Part 2 - Forcing God to Bless the Will You Made Will Never Work
Updated: Aug 17
Go back and read Part 1 first—you need the backstory before you jump into the sequel 😂 Consider it your prerequisite reading!
Then She Finally Sought God
After everything fell apart, she came back to God broken.
But this time, she wasn’t coming to God just because she wanted another marriage or because she needed Him to fix the consequences of her decisions.
She came back because she genuinely wanted God.
She repented. She surrendered. She began seeking Him, loving Him, and intentionally aligning her life with His purpose. Truly becoming a woman of God!
And that distinction is important because the Bible says:
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” — Romans 8:28
We love quoting “all things work together for good,” but we cannot ignore the rest of the verse:
“to those who love God”
and
“to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
That was the turning point in her story.
She had gone through a lot because of decisions she made outside of God’s will, but when she genuinely returned to God—not just looking for a marriage solution, but because she wanted to love Him, obey Him, and walk according to His purpose—God began working even the painful parts of her story together for her good.
This time, when it came to marriage, she sought God first.
And God led her differently.
He led her to a man who also sought God concerning the relationship and believed this marriage was God’s will for him. Yes, she already had a child, but he embraced her child too.
Today, their marriage is beautiful, holy, and blessed.
She went through a lot to get there, but God showed that when a life truly comes back into his will, even the consequences of yesterday do not have to become the conclusion of tomorrow.
He took a broken life and worked the story for good.
Stop Asking God to Bless Your Ishmael
Abraham and Sarah also teach us something powerful.
God promised Abraham a son.
But time passed.
Nothing happened.
So Abraham and Sarah tried to produce the promise through their own strategy.
Hagar was given to Abraham, and Ishmael was born.
God did not abandon Ishmael because of Abraham. In fact, God specifically promised to bless him and multiply his descendants. That was mercy. But the blessing did not erase the consequences attached to the choice that produced him.
Ishmael would become a great nation, yet Scripture also said, “His hand shall be against every man, and every man’s hand against him.” There was mercy, but there were still consequences. That’s how permissive will works, even when we seek for mercy.
The fact is that Ishmael was not the covenant son God had promised that would inherit the promise.
God said:
“My covenant I will establish with Isaac.” — Genesis 17:21
And isn’t it crazy how one decision can echo through generations? Isaac’s line continued through Jacob—Israel—while Ishmael’s descendants became nations associated with the Arab world. Even today, these bloodlines are consistent turmoil and conflict because of a permissive will….
Let that sink in ..
That’s why we must be careful with permissive will. Abraham and Sarah tried to produce through human effort what God had promised to produce through His power.
God can redeem our detours, but that doesn’t make the detour His original destination.
When God promises you an Isaac, don’t become impatient and create an Ishmael.
IF YOU DON’T REMEMBER ANYTHING ELSE, REMEMBER THIS:
God can have mercy on the permissive will you chose for yourself and still allow some “good” to come from it. But His mercy does not remove the consequences, and your choice will never produce the same outcome as His perfect will.
There are spiritual battles God intended for us to fight, and then there are battles we created through our own choices. And trust me, the spiritual warfare that comes from stepping outside of God’s perfect will can be intense.
Sometimes we create our own “Ishmael” because waiting for “Isaac” is taking too long.
Then after creating it, we beg God:
“Please let THIS be the promise.”
That is essentially what Abraham did.
“Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!” — Genesis 17:18
But God said no.
Isaac was still coming.
How many of us are praying:
“God, please let my Ishmael be Isaac”?
God, let this relationship be the one.
God, let this business be the one.
God, let this opportunity be the one.
God, let this person be the one.
Meanwhile God is saying:
You never asked Me before you created it.
Before You Make the Next Decision…
Maybe you are reading this and realizing:
I chose this because I was lonely.
I married to avoid shame and being a failure.
I started this because I wanted to prove something.
I stayed because I feared rejection.
I moved because I was impatient.
I said yes because everyone pressured me.
I kept going because I was embarrassed to admit I heard God wrong.
Then hear me carefully:
Stop building. Seek God.
Do not make another permanent decision trying to protect yourself from the consequences of the previous one.
Repent
Most importantly, seek God Himself.
Ask Him:
“Lord, what is Your will from here?”
“God, what do You want?”
Not:
“God, how do I keep what I chose?”
And be prepared for His answer to cost you something.
Because His will may cost your pride.
His will may cost your timeline.
His will may cost you your circle of friends—and sometimes even family members.
His will may cost the image you created for yourself.
But whatever obedience costs you today is nothing compared to what rebellion can cost you tomorrow.
Don’t create generational consequences because you are afraid of temporary embarrassment.
Because the safest place is not where everything looks perfect or nice.
The safest place is in God’s perfect will…
My prayer for all of us is that God gives us the grace to choose His will over our own—even when His will costs us something.
May we stop asking God to bless plans built without Him.
May we stop calling pressure “confirmation.”
May we stop calling emotion “God’s voice.”
May we stop asking God to turn our Ishmaels into Isaacs.
Because what God authors, and ordains, He is faithful to sustain.
🎵 Music Time
My Big Bro — Marcus Rogers. Song: Sing Glory
🔥 My line:
“My father was a slave, but your boy a son.
The sins of my father, they weighed a ton.
Breaking all these curses, I’m the one.”
That line is HEAVY. 🔥
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