By Sade Akanni
(Living Seed Vol 10 No. 3 Dec 2003)
An incubator is an apparatus in which small weak babies are cared for, especially those born earlier than normal. There are also incubating devices in which eggs can hatch by artificial warmth. Both of these, are however, artificial incubators. In God’s own creation, birds sit and brood over their eggs to incubate them for some time till they hatch while human beings and other mammals incubate their young in the womb for a period of time before they are born. Whether artificial or natural, incubation is an important process in physical reproduction though the duration varies in different animals. Every fertilized chicken egg needs to stay under incubation for a minimum of twenty-one days to become a viable chick. In human beings, it takes averagely nine months for a fertilized ovum to be incubated in the mother’s womb in order to become a matured foetus ready to be born into the world. The womb is such a good incubator that no artificial incubator can be compared with it. The Almighty God made it in such a way that it is very conducive for the proper development of the embryo. Fortunately the womb is located in the woman by divine providence. This is not a coincidence at all but a special arrangement by the Lord. When it comes to the issue of incubating and carrying the foetus till the time of delivery the man has to helplessly depend on the woman for that job. It is such a great privilege that God has given the woman. All the experience that a Woman goes through in her body during pregnancy and delivery is a divine privilege irrespective of individual differences between one woman and the other.
Give thanks to the Lord for making you a woman: God’s own human incubator Not only is a womb needed before any child can be born into the world, but even children that would become great vessels in God’s hands must pass through the womb of one woman or the other before being born. The children of Israel suffered a great deal as slaves under their Egyptian masters. They cried and cried to the Lord for deliverance but the answer to their cry did not come, until God found a womb in Jocebed to bring forth Moses. Not only that, she was also the mother of Aaron and Miriam who, together with Moses, led the children of Israel out of Egypt the land of bondage (Mic 6:4). For her it was such a great privilege to have used her womb to serve the Lord. She became an incubator for God’s divine purpose (the deliverance of the children of Israel from the land of Egypt) to be fulfilled. Today, many are in bondage under the elements of the world, slaves to the traditions of men and to the basic principles of the world. Many are slaves of sin, heavily laden under the yoke of bondage. If you dedicate your womb to the Lord to bring forth a child like Moses, for the deliverance of such people, God will be pleased with you. Hannah yielded her womb to the Lord to bring forth a son (Samuel) at a time when a prophet was seriously needed in Israel! God was not pleased with Eli the priest and his sons for they were sons of Belial (1 Sam 2:12,22) who polluted the offerings of the Lord in Shiloh and did abominable things.
“Now the sons of Eli were corrupt; they did not know the Lord. Therefore the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord, for men abhorred the offering of the Lord. Now Eli was very old; and he heard everything his sons did to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. 1 Sam. 2; 12,17,22.
These were the evils done by Eli’s sons, Eli’s eyes were already growing dim and the lamp of God was already going out in the tabernacle of the Lord. The word of the Lord was very scarce in those days (1 Sam.3:1-3) There was a great need for a replacement priest in the temple at that time. That was also the time Hannah had a great need for a son. God needed a prophet and Hannah needed a son. What a divine coincidence! Hannah, knowing the kind of evil being done by the priests (Eli’s children) allowed her need to also meet God’s desire. And then it happened. She had a son in Samuel, and God had prophet in Samuel. She yielded her womb to the Lord to incubate and bring forth an answer to the problem in the temple.
Are you a woman seeking to have a child? Can you open your eyes to see the great need for vessels that God can use in the church not only in Nigeria but also abroad? There is a great dearth of replacement sons in God’s service, vessels to replace the outgoing ones and bring revival to the Body of Christ. God was willing to wait for Samuel to be born and to grow old enough to know the Lord and to be able to handle the affairs of the people and the temple. Maybe He is waiting for a yielded womb like that of Hannah in this our time too. Mary yielded her virgin womb to bring forth Christ the Saviour of the world. Will you yield your womb to the Lord for that purpose? He will not refuse you if you do it with all your heart. There is a great need in the world and in the church today for such instruments. You will be remembered for what you have done.
