Hearing God 17 – The Reward for Obedience
Genesis 22:17-18
Blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” NKJV (emphasis added)
I’m fascinated by Genesis 22:18, specifically the phrase “…because you have obeyed my voice”. God doesn’t really promise anything new here. The content and themes referred to here have been part of God’s promises to Abraham all along. God initiated these promises from the beginning in Gen 12 when Abraham was a pagan, and then again in Gen 15. Abraham didn’t do anything to merit them or deserve them. Then at the end, God says that it’s “because” of Abraham’s obedience.
Earlier we see that righteousness is accounted to Abraham because he believed the promises, but the promises themselves and their fulfillment have nothing to do with Abraham’s performance. Now, after all that, Abraham somehow gets the credit based on performance, based on his obedience.
God initiates. God redeems. God fulfills. God brings us to a place of living faith worked out in obedience, God rewards us, and then God says it was because we obeyed. He rewards us for the obedience he produces in us.
This would be easier to swallow if I were a Calvinist, but it does give me some context for what Paul says in Romans 2:
Romans 2:6-7
“Who will render to each one according to his deeds” eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality.” NKJV (emphasis added)
Romams 2:13
“For not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified.” NKJV (emphasis added)
In Romans 10:17 we see that faith comes from hearing His voice. In Genesis 22:18 we see that we are rewarded when we obey his voice. We hear, we believe, we obey. Through this process we enter into the purpose, promise, and reward of God.
Hearing God 16 – God’s word and the Miraculous
John 1:1-3
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
Col 1:17-18
He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Rev 4:11
“You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they were created
and have their being.”
Heb 1:3
who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power ,
In these verses we see that all things have their origin in and are presently sustained by the Word of God. All of Creation came into being through the Word. All of Creation is currently upheld by the Word.
God spoke and from nothing everthing came. This is miraculous don’t you think? All that appeared in that moment owes the continuance of its existences to the continuing reality of the Word. Is this any less miraculous? In fact, it is in the exact same category – existence resulting from the voice of God. Want to see more miracles? Consider that your very existence and the existence of the material world in which you live are both miracles.
We usually think of miracles as being those things God does which are outside the norm of nature. But what if nature itself is miraculous? If that is true (and it is), then there is no categorical difference between my observation that the sun came up this morning and my expectation that today God might speak to me about healing some sick people. No difference at all.
Ps 107:20
He sent forth his word and healed them;
he rescued them from the grave.
Matt 8:8
The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word , and my servant will be healed .
Are you listening?
Hearing God 15 – Understanding Loaves
Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened (Mark 6:51-52, NIV emphasis added).
The disciples had just passed out five loaves of bread to 5,000 men plus women and children. Each disciple had a complete bag of leftovers when the job was done. Immediately after this, Jesus calms a storm and the disciples were “completely amazed.”
Evidently they should not have been amazed. If you reverse the logic of vs 52 you find that if their hearts had been soft they would have understood something about the loaves and therefore would not have been amazed when Jesus calmed the sea.
There was something they were supposed to understand about the loaves but they missed it. Their hearts were not tender enough to pick up on it. They thought the loaves were about the loaves. They didn’t recognize that God was saying something to them through the loaves.
The text doesn’t tell us what they were supposed to have understood about the loaves. But the passage is clear that if they had understood it, they would not have been amazed. Amazement happens when something occurs outside of our expectations, beyond our grid of understanding and anticipation. If they had understood about the loaves, it would have adjusted their expectations in such a way that Jesus calming the sea would have been expected instead of being a surprise.
Is it possible that God is constantly doing things in our lives and though we’re grateful, we mistakenly think that it was just about the “things”, not realizing that through these things God is revealing something to us about who He is? If we miss it, all we received was the “things”, with maybe a good story and some leftovers for tomorrow, but our view of God hasn’t really shifted. Our expectations haven’t expanded. Our faith hasn’t grown. The way we see reality hasn’t been modified. Our mind hasn’t really been changed.
May we have soft hearts today, not merely receiving what He gives, but hearing what He says in the giving.
Hearing God 14 – 3 Things to Listen for Today
“Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” Ephesians 1:15-23, NKJV.
In this prayer Paul prays that God will open the eyes of our heart to see three things:
1. The hope of His calling
In Paul’s writings, God’s “calling” is the powerful word of the gospel by which we are called out from the world and called into relationship with Him. Given that understanding, the “hope of His calling” would refer to the confident expectation (hope) we have that He who called us is able to complete the work He has begun in us. (see Phil 1:6)
2. The riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints
Paul has already introduced the idea of inheritance earlier in the chapter. In vs 13-14 we discover that the Holy Spirit is given to us in the present as a down payment on our inheritance to be fully received in the future. So in this prayer we find Paul praying first that we would see the hope of our calling (this present reality of the Holy Spirit guaranteeing a future inheritance) and then praying that we would see in the present, by the same Spirit, the scope of that inheritance (the “riches”).
3. The exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe
The final thing Paul wants us to see is that the transforming power of that future inheritance that has been guaranteed by the down payment of the Holy Spirit and revealed as God shows us the full scope of that inheritance, can be experienced in the present in anticipation of that future reality in response to faith.
God has called you and is committed to finish that work. The presence of the Holy Spirit in your life today is the guarantee of the completion of that work. God wants you to know in the present the scope of that future inheritance. God wants you to begin to receive in the present, the manifestation of that future inheritance by faith.
Ask Him to talk to you about that today!
Hearing God 13 – Fifteen Years
Today Nancy and I celebrate 15 years of life together. In that time we’ve lived in 7 cities. We’ve had three babies. They’re not babies any more. Lauren is 13 and will start 8th grade this year – her last year of middle school. Anna is 11 and will start 6th grade, her first year of middle school. Teddy is 6 and will begin 1st grade.
15 years from now I will be 53 years old. My oldest child will be 28. My youngest 21. It is very likely I will be a “grandpa” by that point. I hope so, though it seems weird to think about that now.
But the last 15 years have gone by in a blur. I couldn’t have predicted all that would transpire. I anticipate the next 15 will flash by as well. As I look back across the landscape of the last decade and a half, there are a few things that stand out.
I remember how nervous I was on our wedding day. I remember the first time Nancy told me we were expecting. I remember all three births at home with Susan our midwife. I remember learning how to do life with Nancy. We learned to fight. We learned to make up. We learned to love and serve. We learned to be one another’sbiggest cheerleader. We learned how to be parents. We’re still learning all that too.
I remember the countless ways God has directed our lives, graciously covered our failures and mistakes, miraculously washed away our sin, healed our past, and given us ever increasing vision for our future. And I remember today that God speaks to me.
He spoke to me about Nancy. He spoke to me about ministry. He spoke to me in the wilderness times. He spoke to me in times of blessing and abundance. He spoke to me about my past. He spoke to me about my future. He spoke to me about my identity. My very life has been formed, transformed, and is sustained by his voice. There really is no other way to live that can legitimately be called life. I am thankful today for the voice of God, and for the reality his voice has breathed into existence in my life. Where else can I go? You have the words of eternal life.
I am mindful today that my marriage is something God has spoken into being. We are together because of his voice. We are what we are together because of his voice. There is an ever increasing sense of his breath shared between us. I don’t know how to say it better than that. It is beautiful to experience but difficult to explain. In themessiness of life we share something wonderful, something elegant, something sacred, something of immeasurable worth. We dance, but in the mud and in the rain and we smile all along because we’re together. In the day to day routines and rhythms, we enact an eternal romance of pursuit and love. Only God’s voice can do that. I’m thankful that he speaks.
Can you hear him?
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