How Do I Receive God’s Promises?
Chef’s Menu For Today
Dr Hilary Moroney – Canberra House of Prayer
Between Genesis 12 to Genesis 22 we see how God found a man Abram with whom He could start again and make a Covenant with Him to establish His Kingdom mandate that had been lost in the Garden of Eden. In Gen 12 God instructs Abram to leave his family and country to go to a land that He would show him with great promises. So Abram departed and obeyed God.
In Gen 15 God later made a covenant promise to Abram that a son and heir with multiple descendants would come from his body. Also, God promised to give Abram His Land as his inheritance. In Gen 15:6 we are told that Abram “believed the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness.” James 2:23 mentions this verse and claims that because of his faith and obedience, Abraham became the “friend of God.”
However, as Sarai was barren, in Gen 16, she immediately gave Abram her Egyptian maidservant with whom to have the child, using her human reasoning, trying to ‘help God out’. In their zeal to see these promises fulfilled, Abram agreed and they tried a way that “seemed right” to their culture. But sadly this was not the covenant God had intended and the result was generations of family dysfunction, disunity and struggle – still going on today, with ‘worth-less-ness’ at the root of much family pain. This is one of the enemy’s major strongholds that undermines our true identity in God.
Later, when Haggar became pregnant and was dishonouring to Sarai, her mistress, feelings of ‘worth-less-ness’ flooded Sarai.
Then, in Gen 17, God changed their names and Blessed Abraham and Sarah and promised them that they would together have a son. After Isaac was born, Ishmael, Haggar’s son, felt ‘worth-less’ and retaliated and was sent out of the family.
As we continue to read the rest of Genesis, we also see how these feelings of ‘worthlessness’, also continue through the lives of Isaac & Rebecca, when their elder son Essau felt ‘worth-less’ than Jacob, whom Isaac had blessed and Essau threatened retaliation, so Jacob fled.
Then Jacob’s first wife Leah felt ‘worth-less’ than Rachel her younger sister whom Jacob first loved and so it goes on down Abraham’s family line, into the lives of the 12 sons of Jacob and their mariages…
But the story doesn’t end there….
Let’s listen now how God Restored everyone’s WORTH through bringing all His promises into fulfilment in and through the Life and Sacrificial Blood of Jesus Christ, the seed of Abraham (Gal 3:29), the Lamb of God, slain before the creation of the world (Rev 13:8b).
Why not read Genesis chapters 12 to 22 now for yourself, and journal any new insights you discover…
Ps Jeff’s Special Today: “Failure to Forgive”
The parable of the Unforgiving Servant is right on point (Matthew 18:21-35). If you don’t forgive “from your heart” trespasses of your brother, your Heavenly Father will not forgive you. This is a reminder of Matthew 6: 14,15: ” For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.“
But being candid with yourself and the Holy Spirit, is there an old issue needing to be confessed, being reluctant to forgive others? Is forgiving others regardless of circumstances an issue ? Do you think the Word is only for the disciples 2,000 years ago? Do you have any residue of not forgiving others in your upbringing as a child? Was it a family pattern in any way?
God bless you as you seek His Holy Spirit Wisdom on this vital issue. May you go forward on His path, “perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” (2 Corinthians 7:1).
