Seeking God’s heart regarding IVF fertility treatments
God is a God of abundance. He designed creation to be fruitful and multiply when we all adhere to the spiritual laws He set into place in order for us to thrive. In fact, God commanded Adam and Eve to “be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it”. Mankind was created to operate from a position of dominion, fertility and blessing. Yet many couples today can struggle to have children. Are In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) or Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) God’s answers to our desires for a family? Or do we have the divine ability to move from infertility to fruitfulness, with God’s help? How can we seek the Holy Spirit for His counsel and the miracle of children?
(简体中文 > 寻求神对试管婴儿治疗的心意 | 繁體中文 > 尋求神對試管嬰兒治療的心)
Genesis 1:28 NKJV And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Seeing IVF from a Spirit-led perspective
As a start, it is extremely important to renew our minds based on a biblical foundation and be guided by the Holy Spirit, so that we begin to see the world around us through the mind of Christ, because this world will propagate a logic that will sound very appealing to our human desires and understanding. Anyone can fall for such wisdom, just like the apostle Peter did. Yet Jesus warned Peter, His beloved disciple, not to set his mind on human thoughts and desires (the things of men) because that would give Satan an access point to manipulate him.
1 Corinthians 2:10-12,16 NKJV But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
Matthew 16:21-23 NKJV From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day. Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!” But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”
The god of this age, Satan, uses our desires and fears to create spiritual blind spots. Our enemy will convince us to focus on how to satisfy our own human desires (self-seeking) in order to find definitions of ‘personal fulfillment’. According to James 3, such logic is “earthly, sensual, demonic”. That may sound extreme to our human ears but as we dig deeper to understand all things from a Spirit-led perspective, we will arrive at eternal truths that bring both revelation and freedom.
2 Corinthians 4:4 NKJV whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.
James 3:13-15 NKJV Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic.
God’s Word guides our views on IVF
1. God saw each person’s form and wrote about them in His book even before they were conceived
Even before every person was an embryo, God had already seen our physical form and written about us in His book. The Lord did not just write just a few lines about us. God is so immense that His thoughts about one single human being are more than all the sands on this planet put together! Not only did the Lord decide who our parents would be, where we would go, the number of days we would live, the people we would encounter and so on, He also set many things in place for us so that we would thrive and fulfill His will on earth, even in the midst of adversity. What an amazing God we worship!
Psalm 139:16-18 NKJV Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; When I awake, I am still with You.
Isaiah 55:8-9 NKJV “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.
2. God wrote a very detailed blueprint for every person’s life
We see a glimpse of God’s incredible written word about our lives in our DNA.
- If we took one single cell and stretched all its DNA out, that DNA would be two metres long
- If we took all the DNA from one person and stretched it out, our DNA would make a trip to the sun and back 600 times
- One gram of DNA can store over 200 million gigabytes of data
A fertilised three-day old embryo contains between six and ten cells and weighs approximately 0.00001 grams. This means that even at this stage, the embryo’s DNA will already stretch out between 12 to 20 metres in length and be able to hold 2,000 gigabytes of data.
Each embryo holds God’s vast thoughts for them in His intricate design. Yet we treat embryos as if they are inanimate, but they are not. Embryos are human beings long foreseen by God, made in His image, coded with His Word from heaven, and given a name before any one was born.
Psalm 139:13-16 NKJV For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Genesis 1:27 NKJV So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
Isaiah 49:1 NIV … Before I was born the LORD called me; from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name.
3. The Holy Spirit is present in the sexual union between husband and wife
God’s Spirit is present everywhere. He is also involved in every act of sexual intercourse and determines when conception occurs. He is the Spirit who gives us life and He desires to create godly offspring.
Psalm 139:7 NKJV Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?
Malachi 2:15 ESV Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring…
4. God designed for the marriage bed for husband and wife, not external parties
The Lord desires the marriage bed to be held in honour and kept undefiled by husband and wife. After all, a sexual union is meant to be a reflection of Jesus’ pure love and intense bond He feels for His people, His church. IVF or ICSI, however, requires that we bring a third-party into our marriage bed – the fertility doctor. Instead of being a reflection of love and bonding, sex is reduced to a functional act that is orchestrated by another person outside our marriage. This is not God’s best.
Hebrews 13:4 NKJV Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.
Ephesians 5:29-32 NKJV For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
Moreover, we end up handing over the Holy Spirit’s position to a human being to make critical decisions on our behalf. The IVF doctor assists in artificially manipulating the fertilisation process, keeps watch and monitors our fertilised eggs, chooses which one to transfer to the uterus.
