. So I begin to look it up. Of course, we all know— some of us do know the story about Abraham and the promise that God had for him. But I haven't really heard people like go into great detail about the journey that Abraham had to go through in order for him to get to the promise. So today on today's teaching, I'm going to share with you all a little bit about Abraham's journey, and I try my best to concisely as much as possible because it's a lot. It's a lot. And so there's specific areas that Holy Spirit highlighted to me, um, to encourage you all, okay? And so I pray that today encourages you. I really, really do, because so many of us are waiting on God to fulfill a promise that he promised us, and it's a journey getting to to their promise. Okay, so we're gonna go to, um, the story of Abraham, which begins in Genesis chapter 11, verse 27. Now at this time he is still Abram, A-B-R-A-M, and his wife is Sarah, S-A-R-A-I. Okay, and so in this scripture it clearly says— this is what it says. That, you know, Abraham married— um, Abram married Sarai, and at that time he knew that she was barren. She could not produce children, okay? She was barren, could not, you know, um, produce offspring. She was infertile. That's what a barren woman means, okay? So moving to, um, chapter 12. So the Lord came to Abram and he told him this. He said, I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse, curse those who curse you. And he said, I'm gonna say, whoever— no, whoever curses you, I will curse. And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. All peoples, including us. Okay, you follow me? So in verse 4, it says, so Abram went as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Now at this point, God pretty much told him to leave where he was at, right? I can't remember the exact city that he was in, but he was in a whole different area, okay, with his family. All right, I think his dad ended up passing away, and so God told him and Sarai to move, okay? So at this time, you know, when they were moving, Abram was 75 years old. When he was sent out from Haran, the city of Haran. That's where he was. He took his wife Sarah, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated, and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan. And they arrived there. Okay, so, so here's the first thing. Here's the first thing that God gave me right here, right? So you have to understand, like, the, you know, God gave Abram this marvelous, magnificent word, right? So how many times has God given us a word, a vision that is so big, right? We hear it for the first time and we're like, okay, okay, God, I heard you. We heard God, but did we actually truly believe it? I know I have. There's things that God has shared with me, or God has used other people to tell me, and I was just like, okay. Not that I didn't believe God, but I didn't see it yet. I was still a baby in Christ. I didn't see it, okay? I didn't have the faith yet to really believe everything that God was sharing with me would actually come to pass, okay? So at this point, Abram and Sarah, they journey through the cities in the many lands, and they end up being in the city of the land of Canaan, all right? This is where, um, Pharaoh was. He was the king now in scripture. There's many pharaohs, okay, for Egypt, right? They call them pharaohs there. And pretty much a pharaoh is a person who was the enemies of Christians. He disliked Christians. Now, Sarah was very, very beautiful, very beautiful woman. And Abram knew that the men there would be very attracted to her. And but he also knew that they would also kill him if he knew— they knew that they was actually married. So Abram had told Sarah, listen, when we get up in here, girl, you need to tell them that we are siblings, you know, we're siblings, you are my, you are my sister, right? So she agreed to do that because he didn't want to die, okay? So he— when Pharaoh saw her, he's like, wow, he was very impressed with her. He had his guards and his men come get her. He had them to, um, take her back to his house and all that. But because he— she said that Abram was her brother, he blessed Abram, okay? He gave Abram pretty much everything. He had silver, he had gold, he had all these different, um, things. Cattle. Let me go down a little bit, make sure. He had cattle. I mean, wherever he wanted, he got it, all right? And so then in verse 17, says the Lord punished Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues because of Sarai. In other words, God had cursed him. So if you go back to the first promise that God had given Abram, he pretty much said those who curse you, I will curse. God began to show him immediately that, listen, Abram, I mean business. If anybody put their hands on you, their mouth on you, whatever they do, I'm going to curse them. And Pharaoh, I mean, he didn't know that Sarah was his wife, you know, but still God fulfilled his word. So for me, that was a faith builder. That was a faith builder and a wake-up call for Abram to realize, God don't play about me. What God is saying to me is yes and amen. All right, God meant business. Okay, moving right along. So go to the next one. And so I put here in my notes, in my own personal commentary, I put how many of us have downplayed God and then God had to show us that he was not playing about what, what he said he, he was going to do, right? I raised my hand to myself. I was writing this out. So I pray that God builds your faith that God will build your faith to believe that what he says is the truth and that what he promised you will not come back void. And I'll add this in here too, like what God had promised Abram