Our text starts in Genesis 13:14-18.
And the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, lift up now thine eye and look from the place where thou art, northward and southward, and eastward and westward.
God told Abram, "Look up from where you are."
This is my message. I know it sounds very basic and simple, but sometimes we get our eyes so fixed on where we are, we can’t see where we are going.
You know sometimes we get so fixated on the problem, we can’t see the answer.
God was telling Abram, "I want you to get your eyes off of where you are, and set them on the promise."
Many times when affliction comes or sickness trys to take hold, we get our mind so fixated on the sickness or affliction that we don’t remember to look to the promise.
Sometimes it’s not problems or sickness or persecution that holds us. It is just that we have become satisfied with where we are.
You see, God didn’t want Abram to settle down and quit where he was. God had more for Abram. He had plans for him. Abram’s journey was just beginning.
Friend, if you have been saved and born again, filled with the Holy Ghost, then don’t just settle in and wait for Jesus to come, but look up. Look ahead. You have just begun.
We have a lot of people that have just stepped into the promised land and sat down.
The promised land was not a type of heaven, but of the time we are in now.
It’s time to possess the land.
God told the children of Israel, "I’ve brought you here and given you the land. Now go and possess it."
God told Abram, "Look up from where you are."
I’m trying to say to us today that it is time to get our eyes off whatever problems we are wallowing in and get our eyes on the promise.
Some Christians I have met have made their problem their life and their testimony. It’s all that ever comes out of their mouth. "Oh, God knows my circumstances", they say.
Yes he does and everyday he offers you the promise of his Word, and you can keep the problem or claim the promise.
In chapter 15 God gives a promise to Abram. Abram claims the promise. Even when his own body and the body of his wife said it couldn’t be.
The carnal mind, the voice of reason, pronounced him childless and dead.
The promise of God pronounced him fruitful.
Abram had to choose. He had to once again look up from where he was.
Now, I have to tell you that looking up is the beginning, but there is a second command given and it was; "Arise". (vs. 17)
Once you look up, you’ll have to get up.
Some people got hurt or knocked down 20 years ago and they are still on their back. How long are you going to lie there? GET UP!
God told Abram, "Arise, enter into what I have given you. Check it out."
It may have seemed like Lot got the best deal. It may have seemed like Lot got paradise, but Abram got the promise. I said, Abram got the promise.
Lot’s paradise would soon be lost. Lot ended up living in a cave. Abram’s promise would be forever, but Abram would have to go and get it.
Lift up now thine eyes and look from the place where thou art.
If you are in sickness, lift up your eyes from that sickness to the promise that with his stripes we are healed.
If you are in financial problems, look up from that problem to the promise; but my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
David said, "I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread.
Let me come to the most serious problem of all. If you are trapped in sin today, if you have not the peace of God in your soul, if you are bound in the
chains of Satan, held by the world and it’s grip; maybe like Lot you have set your eyes on what looked like paradise but found too late it would all vanish, please now look up from the place where you are to the place that God has for you.
The promise is that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Listen to me one more minute. I am going to ask something of you today.
Whatever your problem is, whatever your circumstance is, I want you to look away from it. I want us to look to Jesus the author and the finisher of our faith.
I want you to do something else. I want you to get up and raise your hands and thank him for the promise.
Some of you need to arise and come forward to an altar and possess the land.
Read verse 18. The final key is in this verse.
ABRAM OBEYED.
