Godly Words of Encouragement

 (This message was edited by pinoy_celt on 11-11-03 @ 6:51 am EST)

 (This message was edited by pinoy_celt on 11-11-03 @ 6:33 am EST)

Note: I apologize to anyone who may be or have been offended by the following. I have revised this post accordingly to clear up any misunderstanding and inaccuracy regarding what I'm trying to share here with all of you. Thank you and God bless



I believe it matters what the Lord says about Ishmael, because we as the body of Christ need to discern what is truth, just like I said in my last post. I believe there is a spirit that is not of God behind Ishmael, and we will explore this further.

NIV Galatians 4:22,23,28-31 states:

“For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise… Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. At that time the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. But what does the Scripture say? ‘Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son.’ Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.”

According to these verses, Isaac and his seed are the children of God’s covenant promise and blessing. So we must ask ourselves a couple of questions here: what does that mean for Ishmael and his seed? And what compelled Ishmael to mock Isaac?

To answer these questions, let’s read the following passages: NIV Genesis 17:18-21 “And Abraham said to God, ‘If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!’ Then God said, ‘Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you this time next year.’”

First of all, let’s remember what the LORD said to Hagar about Ishmael’s destiny in Genesis 17:20. God DID NOT abandon Hagar and Ishmael in the desert, as evidenced by Genesis 21:14-20; in fact, God repeated His promise to Hagar about Ishmael’s destiny as a great nation. The Lord did show Ishmael and his seed mercy because Abraham was his father and promised them natural prosperity, but that was nothing compared to the supernatural promise Isaac and his seed received since Jesus Christ ultimately descended from Isaac.

It’s important to understand Ishmael’s character and the spirit behind his actions. Let’s look at NIV Genesis 21:8-10, which says:

“The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast. But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, and she said to Abraham, ‘Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.’"

Now you might be wondering why Sarah would go so far as to tell Abraham to disown Ishmael; couldn’t have Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar have worked something out differently concerning Ishmael? First, God already knew Ishmael’s character beforehand in Genesis 16:11,12 “And the angel of the Lord said to her, ‘Behold, you are with child and will bear a son, and will call his name Ishmael; because the Lord has heard your affliction. And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he will dwell in the presence of all his brothers.”

And if we fast forward to Galatians 4, it talks about how Ishmael, the son born in the ordinary way (KJV translates “born in the flesh”) persecuted Isaac, the son born by the power of the Holy Spirit. Ishmael was literally laughing openly at Isaac. Based on the LORD’s revelation to Hagar about Ishmael’s character, the LORD must has known beforehand that Ishmael would not change his ways.

Through what the bible says in the previous verses, we can observe that the spirit of Ishmael cannot be characterized as that of peace. When the terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, that was an example of the spirit of Ishmael at work. This does NOT mean that Muslims should be stereotyped due to the actions of a few terrorists who happen to be Muslim. It was sudden, terrible, and totally indicative of Osama bin Laden, who can be reasonably viewed as an incarnation of such a spirit. Satan has used the spirit of Ishmael in such a way to inject an oppressive, ungodly fear into many people’s hearts, including many Christians. As the body of Christ, we must eradicate this seed of fear and deception that Satan is trying hard to plant in Christians today, now that we can see the truth of this message. If we let Satan succeed in this, it will help extinguish the fire of the Holy Ghost in us to spread the Gospel of Christ to all nations, especially in the US. We must live in the sense of spiritual urgency that is required for us to show Christ to this dying world.

If one does not live under God’s blessing, then one lives under a curse of sin. Ishmael and those who live in his spirit live under such a curse. But this DOES NOT mean that we can assume that the LORD has turned His back on people who live by the spirit of Ishmael. Remember God’s promise in Abraham “in you shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (KJV). This post is simply for you to see the spirit of Ishmael as it really is according to God’s Word and how it’s shown up today. God bless you

Works Cited




The Holy Bible: King James Version Bible. (Holman Bible Publishers, 2000).

The Holy Bible: New International Version. (The International Bible Society, 1984).