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 About the Author
Jabari McDimar is the Senior Elder and prelate
presiding over The Glory House, a powerful
prophetic teaching and worship centre base in
Kilifi, Mombasa, Kenya. East Africa.

Jabari is a graduate of the World Harvest

The Author

Bible Institute, Jos, Nigeria; an ordained and

license minister under the auspices of the
Covenant Ministerial Association, Nigeria and
Independent Assembly, USA.

Jabari is a renowned Prophet, Teacher,

Prolific Writer, Song Composer, Marriage
Counsellor and also a Certified Information
Marketer. He has a passion to see everybody become somebody and his
leadership style is to keep it simple and real. He is committed to exploring
new ways to convey the old and unchanging message to a hurting and dying
world.

For prayers, counselling or preaching engagement, contact us @

Tel: +254-703825994
Email: [email protected]
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 DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to:

Kadis Okoji-Utomi

A woman whom God used to inspired

me to reach out to the barren.

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Contents
ABOUT THE EBOOK ................................................................................................................................. 6

INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 8

Chapter One ..................................................................................................................................... 12

THE MOTHER OF ALL LIVING ............................................................................................................. 12

Chapter Two ..................................................................................................................................... 15

PLIGHT OF THE INFERTILE WOMAN .................................................................................................. 15

Chapter Three ....................................................................................................................................... 19

THE STRUGGLES OF RACHEL ............................................................................................................. 19

Chapter Four ......................................................................................................................................... 23

TURNING BARRENNESS INTO BLESSINGS ......................................................................................... 23

Chapter Five .......................................................................................................................................... 26

BLESSED ARE THE BARREN ................................................................................................................ 26

Chapter Six ............................................................................................................................................ 30

POWER TO CONCEIVE ....................................................................................................................... 30

Chapter Seven ....................................................................................................................................... 34

GOD IS YOUR HELPER ........................................................................................................................ 34

Chapter Eight ........................................................................................................................................ 47

NEVER GO OUT OF BETHEL ............................................................................................................... 47

Chapter Nine ......................................................................................................................................... 51

PRAYER FOR THE BARREN ................................................................................................................. 51

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 ABOUT THE EBOOK

Conception, Pregnancy and childbirth are often depicted as a time of

sickness and mood swings for women followed by twelve to twenty hours
of pain and hard labor.

Many women have been told they can never conceive. Others have
suffered the pain of conceiving and miscarrying. Have you had enough of
this picture?

This eBook “Barren For A Purpose” is a practical and realistic look at

God's promises for conception, pregnancy and safe delivery.

You will learn these things:

• How to put faith principles into action for your very own
supernatural conception and childbirth.

• How you can be a living example of God's promises in action.

• How to deal with fear of conception or during pregnancy and

delivery.

• How and when to use your faith in pregnancy and delivery.

• How to turn your bareness into a blessing.

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“He gives the barren
woman a home,
making her the joyous
mother of children.
Halleluiah!”
Psalm 113:9

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 INTRODUCTION

In a striking synthesis, notice at the beginning, the nation of Israel starts

out with Sarah and Abraham, Rebecca with Isaac and Rachel with Jacob
each barren. In the formative years of God's love affair with His people,
the Lord had to intervene with a miracle of exceptional sons.

In the Hebrew story, childbearing embodies both the fulfilment of a “be

fruitful and multiply” and the showering of prosperity from God.
Barrenness, on the other hand, was seen as a curse. The Philistinian King,
Abimelech, and his wives, as well as Saul's daughter, Michal, was stricken
with sterility by God. (Gen. 30: 17-18, 2Sam. 6:23)

In those days it was a pity not to bear her husband's children, but they
did not always understand as we do today, that sometimes it is the
HUSBAND who was infertile rather than the wife. That was one reason
why the idea of polygamy was begun I suspect, as well as the longing of a
man for a son who will succeed him after his demise.

Procreation was one of the main purposes of marriage. The task of

bearing and raising children, therefore, played a crucial role in women's
lives. This concern about procreation also finds expression in the most
ancient literatures. According to the old covenant, a man was obliged to
marry another woman if after ten years his wife had not borne him any
children. Some of the decisions made by the barren women of ancient
exemplify the prime importance they attach to childbearing. After ten
years of childlessness, Sara hands Hangar, her Egyptian handmaid, over
to Abraham as a wife. Rachel takes a similar initiative in giving her
handmaid, Bilhah, to Jacob as a wife. Both Sara and Rachel hope to rear a
family through their handmaids, who become, in essence, surrogate
mothers.

Today, some barren women will go to the extent of getting children from
demonic entities, sleeping with Witch Doctors, committing adultery or
stolen new born babies. Such women were willing to sacrifice their own
comfort and honor in order to merit having children. While others
dedicated themselves for the services of God and wait patiently for a
miracle with tears unending.

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Fertility was both a manifestation of God's blessing and a prerequisite for
establishing a family. However, all four matriarchs, Sara, Rebecca, Rachel
and Leah, were at some point in their lives barren.

The summary of the benefits and curses of the Law as gave to Moses by
God shows that if the nations were to be obedient there would not be any
childless couples, or even animals, among the people. It also shows that
God himself is capable of either shutting up the wombs of women or
opening it as He wishes (Exodus 23:26. Deuteronomy 7:14).

Hebrew Bible describes the matriarchs' plight in detail, as well as that of

other barren women, such as Hanna and the wife of Manoah (who
became Samson's mother). We may then ask, if they were righteous
women, why were they stricken with sterility? Many other questions can
be raised concerning the life of a barren woman:

• What was the importance of all their years spent longing for a child?

• Did barren woman's situation mold her character? If so, how?

• What were the wider implications of the unfruitful woman eventually

giving birth?

GATHERING INNER STRENGTH

The plight of the infertile woman was often marked by pathos and
frustration; it produces tears, desperation, anguish, stigmatization,
depression, loneliness, despair, uncertainty and fear. Yet it also brought
to the surface qualities which had previously been dormant. Hanna stands
aloof from the other barren women, deeply immersed in her own world
and oblivious even to her husband's efforts to console her and bolster her
self-esteem: “Elkana, her husband, said to her, Hanna why do you weep?
And why do you not eat? And why is your heart grieved? Am I not better
to you than ten sons?” Sam. I 1:8.

Rachel, however, does not hold back away from her husband. In fact, she
defiantly gives Jacob what sounds almost like an ultimatum: “When
Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister; and
said, Give me children, or else I die”. Gen. 30:1.

Commenting on Rachel's bitter words "or else I die," Rabbi Ben Levi says.
"Every person who doesn't have children is considered dead!" This
appears to be a rather pessimistic, if not a morbid, outlook. Every human

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being desires to leave a part of him in this world before he departs for the
next. Continuity of self, an innate survival mechanism, propels the
individual to propagate. Moreover, even if the infertile person lives a full
and productive life, she has no heir to whom she can pass on her wealth
of learning and experience.

In facing the consequences of childlessness, each of the barren women

gathers the inner strength to cope with the situation, developing along
the way her own unique voice: her pleading voice in prayer, her assertive
voice in addressing her husband, and her active voice in decision-making
and educating.

BE A WOMAN OF PRAYER

Prayer was a powerful tool used by the infertile women in an attempt to

change their plight. Most poignant of all prayers is Hanna's prayer; it
serves as the paradigm for prayer as we are sure it today.

“Now Hanna spoke in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was
not heard; therefore Eli thought she was drunk”. Sam. I 1:13.

Hanna's voice is so tortured by sorrow, so embroiled in unfulfilled hopes,

that it is not even heard by mortal ears. Hanna is innovative in three
ways in the realm of prayer:

1. She prays the first silent prayers.

2. She is the first person to call God "Lord of Hosts”.

3. She sings songs of praise to God which no one has sung before. 1Sam.
2:1-10.

The reason for the matriarchs' childlessness was so that God could show
the world how much he loves everyone by performing miracles for their
benefit.

