Trusting God In Obedience Series

Trusting God in Obedience

Making the Impossible a Reality – Part 2

2 Chronicles 7:12-22

Trusting God in faith is tied to obedience. The promise in (7:14) is for the people.

if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

(2 Chronicles 7:14 NKJV)

However, the issue of obedience is always personal. Let me show you something in this verse that is amazing. Solomon’s future is dependent upon his obedience to God. God in essence shares with Solomon two possible futures:

FUTURE #1 (The Easy Road) – A king who sits on the throne forever. (7:17-18)

As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, and do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My judgments, then I will establish the throne of your kingdom, as I covenanted with David your father, saying, "You shall not fail to have a man as ruler in Israel.’

(2 Chronicles 7:17-18 NKJV)

FUTURE #2 (The Hard Road) – Temple is destroyed. (7:19-22)

"But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods, and worship them, then I will uproot them from My land which I have given them; and this house which I have sanctified for My name I will cast out of My sight, and will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. "And as for this house, which is exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, "Why has the LORD done thus to this land and this house?’ Then they will answer, "Because they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore He has brought all this calamity on them."’

(2 Chronicles 7:19-22 NKJV)

I could go into how God could see these possibilities. How could God say it could happen one way or the other? We may be able to watch this phenomenon on television. It would be like watching the movie Groundhog Day.

Groundhog Day is a movie about a man who repeats the same day over and over until he gets everything right. Each action that he makes changes something in his time-line. Each action (or cause) has an effect. The effect occurs to the people surrounding him.

But the fact is, we don’t know what will happen. Our lives are not in a repeat-mode. God, however, knows what will happen. He knows all the „possibles“ and He knows the „impossibles“ in our lives. Because God knows the possibles, He asks for obedience from us. Because God knows the possibles become true when we obey. The impossibles in our lives, God makes possible by direct intervention.

But Jesus looked at them and said, "With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible."

(Mark 10:27 NKJV)

But He said, "The things which are impossible with men are possible with God."

(Luke 18:27 NKJV)

The impossible becomes possible with God’s help. The possible becomes reality when we obey God. So you can pray all you want. But if you don’t obey God, then the impossible (which becomes possible because you prayed), won’t become reality until you obey.

God shows Solomon the possibilities. God shows this in a two-step process. Last week, we learned that the impossibles in our lives become possibles in faith. This week we learn that the possibles in life happen with we obey God.

Let’s look first at two promises in these verses.

PEOPLE PROMISE (7:12-14)

This promise is conditional. The promise for the people is only effective when the people come together and pray and repent. This means that God makes promises about His church that are conditional on the actions of the people together.

Let me say it in a simple way. Some things that God wants to do in our church, He will only do when we comes together, pray and repent. What are some promises that we receive as a church:

These promises are listed in 2 Chronicles 7:14-15.

if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place.

(2 Chronicles 7:14-15 NKJV)

1.God will listen to and answer our prayers.

2.God will forgive our sins.

3.God will heal our land.