Staying Fixed in 2006!
Gen 12:1 The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
I love the story of Abraham. Here we have a man who was told to leave everything he knew–to leave the comforts of home–to leave everything that was familiar. What he was he given? He was simply given a word from God.
Abraham was given a word from God and simply believed it. He stayed fixed on it. God gave him incredible promises. One of those promises was to be a great nation. Finally, when Abraham was old, the Lord told Abraham and Sarah that they would have a child, and they simply believed him. What a great thing to believe God.
God’s blessing depends on our response to the word of God. In Abraham ’s case, he had a choice. He either could have stayed at home, disregarded the promise of God and never entered into the promise, or he could simply believe and obey.
Think about it. He didn’t have a map, no guide except for God himself. He had to let go of everything he knew was familiar and embrace something completely foreign, which was God and His Word. You see the promise of God is what the Father wants us to go by. That’s what faith is.
That’s why the thing the devil works hardest at is to get us to waver at the point of the word of God . Remember, in the garden of Eden the first thing that Satan did was try to cast doubt on the word of God. “Did God really say that you must not eat from the any tree?”
You see if the devil can cause you to doubt, he has you right where he wants you.
Yet, God is calling us to stay fixed in 2006. That means to keep the promise of God before us.
You may have had promises made to you but you are still between the “amen” and the “there it is”. You feel that there are things that God has promised you, but you are still waiting for the manifestation of the promise. How many of us are in the same boat? Well, let’s take a cue from Abraham.
Abraham had a wonderful promise for his life, but remember, the Bible says that the promise took 25 years to fulfill. He was led out of his hometown when he was 75 years old, yet it wasn’t until he was 99 years old that Sarah became pregnant. That was 25 years of believing the Word of God.
The Bible says he was fully persuaded that God had the power to do what he had promised. Are you fully persuaded today? You see this is the kind of focus God is wanting us to have for this year. He wants us to be fully persuaded. It’s easy to be persuaded in church. But it is not always easy to be persuaded when you are by yourself.
So how do we stay focused this year?
Determine to spend every day reading and confessing God’s Word.
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. If you will stay focused on God’s Word you will have good success. Remember what God said to Joshua, “Meditate on this book day and night and you will have great success.” Josh 1:8
Abraham had to let go of the familiar in order to receive what God wanted him to have. How about us? Many times God is trying to get us to a certain place but we have difficulty stepping out of our comfort zones.
A ship wrecked off the New England coast many years ago. A young member of the coast guard rescue crew said, “We can’t go out. We’ll never get back.” The grizzled old captain replied, “We have to go out. We don’t have to come back.”
This captain knew what his mission was. He was willing to step out of his comfort zone. He made up his mind.
Will you make a decision right now that you are going to release the comfortable. Release the familiar in order to go where God’s voice is calling you ? God has a vision and a purpose for you. Will you stay focused on His call and promise?
Fixed on your purpose
Another thing that God would have us to stay fixed on, is our purpose and destiny.
Something else happened on Abraham’s journey with God:
Gen 18:10 Then the LORD said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.” Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. 11 Abraham and Sarah were already old and well advanced in years, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. 12 So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?” 13 Then the LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the LORD? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son.”
Abraham had stepped out on the Word. It was almost 25 years later. Now God shows us and says that even at their advanced age, that He was going to grant them a child from their own bodies. At this point Abraham was 99 years old. Sarah was also way past child bearing age, but yet here comes the promise again.
The temptation came to doubt because the circumstances seemed so impossible. But we have a God of the impossible! We have a God that specializes in the impossible!
Don’t let circumstances kill your dream.
We see an example of purpose and destiny in the life of the Apostle Paul. He writes.
Phil 3:12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
What is the Apostle Paul saying in this passage? He is demonstrating some of this attitude. His attitude was to take hold of something—to take hold of his destiny.
There is a story involving Yogi Berra, the well-known catcher for the New York Yankees, and Hank Aaron, who at that time was the chief power hitter for the Milwaukee Braves. The teams were playing in the World Series, and as usual Yogi was keeping up his ceaseless chatter, intended to pep up his teammates on the one hand, and distract the Milwaukee batters on the other. As Aaron came to the plate, Yogi tried to distract him by saying, “Henry, you’re holding the bat wrong. You’re supposed to hold it so you can read the trademark.” Aaron didn’t say anything, but when the next pitch came he hit it into the left-field bleachers. After rounding the bases and tagging up at home plate, Aaron looked at Yogi Berra and said, “I didn’t come up here to read.”
Hank Aaron refused to be distracted. He kept focused on his goal. Each one of us has a calling and a destiny and God wants each of us to be faithful to the calling that He has given us. But unlike the fatalists that say that no matter what you do your destiny is fixed, the Bible presents us as having a choice in the matter. The Bible presents us as having a responsibility to take a hold of that destiny.
1 Cor 15:2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
Each one of us has to hold on to the Lord. We have to reach up and take hold of what we believe. Did you know that it was possible to believe in vain? When is it in vain?: When we lose focus and let go of our destinies.
But I encourage you today, be like the Apostle Paul and forget what is behind! Be like Abraham who did not waver. Make up your mind. This year you are going to stay fixed on God and his purpose for you. You are going to hold firmly to His promise. You will refuse to be distracted and you will overcome!
Daniel Jordan is a NYC pastor, speaker and the creator of the “Free Prayer” Table, where he offers Christian prayer to anyone on the streets. Daniel shares on how to MAXIMIZE the Power of God in your life and the lives of those around you. http://www.livinghopeny.org http://www.cpwa.blogspot.com 917-463-3503