Example, Hanna was originally not a barren woman, but God closed her
womb so that she would pray for a child, and then opened it again as a
miracle. Embedded in the notion of a miraculous birth, outside of nature,
is the idea that the child born from such a birth would be destined for
something out of the ordinary. When Samson's mother receiving the
angel who heralded his birth, "First his mother had to be vouchsafed this

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vision to impress upon her and her son that he was destined for greatness
as a divine instrument”.

Special phrases are used in describing those born to barren women: "And
God was with him" (Samuel). "and the man became great" (Isaac), "and
God blessed him" (Samson). It seems that the children born to barren
women were personalities of significant stature. We see this manifested in
Isaac and Jacob, progenitors of the Jewish people; Joseph, second to
Pharaoh in Egypt; Samson, the last of the Judges; and Samuel, a great
leader and prophet. Is it possible that the children born to barren women
were predestined to attain such lofty heights? Do you notice that they all
gave birth to male children? I will address that in the preceding chapters.

While childless years did not help to ensure the continuity of the Jewish
people, they were, in fact, an extremely important and beneficial time for
the barren woman. All of them were endowed with exceptional creative
and prophetic faculties, and their childless years certainly facilitated the
development of these faculties. While the neighbors were preoccupied
with feeding and looking after their children, the barren women invested
their time in attaining higher spiritual and intellectual goals. Of all the
barren women, Sara experienced the longest period of childlessness; she
gave birth to Isaac at the ripe age of ninety. Yet this afforded her the
time to be actively involved in many spheres, such as being a full-time
educator alongside Abraham and a prophetess of the highest caliber.

Regardless of her growth in other spheres, there are few additional

phenomena comparable to the elation felt by the barren woman who has
just given birth. It represents a total transformation from barrenness to
fertility, disappointment to hope, sorrow of jubilation, and death to new
life: “He transforms the barren woman into a glad mother of children,
Hallelujah”. Psalms 113:9

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 Chapter One

THE MOTHER OF ALL LIVING

One of the names of God are El Shaddai, which reveals God as a nursing
mother. Motherhood is not something you “have to do” but it is the
revelation of the nurturing heart of God. You are a quintessential of El
Shaddai. Webster (1913) describes quintessence as “an extract from
anything, containing its rarest virtue, or more subtle and essential
constituent in a small quantity.” You are not El Shaddai, but a little “shad”
revealing to the world the rarest virtue of Motherhood. When you
embrace and live in the glory of motherhood, you show to the world what
God is like. When you reject motherhood, you deprive the world of seeing
this characteristic of God.

There are a few women who cannot conceive naturally. Are they denied
motherhood? No. When a woman expresses her nurturing instinct to
mother the hurting and needy, the elderly, the orphans and widows, or
even to adopt a child, she finds her fulfillment in mothering. The most
renowned mother of our last century was Mother Theresa, a woman who
never bathed children, but she was the greatest example of motherhood
as she poured out her life for the downtrodden.

There are some mothers who deny themselves the privilege and joy of
nursing their own baby, and yet this is primal and quintessential to be
female. The Bible tells us that “Even jackals offer the breast, they nurse
their young; but the daughter of my people has become cruel like
ostriches in the wilderness” (Lamentations 4:3).

God has created women physically for the task of childbearing. He has
given you a womb to conceive and nurture life, and breasts to nourish
that life. One of the Greek words for woman is ‘thelus’ derived from
‘thele’. The noun means "the nipple of a woman’s breast from which a
baby sucks to find sustenance and to thrive" and the verb means, "to
suckle at the breast." It is translated "woman" in Romans 1:26 and
"female" in Matthew 19:4 and Mark 10:6.

“And he (Jesus) answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he
which made them at the beginning made them male and female” Math.
19:4.

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Interesting! God created a male and a female. He didn’t make two
Adams. He didn’t make two Eves. He created Adam and an Eve.

The most common Greek word for "woman" in the New Testament is
gune which simply means "woman, wife." However, Jesus used a more
precise word when He answered the Pharisees who asked him about
divorce. He used the word “thelus”. In other words, Jesus described the
female as a "suckling mother." "This is how God made them in the
beginning” he reminded them. And God has not yet made a new model!

The word ‘woman’ is a combination of ‘womb,’ and ‘Man’. You are ‘womb
men.’ The womb is your most distinguishing characteristic as a Woman. It
is a gift from our Creator. It is His plan and destiny for you. You are
designed to be a “suckling mother” and so shall it be.

In Genesis 3:20, "Adam called his wife’s name Eve: because she was the
MOTHER OF ALL LIVING." When Adam said these words, Eve was not yet
a mother. She had never experienced motherhood. She had not seen a
newborn baby. She had never nursed a child at her breast. Why
therefore, does Adam call her a mother? Adam spoke under the anointing
of God and gave a prophetic word to his wife, and all women to come.
Eve was the prototype of all women who would be born. When Adam
spoke these words, he proclaimed Eve’s highest destiny of motherhood
and also that of all women to follow.

THE CURSE

“And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast
done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. 14
And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this,
thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon
thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: 15
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy
seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy
conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall
be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee”. Gen 3:13-16 (KJV)

Then God said at the woman that she would have pain in bearing
children, and that she would be mastered by her husband whom she
desired. Because Eve's desire probably refers in this context to her
prompting Adam to sin, it is better to translate the verse "Your desire was

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for your husband." Having overstepped her bounds in this, she would now
be mastered by him.

Throughout time, there has always been a battle between men and
women. As I was thinking about this the Lord led me to read Genesis 3
again. God wanted man to feed on life and grace (the tree of life in the
midst) and not the law (the tree of knowledge of good and evil). But the
fall of man brought on judgement upon all of creation. Under this
judgement God said the following to the woman “I will greatly multiply
thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children;”

Notice how what God told the woman is different from what He told the
man. The woman’s grief and suffering would be during conception,
pregnancy and childbearing (everything to do with the woman’s
reproductive system). Some women suffer through monthly menstrual
pain as a result of that curse. But there is good news; the answer is grace
(the fullness of Jesus). Under grace, there is now no more judgement,
what the last Adam (Jesus) did be greater than what the first Adam did.
Rom. 5: 12-19.

Under grace (the fullness of Jesus. His unmerited favour), woman will
conceive and can have supernatural childbirths.

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 Chapter Two

PLIGHT OF THE INFERTILE WOMAN

Mpenzi watched the happy screaming kids as they played in the small
park. Her expression was sad. It spoke of dreams lost, dreams that never
came true for her. How could life be just so unfair?

She silently prayed: Lord, hasn’t I been good, kind to the needy and
helpful to those who have asked for my help? Ever since I was young I
have praised you, loved you and followed your teachings. I have done all
I can to please you and have followed the right path. Why am I being
punished?

Mpenzi stifled a sob. This was now her daily prayer. These feelings were
not unfamiliar to her. From the time, she had married up to this very
moment she had always wondered. She had been married for ten years
and still hadn’t had a child.

If infertility is difficult to endure in the 21st century, think how helpless an

infertile woman felt when they see other women bearing children. The
chief value of a woman in biblical times was first her chastity and, after
marriage, her reproducibility.

When I began looking for any woman in God’s Word, names like Rachel,
Sarah, and Hannah came to mind quickly, but there were others. What
can we learn lessons from each woman? How did she cope with her
plight? How did her story end?

Women’s names began filling my scribbled pages as I researched the

300-plus women mentioned in Scripture. The most easily identifiable
women were barren temporarily, then later blessed with children. In most
cases, their barrenness and how God resolved it seemed to be one of the
main reasons she was present in Scripture. The point is that God used
infertility to show His miraculous power and to carry out His plan for
human history.

The biggest surprise was I could find only one woman who was mentioned
as never having children—Michal, former wife of King David. That

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certainly doesn’t mean there weren’t more, because surely there were.
But the details are missing, so we’ll never know who they were.

