“The blessing required Sarah.”
This was what the Lord spoke to me just one minute into my nightly walk with Him.
About a month ago, I began a nightly walk around the block in our neighborhood for the purposes of communing with God. Jesus and His disciples spent a significant amount of time walking together, which is something we miss out on in our own personal discipleship with Jesus. There’s a certain level of slowness required to follow Jesus that our fast-paced culture dismantles.
I asked the Trinity, “Will you go with me on this walk?”
That’s when I was hit with a clear-as-day statement: “The blessing required Sarah.”
Abraham & Sarah
You may be familiar with Abraham’s story. Abraham was childless, old, and God showed up to him with a promise: You will be a great nation.
God was telling Abraham (Abram, at the time) that he would not only have a child in his old age, but that his offspring would outnumber the grains of sand and stars in the sky—a difficult promise to trust for a 70 year old man whose wife was well past child bearing age.
Yet, Abram believes, and it’s counted to him as righteousness.
For nearly two decades, Abram waits.
And waits.
And waits.
Until one day, he and Sarah decide that Abraham should probably sleep with one of their servants to ensure the promise from God came to fruition.
Abraham sleeps with Hagar, and the result is Ishmael, Abraham’s firstborn.
In our earthly minds, the promise had been fulfilled. Abraham had a child, and he would eventually be the father of a great nation. But that’s not quite how it worked.
God upheld His end of the deal, and he made Ishmael a great nation, but God rejected Abraham and Sarah’s decision to fulfill the promise in their own understanding. God visits Abraham and Sarah and tells Sarah that within the year, she would have a son. Sarah laughs at God. (Genesis 18)
She does indeed end up pregnant with a son. His name was Isaac. Isaac goes onto father Esau and Jacob. Jacob’s name is changed to Israel. Jacob/Israel has 12 sons. The rest is history—a great nation. The blessing and promise fulfilled.
The blessing and promise were fulfilled, but how?
It required Sarah.
The promise God gave to Abraham wasn’t just about him. It was about him and Sarah. Ishmael would have sufficed if this promise had nothing to do with Sarah.
As I rounded the corner on our sidewalk with the Trinity I asked, “Can you give me some more clarity? I understand the blessing required Sarah, but what does that mean right now?”
Again, clear as day: “I want you and Jackie to do ministry together. The blessing requires Jackie.”
For the last 6 months, I’ve been asking God, “What’s next?”
As I’ve shared before, seminary was coming to an end in May 2025, and I knew God had told me that ministry would ramp up after this. More writing, more speaking, simply more capacity to do ministry. I knew that the time outside of work I had been spending on seminary would soon be spent in ministry. Unfortunately, I jumped the gun on this a few times, which resulted in much turmoil.
Doing ministry alongside Jackie is something we’ve talked about for nearly a decade. Both of us have a distinct call to ministry, and at every stop we’ve tried to figure out how those callings could best work together.
Just a few weeks ago, God had Jackie quit her part-time ministry job because He wanted her to focus on a different type of ministry. We’ve been anticipating God’s instruction since then.
So, there’s more to this story. More that will be told. But, I’m excited to announce that Jackie and I will be launching a podcast within the month.
And, fittingly, this podcast will be called, Let’s Do This Together.
This will be my outside of normal work hours project, and it will be Jackie’s full-time (as much as she can while staying home with our toddlers) work.
Episodes will be on YouTube and all the major podcast platforms. The YouTube page will also include additional resources and brief teachings. The goal will be to share our lives as we walk with God in life, marriage, and family. We see this as a digital outpost for making disciples.
There will be more details to come, including what writing on this platform will look like for me. But, for now, thank you for your ongoing support. Substack has been a blessing in my life and that’s largely because of you.
For those of you interested in Let’s Do This Together. Leave a comment or like this post and I will send you a DM when we go live. It should be within a couple weeks.
See you soon,
Brandon
Good read!