PUSH: Persevere Until Success Happens Through Prayer (5 page)

Yes, the power of the Holy Spirit is released through prayer, but it is also released when we simply believe and trust in God during a period of difficulty or hardship, such as a time of intense labor. Jesus prefaced the verse where He spoke of living water flowing from our innermost being with,
“He who believes in Me [who cleaves to and trusts in and relies on Me]”
(John 7:38 AMP). We cleave to and trust in and rely on God when we labor in life just as we do when we labor in prayer. By doing so, we release the creative power of the Holy Spirit to give birth to something new through us.

Whatever is born in the natural realm is birthed from the spirit, and by the Spirit, through our travail. It is during these times of travail that we cry out to the Lord and
“groan within ourselves”
(Romans 8:23). Each of us individually is called to labor on behalf of the seed of life we carry. We may suffer in the process, but as the psalmist declared,
“Those who plant with tears will gather fruit with songs of joy. He who goes out crying as he carries his bag of seed will return with songs of joy as he brings much grain with him”
(Psalm 126:5–6 NLV). In other words, there is a season in which we go through pain and hardship carrying the promise God has given us, but in the end, if we continue to trust the Lord of the harvest, we will reap joy and gladness.

Again, Jesus likened our life in Christ to a woman about to give birth:

When a woman gives birth, she has a hard time, there’s no getting around it. But when the baby is born, there is joy in the birth. This new life in the world wipes out memory of the pain. The sadness you have right now is similar to that pain, but the coming joy is also similar…a joy no one can rob from you
(John 16:21-23 MSG).

Scripture not only speaks about individuals travailing on behalf of the life of Christ being formed within themselves and other believers (Galatians 4:19), but it also speaks of the Church corporately travailing on behalf of the kingdom of God being formed within the earth. When Jeremiah wrote,
“For I have heard a cry as of a woman in travail, the anguish as of one who brings forth her first child—the cry of the Daughter of Zion, who gasps for breath, who spreads her hands, saying, Woe is me now!”
(Jeremiah 4:31 AMP), he was speaking of the Church travailing on behalf of a world pregnant with new souls for the kingdom. Isaiah prophesied the end result of this:
“As soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children”
(Isaiah 66:8). And as I shared in the first chapter, the whole earth
“groans and labors with birth pangs”
for deliverance
“from the bondage of corruption”
(Romans 8:21–22).

In due time, you and I and the entire earth will be delivered. Through the prophet Isaiah, God made plain the outcome when He offered the following inquiry:
“Shall I bring to the time of birth, and not cause delivery? …Shall I who cause delivery shut up the womb?”
(Isaiah 66:9). Just as Jesus was
“proof that came at the right time”
when
“He gave himself as a payment to free all people”
(1 Timothy 2:6 NCV), you can be sure that you too will be proven and positioned to deliver at the right time. Of course, that requires you continue to put your hope in God. You must
“labour therefore to enter into that rest”
(Hebrews 4:11 KJV), and to
“humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you”
(1 Peter 5:6-7).

Remember,
“to every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven,”
most especially,
“A time to be born”
(Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 KJV). God is faithful, for Paul said,
“He [can be trusted] not to let you be tempted and tried and assayed beyond your ability and strength of resistance and power to endure, but…will [always] also provide the way out…that you may be capable and strong and powerful to bear up under it patiently”
(1 Corinthians 10:13 AMP). God’s Word is being perfected in you and will be revealed through you at the perfect time.

“A woman does not give birth before she feels the pain; she does not give birth to a son before the pain starts. No one has ever heard of that happening; no one has ever seen that happen. In the same way no one ever saw a country begin in one day; no one has ever heard of a new nation beginning in one moment. But Jerusalem will give birth to her children just as soon as she feels the birth pains. In the same way I will not cause pain without allowing something new to be born,” says the Lord. “If I cause you the pain, I will not stop you from giving birth to your new nation,” says your God.
—I
SAIAH
66:7-9 NCV

If we tarry here we expect to labor in the cause of salvation and if we go hence we expect to continue our work until the coming of the Son of Man. The only difference is, while we are here we are subject to pain and sorrow, while they on the other side are free from affliction of every kind.
—W
ILFORD
W
OODRUFF
(1807–1898)

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great ones make you feel that you, too, can become great.
—M
ARK
T
WAIN

B
irthing is a process requiring love, trust, and support from others. When a woman is in the midst of hard labor, she not only taps into intense inner strength and tenacity, but is also at the same time intensely vulnerable. To bring forth the life she carries, to deliver and be delivered, a woman needs to be surrounded by those who are looking out for her best interests as well as believe the best of her. Author and professor of sociology Barbara Katz Rothman astutely observed, “Birth is not only about making babies. Birth is about making mothers—strong, competent, capable mothers who trust themselves and know their inner strength.”
¹¹
In the words of author and midwife Claudia Lowe, “Only with trust, faith, and support can the woman allow the birth experience to enlighten and empower her.”

In one of the most ancient and sacred books to come out of China, the
Tao Te Ching—
believed to have been published in the sixth century BC—we read this word of advice for the aspiring midwife:

You are a midwife, assisting at someone else’s birth. Do good without show or fuss. Facilitate what is happening rather than what you think ought to be happening. If you must take the lead, lead so that the mother is helped, yet still free and in charge. When the baby is born, the mother will rightly say: “We did it ourselves!”

Birth is not just about delivering something new, but also about empowering the deliverer. Midwifery, in other words, is the art of bringing out the best potential hidden deep within another. It is defined as “one who assists in or takes a part in bringing about a result.”
¹²
It is about people working synergistically together to bring forth the divine intents and purposes God has ordained for the members of His Body.

