Instead of being “Wordless Wednesday” – I’ve dubbed today “Full of the Word Wednesday”!
In the middle of these verses is a very familiar – very well used piece of Scripture, “calls things that are not as though they were”. What does that mean and in what context is it talking about? Sometimes we simply spout things off because we’ve heard it so much but do we take the time to find out what it really means?!
Paul is talking about Abraham in this group of Scripture verses but it also is relevant to us, Abraham’s seed – his descendants.
God called Abraham the father of many nations while he was a childless old man with a barren old wife. Do you know what Abraham did? He called himself the very same thing that God called him. He went around telling everybody his name wasn’t Abram anymore, it was Abraham (which means “father of many nations”). He was developing his faith by speaking it and living it before it even came to pass.
The Message version puts it so well!
“This is why the fulfillment of God’s promise depends entirely on trusting God and his way, and then simply embracing him and what he does. God’s promise arrives as pure gift. That’s the only way everyone can be sure to get in on it, those who keep the religious traditions and those who have never heard of them. For Abraham is father of us all. He is not our racial father—that’s reading the story backward. He is our faith father.
We call Abraham “father” not because he got God’s attention by living like a saint, but because God made something out of Abraham when he was a nobody. Isn’t that what we’ve always read in Scripture, God saying to Abraham, “I set you up as father of many peoples”? Abraham was first named “father” and then became a father because he dared to trust God to do what only God could do: raise the dead to life, with a word make something out of nothing. When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn’t do but on what God said he would do. And so he was made father of a multitude of peoples. God himself said to him, “You’re going to have a big family, Abraham!””
Abraham called things that are not as though they were. We need to speak God’s promises instead of our predicaments!
When you speak ~ speak the Word not your circumstances. The “fact” may be that he was old and childless but the “truth” was he was a father to many and he became that. The “fact” may be that you are sick in your body, struggling with depression, barren, in poverty, distressed, anxious, in sin, etc. but the “truth” is you’ve been set free from that all over 2,000 years ago when Christ died on the cross. He took it all so that we could be healed and made whole (Isa. 53:4-5). Jesus paid the price for you so you could be at peace – that means whole, complete, with nothing missing, nothing broken in your spirit, soul and body. The New Testament confirms in Galatians 3:13 that we’ve been redeemed from the curse because He was made a curse for us. We have been redeemed from it all!!
The fulfilment of God’s promises rest entirely on your ability to trust Him. Abraham trusted Him, embraced His way of doing things, was obedient to what He wanted him to do and live, and he called things the way they were in the spiritual realm even though they were not that way in the physical realm… yet!
Word-full Wednesday! What a cool concept… very clever, Shash.
A timely post! I’ve been thinking about the book of James, and how he emphasizes “right speech.” As you’ve pointed out, our words are like seeds. If we pray good ones, healthy fruit will result. If we pray bad ones, we will also receive the fruit thereof. Scripture also talks about blessing vs. cursing… “bless, bless and curse NOT.”
I’ve been reminded that the condition of our heart is the key: “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” and “Guard your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.” (ie. our speech.) The condition of our heart is the critical factor in determining what comes out of our mouths.
In regard to salvation, Scripture says that life and death are in the power of the tongue… for by our words we will be saved–or condemned.
“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)
You sparked some excellent thoughts to ponder today, thanks!
Excellent! Wish I could send it to all those “blab it and grab it” folks in TV land. There certainly is more to living by faith than “naming it and claiming it”.
Like Abraham, we must SPEAK it and then WALK in it. So many can spout scriptures but do not live what they say. Keep up the good work. I enjoy reading your posts.
what a wonderful idea! 🙂
wonderful lesson about speaking his promises – thanks 🙂