“This is impossible. I really thought God had called me to do this but there’s just no way.”
Have you ever said that?
We all know what it's like for God to call us to do something beyond our ability, beyond our resources, impossible for us to accomplish on our own. But the laws of impossibility do not apply to followers of Jesus. The laws of gravity and electricity apply. Tax laws apply. Not the laws of impossibility.
It may be true that we don't have the resources or the natural ability. It may be that the vision we started with seems dead. If something is dead or doesn't even exist, it lies outside our frame of reference.
Not so with God.
He creates, recreates, resurrects,
calls into being that which does not exist, calls those things
which are not as though they are.
God has a vision for our lives and as we journey with Him into the vision, we will discover that with God nothing is impossible. Even more wonderful is the discovery that He is able to transform us into persons who can believe Him for that which is impossible.
A good example of this is found in the lives of Abraham and Sarah.
The High Calling of Abraham and Sarah (Genesis 12:1-3 15:1-5 17:1-6)
God said to Abraham, "I will make a great nation out of you. Look up at the stars, count them if you are able. So shall your descendants be.” (……) . Abraham didn’t know it but God had a plan that stretched forward several thousand years. God planned to send His Son Jesus to save people from sin and reconcile a lost world to Himself.
But before there could be a Savior, God needed an Abraham and Sarah to have a child. That child, Isaac, would be the father of Jacob who would father twelve sons. Those twelve sons would become fathers of twelve tribes. From those tribes the nation Israel would be formed. To that nation the Savior would be born and that Savior would send forth a church carrying the Good News of the kingdom of God across the Earth. Someday, the children of Abraham, children of faith, would outnumber the stars of the heavens.
God was saying, “Abraham, I have a vision for this world and my vision includes you and your wife having a son.” Abraham was 75 years old when God said that. Sarah was 65. They had never been able to have any children. For 25 years after that, God continued to remind them of His promise. When Abraham was 100 and Sarah was 90, God was still saying, “Look up, count the stars; so shall your descendants be.”
Surely there were times when Abraham and Sarah were tempted to say, “This is hopeless. There is no possibility of anything good coming out of this.” But Abraham and Sarah were learning that God’s promises are more real than anything we can touch or see or hear. God had made a promise to them and they learned to believe the God they could not see, to believe the promise they could not touch, rather than any circumstance they could see or touch. They learned to live by faith.
Faith in who or what? Not in their own strength or religious devotion or works.
Faith in God.
Consider these three principles in the faith walk of Abraham and Sarah:
1. Everything God promised to do in their lives would be accomplished by God.
Notice these promises in Genesis:
12:1 I will show you.
12:2 I will make you a great nation.
12:2 I will bless you and make your name great.
12:3 I will bless those who bless you.
15:1 I am a shield to you.
17:2 I will establish my covenant ... I will multiply.
17:5 For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.
17:6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful and I will make nations of you.
17:7 I will establish my covenant between me and you.
17:8 I will give to you.
The promises of God to Abraham and Sarah were not based on their own wisdom or power. They were based on God’s absolute knowledge of all truth that could ever be true; His absolute power to accomplish all of His purpose and therefore, His sovereign ability to bring into being all that He promises.
“I will do this,” says the Lord.
In Romans 4:17 we read that the God who called to Abraham is the God who, Gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist (or calls those things which are not as though they are). What kind of God has made promises to us?
He is the God who gives life to the dead.
Jesus said, I am the Resurrection and the life (John 11:25). When your circumstances seem dead, remember, the One who has made promises to you is the One whose name is Resurrection. In Him is life. He is the uncreated, Self-Existent Giver of life. Dead circumstances, dead possibilities must yield to His command.
He calls into being those things which are not.
All things were created by Him and for Him and He is before all things and in Him all things hold together (Col. 1:16,17). What did God use to form the world? Nothing other than His Word: The earth was formless and empty and darkness covered the face of the deep ... Then God said, “Let there be light,’ and there was light (Gen. 1:1-3).
