What is the Purpose of Our Travail?
It is easy for us to become involved with the conflict and the pains of travail, and to lose sight of the purpose of it. Is the purpose the defeat of Satan? No. Let’s go to Isaiah 66. This chapter talks about several things that we are very keenly interested in right at the present time. It talks about the victories of the Lord, and the judgments that are going to be in the earth. But I want to stay with the positive side for a moment. Verses 7–10: “Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she gave birth to a boy. Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be born in one day? Can a nation (or Kingdom) be brought forth all at once? As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons. Shall I bring to the point of birth, and not give delivery?” says the Lord. “Or shall I who gives delivery shut the womb?” says your God. Isaiah 66:7–9.
In verses 21 and 22, he talks about this restoration and what God is doing: “I will also take some of them for priests and for Levites,” says the Lord. “For just as the new heavens and the new earth which I make will endure before Me,” declares the Lord, “so your offspring and your name will endure.” In other words, no matter what God is going to do in the earth, what He is bringing forth in us is going to endure.
Then it begins to talk about judgment, and it keeps switching back and forth about the judgment and about the tremendous victories that God is bringing. Verse 24: “Then they shall go forth and look on the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me. For their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched; and they shall be an abhorrence to all mankind.” And if you want to get the whole picture of what is happening, go back to the early part of the chapter, verses 3–5: “… as they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations, so I will choose their punishments, and I will bring on them what they dread. Because I called, but no one answered; I spoke, but they did not listen. And they did evil in My sight, and chose that in which I did not delight.” Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at His word …
The reason we are reading these verses is because we can get so wrapped up in travail and intercession that we think the defeat of Satan is the goal. The defeat of Satan is not the goal, but we are to shove him aside and see Zion become the midwife of what God is bringing forth. The positive picture has to be before us.
Satan Has Won The Battle If We Forget The Objectives Of Our Faith
Satan has won the battle if we forget the objectives of our faith; he has distracted us into warfare where we should be exercising faith. When Paul talks about the battle, he says, “Fight the good fight of faith” (I Timothy 6:12). He says that we don’t war against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers; but he identifies that the battle is not a battle against them. It is a shield of faith that protects us, and it is the sword of the Spirit by which we prevail (Ephesians 6:12–17).
If We Get Engrossed In The Negative, We Lose The Positive
We come back to what God is doing in every one of us right now. He is reviving the promises; He is talking to us again about all of the prophecies. He is saying, “This is what I told you from the beginning.” The Holy Spirit has moved in a marvelous way to bring to mind all that the Lord has spoken to us (John 14:26). Even things that we thought we had forgotten or discarded, God is bringing to mind and saying, “Thus saith the Lord.” The battle is not against Satan, per se; the battle is to believe for the will of God in the earth. It’s the Kingdom of God coming forth. If we get engrossed in the negative, we lose the positive. How many have witnessed that in your own heart, that the progress you make is not because you become devil-conscious but because you become Kingdom-conscious? That’s where the battle is won.
God’s Program Is My Focus, Not Satan’s Assault Against It
If you look into Revelation chapter 12, you notice that when the manchild is being born, the dragon is there, ready to devour the manchild if it can (verses 1–4). And what we don’t appreciate fully is that the further we go into the bringing forth of the sons of God (Romans 8:18–19), the more Satan strives. I think some of you feel the same way about it. You come into the place where Satan preys upon everything within you, and you know that that is the first nibble he is trying to make in his effort to devour you. But something is happening; you have been delivered. And you say, “If I got delivered, then what is this battle all about?” The battle is because you did get delivered; and Satan is ready to devour or destroy or divert you, to distract you, to get you to dump the things that God really did for you. But I am not discouraged. God’s program is my focus, not Satan’s assault against it.
God Has Not Started Something That Will Abort, Unless We Let It
You say, “But what is going to happen to us?” Well, I can’t tell you fully, except that I am very much aware that “He that has begun a good work in you is able to perform it until the day of the Lord” (Philippians 1:6). He is the author and He is the finisher of your faith (Hebrews 12:2). Get ahold of this thing that God has been doing for the last few days and say, “Not one Word am I going to let go of—not one blessing, not one release. Satan will not restrain my spirit. He is not going to put it back on me.” And we go into this, knowing that we are all scheduled for one another’s deliverance—the Word that God gave is going to come to pass. God has not started something that will abort, unless we let it.