Hannah is the most notable infertile woman in the Bible. We refer to the
depth of her pain physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Elizabeth and Zechariah “were upright in the sight of God, observing all
the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly. But they had no
children, because Elizabeth was barren; and they were both well along in
years” (Luke 1:6-7). A godly couple, barren, and old—the perfect setting
for a miracle! And that’s just what happened. While performing his
priestly duties, Zechariah was visited by an angel announcing that “your
prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you
are to give him the name John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and
many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of
the Lord” (vv. 13-15). Elizabeth becomes the mother of John the Baptist,
the long-prophesied one who would prepare the people for the coming of
Christ.

Had Elizabeth become a mother in her youth, the news of this post-
menopausal baby probably would have been amazing, but not really in
the miraculous category. God’s plan was to keep her womb closed until
both Elizabeth and Zechariah (and everyone who knew them) had moved
away from their chance of children, and it was precisely the absence of
previous children that made the coming of this one so remarkable. After
John’s birth and naming (complete with a tongue-loosing miracle for the
new dad), “the neighbours were all filled with awe, and throughout the hill
country of Judea people were talking about all these things. Everyone who
heard this wondered about it, asking, “What then is this child going to
be?’ For the Lord’s hand was with him”, Luke 1: 65-66.

What a gift God has provided us with in the story of Hannah! Her 11th
century B.C. journey closely resembles the struggles of 21st century
infertile women. She was often consumed by her thoughts of infertility—
she went alone to the temple and cried her heart out to God. She made
drastic promises to the Lord in hopes she would be granted a child. She
was stabbed with the pain of watching other women bear children with no
problem. In Hannah, we see a complete picture of the pain of infertility.

Right after the beginning of creation, we encounter the first of what will
become a common refrain in the book of Genesis, the lament of the

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infertile woman. The opening verse of Chapter 16 informs us that “Sarai,
the wife of Abram, had borne him no child.” Sarai is just one example of
the biblical stigma of not being able to conceive. This theme of infertility
is repeated with each matriarchal generation - Sarah, Rebecca and
Rachel.

THE IMPORTANCE OF CHILDREN IN THE BIBLE

It is telling that in this part of the Bible, primary female voices are
anguished cries about the inability to conceive. The Matriarchs repeated
lament that without offspring; they lack stature and worth in their
families. Sarah, after years of barrenness, is so desperate for a child that
she offers her maidservant to her husband, effectively introducing a
competitor for Abraham’s affection, in order that “perhaps I [Sarai] can
build a family through her.” Rachel equates the value of motherhood to
life itself, begging her husband to “give me children, or I am dead.”

Even Leah, the only one among the four Matriarchs who does not appear
to struggle with infertility, expresses her belief that her status in the
family and the love of her husband are dependent upon her bearing
children. She names two of her first three sons using words that express
hope that with each birth, her husband will surely come to love her.

The biblical text poignantly demonstrates the importance of children to

the women of that time and the emotional and social distress caused by
infertility. In developing countries today, the anguish is compounded by
social stigma and economic repercussions. Lacking universal health care,
adequate social services and financial insurance like Social Security, many
African women depend on children to sustain them in their old age.
Barren women frequently see their husbands leave them for other wives.
They are usually cut out of family inheritances, become social outcasts
and, in extreme cases, may even be driven to suicide.

To make matters worse, infertility rates in many developing nations,

particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, are greater than they are in the West.
While infertility rates in the United States among women ages 20 to 44
hovers at approximately 10 percent, in the Central African Republic, it is
almost 30 percent; in Lesotho, 27 percent; and in Cameroon, 25 percent.
These are troubling numbers: Nearly a third of women in some countries
are unable to bear children. Yet despite the severity of this epidemic,
women experiencing infertility in many parts of the global world lack

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access to the costly and complex treatments that have become, if not
commonplace, then at least accessible to some.

Ironically, countries that suffer from high infertility rates also tend to be
in poor regions where there is significant effort being done to lower the
birth rate. While smaller families might be beneficial to the development
of many countries, this should not take precedence over each woman’s
right to have a child if she chooses, or mitigate the pain, stigma,
ostracism and financial insecurity that individual women face when they
cannot conceive.

REASONS FOR HOPE

There is, however, room for optimism. In Sarah’s case, her infertility was
addressed by the arrival of a heavenly delegation announcing the
imminent birth of a son. Today, numerous instances of infertility in
developing nations can be prevented altogether by timely and effective
treatments. Over 70 percent of affected women in Africa suffer from
secondary infertility, frequently caused by frequent complications of
sexually transmitted infections (STIs), such as Chlamydia and
Gonorrhoea. Unlike primary infertility, caused by hormonal imbalances or
physiological abnormalities, secondary infertility is often preventable. By
raising public awareness of STIs, teaching safe sex methods and treating
infections, health care workers can significantly reduce the number of
infertile women in developing nations.

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 Chapter Three
THE STRUGGLES OF RACHEL

“When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister;
and she said to Jacob, ‘Give me children, or I shall die’” Gen. 30:1.

In ancient Israel, a woman who had many children was greatly honoured.
She was seen by the community have been blessed by God. When
Rebekah left her family to become Isaac’s wife, her family blessed her
with these words: “May you, our sister, become the mother of many
thousands of children” (Genesis 24:60).

It is located in light of this oriental view of motherhood that one should

understand how the words of Rachel were filled with pathos, reflecting the
agony of her desperate heart. When one becomes acquainted with the
story of Jacob and Rachel, one reads of a beautiful love story, of how
Jacob fell in love with Rachel, and of how the seven years he worked for
her were “to him but a few days because of the love he had for her”
(Genesis 29:20).

Rachel was the woman Jacob loved, but because of the cunning of Laban,
Jacob’s father-in-law, Jacob married Leah first, and then he married
Rachel. By giving Jacob children, Leah’s position as a wife was affirmed,
while Rachel, unable to have children, became jealous of her sister.
Rachel was bitter because her sister had children and she had none. Leah
had given Jacob four sons and Rachel were barren, unable to conceive.
Rachel’s harsh words to her husband give the readers an insight into
Jacob’s marriage with Rachel and the tension that existed in the family
because of the rivalry between the two sisters.

Rachel’s desire to become a mother was okay. Rachel’s desperate cry was
the cry of a childless woman who desperately wanted to become a mother
and through motherhood fulfil her destiny as a woman and as a wife.

In the Hebrew Bible women praised the Lord when he gave “the barren
woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children” (Psalm
113:9). This was the case of Hannah, the mother of Samuel. After giving
birth to Samuel, Hannah said: “My heart exults in the LORD . . . The
barren has borne seven” (1 Samuel 2:1, 5).

19
Rachel’s suffering became more grievous every day as she saw her sister
enjoying the love and the affection of her sons. Rachel became jealous of
Leah. In Israel the barren wife had no prospect for the future. Barrenness
was believed to be a curse from the Lord (Genesis 20:18), thus the
reason for Rachel’s desperate cry.

Rachel expressed her frustration as a childless wife by her outburst

against her husband: “Give me children, or I shall die” (Genesis 30:1).
Jacob’s reply to Rachel also expressed his frustration with the situation
because he recognized that his wife was asking the impossible of him.
Jacob asked Rachel: “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from
you the fruit of the womb?” (Genesis 30:2).

When Rebekah was not in a position to have children, Isaac, her husband,
prayed for her for twenty years before his prayers were answered
(Genesis 25; 21). Hannah also prayed to God telling him to give her a son
(1 Samuel 1:10). There was no evidence that Jacob ever prayed for
Rachel, but by calling children “the fruit of the womb,” Jacob recognized
that children are gifts from God (cf. Deuteronomy 28:11: “The LORD will
make you abound in . . . the fruit of your womb”). Jacob reminded his
wife that the power of conception was not in his hands that it belonged to
God.

Out of her despair, desiring to be a mother, Rachel invoked a custom

common in the ancient Near East, the same custom invoked by Sarah
when she was unable to give her husband Abraham a son (Genesis 16:2).
Rachel gave her maid Bilhah to Jacob as a wife so that the maid could
conceive a son on her behalf.

