PUSH: Persevere Until Success Happens Through Prayer (6 page)

What is important to understand is that in our immediate environment we need people who are able to co-labor with us in bringing forth the divine potential we carry, people who are able to empower and encourage us, discern God’s timing, cry out on our behalf, and be a calming and comforting force that continually draws us into the presence of God. Much as the Divine Midwife, the Holy Spirit, hovers over us to draw out the seed of promise each of us carry, we must be surrounded by a network of human supporters standing by to coach and help us breathe when we are being overcome by the pain of labor. We need to be mindful of our relationships—those we allow to speak into our lives and influence us. Has God planted an idea for a business, a book, or a ministry in your heart that perhaps you aborted because you were waiting for someone’s approval? Are there abortive spirits in your midst that are on assignment to kill the deliverance God wants to birth through you?

It is important that you are careful to only allow spiritual midwives into the delivery room with you. You need God-appointed midwives. Spiritual midwifery requires a special type of kingdom practitioner who is able to skillfully apply the process and technology of intercessory prayer. Be careful that you do not allow a spiritual abortionist in the delivery room with you. Those are individuals whose negativity, doubt, unbelief, frustrations, and fears can potentially undermine and sabotage your success and prosperity.

I entreat you: discern the spirit working through the individuals in your midst. As you pray, ask God to reveal every satanic agenda and agent; ask Him to squelch demonic activities. Ask Him to frustrate the plans of the spirit of Pharaoh. Ask God to send spiritual midwives—people who will help you push past the discomfort, pain, and disappointment of an old season into the joy of the new, people who will support and cover you with their gift of speech, speaking out and interceding on your behalf. Pray for God to send those who know how to touch heaven and unlock its divine portals of grace and blessing. In the words of Sarah Zadok, “May G-d bless them to continue in the paths of Shifra and Puah, fearing G-d, not man, and through their faith in the G-dliness of birth, bless them to be His partners in creation.”
²⁴

Childbirth, perhaps more than any other life event, is an experience that demands a strong dose of faith and surrender. No matter how well planned or organized we may be, the inevitable moment will arise, where the birthing woman must face the fact that there is a force at play that is larger than herself. As her baby moves down the narrow passage towards birth, and contractions rush through her body with the force of a tidal wave surging towards land, the birthing woman is presented with a sublime choice: to faithfully submit to its power, or to fight it tooth and nail.
—S
ARAH
Z
ADOK
²⁵

I
n the final phase of the birth process, when the long hours of labor have finally passed, and just before you feel an uncontrollable urge to bear down and push with all of your strength to bring forth the new life you are bursting to deliver, there is what birth practitioners call “transition.” Transition can be described as the period of time during which your body is preparing to push. Although it is the most intense time of labor, it is the shortest, lasting only fifteen to thirty minutes. It is a critical time, however, because it is when the mother is commonly overcome by an overwhelming desire to give up.

Transition is the dark before the dawn. It provides the signal that the baby has dropped into the birth canal and is positioned to come into the world. It is often the time when the mother’s water will break, the time when the body is fully dilated, completely yielded, and ready to push the baby from the womb into the world. It is when the woman will exclaim she can’t “do it anymore.” It is not unusual during this phase that a woman will doubt her ability to go on. Transition is the time when the mother is the most emotionally needy and when her energy is physically at its lowest.

During transition, a woman must dig deep within herself to hang on. It is when the mother is for the most part soloing—the coaching offered by the midwife throughout labor will, at this point, be considered useless and even irritating. The midwife knows to keep the room quiet, instructions minimal, and communication positive. Until her guidance is needed when it is time to push, the woman in transition must lean in and trust her inner strength. Further medication is pointless because the duration of transition would not allow time for it to take effect.

Just before the urge to push takes over, the contractions subside, and activity kicks in as the mother positions herself to bear down. It is the most intimate, transparent time between a woman and her own soul—she is vulnerable. It is almost a call from God to go deep in trusting and leaning on Him, to shed every self-righteous ounce of self-will and completely give over to the Divine within. It is where the rubber meets the road when God says,
“My grace…is enough for you [sufficient against any danger and enables you to bear the trouble manfully]; for My strength and power are made perfect (fulfilled and completed) and show themselves most effective in [your] weakness.”
Then Paul says,
“For when I am weak [in human strength], then am I [truly] strong (able, powerful in divine strength)”
(2 Corinthians 12:9-10 AMP).

This is when radical enlarging takes place to allow the baby to drop down and signal that it is time to begin pushing. It is when the mother must give over and
“let the power of the Master expand, enlarge itself greatly”
(Numbers 14:17 MSG) on her behalf. It is almost as if God is answering the call to
“enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings”
(Isaiah 54:2), and as if the body is in and of itself crying out to its Maker,
“Bless me and enlarge my territory! Let Your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain!”
(1 Chronicles 4:10 NIV). To this cry God faithfully answers:
“Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert”
(Isaiah 43:19). The mother will know exactly when that new thing is about to spring forth. If her water hasn’t already broken, it will—like a river in the desert—and the baby will suddenly drop into the birth canal—the road in the wilderness—and immediately this new little being will begin to emerge,
“whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant”
(Isaiah 30:13).

