PRINCIPLE #6: BELIEVE IT
In Genesis 15, it seems that Abram has a slight problem with what God has promised him. He is very wealthy in cattle, silver, and gold as noted in Genesis 13:2. So he does not doubt that God will give him the land or any other material possessions. This is demonstrated by him turning down the king of Sodom’s offer in Genesis 14 to take the spoil after Abram and his servants slaughtered the kings that had made war against the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and their ally kings. It is clear that Abram trusts God to provide for him for he says to the king of Sodom in verses 22-23:
22 And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, 23 That I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich:
God then says to Abram in a vision, “Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.” But his faith falters at the promise because he has no son. He says to God in verses 2 and 3, what will you give me seeing that I have no child. You have given me no seed, so the one born in my house is mine heir. What is the point then of giving me an inheritance or giving me this land if I have no one to give it to? The steward and heir of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus.
The Lord God responded:
Genesis 15:4-6 AMPCE
4 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, This man shall not be your heir, but he who shall come from your own body shall be your heir. 5 And He brought him outside [his tent into the starlight] and said, Look now toward the heavens and count the stars—if you are able to number them. Then He said to him, So shall your descendants be. 6 And he [Abram] believed in (trusted in, relied on, remained steadfast to) the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness (right standing with God).
If God can do the most impossible thing that he has promised, you can have confidence that He can do everything else that leads to what He has promised as well.
God gave Abram something else to see. Genesis 15:5 God says, “Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them; and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.” And in verse 6 it says that Abram believed in the Lord, and God counted it to him for righteousness.
We must believe but it is not a sin, to be honest with the Lord and say as the father of the demon-possessed son in Mark 9, “Lord I believe but help my unbelief.” Yes the Lord rebuked doubting Thomas because he had to see in order to believe, but the fact still remains that Jesus made a special trip to the room just so that Thomas could put his hands in the nail prints in his hand and the spear print in his side that he would no longer doubt but believe. The Lord will do the same thing for you. He will do whatever it takes for you to believe the promise. God wants our faith to see and he wants our heart to believe. Blind faith is not of God and without faith, it is impossible to please Him (Hebrews 11:6).
Hebrews 11:1 says that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. You may not see what is promised now but your faith sees the evidence that what is promised shall come to pass!
Lift up your eyes as God instructed Abram, and see and look at what God has promised you. See the evidence of your faith, the evidence that God will do just what He said He will do. Get a vision, get an image. You can’t walk in something that you don’t first see. You’ve got to see yourself driving the new car, living in the new home, having the new job, married to the right mate, pregnant with a child, see your family healed, see your marriage restored, see your body disease-free before you can receive it.
For without a vision the people perish (Proverbs 29:18).
Romans 10:10 says that with the heart a man believes unto righteousness. This is what God said of Abram, that when he believed that God would give him a seed, a child from his own body, God counted it to Abram as righteousness. In other words, Abram’s faith that God would do what He promised Abram, put him in right standing with God. So with you and I. If we believe God if we believe that He will do what He has promised, that will put us more in favor with God and in right standing with Him than anything else we can do.
Hebrews 11:6
But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
APPLICATION:
1) What do you need to believe God to do in your life today?
2) Ask the Lord God to help you believe Him for what He has promised to do and to remove any doubt, fear and unbelief.