Unstoppable!
Genesis 26:13”The man began to prosper, and continued prospering until he became very prosperous..”
Rafael Nadal smashed Novak Djokovic when he won his seventh French open title in Paris on Monday. He has won so far four Grand Slam crowns. Phenomenal feat! We also have our 42-year-old all-conquering champion Viswanathan Anand who has retained the world number one position for several years and who has won his fifth World Chess Championship title beating Israeli challenger Boris Gelfand in the tie-breaker in Moscow. These guys seem to be unstoppable! Kudos!
Today I want to talk about Isaac, son of Abraham, who was unstoppable too! The above scripture says that he began to prosper, and continued prospering until be became very prosperous, in other words, his amazing growth and harvest was unstoppable!!! Ah! His growth and wealth was from God! Amen. He sowed in a strange land among pagans and idol worshippers but God blessed him, not scarcely but profusely and prepared a table for him in front of his enemies. Friend, it is nice to talk about the prosperity of a person and then say, ‘hey, he is highly qualified from a reputed institution, technically sound and well learned and smart hence he is doing great’ or ‘ he has got the favor of the supervisors’ or ‘ his language skills are excellent’ and so on. But today I want to talk about being blessed because of your obedience to the Word of God. Observe what His Word says today: "Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth.” Did you hear that? This scripture revolutionized my life! I never settle anything but for the best because I serve a great and mighty God. Give Him praises will you! Never think that this is a ‘prosperity’ message which I am totally against, never for a moment think that people who suffer financially all sinners and the ones that prosper are the saints. Not so. Get that into your system and then read this message with an open heart to obey God and His ways 100 percent. To get 100 hundred fold blessings, you’ve got to follow His commandments 100 percent, there is no short cut. 99 percent would do no good. Period.
Obedience of Isaac to the command of God started with God telling him: live in the land of which I shall tell you.(Genesis 26:2) and Isaac obeyed immediately and the Bible says: Isaac dwelt in Gerar. Let me tell you something about Gerar, this is where Abimelech king of the Philistines lived. It was a strange land where the people were very harsh and strong idol worshippers. Isaac got terrified when he walked into that place and saw their lustful eyes hence he lied that his beautiful wife was his sister. Don’t let this fear in Isaac beguile you into thinking that he is a coward, taking the challenge of staying in Gerar and not running away from that wicked place, is a fine example of his willingness to face challenges head on. Bravo Isaac! Well, too much has been preached about Isaac’s deception, wrong though, let me tell you the horrendous and atrocious state of that country. Can you imagine a king peeping into the window of a stranger’s house? That’s exactly what king Abhimelech did and found out personally that Rebekah was not Isaac’s sister but his wife. What a cheap Jack this king can be! But despite all these dangers, pain, horror and isolation, Isaac endured the sufferings and stayed in Gerar. Why? Obedience to God! This is what touched my heart and it should move yours too today. When the king comes to know the truth, he further instructs saying, "He who touches this man or his wife shall be put to death” this reveals that the men of that place are worst than the king. Put in a nut shell living in Gerar would be like living among lions, yet Isaac stayed in that place. Wow! God was floored by his obedience and then followed the hundred-fold blessings. Obedience brings showers of blessings! Don’t procrastinate to pay your tithes to God, read my full explanation about TITHE and never hesitate to straiten out crooked paths in your life.
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph!
