NOOOOO STOP!!! That's Ishmael

“I literally can’t stop thinking about him. He’s unbelievably charming and we have so much in common and to top it off, he is a Spirit filled....”

“Tongue speaking, fire breathing, demon casting, hot stuff”

Laughing, my friend immediately rose to her own defence as I completed her sentence for her.

“I haven’t gone on about him that much. Have I?”

“Err only like a zillion times! Anyway what’s the problem?”

“Haven’t you heard all I’ve been saying?  I can’t stop thinking about him. He’s literally on my mind every single second. It’s driving me crazy!!”

“Hmmmm”

“What?”

“Nothing. Just waiting for you to get to the point”

“Claire, the thing is, said thoughts haven’t exactly been of the pure variety.”

I almost chocked on the homemade Chapman I was sipping on.

“What EXACTLY have you been thinking about?”

“Anyway, it’s nothing overly serious. It’s just that I’m really, really, really, really, really, real...”

“I got that the first hundred thousand conversations we’ve had about him, just get to it madam”

“Sorry. Well it’s just that I’ve been wondering a lot what it’d be like to kiss him. More than wondering actually, fantasising is more like it”

I slowly set the glass down as I contemplated what advice I’d give my friend. She took the lack of an immediate response from me as a cue to continue.

“I’ve also been having this unsettling feeling I can’t quite put my finger on”

Bolatito had not so recently come out of a long term relationship that we all thought was the real deal. At the risk of sounding chauvinistic even to my own gender, she took the breakup like a man. But as time went on and she rejected suitor after suitor I began to fear that the break up might have affected her more than we’d all thought. Though to be honest none of the guys that approached her were anything to write home about. A union with any of them would have bagged her a masters degree in unequal yoking. I guess I just wanted her to ‘feel’ something for someone again, that way I’d know her heart was still beating.

So you can only imagine how over the moon I was when she told me about Mr Spirit filled, tongue speaking, fire breathing, demon casting hot stuff. He seemed to think she was the best thing since sliced bread and for the first time in a long time, my friend actually liked someone. But her last statement bothered me.

“What do you mean by unsettling?”

“It’s hard to explain”

Source: Pinterest

“Is it about him or the relationship? Come on babe, you have to give me more to go on here”

“You know what? I think I’m just being silly. This is all happening so fast .I think I’m just a bit scared”

That was 2 weeks ago. Today, I sit here listening to my friend tell me what she just found out about Mr Spirit filled, tongue speaking, fire breathing, demon casting, hot stuff and why a relationship with him would be a one way ticket to disaster .

 ***************

I started the New Year on a high, believing that a lot of things had or at least were falling into place for me. They all seemed so in line with what I believed God has for me this year. There was one opportunity in particular that had me almost as excited as Bolatito was about her new Beau, and like her there was an unsettling feeling I couldn’t shake. I hadn’t prayed about the opportunity as I kept telling myself that it wasn’t yet time to take that step because I was still waiting for things to develop further. However, I was already getting comfortable with the prospects that the opportunity would bring when the Holy Spirit convicted me that I was playing with fire. I’d let things spiral out of control for too long, things may not have gotten to the level that I think they should have for me to pray about the situation, but they had long gone past the level God required. All this was impressed on my heart as I drifted off to sleep last week Wednesday. I didn’t even say what most would call a ‘proper’ prayer, but I committed everything into God’s hands as I drifted off to sleep and you wouldn’t believe how He opened everything up the very next day. I was amazed how something that seemed so right when I woke up on Thursday morning became the complete opposite by the time I went to bed that same night.

 We all know the story of Ishmael, how he was a product of impatience and the desire to ‘assist’ God. Looking back over the events of the past few weeks, I don’t believe I was impatient and if at all anything , I took steps to ensure I do not do anything that can be perceived as helping God. Yet Ishmael came knocking. This has led me to conclude that Ishmael may not always be the product of impatience or helping God, like in the case of Sarah, but may also be a distraction technique used by the enemy, designed to keep you occupied so that when Isaac shows up, you will be so caught up with Ishmael you won’t even notice. You might have waited for as long as you have and even be willing to wait a bit longer when Ishmael shows up looking all like what God promised you.

One thing to bear in mind is that when the Ishmaels’ start appearing, your breakthrough is probably close enough for you to literally touch it. The enemy is only trying to distract you from it. So hold on just a little while longer, pray a little bit more, praise a little bit more.

Even though I used a male/ female relationship to illustrate my point, this Isaac/ Ishmael dilemma applies to all areas of life as I’ve learnt from my own personal experiences.

 I believe that this year God is going to fulfil so many promises it’ll make our heads spin. But as is characteristic to him, the enemy is going to try his best to make sure this doesn’t happen by presenting people with counterfeits. Be watchful. Be vigilant. Be Spirit led in all your decisions. Remember the perfect time to pray is NOW, and not when all the eggs seemed to have lined up.

Happy New Year