God is coming to introduce or re-introduce Himself to you. Yes, He did that before, but there is the need for Him to do it again as the time for the fulfillment of His promise to you has come. He already knows that your faith is getting weak. He knows that you urgently need a fresh revelation, a fresh encounter and encouragement for the final push into your Promised Land. For Him, He does not need any encouragement, help or push to perform His will, promises and purposes. He is the sovereign universal authority. He sees and manipulates the end from the beginning. In fact, He Himself is the alpha and the omega; the beginning and the end, the first and the last. But for us, we will always need a fresh revelation to carry on, especially, when the vision seems herculean, near-impossibility or will take a long time to come to pass.
When God met Moses in the wilderness, through the burning bush, to commission him for the operation ‘Come out of Egypt’, He had to introduce Himself to Moses. Yes, that might not be the first time Moses was hearing about God of Israel (remember the Jews are very good at transferring their history to the younger generations through the oral tradition), but because of the nature and the level of this particular assignment, God came in a very spectacular, special and convincing way to put His ‘divine signature’ to that mother- of-all-assignments. The burning bush, the warning not to come close, the instruction to remove his sandals, and then the ultimate bombshell, “I am the God of your ancestors – the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Wow!
In fact, God was literally excited about the mission He was about sending Moses. Yes, Moses was going to be unenthusiastic about the whole thing, but God was excited, determined and committed because the integrity of His name, His word, promises and sovereignty was at stake. Remember, He had told Abraham hundreds of years ago that his descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, and that they will be oppressed as slaves in that nation for four hundred years. And after that He will come with strong hand to bring them out with great riches. Truly and promptly, He came to bring this to pass after hundreds of years. God keeps His covenants and promises. If He said it, He is eagerly watching over it to perform. He monitors the timing, variables and the total performance of His words. His words concerning you will not fail. We will continue next week.
God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (2)
God honours covenants. We can forget, we might stop believing, but God will always watch over His promises to bring them to pass. Divine covenants are always trans-generational. They are not just performing on you, but will outlive you to speak for your future generations. True! I know this very well because I am a product of one; where God tells a young lady that when she gets married that her first issue will be a male child, and that he will do great things for the kingdom. And after about thirty years, even when the child is not aware of such agreement, the covenant begins to speak and perform exactly as God said. God’s words are powerful, sharp, eternal and faithful. Time, circumstances, opposition do not stop them.
He said that forever He shall be known as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He is consistent. He is constant. He is faithful. And that simply means that if He did not fail these people, He will certainly also not fail you. Now, we have to briefly try to look at the way He walked with these three so that we can be able to appreciate what we are saying here. We can comfortably say that Abraham was in confusion and frustration when God first met him in Haran. First, he had lost his youngest brother called Haran. The guy died prematurely. The bible said that he died very young at his place of birth. I pray that our lives, joy and visions will not be terminated prematurely in the name of Jesus!
Secondly, his wife Sarah was barren. Abraham was about seventy-five years old without any issue and no solution at sight. Childlessness is always a very difficult experience, especially to those that value family. Nothing substitutes the desire to have children. You can go and ask Hannah, Rebekah, Rachel, etc. In fact, Rachel once shouted to Jacob, “Give me children, or I’ll die.” Hannah wept, was humiliated and will refuse to eat because she had no child. Barrenness is something that one will not even wish his enemies. So, Abraham and Sarah were in that condition. As I write this, I am watching on our national television network the thanksgiving of a couple who had their first baby after seventeen years! Come and see joy unlimited. Every barrenness, every unproductivenss in your life will be broken today. Thirdly, Terah, Abraham’s father took them to go to Canaan (the Promised Land), but settled on the way and later died there. He never reached
his destination. His vision and hope were aborted. As you read this, everything that will try to stop your destiny on the way will be stop by God.
All these challenges were before Abraham when God suddenly spoke to him, “Leave your country, your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land I will show you. I will cause you to become the father of a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and I will make you a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and will curse those who curse you. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you.” Gen 12:1-3. My God! He is speaking to you now. We will continue next week, God bless you!
Rev. Agbo is the author of the book, Power of Midnight Prayer. 08037113283. gabrielagbo@yahoo.com.