YOU ARE NOT BARREN

_{SULE T. Joshua}

A semantic research on the word “barrenness” rally around the words “unproductive”, “childless”, “sterile”, and “unfruitful”. A woman can spend her entire life without a child and feeling defeated because she was told she is barren. A man can suffer throughout his lifetime in abject poverty and shame because he was told he can never be fruitful in life. In all these perceptions and beliefs, a blind young man was told he can never make it in life but later became the renowned singer in town. 

Many people say things they don’t know or mean. Wait a minute perhaps I should ask you the big question; “Does God intend for his children to be unproductive, childless, sterile or unfruitful?

Thomas Edison was a dull student in class. He was unproductive academically, so to speak. The teacher tried his best to ensure he became better but Tom’s brain was too dead to be awakened.. One day, the teacher wrote to his mother, suggesting that she withdraws him from school. When the mother read the letter, she was depressed and troubled. She never told her child what the teacher said. She told him how good he was and how better he can be. That was all. Years later, after his mother’s death, Thomas Edison came to find out the content of the letter his teacher had sent to his mother. He wept bitterly seeing what the teacher thought about him and what his mother also thought of him. Today, the world is enjoying the beauty of electricity through the light Bulb “the barren student’” invented. 

Often times, you are not who people think you are. This reminds me of the portion of a verse from a spoken word poetry piece I ministered in 2013 in school titled “They Lied”  It reads thus; “you are not who people think you are, you are that greater person people may refuse to think you are”

Many thoughts of men about you are not right. They judge from their own end not from the future. You have got to believe yourself when no one does and on God who exists in the future. God’s thoughts towards you are always good. Hear what the psalmist says, “How precious to me are your thoughts, o God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand”(Psalm 139: 17-18).

The thoughts of Edison’s mother were not far from the good thoughts of God. A creator of a thing always has the best intention for what he created it for. A creator can not create a system that wouldn’t work neither can God create a man that can not be effective. If you create something that doesn’t work, you have not created anything. God has not created you to be unproductive. Whatever system God creates works for the purpose it was intended for. If it doesn’t, then the surprise cannot be from Him.

The word “Barrenness” has so much been misunderstood that it has cost the hope and lives of many.That a believing woman cannot give birth does not in a way mean she can not give birth at all. Just because a tree doesn’t produce fruits during dry season, does not mean it will not in The raining season. In fact even the dry trees by the sense of water begin to sprout up. God does not desire to see a tree without bearing fruit especially in its season and that’s why when Jesus saw a fig tree without fruits, he cursed it and it withered immediately. So it is to man. God doesnot intend for a man not to bear children at all. 

Similar to the season of dryness, see it this way; there are periods of time that the giver of children allows a couple to stay without a gift of child. If you study nature, you will discover that nature speaks the will of God: A tree begins to bud fruits in the season specified for it. God will in His own way withhold a child when the time has not yet presented itself and in doing this, He doesn’t mind if the parents are in dire need of the child. Man has always wanted children for their own purposes like for war, farm work, and successor e.tc but when a man depends on God for children; he then should allow the will of God which is His intentions to prevail. 

The moment of silence for a blessing of a child from God is what the world system calls Barrenness. Many women in the Bible experienced this moment of silence though the society considered them barren but they all gave birth to children who became solutions to the society.There was a woman called Hannah. The lord closed her womb and she was always provoked by her rival who considered her barren. Hannah was so sad about it that she wept and starved herself of food. To her, it was a bad stigma. Her husband, Elkanah said to her, “Hannah, why are you downhearted? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?”(1 Samuel 1:6&8).

The only thing that has pushed some people into marriage is the gift of children and it is as if it is the only blessing in marriage; so when they don’t have it, they become deeply troubled. The scent of rose flowers, kisses, sweet names, and all kinds of the ways of romantic love from a husband doesn’t suggest love to the wife anymore except the husband gives her children and vice versa. The desire of a child can make a woman befriend an angel in heaven. She suddenly becomes spiritual than ever before out of her great anguish and grief for a child. Genesis 30:1-21 shows us a clear example of how desperate a woman can be for children.

