The Process of a Promise

Promise - a declaration or assurance that one will do a particular thing or that a particular thing will happen.

Recently, God led me to study the story of Abraham (originally called Abram) Genesis 12-22. I've realized from scripture that every promise has a process and this is clearly seen in Abraham's story. In this blog post highlight some clear points in the process of a promise. I hope that having this bird's eye view of the process helps you to stay the course and believe in the God of the promise. 

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God Speaks

God spoke to Abram when he was seventy-five years old and told him to leave country and family and go to a place that He would show him and promised him that He would make him a great nation. The Bible says that he BELIEVED GOD. Every promise starts with God speaking, whether that is through the written word (Bible) or the rhema word. In Abram's case, He heard the voice of God and He believed by faith that God would make good on His promise. 

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We obey

Not only did Abram believe, but that belief inspired and propelled him to do as God had instructed. He left home and family and all that was familiar and obeyed the voice of God. If faith is the heart of a promise, then actions are its lungs. One cannot survive independent of the other. God made a promise to Abram but that promise also came with instructions for him to follow. Abram proved his faith by obeying God and we can do the same. Faith inspires obedience that leads us to the promise of God for our lives. 

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The Test of Time

Abraham is often called the "father of faith" and taking a look at his journey helps us to understand why. The ultimate test of faith is time. God made Abram that promise when he was seventy-five. Abram obeyed God but years later, we still find him at this point in the process: 1. God promised that He would make him a great nation and makes his descendants as the dust of the earth but years later, He is still childless and almost past the age of child-bearing. 2. God promised that He would give the land of Canaan to him and his descendants but Abram is currently living in a tent (a temporary home) in a small part of the land God promised would be his. It was at this point that God once again reminded Abram of His promise, though its fulfilment may have seemed unlikely at that point. The Lord told him that the reward for his obedience would be exceedingly great. And again the Bible says that Abram believed God and was counted righteous because of it. There comes a point in every promise process when the promise seems unlikely, but that is not the end of the process. For there comes a time when the fulfilment of the promise becomes "impossible". I love that word because it doesn't exist in God's dictionary. Nothing is impossible for Him. It is at this point that we have a choice to make. We can either persevere in faith or we can visit what I call the Isle of Ishmael. 

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The Isle of Ishmael (optional)

This is point in the journey where we allow our eyes to dictate our actions. It is a place where we get tired of waiting, flesh takes over and we try to accomplish God's will in our own strength and in our own time resulting in a counterfeit "promise". It had been ten years since God made him the promise and Abram's wife, Sarai, grew tired of waiting and convinced him to have a child with his servant, Hagar. He listened to her and had a son and they called him Ishmael. Some of us, like Sarai become anxious in the waiting and think that we can "help God out" by creating our own "Ishmael" and then like Abram, we ask God to bless it and call it His promise. However, like Abram and and Sarai learned, we too will see that God is not moved by our fleshly attempts at fulfilment. He will not call our Ishmaels his promise. His true promise remains the same for each of us. Whatever He has promised us individually, it still stands. I also want to take this time to encourage you with the consolation that creating an Ishmael does not disqualify you. God could have abandoned Abram and Sarai after they had Ishmael. He could have counted their actions as unbelief and used another man to fulfill His work in the earth but God remained faithful and gracious. He made another covenant with Abram. He changed Abram's name to Abraham which means 'father of many' and Sarai's to Sarah and sealed His promise to them, reminding Abraham that Sarah would birth a child. And again Abraham believed God, though it was now impossible for Sarah at ninety years old to get pregnant. He obeyed God's instructions re: circumcision and lived in incredible faith that even at 99 and 90 respectively, he and his wife would have a child together. Maybe you created an Ishmael and it didn't work out. Your Ishmael doesn't disqualify you from walking in incredible faith. You can turn, circumcise your heart (purify it and set yourself apart) and once again wait for God to fulfill His word.  

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The Fulfilment

Abraham waited on God and at 100 years old (25 years after the promise was made) he saw the manifestation of the son God had promised. This is the joyous part of the process but it's not the end.  

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Sacrificing the Promise

We have the tendency after all of our waiting to hold so tightly to the gift of God and to the future that He has promised that we forget the Giver. And while the promise is good, it is not God. He is our forever portion and with or without the promise, He is to be our focus. In all of our faith, may our hearts be continually set on the one who made the promise. God tested Abraham's heart to see if he had made the promise an idol. Abraham could have grasped tightly to Isaac, treasuring the promise more than he did the Promiser but Abraham's heart was set solely on the One who made the promise and so he stood, hands open, willing to lose what God had promised in order to hold on to the greater treasure, the God of the promise. I pray that we hold loosely to every earthly thing while grasping tightly to the Treasure of Heaven. I can lose all. There is only one thing I need and that is My Lord and My God. 

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The Lesson in the Sacrifice

Abraham was willing to kill his only perceivable way to God's promise because God instructed him to. His obedience was an act of extreme faith. In the book of Hebrews, it is said of him... By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death. Hebrews 11:17‭-‬19 NIV The question I would pose to us today is this: Are we willing to kill/bring to an end/dispose of or sacrifice our only perceivable avenue to the Promise God has shown us? Are we willing to operate in incredible faith that initiates incredible obedience? I pray this day that we be willing to lay our promise down on the altar of sacrifice, in faith believing, that God can raise it from the dead. We can release the lesser to take hold of that which is greater, knowing that in every version of our story, God's word stands true. The way God fulfills His word to you may not look the way you thought it would and it may not sound the way you thought it would but I assure you, He will fulfill it.  

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A Promise from God is a Comfort to the Wise

We've heard it said that "a promise is a comfort to a fool" but I'd say that depends on who's making the promise. Man may fail you. The people around you may make promises and fail to follow through but God will never renege on a promise concerning you. A promise from God is a comfort to His child. A promise is a debt and God is no man's debtor. What He has promised, He will surely bring it to pass. 

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. Hebrews 10:23