was not, was a, was not a conditional prophecy, all right? That's a whole teaching by itself, but that was a promise, something that God was definitely going to do for him, but it was going to be a journey. So unconditional, so a conditional prophecy is that if you do this, then I'll do that. If you do this, then I'll do that, right? So with this, it was unconditional because God was going to do it no matter how long it took, no matter what Abram pretty much did. As you see and begin to read this story about Abram, you'll be able— you'll be able to see all the events that transpired before he actually had his son, okay? And I put here also that even though, you know, Abram lied to Pharaoh and said that he was Sarah's, um, our brother, nothing was wasted. I thought about Romans 8:28. Nothing was wasted. Nothing that we go through or experience, you know, whether by our own fault or somebody else's fault, is going to be wasted. Every tear, every mistake, every success, every lesson, everything about you, God wants to use it. And so in that Even though Abram lied, you know, God— okay, Abram, I told you, whoever curse you, I'ma curse them. But even in that, he still received a harvest. He received the harvest. Okay, that's what the word of God said. If you don't give up, you receive a harvest, right? So anywho, so chapter 13, right? God gave Abram another promise. Okay, God told him this, um, the Lord said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, look around from where you are to the north and to the south and to the east and to the west. All the land that you see, I will give it to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. Wow, who can count the dust? I know I can't. Go walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you. Okay, so there we go. Here we go again, another promise, another promise that God has given to, to Abram. So from there Abram went to live near the great trees, uh, at Hebron, where he pitched his tents. There he built an altar to the Lord. Okay, so this was stood out to me too, right? So while we're waiting on our miracle while we waiting on our promise. Now, when I say these things, I'm talking about the things that God has said to you that he was going to do for you. There are things that I know people are waiting on. There's things that I'm waiting on for God to do, right? But what I love about Abram is that throughout this whole story, he pitched a tent often. He built an altar often to go worship the Lord. He praised the Lord even through it all. And so your altar for you can be anywhere. Like, I just had a revelation. I know this, you know, I know we have altars everywhere. You can have them in your home. But for me, like, where I pray or why I still, you know, spend time with God or where I read my word, it's not always— it's not always the same. Sometimes I'll be upstairs in my office, you know, reading. I might be in my bedroom. Um, I might be, you know, in the living room sometimes. But this week alone, I really be in the kitchen a lot. Like be in the kitchen, because when I come to work upstairs, I don't want to be distracted. I have so many things up here in my office, like books and to-do lists and whatnot. So I didn't want that to distract me from really pressing in God's presence. And so all week, this week, every time I— even before I could even sit down at my kitchen table, I feel God's presence just fall on me, just fall on me. Like, it's like he was waiting for me to, to press through whatever's going on around me to get in his presence, y'all. And so I said, God, this is the altar. My kitchen table is an altar too. It's an altar. And so your altar is anywhere. It's in your car, it's in your shower, right? People think that an altar is like just a physical altar all the time. You are an altar. You can offer up your praise and your worship to God at any given time, at any given moment, right? And the more you do that, you're literally building your altar. You're building a an altar of fire, an altar of prayer, an altar where God will meet you right there. I might— I hadn't even sat in the kitchen, the chair yet. As soon as I in my mind said, okay, I'm gonna go sit down here and read his word or study or whatever, I felt God's presence just follow me. So like, it's the same for you. Build your altar, right? Don't throw a pity party, you know, every time something don't go your way. Build you some altars, y'all, right? So moving right along. So chapter 14, um, says that, you know, 4 kings— so here we go, fast forward, right? That happened, God gave him a promise, he built an altar before the Lord again, and he praised and he worshiped God. So here we are, some more time had gone through, gone by, about maybe it's about 14 years passes by after God gave Abraham that promise, okay? And so chapter 14 says, from kings from the— so some 4 kings from the east came to wage war against the kings and people groups of Canaan. Including 5 kings from cities around the Dead Sea. So you got people coming in like a flood wanting to kill these kings in the land of Canaan, okay? Um, and so they end up capturing Abram's son, his family, and their possessions, okay? Lot is Abram's nephew. As you— I can clearly see that God— that Abram loved his nephew very much, okay? So much so that once he heard about it, he was out, he was gone. He went and he rescued them. He took everything back. He took back the possessions. He had 319— 318 men, the word of God says that, okay? And I was like, wow, he was not playing any games. So when he returned, the Lord sent a servant to minister to him called Malzadak, okay? I hope I'm saying that correctly. I didn't Google it before I Got up here live today, but it's okay. So he came up to him and he said he had a word from the Lord. And he was like, he says this to him, to Abram. He said, um, the Lord sent Malzadik to remind Abram of why he won the war. He says in verses 19 through 20, and he blessed Abram, saying, blessed be Abram by God Most High, creator of heaven and earth. And praise be to God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand. Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything that he owned. And so when I'm reading this, I just kept hearing testing, testing, testing, right? I was getting here in the word testing, testing. And I put here Abram was tested here as well. The king of Sodom made Abram an offer. He said, if you give me back those people that you went back and recaptured, I would give you the spoils of everything that's here. You can have it all in exchange for your— for these people. And Abram said, no, I'm not about to sit here and give this to you and you give me something and then my name be out here in these streets that you made my name famous or whatever, you made me rich or whatever. And so what I'm seeing here is that when we're waiting on God's promise, when we waiting on God to perform a miracle for us in our lives, y'all, we're going to be tested. We are going to be tested. God will allow you to be tested through temptation. You'll be tested through family, friends, situations, things that try to distract you and throw you off guard to make you derail or forfeit the promise that God has for you, which is a miracle. A promise is a miracle. It really is. It really is. Okay, so in chapter 15 it says So the Lord came to Abram in a vision and he said this. Now at this point, here we are, fast forward. It didn't say that Abram inquired of the Lord. What I love about this scripture right here is that it's saying— it's showing us that God came and visited Abram in a dream and his distress. Let me keep reading. It says God said to Abram, do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield. Your very great reward. This is what God was saying to Abram. Abram said, but Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram said to God, you have given me no children, so a servant in my household will be my heir. He was like, God, you saying that I'm a, you know, I'm all these things and I'm blessed and that you reward my obedience to you, but I don't have any children. My wife is barren. My desire is to have a child to leave my legacy with. That's what Abram was pretty much telling God. But God already knew that. He already knew Abram's desires. He already knew what Abram wanted, right? But it was also some things that God wanted from Abram. He wanted his sacrifice. He wanted his obedience. He wanted God— he wanted to build a relationship with him. I did like a reel, you know, about 2 weeks ago of how I said there's 3 reasons why— reasons why God performs progressive miracles. And that's one is because he wants to build a relationship with you. Two, you know, he wants to build your faith. And three, I think it was, um, three, he wants to build character. He wants to build your character. He wants to build you know, his altar in you, pretty much. So if you go back to my Instagram page and my Facebook page, those— some of those reels are up there. Okay. Then the word of the Lord came to him again, and he said, this man would not be your hire, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your hire. He took him outside and said, look up at the sky and count the stars. If needed, you can count them. Then he said to him, so shall your offspring be. So Abraham believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness. And he also said to him, I am the Lord who bought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land, to take possession of it. But Abram said, Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it? All right, so him and God is having a dialogue. They're having a dialogue about the promise, about what it is. Like, God's telling him again, you're going to possess the land, you're going to be able to take territory, right? Oh, I just— yeah, I just see it so clearly now. Like, God couldn't give him his son just yet because God needed something from Abram. Like, ah, it's just so, so amazing. So here I'm going to summarize So after that, the Lord told him, he said, I want you to go make me an animal sacrifice. And some of you guys know, some of you guys may not know, in the Old Testament, in order to, you know, um, get something from God, or it's just, it's a lot. I'm not going to all that right now, but he had to give an animal sacrifice. Today we have Christ Jesus, who is, who is the sacrifice, right, in the New Testament. So, and so when he gave him, so when he went and got the animals, he made a sacrifice before the Lord, and he went to sleep later on that night. And he began to have a dream. He began to like see like darkness. He began to see all these different things, and God began to tell Abram about the future of his descendants, which are the children of Israel. He told him that they will suffer greatly, but in the end they will possess the land. So Abram would not live to see it, but what Abram was doing now was paving the way for future generations, including us today. So God gave Abram another promise in this chapter, and so once again he is journeying with God to get the promise, right? God needed something from Abraham that was going to change generations. You understand what I'm saying? God had a specific assignment he wanted to fulfill through Abram, okay? He needed a vessel to carry out that. All right, all right, stick