There is a Connection

Genesis 12: 1, Now the LORD had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you. NKJV

Genesis 12: 4, So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. NKJV

I was sitting in church this past Sunday listening to a guest speaker talking about having the faith to see what God sees. As he was sharing with our congregation, the Holy Spirit spoke something into my heart that made me take notice. In Ephesians 2, it says that we were created in Christ unto good works that we should walk in them. The Lord let me know that He is re-creating us as we walk in faith (not according to sight). The Lord is perfecting us in two primary areas of our hearts and lives.

He gave me the passage about Abram, who happens to be the father of faith for the entire world; God told Abram that in him all of the nations would be blessed. When the Bible talks about Abram (or Abraham) being the father of the faith, it is because God originated the covenant of faith with him and no other. It was out of Abraham's faith and covenant with God that the Jews became a people. Before the faith conversion and the covenant with the Lord, Abram was just another gentile. God made him a Jew by his faith in God's promises and covenant with the holy people of God.

God gave Abram a command with a condition; the result would be that He would give to him a child of his own. We can plainly see that Abram was obedient in coming out of his father's country and away from his kindred, but he brought Lot with him; this is called partial obedience. Obedience is the first area that the Holy Spirit is at work in. He is perfecting it in our hearts that it might become evident in our everyday lives as believers. The Word of God instructs us to delight ourselves in the Lord, and He will give us even the desires of our hearts. There's two ways to view this verse. First, if we delight in Him, He will give us whatever we desire that is good; the other way to view this goes far deeper than what we desire. As we learn to find our delight in the Lord, then He will begin to change our hearts to desire the things that are in alignment with the plan of God for our lives. I tend to go with the second rather than the first view point, because it centers on "The Lord" being Lord in my life and not my temporal desires being my lord.

Abram walked in partial disobedience with Lot for twenty-five years, and for twenty-five years Abram waited on God to make good on His promise to give he and Sarah their own son. As we struggle to learn how to overcome the flesh nature and stand on our own two feet with the Lord, we are at the same time tying the hands of God from releasing the promises. This is what the Holy Spirit meant when He said, "that He is working in the hearts of believers to get us to the place that we can fully obey and fully receive all that the Father has promised for those who are in Christ Jesus." One can't be separated from the other; they are directly connected one to the other. The key is to always walk by faith (or in faith) and not by sight or the natural senses. You might say that Abram walked in partial faith and partial flesh. God wants us to come all the way out, because the flesh can't inherit anything from the Lord.

If you're like me, you've been in this walk of faith a long time. You're not where you would like to be, but you're not where you used to be either. The Lord is changing us from faith to faith and from glory to glory into the image of Christ. When we are complete, then we will leave our "Lots" behind and conceive our "Isaacs" and be a blessing to the world and to the kingdom of God.

What are your visions, ministries, dreams, and prophecies? Are you walking by faith or are you walking with "Lot?" There's one thing about walking with God... He has promised us that He will never leave us nor forsake us. The good work that He has begun in you, He will see it to completion. This is why you will feel the Holy Spirit nudging you every once and awhile, because He has to get you to arrive at the place where the Lord is already waiting on you so that He can bless you with your promised seed.

Be Blessed Today,
Pastor Asa