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When You Take a Trip with God in Faith

When You Take a Trip with God in Faith

Last updated on: January 25, 2006 at 2:20 pm by Jim Erwin

When You Take a Trip with God in Faith 2006-01-25T14:20:00-05:00 Jim Erwin

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When You Take a Trip with God in Faith

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. I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
(Genesis 12:1-3 NKJV)

Our first question is to ask HOW. How is God going to get Abraham to the country? How will He make Abraham a great nation? How will God make Abraham’s name great? How will God make Abraham a blessing?

Many times we want to ask how. But that is often not how God works. God teaches us through faith. When we want to learn from God, it is through faith.

“Behold the proud,
His soul is not upright in him;
But the just shall live by his faith.
(Habakkuk 2:4 NKJV)

The good news tells how God accepts everyone who has faith, but only those who have faith. It is just as the Scriptures say, “The people God accepts because of their faith will live.”
(Romans 1:17 CEV)

Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.”
(Galatians 3:11 ESV)

The person who is right with me will live by trusting in me. But if he turns back with fear, I will not be pleased with him.”
(Hebrews 10:38 NCV)

In each of these verses, the phrase: “the just shall live by faith” is quoted. The same verse that is found in Habakkuk is used by Paul and the writer of Hebrews. So when a person accepts Jesus, the have to learn to follow God in faith. We have talked about the fact that when we follow God, He makes the impossible possible. Then we have to act to make the possible a reality in our lives.

So when we look at our situation, our challenge, our difficulties, we often ask HOW. We want to know now how will God make the impossible possible. How will He bring things to pass. Yet when you look at what the Bible says, and specifically at the example of Abraham – who did live by faith – you see a process. You find that rarely did God answer the question HOW at first. As a matter of fact, God is answering other questions as we follow Him.

The reason He does not answer the HOW question is because He wants us to trust Him.
PROCESS OF FAITH

1.God will first tell you the WHAT (12:1)

Get out of your country

I will make you a great nation
I will bless you
And make your name great
And you shall be a blessing

2.God will then tell you the WHERE (12:1, 7)

To a land that I will show you

Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
(Genesis 12:7 NKJV)

And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.”
(Genesis 15:4 NKJV)

Then He said to him, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it.”
(Genesis 15:7 NKJV)

Abraham is still asking how. After God shows Abram in Genesis 15 that God will give him an inheritance, Abram asks for confirmation. God gives Abram a vision.

On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying:
“To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates– the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”
(Genesis 15:18-21 NKJV)

God makes a promise about the where, about the ENTIRE where. God sets the boundaries of his vision for Abram.

3.God tells you the WHEN

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless.
(Genesis 17:1 NKJV)

Then God said: “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, (WHAT)and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him.
(Genesis 17:19 NKJV)

But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year.”
(Genesis 17:21 NKJV)

God says that Sarah will get pregnant. But never says HOW Sarah will get pregnant. This is still the WHAT and WHERE of the faith journey. But God does say WHEN – next year.

Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time (WHEN) I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son. (WHAT)”
(Genesis 18:14 NKJV)

Abraham sees that the way God is going to help Abraham fulfill the promise is through the son Isaac. God has shown Abraham the way that God will give what He promised.

4.Then God tells you the HOW

And the LORD visited Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did for Sarah as He had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him–whom Sarah bore to him–Isaac.
(Genesis 21:1-3 NKJV)

The way God was going to make Abraham a great nation was through the birth of a son. Not the son that was born because Abraham got impatient (Ishmael). Abraham went and tried to do the HOW before God showed him the HOW. God said HOW. But He never showed HOW.

What seemed like a biological impossibility became possible for Abraham. Abraham had to trust God even when it did not make normal sense. 99-year old women do not have children. This just does not happen. But God made it possible.

And the LORD visited Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did for Sarah as He had spoken.
(Genesis 21:1 NKJV)

The Bible never says HOW Sarah was able to conceive. We might just think it was God changing Sarah so that she could have children. The Bible never tells you completely how. But God said how. He said He would visit Sarah and that Sarah would have a son.

We live in a rational, scientific world, where all things are expected to be calculated, explained, and solved. We like to approach problems with solutions – solutions that are have a logical, rational, explanation. God can live in this rational world. But He is not defined by our rational world. When God says that Sarah will have a son, it may not take a logical, rational form or conclusion. God can make Sarah pregnant, and it may be unexplainable. This is important to know. It is important because when God says something will happen (WHAT), and He shows us the place and time (WHERE and WHEN), then He already has a plan for the HOW. We don’t have to worry about the HOW. Especially when it comes to things that seem so impossible, so big, so – more than what we can do alone – God-sized. When it comes to things like that, all we can do is live by faith.

You are going to have to let God visit you for Him to share with you how He is going to accomplish something in your life.

5.You learn to see the WHY

But at each step of the way, God will continue to reveal Himself to you as you take you journey. The only reason why God did it was to bless Abraham. This is the only WHY we hear throughout the entire journey.

God wants to bless Abram

I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
(Genesis 12:2 NKJV)

Abram’s Response:

Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the
LORD, who had appeared to him.
(Genesis 12:7 NKJV)

God wants to bless Abram

Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”
(Genesis 15:5 NKJV)

Abram’s Response:

And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.
(Genesis 15:6 NKJV)

God wants to bless Abram

And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.”
(Genesis 17:2 NKJV)

Abram’s Response:

Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying:
(Genesis 17:3 NKJV)

God wants to bless Abraham

And God said to him (Abimelech) in a dream, “Yes, I know that you did this in the integrity of your heart. For I also withheld you from sinning against Me; therefore I did not let you touch her.
(Genesis 20:6 NKJV)

Abraham’s Response:

Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.
(Genesis 21:4 NKJV)

HOW WE GET TO KNOW GOD ALONG THE TRIP OF FAITH

The LORD speaks

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.
(Genesis 12:1 NKJV)

The LORD appears

Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
(Genesis 12:7 NKJV)

The LORD gives His word and tells me He is my shield and reward
and tells us the good things He will do. God assures us of His promise.

After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”
(Genesis 15:1 NKJV)

God has just delivered Abram through a war. He has protected Abram and helped him receive a financial reward. The Lord speaks to Abram and confirms his faith. Abram learns something new about God. Abram experiences God in a new way.

Then He said to him, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it.”
(Genesis 15:7 NKJV)

Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
(Genesis 15:13-16 NKJV)

The LORD shows His power to His servants. (He expects us to be mature enough to handle the faith-task.)

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless.
(Genesis 17:1 NKJV)

The LORD will test our faith in Him. The purpose is to shower blessings on us when we obey.

Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!”
And he said, “Here I am.” Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.
(Genesis 22:1-3 NKJV)

And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. And Abraham called the name of the place, The-LORD-Will-Provide;[2] as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the LORD it shall be provided.” Then the Angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, and said: “By Myself I have sworn, says the LORD, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son– blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”
(Genesis 22:12-18 NKJV)

What is God giving Abraham in faith? He is giving Abraham and his entire family of generations a place where they can call upon God. God will fulfil the promise of “inheritance” through a son. God will give that son through a miracle birth. God will test our faith just as He did Abraham’s faith. The whole purpose is to bless us and give us an inheritance.

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