with me. So fast forward, we in chapter 16. Um, once again, I'm summarizing. Abram, um, was convinced at this time by Sarah to marry Hagar, which was their servant, and have a baby. So they had become— became impatient. Okay, she, um, did give birth, and Hagar was mistreated due to Sarah's jealousy and Hagar's nasty attitude. Okay, they had grown impatient, so she gave birth to Ishmael. And so here, if you read chapter 16, once again I'm summarizing, you are able to see just the exchange between Sarah, Abram, and Hagar, right? You know, Sarah wanted a baby so bad, so here, you marry Hagar, you get her pregnant so we can get the baby that we've been waiting, waiting for God to give us, right? And God didn't tell her to do that. Okay, so how many of us have did that? Like, when I read this, you know, I thought about, you know, men and women— women who are so anxious and so ready to get married, and they married the wrong person after God had already told you that he had a spouse for you. And you know deep down in your heart this ain't the person, so you settled. So they settled. Abram and Hagar— I mean, Abram and Sarah, they settled. They created like this chaotic situation that didn't have to be because they had became impatient. And trust me, we all become impatient during the, the journey of waiting on our promise, and God understands that, right? This is why, you know, I can't tell y'all how many times over the years, my goodness, where I became impatient or frustrated, and God was like, uh-uh, give your emotions to me, give your— give it to me. I don't care how mad you get, I don't care how anxious you get, you come to God, because God can remind you of what he said. God can remind you of the promise. God can renew your strength. And so if you feel tempted to abort the process, if you feel tempted to go another way that God isn't sending you, go before God. Say, God, give me the strength to wait. Give me the strength to be able to withstand the pressure that I'm feeling for this promise to come to pass. People are watching me. People, they see my life. God, they see that, you know, I'm single, I'm not married, I don't have a child, I don't have these different things that God has promised you, okay? Not what you promised yourself, but what God has promised you, right? And so of course, some promises that come, they come and happen quickly. As you, as we said earlier in the beginning of this teaching, you see where God fulfilled his promise to Abram pretty quickly. Like he cursed Pharaoh and his people because he came against Abram and Sarai unintentionally. Unintentionally, okay? And so some things take longer than others, but we don't always know when we're going to give birth to the promise or see the promise fulfilled, right? It's a journey, y'all. It really is. And these are like these little miracles that God allows to happen throughout the context of these scriptures here, how God has given, you know, Abram so much favor along the way to build his faith. My God. So in chapter 17, um, God came to Abram again and he reminded him of his promise and changed his name to Abraham, Abraham, and Sarai's name to Sarah. So God changed their name because their names actually meant something else. I did look it up and read about it and write it down in my notes. Okay, so God had changed their name. And as many of us— okay, let me go back a little bit. So, you know, in scripture you see a lot of people's names are changed because your name is part of your identity. But when you're waiting on a promise as big as what Abraham was waiting on, right, and Sarah was waiting on, there's some things that God wants to do in you with your character, your identity, how you see yourself, right? It's so much, it's so much, you guys. Um, and so now today, you know, people still change their name, but you know, I don't see it as common as it used to be. I personally wouldn't want to change my name because this is— it's a legal thing. You got paperwork, you got all these different things, right? But God can still change you from the inside out, okay? So their name is changed. We go to chapter 18. The word of the Lord came saying that Sarah will have a son that same time next year. So these 3 angels had came, you know, up to, um, was like— no, they didn't come up to, um, to, uh, um, to Abraham. Abraham saw them, and so he knew they was from the Lord. So he like ran up to them like, hey, and he bowed down and said, hey, what news do you have for me? Because he'd been waiting. He had been waiting, y'all, for his promise, okay? He was ready, okay? It's like, what do you have for me? What do you have for and they said, by this time next year you will have a son. Okay, Sarah laughed. Okay, this time she's like, I'm old, I'm dusty, how in the world am I gonna have a baby? How I'm gonna take care of this baby? I have no energy, I had no strength. That's hilarious to me. And how many of us do that, right? It's like, it could be a promise you waiting on for a year, 4 years, 5 years, 10 years, and we like have brushed it off. We have like talked ourselves out of believing because honestly Sometimes believing and holding on to hope, it hurts. It hurts. It does. I'm not gonna sit here and lie to you, say it don't, because it do hurt. For some people, it's easier to just lose hope and walk away and not hang on to the promise that God has given us, okay? This is why the word of God says that hope deferred makes a heart sick, and that is— that is so true. I have experienced— I'm like, God, I'm hopeless. Like, I've been waiting I don't know, I don't know what to do, right? And so God wants you to wait and hope because hope gives