The Travail That We Have Been Under Is Part Of The Ministry Of Christ That Is Coming Forth
Isaiah 66:16: For the Lord will execute judgment by fire and by His sword on all flesh, and those slain by the Lord will be many. One version reads, “a multitude. We haven’t seen that. Yet you have heard me talk about it at times, because it was such an impressive thing to my own heart. We have watched the hand of the Lord come forth. I have sensed the anointing in my hands of the prophecy that came over me “Your hands will never be empty when you minister to My people.”
The big thing for you to understand is this: Do not forsake your deliverance. Do not abandon the Word that comes. When the ministry comes, just lay into it and claim it and realize that there may be an enemy that comes against it, but the Lord is faithful. Sometimes the delays and hindrances go on longer than God intends for them to, but the day is on us now that while you are yet speaking, He will answer (Isaiah 65:24). Have faith for it. The travail that we have been under is a part of the ministry of Christ that is coming forth.
Christ Was Born And The Dragon Was Ready To Snap Up That Which Was Being Born
I am going to give you a little story. Many centuries ago, shepherds heard the angels singing. Christ was born and wrapped in swaddling clothes, somewhat like the wrappings of death (Luke 2:8–14). Some time later, the wise men who had seen the star arrived. The gifts they brought were significant, especially the myrrh. And there they worshiped.
They didn’t realize that angels would have to warn them, and Mary and Joseph also, and that Mary and Joseph would have to flee to Egypt because Herod was going to kill every baby under two years old (Matthew 2:10–18). Again the dragon was ready to snap up that which was being born (Revelation 12:1–4).
Time passed and how difficult it was for that first family with a little baby whose name was Immanuel—“God with us” (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23). Time has passed and it is a lot easier to accept that. It’s easy for us to say, “Yes, the Lord Jesus Christ was Immanuel.” In fact, it is so easy to accept that that they even call Mary “the mother of God” in some quarters.
The Travail Is On Us To See Christ Come Forth In A Many-Membered Body
However, a greater miracle is coming now. The time has come for Christ to come forth in a many-membered Body (I Corinthians 12:12, 14); and there are a thousand Herods ready to kill it, dragons ready to devour it. The travail is on us to see Christ come forth in a many-membered Body. You have been hearing about Romans 8, about the sons coming forth; for several years God has been telling you about this. The time of travail has come. Christ is coming to be glorified in His saints and to be admired in all those that believe (II Thessalonians 1:10). And it is difficult for us to understand that it will be no less difficult to believe than it was at the beginning; the travail will still be the same—the intercession, the travail. The Scripture says, As soon as Zion travailed… Isaiah 66:8. It means that the priesthood that God is raising up—He said, “I will take some of them for priests and Levites” (Isaiah 66:21)—they are becoming the midwives to help bring forth Christ in a many-membered Body. And that is where we are. It is God’s program.
The Word Is Coming To The Fruitfulness That God Wants
Do you understand how the accuser of the brethren comes against you? He accuses you of many things, and makes you feel so unworthy. But a little girl somewhere between fourteen and sixteen years old had a visitation. God told her that He was going to overshadow her and that that little virgin was going to bring forth the Son of God. She said, “Let it be according to Thy will” (Luke 1:26–38). And so it is with us. God has overshadowed us. He has brought forth a conception by a Living Word, the incorruptible seed of God that lives and abides forever (I Peter 1:23, KJV). The Son of God is coming to birth within us, and we have to say, “Let it be done unto me according to Thy will, O God.”
You have gone through it, but bear witness that you are stronger spiritually today than you have ever been in your life. The Word has continued to grow; it is coming to the fruitfulness that God wants.
After The Travail Comes The Joy
The Word says that the Lord endured the cross and He despised the shame, for the joy that was set before Him (Hebrews 12:2). There is going to be some joy—a crown of it, everlasting joy (Isaiah 35:10). That is the heritage of the Kingdom. After the travail comes the crown of joy, and we forget the pain for the joy of what has been born (John 16:21).
I have so many things to teach you people; but when I teach it to you, you will be it.