Peace to you, dear friends!Today we will continue to study lessons of faith from the life of Abram.
Yesterday we said that faith means cooperating with God. Without faith nothing of what God has promised to us will come to pass.
Earlier we read the story of God’s covenant with Abram in Genesis 12. We also talked about the time when Abram started doubting whether God was able to fulfil His promises, since for some time Abram had remained childless. God convinced him and Abram believed.
Today I would like us to look at another important principle of how faith works or manifests itself.
„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.” And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.” (Genesis 15:5-6).
In order to settle the doubts and cast out fear, God gave Abram a vision about his future descendants. It is very important for us to realize that faith is connected to vision. It says in 2nd Corinthians (5:7): «For we walk by faith, not by sight. »
Faith and vision are always interrelated. We get what we see. For this reason God helped Abram by giving him the vision. The greatness of your faith will equal the greatness of your vision. There is no faith without vision. Vision – just like faith – is an ability to see what God sees and to pursue it. You start to put forth effort in order to carry the vision out if you first see what needs to be done.
For God to give Abram a vision, Abram needed to change in the process himself. It is very important for us to understand that without certain changes in our lives we won’t be able to receive God’s vision, like it happened to Abram.
So what exactly did Abram do to receive the vision of God? No doubt it is important for us to realize what needs to be done in order to get God’s vision.
The first thing God did to Abram was that He took him out of the tent, out of his comfort zone. While we stay within our comfort zone where we feel at ease, where we do not need to make an effort, where everything goes according to the habitual scenario, we are not able to see what God wants to show us. For this reason God often desires us to get out of our comfort zone, out of our routine lifestyle, and to put forth some effort to expand our knowledge of the will of God for our life.
This might require of you to part ways with certain people in your life or limit the time of your fellowship with them.
If we read Genesis (13:14-17), we will see that Abram needed to part ways with Lot so that he could see the land God had promised him.
“And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are – northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered. “Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.“
Here we see that Abram separated from Lot. And right after that God told Abram: “Lift your eyes now and look…” When Abram was with Lot, he wasn’t able to see what God had prepared for him.
Dear friend! God wants to tell you today that your vision must be clear and precise, because it is a component of your faith. But for this to happen, you first need to get out of your comfort zone and also separate from people that do not have a vision or a desire to move forward in their lives.
The time has come for you to analyze your life and see the things that make you blind and unable to see what God wants to show you. As soon as you do that you will have to make certain changes in your life.
May God bless you as you do it-in the name of Jesus Christ!Godspeed!
Pastor Rufus Ajiboy
