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 reality of living life in this world is that there will always be times of uncertainty. There will be times when we simply do not know or understand what God is doing. Do not fall for the super spiritual lies within the church walls. The truth is we can be blessed and highly favored AND be unsure what is going on. We need to take our church masks off beloved and carry one another's burdens better. It seems sometimes that the world is more sympathetic than the church and it should not be so. The key verse today is the start of the call of Abram. This is before he was called a friend of God. This was before he was called Abraham. Within this one verse we can take two important lessons from God today.
The first lesson is that sometimes, God needs to move us in order for us to step into the next promise He has. It is my firm belief that God always has another level for us to go to as believers but sometimes we get too complacent. Sometimes we get too comfortable. We stagnate spiritually. Sometimes God is saying to us as He said to Abram - it is time for you to get out! Get out of your country! What is our country? Our country can be everything we have grown comfortable with. Our surroundings. What we know and are familiar with. As humans we generally do not like change and God is well aware of it. Sometimes our surroundings are the very things that hold us back. Prevent us from taking risks. Prevent us from going deeper in Christ. Look at the reaction of Peter when he was first called by Jesus:
His partners, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were also amazed. Jesus replied to Simon, "Don't be afraid! From now on you'll be fishing for people!" And as soon as they landed, they left everything and followed Jesus. - Luke 5: 10-11 (NLT)
Peter had a fishing business. He had partners. He had a comfort zone he had probably known his whole life. Routine and stability. Yet what does the Word say? As soon as they landed, they left everything and followed Jesus. Sometimes you have to leave that comfort zone to find where God is leading you. Even Abram answered his call the same way:
So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan. Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land. - Genesis 12: 4-6 (NKJV)
His age did not matter. The fact that he did not even know where God was leading him did not matter. Romans 8:28 teaches us that in all things, even the unknown, God is working it out for our good. Beloved, the fact that the Canaanites were in the land already did not matter. God's promises are always more reliable than our perception. God said move and Abram picked up and left everything he was comfortable with behind. Jesus said follow me and Peter left everything he was comfortable with behind. The problem with us sometimes is we do not want our apple cart upset. We do not want to leave what is comfortable for what is unknown. I have watched Christian stay in churches they knew were no longer serving the Lord because it was what they knew. I have seen Christians refuse new ministry opportunities because it was not something they were comfortable with. As my pastor is fond of saying, God is infinitely more concerned with our character than He is our comfort. The sad truth is there is far too much comfortable Christianity being preached today. Christianity that challenges no one, costs nothing, and has little power to take anyone to a new level in Christ. Sometimes, like Abram and Peter, you just have to go where God is telling you and have faith that even when you cannot see His hand - you can always trust His heart.
The second lesson we see in the key verse is God does not always reveal the destination! Look at the call of Abram. Pick up everything and move...to a land I will show you. I don't know about you beloved but I like to know where I am going. I do not like the uncertainty of walking blindly. God had to teach me a long time ago that everything He is doing is on a need to know basis and sometimes - I do not need to know. Quite frankly, if He always told us we would find reasons to not go! Whether it be fear or doubt, we can always find ways to sabotage ourselves. As difficult as it may be we need to fight the urge to figure everything out before we move. What is the definition of faith anyway?
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. - Hebrews 11: 1 (NKJV)
The evidence of things not seen! The ways and thoughts of God are so much higher than ours. In a world that demands evidence before action, God wants faith before seeing any evidence. Not an easy prescription but God wants us thinking more and more like Him and less and less like this world.
We do not always know what is going on but we always know who we serve! In order to find where God is taking us we first have to be willing to move. To step out of everything we know and find comfortable. To leave behind whatever might be holding us back from God's best. We must do so however without necessarily seeing the whole picture. We have to be willing to step out in faith. Faith in who God is. Faith in what He has promised for our lives. Faith in His character. One day in the future we will get to our Canaan and things will become clearer. Or like Peter we will arrive at our Pentecost moment. These destinations are not achieved overnight. They are a journey where the trip proves to be more important than the destination.
Rev. Anthony.
