"Because You Have Obeyed MY Voice" Gen 22:18

Gen 22:1-19-Abraham's faith confirmed.

This is an account of the Lord's loyalty to His covenant and to His servant Abraham. It reveals Abraham's incredible faith and points to the future sacrifice of God's only Son-Jesus.

V. 22: Begins with "After these things," meaning a new story is about to begin in Abraham's life where the "True God" reigns. He is no longer led by any false gods but obeys the voice of Jehovah-jireh-the Lord will provide. God tested Abraham to show his true character. After years of waiting for the birth of his son Isaac, God said, "Take now your son, your only son, whom you love and offer him as a burnt offering on the mountains I will tell you v 2." Abraham obeyed, he built an alter, arranged the wood, bound his only son and layed him on the alter. Then he stretched out his knife to slay him. Imagine...the test of belief and trust...

The angel of the Lord called from heaven and said, "do not stretch out your hand against the lad, FOR NOW I KNOW THAT YOU FEAR GOD, since you have not withheld your only son from me v 12." From this point on Abraham FEARED God and was in awe of Him. God told him he would be blessed and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through his seed "because you have obeyed MY voice v 18."

Prior to this moment in Abraham's life he feared man and listened to others because he had not fully recognized the Lord's voice. Years earlier because he feared to speak the truth to the Egyptians, he lied, and said his wife Sarai, who was beautiful, was his sister and they took her to Pharoah to be his wife. Plagues came to Pharoah, the truth was revealed and his wife was returned to him. One of the snares of the "fear of man" is when it is in our power to communicate the truth and we do no do so. Silence in some cases is good, we wait and we pray, however, there are times when being silent when we know the truth, and do not fully communicate that truth because we are afraid to do so, can lead to confusion, misunderstanding even destruction. Relationships can end because some part of truth is left unspoken.

Another example of fearing of man in Abraham's life was when he mistakenly listened to his wife, thinking the son of promise would come through Sarai's maid-servant Hagar, by sleeping with her and giving him a son-Ishmael. This led to family division.

When Abraham finally came to the place of recognizing the Lord's voice, he believed that no matter what God required of him, obedience to His plan was most important.

I love Jesus with all of my heart. In loving Him, my highest goal is to please and obey Him. This past weekend the Lord called me to lay something at the cross that has brought me an incredible sense of peace and I feel like a huge weight was lifted off my back that I realized was there but didn't think the Lord would remove.

Over the past 3 years the Lord has drawn me into a relationship and depth with Him that I so needed. I've struggled with deep insecurity most of my life and the Lord wanted to show me who I am in Him. My security and identity comes from Him not from others and my relations with them. So much of the fear issues I've had were from giving power to people in my life that didn't belong to them. We cannot be in right relation with others until we are in right relation with Jesus. In order for Jesus to do this we have to allow the Lord to draw us away to Himself so He can love us, minister to us and heal our deep wounds. This doesn't mean we exclude our self from fellowship. We need trusted friends to pray for us and share His truth with us. I've shared before my tears with the Lord have healed me. He loves me and cares for me so much. And I trust Him to know just what I need and how to provide it.

Sunday the Holy Spirit was unmistakably speaking to my heart of a sense of loneliness and torture that He wanted me to admit. Having lived a portion of my life in isolation feeling separated by my mental illness, in my heart I just didn't think Jesus was bigger than this or that He could release that fully. I thought I may live with that sense of separation and fear for the rest of my life. In faith the Holy Spirit mended a trust issue in my heart. In faith I obeyed the Holy spirtit speaking to my heart that superseded the voice of reason in my mind forcing me out of my comfort zone to a new level of trust in my Lord. Last week the Lord was helping me see that my mind needed to surrender to the Spirit. We can't experience God in our mind and intellect. He is much bigger and much greater than that. It takes faith to know and experience the voice of the Lord in our heart.

Surrendering in faith gives me the hope and promise of new life in my life. I couldn't know it until after I obeyed in faith but I layed down a great pain before Jesus that I believe His stripes only could heal. Thank you Jesus for the cross and for dying for my sin and for your forgiveness. Holy Spirit thank you for helping me. Fill me with your love and presence with an obedient heart.

In this walk of faith we never "arrive." We are continually being conformed into the image of Jesus until our last breath.

Is the Lord stretching your faith? Is He asking you to surrender something before Him that you are resisting?

To overcome fear and move in faith there is some act of obedience the Lord requires of us. A surrender to be layed at the cross of Christ. A death of self in some way whether it is an addiction, the letting go of a relationship, forgiving someone who has hurt you or a fear that has crippled you. Make it right with the Lord today. When we obey in faith, God reveals more of Himself to us.

"And They Overcame By the Blood Of The Lamb" Rev 12:11

Last weekend at our annual Womens Seminar at church I watched many of my sisters in Christ courageously share card board testimonies of what Christ has done in their life. There is the initial testimony of our savation, the assured moment we accept Christ as savior and then subsuquent testimonies of passages of death we go through as believers. Some cried as they publically shared how Christ has given them new life in Him. It was so powerful and moving. The theme for the weekend was the Cross. "For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten SON that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16"

Timing is everything and the weekend prior to the seminar was Easter or better described as "Resurrection Day" as we celebrate the "Risen Lord Jesus." Those who have accepted Jesus as Savior have a testimony of life before Christ and life after Christ whether we are 4 years old or 104 when we ask Him in our heart and acknowledge our sin and our need of His forgiveness and grace through His death and sacrifice on the cross.

One of the sessions that really spoke to me was "My response to the cross." As I consider my Jesus, and what He did for me, how am I going to let Him live through me for the rest of my days. My prayer is rid me of myself I belong to You. Lead me to lay my life down for You to love others through me. God's overwhelming love for us compells us to lay down our life for Him. One of the ways we can do that is to share with this lost world what Jesus has freed us from. "And they OVERCAME him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony. Rev 12:11" Everytime I share testimony of what Jesus has done through my life a piece of me is healed. When we give our life away in faith abandoning self for Jesus, He is pleased and glorifyied and we overcome. When His love so fills our heart we can't help but want to share it with all those around us. His love through us loving others. We do it for them to know Jesus because of our love for them. His love is unending and increases giving us capacity to love more and more. Jesus IS the fountain of life and He gives living water. The Holy spirit living in us enables our love for them to exceed our self-preservation. His love for them moves us beyond our fear to walk in full faith and surrender and it becomes all Him and no longer us. Genuine love comes from God, not us, it can't come from us. We don't have it in us to produce a pure, genuine love. Only Jesus perfect sacrifice on the cross atones for all our sin and forgiveness we need to genuinely love others with His love.

I have a gift of evangelism. God has given me a desire to teach and encourage others to share their testimonies of God's work in their life. I have always been encouraged to hear and read testimonies of how God delivered believers giving me hope that if He could do it for them, He could do it for me. He has. I encourage you if you have never written out what the Lord has done for you to do so. It will be healing and freeing and I promise you the Lord will bring someone or many in your path to share what He has done. The blood of the lamb has covered you to speak HIS truth and by this you will overcome. His kingdom is an unseen army of angels He gives His charge over us to stand in our place and enables us to speak the word of truth. As members of His Kingdom He empowers us with His authority.

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