The custom of adoption was widespread in Mesopotamia in the days of

the patriarchs. According to some ancient documents, infertile couples
could adopt a son or a daughter and give them the legal rights and duties
of a natural born child. In the process of adoption, the child of the servant
was placed upon the mistress’s knees and found to be her own child.
Thus, Rachel told Jacob: “Here is my maid Bilhah; go into her, that she
may bear upon my knees, and even I may have children through her”
(Genesis 30:3). Later on, Jacob adopted Joseph’s two sons by placing
them on his knees (Genesis 48:12). In addition, Genesis 50:23 says that
the children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were born upon Joseph’s
knees.

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THE RIVALRY

The rivalry between Leah and Rachel continued for many years. One day
when Ruben, Leah’s son found some mandrakes in the field, the rivalry
between the two sisters became evident again. In the ancient Near East
people believed that mandrakes, also known as “love apples,” were
aphrodisiacs and that they produced fertility in barren women by aiding
conception.

Thus, Rachel hoping that the mandrakes would help her conceive a child
for her husband, offered Leah a night with Jacob in exchange for the
mandrakes that Ruben had found. When Jacob returned home from the
field, Leah told him: “I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes”
(Genesis 30:16). After spending the night with Jacob, Leah became
pregnant and gave Jacob another son, whom Leah named Issachar.

Then Leah gave birth to a sixth son. At the time her sixth son was born,
Leah said: “God has endowed me with a good dowry; now my husband
will honour me, because I have borne him six sons, so she called his
name Zebulun” (Genesis 30:20). Then, Leah gave birth to a daughter and
called her name Dinah.

The rivalry between Leah and Rachel increased more and more as Leah
gave birth to children and Rachel was still barren. The situation became
even worse as the two women saw the hand of God behind this situation.
According to the narrator of the story, at the beginning of the rivalry
between Leah and Rachel, it was the Lord who allowed Leah to conceive:
“When the LORD saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb; but
Rachel was barren” (Genesis 29:31). And Jacob told Rachel that it was
the Lord “who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb” (Genesis
30:2).

Finally, the Lord had pity on Rachel and hearkened to her desperate
prayers: “Then God remembered Rachel. God answered her prayer and
made it possible for her to have children” (Genesis 30:22). Rachel
became pregnant and gave birth to a son whom she called Joseph. After
Rachel became a mother, she said: “God has taken away my disgrace”
(Genesis 30:23).

GOD WILL TAKE AWAY YOUR DISGRACE

The Bible contains many stories of barren women who desperately wished
to become mothers, women who desperately wanted a future for their

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families. Barren women were Sarah (Genesis 11:30), Rebekah (Genesis
25:21), Rachel (Genesis 29:30), Hannah (1 Samuel 1:2), Manoah’s wife
(Samson’s mother, cf. Judges 13:2), and Elizabeth (Luke 1:7).

All these barren women conceived and gave birth to children because of
the gracious intervention of God, a God who opens wombs and “gives the
barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children” (Psalm
113:9). The affirmation that God opens the womb of barren women is
affirmed by the prophet Isaiah: “Sing. O barren one who did not bear;
burst into song and shout, you who have not been in labour! For the
children of the desolate woman will be more than the children of her that
is married, says the LORD” (Isaiah 54:1).

God’s promise to the infertile women is incomprehensible. The birth of

children to barren women cannot be explained, except when one looks at
the power and marvellous work of God who creates something new when
all seems to be hopeless and lost.

Rachel was blessed by God because he answered her prayers and enabled
her to become a mother. The blessing of Rachel is taken into account in
the words of the women of Bethlehem at the time of the birth of Ruth’s
son. After Boaz married Ruth and she gave birth to a son, the women of
Bethlehem blessed Boaz with the following blessing: “May the LORD make
the woman who is coming into your house like Rachel and Leah, who
together built up the house of Israel” (Ruth 4:11).

When God heard Rachel’s prayer by giving her a son, she recognized the
work of the Lord. Her disgrace was removed from her and she was
granted the desire of her heart: to become a mother.

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 Chapter Four
TURNING BARRENNESS INTO BLESSINGS

She was ashamed. She was tormented. She was barren. Her husband was
trying to console her. 'You're already blessed,' he virtually told her. Yes,
Hannah was a beloved wife. Hundreds of lonely, rejected women would be
satisfied with that, but not Hannah. She could have no peace until she
had borne a child. (1 Samuel 1:1-8)

This yearning for a baby arose from within, was fed by her society's
attitude and further intensified by her rival - her husband's second wife.
Ultimately, however, I believe the pressure was from God.

'And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept
sore. And she vowed . . . , "O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt . . . give unto thy
handmaid a man child, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his
life . . . " ' (1 Samuel 1:10-11)

The Bible provides us with an inside look at another woman’s sorrow in

the story of Hannah (see 1 Sam. 1). Hannah felt dejected and ashamed
because she was not in a position to have children. Her husband, Elkanah,
loved her very much, but he had a second wife, Peninnah, whom he
apparently married to bear him offspring. Peninnah provoked Hannah to
bitterness year after year by reminding her of her barrenness.

During one of Hannah’s yearly pilgrimages to Shiloh with Elkanah, she

was so consumed with sorrow that she wept and could not eat. When she
went to the temple, her anguish was so great that she couldn’t even
verbalize her prayers. Eli, the priest, judged her weeping as drunkenness
and scolded her (see vv. 13–14).

Later, realizing he had misjudged her, Eli pronounced a blessing over

Hannah, saying, “May the God of Israel grants the request you have
asked of Him” (v. 17, NLT). To Hannah, this was a spiritual breakthrough.
It meant that God had heard her prayers. She soon composed herself and
went on her way.

It seems the Lord had long waited for this degree of commitment.
Perhaps reaching this point sooner would have shaved years off her wait.
Nonetheless, to her vow of consecration she added faith. Before any
tangible sign of answered prayer 'her countenance was no more sad.' (1

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Samuel 1:18) Years of anguish fostered prayer, devotion, and now, faith.
A miracle was hurtling toward this planet. (1 Samuel 1:20)

That's how God moves. Isaac, Israel, Samson, Samuel and John the
Baptist were all born to women who had been barren. (Genesis 18:11;
25:21-26; Judges 13:3; 1 Samuel 1:20; Luke 1:7, 13). Barrenness forced
those women to exceptional fervour in praying for conception. Little
wonders that they conceived exceptional children. They were barren, but
unfruitful for a purpose.

Eventually, Hannah conceived and gave birth to Samuel, whom she took
to the temple at the age of 3 to be living out his life in service to the Lord.
Later, she gave birth to five more children.

Not every infertility story has an ending like Hannah’s. But this account
does show the gut-wrenching struggle of a woman who entrusted her
wounded heart to the Lord and awaited His loving answer to her cry.

It’s not shameful to be childless in our culture, but it can be devastating

when it’s not by choice. Almost 5 million couples in most nations
experience infertility at some time in their marriage. Yet most often,
couples who struggle with this trauma are met either awkward silence or
inappropriate advice, even in the church. Comments like “Just relax.
Honey” are both an insult and a trivialization of what is usually a muddle
of medical, emotional and spiritual mysteries.

Hannah nurtured the baby until he was weaned (probably, by Hebrew

custom, about three years). She then plunged a knife into her heart,
severing herself from her flesh and blood. If the bond at birth can be
strong, it was three years harder for Hannah. And this was her only child.

But the beautiful story continues. The Lord, having inspired her heart-
wrenching vow, flooded her with blessings. Her reward went beyond
giving birth to a son. It went beyond proudly viewing the development of
one of the greatest men of God earth has seen. And it went beyond her
acclaim ringing around the globe, generation after generation extolling
her devotion. There were also treasures, but the path was steep.

As she surrendered to the priest the fruit of her womb, Hannah jubilantly
sang, 'The barren hath borne seven.' (1 Samuel 2:5) Oh Hannah!
Whatever do you mean? You have no abundance - only one, and even he
has been torn from you.