you strength, hope gives you joy, hope allows you to wait in expectation. But when that hope is deferred, baby, it will make you feel depressed, okay? And so I'm just assuming that Sarah— Sarah at this time had became like a little depressed, okay? Because she want her baby, okay, that God promised her. He said it. God told her you're gonna have a baby. Okay, and so you go in, um, into chapter 21, you can see, you know, 14 years later, okay, after God first told him about the promise, Sarah gave birth to Isaac. She finally gave birth to Isaac, and Abraham was 100 years old. And no, later, of course, you know, it was sad because, you know, with Ishmael, the baby that Hagar had, you know, it caused so much division and strife and hurt and rejection and jealousy and bitterness and all that stuff. So God was explaining to me, tell my people that if they don't wait on me and they settle, or they try to, you know, make up their own promise to fulfill what I have for them, they're going to become bitter. And that's what Sarah did. Sarah had became bitter. She had became angry with Hagar, began to mistreat Hagar, began to just act any kind of way because she knew she had settled. Okay, for one, and because this man— this, this woman has had my husband's baby. Who, who wants that? It's a daily reminder when she look at Hagar of what she didn't give birth to at that time. And Hagar was nasty. She was throwing it up in Sarah's face. Who wants that? I know I don't. So anytime you think about just giving up or settling, I want you to remember that God Will this make me bitter? Would this make me angry? Would this make me feel like, you know, I'm shortchanging myself? And the answer is yes, you are. You are shortchanging yourself. You are. So don't— so don't settle, okay? So don't settle. And so, you know, um, over the past, like, you know, few, you know, few weeks, I have been, like, really studying, you know, scripture in reference to giving birth. And when I say that Um, for example, the word of God talks about when a woman gives birth, right, how it's just like she forgets her pain, she forgets the things that she had to go through to get to have birth. That is so true. I'm a mom, I have two daughters, and my delivery with them was, was rough. It was— I ended up having two emergency C-sections with both of them, okay? And so, um, I just remember like, you know, going through all that and the pain. But once they got here, once the promise, my babies, my girls, was in my hand and in my arms, I forgot about everything I had been through. I forgot about all the pain. And I told my husband the other day, I was like, if I had to go through it again, I would, because they worth it. Their life is worth it. Them being in my life is worth it. So, excuse me, so that's the same thing wherever we are waiting on our promise from God. Once that promise get here you're gonna be like, it was worth it, it was so worth it. Like, God, I waited with it however long it took. The promise is here. God, thank you for my miracle. Giving birth to a promise is a miracle. It's beautiful. It exceeds our expectation. That is so fulfilling, okay? And so, you know, I wrote this here. I'm like, the promise has purpose, okay? The promise has purpose. It's not all about you. Um, the promises takes time. It takes time for the promise to be fulfilled. There is a journey to get to the promise, and you have no idea really when you're gonna get it. God will give you signs, right? So I— this is what— okay, this is my analogy I came up with. So whenever you work on a promise, right? Okay, I'm gonna give you an example. People. So I have, you know, a friend who was sharing with me maybe a year or so ago how, you know, God had told her she was going to get married, right? And God had told her, you know, like, wait on me, I have him, I'm preparing him for you, I'm preparing you for him. And so of course having to wait for that can be hard, right? But then, then that time of her waiting— which is— I think she's still waiting— during that time of waiting, it was like God would give her, you know, dreams about him, right? Um, God would be, oh my God, is it getting close? Is it getting close? I call those Braxton Hicks. Those are Braxton Hicks where you like, oh my God, oh my God, I'm almost there. But you're like, wait a minute, and then you look up, ain't nothing happen. I'm like, you like, God, what, what's really going on? What's, what's going on, Lord, right? And then, you know, time going, you keep pushing, you keep pushing, you keep pushing, you keep pushing. Trying to get to your promise, waiting on your promise, and then you have another Braxton Hicks. Someone has sent a word to you saying the Lord told me that you're gonna have this, or you're gonna get married, or this is gonna happen. Braxton Hicks, Braxton Hicks, Braxton Hicks. I've had plenty of them. Oh, for real? Okay, God, I'm so excited. And you can decide all over again, right? And then you look up, it's a month later, 2 months later, 3 months later. But I call them, once again, for those who getting on now, Braxton Hicks. And so, you know, just think about that. Think about that, okay? But the Braxton Hicks is for what? A purpose. It's preparing you to give birth. It's preparing you to receive the promise, so that way when the promise get here, it doesn't overtake you, right? You're preparing for the promise, y'all. All right, and so that is, um, the word that I have for today. My goodness. Okay, and so I encourage you to wait on the Lord. And this is, this is a prayer that, you know, I've adopted myself, right? When I've been waiting on God to do something, I'm like, God, give me