HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!!! May God go ahead of us all as this year and move in our favour in Jesus name.
As I have been seeking God’s face for the first few blogs for this year 2018; God impressed upon me that I should do a series on ‘Hearing from God’. I have therefore been studying men who ‘heard God’ and who’s spiritual lives were better for it.
I will be talking about Abraham today. We know that Abraham was a man who heard from God; he was a man who left his people because God told him to do so. Gen 12:1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. Verse :4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran.
To hear from God is to hear that inner voice, that still small voice that the Holy Spirit uses to direct our paths. If we hear Him this year, He will be our life navigator because the truth, is God want to speak to us but remember, God will not give you details but more like landmarks. God uses these kind of tests to train us and so I encourage you to walk with God more closely this year and see Him perform the miraculous, see Him do the supernatural and see Him perform awesome wonders in your life this year. Listen to God with your heart. Ps 32:8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.
However today, I want to talk about God testing Abraham with his son Isaac; Gen 22: 1 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. 2 Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.” 3 Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about.
Why then would God come to Abraham again and say to him, I want to test you and I want you to take your only son to a place I will show you and sacrifice him to me, God? We know from Gal 4:28 (Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise.) that Isaac is a child of promise; why then would God want him sacrificed?
I can imagine if God told any one of us this, we would say this is of the devil and start binding and loosing. We need to arise above such, we need to truly know and recognise His voice because when we do, we do not spend time praying unnecessary prayers. We need to take comfort in the people that God tested in the Bible and understand that sometimes, it will be God Himself testing us.
The good thing is Abraham did not question God but got up the following day and started the journey. He took his son, a donkey, two servants and firewood, Gen 22:3; Abraham’s faith in God gave him a mention in Hebs 11:17 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice.He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18 even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” 19 Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.
And the fact that at the end of the test, God provided a ram and this is a prototype for the atonement of our Lord Jesus shedding His Blood for us at the Cross of Calvary. Isaac like Jesus never complained, historians say that Isaac was a young man, so he could have complained but again like Jesus he accepted what his father said and did; he was submissive to his father Abraham, like Jesus.
Offering Isaac on the altar must have been a very hard test for Abraham, but he was victorious because he trusted God. Abraham loved his son Isaac (Gen 22:2), but loved God more. Isaac was God’s gift to Abraham, the gift had to become a sacrifice to God; if the gift become more important than the Giver, it becomes an idol. It was after this test, that Isaac also went on to prosper. Hearing God must always lead to heeding if we want to prosper this year and heeding will always lead to blessings.
This year, God want to show Himself strong in your life; he wants to be the God of miracles, signs and wonders in your life, He might tell you not to do something or tell you to do something that you don’t want to do. It will involve you hearing him and being obedient to His word to you. The crisis in your life is the test, because God wants you to trust Him in dark places. Ps 50:7 Hear, O my people and I will speak.
In order to be able to recognise God’s voice, you have to spend time in silence, so that when He does speak to you, you know it is Him. Job 4: 16 It stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof: an image was before mine eyes, there was silence, and I heard a voice, saying… Your inner ears have to be opened, can you stand the silence? He might tell you to stay away from some friends. I want you to remember that dedication requires separation. Separate yourself daily, where you are quiet before God. God has shown me that the closer you are to your destiny, the less people you need around you. Jesus had the seventy, the twelve and the three. In Ps 27:8 When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.
If Abraham did not hear God, he would have killed his posterity, as God’s plan for salvation for the world was wrapped up in Isaac. The ram was God’s provision for Isaac as Jesus Christ is God’s provision to the whole world. Gen 22:11-14. the Lord provided the ram, our Jehovah Jireh.
In 2018 God wants to speak to us through our inner ears and hearts; God has blessings wrapped up in tests for us and if we obey to the end, we shall inherit the blessings in the land in Jesus name. John 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
We shall continue the series ‘hearing from God’ next time.
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