Who would have thought that Sarah, so many years beyond her childbearing years, would be supernaturally enabled by God to conceive and give birth? This miracle shows the power of what faith can do. Sarah’s dream of having a child had gone unfulfilled for many years. But God demonstrated that age, barrenness, and earthly circumstances hold no limits for Him. Despite all these factors, God brought about a miracle.
You’ll remember that Sarah’s first response when she heard that God was going to do this miraculous thing, even at her advanced age, was to laugh. “You’ve got to be kidding,” was surely what she was thinking.
But God is full of surprises—powerful surprises—because He wants to let you see that He is not limited to the natural. He is not limited to the ordinary. He is not limited to what doctors or scientists say. Nor is He limited by the laws of biology. He trumps all that, according to His will. He had made a promise to Sarah that she was going to bear a child, but the timing would be in His hands.
This miracle shows the power of what faith can do.
The only thing that is in human hands is the choice to walk by faith—to move in the light of what God has said, even when something seems impossible and there is no sign that anything will come to pass. Sarah had to wait a long time after receiving the promise of a son. That’s because our timing is not God’s timing. Sometimes an answer will come immediately. Sometimes it might involve a short wait. But other times it will take a long time to see fulfillment. Perhaps that is because the fulfillment of God’s promise is awaiting our spiritual development—for the moment we are ready and prepared to receive His power to bring about the miracle we are anticipating and expecting.
The beautiful lesson we learn from Sarah is that walking by faith is so powerful that it conquers the natural order of things. That reality ought to bring you joy and hope, knowing that what you see is not all there is. I like to put it this way: If what you see is all you see, then you do not see all that is there to be seen. God can move above and beyond the natural world, and His heavenly order can override the limitations we experience down here.
So, to live by faith means to experience the spiritual realm while moving in the physical one. You experience the reality of the unseen God—and that God wants to do something in your life.
If what you see is all you see, then you do not see all that is there to be seen.
All of us experience times of waiting in our lives. What are you waiting to “give birth” to? For Sarah, it was a child. For you, it may be a dream deferred. It may be a healing for an affliction that has lasted far longer than you would have imagined. It may be the restoration of a relationship that has become fractured and frayed. There is surely something that you need for God to “birth” in His supernatural sovereignty.
The good news is that God wants to show you His power. He doesn’t just want you to read about it, think about it, or pray about it. He wants you to experience it. And when you do, you will no longer wonder about the reality of God. You won’t see Him as an esoteric idea in a faraway never-never land. When you experience the power of faith, you’ll be able to testify for yourself about how God gave birth to the promise He has made for your life.
