Rounding off our series on the types of Christians found in the church, and having discussed some of the difficulties that come with waiting for the manifestation of God’s word over your life, today we discuss the life of Abraham. We found that it is faithfulness that determines one’s elasticity of faith, and it is faithfulness that will take us from the place of a promise made to a promise fulfilled. When we accept the reality that nothing happens overnight and that there is a process to every result under the sun, we will then become practical in governing our expectations. This is not to say that God’s children have to perpetually wait without manifestation and without experiencing the promises of God, but it is to emphasize that there are ruling patterns that govern results that God Himself adheres to, and to prevent frustration, we ought to be aware of what is happening so we can accurately apply the right principle in response. Jesus Himself had to wait 30 whole years before He assumed the office of Lord. He knew who He was (Luke 2:49), but He also knew He had to respect the process and wait for the right time before He began His ministry.
So let us consider Abraham, who has been termed the ‘father of faith’. We read in Genesis that when the Lord visited him in person, Abraham lifted his eyes and perceived who had come to his dwelling and did all he could to express his honour; this was through the washing of feet and the feeding with food (Genesis 18). The Lord then blessed Abraham and declared that he would soon receive a son by Sarah the very next year. This was not the first time the Lord has proclaimed this promise to him, Abraham too had to wait, and there are a lot of lessons to extract from his attitude during his waiting season. Later on and by revelation of the Spirit, apostle Paul explains what was happening during this time. We read of him, “who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be” (Romans 4:18). Essentially, Abraham stood against the hopelessness of his situation to believe in God. There are many things that we are believing God for that are naturally possible without divine intervention, but there are others that require the overriding hand of God to produce results. Abraham was old and past his natural child-bearing years; his was not a situation that could be supported by natural evidence and hope. But we read, “And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb” (v.19) – this was the gamechanger for Abraham, he trained his mind to not consider/deliberate/ponder on natural realities that did not align to the spoken word of God. Because the mind works on habitual wiring, if you are constantly feeding yourself a specific perspective, there comes a time when that outlook becomes your reality. So Abraham knew that continuous deliberation on what is opposite to what he desired would negatively influence his faith. It was not enough to only hear what God had said, but he deliberately did not hear anything else. And this is what the problem with many of us is, our hearts are filled with too many considerations, which then weaken and dilute our faith.
Another consideration we see in this passage is that Abraham ‘...staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief’ (v.20), where the term ‘stagger’ refers to an act of withdrawal. Apostle Paul continued to say that Abraham continually gave thanks to God, “being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform” (v.21) – showing that it is possible to be partially persuaded and fluctuating in stability. There is a place in Jesus where you know exactly what will happen and there is no further need for prayer. We believe we will substitute the mental exercises of persuasion that occur through the feeding of the Word and the active pulling down of falsehoods with acts of prayer; but we need to be balanced in our management of faith. This is why God’s children today also withdraw their faith at the first instance of opposition and resistance. We take the easy way out and opt to not put in the work of keeping our faith alive for the full distance. We opt to retreat into comfortability, lazy to confront the enemy and as a result, become easy prey. We are warned, “… do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (Hebrews 6:12). If you allow disappointments to discourage you from exercising your faith; be ready for even more disappointments. We have to be ready to try again, go again, no matter what happens!
In order to validate and authenticate His promise to Abraham, we read that God “because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you” (Hebrews 6:13-14). God took the time to assure Abraham, because the road before him required that he patiently endure until the fulfilment of that which was spoken – and he did! The use of the term ‘endure’ implies that this was not an easy or even enjoyable process, otherwise it would not need to be endured. Abraham’s wife, Sarah, also had to gather her own faith in order to conceive; she did not sail on Abraham’s account. We too get the same assurance that Abraham and Sarah received when we come to the company of the brethren, the Word keeps us going the long distance, fueling our hope, which is an anchor for the soul in times of turbulence (v.19). These are examples of persons who through faith and patient endurance received their promise, and we too can learn from their lives to make sure we obtain ours!
Prayer
Father, we thank You for Your word of assurance, that teaches us of your patterns and helps us prepare for the road ahead. Your Word is alive and active in us, anchoring our souls through comfort and bearing the fruit of faith in due season. We are a success! Our path to victory is inevitable! We are growing in wisdom, growing in knowledge and growing in grace! We bless You, in the name of Jesus, amen!
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Powerful !!!