We comprehend, we grasp this truth about God by faith as the writer of Hebrews reminds us, By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible (Hebr. 11:3).
When you look at your circumstance and do not see the resources you need, remember our God creates resources, creates possibilities where nothing existed. He creates out of nothing. He does this by speaking into being that which is not.
You may not be able to see or touch what you are hoping and praying for but that is irrelevant because God creates out of nothing. The God who called Abraham and Sarah, the God who had vision for their life and has a vision for your life, is the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things which did not exist before He spoke.
He is the Creator of life and He has made promises to you. The accomplishing of these promises is the work of God. Transforming us into persons who can believe Him — this also is the work of God.
2. There was a human side to the fulfilling of the promises. Abraham and Sarah were commanded to walk with integrity:
I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless. I will establish my covenant between me and you, and I will multiply you exceedingly (Gen. 17:1,2).
The word blameless has to do with integrity, completeness. There was a level of holy integrity that was required of Abraham and Sarah as they journeyed with God. Considering their human tendency to sin and fail, how could they walk with integrity before a holy God?
Notice how the Lord identifies Himself in verse 1, I am God Almighty (El Shaddai). This is the first use of this name of God. All the promises God made to Abraham and Sarah are rooted in the being of the Almighty who is able to bring about all that He promised. Almighty God will walk with them through the transforming journey into holy integrity.
Every word that God speaks contains the power to bring that word into reality. His word is living and active (Hebrews 4:12). The word which we translate active is, in the Greek, energeia — effectual, powerful, from which we derive the English word energy. Abraham and Sara were able to walk with integrity before God because the God who called them to integrity is Almighty, able to energize them to walk with integrity. El Shaddai is able to accomplish all that He promises to us and commands from us.
Notice also that as God revealed His new name, He also gave Abram a new name (Abraham had been called Abram until now): No longer shall your name be called Abram (exalted father), but your name shall be called Abraham (father of a multitude) (Gen. 17:5).
As Abram experiences new aspects and attributes of the being of God, God unfolds new aspects of Abraham. Looking into the mirror of God’s Word, we are being transformed. When we discover new truth about God, we cannot help but grow into more of who the Lord has purposed that we would become. It is truly a transforming journey.
Notice that God gives Abram the new name, Abraham, father of a multitude, while he is still childless. Abraham is 99 years old now — it has been almost 25 years since the first promise of a son. He is still childless and yet God is calling him father of a multitude. God is truly the Almighty who calls those things which are not as though they are.
Notice also the verb tense in Genesis 17:5: I have made you the father of many nations.
In verse 2 God says, I will establish.
In verse 6, I will make you.
In verse 7, I will establish.
In verse 8, I will give.
All those promises employ future tense verbs. However, in verse 5 when Abraham was still childless the Lord says, I have made you the father of many nations. God speaks the reality of that which will be as if it already is, because He is everlasting. God exists in eternity past and in eternity future while meeting us in time and so God calls that which is not as though it is.
God calls Abraham and Sarah to be who they are not, to walk with Him with holy integrity, even though sometimes they fail and sin. He calls them to walk before Him as fruitful, though they are childless.
So with us. The Apostle Paul exhorts us, Do all things without grumbling or complaining so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world (Phlpns. 2:14,15).
Remember, the word blameless has to do with integrity, walking according to the light we have been given in Christ Jesus. But how do we walk blamelessly and innocently in the midst of a crooked and perverse world?
Paul answers our question: Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you and He also will bring it to pass,” (I Thes. 5:23,24).
It is the Lord Himself through the exercise of His power who sanctifies us, who makes us holy, who imparts His holy nature into our being. It is His faithfulness that begins and fulfills our ability to live with integrity. If we will day by day surrender our lives to His Lordship and place our faith in His faithfulness, the Lord will enable us to walk with integrity.