These are all decisions that the Holy Spirit normally makes. By using IVF, we not only manipulate God’s process, we get to play god. Our desires for children may be good but we can go through man-made ways to get children which are a direct affront to the Holy Spirit.
5. We hold the lives of unborn children hostage by keeping them in the freezer
IVF doctors also get to choose which embryos are stored or discarded on our behalf. This is another way they play god.
Imagine locking up one’s own small children in a closet because they are not convenient. This is in essence, what happens when we place the “unwanted” embryos in frozen storage.
God had already chosen us before the foundation of the world, and assigned to us unique talents and gifts. The same can be said of our children. Each embryo holds the completely coded DNA and destiny of an entire child. What if a frozen embryo holds the DNA of the next great evangelist like Billy Graham or the DNA of a potential murderer? The IVF doctor has no way of knowing every person’s God-ordained destiny or who God has already rejected.
Ephesians 1:4-6 NKJV just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
6. There is little difference between aborting the lives of children at the embryo stage or at the fetus stage
Embryos considered ‘undesirable’ and discarded by IVF doctors have something in common with aborted fetuses; they are never given a chance to develop to full term. The only difference is that a fetus is a few more months ahead in their development than an embryo. If given a chance, every person will fight for their own lives if they had a voice. Unfortunately, embryos and fetuses do not have an audible voice, but what would they say if they could speak up for themselves? What would their cries to us be?
Side note: If you were born through IVF, please take this opportunity to thank God for your parents’ love and then forgive them for manipulating God’s process in order to conceive you, because this would have brought complications for your life that God never intended for you. Next, cut spiritual ties with the doctors and staff at the IVF clinic and command any evil spirits that came in through that whole process to leave you in Jesus’ name. Ask God for mercy on your parents for the embryos they have in storage or have discarded, these are unborn siblings. Finally, ask for all curses over your life related to your birth to be broken and command spirits of affliction to leave your body in Jesus’ name. Praise the Lord and welcome Him into your heart. He has been faithful to you all your life and kept you from many unseen dangers. His Word over your life is eternal and it is the destiny He has written in His book in heaven that matters, not the words or intentions of other human beings.
Time to focus on seeking God’s will
God loves us and will never forsake us. He is kind, merciful and compassionate, He is not here to condemn us. He has no intention of making us feel condemned, abandoned or anxious. What He does want to do is to renew our minds and turn our focus back on Him. The Lord has wired us to find our greatest fulfillment in Him.
Romans 12:1-2 NKJV I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Our desires for children can feel so consuming and overwhelming at times because we were created to multiply – but this is where we need to be careful because the world will offer us alternatives that are outside of God’s will and Spirit. The cries of our flesh for children can override our ability to hear God clearly on this matter, but we must be cautious not to let our earthly desires over-rule God’s sovereignty over our lives.
John 14:14-18 NKJV If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. “If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
One might argue that God must condone IVF because the Holy Spirit allows babies to be born through such processes, but we need to understand that the children we ‘create’ through human manipulation are seldom God’s best. Research indicates that IVF-conceived children can have a higher tendency to suffer from respiratory problems, allergies, and metabolic conditions, as well as a higher chance of conditions such as ADHD and autism.
Moreover, just because God has not stopped something from happening doesn’t mean He condones it. Mankind has made choices that have caused the Lord to regret making us. Imagine an all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful, all-sovereign Spirit regretting His decision but yet not stopping us when we insist on our own way. This is because God has given mankind the power of free will and He honours His Word forever. He will never override our choices because He loves us. He did not create us to be robots. We are made in His image and have the same ability to choose between good and evil, to create and to destroy – and we need His wisdom in order to choose wisely, rather than rely on the wisdom of the world.
Genesis 6:5–6 NKJV Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
The Holy Spirit will reveal the root to infertility and childlessness
Before we move ahead with man-made solutions to address our struggles with childbearing, it is important that we first go to the Lord and seek His counsel on possible reasons why we are struggling to have children in the first place, rather than only ask for His blessing to have children. The medical community can only give us biological reasons and advice based on their own human understanding but they will not lead us to eternal truths.
Proverbs 3:5-6 NKJV Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.