Unfortunately there are many children from Christian homes who neither love the Lord nor walk in His ways. There is need to pray. We must not allow the devil to hijack our wombs to suit his own purpose. The divine privilege must not be turned to a disadvantage. Satan also needs vessels to use, and he needs wombs to bring them forth. There is an urgent need to cry to God for the salvation of such children born from your womb and the womb of those around you. Give Him no rest until their salvation goes forth as a lamp that burns, and their righteousness as brightness. The Lord will have compassion and answer you.
However, just as physical incubators are necessary for physical reproduction, so also it is in the spiritual. In order to bear fruit spiritually, spiritual incubators are needed. For anything spiritual to be born into the world, it has to pass through spiritual incubation. The process and duration of incubation may be long or short, but it is real and there is a great incubator that performs that job.
The Heart, A Great Incubator
The heart is a complex incubator of spiritual things. It is capable of incubating either good or evil things. It t adapts itself to whatever seed planted in it to incubate it to maturity. In Prov.4:23 the Bible says
“Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” (KJV).
“Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts.” (GNB).
Just as a baby’s physical body is formed, shaped and developed in the physical
so also it is in the spiritual. A person’s life is shaped by the thoughts in his or her heart. What people encounter in your life in form of behaviour, speech and action, is a product of your heart. It is an out-working of what has been conceived in your heart. The period of conception of such an idea may be long or short, but surely, our actions are preceded by thoughts of the heart. For example, before you decide on what career to pursue in life, you must have thought about it and conceived the idea in your heart over a long or short period of time. I met a man some years ago who said he did not want to be rich or to be great in life. He was satisfied to be the poor wretched mason that he was. When asked why, he said that it was only rich, popular and great people that witches run after for destruction. They never run after poor people. That was why he would not work hard enough to make ends meet or to become anything tangible in life. His life has been shaped by his thoughts. Those thoughts were conceived in his heart before it became his physical ifestyle. The heart works like a womb to conceive thoughts and ideas that result in physical action.
Gateways Into The Heart
“For all that is in the world-the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world.” 1Jn.2:16.
“Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’ for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when It is full-grown, brings forth death.” Jas. 1: 13-15).
“Then I arose in the night, I and a few men with me; I told no one what my God had put in my heart to do in Jerusalem…” Neh 2:12.
“And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him,” Jn. 13: 2.
The heart (sometimes called the spirit or the mind in some parts of the Bible) has different sources of information. It is capable of receiving information from the physical realm as well as the spiritual. Through the eyes, the ears, nose, tongue, skin, information is fed into the heart which then processes it (using thoughts) and interprets it. Whatever interpretation the heart gives to a piece of information is what determines the resulting behavioural action of the person.
In the same way that God passes on information spiritually into the heart of man (Neh.2: 12) is also the same that the devil does (Jn.13: 2). The book of Jas 1:13-15 clearly illustrates the process that goes on in the heart before a physical action results. It is likened to the process of conception and delivery. Whenever a piece of information gets into the heart (whether physical or spiritual), a kind of conception takes place. Thoughts are gathered around it to nourish it and develop it and form an idea with it. Sooner or later, there is a giving birth. An action results, whether sinful or godly.
If your heart will give birth to godly action or character, you need to pay attention to the gateways. You must keep your heart with all diligence. A woman who has no control over her spirit (or heart) is like a city broken down, without walls (Prov.25:28). If you allow your heart to become like the type by the wayside as described in Matt 13:4, it will forever be barren. Such a heart is open to all kinds of information from whatever source. It will be unfruitful in the things of God. You must deliberately determine which information to allow into your heart and which one not to allow. Keep guard over your heart very carefully. Before the will of God will be done on earth as it is being done in heaven, incubators are needed to conceive it and bring it forth on the earth. God looks for a yielded heart into which He will introduce that burden, a heart that will faithfully act as a channel and an incubator for that will of God; a heart that will travail over it until it is born and done on earth. .