As we journey in faith with the Lord who visioned our lives and designed us for His purpose, He transforms us by His power into persons who can fulfill His purpose. As we have said, there is a human side to this and a Godward side. Only God can transform us but He does so as we surrender, yield and cooperate with His transforming power.
The Apostle John reminds us,If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin (I John 1:6,7).
If we walk in the darkness, that is, if we knowingly disobey God’s commands and violate His holy Word, we are liars if we say we have fellowship with Him. But if we walk in the light, that is, if we commit ourselves to love the Lord with all our heart, mind, soul and strength and prove this by obeying His Word, then we have fellowship with Him. In the intimacy of this journey, He progressively sanctifies our formerly sinful nature so that we can walk with greater integrity.
Walking in the light, walking with integrity, is a commitment. It doesn’t mean we are sinless. John follows by reminding us of our potential to stumble and the remedy of repentance: If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (I Jn. 1:8,9).
Notice that when we confess our sin, the Lord not only forgives but also cleanses us of that sin. Charles Wesley expressed this truth in one of his great hymns,
“He breaks the power of canceled sin
He sets the prisoner free
His blood can make the foulest clean
His blood availed for me.”
If we will commit to a lifestyle of transparent, humble repentance, confessing and turning from our sin, the Lord not only forgives us. He also breaks the power of canceled sin, enabling us to walk with integrity. Truly, it is a transforming journey.
God made promises to Abraham and Sarah and assured them that the fulfillment of these promises would be through the exercise of His divine will as they walked with integrity before Him. They surely did sin and fail at times. On two occasions Abraham lied about Sarah, saying that she was his sister instead of his wife. He was afraid that men would take her from him and kill him so he lied, rather than trusting in God’s protection.
On another occasion, Sarah scoffed, laughed at the promise of God. In a moment of weakness, Abraham tried to create a descendant by having relations with a servant, which led to the birth of Ishmael. Yes, at times they sinned, stumbled, failed. But they continued to place their faith in the faithfulness of the God who fulfills His promises.
This brings us to a third principle of faith.
3. The failure and sins of Abraham and Sarah could not destroy God’s purpose as long as they were willing to repent and maintain their focus on God. Sin breaks our focus and fellowship with God. Repentance leads to restoration. In spite of seasons of failure, we see Abraham and Sarah enjoying continual fellowship with God because they continually turned back to God when they failed.
This fellowship is revealed through three qualities of faith.
a. Abraham and Sarah were absorbed with God (Romans 4:18,19).
In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.
Faith grows as we become more absorbed with who God is and what God says than we are with our circumstances. Abraham and Sarah believed according to that which had been spoken. They did not deny the reality of their dead procreative ability but they were absorbed in the reality of God’s promise.
Walking in faith does not mean we deny reality. Abraham did not try to talk away the deadness of his body or of Sarah's womb, as if to say, Well maybe there's a little something left in our bodies. No, he looked squarely at the physical reality.
(The King James translation says, “He considered not his own body now dead.” The wording is different but the meaning is unchanged: he disregarded the deadness of his body and Sarah's womb, remaining more absorbed in what God had said than in his or Sarah’s dead procreative ability.)
Faith is not pretending a situation is not desperate. Faith is believing God. Faith is not denying the impossibilities. Faith is believing the promises of a God who is infinitely greater than any impossible challenges we will ever face. Abraham looked squarely at the deadness in the natural realm but chose to be absorbed with what God had said.
In hope against hope he believed. How could he do this? Because his faith was focused on God. He believed what God said even though, humanly speaking, there was no hope that the promise could ever be fulfilled.
The angel Gabriel came to Mary and said, You will conceive in your womb and bear a son (Luke 1:31).
Mary responded, How can this be since I am a virgin? (Luke 1:34).
The angel replied, The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will over shadow you … For nothing will be impossible with God (1:35,37).
That last phrase can be translated, For no word of God is without power. Every word God has ever spoken carries in it the life and dynamic power necessary to bring into being the reality of that word. The word of God carries in it the DNA, the design, and the power necessary for that word to spring into life in exact accordance with God’s purpose.
