The angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.” The angel of the LORD said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.” The angel of the LORD also said to her, “I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.” And the angel of the LORD said to her, “Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the LORD has listened to your affliction.- Genesis 16:7-11 ESV

Warrior;
Throughout the Bible What God does, is attached to Who He is. He is the God who provides, He is Yahweh Jireh. He heals, so He is Jehovah Rapha. He is the God, Most High, El Elyon. He is the God in charge of the Heavenly Army, the Heavenly Hosts, He is Yahweh Sabaoth. He is El Shaddai, the Almighty God! Today we are looking at the God who sees us. A good friend of mine and Bible teacher, Don Noe says that this is the only time this description of God is used in the Bible. What is interesting, it was a name given to him by Hagar, a female slave of Abraham that he had picked up on one of his journeys to Egypt. Hagar is Ishmaels’ mother. Ishmael is the Father of the Arabs and many Christians have treated Ishmael and Hagar, with a bit of contempt, as if they were some evil people. Yet, God treated Ishmael and Hagar in ways that very few were ever dealt with, and they were favorable dealings. Although some say that Ishmael is the Father of the “Arabs’, that is not true, not all Arabs are in the line of Ishmael, however, most modern Arabians could trace their lineage back to Ishmael- not all Arabians are descendants of Ishmael. In today’s story we will see that Hagar was mistreated, she was alone, and she was distraught. She was in a foreign land as a slave, and her choices were not her own. Forget her name, Hagar, and her son is named Ishmael- can you connect with her pain, her loneliness, her feelings of not being in control of her life? Have you ever felt that no one notices your pain, your loneliness? Have you ever wondered, “Why God?’ This was where Hagar was. Can you seek first to understand and then be understood? Can you walk a mile in your sister’s moccasins? Can you have compassion for her humanity? Nobody else saw her pain, her abuse and so she ran away. Have you ever felt that way? That it seemed nobody notices your pain, your hurt, your loneliness? Just like Hagar, we need to remember our GOD SEES US!

Leader, have you ever felt like Hagar, or the writers of the Psalms? Hear the Word of the Lord: The wicked say, “How can God know? Does the Most High have knowledge?” Behold, these are the wicked—always carefree as they increase their wealth. Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure; in innocence I have washed my hands. For I am afflicted all day long and punished every morning. If I had said, “I will speak this way, “then I would have betrayed Your children. When I tried to understand all this, it was troublesome in my sight (Psalms 73:11-16) Hagar and Ishmael have been treated unfairly in the Bible and in life. There is something missing when we think about these 2, based on the conflicts in today’s world. We are letting our feelings and flesh get in the way of the Word. Ishmael was 1 of 7 people that GOD NAMED BEFORE BIRTH. It is an impressive list. The top of the List is JESUS. The other 6 on this special list: John the Baptist, Solomon, Isaac, Cyrus, Josiah, and ISHMAEL. Also, the God of the universe spoke to Hagar, He never spoke to Sarai or Sarah. Hagar named God! This is a prominent position in the scriptures and Hagar owns a spot that no other woman mentioned in the Bible possesses. Can you put yourself in Hagar’s shoes and connect with humanity, the brokenness of Hagar? Hagar was a slave who had been sexually used and verbally abused. If you notice, every time Sarah or Abraham mentioned Hagar in their conversations, she was simply referred to as “my slave” or “your slave” (Genesis 16:2, 5, 6). It is easy to conclude that Hagar had no value in their eyes other than someone to be used for their own selfish gain: to manipulate God’s plan to provide an heir. Can you imagine how demoralizing that must have been for Hagar? BUT GOD! When God found Hagar at the well, the first word out of His mouth was, “Hagar” (16:8). When no one else cared enough to show Hagar any decency, God did. This is our LORD, ELOHIM!

Conduit, today we need to remember we have a God who sees us, who hears us, who knows our pain and who holds every tear of ours in His hands. When we feel invisible, discounted, unheard, or forgotten by everyone, we need to remember Yahweh Roi! The God that met Hagar in the desert, the God that brought Ishmael water is the same God today. Yahweh is a deeply personal and intimate God. Jehovah Roi looked after Hagar, Ishmael, Jacob, Esau, you and me. God knows us. God sees us- He sees you. He hears you! God sees us in our weariness, our frustration, and our struggle with ‘enough’. God sees you in your pain, confusion, and suffering. God sees you when you feel abandoned, and you think that no one cares about you. God sees us because He watches over our lives and sees our struggles even when they’re not visible to others. We must remember God doesn’t just see you – he attends to your every need! He is also Jehovah Jireh! Consider this, if our Heavenly Father sees the sparrows and takes care of them, how much more does he see and care for us? See Matthew 6:26. Just because we cannot understand the struggle, doesn’t negate God’s ability to use it for our growth, the process is called Sanctification. God knows your name. You are His precious child, a royal Priest, an overcomer, more than a conqueror- you are redeemed. He knows each and every “sheep” by name (John 10:3). And not only is your name known, it is “engraved” on the palm of his hand (Isaiah 49:16). Being engraved carries a deeper implication than being written. Being engraved means it is “cut, carved” into God’s palm, implying permanence, something that cannot be erased. In the book of Revelation God reminds us of our intimate relationship: “To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it” (Revelation 2:17). Get rid of the BAIT OF this world, VICTIMHOOD. God promised us that the narrow path would be hard. The hardest part is using some TRUTH THERAPY. When the devil reminds you of your past, you just remind him of his future. Challenge the feelings from Satan by the Word of God. Listen into your self-talk, and you hold your thoughts captive. You transform your thinking, by getting rid of those thoughts you grab that are destructive, demotivating, and demon originated. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and hit it again Soldier. For though a righteous man may fall seven times, he still gets up; but the wicked stumble in bad times. (Proverbs 24:16)