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3 At this, Abram fell face down on the ground. Then God said to him, 4 “This is my covenant with you: I will make you the father of a multitude of nations!

God begins the process of fulfilling of His promise to Abraham by establishing some obstacles. The first obstacle is:

I. Abrahams wife is Sterile.

Genesis 11:30 NLT

30 But Sarai was unable to become pregnant and had no children.

Gods promised a great many descendants that are so numerous they cannot be counted to Abraham through Sarah that is not able to have any children. Sarah was not given to Abraham or chosen for him by God. Sarah was Abrahams wife prior to the promise. God knew he had married a woman who was unable to bear children and still made the promise. Gods promises are stronger than our circumstances. His promise is stronger than our predicament.

Genesis 12:1 NLT

1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you.

God asks that we take risks based on his promises even when everything seems to oppose what He has promised. Our obedience to those promises should be based on God’s character, not on our knowledge of God.

Faith does not begin with understanding! You don’t have to be a bible scholar, theologian or know much biblical doctrine to trust God. The bible does not tell us how much Abram knew about God. What we do know is that profound knowledge of God is not a prerequisite to obedience and faith. Abraham apparently started his life with very little knowledge of God but risked more than any the majority of the people in the bible. Its through the grace of God and the measure of faith we have been given by God that allows us to believe without fully understanding.

The second obstacle:

II. There are people occupying the land God has promised Abraham.

Genesis 12:6 NLT

6 Abram traveled through the land as far as Shechem. There he set up camp beside the oak of Moreh. At that time, the area was inhabited by Canaanites.

Although Abram had hundreds of men with him they were no match for the inhabitants of Canaan. Abraham finds himself in the right place unable to take control of Gods promise. Third obstacle:

III. Famine.

Abraham finds himself in the middle of a famine in the land that God has promised to give him which is occupied by people that had no plans to go anywhere, his wife was barren and could not give him the descendants God had promised so Abraham decides to go to Egypt…

Genesis 13:3 NLT

3 From the Negev, they continued traveling by stages toward Bethel, and they pitched their tents between Bethel and Ai, where they had camped before.

Abraham traveled in stages… He was on the right path to the promises of God, from one place to another on his way to the inherit Gods promise. The path we often travel to reach the promises of God is not direct. For our sanity we would love if Gods plan was from A-Z, but it’s usually from A-D-H-Z…

Do not grow weary if the promises of God in your life seem impossible. Usually what we desire to see and accomplish spiritually is not the same thing we see in the natural. The fourth obstacle:

IV. Silence.

Something that can be an obstacle for most in their journey of faith and espiritual maturity is periods of silence from God. God gives Abraham the order to go from Ur to Canaan which is about 400 miles… During this tiem God only speaks to Abraham twice… Once when he commands him to go (12:1-3) and the second time when he arrives(12:7).

We live in a culture of instant communication, one where we can speak to anyone we like anywhere in the world in seconds, this makes it difficult for us to follow Gods plan when there is prolonged periods of silence and we cant hear His voice.

According to scripture God speaks to Abraham 4 times over the course of 10 years… then approximately 14 years goes by when God doesn’t speak to Abraham until he is 99 when the promise of the son is given… and yet God says in the book of Isaiah that Abraham is a friend of God.

One of the ways that God will test our faith is taking us beyond our understanding of Him into a place where we must risk everything based on how much or little we know about Him. There comes a time where we must stop asking God: “Now what?’ , and walk in what He has chosen to reveal to us. God will not give us new dreams and visions until we fulfill the ones he has already given us.

What you know NOW about God prepares you for the risks you will take TOMORROW.

Conclusion

There are areas in your life where you know you can trust in Gods promises, and there are other areas where you aren't so sure. Why did God not give Abraham his son Isaac sooner upon entering the land of Canaan? Why did he have to wait so many years? Because the amount of faith he had at that moment would not have been enough to take his only son and sacrifice him. God was edifying and maturing Abrahams faith through the obstacles he established.

There are areas in your life where you are not ready to trust or obey God fully! And there is nothing wrong with that, just remember that what God has done in the past is a model and a promise of what He will do in the future, God will put your faith to the test in a unique way according to the lesson he wants you to learn, and the purpose He has for your life.

Genesis 15:6 NLT

6 And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith.

In Genesis 12 God asks Abraham to abandon his past… in the form of his family, land, and everything that he knew. In Genesis 22 God asks Abraham to abandon his future in the form of his only son through which the promise of God was to be fulfilled.

What is God asking of you today? To abandon your past? or to give Him your future?

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