| THERE�S NO FAMINE IN GOD�S HOUSE The story of Abraham in Genesis 12 is for you and I today. �The Lord said to Abraham, get out of your country, from your family and from your father�s house to a land that I will show you, I�ll make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great. You will be a blessing and I will bless those that bless you and I will curse those that curse you and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.� When God spoke those words to Abraham, he was not a believer, he was in the land of the Chaldeans. He not only heard God�s voice but he obeyed. Abraham departed as the Lord had spoken and Lot went with him. Abraham did not ask any questions of God. Unlike us, we would probably question God � who are you?, where are we going?, why are we going there?, what are we going to do when we get there? We probably would not want to leave everything comfortable and familiar, we might think that this is not God. This is where faith begins! The walk of faith begins when God calls and we have no idea where we are going. Faith begins with the call to abandon ourselves to the will and the leading of the Spirit of God. God simply said �Go, and I will direct you.� �Go, and I will be with you.� God didn�t tell Abraham the country or the destination, nor did he tell Abraham about the obstacles he would encounter along the way. How many of us would start out on a life of faith if we knew there would be difficulties in front of us, if we knew there would be �ites� in the land. There will always be enemies if we are to fight the �good fight of faith.� God promised Abraham His blessing on his obedience. Hebrews 10:38 ��the just shall live by faith.� Abraham went on to Canaan and God spoke to him again in vs. 7 and said �to your descendants I will give this land and there Abraham built an altar to the Lord.� God told him to walk from one end to the other and that was the land God would give him (every step he walked). What was the result of Abraham�s obedience? There was a famine in the land � sometimes God has a sense of humor. All Abraham saw were - the trees were dying, there was no water for the cattle, no pasture land and there was nothing to provide for his family. At this point Abraham must have asked God � God, what gives? Just like us, we get a word from God, we�re ready to walk by faith, we leave everything, we step out and guess what, we hit a famine. Did God leave Abraham there? Yes, he did. Maybe Abraham (like you and me) started to doubt saying �maybe I heard the wrong voice, or maybe that wasn�t God talking, or leading me here, it must have been my flesh talking, besides there�s no food here for my family, look at the circumstance I�m in � how could I have been led to a famine?� Have you even been there? Here you are obeying the voice of God, walking out in that step of faith and ending up in a famine, wondering �how did I ever get here�, or �I thought I was in God�s will, I thought I knew my Father�s voice.� Jesus said, my sheep will know my voice, so how come I�m in the middle of this famine, where did I miss God, where did I get out of His will? Now, the Lord appears to Abraham and he built an altar to the Lord. Maybe his conversation with the Lord went like this � �Lord, I trusted you, I thought I heard your voice, I left everything familiar, my family, my home, my job, I left my comfort zone to walk by faith, and you promised God that you would bless me and I now come to this famine.� Would we, say the same to the Lord (if we were honest) but it would seem contrary to everything we know about God and His ways. Maybe you�ve experienced some of these things in your life, maybe you�re in a position where you�re praying for a better job and you just get settled in and now the company is downsizing and you�re out of work. �How am I going to eat, how am I going to provide, how am I going to pay my rent? Maybe you�re in a famine of your health, or a famine of your finances, or famine in a relationship, or even a famine in your spiritual life. If we�re not in the Word, then we�re not allowing God to raise us up as wings as eagles and we begin to walk in the flesh and we can get dry. Interestingly though, we know that God led Abraham to that famine. What does a famine do? � it brings fear, destruction, hunger and even starvation. The famine demanded that Abraham take on an even bigger step of faith. If you�re in that situation with your back up against the wall, you�re either going to go God�s way or your way and you can become double-minded. What does God say about a double-minded man (he�s unstable) �don�t let him think he�s going to get anything from God� James 1:7-8. What does Abraham do? Well, he went down to Egypt until the famine was past. Psalm 33:18-19 tells us: Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy, to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine. This is good news! If you�re in a famine, rejoice, God has his eye on you and is there to deliver you, just as the Psalm declares. Psalm 91 tells us that if we are dwellers in that secret place of the most High God, God will keep you safe. He promised He�d be our refuge, our fortress, our deliverer, and our shield (His Word is our shield). We don�t have to fear terrorism � morning, noon or night if we�re in Him and He�s in us in that secret place), there is a place of refuge, a place of rest and safety in Christ � He is with us and He will keep us. God never changes and we know the nature and character of God that He is good. God had a plan for Abraham and his family in the famine to bring them through. God says He�ll perfect what concerns us, if we�ll let Him (Is. 26:3). God knew Abraham�s situation, He knew they were never in danger. God had planned to feed them, to protect them even in the midst of the famine, miraculously, just like Noah. Also, Elijah was in a situation near the brook Cherith, and God supernaturally sent some ravens to feed him (1 Kings 17). The bible says we will not lack any good thing if we�re in Christ and we trust Him (Deut 8). Remember Daniel who was in the lion�s den, God came down and closed the lions mouths. Also the widow woman who was going to die (1Kings 17:12). The prophet came and told her to get some vessels and fill them with oil and there was a miraculous supply and it didn�t end until she ran out of containers to hold it. Our God is a good God and He provides for His children. You may be in a famine today, you may be saying �look at my circumstances, look at my marriage, look at my finances, look at my relationships, look at my health, look at my job, look, look, look, at all the circumstances and if that�s you today, then God is still Jehovah Jireh (your provider). God has not changed � He�s the same yesterday, today and forever. God provided for the children of Israel. Remember they were crossing the desert and He provided manna from heaven. Jesus is the Bread of Heaven come down from Heaven � His Word is our