"Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life."
Prov. 13:12
Very often, well-meaning Christians hear the preaching of the Word and they are promised, "that God will fulfil our dreams and visions ... that God will grant us the desires of our hearts."
Yet how many of us have promises that we are standing on, that are yet to be fulfilled?When promises for our lives are not fulfilled, we can become easily discouraged. We also become susceptible to the devil's attacks and may start to doubt God's love and faithfulness toward us.
Too often I have see many discouraged ones grow to despise the Word of the Lord in their lives because of unfulfilled promises, becoming hardened, cynical, negative and full of unbelief.
When I was growing up as a young man in church during the 1980's, I had many friends who were just like me. We had a call, a destiny. We were on fire. Many of us attended Bible colleges and night classes to study more of God's Word.
We all had promises and powerful prophecies given to us. Some of us were prophesied to be evangelists, prophets and have great ministries for the Lord! But time past ... and the promises were not fulfilled.
Some of my peers eventually walked out of God's will for their lives, while others ended up on the sideline watching Christianity as spectators.
Just how did I get through that period of discouragement and wait out the fulfillment of God's promises in my life? How do we get the promises of God released into our lives?
ABRAHAM: THE MAN WITH GREAT PROMISES FROM GOD
You know, Abraham spent a great part of His life waiting for his promises to be fulfilled."Now the Lord had said to Abram:
"Get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you." Gen. 12:1
"So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him ... And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran." Gen. 12:4
Bible scholars tell us that this was not the first time that God called him out. Apparently, the first time God spoke to Abram was 25 years earlier.
Now, what exactly did God promise him? If you will read in verses 2 and 3, you will see that there are exactly 7 promises given to Abram. But most of these promises were not fulfilled immediately.
You see, to become a great nation, you've first got to have many descendants. But how can you talk about descendants when you don't even have a son?
Abraham didn't have his son Isaac until he was 100 years old! God's promise to give him a son took 25-50 years to come to pass!
IT IS EASY TO PROSPER IN MATERIAL THINGS!
While the promise of a son took a long time to come to pass, the promise of prosperity was very quickly fulfilled in Abraham's life!
The truth is, prosperity and financial miracles occur most frequently. Yet, the devil deceives us into thinking that it is rare for God to work financial miracles. Just look at the next few verses:
"Then Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, to the South.Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold." Gen. 13:1-2
"Now the land was not able to support them, that they might dwell together, for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together." Gen. 13:6
Friends, here is something about prosperity that we don't realize. It doesn't take a lot of faith to enter into prosperity. The money that we put into our offering bucket ... God calls it a seed. The Bible says that when you sow a seed, you'll reap a harvest.
Now, do you think a farmer must be a great man of faith to harvest a crop? No! The power of reproduction is in the seed. If you take a good seed and sow it into good ground ... whether you have faith or not ... it will grow into a harvest!
It doesn't take nearly as much faith as a lot of people think. What does it take to have prosperity in the Lord? It basically takes obedience to His Word!
God says, "Give, and it will be given to you!" The moment that financial seed goes into the ground, there is power in that seed to do the rest of the work. You don't need faith in that seed, you just need faith in the Word!
Entering into prosperity is not difficult: it just takes simple OBEDIENCE to God's Word.Pay your tithe faithfully, give your offerings generously, don't make it a habit to get into debt, keep your life in order. If you observe the Laws of the Harvest, you WILL get a big harvest!While God's promise of prosperity was fulfilled in Abraham's life, the rest of the promises did not come to pass.
DIFFERENT POWER FOR DIFFERENT PROMISES!
There are certain promises that all of hell will rise up to stop from being fulfilled. And one of that is the promise of a great nation that will bless the whole world. All of hell rose to fight that one!Then all of a sudden, 3 simple things happened in Abraham's life. And when Abraham responded correctly to these 3 things ... the dam of hindrance was broken and all the promises of God came flooding into his life!
"After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward." Gen. 15:1
Abraham had come to a point where he felt like giving up ...
"But Abram said, "Lord God, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus? Then Abram said, "Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!" Gen. 15:2-3
If you cannot see it, you will never have it. You can have stacks and stacks of prophecies given to you, but until you can see your vision through the eyes of your spirit ... it will never come to pass!Now, without a vision the people perish. The devil will do his utmost to stop you from seeing the fulfillment of your promise.
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