Therefore, it is our own responsibility to search God’s Word and ask the Holy Spirit for His counsel. Children are a heritage from the Lord. Is Satan stealing our heritage from us? What possible loopholes are there in our bloodline that have given our enemy access? Are there hidden issues we should be praying about? We need to keep in mind that our struggles are not against flesh and blood. The medical community will tell us that flesh and blood are the issue but the Bible tells us otherwise. And sometimes, the solution that the Lord shows us may be much simpler than we think.
John 10:10 NKJV The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
Ephesians 6:12 NKJV For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
For example:
Inner vows | Have we ever spoken over our own body and vowed to “never want children” or “never have children”? We need to renounce such vows in Jesus’ name. | Matthew 5:34-37 NKJV But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.
Family iniquity | Has anyone in our family bloodline ever caused another person to not have or lose their children, between now and four generations ago (Deuteronomy 5:9)? Perhaps we are now reaping what was sown in our family line. We need to repent on behalf of our family and ask for this scourge to be removed for us. | Deuteronomy 28:1-4,11,15-18 NKJV “Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God: “Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country. “Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. And the Lord will grant you plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. “But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: “Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country. “Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. “Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
Idolatry and occult | Has there been idol worship and witchcraft practised by our family? This can bring a curse on the “fruit of our body”. Only the true Creator can create true blessings. Any time we choose any power outside of the one true God who blesses us with fruitfulness, it will bring the opposite i.e. a curse. Thankfully, we can break any curse through confession and repentance in Jesus’ name. | Deuteronomy 28:1-4,11,15-18 NKJV “Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God: “Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country. “Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. And the Lord will grant you plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. “But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: “Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country. “Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. “Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
Abortion | Have we ever aborted any babies or encouraged others to do so? This can create a block to us having our own babies. If this is the case, let us repent in Jesus’ name. | Job 4:8 NKJV Even as I have seen, Those who plow iniquity And sow trouble reap the same.
Wrong motives | Are we asking for children for the wrong reasons? Let us ask God to forgive us and heal us from our anxieties. | James 4:2-3 NKJV You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.
Witchcraft | Have we ever consulted a fortune teller who told us we could not have children? That is a curse we need to break in Jesus’ name after repenting of seeking evil spirits of divination for ‘help’. | Acts 16:16 NKJV Paul and Silas Imprisoned Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling.
Personal curses | Have we unknowingly cursed ourselves by saying something like, “all the women in my family miscarriage, I will miscarriage too.” There is power in our words to bring life or death, and we need to repent and renounce words of death we have spoken in Jesus’ name. | Proverbs 18:21 NKJV Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.
Reaping our curses to others | Have we ever judged or cursed someone else’s children, wished ill on their family, or hoped they would never give birth? We may be reaping our judgements back onto ourselves. This is something we need to renounce and repent before the Lord for. | Matthew 7:2 NKJV For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.
Territorial warfare | Have we engaged in spiritual warfare over regions and territories, without the Lord’s explicit consent and commissioning? God provides a covering of protection over all of His people (Psalm 91), but we can be presumptuous and run ahead of the Lord, and leave the safety of His covering. We see one example in Numbers 14:44-45. This can open up footholds for higher level regional principalities and demonic powers to come against us and inflict curses on us personally. Jesus gave us authority to cast out spirits that afflict people but He left the regional principalities and their thrones in place until the day He returns and personally removes them for good. There are some spiritual battles that God reserves only for Himself and we should not be presumptuous to take them on. Let us repent of such prayers. | Job 41:8-11 NKJV Lay your hand on him; Remember the battle— Never do it again! Indeed, any hope of overcoming him is false; Shall one not be overwhelmed at the sight of him? No one is so fierce that he would dare stir him up. Who then is able to stand against Me? Who has preceded Me, that I should pay him? Everything under heaven is Mine.
Also see
Witchcraft is mainstream and dangerous
Spiritual warfare prayers before sharing the gospel in any territory
Sometimes, we go through a season of waiting for children simply because the Lord is refining our character in preparation for fatherhood and motherhood. Other times, He could be waiting for the perfect time to release His blessings from heaven. Waiting is certainly not an easy thing to do when there is external pressure to have children, but waiting is essential for us to mature as believers and to remain within God’s sovereign will. Otherwise, we may bring on repercussions on ourselves and the future that we cannot foresee.
Take Abraham as an example. Abraham waited 25 years for Isaac, the son God had promised him when he was 75 years old (Genesis 21:5). Abraham had Isaac when he was 100 years old. By this time, Abraham already had an illegitimate 14-year old son by his wife’s maidservant, Hagar, on Sarah’s own suggestion. This not only created problems between Sarah and Hagar, it had much greater repercussions that we still observe today.