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Year by year she made a little robe for the child who was no longer hers.
Every stitch was impregnated with love and thanksgiving, but many were
dampened with tears for the child she longed to keep, but could not. Once
a year she would be journey to the house of God and hand over the robe
- a pitifully small gift for the little boy she longed to wait on day and
night. At each visit, the priest would ask God's special blessing upon this
precious mother. And God heard. Radiance burst through the tears of
sacrifice. That once-barren lady gave birth to three more sons and two
daughters. (1 Samuel 2:19-21). Her glory was complete. Yes, the Lord
made her like other mothers as she had always dreamed of doing, but
first he had exalted her above other mothers.

Hannah's vow of surrender unleashed the power of God. Is your life at a

stalemate because heaven is awaiting a further depth of consecration
from you? Search your heart and God's mind for an answer.

Ending barrenness involves being intimate with the one we love. We can
think of this a chore, and turn it into one, but it is meant to be delightfully
fulfilling. Communing with God and waiting in his presence is intimacy
with God. We can treat this as a burden - struggling, straining and
afflicting ourselves - or we can unleash love and let snuggling into the
heart of God become the delightful experience he intends it to be. To like
to know everything about our calling without spending hours alone with
God is to wish we could trade the pinnacle of human experience for the
clinical coldness of some sort of spiritual in-vitro fertilisation.

WHO IS TO BLAME?

Some people, on hearing the news, want to find out which of the couple is
to blame. There is precedent for the question. The Scriptures always
identify who is right on fault. Sarah is too old. The Shunammite woman's
husband is too old, too; Rachel and Hannah and Manoah's wife are simply
cursed with closed wombs. One person in the pair is always responsible.

Nevertheless, let’s challenge Scripture with Scripture. Genesis 2 declares

husband and wife to be ONE FLESH. It takes two people, a man and a
woman, joined in one flesh, to make a baby. Asking which of us is
"responsible" for the barrenness suggests that one of us could procure a
baby by a method not involving the other—requiring first divorce or
death. The implied rupture in the one flesh of your marriage renders the
question meaningless.

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 Chapter Five
BLESSED ARE THE BARREN

Elizabeth and Zechariah mark the end of an old covenant, just as they
mark the beginning of Luke's Gospel. Both are righteous, walking
blamelessly in all the statutes and commands of the Lord. Elizabeth is a
daughter of Aaron, Zechariah a Levite from the Abijah clan and a priest
serving his rotation in the temple. They are pious Jews and share with
many pious Jews before them the same grief: They are barren. They were
barren all their years together and now they are older, too. Age has
brought an end to any lingering hope.

How familiar their story is. It was the same ones with Sarah and
Abraham, with Rachel and Jacob, with Manoah and his wife, with Hannah
and Elkanah, with the Shunammite woman and her husband. Each couple
in their way pleaded with the Lord. A few tried to cheat the raw deal of
childlessness. Sarah cheated with a servant girl; the result was Ishmael,
cruelty, and unabated enmity millennia later. Rachel cheated, too, with
the servant girl Bilhah, but it only exacerbated her grief and Leah's
competitiveness.

The ones after them, maybe, learned the lesson and stopped cheating.
Their reaction to the angel or the prophet bringing news of a child at last
was simply disbelief. Manoah insisted on a repeat miracle, unwilling to
accept his wife's testimony about Samson's eventual birth. The
Shunammite woman begged Elisha not to mock her with his promise.
Hannah just prayed, prayed so hard that Eli thought she was drunk and
Elkanah thought she did not love him anymore.

Cheat or no cheat. Their prayers were answered. Their dirty tricks and
their disbelief were forgiven. A son was born, always a son.

With Elizabeth and Zechariah, this string of miracles ends. It is complete.

Zechariah was not any better than his predecessors when faced with an
angel. He doubted like the best of them. Five precedents did nothing to
prepare him for the miracle of his own life. So the judgment on his
disbelief was a mute tongue, and more than that, a son who was not his
son, a son set apart already in the womb, with a name different from his
father's and a belly full of the Holy Spirit. Zechariah should have known
better. When an angel comes and announces the birth of a son—believes!

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No one need learn from Zechariah's mistake now. Angels do not announce
impossible births anymore. These miracles are finished with. God has
spoken His piece and shown the strength of His arm. John the Baptist
completes the Lord's work of bringing something from nothing in the
womb of a barren wife. God's next miracle after this boy is a greater one,
so great that He gladly permits the surprise and even the modest
challenge of the mother. She is a virgin, not a wife; she is young, not old;
she has no precedent before her. The child will take his flesh from her and
yet not be hers, for he is begotten of the Father and conceived by the
power of the Holy Spirit. His name will be Jesus.

Jesus' cousin, John, the last son born to the childless, prepare the way.
He is the prophet of the Most High. However, John, whose praise his
father sings, is a son to break their hearts. He needs to get to the desert,
eats locusts and wild honey, wears camel hair, never comes home, angers
everyone, points to the Messiah, decreases, and loses his head to the
wicked king. Elizabeth and Zechariah deliver their long-awaited son to the
world, and never are heard from again. They begin the Gospel, and in so
doing they end the old covenant of only “sons for the barren”. Now, the
barren can give birth to either a son or daughter.

BLESSED ARE THE BARREN WOMBS

Twenty-three chapters later, John is dead, and Jesus is on His way to be

dead. He has fed the five thousand, healed the sick, stilled the waters,
and most miraculously of all, taught with authority. His words are God's
words.

The Pharisees and scribes rage at these words. Nevertheless, the crowds
throng Jesus and beg for more. He gives them more. In her enthusiasm
at His words, a woman in the crowd cries out a blessing. "Blessed is the
womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!" Happy the
woman who is your mother. Sad that there could be only one of her”.
Luke 11:27

But Jesus turns the blessing aside. He redirects it. "Blessed rather," He
says, "are those who hear the Word of God and keep it." (verse 28) His
mother is not exempt from the blessing so long as she hears the Word of
God. Her womb and breasts are no guarantee— not even for the mother
of the Lord.

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This is not the first time Jesus has distanced himself from his mother. She
and his brothers tried to reach him once before, unable to pierce through
the crowds, powerless to make their claim on him. Kindly messenger
conveys the word that they are waiting for him. Nevertheless, Jesus does
not rush to see His mother. He is a heartbreaking son just like His cousin,
John. "My mother and brothers are those who hear the word of God and
do it," He says.

Twice Jesus turns aside the family. Twice He finds his mother among the
hearers of the Word of God.

Perhaps Elizabeth, mourning her decapitated son, prepared Mary for her
son's death. In Luke's account, Mary is not one of the women at the
cross. Perhaps the redirected blessings and the grief overcame her. Luke
will not show her to us again until after the resurrection, in the temple,
awaiting the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost.

But now Jesus is pursuing the road to the cross with just a few hearers of
the Word of God to keep Him company. At His footsteps follow the
grieving women. They have run out of blessings to bestow on Him and on
His mother's womb and breasts. So Jesus turns and bestows blessings of
His own. He says: “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but
weep for yourselves and for your children. For the days are surely coming
when they will say: Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never
bore and the breasts that never nursed! Then they will begin to say to the
mountains, Fall on us, and to the hills, Cover us. For if they do this when
the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?” Luke 23: 28-31, New
Revised Standard Version

Barrenness is a curse on creation. It is a violation, a defiance of the

Creator's original charge and desire for his creatures. It shushes the
Deuteronomist's assurance: “The Lord will make you abound in
prosperity, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your livestock and
in the fruit of your ground”. Barrenness challenges creation, opposes it in
battle, pins it down and defeats it. A fruitless love is the Devil's mockery
of the Creator's gift.

Yet Jesus, whose own cousin put an end to the covenant of male children
for the childless, lays a blessing on the barren. He blesses the barren as
barren for the first time. He takes their curse away. But not in granting a
child—that the blessing is not to be given anymore. Jesus' blessing is a
solid blessing; it is a divine blessing, for it kills as it makes alive. It does

28
not respond to the deepest longing of husbands and wives to make babies
together. It is not even dignify the grief and honour the curse. It casts
away the curse, and the cure to the curse, the one with the other, and
instantiates a new blessing altogether. Blessed are the barren, blessed
are the empty wombs, blessed are the dry breasts.

