ANOTHER LOOK AT ABRAHAM

Pastor Dele Osunmakinde

The problem God has with His children is the fact that many are not faithful – this is the essence of taking another look at Abraham.
Abraham was faithful and God attested to this fact. When it comes to pursuing after God and seeking righteousness, Abraham is the icon, a man whose life is held up as an example of righteousness and faith.
Abraham was 75years old at the time he was called, he was ‘made’ already and his life was formed. He was called to go to a land he’d be shown – no definite location. Like every other human being, he had his fears and feelings. But Abraham departed, the word of God only being his only conviction. The secret of this raw faith is to obey God exactly and immediately.

Abraham shows us the life of an overcomer. Every new beginning is always on a note of faith. If there would be a new year, there must first be a new you.

Consulting or seeking for counsel might have derailed Abraham from God’s instruction – there was no antecedent to such in his days. Note that some of the steps God would ask you to take in 2015 are very personal. One of the things the faith message does is to tamper with your plans and at times render you plan-less.

One of the ways to stay faithful is to condemn the world (Heb 11:7). Condemning the world means you refuse to accept the their standard; you refuse to accept their definition of success, definition of failure, definition of who’s making progress and definition of who’s not making progress. At times we just allow what the world is saying to cage us in – issues of marriage, prosperity, career, etc. Condemning the world is when you refuse to join others in stealing at your work place and continue to take ‘Okada’ to work while others are driving cars they stole to buy. It is just a question of time, God will never forsake the righteous and will never justify the wicked (Psalm 73). It is when you condemn the world that you become an heir of the righteousness of faith.

God said “Follow my pathway and I will make you a nation”. All that God is doing whenever he asks you to take difficult steps is to bring out the faith in you because you are a faith being, a seed of Abraham.
Faith becoming Faithfulness: When the land of promise becomes foreign, stay there. The fact that you are stepping out in faith does not mean everything will be alright. When it is tough and rough, may God give you that staying power to dwell there. Dwelling there is part of the process. The first time Abraham got out of the land (against God’s instruction he went to Egypt because of famine) he ran into trouble.
To overcome means to come over – those things will come at you but there is the grace in you to walk over them.

In 2015 as you start out in faith, God is so faithful that wherever he would not give you a building, he will give you a tent (Abraham). Wherever you don’t have a permanent structure, God will give you a temporary structure to take care of you, so be wise and discerning in life to recognize and appreciate the tent God is bringing your way. Don’t despise the tent. Abraham lived in tents but he was looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. Don’t join the bandwagon of people who put their hands in iniquity just to get a building instead of enduring and surviving in the tents. The tent is significant.
Your tent phase in life will provide accommodation for some people; your tent story will encourage some people. Compromises will be showing up, alternatives will be around you, there will be dimensions that look faster, but a walk of faith takes time. Abraham waited! There is a waiting of faith.
If you jump out of the tent and circumvent process, you will miss God. Peer pressure can make you take some cities even when you know within yourself that you are acting against God’s will. Even though there were opportunities to return, Abraham never returned.

2015 is the year of the faithful – how faithful are you?

In 2015:
• Pray more and be an intercessor
• Study the word of God more and confess it the more
• Be deliberate in your walking in love (avoid strife)
• Be faithful in your giving