People generally go in the direction they aim, and they generally aim in the direction they dream, or imagine themselves going. Everyone needs a dream to follow, but God’s people need to follow a specific dream, and that is the dream that God has for them. I recall asking one little boy what he was going to be when he grew up, and without hesitation, he said, “Whatever God wants me to me!” Now, that’s the ticket!
I want to relate what I’m going to say to Abraham, as recorded in Genesis 12. I don’t think Abraham had a dream to leave his home country, and all the security that went with it, to go off on an adventure of faith. I think he got that dream when he got the word of the Lord and realized that this was what God had for him to do.
Have you ever noticed that we do not have a record of Abraham’s conversion? Oh, he definitely had one, we just don’t know exactly when it was. He was called Abram, before God changed his name to Abraham, in Genesis 15:5, when he was 99 years old, 24 years after the events of our text. One might superficially think that was the time of his conversion, but no, because right here in chapter 12, he is moving out to a new land in faithful obedience to God. We do know that he came out of a family of idol worshipers, because the Bible says so in Joshua 24:2.
One’s past cannot keep him from having a future with God. God is greater than our past. Many, are the testimonies of people who have come out of desperate situations to become true servants of God.
Genesis 12:1 says, “The Lord “had said” to Abram...” When did He say it? All we really know is that it was sometime before this, maybe even while they were still in Ur. 1Chronicles 11:35 and Nehemiah 9:7 both speak of God bringing Abraham out of Ur of Chaldees, so even if God didn’t reveal it to him at that time, it was certainly God’s plan for Abraham that he go to Canaan.
When we speak of God’s dream, it is synonymous with saying, “God’s plan.” There is something very satisfying about realizing that we are in God’s plan for our life. How glorious it is, when God’s plan for our life becomes our dream.
Realize that God has something better for you.
For Abraham, God had a great land, a great nation, and a great blessing. It was all predicated on his getting to Canaan. God was going to bring him into a “good land,” a land flowing with milk and honey. The thing that would make it so good, was the fact that when Abraham was there, he would be right where God wanted him to be. Even though he had no children, and he was getting old, God promised him that he would be the head of a great nation, with as many decedents as the sand of the seashore, or the stars of the sky. Then, to put the icing on the cake, God said that He was going to bless all the families of the earth through Abraham. How would He do that? Abraham didn’t know, but in his line of decedents, a little baby would one day be born in Bethlehem’s stable, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger, and His name would be Jesus. His mother’s name would be Mary, but His father would be the Lord God.
God had something much better for Abraham, than Abraham would ever get in Ur of Chaldees, or even in that half-way place called, Haran.
Every believer is called to follow God in faith and to find what God will show him. There is a promised land for every child of God, and I’m not talking about heaven. Oh, there is heaven, make no mistake about it, but the promised land, Canaan, is not a representation of heaven. In Canaan, though there were great blessing, there were still battles to fight and burdens to bear. This will not be the case in heaven. Canaan is representative of the spirit filled Christian life, the abundant life that is discovered by those who follow hard after God, in faith.
Remember God chose you and called you.
In Genesis 11, we have the account of the tower of Babel, and how God confused their language and scattered them all over the earth. Then, we see some genealogy that runs from Noah’s son Shem to Abraham. You have to wonder why God chose Abraham, of all the people He might have chosen to put the spotlight of human history on? Abraham had nothing in his past or present to warrant such a trust. It was all in his future, yet it really wasn’t because of him, but it was all because of God. I mean, God let him wait until he was 99 years old before his wife got pregnant!
The greater question is why did God choose you? He did, by the way. In John 17, we have the prayer that Jesus prayed on the night before the crucifixion. In verse 2, as Jesus prayed for Himself, He said that He had been granted authority over all people that He may give eternal life to all those the Father had given Him. In verse 9, He says, “I pray for them, I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.” Then, in verse 24, “Father, I want those you have given Me to be with Me where I am.” Now, what does all that mean, if it doesn’t mean that believers are chosen by God? In 2 Thessalonians 2:13, the Bible says, “...from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.” So, why did God choose you? The only answer we can give is, “grace.”
If we ever get a handle on the understanding that God has chosen us and called us, it gives us a tremendous sense of security. Just as God had a divine purpose for Abraham, and later for the nation of Israel, He has a divine purpose for our lives, as well. When I settle this truth in my heart, Romans 8:28, which says, “For we know all things work together for good to those who love God and are the called according to His purpose,” becomes especially meaningful to me.
Rely on God
There are two things that you see Abraham doing everywhere he goes, and I believe it is these things that help him stay on track with God’s dream. He pitches his tent and builds an altar. We see him doing that time and again. Pitching his tent symbolizes the fact that he never drove his stake down too deeply in this world. He was a wealthy man, but he stayed mobile, always ready to go where God told him. Building an alter, of course, represents his constant practice of worshiping God. He knew he was dependant upon God.
It is not a question of whether or not we are all dependant upon God, but it is a question of whether or not we know it. In Genesis 18:19, God paid Abraham a great compliment by saying, “For I know him, that he will command his children after him, and they shall keep the ways of the Lord...” In other words, God knew He could trust Abraham to trust Him.
Abraham realized that God had something better for him, that God had chosen and called him, and he relied on God. In the midst of all this, a wonderful thing had happened in his life: God’s dream became his dream.