It does not say Mary understood, but she replied, May it be done to me according to your word (1:38). She believed what God said. We can believe truth that we don't understand.
Faith is not a denial of our reality. Faith is believing the promises of a God who is able to change our reality. Faith is not denying our circumstance. Faith is believing in a God who is greater than our circumstance and is able to change our circumstance.
We don't need great faith to move a mountain. We need faith in a God who is greater than our mountain, a God who speaks and mountains move.
b. They gave glory to God, not their circumstances (Romans 4:20).
Yet with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God.
Abraham did not waver in unbelief but grew stronger as he gave glory to God. Too often people give glory to their impossible circumstances: “This will probably kill me, no way I'll ever get out of this.”
Why not instead give glory to the God who is bigger than our circumstances, the God who changes our circumstances and transforms us as we praise Him? As Abraham praised God, he grew stronger.
Abraham was a builder of altars. In Genesis 12:7, when God promised to give the land of Canaan to his descendants, Abraham built an altar there. In 12:8, as Abraham journeyed on, he pitched his tent, built an altar and called on the name of the Lord.
An altar is a holy place where God meets us and builds us, consecrates us, transforms us into people who can enter in to His promises. An altar is a place of worship where our hearts are focused on the God who includes us in His promises. An altar is a place where we grow strong in faith because our hearts are focused on the reality of who God is. At the altar of worship we see His power, His mercy, His faithfulness, His holiness. As we keep our spiritual eyes focused on God, He brings us in to the fulfillment of the promise and the living of the vision.
Have you built any altars today? We build altars when we meditate on who God is and what God has done, as we read in His word the stories of men and women who were brought through desperate trials by the mighty hand of a merciful God.
We build altars as we sing and worship and exalt this awesome God. We build altars when we recall the mighty works of God in our own lives, the sovereign times and seasons when God stretched out his hand and delivered us and blessed us.
As we build altars, giving glory to God, we grow strong in faith. For twenty-five years Abraham and Sarah believed God, praised God, walked toward the promise. These were twenty-five years of circumstances that seemed to deny the promise but Abraham grew stronger as he gave glory to God.
c. They absolutely believed the promise of God (Rom. 4: 21)
Being fully assured that what God has promised He is able also to perform.
There were times of doubt and failure but as Abraham and Sarah remained absorbed in God’s purpose for their lives, as they worshipped God, God's promise to them became increasingly alive in their spirit. As the Word of God sinks into our hearts, it creates in us a faith that is living and dynamic. This faith then becomes the very substance, the evidence of the reality that does not yet exist.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen (Hebrews 11:1). Faith gave substance to the promise they hoped for. Faith provided evidence for what they could not see. They could not see or touch the child they hoped for. They could not even see any procreative ability in their bodies. But this living, dynamic faith in God became a womb in which God eventually created the child He had promised.
By faith, even Sarah herself received ability (power) to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised; therefore also, there was born of one man, and him as good as dead at that, as many descendants as the stars of heaven in number, and innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore (Hebrews 11:11,12).
The word ability is dunamis, one of the New Testament words for power, as In Acts 1:8, But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses. Though Sarah was barren, God empowered her to conceive, since she considered Him faithful who had promised.
When Abraham was one hundred years old and Sarah was ninety, twenty-five years after God first made the promise, Isaac was born. Their journey of faith took them to a place of complete dependence on God. When it was biologically impossible for them to produce an Isaac, then God fulfilled the promise: So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time of which God had spoken to him (Gen. 21:2).
God fulfilled His promise at the appointed time.
In closing, let’s remember these mile markers in the transforming journey of faith.
1. The journey of faith involves separation.
In Genesis, 12:1 the Lord spoke to Abraham and told him to leave his country, his people and his father’s household. Separation from an ungodly, unbelieving culture was necessary in order for God to do a new work in and through Abraham.
