THE YEAR OF ISAAC

 THE YEAR OF ISAAC

At the beginning of this year, I was reading in Genesis and read again the story of Isaac. I believe that the Lord whispered to me that this was going to be the “Year of Isaac”. Isaac means ‘laughter’. I took that to mean that joy would return to us this year. Isaac received many blessings in his life; this will be a year of blessings. Isaac was a sacrifice, so God is calling us to a life of laying down our lives for Him this year. Isaac redug the wells his father had dug; we will resurrect old wells that have run dry. 

As we go on after the Easter season, I want to revisit this whisper to see what God has in store for us this year. 

TEXT Galatians 4:28 (NKJV) Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise.

PRAYER

Isaac’s story...

God appears to Abraham

Abraham: Father of many nations

Stars of the sky; sands of the sea

Sarai barren; no heir

Son from your body

Hagar and Ishmael; not the one

Isaac was the Child of Promise

God appears again to Abraham…

Genesis 17:15–19 (NKJV) Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. 16 And I will bless her and also give you a son by her; then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be from her.”

17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” 18 And Abraham said to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!”

19 Then God said: “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him.

Genesis 17:21 (NKJV) But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year.”

The Lord and two angels pay a visit to Abraham. 

Genesis 18:9–14 (NKJV) Then they said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” So he said, “Here, in the tent.” 10 And He said, “I will certainly return to you according to the time of life, and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a son.” (Sarah was listening in the tent door which was behind him.) 11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age; and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. 12 Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?” 13 And the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.”

Isaac had a Miraculous Conception

Genesis 21:1–6 (NKJV) And the Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as He had spoken. 2 For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. 3 And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him—whom Sarah bore to him—Isaac.  4 Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. 5 Now Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. 6 And Sarah said, “God has made me laugh, and all who hear will laugh with me.”

APPLICATIONS

What are some things that will happen in the “Year of Isaac”?

1. God will give us promises.

Some may be old promises that spring up again. Some may be brand new. 

2. We will try to make it happen with our ideas and our effort.

These efforts will fail; our dreams will die. 

3. God will bring to life those things that are dead. 

How? Faith!

Romans 4:17–24 (NKJV) as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; 18 who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.” 19 And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. 20 He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, 21 and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. 22 And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.” 23 Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, 24 but also for us.

4. God will fulfill His promises with a miracle conception.

Faith, not flesh; life out of death

Notice: Isaac was conceived by natural means, empowered by God!

When we surrender our will and our desires and our abilities and our strength, God takes over and empowers our efforts so that what used to be futile is now fertile!

MINISTRY TIME