Abraham knew something mighty exciting about God. The Bible doesn’t say how or where he learned it. But Boy! did he get blessed because of it. Riches were heaped upon him. He was protected. He was blessed with an abundance of favors.
What Abraham knew, we can know, and the same blessings that came to him can come to us (Galatians 3:29).
What Abraham Knew
What Abraham knew is revealed in Genesis Chapter Fifteen, verse six:
“And he [Abram] believed [ahman] in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness.”
The Hebrew word for “believe” in Genesis 15:6 is ahman. Ahman is a relationship. It’s the trusting in, the leaning on, of a child whose mother holds and supports it in her arms, nursing it, giving it nourishment. The child does not seek nourishment. It is received from the mother’s breast.
Ahman has two sides. There is God’s side. God loves with a nurturing, protective love. He supports and cradles in His arms, giving sustenance and nurture. Abram prospered and was protected. This nurturing love is reflected in the blessings of Deuteronomy 7, 11, and 28.
The other side of ahman is what man does. Man relaxes into God’s nurturing, protective love, as a baby relaxes into its mother’s arm. He lets God do what God does. The baby trusts itself to the mother in complete confidence. It has no fear, no anxiety, no apprehension.
Ahman is a relationship freely offered by God and freely accepted by man. It is this relationship that allows God to work out His plan for man. Genesis 1:28 states that man was given the political rulership of the earth.
Luke 4:5-6 states that man had surrendered the political rulership of the earth to Satan. God had no legal authority to intervene in the affairs of men unless men freely gave Him authority. God picked one man, Abram, through whom He would establish a chosen people, a holy nation. Abram said “Yes!” to God.
Abraham's Faith
Abram believed God. It is not about an intellectual belief. It is a relationship. A very special and unique kind of relationship that was to be the prototype of how God relates to those who own Him as Lord. Characteristic of this relationship was the fact that Abram refused to believe the testimony of his senses until the testimony of his senses came in line with the Word of God.
Long after both his and Sarai’s reproductive organs had dried up Abram continued to confess God’s Word that he was the father of many nations. Abram called himself “The Father of Many Nations” (Abraham), and his wife Sarai he called “The Mother of Nations” (Sarah).
This is the relationship Abram had with God. He trusted God. He knew that if God said it, God would do it. It was this trust relationship that God counted as righteousness.
It is to this kind of trust relationship that God calls us.
Romans 4:17-21 (KJV) – “as it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations.) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were….He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that, what he had promised he was able to perform.”
The truth I want you to understand is that you are Abraham’s heirs. I’ll tell you why in a moment. The promises made to Abraham and his descendants are yours. You have every legal right to expect – even demand-that God bless you as He blessed Abraham.
You Are Abraham's heirs
We are legal inheritors of the promise: Galatians 3:26-29 (KJV)
“For ye are all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus…And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
The reason I’m stressing this is because now is the time to begin claiming your legal rights.
Your giving hasn’t been just money. You are also giving time and talents. There is no one else to do it. If you don’t do it, it won’t get done.
It is now time to begin claiming a harvest on all these seeds you have been planting. I don’t want you to miss out on the harvest that is legally yours.
According to what God has promised, these are the things you have every legal right to demand from God:
- Bless you – to prosper in all your needs being met – to prosper in all your relationships
- You will be a blessing
- Make your name great
We Brag About the Wrong Gift!
We often get caught up in material things, but the fact is we were living on death row. Our condition was:
- Isaiah 1:5-6 – the whole head is sick…from the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores.
- Isaiah 64:6 – all our righteousness are as monstrous rags.
- Romans 3:23 – For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
- Romans 5:17 – by one man’s offense death reigned by one…
- Romans 6:23 – the wages of sin is death.
- Mark 9:43-44 – fire that never shall be quenched, where their worm dieth not.
- Revelation 20:11-15 – whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
What God Did For Us:
- Romans 5:8– Even while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
- Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
- Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith: and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
God Is the Wealth-Giver For a Reason
- Deuteronomy 8:18 – Remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he swore unto thy fathers, as it is this day.
- Deuteronomy 14:23 – “That thou mayest learn to honor (fear) the Lord thy God always.” The purpose of tithes.
- Deuteronomy 28 – The blessings of obedience, the consequences of disobedience.
- Deuteronomy 30:19 -Therefore choose life.
- Galatians 3:26-29 – For ye are all God by faith children of in Christ Jesus….And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Our Giving Is Seeds We Sow
- II Corinthians 9:6 (KJV) -He who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall also reap bountifully.
- II Corinthians 9:8 (KJV) – And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.
- Luke 6:38 (KJV) – Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure ye meet withal it shall be measured to you again.
- Philippians 4:19 (KJV) – But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
This is the relationship Abram had with God. He trusted God. He knew that if God said it, God would do it. It was this trust relationship that God counted as righteousness.
God Issued a Challenge
Malachi3:10-12(KJV) – “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts. And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts.”
What About Honest Doubt?
Thomas is often quoted as an excuse for no faith. That is not what Thomas’ doubt was about. Doubt is just an excuse.
God has given us all the instructions we need on how to build or grow faith. It is when we fail to follow those instructions that we fall into making excuses like, “What about honest doubt?”
God’s method is for us to build ourselves up in our most holy faith.
- Acts 20:32 (KJV) – And now brethren I command you to God and the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all of them which are sanctified.
- Jude 20 (KJV) – But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost.
- Ephesians 2:8 (KJV) – For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.
- Romans 10:17 (KJV) -So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
- Romans 4:17-21 (KJV) – (as it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations.) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were….He staggered not at the promises of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was also able to perform.
- Ephesians 4:22-29 (KJV) – …be renewed in the spirit of your mind….put on the new man….speak every man truth with his neighbor….Neither place to the devil….Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
- James 3:6-12 (KJV) – The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature: and it is set on fire of hell..the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison….Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing….Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water with bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? Either a vine figs? So can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.
- Matthew 12:34b, 37 (KJV) – for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
Answer God's Call To Faith
Don’t just be passive in your life. Be like God and speak the word of faith, calling those things that be not as though they were.
Enter into the promises of God that were given to us through Abraham and live a more victorious life in Christ Jesus.
