Transitions Bring Increases In Increments.
Text: Genesis 17:1-22
Key Verse: I will make my covenant between me and you, and I will increase your numbers greatly.” – Genesis 17:2 JCB
The CALL of God can be a kind of interruption; it completely moves your life away from a familiar course to a promised future delivered to you in increments.
Abraham, at ninety-nine, must have accepted his fate as being a fatherless man; the thought of polygamy had not crossed his mind until his wife suggested it, that idea had produced Ishmael, and Abraham was content with it.
God showed up and made Abraham an invitation with a promise that looked like a mere dream. Abraham laughed at the possibility and decided to make things easier for God by suggesting that God should fulfil the promise through Ishmael.
The call to stretch his faith to believe in the miraculous was a severe challenge to his relationship with God, it was meant to produce travail, growth, and increase, but it didn’t look easy at all to the natural man.
There is hardly anyone whom God’s call did not disrupt their life in a way. There was something to give up, a change of course and a price to pay. It always promised something bigger that will require the eyes of faith to see it.
Your name will no longer be Avram [exalted Father], but your name will be Avraham [Father of many] because I have made you the Father of many nations. – Genesis 17:5 JCB
To be the Father of nations, Abraham had to become the Father of Isaac first. God promised to increase him by making him fruitful.
I will cause you to be very fruitful. I will make nations of you; kings will descend from you. – Genesis 17:6 JCB
Fruitfulness during transition brings incremental growth as you walk towards the promise. Many believers seek recovery or restoration that will represent exponential growth; therefore, they despise the “mercy drops.”
You need faith to believe for an “Isaac”; that experience will assure you to hope for the descendants that God has promised will come. After Isaac came the twins Jacob and Esau, whose children now multiplied and filled the land.
Trusting is being confident of what we hope for, convinced about things we do not see. – Hebrews 11:1 JCB
You need to trust God during the transition, it may seem impossible that God can keep his promises, but the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are proof that we can trust God.
Don’t only believe God for exponential growth in your ministry or business; start to give thanks for every addition you see. Celebrate the progress you see in your health, change in your child’s attitude or opportunities God brings your way; it is the path of incremental improvement to your promise.
David started with one Bear, then the Lion and Goliath, before he took on the Philistines. Follow God, trust His timing, and watch your promises become a reality as the days go by.
Prayer
Father, thank you because you have left us examples of a cloud of witnesses who heard your call followed, and trusted you; help us to be a part of that group who will celebrate your work in our lives during our transition until our promise fully appears in Jesus’ name. Help us see our laughter( Isaac) with the eyes of faith in Jesus’ name. I pray for everyone here to be filled with the heart of Thanksgiving and contentment as they transition to their expected end, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Pastor Ada