This is no longer a blessing to live everyday life by. It is no longer a

blessing for the now. It’s a blessing in the end. It is an apocalyptic
blessing intruding on the present and the desire of the present for family,
children, hearth, and home. It is a blessing for a time when falling
mountains and crumbling hills is preferable to the horrors at hand, to the
rampage of the crucified and the blasphemers and the falling bombs. It is
not good enough when the wood is green. This blessing is for when the
wood is dry, smouldering, kindling, bursting into flame.

However, the blessing does not wait for the dry wood, the collapsing
hillsides, and the final battle. The blessing comes now in lands of green
wood, in the middle of towns and cities full of families, striking with the
randomness of lightning. Some couples are cursed by creation and singled
out for the apocalyptic blessing of barrenness. They are forced to leave
the eschaton during the in-between times.

Blessed are the barren.

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 Chapter Six
POWER TO CONCEIVE

The story of the Garden of Eden provides great insight into God’s ideals.
Having families are certainly central to that. There are three specific
observations we can make about child bearing from this verse. First, it is
not just a privilege but it is also a God-given responsibility. Second, the
purpose for having a family is to put in place the Dominion Mandate.
Third, the ability to have a family is the result of God’s blessings.

“God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number;
fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of
the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Gen.
1:28

Let’s bring those three things into the context of intercession.

Prayer is presenting any kind of petition to God. It is entirely permissible

to present our emotions to God, even when we are certain what we want
is not what God wants. Christ did that in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Intercession however, is praying God’s will into reality. It is arguing a

legal case before God, using Scripture to show God why the thing we are
asking for His will and should therefore be granted.

So at this juncture, you as a couple should sit down and draw up a list of
all the ways your family could implement the Dominion Mandate better as
a larger family, than as a family of two. Look at the examples of family
ministry in Scripture (case law) and build your case so it is strong. Start
with the specific call on your own lives as individuals, then as a pair, and
show every different aspect of those calls that could be better
implemented if you had children working with you.

From there, present yourselves to God as willing stewards of the

marvellous gift of life. Commit to the responsibility of raising children for
the sake of the Kingdom, not for your private pleasure. Turn the situation
completely around. Instead of asking God to give you children because
you want them, ask Him to give you the children that would enable His
Kingdom purposes to go forward. Hannah had a problem in that she

30
needed children for the sake of her identity as a woman and a wife. God
had the bigger problem in that He needed a prophet in Israel.

God gave her a child when she committed to give the child back to Him
for His Kingdom purposes. In the same way, set aside your needs. Show
God His need of a womb to bear some world changers and offer
yourselves as a couple who is willing to serve God by raising such
kingdom-focused children.

Then in the context of the Dominion Mandate and your submission, ask
God to bless your womb with contemporary life.

THE STRENGTH TO CONCEIVE

“By faith Sarah herself also received STRENGTH TO CONCEIVE seed, and
she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him
faithful who had promised”. Heb 11:11

One of the most beautiful aspects of femininity is pregnant. The pregnant

figure is magnificent. In this awesome time of a woman’s life, she has the
honour of housing and growing a new life, a life that will not only be born
into this world, but an eternal soul that will live forever. Absolutely
nothing in this world is more powerful than nurturing an undying soul.
This season of a woman’s life is only for a certain time. It is her time of
visitation which is only about 20 plus years of her whole life, not many
years when you consider that most women live into their eighties and
nineties today. It is the privileged time of a woman’s life when she can be
visited by God to conceive life.

Every conception discloses a visitation of God. After Hannah dedicated her

firstborn Samuel to God and took him to live at the temple, God “visited”
her five more times and gave her five more children (1 Samuel 2:21).
Genesis 21:1 also tells us how God “visited” Sarah and she conceived.

HOW MANY MEN ARE PRAYING FOR THEIR BARREN WIFE?

“And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren. And
the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived”. Gen. 25:21

How many husbands are crying out to God because they are childless?
Instead of praying as a PRIEST in the family to break the chain of
barrenness, the man is busy blaming the wife and running the risk of
getting another wife. With Isaac, it was different. He prayed to the Lord
for his barren wife and the Lord granted his request. His wife CONCEIVED

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because the man stood in the gap. The above verse said, he prayed “for
his wife” - literally, opposite to his wife, i.e. beside his wife, placing
himself opposite her, and conjoining his supplications with her; or, better,
in behalf of his wife. Isaac and his wife prayed together and it takes the
man who is representing Christ to plead for his wife.

Think what was going through Isaac’s mind when the first couple of years
of marriage passed and his wife did not conceive. He knew full well the
story of his own conception and he must have been thinking, “Here we go
again! Am I going to have to wait sixty more years before having a son
like Dad did?”

While Abraham initially wondered whether he would ever have a son,

there should not have been any doubt in Isaac’s mind. He had clearly
articulated generational blessings that could only be fulfilled through his
having a baby. So even though he wasn’t sure of God’s timing, he was
sufficiently sure that the promise was good that he prayed for his wife to
be healed, and she was.

There are a couple of lessons to be learnt here. First of all, Isaac did not
let his father’s experience become the norm. He did not wait a few
decades for God to show up so he could review the situation with God
personally, the way Abraham did. He took the initiative. Similarly, each
couple who has not yet conceived should stop looking at what has
“worked” for other around them. Each case is unique. Seek God for your
own strategy.

Second, you can appeal to God for children based on His faithfulness to
fulfil the generational promises in your family line.

Now most of us do not have as clear an understanding of God’s promises

to our forefathers as Isaac did. However, God has a perfect record. Christ
lives to intercede for us and He has access to the record.

So the husband could go to the Lord in prayer invoking an (unknown)

unfulfilled generational promise. If there are blessings on the books that
require you having children before those blessings can be released, ask
the Lord to plead your case before the Father on your behalf, reminding
Him of those blessings.

In effect, you are asking for children not simply because you want them
(a weak argument) but because God’s faithfulness requires that He gives
them to you (a strong argument).

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But I can hear the women saying, “Pastor, my husband is not born again,
he is blaming me for the barrenness. He is refusing to pray or to go for
medical check-up”. Whatever the condition of your family, I am here to
stand by you as a PROPHET with a mandate to liberate families from
satanic manipulation.

Isaac was the result of prayer through his father and follows his father’s
footstep. Abraham, the father of Isaac interceded for his wife Sarah and
God released upon her the POWER OF CONCEPTION and she conceived.

Genesis 11:30 “But Sarai was barren; she had no child”.

Genesis 15:2,3 “And Abram said, LORD God, what will you give me,
seeing I go childless”.

Hebrews 11:11 “By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive,

even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who
had promised”.

You are entitled to believe God for the POWER TO CONCEIVE because He
has promised in His Word. All that is requiring from you is FAITH. The
Word says in Psalms 127:3, “Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord and
the fruit of the womb is his reward”. Psalms 84:11 says, “…no good thing
will he withhold from them that walk uprightly”. Also, Psalms 113:9 says,
“He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother
of children….” Exodus 23:26 in The Amplified Bible states, “None shall
lose her young by miscarriage or be barren in your land….”

Children are entitled to a marriage covenant with God (Deuteronomy

28:11). Are you barren? Do you need a miracle of a child? I am just here
to stand by you in prayers. I had witnessed little miracle of childbirth in
my ministry and believe that God will do it for you. Founded on the Word
of God, we set ourselves in agreement with you that you have the desire
of your heart, a child of your own. The Lord will perfect that which
concerns you (Psalms 138:8). There is no distance in the spiritual realm.
At the end of this eBook, there is a prayer for you to follow or contact me
for a prayer session.

