A Test of Faith!

Sarah had Isaac at ninety years old and Abraham was one hundred years old. Isaac was the promised son that would fulfill the covenant between God and Abraham. The test came when God instructed Abraham to take his only son (son of the covenant promise) and sacrifice him as a burnt offering. A burnt offerings was a voluntary act of worship, an atonement for sin, and an act of surrendering to God.

Abraham and Isaac, who was a young man at this time, walked up the mountain. Isaac asked about the missing lamb for the sacrifice. “Abraham answered, ‘God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” Earlier Abraham said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”

When it was time to put the sacrifice on the altar, Abraham bound his son with ropes and laid him on the altar. But as the knife was raised to sacrifice the offering, God spoke and withheld the bloodshed by providing a ram.

In the natural, we read this in biblical story and shake our heads in disbelief that our God would require such a sacrifice. Let’s look at the facts behind this test of faith. Abraham separated himself from his family and county by leaving and going to an unknown place. He was promised a son and had to wait twenty-five years to see the fulfillment of that promise. Angels appeared and gave a word that Sarah would have a baby within a year.

God’s plan was almost disrupted because Abraham feared for his life and allowed a king to take Sarah into his harem. He watched God turn Sarah, a ninety-year-old, into a beauty youthful woman that a king wanted her in his harem. God intervened by giving the king a dream that made the king confront Abraham for the half-truth that Sarah was his sister. Sarah became pregnant and bore Isaac within that same year.

Time after time, Abraham watched God intervene and supernaturally provided the impossible. This test of faith to sacrifice his son Isaac was required to provide a way for Jesus to be born and become our sacrifice to restore us as God’s kids. Abraham walked with God and developed absolute trust in what God said.

Letting Go of Our Visions!

God sometimes allows the death of a vision that he gave us. He uses this to reveal whether we trust Him or our own works to bring the vision to fruition. True faith opens the doors of heaven to bring God’s kingdom on the earth. The test is whether we will wait on God to fulfill the vision, or we try to fulfill the vision in our own abilities. This giving over the vision or dream to God allows his supernatural provision to be released into our lives.

It isn’t an easy process, but it frees us from self-sufficiency and independence. This sacrifice that Abraham made, reveals the nature of God as a provider. Jehovah Jireh, the One who causes you to see your provision.

Maybe you received a promise from God years ago. It could be a healing you have been standing on God’s word for years. Perhaps you thought you had a call of God on your life, and you are still on the shelf watching others fulfill their ministries. Others have been believing for their families to discover Jesus’s as the path to life. All of these are good desires and promises.

Times of Testing!

There are times of testing and times when God is aligning everything up in the natural to bring forth the promises. Joseph discovered this when he shared his dream of his brothers and father bowing down to him. After revealing that dream to his brothers, he was sold to slave traders, became a servant, was thrown in jail and forgotten by the pharaoh’s staff. But then Pharaoh had a dream and Jospeh got a promotion. Joseph was around the age of seventeen when he had his dreams. He ends up in Pharaoh’s Court at the age of thirty. It was another 9 years before his brothers came to Pharaoh for food during the famine. Joseph would have been around 39. When his brothers came and bowed before him and Joseph remembered his dream. This was around 22 years after his dream.

God’s timing to is not our timing in fulfilling words He has given us. Joseph was living a different life and had forgotten the dream but then God reminded him. Don’t let disappointment or our expectations on how God is going to do something stop you from believing. We like to have everything laid out and be in control but when we walk with God, we need to let go of our control and give God the right to direct our path.

Our job is to be willing to allow God to direct our steps and trust Him even when we don’t understand the “whys” of life. It is not that we don’t have faith, but our faith needs to grow showing us a big God. He sees a future that many times we cannot see. Where we are in this time of life can be too small a vision for what God wants for us.

Prayer

Father God,

Help! I need to understand the balance between waiting on you and when I need to do something to release faith. I want to walk in the supernatural by leaning on you and trusting in the price Jesus paid. I ask you, Holy Spirit, to teach me, correct me, and guide me through this supernatural walk. I know I can’t heal anyone or set someone free unless I depend on you. I humble myself and choose to trust you to guide my path. I ask for your grace, peace, and boldness to fulfill the destiny you have for me. Because of Jesus and empowered by Holy Spirit, amen!

Scriptures

Genesis 21:5, Leviticus 1, Genesis 22, Genesis 12:1 & Hebrews 11:8, Genesis chapter 17 thought 20, Genesis 37:5, Genesis 40, 41, 45:6, 42:8-9

References

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. All rights reserved.