ANNA

Luke 2:36 talks about a woman who found fulfillment in a ministry of intercession. “Now there was one, Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, and lived with a husband seven years from her virginity.”

Her life was dedicated to God and in her dedication God gave her the revelation of the coming Messiah and showed her that her eyes would behold Him. She received her call at a time when there was hardly a prophet in the land. There was no supernatural visitation, but in the temple God revealed to her the important task of intercession for the coming of the King.

I asked God why so many women are alone, brokenhearted and unfulfilled. And God showed it to me in this way. The name Anna means, “graceful and beauty.” The name Phanuel means, “the appearing of God.” I believe her father must have instilled in her the desire to see the manifestation of God in her life. We need fathers in this day who are not only concerned for proper marriages, good education and an easy life for their children, but fathers who instill a hunger for the manifestation of God in their children’s lives by their desire for Him.

She was from the tribe of Asher, which means “happy.” The blessing of Jacob for Asher was that “Bread from Asher shall be rich, and he shall yield royal dainties.” (Genesis 49:20) “And of Asher he said: ‘Asher is most blessed of sons; … And let him dip his foot in oil.’ ” (Deuteronomy 33:24) “Your sandals shall be iron and bronze; as your days, so shall your strength be.” (verse 25) What a tremendous blessing. Yet it seems the cry of Anna’s father, “God you appear,” brought a new and deeper meaning into his daughter’s life to find fulfillment in seeing and knowing the God of her father.

A change came suddenly into Anna’s life. The Bible doesn’t say why God took her husband, but she lived with him seven years. Her womb was never opened, so no matter how much she loved her husband, she must have felt somehow incomplete, as she could not fulfill her desire to be a mother. Yet God said she became a widow after seven years. The number seven speaks of fulfillment and completeness. Her relationship must have reached completeness.

Anna was fulfilled for seven years as a wife and dreamed of being a mother. She knew what it was to desire and to be desired and suddenly her whole life started changing with the death of her husband. Death is so final, yet she could have hung onto her dreams and become another man’s wife, and found her fulfillment through another man. How is it possible not only to lay your husband in the grave, but also to find fulfillment in a new way, as your flesh sees the end of what it loved and lived for?

“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.” (John 12:24) In Anna’s case it was not only her husband’s death, but the death of her dreams that brought forth fruit and produced a prophetess who did not depart from the temple. Out of that death came a resurrection life and a new desire. The cry of her father was born within her.

There is a completion in relationships this day. God is bringing these things to an end. Men and women once infatuated with each other, remain together by their mutual needs. Many friendships and relationships, even between children and parents, are not based on inspired love, the creative love of God. These are dying. Such relationships cannot have everlasting life because they do not create or give life; the people involved just sap strength from each other to satisfy their own needs.

For instance, if you married someone because you felt insecure and he promised you security, what do you have to give back in return when your needs are fulfilled? Or do you fill a need in somebody’s life where that one needs fulfillment? We cannot give each other fulfillment. We have to find fulfillment in Christ. We cannot keep our needs alive, we have to let them die so that we can give creative love.

In His Love,
      Sigi

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