Number two. Remove toxic people who rub their miracle to make you miserable.
Sometimes people get their blessing ahead of you, and they would feel so boastful and
arrogant that they will use that to remind you that something is wrong with your faith.
Something is wrong with you. Hagar did that. Hager got pregnant and she started to despise Sarah.
Sarah had way more faith than Hagar. Sarah had to believe to have children. Hagar didn't
do anything, just spread her legs and she got pregnant. Yeah. Sorry. That's what happened. She
slept with Abraham and she got pregnant. And after that she literally, her head got swollen and she
walks around like she is a diva. That's it. The whole world, it circles around her. She is rubbing
her pregnancy into Sarah's face to let you know, you're not good enough. And Sarah was like okay,
maybe it's like a mood swing. Maybe like Hagar is having a bad day. Second day she's doing exactly
the same thing and you know what Sarah did. Sarah's like enough is enough. Block. Unfollow.
Mute your stories. I don't want to see your stories anymore.
I don't. I don't want to see you. If you are toxic, I have a promise from God and I'm not
going to allow you to make me feel terrible because I haven't got what came easy for you.
And I'm not gonna let you make me feel like I'm not doing enough or somehow I'm doing something
wrong. For Sarah she wasn't doing anything wrong. It was just the process God was taking
her and this process was painful. And there are people, they're like devil sent into your lives.
Sometimes they pretend to be friends. They will just literally rub their miracle into your face.
And when that happens, if you have those friends, I am sorry. Do what Sarah did. Develop distance
between you and those people and those accounts, until those people change or you get healthier.
That is not weakness. That is protecting the promise God has given you.
There is nothing wrong with that. Sarah did that. Until Hager came back
and repented. Number three. Sometimes you not only have to remove toxic people that trigger
things in your past, sometimes you have to move yourself from toxic places.
It's not people, it's a place that you're currently in. And this was Hannah. Hannah
the Bible says had a rival who constantly made her miserable because the girl kept popping children
like nobody's business and Hannah couldn't have kids. And the scripture says is that this rival,
the word of God says this in 1 Samuel 1:6 it says, "Her rival provoked her severely to make her
miserable because the Lord had closed her womb." So she kept poking Hannah. She kept poking. And
this guy, he married two women. Like not a good idea. And he has these two women. One is
like really nice. He likes her. The other one just gives him babies and so, and then he loved Hannah.
He kept giving her more stuff but it wasn't enough because the rival kept poking Hannah,
kept making her feel like, look, ha! You don't have kids. Look something is wrong with you.
Look you're probably cursed. Look you probably have a demon. Look you probably, you should have
not done that. See he loves you but then God doesn't love you. God is not giving you that.
And they kept poking her. They kept poking her and sometimes that rival lives in your own head.
It's right here. It's that thing in you that constantly pokes you. What do you do if your
rival lives inside of you? You got to do what Hannah did. She didn't get rid of her rival.
She didn't remove her rival. She moved herself from a place that was toxic, to the temple.
The Bible says she went to the temple and she started to reveal her feelings to God and say,
"God I need you." She starts crying. She said, Lord you gotta help me process this. This is
not fair. I'm dealing with this little issue at home right now. God I need your help. God could
you please get me out of this misery. God could you help me out of this situation. My mind is
glitching. I'm tripping on the inside. God this is not easy. And in the temple she started to pray.
See when you move from the place that is toxic, to the temple and you begin to replace prayer where
it used to be pain. Something God will do. God will take your misery and turn it into a miracle.
God came in and God gave her a promise and God let her birth the child and this child wasn't
just her breakthrough, it was a blessing to the nation of Israel. And I believe that something
will happen. A lot of us you know we don't feel adequate. I struggle with this as a teenager. Now
I don't battle with it as much but when I was a teenager I struggled with that. This rival
that I had it lived in my own head. That you're not good enough. You can't pronounce words. I
still can't pronounce a lot of words. But at that time, you're not good looking, like you're weird,
you're ugly. You'll never amount to anything. You can't bench press. You can't run faster than
anybody else. You're not only average, you're irrelevant. Your life has no meaning. Look God
has closed your womb. God hasn't blessed you with anything. God hasn't given you anything.
He has forgotten you. And see and you're looking, like yeah, it's right because
there's evidence that God has closed my womb. That God hasn't gifted me with things that would make
me unique and special. Yes I know He loves me. Yes I know the Spirit lives in me. I know I'm a
child of God. I know but I feel that other people have other stuff and I don't have what normal,
average people have. What do you do then, is you move yourself with your rival into the temple.
And what I started to do is come to this altars at 5am in the morning 5:30am in the morning.
6am in the morning at 16, at 17, at 18. Half of the time I worshiped, half of the time I whined.
God handled that whining because in one of those moments God started to encounter this Hannah, this
person who is afflicted inside, who's provoked ,who is severely hurt maybe on the inside.
And God started to peel one layer after another. And though I have the same body and my English has
slightly improved my life changed. God has given me a beautiful wife. God has given me a ministry.
He's given me purpose and most importantly, honestly He's helped me to understand He loves me.
He's helped me to blossom as a person. He opened things that I thought were closed. He
unlocked things that I thought that I was born without them. I did not know they existed in me.
Because see when you move from a place of pain to a place of prayer, God will shift you from a place
of misery to a place of miraculous, supernatural breakthrough. And you no longer have to compare
yourself, you will be content and you will be complete because greater is He who is inside
of you and the one who is in the world. I want to provoke you to faith. I want to provoke you
to prayer. I want to provoke you to fasting. I want to provoke you to come to morning prayers.
There is something inside of you that will touch the world. There is something inside of you that
will shift this generation but you will not see it until you move from a place of toxicity, into
the place of prayer. Hannah, there is a Hannah sitting in this room. There is a Hannah that might
be watching this later. I want to challenge you don't stay in the place of your pain.
Move. Move yourself. Move. Make time in your day for God. Make time in your day for prayer.
Make time in your day for the Word of God. You will meet your Creator
and you will find out He did not close anything. He used the closed womb as an invitationist
that says, "Come to me. I will reveal that I am Jehovah Jireh. I am Jehovah Nissi.
I am Jehovah Shalom. I am your God. I am the Creator and not only I will unlock your womb,
I will birth a Samuel. I will birth a revival through you. I will raise children through
you. I will shift people's lives through you. I will make your life bring Me glory." Hallelujah.
Move yourself to a place of prayer. Sometimes we have to remove someone.
Sometimes we have to move ourselves to find ourselves in the midst of His presence
where he will begin to heal our emotions and restore us.