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 Chapter Seven
GOD IS YOUR HELPER

God's woman turned barrenness into a blessing not by suppressing her

desires but by letting it bring her to her knees and to a rare level of
commitment and praise. Despite her husband's pleas, she would be
satisfied with nothing less than God's best. And God, in His grace, would
settle for nothing less than her best. Creature and Creator wrestled in
prayer until she finally yielded, reaching heights of devotion fertile women
seldom know. Then she believed before seeing the answer. Closing her
mind to a thousand previous failures, she again tried to become fruitful.
Even when she held her dream in her arms, she did not slacken in her
spiritual quest. She praised her Lord and mixed it with more faith. She
kept her costly vow. She gave no space to bitterness. Without
overstepping the mark, she faithfully did the little she could to serve the
son who now was God's. Finally, the Lord poured upon her abundance
beyond her fondest hopes.

So if life seems barren, emulate Hannah and 'Sing, O barren, ... for more
are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, says
the Lord.' (Isaiah 54:1)

For women who conceive very easily, it is very difficult for them to
understand the plight of a woman who is involuntarily childless.

Couples who put all their faith and trust in God find their relationship
strengthened. Their situation brings them even closer together.

Some couples become consumed with their infertility. Their longing for a
child swallows up the joy in their lives. Being childless is not the end of
life, health or happiness.

Infertility is NEVER hopeless. “In him we were also chosen, having been
predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in
conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the
first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.” Eph.1:11-12

Those words remind us that everything is in conformity with God’s

purpose and will, even infertility. A couple’s infertility will somehow serve
God’s purpose and bring GLORY to the Saviour’s name.

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GOD WILL REMEMBER YOU

As God remembered Rachel, I decree and declare that Jehovah God will
remember you today. You shall soon be carrying your baby and shout
halleluiah. You are next in line for a miracle.

“Now the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, and He opened her womb, but
Rachel was barren”. Gen 29:31

“Now when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she became
jealous of her sister; and she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I
die." Gen 30:1

“Then God remembered Rachel, and God gave heed to her and opened
her womb. 23 So she conceived and bore a son and said, "God has taken
away my reproach." 24 She named him Joseph, saying, "May the Lord
give me another son." Gen 30:22-24

Being childless can be met head-on by Christian couples in exactly the

same way that they might address any further challenge in life.

Call on God in PRAYER. Phil.4:6 says, “Do not be anxious about anything,
but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your
requests to God.” Prayer can help infertile couples to deal with insensitive
people. Prayer reminds Christians that God holds all of us in the palm of
His hand.

It isn’t wrong for a childless couple to long for a child. Jesus promises,
“Everything is possible for him who believes” Mark 9:23. They can be
happy also knowing that God has a PLAN for their lives as well.

Contentment with your path in life is always God-pleasing.

A BARREN WOMB IS NEVER GOD’S FAULT!

God wants women to have children. “He (God) makes the barren woman
to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children.” Psa.113:9

The Lord promises BLESSINGS on all who reverence, trust, and obeys
Him! “Their reward shall be prosperity and happiness. Your wife shall be
contented in your home. And need to examine all those children! There
they sit around the dinner table as vigorous and healthy as young olive
trees. That is God’s reward to those who reverence and trust him. May

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the Lord continually bless you with heaven’s blessings as well as human
joy. May you live to enjoy your grandchildren!” Psa.128:2-6

WITH THE HELP OF GOD

“Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to
Cain. She said, “With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man.”
Genesis 4:1

Guilt is a devastating thing. Even after the legal penalty has been paid,
the fragmentation of relationships remains. A person who commits an
offence goes to prison. However, when he comes out of prison, he is
alienated from society. It is difficult to get a job because of the past and
various personal relationships are skewed as well.

This was true of Adam and Eve. They went from having the highest level
of intimacy with God that any man has had, to be criminals. The God who
was their friend was now feared. They hid. Their fears were justified
because He found them and became their judge. He decreed devastating
consequences on them because of their sin, and He personally
implemented those consequences. But worst of all, He posted an angel at
the entrance to the Garden to keep Adam and Eve from ever recovering
the life they once had.

If the story ended there, it would be bleak. But unlike our society, the
Judge of the Universe does not just mete out appropriate sentences. He is
an active participant in the restoration process. God would not restore
them through the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden. That was lost for all
of time. Nonetheless, He committed to restoring them through their seed.

Eve had very little frame of reference for intercourse, conception,

gestation and childbirth. We don’t know what God explained to her, but
one thing is for sure: She had no human role model to be learned from.
Her only resources were her husband who was as inexperienced as she,
and her God. Thus, the triumphant cry after the birth of Cain. Her God,
the one who had judged her initially, had partnered with her in this
mighty act of restoration.

When a woman cannot conceive, Satan is right there with his accusations.
His bottom line is the case that she cannot conceive because God is angry
at her for past sins. If there is unconfessed sin, confess it. Nevertheless, if
you have already confessed it, today is a day to rise up in defiance
against the enemy of your soul, and to proclaim that the very God who

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once disciplined you for your sins is now totally on your side. He Himself
will partner with you in the healing of your womb. He Himself will make
the decision as to when you will conceive and He Himself will knit your
child together in your womb. Defy the liar!

DON’T SEEK FOR WORTHLESS PHYSICIANS

Owing to your situation, many people will start pitying you. Some will
advices you to go to witch doctors or to those so-called prophets of doom.
They say, “God helps those who help themselves”. That is the lie of the
devil. You should seek the Lord continually until you receive the miracle.
We are told of Asa who was sick and sought not the Lord but depended on
the physician and died. “And Asa in the thirty and ninth year of his reign
was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great: yet in his
disease he sought not to the LORD, but to the physicians. And Asa slept
with his fathers, and died in the one and fortieth year of his reign”. 2
Chron 16:12-13

May be you have visited witch doctors or quack doctors, yet there is no
evidence of pregnancy. Job called them “forgers of lies and physicians of
no value”, Job 13:4. They are forgers of lies. They prophesied lies so that
they can get your money, and you waited but in vain. You have paid a
large sum of money but still no changes. God said, “Why do you spend
money for what is not bread” Isa 55:2 Come to Jesus the bread of life and
get His healing free of charge.

Or you are like the woman with the issue of blood and could be unable to
obtain pregnant. The Bible said, she spent all her living with worthless
physicians and could not be healed. But as soon as she touched the herm
of Christ’s garment, power went out through Him and healed her.

“And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all
her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any. Came behind
him, and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of
blood stanched”. Luke 8:43-44

Woman, you have a Saviour that can be touch with your infirmity. It’s
time to turn to Jesus our redeemer.

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 Chapter Eight
NEVER GO OUT OF BETHEL

Simple obedience brought fertility, but how many of us will continue to

live in obedience to preserve the miracle?

“The God said to Jacob, “Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an
altar here to God...”God appeared to him again and blessed him. God said
to him, “I am God Almighty; be fruitful and increase in number...”Jacob
set up a stone pillar at the place where God talked with him... Then they
moved on from Bethel. While they were still some distance from Ephrath,
Rachel began to give birth and had great difficulty... So Rachel died”.
Genesis 35:1ff

After the city of Jerusalem, Bethel is a different most mentioned city in

Scripture. This land was spiritually charged as a place where mankind
could connect with the spiritual realm more easily than other places. It
was here eventually that Jeroboam introduced worship of the golden
calves. Far better that God’s people controlled that land than the kingdom
of darkness. Hence God met Jacob there when he was running from his
brother Esau. And God sent him back there from Paddan Aram. In the
next 15 to 20 years, Jacob never went to the Bethel because it did not
have good grazing. After the debacle at Shechem, God specifically
ordered him to go to SETTLE in Bethel to sanctify and secure that critical
land.

As Jacob finally began to move in obedience to the call of God on his life,
it says, “the terror of God fell upon all the towns all around them so that
no one pursued him” (Genesis 35:5). Not only did he have full protection,
but also when he arrived there, God finally gave him his birthright. His
name was changed from “Supplanter” to “God prevails.” He thought he
received his birthright when he wrestled with God at Peniel. He actually
stepped into it at the point of simple obedience to God’s commands.

