Podcast-Feed28th March 2010 - Dave Harper - Growing in Faith: Abraham
Dave looked at the on-going topic of ‘growing in faith’ whilst giving a brief review of this term and then using the story of Abraham, our father in the faith, to help illustrate growing faith
Gen 12 and Gen 13
· Abraham has to ‘Go’ in order to take a faith action in response to God speaking to Him.
· God promises to bless him with a land to live in AND a family that will bless the whole world (we are apart of that family as it is those who are of the faith of Abraham who are called his sons. Gal 3:7 Hence Abraham is called the Father of Many Nations Romans 4:16 -18 for those who like chapter and verse)
· It is God who will fulfil this promise but Abraham has to obey and relocate to Canaan ‘So Abram went as the Lord had told him’ v4
· Abraham hears God, in verse 1 ‘the Lord said’ and v4 ‘The Lord told him’ . A personal relationship with God is the nature of our faith and personal encounters with the Lord should be sought. It is here we ‘hear’ the Lord and faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. This is dynamic and relational not just knowledge and shows us the centrality of worship in the life of a believer as this is the best place to engage with God and experience his presence and voice . Also note later in v7 the Lord ‘appeared’ to Abraham and restated his promise.
· V10 there is a famine in the land. Should he have gone to Egypt with all the ensuing consequences or would God have provided in the place of promise?
· There is a serious loss of faith here which opens the door to fear, lying, his wife taken by Pharoah to be his wife , plagues and a humbling expulsion back to the land of promise
· Gen 13: 4 Abram reconnects with his God, at the place of his personal worship and he ‘calls upon the name of the Lord’
· Restored to a place of faith and therefore confidence in God’s promises, Abe can be magnanimous regarding the land and lets Lot choose the best land confident that either way God will fulfil his promise
· This is exactly what happens in v14- 18 when God tells him to lift his eyes and see the land and walk through it because He will give it all to him and his offspring. Then he worshipped ! v18
Questions
In Genesis 12 and 13 we see a number of occasions where Abram has personal encounters with God and hears Him bringing direction and promises to his life and clearly Abram is a worshipper.
Look at the centrality of a personal relationship with God in Abe’s life(12:1, 4,7,8b; 13:4,14-18)
Do you have a pattern of worship in your life and are you learning to hear and to see into the spiritual realm?
Do you have promises hidden in your heart?
It takes courage to live by faith in the promises. How do we develop a courageous faith?
Listen now! (0:33min / 11MB)