The life of a believer is called a walk. You do not live the Christian life but walk the Christian life because you can live and be static. But you cannot walk and be static at the same time. To walk the Christian life indicates that the believer’s life must be progressive and must be on the move.
Solomon said, “The path of the just is like the shining sun, that shines ever brighter unto a perfect day” (Proverbs 4:18, NKJV, emphasis added).
The path of the Christian shines brighter and brighter. If you are living in yesterday’s light today, you are in danger of becoming a backslider!
Walking in the steps of Abraham
Abraham had a unique calling. Abraham is the “father of all who believe” (Romans 4:11). Through faith in Jesus Christ, the seed of Abraham, we have become children of Abraham.
Paul said, “Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham” (Gal. 3:7, NKJV).
We are children of Abraham if we walk in the steps of the faith of Abraham our father (Romans 4:12). Therefore, being a child of Abraham means you walk the way Abraham walked. Therefore, by studying Abraham’s walk of faith we have a good idea how a believer should walk.
A Christian’s Commitment
The progressive commitment of Abraham gives us a clear picture how we should commit ourselves to God in our Christian walk. Our spiritual progress and growth depend on our level of commitment to God. Let us study the steps of faith taken by Abraham from the time God called him until he came to Canaan. Each step was a further commitment to God. Similarly, each step we take in our Christian walk should be a further commitment to God. Commitment to God means relinquishing something human – something from our freshly desire. This means giving up something precious. The point is, if we cease giving up something we also cease in our spiritual progress.
1. Call of Abraham to leave Er, his country
“Now the Lord had said to Abram: ‘Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing’” (Gen. 12:1, NKJV, emphasis added).
Stephen addressed the council, “The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, and said to him, ‘Get out of your country and from your relatives, and came to a land that I will show you.’ Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell” (Acts 7:2 – 4, emphasis added).
God commanded Abraham to leave three things behind him – His country (Er), his family (father included) and his relatives. Notice that Abraham did not disobey God totally, but his obedience was progressive. He did not meet all the conditions immediately. But, his progress only continued as he met the conditions. He left his country but he took his father with him.
Similarly, when God calls us to leave our family and to serve Him in a different locality we are likely to bring our family members along with us and carry other extra “baggage”.
2. Call to leave his father and Haran
As long as his father was alive and with him, Abraham could not go the complete journey to the promised land. He was half way at Haran. When his father died obstacle No. 1 was removed and he left Haran and journeyed on.
Many of us are called by God to serve God in our God-given “promised land”. But if we take our “father” along we might stall half way! Our “father” could be a whole lot of different things from the past – such as certain religious tradition, certain religious association, certain denominational affiliation, business and social affiliation and the love of money and so on.
3. Call to leave Lot, his relative (nephew)
There is another unfulfilled condition before Abraham could inherit the promised land. Lot, who was not part of God’s covenant, was with him. In Old Testament Hebrew the word “lot” means a veil. Therefore when Lot was with Abraham he simply could not see the inheritance God had provided for him. God did not intend Lot to remain with Abraham. So God arranged the circumstances when they had to come to a confrontation and caused them to part (Gen. 13:5 – 17).
Notice the meekness of Abraham. He learned how to bend or yield under pressure and allowed Lot to make the first choice of which part of the land he would like to dwell. I believe Abraham had total confidence in God that He would use Lot’s choice to work God’s will for him! Abraham believed that:
“A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven” (John 3:17).
It is same with our spiritual life. We need to have the meekness and gentleness of Abraham and willing to bend or yield under pressure. Sometimes we fail to listen to God and make up our mind to do things that God does not want us to do. We are too stubborn to heed God’s counsel. Meekness is not weakness. In fact meekness is a mark of great spiritual strength. Only a strong Christian can be meek.
But, Lot made the wrong choice. His heart was not right. He was looking for the material before the spiritual. As a result he dwelled in an evil and corrupted environment.
The moment Lot was separated from Abraham the veil over his eyes was removed!
“And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: ‘Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are – northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever” (Gen. 13:14).
Abraham did not have to move; he just had to look. Any direction he look it is going to be his and his descendants!
4. The coming and departure of Ishmael
After 12 years of waiting and there was no sign of the promised heir, Abraham and Sarah decided to help God. If ever Abraham made a disastrous mistake it was Ishmael. Not merely Ishmael turned against the promised heir Isaac but the descendants of Ishmael had stood in the way of the descendants of Isaac for 4000 years – and still do today. Shouldn’t it teach us that Ishmael is very costly?
Someone has said, “The child of expediency is always an Ishmael”. How many Ishmael’s have we brought forth in today’s Churches? Many Church programs and projects are Ishmael. They are children of expediency. The Church does what seems good to the Pastors and leaders.
Abraham made another serious blunder. He abdicated his right and let the initiative passed from him as head of the home and let Sarah made the decision. Sarah said go into her maid – he did! Some years later Sarah said get rid of her maid – he had to because of his first mistake!
Notice that Abraham committed the same blunder that Adam committed. Adam allowed Eve to speak to the serpent who had no right to be in the Garden in the first place!
Do we commit the same blunder in the Church? How many times women Pastors and women Church leaders brought forth Ishmael?
When Ishmael was 13 years old the promised heir Isaac – he came God’s way. He came not by manipulation, not by helping God, but by God’s initiative!
Jesus Christ is the Bridegroom of the Church; the true Church is His Bride. The same relationship applies here. The Bridegroom takes the initiative to make decisions. Therefore Jesus does not want the Church to take any initiative. Jesus is fully prepared to accept the responsibility for taking the initiative. What He wants the Church to do is to respond. But most of the Churches today have little or no concept of letting the Lord to take the initiative.
After Isaac was weaned, Sarah took the initiative to have Hagar and her son Ishmael sent away (Gen. 21:9 – 14). Abraham was troubled but God helped him to handle his mistake. Likewise, all men-of-God should learn how to handle mistakes. God will help them when their hearts are right.
5. Call to let go of Isaac
The final test of Abraham’s faith was the letting go of Isaac, his only promised son (Gen 22:1 – 18).
Notice that whenever God asked Abraham to do anything he got up early in the morning to do it. I believe if he hadn’t got up early but stayed in bed and thought about it he would not have agreed to offer Isaac as a burnt offering. This would have changed the course of history!
Because of Abraham faithfulness and obedience God provided a Ram for the burnt offering in place of Isaac. Ram is a princely animal and in this context signifies Jesus. “Horns” (of the ram) speaks of God’s strength – Jesus’ strength comes from His obedience to the Father.
After Abraham’s faith had been tested and confirmed the Angel of the Lord said, “Blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice” (Gen. 22:17, 18, NKJV, emphasis added).
The key to all these blessings is “hearing and obeying God’s voice”.
I believe whatever God gives us one day He will ask for it back. Our faith and commitment will be tested. Our response to God’s demand determines the measure of blessing He will bless us with.
Conclusion
Every one of the above steps of commitment is a renunciation – a letting go and yielding to God’s demand.
An important spiritual principle revealed by studying Abraham’s walk with God is:
Whatever you hold on to dwindles; whatever you yield is multiplied. The things you give is what God multiples. God blesses you but he multiples what you have yielded to him!
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