Genesis 21:1 (AMP)
The Lord graciously remembered and visited Sarah as He said, and the Lord did for her as He promised!
Such a powerful verse, isn't it? "... the Lord did for Melissa as He promised." (Yes, you can make the scriptures personal to you).
This verse is a truth you can cling to, especially on tough days. Our Daddy doesn't lie. Every word, every promise, every decree He makes to us has to, HAS TO, come to pass. I pray this verse stirs you up on the inside and encourages you. He did it for Sarah, and God can do it for you. How do I know? Because He did it for me too!
But hold on, I'm jumping ahead of my story and testimony, so let me start from the beginning.
First, I want to say, "Hello!" I know it's been a while since I last posted, and so much has happened in my life since then. So sit back, get comfy, grab your favorite drink, and let’s get started because this may be a little lengthy. 😄
This Faith Journey
One day last year during my journaling time with God, He made me a promise and told me to get ready because I would be going to Bali in Oct 2023 with PFP, a group I am in which is run by Destiny Thomas "The Prayerpistᴿ" and Realizing Destinyᴿ. Every year, she takes a group of women on these powerful, faith-filled encounters around the world. Last year, the international trip was to Dubai, and this year it was to Bali! If you have been following me on IG @iammelissajfoster, and watched my IG lives or stories, then you’ll remember some of the challenges that have been coming up for me on this journey.
Side note: Bali and Dubai have been on my vision board and travel list for years, so I was very excited and apprehensive - this was a huge thing for me.
See, my faith in trusting God had been shaken last year when I thought God was telling me that I was to go to Dubai in 2022. I did everything I thought I should be doing: praying and fasting, making declarations and speaking them, putting money down on the trip, getting my passport, working out… All the things. The biggest thing I was missing was a plane ticket, which all my plans to purchase kept eluding me. The departure date was fast approaching because everyone was leaving around August 10th to arrive on the 12th.
So what did God instruct me to do? Drive to Dulles Airport with my luggage, park in the garage, sit in front of the Emirates check-in, and wait for further instructions. All this with no money in my pocket and no clear directions to purchase a ticket. Just wait….
This was my view for four days. 👇🏽
Yes, I stayed in Dulles airport for four days, taking a leap of faith and believing that somehow I was getting on a plane to Dubai because of what God said. It was one of the hardest things I ever did, because I didn’t know how I was going to get to Dubai, didn’t have any money for food or anything else, nights at the airport were freezing 🥶🥶, and I wasn’t even sure how I was going to get my car out of the garage!!!! But God met me in front of that counter. He provided for me so I wasn’t without food or other personal things I needed. I got to share my faith with others while I waited. He taught me lessons and downloaded things as I walked around the departure and arrival areas, and made sure I had what I needed to pay to get my vehicle out of the garage and still have money left over for groceries, gas, and other things when I got home.
No, I didn’t get on a plane to go to Dubai BUT He did meet me there and watched over me. (I will share the full experience later in another post)
So it didn’t happen, and I started thinking either I didn’t hear God clearly or messed up in some super big way. I later learned that it was a part of God’s plan and His timing. Looking back, I realized that sometimes I allowed what I saw with my natural eyes (problems and circumstances) to block out what God said.
I realized all my plans and works even with all the things I was doing were mostly done in my strength and not with God. Why do I say that? I trusted God but hadn’t, at that time, totally surrendered all MY expectations and outcomes of how I thought He would perform and bring this promise to pass, even at the airport. There were also things that I didn’t do or delayed doing because of fear and a lack of trust.
I’ve come to learn that trusting God is a daily decision and a leap of faith. It requires you to trust in the Promise Keeper (God) and desire a deep, close personal relationship with Him more than you want the promise. I realized that I made the trip to Dubai an idol, by seeking and working to attain it more than I was seeking and obeying Abba. And by working on making it happen in my strength. I was trying to do God’s job for Him. 😮💨
In Genesis 16, Sarai faced this same issue. See in Genesis 12:1-3 and Genesis 15: 1-6, God promised Abram that He would multiply his descendants as the stars in the sky. He would be their God and give them a specific piece of land forever. The Lord also reassured Abram that he would have an heir who came from his own body and that his descendants would outnumber the stars in the night sky. Sarai was about 76 years old at this time (Genesis 16) and I’m pretty sure that she was feeling discouraged at this point when year after year she saw her friends, family, and even servants give birth, but there was no sign of life coming from her womb. She was married to this great and wonderful man to whom God had given this promise, but she was still unable to give Abram a child. She was barren. So maybe she was the problem.