the strength to wait. Give me the, the stamina to wait. Father, Father, you gonna have to help me because this is getting a little hard out here in these streets. Okay, those are the kind of prayers you should pray for yourself, because God's timing is so perfect. His timing, y'all, we can never fully comprehend why God makes us wait. But if you look at the life of Abraham, which he is known as, like, he's in a Hall of Fame of faith, a walk of my faith. You go to chap— if you go to Hebrews, I believe chapter 16, it talks about faith and how everybody in the Bible had all this— not everybody, but people in the Bible who had faith and who God really favored them because of that. Right? If you look at Abraham's life, you can see there's so many events that transpired. And everything that we experienced, Abraham experienced it. Like the frustration, the weariness, the tiredness, um, the doubt comes, right? And so this is one of the things that like frustrate me is that whenever we get like— people be like, oh, because you're getting worried, you don't have faith. That ain't got nothing to do with it. Now I can see if there's people who just like don't believe God at all. If you've been walking and you've been believing, you've been trusting, and you get weary, God understands. God still gave Abraham and Sarah the promise even after that she— after they produced a promise by having Hagar pregnant. So who are we to think that God can't do the same thing for us or make someone feel bad because they're becoming weary while they're waiting. But in that time, that's what people need prayer the most. That's what people— you need to be encouraging people the most instead of, uh, bashing them or making them feel bad saying they don't have enough faith. That's a, that's an insult, okay? Um, and so I encourage you, when you get there, you know, lean on strong believers. Lean on people who can encourage you and speak life to you and have their ear before the Father. I can think about— I'm so fortunate. I'm so— but I have some really— I have really good friends who we lean on each other. We speak life into each other. It's like when I'm weary or I get weak, my phone is ringing, somebody's sending me a text, vice versa. And God put in my spirit, one of my friends, hey, you need to call so-and-so, or hey, you need to encourage so-and-so. And I do that, and it's right on time. And so this is the whole point of the body of Christ. We need each other to encourage each other, to speak life into each other, okay? And so that is all I have. But like I said before, if God has given you a promise, please wait. I beg— I'm begging you, I'm begging you to wait, because if you don't wait, you will regret it. You'll regret it. So before I end, I wanted to say a prayer, um, and then I'll be gone, you guys. So Father, I just thank you right now for your word. I pray for those who have came on this live today were blessed and encouraged, God, to wait on your promises, Lord. I pray, God, that, that, that, God, they'll go back and read the story of Abraham and Sarah, how they had to wait on you, how they had to contend for their promise, that even though they got weary and there were times they were disobedient, Father, their hearts always turned right back to you, God. And God, you met them right in the middle, right in the middle of their frustration, right in the middle of everything, God. You still met them there. And so, God, I pray, God, for those who are waiting, God, that you will strengthen them, you will fortify them, God, you encourage them with your word, you will send people to speak life into them. Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, I ask you, God, I'ma shake it, boy, yeah, about to have your way, God, and have your way, God, uh, with your people on today. God, I just pray, God, just thank you, God, that you just even now, Holy Spirit, that you are just strengthening them right now. And so, God, we love you, God, we thank you, God, for every blessing, whatever we we get weary, God, remind us to think on the things you have already done for us, just like Abraham and Sarah did. Abraham often stole away, he built altars for you, he built times of worship with you. Even whenever he got weary, he always went back to the altar. So God, I pray that God, we will learn how to go back to the altar and go back and pray and worship you, God, for what you have already done. And God, I thank you, God, for the miracle that you have performed in so many people's lives and the one that you're going to perform in their lives in the future. And so, Lord, I thank you again for this time to just teach your word, to share your word, God, and to share your heart. In Christ's name I pray, amen and amen. So yes, all I have, you guys, um, you guys be blessed. Let me see if anybody made any comment. Thank you all for, um, hopping on. You can always go back and look at the replay. We talked about progressive miracles today and Abraham's promise. And the journey for him, um, to get to the promise. Amen. Okay, so I ended on Instagram and I'm going to end up here as well. Thank you all so much for, um, joining in on Facebook or YouTube, wherever you are, um, and I will see you guys next time. Bye. Thank you so much for being here today. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and share with your family and your friends. And please stay tuned for more content. If you would like, also you can download my free ebook at www.shakeeta.torres.com. Www.shakeetatorres.com and stay in contact with me to learn about new courses, new workshops, and new content that I'll be coming out in the future. Thanks again, talk to you soon.