The Journey

 It takes some kind of faith to believe that your descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the heavens when you have yet to sire one heir with your wife. That sort of faith is not instantaneous; it cannot come about overnight; it is something that is built up over time, something that grows naturally and organically as you journey through life with God as your guide and companion.

The promise God made to Abraham was not some generic thing that could be interpreted in one of a hundred ways; it was specific: one will come from your own body that will be your heir!

There’s no way of interpreting that any other way than that Abraham would sire a son who would be his heir, and then God went on to tell him that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars.

All evidence was pointing to the contrary. Abraham was getting on in age; it hadn’t happened in years and years, yet here he was, believing the words God spoke to him, standing on the promises of God, and not allowing himself to be swayed.

Genesis 15:6, “And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.”

Our journey of faith begins with the possible, crosses into probable, and from there into the land of the improbable, to the outright impossible. Each iteration requires our faith to stretch, grow, and mature so that the things we believed God for when we started our walk with Him seem paltry in hindsight.

Sarah was 90 when she gave birth to Isaac. She was 90 when God fulfilled his promise to Abraham, and we can safely say Abraham’s faith had made the trek all the way from believing the highly improbable to the outright impossible by the time Isaac was born.

The reason James highlights Abraham’s obedience as the pinnacle of works is that he understood how much he loved his son Isaac. Everything his lineage would ever be was wrapped up in the one son he had, the son he was willing to lay on an altar as a sacrifice because God required it.

Because of all the lived experiences he’d had with God up until that point, Abraham also knew that God would find a way to keep His promise and make his descendants as numerous as the stars. Even if he had to bring Isaac back from the beyond, Abraham knew God could, and God would because he’d seen the impossible take place in his life already and was fully assured that God does not lie.

Abraham knew God would make a way. He didn’t know how or when, but he knew that He would. That is the level of faith required of those who choose to walk in obedience, who choose to walk by faith and not by sight, because what you see and what He sees are two wholly different things.

There are a hundred reasons why our perception might be off, or why we may be seeing something in a way we shouldn’t, from sun glare to reflections to not enough light, but God always sees with perfect vision, and knowing this, we trust that He will lead us in the way we must go.

Abraham had every intention of being obedient to the end, though it would have crushed him. There were no limits or limitations to his obedience. He’d placed Isaac on the altar and raised the knife in the air. Only then the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven.

Genesis 22:12, “And He said, ‘Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.’”

It’s that now part that’s scary when you think about it. It wasn’t when he packed up to go to the land of Moriah, or when he climbed the mountain, or when he set up the altar, or when he laid out the wood or laid Isaac upon it. His hand was stretched out, and the knife was lifted high in the air before the Angel said, now I know that you fear God.

Everybody wants to be God’s friend, but few are willing to pay the price. Everybody wants to have the sort of intimate relationship with God that Abraham did, but few are willing to put God first in all things, all the time, without reservation or exception.

What does it take to be used by God? Everything.

Too many of us are still holding something back, whether our reputation, our influence, or our vision of what we think our calling should be. There’s still something, and we know what it is, and it’s that thing that God will require you to place on the altar in order to have the level of intimacy Abraham had. 

God asked for Isaac of Abraham because there was nothing more precious to him in this world than his son. God could have asked for a hundred head of cattle, and Abraham wouldn’t have batted an eye, but I am sure beyond doubt that the thought of sacrificing Isaac tore him into pieces, yet there he was, ready to carry out God’s instructions.

Before you ask God for more, count the cost and determine whether or not you’re willing to pay it in full because it will be required of you sooner or later.

I think that’s why some people in ministry get bitter and walk away altogether. They asked before finding out what they asked for would cost, and when they found out, they weren’t willing to pay it.

I’m well aware that this flies in the face of modern teaching wherein you practically have to duck out of the way of God’s gifts, but in my defense, I’ve known a handful of men who were genuinely used of God and to the last, they were asked to sacrifice something that wasn’t easy to part with, but they did so because God asked, and they loved God supremely above all else.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.