The Hebrew word for barren is “akarah” which means “to uproot or pluck up” which is the opposite of “to plant.” Biblical women like Sarai who experience periods of barrenness often felt their inability to conceive as a divine withholding of blessing, a punishment, or even a curse.
So she decided to "help" God fulfill His promise and went to Abram with HER solution because I believe that she was so focused on the PROMISE and not on God who made the promise and had His plan. 👇🏽
Genesis 16:1-4 (NLT)
Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had not been able to bear children for him. But she had an Egyptian servant named Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, “The Lord has prevented me from having children. Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her.” And Abram agreed with Sarai’s proposal. So Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian servant, and gave her to Abram as a wife. (This happened ten years after Abram had settled in the land of Canaan.) So Abram had sexual relations with Hagar, and she became pregnant. But when Hagar knew she was pregnant, she began to treat her mistress, Sarai, with contempt.
Side note: when we play "god" in our lives and do God’s job, things don’t always go as planned. Sarah thought this pregnancy and the baby would turn out one way, but this pregnancy caused Hagar to treat Sarai with contempt.
Also, no condemnation here, because we all have had moments like that where we try to figure things out ourselves and try to move things along to speed up the outcome… or so we think. 🤔 We try to do it this way… WITHOUT God!
And for me - this was the difference between Dubai last year and my journey to Bali this year. When God released the promise last year, even though I felt like I was doing all the things He asked and I thought I needed to do - I neglected the biggest one, which was to include God in ALL THE THINGS!
The question that kept coming up on this Bali journey was, “Did I believe and trust in God to do what He said, even after the disappointment of Dubai? or Do I continue to look at it from the human perspective, which makes it seem impossible?”
Sarah may have asked herself that very question in Genesis 18. By this time she was going on 90 years old and was way past her child-bearing years. When she heard the Lord tell Abraham that by this time next year, she would have a child, this promised son, she laughed.🤣😂
God heard her and responded by saying, “Is there anything too difficult or too wonderful for the Lord?"
Genesis 18: 9-15 (AMP)
Then they said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “There, in the tent.” He said, “I will surely return to you at this time next year; and behold, Sarah your wife will have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door, which was behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in years; she was past [the age of] childbearing. So Sarah laughed to herself [when she heard the Lord’s words], saying, “After I have become old, shall I have pleasure and delight, my lord (husband) being also old?” And the Lord asked Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh [to herself], saying, ‘Shall I really give birth [to a child] when I am so old?’ Is anything too difficult or too wonderful for the Lord? At the appointed time, when the season [for her delivery] comes, I will return to you and Sarah will have a son.” Then Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh”; because she was afraid. And He (the Lord) said, “No, but you did laugh.”
I can relate to how Sarah may have been feeling, I think she laughed because this promise made to HER seemed too good to be true after all this time and past disappointments, (the first promises God made to Abraham directly)
I’m not going to say that this faith journey to Bali has been a walk in the park after last year - because it wasn’t,🤦♀️the same fears I had with Dubai tripled in size with Bali. Each setback and challenge brought up old insecurities of rejection, unworthiness, disappointment, and doubt. So what was different this time? Me! I learned and am still learning to take every feeling, every setback, every trial, and every joy to God; to make Him my first response even amid tears and emotions; and about the power of praise and worship. I started learning how to trust IN and lean ON Him, and to lean into my community of trusted friends. who helped me stand in faith when things were tough or when I felt fatigued and weary in battle because trust me - the enemy knew what God had for me in Bali. There would be healing and deliverance of the things that had held me bound over there, and the enemy did not want me to experience that.
I also realized that God works out everything and uses everything for our good.
In a Prayerpyᴿ session with Destiny, God revealed that even though He said I was going to Dubai (because cannot lie) He didn’t mean then in 2022). See God is a preparer and knew that I’m still working on my fiances. So He used the money that I paid toward Dubai in 2022 as savings for Bali in 2023!!!! 🤯
Hearing that revelation just blew my mind y’all! Just to realize how intentional God is and how intricate His plans are to orchestrate this over a whole year in advance 🙌 God is AMAZING!!! 🙌
You can watch my live Prayerpyᴿ session with Destiny here
As the date of the trip drew nearer, there was still one lingering issue — that plane ticket, 🤦🏽♀️lol! You see, I wasn't bringing in a steady income. Despite running the business God blessed me with, the sales weren’t flowing in as desired. To be completely honest, I wasn't stewarding my funds 100% the way I should have. On top of that, earlier this year, I took on the responsibility of being my mother’s caregiver. So, the finances weren’t exactly flourishing...