God saw him at the point of obedience and blessed him with fertility. The
only one of his wives who was still bearing children was Rachel. I wonder
if God’s intent was to father the entire nation through her, and to have
the other children sent away like Abraham’s other children were.

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Regardless of what God’s plan was, Jacob refused to remain in obedience.
He walked out of Bethel. From that time on, a devouring curse swept
through his family. Only days later, Rachel his beloved died and he had
no more children after that and destruction nipped at the heels of his
whole family for the rest of time.

If there is a pattern in your family line of having health, freedom, finances

or future devoured, it may be a generational curse stemming from an
overt act of selecting financial comfort over obedience. Break that curse
of the generations, then in your own life move to a high level of earned
authority through obedience to the Kingdom work God has clearly
assigned you to do, regardless of the cost.

HAVE YOU EVER CONDEMNED GOD’S SERVANT IN BETHEL?

The source of some bareness, if not demonic, might be as a result of

speaking against men whom God anointed.

“Bless all his skills, O LORD, and be pleased with the work of his hands.
Smite the loins of those who rise up against him; strike his foes till they
rise no more”. Deuteronomy 33:11

Just before Moses died, he prophetically blessed each of the tribes of

Israel. This passage is a part of Moses’ blessing on the tribe of Levi. There
is just an interesting contrast between his asking God to bless Levi, and
his calling down curses on those who resisted Levi. Of course Levi the
man was long dead, but the tribe stood as the priestly tribe in Israel and
therein lies some lessons for us.

There was not any middle ground. The priesthood was to be spiritually
blessed and was also being nurtured and defended by the natural. God is
quite protective of the office of the priesthood.

In this verse the phrase “Smite the loins” means “to cut off the ability to
reproduce, to become pregnant”. In other words, if someone resisted or
reviled God’s priesthood, the consequence would be that their family line
would die out or suffer bareness. While we don’t use the word
“priesthood” in the same context today, it stands to reason that God is
still quite offended when His appointed spiritual eldership is reviled or
attacked.

We can see a good example in Gen 20:18, when King Abimelech took the
wife of Abraham, the servant of God “for the LORD had closed up all the

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wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham's wife”. The
King had to make restitution to Abraham and beseeched him to pray for
him. “So Abraham prayed to God; and God healed Abimelech, his wife,
and his female servants. Then they bore children”, Gen 20:17.

We were told that Michal became infertile after she mocked at the servant
of God, while he was dancing naked before His God. “Therefore Michal the
daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death”, 2 Sam 6:23.

If there is any sense that you or in your generation or in previous

generations there has been a mistaken response to spiritual authority,
that needs to be confessed and renounced and any curses attached to
your womb or productivity must be broken off. This is not saying that the
spiritual authorities God placed over us are always right. It merely means
that their judgment is in the hands of God, not in our hands, and we
decide to step back from that position of judgment, lest God curse our
physical or spiritual reproduction.

If you have ever sinned against a servant of God, please go and ask for
forgiveness and let him pray for you. Having done that, you should
overtly claim the cleaning from sin that God has promised when we
confess our sin and cover it with the blood. Then spend some time
praying blessings on your spiritual eldership, simply because of their
position. As God remembered Abimelech’s family, He will remember you.

BE FILL WITH THE SPIRIT IN BETHEL

“But he said to me, “You will conceive and give birth to a son. Now then,
drink no wine or other fermented drink and do not eat anything unclean,
because the boy will be a Nazarite of God from birth until the day of his
death.” Judges 13:7

“Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled
with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual
songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving
thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ”. Ephesians 5:18-20

The angel gave these instructions to a barren woman. He not only

announced that she would have a son, Samson, but he also informed her
that this would be no ordinary son. This child was to be filled with the
Spirit from the moment of conception.

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The Ephesians passage draws a parallel between the work of the Spirit
and the stimulation of wine.

For a Nazarite, the mother merely needed to abstain from certain foods
and from wine. We can go further by preparing the womb with the joy of
the Lord. There are countless stories of women adopting a child only to
immediately get pregnant after years of being unable to conceive. Doctors
have found that sorrow, frustration, desperation, grief and related
emotions inhibit a woman’s ability to conceive. Joy enhances it. With the
adoption, the joy of finally holding a child in her arms gave the emotional
release necessary for the woman to conceive.

So ask the Lord to give you eyes to see His fingerprints on all the big and
little things of each day. While your heart’s desire may be for a child, do
not ever let the waiting period go by in vain. God is found in your life. As
you see His love gifts to you and celebrate them, it releases the joy of the
Lord in your life and literally changes the biological environment of your
womb.

Besides that, enjoying God is just plain right!

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 Chapter Nine
PRAYER FOR THE BARREN

You have a right to believe God for anything He has promised in His
Word. The Word says in Psalms 127:3, “Lo, children are an heritage of
the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward.” Psalms 84:11 says,
“…no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.” Also,
Psalms 113:9 says, “He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to
be a joyful mother of children….” Exodus 23:26 in The Amplified Bible
states, “None shall lose her young by miscarriage or be barren in your
land….”

Besides focusing on these scriptures, remember also that God is no

respecter of persons (Acts 10:34). What He did for Hannah in I Samuel 1,
He’ll do for you.

Children are the right of a marriage covenant with God (Deuteronomy

28:11). Founded on the Word of God, we set ourselves in agreement with
you that you have the desire of your heart, a child of your own.

God’s Word is always His will. We have included a prayer and scriptures
that we believe will minister to you as you are on them. As you make
these scriptures part of your prayer life, you may be confident that you
are praying according to the will of God. “And this is the confidence that
we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth
us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we
have the petitions that we desired of him” (I John 5:14-15).

Now, as an act of faith, place your hand on your abdomen as we pray:

This eBook has been prayed upon and carries the anointing of God for
your deliverance. Lay hands on this eBook right now and claim your
deliverance.

Let’s pray… “Thank you Lord that there is no distance in the Spirit, which
your Word says that children are a heritage of the Lord and happy is the
man that has his quiver full.

Father, I stand as your prophet whom you have ordained to bring joy to
many families and I pray that you would open this dear woman's Womb
and heal her of any & all infirmity that has caused this infertility. I speak
to this barren womb now, and release the POWER and ANOINTING FOR

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CONCEPTION upon her womb right now. May it bring forth blessed
children of the Lord, in Jesus Name!

Father, as your children, we come to you and remind you that we have
been redeemed from the curse of the law and you have promised us all
the blessings of Abraham. We are located in a covenant with you and we
expect you to fulfil the conditions of that covenant.

Father, we desire to have a baby, and since your Word says that children
are a gift from you, we expect to have a normal, healthy baby. Since
__________ has been redeemed from the curse, we expect her to carry
that child full term. Your Word says you will bless the fruit of her womb,
and Your Word says she will lose none of her young by miscarriage or be
barren and that you will keep her safe through childbearing. Since she is
no longer under the curse, she will be able to have this child the way You
originally planned for Eve to have children—free from pain and suffering
and pangs and spasms of distress. So we expect this child to be brought
into the world quickly and with no pain. We believe she will feel the
contractions but will feel no pain. We believe, according to Your Word,
that she will have a beautiful pregnancy with no suffering during it.

Thank You, Father, for hearing and answering our prayers and for
faithfully watching over Your Word to perform it. We know you have given
your angels charge over us to accompany and defend and preserve us in
all our ways.

Now, Satan, you hear the Word of God. We speak it to you and command
you to take your hands off us, God’s children, in the Name of Jesus. We
break all assignments you have put up against us and forbid you to hinder
this pregnancy or childbirth in any way. We bind you, and the Word of
God declares that whatever we bind on this earth is bound in heaven, and
whatever we lose is loosed in heaven. And we lose the peace of God to
flood our hearts right now, in Jesus’ Name.

Thank You, Lord, for hearing and responding to our prayers. We love you
and we appreciate you and look forward to seeing this precious little love
that you have especially picked out for us”.

(Now lift your hands and thank Him and praise Him for this wonderful
gift).

Please write me with your blessed news!

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