Contributor: Ayomide Oladipo

INTRODUCTION
Last week, we had an overview of the first 17 chapters of the book of Genesis, our teacher gave an expository of the “profound and multifaceted text that lays the foundation for biblical theology” in Genesis 1. The overview captured the dynamics of creation by God and His purpose for creating Man, it also gave us an overview of different occurrences on earth and with mankind that are the bases for some of the happenings around our world today.

Today we will continue on the life and destiny of Abraham, we would examine his call and walk of faith with the Lord, the promise God had for him and his descendants as well as the fulfilment of the promise. We trust God to give us an understanding of how Abraham was able to work with Him using the gift of discernment, faith, and reverence to God to see the fulfilment of his destiny.

What is the Promise?
Genesis 12:1-3 “Now the Lord had said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee 2. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing. 3. And I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

Two points to highlight in the calling and promise of God for Abram,

• God called him out of the seen into the unseen,
• God as well called him to be blessed and be a blessing.

The calling of Abram from the known into the unknown is purposed to build his trust and relationship with the Lord. God also destined him not just to be blessed but also to be a blessing. We can see something similar in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, Philippians 2:5-8, Jesus had a mindset of reverence to God by exalting Him above personal comfort and reputation, a mindset of service and humility, this provoked the fulfilment of God’s blessing upon Jesus as well as Abraham. As children of God, we are admonished to have this mindset in us, the mindset of willingness to obey God’s directive, and not only to be blessed but to be a blessing as well.

The journey of Abram from when he heard the promise to when it was fulfilled, was not a straight path, it was a walk of building relationship with God, and as we have learned in the life of Abraham, the more he walked with God, the more he built capacity to trust God and obey him. Behind every action, thought, or attitude a person exhibits is a mindset. We call Abraham the Father of Faith, but we should not forget he was once a ‘child in faith’.
According to God’s standard, his works were not as important as his relationship with Him which translated into Abraham’s trust in God- Romans 4: 1-4 KJV. We could see that on the journey to receiving God’s promise, the journey was more to prepare Abraham for the promise than was it is to take him to the promise.

How was Abraham able to wait on the Promise?

1. He Understood His Waiting as a Process (2 Corinthians 4: 16-18)

It is important for us to know that there was nothing that happened in Abraham’s life and journey towards receiving the promise that was a surprise to God. God “Calls forth Light out of Darkness”, so in every situation, God considered it a learning opportunity for Abraham, and in his life, we could deduce that after every shortcoming, Abraham became wiser, his walk with God scaled new heights. By man’s standard, Abraham made mistakes on his way to the fulfilment of his destiny, but by God’s standard, Abraham went through a process that tested his trust in the Lord and revealed his vulnerabilities to him in preparation for the promise.

2. Abraham Discerned prophetic Season for Promise Fulfilment
Genesis 18: 1-10. Abraham’s walk with God and spiritual maturity enabled him to discern the angels in human form and the time of his prophetic visitation - 2 Timothy 1:6-7. From the text we could see that those men were not on their way to Abraham’s house, and even when God had promised Abraham it took discernment to be able to entertain them, which provoked the prophetic declaration that led to Abraham receiving the promise of God - 1 Chronicles 12:32.

Through Abraham’s Walk with God, his nature and way of life changed, Abraham exhibited one of God’s virtues “Kindness” – (Galatians 5:22-23). Abraham did not only walk with God, but we also see God working in him through his character and ways. (Galatians 6:9) The scripture admonishes us not to relent in doing good, Abraham had a culture of kindness, we could see it in the relationship he had with his wife Sarai and Lot his brother’s son, and in due season he reaped what he sowed. As children of God, we must always look for opportunity to do good to people and be kind, we may not reap where we sowed, so we should avoid doing good for the sole purpose of been able to receive praise or accolades from the recipient necessarily. But according to the Word of God we will surely reap what we sow. As much as we pray as children of God, we must also be spiritually sensitive, because most of the answers will come in ‘packages’ we are not familiar with, but the Holy Spirit can help us to discern them - Isaiah 30:21.

3. He Knew His God
(Genesis 18: 10 – 33) Abraham’s walk with God, while paying attention to His ways gave him a good understanding of God’s character, which led to great works. In this text we could see Abraham reverence of God in the way he discussed with Him, and his discussion with God was based on his knowledge of God, and we could see he was able to intercede for the people of God in Sodom and Gomorrah – (Daniel 11:32). He reverenced God even when God had attested to his loyalty, he never spoke to God as a friend, he maintained the posture of a child of God (Humility).

CONCLUSION
God answers prayers, He brings to fulfilment His promises to His children. For every promise of God, there is an appointed season for its fulfilment, the Bible says in Habakkuk 2:3 “For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarries, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry.”We can wait for the fulfilment of our promises like Abraham did; trusting God to help us understand times and seasons, continue in building our relationship with God by learning His ways and knowing Him more intimately.

Rather than focusing on the end of every situation, we should focus on the process, what the process is making in us, the Bible says all things work together for our good, therefore in every season of our lives we should look for the good in the season, good knowledge, good wisdom, good understanding, good relationship and many more. When God gives us a promise, He prepares us for the promise not prepare the promise for us.