Ishmael & Issac

in response to "have you struck the rock?" (tim's post)
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we know the stories behind these biblical characters, Ishmael was borned as Abraham's way of "helping God out" to keep the promise of him having decendents and having a son
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yet it wasnt God's plan, God's promise to Abraham, to have a son from Sarah, and his decendants would be more numerous than the sand on the seashore
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Sometimes , it seems, when God's promise does't seem to work out, that, we sort of find ourselves trying to find another way out, a good intention , but not God's will, and we end up with Ishmaels
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yet Ishmael - God Hears,
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even when we try doing things our way, what does it mean,
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we bear the consequences, that God's excellent perfect plan is subsituted by our less than perfect good intentions.
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yet God still hears us, and he will still remain faithful, even when we have no faith
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some times we wonder, i wonder, when it seems that all is dying out, the fire , and we remember HIs promise at the start,
do we try to create fire , false fire, not the fire that God wants?
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sometimes, you wonder, if God gave a promise and an assurance, yet it seems that all seems to point away from the fullfilment of that assurance, that it seems like all is going to fail, do we try to salvage the situation by our own strength, do we try to "help God out" , and compromise in other areas.
instead of trusting in the One who can do all things, and who is faithful
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yet again, you might question, did God really make that promise?
Abraham, when he recieved his promise, he was already way past a fertile age, so was his wife.
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you might wonder, Abraham probally might have thought many times, that such an improbable promise, did God really make such a promise?
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or we look at the second test
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when Abraham had to sacrifice Issac as a burnt offering
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how can a God who promised, and that promise lay upon the survival of Issac, how would His promise be fulfilled from that?
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that if God wants us to give up what His promise laid upon how would we respond, if we did not know that the angel to stop the knife from slaugthering would or would not come down, would we be willing to sacrifice something so dear and precious to us?
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if God told us to break up our ministry , how would we respond?
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If ... how would it be?
yet the question is, what is His will, are we willing to not hold on to anything we have, even if it seems to be God's promise or whatever, and like Abraham, sacrifice it upon that altar?
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or maybe like the 3 of Daniels friends, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, can we truly say when confronted with a furnace:
"If our God can deliver us from the furnace, so Him do so. But if not, we still will not serve your gods or worship the the golden statue that you have set up"(Daniel 3 :17)

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pop the bubbles, and see the liquid film around the air break, and it falls, to splash upon the ground, the soapy liquid...
and you dont hear a sound, unlike the balloons.
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and you wonder, how things would work out
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and the dreams come back haunting the night, again
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surreal, and weird, and like the bubbles, the dreams burst and you find something that seems so big , actually, was nothing but air
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The question to be asked is,
What is God's will, time, and purpose?