How Burdens Are Born…
A burden could arise in the heart through the news that we hear and the happenings that we see around us. The great work that Nehemiah did in re-building the wall of Jerusalem came from a conception in his heart. He was one of the Jews taken captive to Babylon where he became the cupbearer to the king. One day, Hanani, one of his brothers, came with other men from Judah to visit him. As he enquired about the Jews who had escaped the captivity, and about Jerusalem, he was told a sad story.
“And they said to me, ‘The survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach, The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.’ So it was, when I heard these that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.” Neh. 1; 3-4.
When Nehemiah heard about the situation of the people, something happened. A seed was cast into his heart through those words that he heard. A conception took place in his heart. He sat down, wept and mourned for many days, carrying and nursing that “pregnancy”. The conception lasted many days before it resulted into a definite action. He kept thinking about the sad situation of his people and his city (Jerusalem). Each time he thought to a point, tears rolled down his cheeks and he mourned. The “pregnancy” grew on. As he fasted and prayed over the matter, the conception developed more and more until an idea was formed in his heart. Through those thoughts, God put an idea in his heart. The idea was that if he was permitted by the king, he would go and rebuild the wall and improve the condition of his people. At the beginning, it was just a formless, shapeless conception. But as he sat down and thought with concern about the situation, weeping and mourning, fasting and praying, it formed and developed into an idea. By the time that idea was formed in his heart, it was ready to be born in form of an action. The matter was so matured in his heart that it began to show even on his face. One day as he stood before the king to give wine to him, the king noticed the sadness on his face and acknowledged that it was nothing but sorrow of heart or heaviness of heart. He was heavy with that conception, ready to deliver. It did not take him time to bring out what was in his heart to the king’s hearing. The king gave him permission to go and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and immediately the process of delivery started. The labour that normally preceeds delivery started and he actually delivered at last. The wall of Jerusalem was rebuilt in fifty-two days (Neh.6:15).
This clearly illustrates how the heart works like a womb. It is from the heart that issues of life proceed. Life actions are preceded by thoughts. For anyone to achieve anything in life whether physically or spiritually, in business or academics, the heart must be properly engaged. Every issue of life attracts the thoughts of the heart. It is after incubating it properly for a period of time that something
tangible can be born. Before Nehemiah could succeed in that project and bring restoration, he was not thoughtless about it. He made himself available and brooded over the matter in God’s presence before he could bring forth the rebuilding of the wall. Kingdom works, which eventually become great, are normally preceded by deep burdens borne in someone’s heart over a period of time. Such burdens arise in different ways depending on the working of the Lord.
Another way a burden could arise in a heart is for the Lord to directly share the burden of His heart with His child, trusting that he will be responsible enough to bear it. This happened to Abraham one day when the Lord visited him.
“And the Lord said ‘Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing, since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I have known him,…” Gen. 18:17-19.
The Lord saw something in Abraham according to the plan that He had in mind to make him a great nation. Also, God said, ‘for I have known him…’ There was nothing that Abraham hid from the Lord. He had humbly followed the Lord over the years and had earned that testimony in God’s presence. The burden of the Lord over the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was therefore shared with Abraham. As soon as Abraham heard it, it became a burden, a conception in his heart and he started interceding for the people before the Lord. It was his intercession that eventually led to the deliverance of Lot from Sodom (Gen. 19:29).
“Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets. ” Amos 3:7. Should God find you thoughtful and responsible enough over spiritual matters, He will begin ‘to reveal His secrets to you. As you keep your heart holy for Him, He will speak to you the burdens of His Heart. Your heart will become the incubator for holy seeds.
The burden of the Lord could also enter our hearts through God’s word as we study it.
“In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel understood by the books the number of years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolation of Jerusalem. Then I set my face towards the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes.” Dan.9. 2-3.