Consider the unreasonableness of the separation. God called Abraham to leave country and family, the very things that seemed most necessary to achieve the blessings God promised — a nation and a family. This is why his response is faith. He left what he could see to obtain what he could not see.
Separation means following — Abraham followed the God who called. For most of the years of his journey, Abraham could not always make sense of God’s promises nor His motives. But he trusted and followed the God who promised. This is faith.
The journey of faith always looks forward, not backward. Abraham left the old country that he could see and touch to gain something which he could neither see nor touch yet, a city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God (Hebr. 11:10).
As we journey with the God who has visioned our lives, we also will be called to separate ourselves from anything that would separate us from the fulfilling of the Lord’s purpose. He calls us out of old patterns and paradigms and as we journey toward the unknown, He transforms us into persons who can take hold of new patterns and paradigms by faith.
2. The journey of faith involves contradictions.
Abraham lived in the land that was promised to him but he lived there as a foreigner, believing the promise but not possessing it. He endured a famine in the land of milk and honey. He lived in tents while looking for a city with foundations. Faith pushes through the contradictions, being fully assured that what God has promised, He is able also to perform.
3. The journey of faith is sustained at altars.
While in Canaan, Abraham built altars. He was a worshipper and grew strong in faith as he gave glory to God. He grew strong because God is enthroned in the praises of His people and where God rules, God blesses.
However, when there was a famine in Canaan, Abraham fled to Egypt. He left the place of worship, the place of God’s rulership. He built no altars in Egypt. It is no coincidence that he fell into sin there.
Famine in the land of promise seems like a contradiction. Crises present us with opportunities to choose. Enduring by faith through the famine could have led to greater faith and worship of the God who preserved him. Instead he ran from the famine, fled the land of promise, built no altars and sinned. We cannot choose whether there will be crises in our lives. We can choose how we will respond.
In time, Abraham repented and returned to the land of promise and again built altars. The place of surrender became the place of possession. He again grew strong in faith and possessed the promises of God as he built altars.
4. The journey of faith is grounded in the faithfulness of God toward us.
Therefore, Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess for He who promised is faithful (Hebr. 10:23).
Are you fully assured that God is able to perform what He has promised toward you?
The Psalmist says, The Lord will accomplish what concerns me; thy loving kindness O Lord is everlasting (Psalm 138:8).
5. The journey of faith requires a holy response.
The Lord called Abraham to walk before Him with integrity and this is a partnership. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (I Jn. 1:9). The Lord gifts us with the ability to see our sin and the willingness to confess it and turn from it. As we do, He forgives and cleanses.
The Apostle Paul directs us to, Work out your salvation with fear and trembling (reverent humility) but then he adds, for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure (Phlp. 2:12,13).
We commit to live a holy life and the Lord enables us to walk before Him in holiness. It’s a partnership, as the Psalmist reminds us, My soul clings to You; Your right hand upholds me (Ps. 63:8). What a perfect description of the journey of Abraham and Sarah. When the power of Almighty God is released in a surrendered, holy life, God will accomplish that which He purposes.
Isn’t it interesting that in Genesis we read of Abraham and Sarah sinning, failing. But in Romans chapter 4 we read nothing of their sin, only, With respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform (Rom. 4:20,21).
But you see, Genesis is history, what happened. Romans chapter 4 is epitaph — the words God wrote over their transforming journey. Their sin was washed away and remembered no more.
God has a kingdom purpose for this world. Abraham and Sarah were included in that plan and God made promises to them. For twenty-five years they moved toward the fulfilling of those promises. As they journeyed, they were transformed into the man and woman who were able to possess the promise.
God has visioned our lives also. We are divinely designed.
We have been called to a journey of faith and as we yield to the God who calls us, we are transformed into persons who can possess the promise, enter the vision and fulfill God’s purpose.
Your circumstances may say, “This is dead. Nothing good can come of this. It's hopeless.”
The Word of God says, “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philp. 1:6).
Whose voice will you believe?