We continued talking about the gift of faith. We looked
deeper at the faith of Abraham as accounted in Genesis 17. God speaks to him
after 13 years of silence. At 86 years of age, he had Ishmael by the
maidservant Hagar. He may have thought at the time that he had received the
promise God had made of a child, but he had not yet received it. Now, at 99 years old and his body (as well as
Sarah’s) no longer capable of creating a child, God speaks to him again about
the promise as yet unfulfilled— which means Ishmael was NOT the promise. Note that He does not mention Abraham’s prior
failings but just reiterates that His promise still stands and will be
fulfilled.
In Genesis 17:1, God introduces Himself to Abraham with a
new name, God Almighty or El Shadday (aka Shaddai) in Hebrew (LORD in all
capitals in your Bible always means this name). Understand that names are very
important in Hebrew — names of God and names of people. So, let's look at the
meaning of El Shadday. El means "God" and is made up of the letters
Aleph (picture of strength and power) and Lamed (picture of a shepherd's staff
or leader). Shadday (spelled Shin [picture of two front teeth meaning
structure], Dalet [door or entryway], Yod [arm or closed hand signifying man’s
work] in Hebrew) means almighty and most powerful, the God of ability.
The name El Shaddai is used to describe God as One who has
the power to overrule, speed up, slow down or suspend any NATURAL law in order
to fulfill a Spiritual promise. God’s word has higher authority than natural
law. The truth of His Word is
always more powerful than the natural laws. He never changes His Word, but
natural laws are subject to His Word and promises. If a natural law is in the
way of God's promise, He will overcome it if we will believe. This is what Abraham was going to need to
have a child at this point in his life. It was physically impossible for he and
Sarah to have a child. They needed El Shadday to make it happen.
Next, God tells him to walk before Him and be perfect or
blameless. Until we look at the original Hebrew for this word, we don't get the
complete picture. God is telling Him to
walk where God was and follow Him in all we do.
The rudder, which steers the boat, is in the back. So we walk with God directing us as we go. Abraham lived prior to the institution of the
law. God was not telling him to keep the law or to be sinless. The Hebrew word
here for blameless or perfect is tamiym. What it means is "complete,
whole, entire, healthy, unimpaired and innocent." The picture here is that
God needed Abraham to walk before Him seeing himself as God sees him —
complete, healthy and whole. It takes
faith to see yourself as God sees you when everything in the natural tells a
different story. Then, to emphasize His point, God changes Abraham's name. His
name was Abram which meant exalted father. God renames him Abraham which means
father of many nations. He changes Sarah's name as well, from Sarai to Sarah.
Now, when they speak to each other, they are speaking what
God sees! Not only that, the same Hebrew letter was added to both of their
names — Hay, the fifth letter in the Hebrew alphabet (alephbet). Among other
things, this fifth letter is related to grace. Grace was being added to Abraham
and Sarah. It takes faith to believe that, by the grace of God, He sees you as
whole, complete and innocent. When all
of these changes happened and Abraham did as God told him — the work attached
to his faith—he received the promise.
The promise includes circumcision, a picture that we produce together
with God, and we believe God is who He says He is.
We are all given a measure of faith. What we do with it is up to us. Faith is a powerful thing, but no faith is
more powerful than that which is in God's Word! The supernatural gift of faith
comes by the Holy Spirit and frequently is used to believe for someone else's
miracle, not necessarily ours (isn't that just how God would work?!)
To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/ and click on online media. To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.