Bread. If we want to walk in that realm of faith and a circumstance comes along where we have to trust Him, then we find out if we really do. If we�re in a hard place and being �pressed�, that�s when we get an opportunity to say �OK, Father, I�m going to trust you and I know that you�re my provider. We must have that full assurance not only that God �can� but that God �will�. The leper said to Jesus in Mark 1:40 �If you can� Jesus said �I will, be thou made whole. He will for you and me because it is part of what He did on Calvary. All things are possible with God regardless of your circumstances. Now, what happened to Abraham? The Lord was making him into a man of faith. Abraham did not yet know God very well and stepped out in faith (just like us), being obedient to follow the Lord but He was not yet �Lord� of his life. Maybe we too, have just stepped out in faith, or just got saved and Jesus is not yet Lord of your life � maybe He�s only your Savior, you only have your �ticket out of the fire� and you don�t know him intimately, maybe you don�t know how to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. Maybe you have one foot in the world and one foot in the Kingdom and wondering why God is not providing. Just like Abraham God (not the devil) is leading him into a difficult situation and making him into a mighty man of faith. When Jesus was driven into the desert it was not the devil, it was the Holy Spirit. Many of us face these impossible situations in the natural, but if we will trust our Father, He has a plan to bring you through. What God wants from Abraham and from you and me is to walk by faith. God, I am going to believe you for the impossible because you are God and I believe you stand behind your word to perform it as it says in Jeremiah 1:12, even though I don�t know how. I trust you that you won�t let me or my family starve and I trust you will preserve me as you promised and I trust you that I will have a godly seed. That�s what God was waiting for Abraham to say but Abraham had to be developed in his faith. What does Abraham do in Egypt. The word says that as he was getting close to Egypt, he told Sarah his wife to say she was his sister because he was in fear that they might kill him. What did he do? He forgot God�s promise, he let go and looked at the circumstance and looked to himself. When we leave God�s ways of the spirit, we are in the flesh (me, me, me �.). Abraham now makes his own plan (he leans on human reason). Indeed Sarah is taken because of her beauty but the Lord plagued Pharaoh�s house and they were allowed to leave their captors. Remember Jonah, the reluctant prophet, who was running from God and the ship was going down and they threw him overboard because things were coming on them because of Jonah. If you�re God�s, then you�re marked. No one can touch you because God�s mark is on you. Abraham started out on his walk of faith and he made some mistakes, just like we are going to do. As long as we turn toward God, listen to His voice and are obedient to Him, we�re growing in our faith. You can�t have a faith walk unless you go through some trials, some storms and some famines. When God has called you, it�s difficult to run from him, just like Jonah. Gideon was hiding when God called him, and what did God call him? �You mighty man of valor�. Was he? He became one because God has His hand on his life. God wants to restore you. God says He will restore what the cankerworm has stolen from you. When those storm clouds gather and your future looks bleak, the voice of the Spirit is calling and if you will listen, He�s still crying �The just shall live by faith.� Abraham got in trouble again, and when God promised him a son he got tired of waiting and got in the flesh and did it his way (with Hagar) and she bore him a son. That son, Ishmael, is the Arab nation today. Even though Abraham messed it all up, God still gave him the promised Son, Isaac. We�re not so different, whenever we leave God�s way and we get into the flesh, we are going to mess it up as well. We can learn from Abraham, his works were not always perfect but his heart was right before God. Notice now when Abraham leaves Egypt that he�s wealthy. They were kicked out of the land by Pharaoh but they didn�t leave with only the clothes on their backs, because Ch. 13:2 says he was very rich in silver and gold. They were treated very well by the Egyptians and they had sheep, oxen, donkeys and camels while he was in the land. Even in a famine God can keep you well. God can keep you well spiritually, mentally, physically as well He can provide everything you need. In 1Tim 1:18 Paul was giving counsel to Timothy - This charge I commit unto you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you and with them wage a good warfare, having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected concerning faith have suffered shipwreck. Have you had a prophecy spoken over your life? That does not mean necessarily these prophecies are going to come to pass in your life, because you have a part to play. There are conditions attached to prophecies. If you get into sin, will God still use you? God�s plan is that you walk after Him and follow Him and listen to His voice. You can change God�s plan for you by leaving Him. God speaks with that still small voice of the Spirit and He nudges us to go a certain way. Paul is telling Timothy to hold fast to the prophecy already spoken over him and wage a good warfare because the enemy is there to take that word, to rob it. Hold fast to that prophecy, that dream, that vision, that word spoken to you for your life, because the enemy is a thief and he�ll try to it from you. Why did Paul say �wage a warfare�? Because he knew there was going to be warfare. Just like Abraham, you�re going to have to learn to walk a life of faith and that means you�ll go through storms to get a testimony. We are living in a time when we can�t waver in faith, or be blown off course by circumstances, we need to be stable in the word of God, so that when the storm rages, when the famine comes, we won�t be tempted to try and find our own way out of the situation, which is what we�ll do if we are not in Christ and perfectly at rest in Him. You can be shipwrecked on rocks of bitterness, rocks of unforgiveness, rocks of despair, rocks of depression, rocks of hopelessness. In Christ we don�t have to be shipwrecked, if our faith is in Him. God�s Peace passes all understanding. Be a testimony in the midst of the storm that God is faithful. God will direct you, He will give His angels charge over you, He will deliver you and He�ll keep you alive in famine. God will make a way where there is no way (Isaiah 43:19) Why? Because He is the Creator. What He did in Abraham�s life, Paul�s life, Noah�s life, Timothy�s life, Elijah�s life, He�ll do for you. His promise is for those of the household of faith. Are you of the household of faith today? Then His Word is for you. |
|