Likewise, according to Certified Nurse Midwife Peg Plumbo, prematurely initiating the pushing phase can be counterproductive and even harmful. Plumbo distinguishes between
directive pushing
and
spontaneous pushing
, stating that “most mothers should be encouraged to push when they want to push and for as long as they want to push.” She suggests that a woman listens to her body, giving in to the urge to push only when it comes naturally. “Studies are now confirming what midwives have known for centuries—mothers know how to birth their babies. They don’t require…a gallery of spectators to tell them, even demand them, to push.”
²⁶
In the words of birth professional Virginia Di Orio, “Just as a woman’s heart knows how and when to pump, her lungs to inhale, and her hand to pull back from fire, so she knows when and how to give birth.” The key to birthing—and to effectively “pushing”—is to get in tune with the natural rhythm of the body.

In
Birthing Naturally
, author Jennifer VanderLaan adds a bit of advice that throws some light on how to approach the pushing process when it comes to prayer. “If the urge to push is not strong, it may be better to change position or lean into the contraction until the pushing urge is strong. This helps to prevent fatigue and allows the strongest pushing to be done when it will be the most effective.”
²⁷
I am reminded of the time Jesus coached His disciples in Matthew 11: “
Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out? …Walk with Me and work with Me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace”
(Matthew 11:28-29 MSG). Learning to walk and work with Jesus in the “unforced rhythms of grace” might simply require you to realign or reposition yourself, to lean into the circumstances that are pressing around you, allowing them to direct your prayers rather than battling them in your own strength.

Allow faith and trust in the Lord to buoy you. Guard your heart. Paul reminds us, “
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus”
(Philippians 4:6-7). Philippians 4:8 goes on to talk about what kinds of thoughts you should allow to occupy your mind—
“meditate on these things…and the God of peace will be with you”
(Philippians 4:8-9). When you are pressing for your blessing, this is of vital importance. Your thought life will determine the intensity and duration of your labor.

Dr. Grantley Dick-Read was the first to explore the relationship between a woman’s mindset and her ability to navigate the stormy seas of labor. He described the Fear-Tension-Pain Cycle as the overwhelming impact fear can have on a labor.
²⁸
Fear, in other words, predisposes the mind and body to the worst possible outcome—the mind panics and the body stiffens, exponentially intensifying the pain of every contraction. The key is to relax into and work with each contraction without fighting or resisting the increasing tightening. It is the ultimate surrender. The repeated pattern of constricting forces is what is actually causing the uterus to expand.

Working with the unforced rhythms of grace may be a matter of allowing natural forces, such as gravity, to work on your behalf. Birthing positions that allow the pull of gravity to work with the rhythm of the body’s contractions are the most successful. “You should become familiar with the positions that most commonly promote a healthy delivery,” advises medical writer Christine Cadena. “For example, squatting may provide for a greater opportunity to work with gravity…allowing for less discomfort and greater room for your baby to move.”
²⁹

Likewise, when you pray, posture yourself in ways that will allow you to best connect with how the Spirit is moving—whether you kneel, stand, or lay flat on the ground—be willing to adjust your position. You have the power to align yourself with the currents of God’s grace just as a birthing mother aligns her body with the pull of gravity. Dr. John H. Kennell advocated, “One of the best things we could do would be to help women/parents/families discover their own birth power, from within themselves. And to let them know it’s always been there, they just need to tap into it.”
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Birthing pools are also used to ease the transition phase and expedite the pushing process. Gentle, natural, and supportive, these pools offer a calming environment that undergirds the birthing mother while at the same time providing the newborn a peaceful transition into the natural world. The infant birthed underwater emerges into the welcoming environment of a bath imbued with the soothing sounds of music. Similarly, after we travail in prayer, there should be a time of the washing of the water of the Word in an atmosphere of praise and worship. This should be a part of our own birthing process as we enter anew into the kingdom of God each and every day.

Similar to the practice of New Testament baptism in signifying conversion and the “new birth,” Jewish women renew their reproductive rites each month by submersing in the “living waters” of the
mikvah
. The word
mikvah
literally means “a collection of living waters” and is designated for the sole purpose of purification and renewal. The Hebrew root of this word is loosely translated to mean “hope.”
³¹
Each month, Hebrew women go through a spiritual and physical cleansing before immersing themselves in the “living waters” of the
mikvah
. It is believed to keep the marriage relationship pure and vibrant. Like the birthing pool, the
mikvah
offers a soothing and invigorating rebirth with every new cycle. In the words of Christopher Largen, “Birth is an experience that demonstrates that life is not merely function and utility, but form and beauty.”

The intense time of travail, transition, and at last pushing forth life is one of capacity building, enlarging, strengthening, and purifying. It is a time of letting go and pressing forth, a time of surrender and perseverance. In the words of author David Hammarskjold, “Life only demands from you the strength you possess.” As conveyers of the life of God, you can be assured that God’s grace is always more than enough (2 Corinthians 12:9 AMP, MSG, and NCV).

Yet You brought me safely from my mother’s womb and led me to trust You at my mother’s breast. I was thrust into Your arms at my birth. You have been my God from the moment I was born.
—P
SALM
22:9-10 NLT

When you have come to the edge of all the light you know And are about to step off Into the darkness of the unknown, Faith is knowing that One of two things will happen: There will be something solid to stand on Or you will be taught how to fly.
—P
ATRICK
O
VERTER