Are you walking in a season where trials and discouragement is trying to take a hold of you, and are starting to doubt God’s promises that He made to you? It may even look like what He has previously spoken to you, may never happen?

See Genesis 22:1-18, the testing of Abraham. The Jews call this section of scripture the Akeidah, the binding of Isaac to the altar. God said to him to not only take his son, but He said in verse 2, ” Now take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love! Get yourself into the land of Moriah! Offer him there as on offering upon one of the mountains of which I shall tell you!” God emphasized, “your only son”.  Can you imagine God asking you to give up your children, let alone your only child?

Abraham came through this test with flying colors. But how did he do it? By faith! Yes, he trusted God and was fully persuaded that, what He had promised, He was also able to perform. (Romans 4:21). What did God promise him? Let’s look at Genesis 17:19.  And God said, “Sarah your wife will indeed bear a son for you; and you shall call his name Isaac. And I shall establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant and with his seed after him.”

So Abraham had a word or promise from God that it would be through Isaac, not Ishmael, that the covenant of promise would be through him and his seed after him. So here it is, God gives us a promise, and we get all excited about it, and truly believe God at that time He speaks it. But then, when the circumstances of life begin to happen, especially in the area in which God made  you a promise, fear and doubt begin to take over. Fear contaminates faith. Or I love this saying: Fear tolerated is faith contaminated. What did Abraham do, that made him so successful in passing this test, and obtained the promise?

1. He obeyed God and did not withhold his only son from Him
2. He believed God, and was fully persuaded that what God promised, He was able to perform. Romans 4:21

What also made  him successful, is a vital component to all of this: he spoke by faith! He was a doer of the Word! He took his faith, and put it into action. Let’s look at Genesis 22 verse 5: And Abraham said to his young men, (these were the men that went with him and Isaac to the offering at the altar that day), “You stay here with the donkey and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, AND COME AGAIN TO YOU.”  Bam, there it is! He believed, therefore he spoke it. He said that “I and the lad will come again to you!” Whether Abraham felt that God could raise him from the dead, or we don’t know what he must have been thinking. But one thing we do know, he believed and spoke that Isaac was going back with him to those young men. 2 Cor 4:13 says, It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak…  Abraham spoke by faith.

He took action by obeying, by believing and speaking it, and then he received it!

Abraham had great faith in the midst of what may have looked like, the promise of God not coming to pass.  He didn’t go by what it looked like, or felt like, but what God said. And when he passed this test, God said in verses 15-18,” Then the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, and said: “By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son— blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the 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.”

Amen! Thank God for Abraham’s faith. See, not only was this promise for Abraham alone, but to his future descendants. This promise was within God’s destiny for all mankind! And because of his faith in God’s promise, we now have Jesus. He was the seed that the nations of the earth would be blessed through. And because of Jesus, look what we have: Romans 4:16 “Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring–not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.”

If Abraham can do it, and didn’t have the infilling of the Holy Spirit as we do, as the New Testament church, how much more can we do it through the Holy Spirit that equips us as He is also the Spirit of Grace? Jesus said  greater works will we do because He goes to the Father. And because He went back to the Father, the Holy Spirit is able to help us when we are going through, and to help us obtain our promises. Amen?

I encourage you, with whatever you may be walking through, Trust God! Trust what He told you. Whether it was a scripture, or a prophecy or even a dream or vision that He gave you. It is geared toward the destiny that is inside you. And it’s not just for you, but it’s also for those that would be blessed through your obedience. Use that word as a double-edged sword, to thwart you through these times of what may look like a delay to your promise. It is not a delay. God is faithful, He is working all things together for you good, even now!

Numbers 23:19:

“God is not a man, that He should lie,
Nor a son of man, that He should repent.
Has He said, and will He not do?
Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?

“Abba Father, we thank you today for all of your promises to us are yes and amen! In the midst of some circumstances that we may be walking through, Father you have given us a promise that we can take a hold of, like Abraham did. Whether it be through a word, or even a vision you may have given us, we trust that it shall come to pass.  Right now by faith, we say we trust you, by coming into agreement with your word for us,  as we believe and speak it, because we know, you are faithful to perform that which you have spoken to us. We will not be like Thomas that needs to feel or even see in order to believe you. But like Jesus said to him in John 20:29, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” In the Name of Yeshua Jesus, we receive all that you have for us! Amen and Amen!”