We need to be able to recognize in one another what God has planted in each of our hearts and that our destinies are interrelated:
“As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love”
(Ephesians 4:16 NLT). There will be occasions for me to push you and occasions for you to push me—the Body of Christ must come together to birth our God-given assignments into the earthly realm.

In essence, we are called to
midwife
, or “work together with,” those who labor in bringing forth new life. A midwife is any person you bring into your life to help provide you with the emotional and spiritual resources necessary for you to safely deliver what God has given you by way of purpose and destiny. In her book,
Midwives: Pioneers of Faith
, Sarah Zadok observed, “A midwife’s role, among other things, is to encourage a birthing mother to ‘let go’ and allow herself to become a conduit for this great Force to flow through.”
¹³

In 1493 a young German physician by the name of Eucharius Rösslin wrote the first widely published guidebook on the art of midwifery. In 1532 his son translated the book into Latin, and in 1540 it was translated into English. It was oddly enough entitled
The Byrth of Mankynde,
and it became the foundation for the development of the profession as we know it today. Here is a telling excerpt from the mid-sixteenth-century English translation:

The midwife her selfe shall sit before the labouring woman, and shall diligently observe and waite, how much and after what means the child stireth itselfe. Also the midwife must instruct and comfort the party, not only refreshing her with good meate and drinke, but also with sweet words, giving her hope of a good speedie deliverance, encouraging…her to patience and tolerance.
¹⁴

A midwife comforts, encourages, and brings hopes. She patiently “stands by” those who labor. In fact, the word
obstetrics
is derived from the Latin
obstare,
which means “to stand by.” Scripture records in Genesis 35:17 the words of the midwife who stood by Rachel as she gave birth to Benjamin:
“Now it came to pass, when she was in hard labor, that the midwife said to her, ‘Do not fear; you will have this son also.’”
Oftentimes, these are the most important words a midwife will use as she stands by those who find themselves disoriented by the pains of labor: “Do not fear.”

There are times a midwife must encourage an expectant mother to be still and wait, to breathe deeply and stay calm. An expert midwife knows when energy is best conserved for a later time and when it is the right time to bear down and push hard. A midwife will help the mother pace herself in order to conserve her strength. We read in 2 Kings 19:3 where Hezekiah prophesied about the impending calamity of the nation of Israel not having the strength to deliver at the moment of birth:
“This day is a day of trouble, and rebuke, and blasphemy; for the children have come to birth, but there is no strength to bring them forth.”

Referring back to the mid-sixteenth-century edition of
The Byrth of Mankynde
, we read this wise admonition:

But this must the midwife above all things take heede of, that she compell not the woman to labour before the birth come forward…. For before that time, all labour is in vaine…and in this case many times it cometh to passe, that the party hath laboured so sore before the time, that when she should labour indeed, her might and strength is spent before in vaine, so that she is not now able to helpe her selfe, and that is a perillous case.
¹⁵

Wisdom is required not to force the issue too soon as well as to maximize every window of opportunity that presents itself. In other words, timing is everything.

Sarah Zadok, who is an expert in the Jewish tradition of midwifery, notes that “trust in the natural process of labor and in a woman’s body to birth normally and safely is the hallmark of midwifery care.”
¹⁶
She uses the examples of two midwives found in the Old Testament during a critical time in Israel’s history. These were the famous midwives in the Book of Exodus, who turned out to be the mother and sister of Moses, Jochebed and Miriam, and who are identified as Shiphrah and Puah in Exodus 1:15. Zadok comments that these women “became God’s partners in creation, granting life to the Jewish children.”
¹⁷

An article published by the
Jewish Women’s Archive
states:

It is significant that the Biblical text actually mentions Shifra and Puah by name, suggesting the ultimate importance of their role in the liberation of the Israelites. The Talmudic sages taught that the names “Shifra” and “Puah” indicate different roles midwives play. “Shifra” stems from the Hebrew verb to swaddle or to clean a baby, while Puah comes from the Hebrew word to cry out because a midwife tries to calm a new mother’s cries by offering her words of encouragement.
¹⁸

Shiphrah
is rooted in the Aramaic word
meshaperet,
and it means “to make beautiful,”
¹⁹
or more literally, “to straighten.”
²⁰
The Hebrew name
Shifra
is derived from the Hebrew root meaning, “the capacity to make something better, or to improve its quality.”
²¹
Interestingly enough,
Puah
is the Hebrew word for “mouth” and comes from a Hebrew root that implies a particular gift of speech.
²²
The Aramaic verb
po’ah
means to “cry out.” This is the same word used in Isaiah 42:14:
“Now I will cry out and strain like a woman giving birth to a child”
(NCV). “Why was her name called Puah?” asks artist and Jewish scholar Sarah Leah Hankes. “Because she cried out [
po’ah
] to the child and brought it forth.” Hankes adds that “another explanation of Puah is that she used to cry out through the Holy Spirit [the prophetic gift] and say: ‘My mother will bear a son who will be the savior of Israel.’”
²³
We can see the critical significance of the midwife’s role in bringing about “something better” and interceding on behalf of that which is yet to be born.

Shiphrah and Puah were faithful servants of God. Because of their obedience, the nation of Israel was fruitful and multiplied even under the harshest of conditions.
“Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty. And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that He made them houses”
(Exodus 1:20-21 KJV). The “houses” referred to here are believed to be both the priestly dynasty that came forth from Jochebed, who, being married to a Levite, bore Moses and Aaron; as well as the royal dynasty birthed through Miriam, who was married to Caleb from the tribe of Judah, and from whom sprang forth the House of David.