Ismael became the forefather of the Arab nations while Isaac became the forefather of Israel, and therefore, the spiritual forefather for all believers. The Arab and Israel nations are at constant war with one another till this day. It all began because one couple did not wait on the Lord for His ordained timing for their child.
Seeking the Lord for answers always takes humility, patience, and the willingness to set aside our own desires, so that we can hear His voice clearly and not make the same kind of mistake.
It is also important to ask the Lord to heal us from jealousy, comparison, and grief where we have envied fathers and mothers with their children and put down any bitterness. In the midst of our pain and anxieties, Satan will tempt us to covet what others have but this will only bring on more grief and pain upon us and give him a foothold to linger on for the rest of our lives. We find we never reach a place of peace in the Lord.
James 1:13 NKJV 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.
Ephesians 5:5 NKJV For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
Colossians 3:5 NKJV Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
The final and perhaps less common factor to consider is that God may be withholding the birth of more children these days because of the times we live in. Jesus made this curious statement on His way to the cross. He told the women mourning over Him, “For indeed the days are coming in which they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, wombs that never bore, and breasts which never nursed!’” It does not take much effort to notice the direction this world is heading towards. Let us not forget that Jesus was particularly protective over children. He has said that anyone who causes a little child who believes in Him to stumble deserves to be drowned in the depth of the sea. There are many things that will cause children to stumble nowadays. Parents face challenges the previous generation never had to.
Luke 23:26-30 NKJV Now as they led Him away, they laid hold of a certain man, Simon a Cyrenian, who was coming from the country, and on him they laid the cross that he might bear it after Jesus. And a great multitude of the people followed Him, and women who also mourned and lamented Him. But Jesus, turning to them, said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For indeed the days are coming in which they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, wombs that never bore, and breasts which never nursed!’ Then they will begin ‘to say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!” ’
Matthew 18:5-6 NKJV Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me. “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
The Lord is sovereign and He knows what is best for all of us. We simply need to ask Him for the wisdom to understand His mind and His will, and learn to praise Him in all circumstances.
Testimony
“I have two children, a six year old girl and a five month old son.
My husband and I tried for years for our second child. We knew several couples from church who were also trying for children through IVF and got a doctor’s contact through one of them.
After my son was born through IVF, I noticed I felt no connection to him whatsoever, unlike my daughter who went through natural birth. I felt distant and did not want to hold him. This made me feel guilty and stressed, I felt like a bad mother. I saw a counselor for a few months and that didn’t really help. She told me that I was suffering from postnatal depression and gave me some medication. My girlfriends noticed that I began losing weight, and one of them suggested connecting me with her spiritual mentor. It was with the mentor’s help that I began looking at my struggles with my son from a spiritual perspective. That is how my feelings towards my son began to change as a result.
The mentor reminded me that childbirth is a spiritual journey, not merely a biological one. By going through IVF and artificial insemination, I had lost a mother’s engagement in the conceiving process with the Holy Spirit and hence, did not get to form a strong emotional connection with my son, spirit to spirit. My womb is not merely an incubator. Rather, the Lord made the womb to be a special place for His Spirit to be present with a new being and personally guide the formation of the child from the point of fertilisation. She further explained to me that IVF grieves God because it removes His Hand over conception and that any time we manipulate something according to our will and against God’s intentions, it is no better than witchcraft.
Ecclesiastes 11:5 NKJV As you do not know what is the way of the wind, Or how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child, So you do not know the works of God who makes everything.
1 Samuel 15:23 NKJV For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king.”
The mentor tried to explain all this as lovingly as she could. I appreciated that because this was the first time I had ever thought of my son’s birth process in such terms and it was a bit of a shock, if I am to be honest. My husband and I both want to grow closer to God and do not want to grieve Him, so I was ready to repent, along with him. The mentor also taught me to cut spiritual ties with all the staff at the IVF clinic and declare that they are not the ones who have the final say on my son’s birth. Then we asked God for forgiveness and committed to making Him head of our household, rather than take over control. Miraculously, I began to find a sweet bond with my son soon after. I wanted to hold him and nurse him. It wasn’t the medication that helped create this positive change, it was our prayer to God the Father of all life.”
May this sharing be a blessing to you as you seek to love the Lord with all your heart and submit all desires for children to the Holy Spirit’s guidance on and redemption of your life and the lives of your family.