BUT GOD!!!! He was still providing, making ways, and doing new things in my life. This verse became a great reminder to let go of past disappointments and look forward to the new things God is doing.
Isaiah 43:18-19 (TPT)
Stop dwelling on the past. Don’t even remember these former things. I am doing something brand new, something unheard of. Even now it sprouts and grows and matures. Don’t you perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and open up flowing streams in the desert.
One last lesson that I learned:
When God makes you a promise, we have to SURRENDER our expectations and plans on how we want God to answer our prayers and just stay in a constant state of EXPECTANCY, looking for Him to show up — kind of like a little kid waiting for Christmas or their birthday to come. As a little kid, you know it is coming and you’re excited but not sure exactly when, so every day you’re asking, “Is it Christmas today, Daddy?”
Y'all! Let me share about this plane ticket; God orchestrated it down to the last few days before everyone was leaving.
And the way He made a way for me to purchase this ticket… I never would have expected it to happen like it did. It could only be God!!!
God's timing is truly something else. It took me renewing my faith in Him, daily surrendering, verbally saying the words “I trust you, Jesus”, and praising Him in advance even when I wasn’t seeing anything moving.
God showed up and gave me a redo on this trip.
You remember my Dulles Airport experience sitting in front of the counter for four days, right...
The feeling I got when the Emirates ticket agent handed me my boarding passes, actually walking through the departure terminal, and then sitting at my gate waiting to board my plane...
Tears of thanksgiving kept leaking through, and my face filled with smiles of joy and laughter!!!
God kept His word about Dubai too—I made it to Dubai, y'all!!! My feet touched Dubai soil (Joshua 1:3)
! had a 19-hour layover there where He provided a free hotel room, free meals, and transportation to and from the hotel I didn’t qualify for.
But God made a way for it to be possible because of HIS favor and grace.
God also provided me with two travel buddies for Bali,
We helped and encouraged each other during the long flights and this trip period.
They both were a great help to me during those times when my faith got a little weak, and I needed some encouragement.
Meet my sister Tasha and nephew JJ.👉🏽
The Promise Fulfilled
Genesis 21:1-7 TPT
YAHWEH visited Sarah, just as he said he would, and fulfilled his promise to her. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the exact time God had promised them. Abraham named his son Isaac (which means laughter), the miracle son, whom Sarah bore him. When Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God had commanded him. Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born. [6] Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.” And she added, “Who would ever have told Abraham that Sarah would one day nurse children! Even though Abraham is an old man, look—I have given him a son!”
The Lord graciously remembered and visited Melissa as He had said, and the Lord did for her as He had promised
Just as God fulfilled His promise for Sarah, delivering her son Isaac, He did the same for me. I stepped into my Bali promise on October 13, 2023. God fulfilled His word a year after what I believed was an aborted promise that I had messed up.
Even my mistakes, God had turned around for my good and His glory! Like Sarah, I saw, felt, touched, and walked into my promise, and God's favor and grace surrounded me throughout the entire trip and have continued to show up for me at home. Truly, this was a God trip.
Psalms 5:12 TPT
Lord, how wonderfully you bless the righteous. Your favor wraps around each one and covers them under your canopy of kindness and joy.
I don’t know what you are walking into this season or what promises from God you are still standing in faith on and believing for, but my encouragement to you is this:
Do not attempt to do this in YOUR own strength or, be like me, and try to "help" God out.
Truly lean into this process WITH our Daddy. When challenges come up, and they will, don’t draw back and retreat, but give it ALL to Him—every emotion, feeling, fear, pain, and joy. ALL OF IT!
Be transparent and vulnerable with Him and allow Him to comfort and guide you, His way.
And SURRENDER daily to Him, laying all of your expectations and plans.
Oh, and don’t make His promises an idol where you are focusing more on it than Him, the Promise Keeper.
I will be sharing more about this journey to Bali, my experience last year trying to get to Dubai, and other testimonies and stories in future blog posts. So stay tuned!!!
I pray this has blessed and encouraged you!
Until next time, Originally Crowned Warriors!!!
In Love and Faith,
Melissa J 💕
Your Identity & Faith Specialist
Originally Crowned™
PS. If this message resonates with you, drop a ❤️ and share what part resonated with you in the comments below.
PSS. If you would like to learn more about Prayerpy® and working with Destiny Thomas "The Prayerpist®, check her website here.
#GodsPromises #FaithJourney #FulfilledPromise #BlessedJourney #SurrenderedFaith #DivineFavor #WalkingInFaith #IdentityInChrist #GodsTiming
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