The burden about the deliverance of the Jews from captivity in Babylon came to Daniel as he studied the word of God. When he read the book of Jeremiah, an understanding came to his heart that it was time for them to be released. He thought deeply about it and nursed that burden with prayers, fasting and sackcloth and ashes until the heavens sent an answer. His heart became the womb to nurse the burden and bring forth an answer for the deliverance of his people
There are captivities and troubles that could have ended if the Lord had found spiritual wombs (hearts) that could bear the burdens in prayer before Him. Family problems, issues about our children, problems in the Church today and in the society will find solutions only as we make our hearts available to receive and conceive holy seeds and bring forth godly actions. You must not be loose with your heart. No human being has two hearts. Don’t allow your heart to go astray. You cannot conceive something godly and something evil in your heart at the same time. In essence, when you allow every kind of information to enter your heart, or you allow your heart to freely think about any issue that comes in contact with it, you will be barren as far as the work of God is concerned.
“For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.” Matt.15: 19. Imagine that! These are ‘babies’ that could be born from some people’s hearts. Things like evil thoughts, bitterness, anger, are conceived in the heart. Before somebody commits murder, adultery, fornication or theft, the conception has first of all taken place in the heart. When you see someone bearing false witness or blasphemes, she has first of all been pregnant with it in her heart and gone through travail in her heart. What an abuse of the heart!
If properly utilized, the heart is capable of becoming the dwelling place of the Most High God: it could conceive and bring forth holy seed. It is capable of making a woman become an instrument of honour in God’s hands, fit for holy use. Yet, the same heart could become a den of lions and an habitation for devils, useful in bringing forth things that are corrupt and evil. May this not be your situation! You cannot be pregnant with bitterness and hope to bear the burdens of the Lord in your heart. You will not even be able to pray. Are you fond of bearing grudge against your husband? Do you harbour bitterness in your heart against people? Do you formulate and tell lies?
“Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring can yield both salt water and fresh.” Jas 3:11-13.
It is not possible for an ungodly heart to bring forth things that are godly. The natural heart cannot bring forth things that are spiritual. Such sinful conceptions above are products of the natural human heart. If that is the condition of your heart, you have an urgent need to cry to God for a change of heart (Ezek. 36:26).
It is sad to discover that for many women, such evil conceptions are normal. They could bear grudge and keep malice even in sophisticated ways. Some have their hearts full of worry and encumbered with the cares and affairs of this life. How would you be able to receive and conceive godly seed with all these in your heart? No wonder the level of divine usefulness of many women is almost zero in most cases. This ought not to be so. God has great plans for every woman. The experience of physical pregnancy, labour and delivery is an important equipping for us to learn how to be spiritually productive. If a woman learns to keep her heart pure and holy for the Lord, she could do great exploits in the place of prayer. Such a woman is capable of receiving burdens from the Holy Spirit in her heart. She could be used of God to travail in prayer like a woman in labour, until a ‘holy thing’ is born in the earth. That is God’s heart cry for every woman.
Deborah Travailed
“When Ehud was dead, the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who dwelt in Harosheth Hagoyim. …and for twenty years he harshly oppressed the children of Israel. Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, was judging Israel at that time.” Judges 4: 1-4. “In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied, and the travelers walked through byways. The inhabitants of the villages ceased in Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel…My heart is toward the governors of Israel…” Judges 5:6-9.
Deborah was a woman who knew how to control her heart and use it to bring forth deliverance for her people. During the time of Deborah, the children of Israel backslid from following God. Her people did evil in the sight of the Lord so much that God delivered them into the hands of their enemy. Yet in the midst of that corrupt society, Deborah stood out for righteousness. Her heart was for the Lord. She was a prophetess. She was married, yet she did not allow worry or the cares of this life to encumber her heart. She had no time and no room in her heart for bitterness, quarrels and the like. She was dedicated to the Lord.