There was a certain man of Zorah named Manoah from the clan of the Danites, he had a wife who was sterile and remained childless. The angel of the lord appeared to her and said, “...you are sterile and childless but you are going to conceive and have a son...”(Judges 13: 2-3). The angel spoke of the momentary state of the wife of Manoah and of course as at that time, she was sterile and childless but the second statement changed her present state. It corrected the first statement. Meaning, she was only sterile and childless for a period of time that God allowed, in other words, God was silent. God’s silence was over. The child’s name was Samson. He was the savior of Israel from the forty years of captivity by the Philistines. All the while of Manoah’s wife childlessness, God was using the period to consider bringing through them a mighty son, a deliverer of Israel. Wow! Each time God breaks his silence, impossibilities becomes possible. There is always a great reason behind God’s silence.God’s words are aptly spoken by Him and becomes like gold in the setting of silver. He speaks greatness and gives solutions relevant at the moment. Barrenness does not mean you are unproductive neither is there something wrong with your reproductive system. Barrenness is when God’s will have not yet prevailed.

There was another woman named Rachel. God also closed her womb for many years. She blamed her husband for his inability to give her children. She used the words, “Give me children or I’ll die” I imagined her squeezing her husband’s neck while she weeps as if her life is at stake. Luckily the husband, Jacob understood he was not in the place of God to give children. He grabs her close to himself in consolation hoping she will hear how his heart also cries for God’s sudden intervention. The Bible says in Genesis 30, “God remembered Rachel, he listened to her and opened her womb…” God broke his silence again. God is silent when He’s conceiving great ideas and molding great men for His purpose. Someone said, “When God comes late, He comes big. No wonder, the child, Joseph became a prime minister in a foreign land, a savior to his family and country in moment of famine.

May I draw your attention to something please?

The Bible said, God listened to her and opened her womb. This implies that Rachel spoke to God. You listen when something is making sound.Mrs. Rachel later learnt to pour out her heart to God rather than her husband. This reminds me sometimes back in school when I had no money to take care of some stuffs. My friend and I were both sharing how empty our pockets were. He said,” we have to only ask God to give us money. Even if we call our parents, they will also call on God for provision. It then demands that, we also learn to ask God directly too” That’s a big insight. Rachel realized her husband was not the giver of children. Likewise Hannah, she had to make a vow via prayer in 1 Samuel 1:11 and in verse 19, the bible says, God remembered her. God broke his silence and she became the mother of a priest, Samuel. Why some couples are yet to have children is because they have not asked the right person in charge. You must ask the right person for children (God).

Luke 1:5-25 also speaks of a couple, Elizabeth and Zechariah who were healthy, upright and blameless in the sight of God yet without child. When God broke His silence, they had a son who grew to become great in life. Have you notice something? One, barrenness had nothing to do with their unrighteousness. Unlike what some people think, it is not often sin that is responsible for one’s barrenness. Two, in each of the cases we have talked about, their children all became great people in life. Their birth was timely. They all had uniquely what they were coming to fulfill in on earth. 

In conclusion, couples need to be more prayerful and dedicated to God instead of blaming each other for their inability to bear children. It was the fervent prayers in those periods of childlessness that broke God’s silence. Their prayers were like propellers, catalyst that in a way opened portals of blessings. The spiritual levels Rachel, Hannah, Zechariah, Manoah and their spouses attained during those periods was worth it. They committed prayerfully their lives to God.One of the major keys of breaking out of barrenness is via fervent prayer to God, praying with the understanding that only God gives children when he pleases and the other is the ability to have a heart of faith and knowing when God is speaking to you.Wait, be patient for the will of God to prevail.YOU ARE NOT BARREN AND YOU ARE NEVER TOO OLD TO BEAR CHILDREN. Congratulations!

About the Author

Sule T. Joshua (ST Josh) is a unique minister of the Gospel who conveys the power and love of God through words. He is poet and a spoken word artist. Some of his spoken word who believes the world needs to hear about God. 

You can connect with ST Josh on Facebook via https://web.facebook.com/sule.joshua