El Roi

It was not Hagar's fault that she found herself in a desert with her son Ishmael without any form of provision and facing imminent doom. She did not seduce Abraham, she did not ask to become a surrogate mother to Abraham and Sarah, she did not ask to become Sarah's slave, she did not ask to become a tool in the hand of her mistress, she was a victim, she was an Egyptian, forced to subject herself to the culture of Ur.
The culture was purely a creation of men, who desired to have children and whose wives struggled with becoming a mother. Most women wouldn't willingly share their husbands, those who did and still do most likely did so as a result of being born into a culture that is patriarchal in nature and had accepted the culture as a means of surviving in the environment in which they found themselves.

I was once in Dubai, I went into a mall to buy Jalabia and Abaya, the former for my male friends and the latter for my female friends. When I got into the mall, the first question the attendant asked me was how many wives do I have? It was a shocking question to me because I didn't come from their culture. In their culture, polygamy was the norm. In my culture, monogamy was the norm. The question took me aback I stared at the lady who asked me the question intently and said "How can anybody who wants to live a peaceful life have more than one wife" She laughed and said "Here, to have peace means to have many wives, you can have only one but it will mean you are poor and unable to provide for more than one. If you are rich, you should have more than one and they will give you peace because they have been taught to. If they don't give you peace, you can divorce the wife or simply marry another one who will give you peace and spend more time with that one" It was a strange explanation to me, but in my defence, I was coming face to face with the culture for the first time. I have never known anyone who had more than one wife, who really enjoyed any form of peace. Jacob didn't, he had two wives and two concubines the stress Leah and Rachael gave him was recorded in the Bible.

The trouble the children he had from the four of them gave him was legendary. One slept with his concubine, two killed off all the men in Shechem and forced him to flee with fear from Shechem.

The older children ganged up to sell the first son of Rachael, Joseph, to the Ishmelites. It was a life of unending turns. Abraham's experience was more of the same he found himself to be childless in his old age. He was contented to wait until God fulfilled his promise to give him the promised son. His wife came up with an ancient idea borrowed from their past, she suggested that he should take her maid as a surrogate mother so that he would not die childless. This maid was given to Sarah by Pharaoh after Pharaoh had coveted her and taken her from Abraham because of her beauty. God stepped in and prevented Pharaoh from having sexual intercourse with her.

When Pharaoh found himself in trouble, he made a spiritual consultation and was told it was because of Sarah that he was buffeted on every side. He was advised to return her to her husband and to do so with restitution. Thus, Pharaoh returned Sarah to Abraham with gifts including Hagar. This was the Hagar, the one Sarah offered to her husband a slave passed from a king to her, a woman who had no say in the fulfillment of her destiny.

I once had to intervene in a similar matter about two years ago. A man and woman were married without children, medical reports revealed that the woman could not have children. They tried IVF and other medical means to no avail, the man was a Major General in the army and he desperately wanted to have children he asked his wife if they could get a surrogate to bear children for them as his fiftieth birthday gift. His wife refused she told him she was sure God would give her children even though the doctor's report stated clearly that she had defective ovaries. The man went ahead and got a surrogate without her input, the surrogate gave birth to a set of triplets.

One Saturday morning, her husband came home with his mother and three newborn babies. He told her they now have children and he had brought his mother to help her care for the babies. He brought in a lot of supplies for the babies and left for work.

The lady was shocked to the marrow, she reached out to me and said she hated the children and wanted to drown them in a bathtub, I drove for hours until I got to their house I understood what she was going through. The husband took a pragmatic approach to solving the issue of childlessness in their marriage but he did not consider the emotional implication of his action on his wife.

A pregnant woman develops a connection with the baby in her womb while bearing the child. This helps her to nurture the child after birth. A woman trusting God for a child who suddenly found herself being forced to care for three babies at once does not have the same emotional connection with the children. A baby disrupts your life. Three babies at once is akin to unleashing hell on an unprepared mother. I spent hours speaking to the brand-new mother. In the end, she saw the children as blessings and decided to embrace them as hers.

Sarah did not have the benefit this woman enjoyed, this woman took in children who would grow to know her as their mother, there was no other woman in the man's life to contest for his attention.

In the case of Sarah, Hagar was there having a son elevated Hagar in her own estimation and she disdained Sarah. Sarah bore the disdain for many years because she loved Abraham but the day she got pregnant and delivered her son, she could no longer take it she saw Hagar and her son as threats and told Abraham to get rid of them.
Abraham did as his wife told him, Hagar was sent away with very little provision, she ran out of water in the desert and her son became weak due to dehydration. She abandoned the boy when he got too weak to travel further. She said she did not want to watch the boy die; this was the moment she encountered the angel of the Lord. The angel spoke kindly to her and asked her why she left her son, she explained that it was because they were out of water and the young man was dying. The angel showed her a well of water and she was able to get water to keep her son from death. After this angelic encounter, Hagar realised she had met with an angel, she realized that God was mindful of her through her struggles she didn't pray or do anything to draw God's attention God intervened by himself God saw her! El Roi means The God who sees me or the God of Sight. The name was borne of the experience of Hagar in Genesis 16:13 .We often find ourselves in situations in which we assume God does not see us, David would often write "Why would the nations say, where is your God?" Like David, we find ourselves in situations where it feels as if God has abandoned us. God has not, He said he will never leave us nor forsake us. Jesus deliberately said "And lo, I will be with you, even to the end of days" It may not seem so sometimes but we are never alone. Once we come into the reality of God by giving our lives to Jesus, we cease being alone the Holy Spirit becomes our eternal companion, we now dwell in a God that sees all things and the God that sees all things now dwell in us. In his light we see light! No matter what you are going through, the story of Hagar should reassure you that God is mindful of you. David said, "When my father and my mother forsake me, Then the LORD will take care of me." This is real for every believer This is the reality you must walk in and live.
I serve a God who sees me.

PS: Tomorrow, Minister Bolatito Arogunmaya, Prophet Babafemi Oluyemi, Minister Abiodun Arogunmaya, Minister Tobi Marquis, The GSWMI prophetic service Ministers and Brother Gbenga Samuel-Wemimo will be at The Supernatural Life Assembly. We will minister to the saints in the place of prayer and worship. We will be the eyes of God and we will see through the eyes of God.
We will crush lifelong challenges and set crooked courses straight in the name of Jesus. We are not inviting people to meetings as seat fillers, we are inviting the weary to the source of living waters, to drink and be reinvigorated. We are inviting the sons to a feast of His praise and Glory. Please arrive on time. God bless you.