Seeing all that was happening around her, she became burdened in her heart. She arose, a mother in Israel. As a mother does concerning her wayward children, she travailed in the place of prayer for the people and for the rulers. She said, “My heart is toward the governors of Israel…” Her heart cried for them before God. She interceded for them so much until deliverance was brought forth. One day the Lord sent her a word that would bring them deliverance from the hands of their oppressors. As she pursued that instruction with Barak, God delivered Sisera into their hands in battle and gave them victory. Because of that woman’s travail, the land of Israel had rest for forty years. What a great victory it will be for your home or community to have rest from sin, sickness and the devil for forty years as a result of your travail in prayers and action!
How is your walk with God? Could the Lord find you a woman whose heart is sanctified for His use? Is your heart conducive for a holy seed to be cast in? Are you even sensitive enough to be able to receive the Lord’s burdens whenever He pleases to bring such? Are you available for such a holy duty? Our society today is not too different from what obtained in Deborah’s time. There are issues to weep to God about, all around us. How is your heart? What have you brought forth into this world from your heart? Instead of bringing forth something holy, something that will bring deliverance to someone, do you bring forth what will make the world more ungodly? There are some women who keep adding daily to the worldliness in the church today. Are you the one bringing the newest worldly fashion of dressing and hairdo into your church? Do you take part in perpetuating it in the name of trying to look beautiful as a king’s kid? You don’t know that a book of remembrance is being opened on your behalf in heaven. You will be remembered for what you have done. That direction you are going is wrong. There are godly things, godly character that God is looking for some one who will bring it forth in your church or locality. What God has prepared for us and to do through us, eyes have not séen it, ears have not heard it; it has not even entered into any heart. He desires to have human specimens of His divine nature in this world and He is looking for someone who will conceive and bring forth that godly lifestyle. God is looking for a person who will bring forth deliverance to the people and show them the way into life.
However, a heart cannot be an instrument of worldliness and an instrument of godliness at the same time. One will have to go for the other. If you discover that your heart has been the seat of bringing forth wrong behaviour and sinful acts, you need God to save you from that situation, lest you face the hot judgment of God on the last day when the books of record will be opened. The Lord promises to change your situation if you are willing and you open up to Him.
“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.” Eze.36: 26.
“Behold I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.” Rev.3: 20.
It is the stony hearts that have wrong conceptions and bring forth evil actions. As fibroids hinder, disturb and abort pregnancies, so it is with stony hearts. Such a heart cannot be improved upon or corrected at all. The answer is to have it removed and a new heart placed in you. As you recognize that kind of heart in you and you confess it and open it up to the Lord, He will come in and remove that stony heart. He will give you a new heart, a heart that has the potentials of conceiving godly seed and bringing forth godly acts.
Thereafter, you must keep your heart under lock and key. Keep it with all diligence. You must not allow any strange thought to find space therein any longer. Genuine repentance demands that you forsake your old way of life and thinking. Renew your thoughts and mind with the word of God. You must prove that you have turned from your wicked ways by bringing forth good fruit.
If there is anyone that has offended you, forgive, even as Christ has forgiven us. Bring forth fruit to show that you have forgiven that person. Cease from anger; it only causes harm. (Ps.37: 8) If you have offended anyone, go and beg for pardon. Follow peace with all men, and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Expose all bitterness in your heart to the one against whom you have been bitter. Bitterness grows in the dark. So expose it. Don’t allow shame to make you carry it over from the old heart into the new. Bitterness in the heart results in barrenness of life. Keep your heart from every evil thought. They form wrong conceptions (pregnancies) in the heart and give rise to evil actions. If you do not think about such things, you will not die, will you? Actually you will enter into real life. There are good things that the Lord says we should think about. Anything outside that must be thrown overboard.
“Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praise worthy- meditate on these things.” Phil.4: 8 “The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self controlled so that you can pray.” 1Pet.4: 7 (NIV).
Clear your mind of all rubbish. Immoral thoughts, evil thoughts, proud thoughts, covetous thoughts, angry thoughts and blasphemous thoughts will hinder you from praying. They block the heart from being able to travail before God in the place of prayer in order to bring forth holy action. The end of all things is near. You can be both a physical and spiritual incubator, the kind that God is looking for.
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