Without exception, every Christian is like Abraham. After we were saved, we came to realize that God wants us to live a Christ-like life, a heavenly life, a victorious life, a life that constantly pleases God and glorifies Him. Yes, God does want us to live such a life, but He will work Christ into us to live for us a heavenly life to please Him and glorify Him. However, all of us focus on the intention and neglect the grace. The intention is that we live a heavenly life for the glory of God, and the grace is that God will work Christ into us for the fulfillment of His purpose. So firstly we rely upon our Lot, that which we brought with us from our natural background, trying to use him to fulfill God's purpose in living a heavenly life for the glory of God. When God does not allow us to rely upon Lot, then we turn to Eliezer, expecting that he will enable us to live a heavenly life for God's glory. Eventually God tells us, "I don't want that. I don't want anything objective but something subjective from within your own being." Once we realize that God wants this, then we begin to exercise our own energy, our natural strength, to fulfill God's purpose. We all have a Hagar, a maid who is always willing to cooperate with us. We may not have the law given by Moses, but we do have many self-made laws. We all are lawgivers and make laws for ourselves.
Let us consider some examples of these self-made laws. Perhaps you say that never again will you lose your temper with your husband or have a negative attitude towards him. This is your first commandment. The second commandment is that, as a Christian lady and a Christian wife, you need to be nice, sweet, and humble. Your third commandment is never to criticize others, and the fourth is to always love people and never to hate them. These self-made laws are our Hagars. Whether we succeed or not in keeping our laws makes no difference in the eyes of God because in His eyes even our successes do not count. In the past years some sisters nearly succeeded in fulfilling their self-made laws. They had a strong character, a strong will, and a strong intention, and all day long they tried their best to control their temper and to be nice, sweet, and humble. Although such sisters might have been successful at this, what they produced was just an Ishmael. These sisters were happy with their Ishmael and, in a sense, they were proud of him. The principle is exactly the same with the brothers.
Although we may gain an Ishmael who is good in our eyes, we have the deep sensation that we are missing something. We have lost God's presence. Moreover, this Ishmael will always mock the spiritual things (21:9). On the one hand, we do not like this mocking element, but, on the other hand, we still feel that since Ishmael was produced by us, he is not that bad. But, having lost God's presence, we find ourselves in trouble. Just as the descendants of Ishmael are a problem to Israel today, so the Ishmael that we have produced remains a problem to us. Once we are clear about this, we would pray, "Lord, keep me in Your grace. Keep me in the promise. Whether Your promise will be fulfilled today or many years from now does not matter. I only want to care for Your promise." Although it is easy to say this, it is not easy to live it.
What is true in our Christian life is also true in our Christian work. The New Testament tells us that after we are saved we need to preach the gospel and bear fruit. But how much natural effort and strength are exercised in the matter of so-called soul winning! Many kinds of Hagars, all of whom were acquired in Egypt, are used to win souls. Every worldly means of soul-winning is a Hagar. Yes, you may use Hagar to win souls, but what kind of souls will you win? They will not be Isaac but Ishmael. According to the New Testament, the proper fruit-bearing and gospel preaching are by the overflow of the inner life, by God working Christ into, through, and out of us. This means that the proper gospel preaching is by Christ as grace to us.