The Evidence Of God's Promise

The evidence of God’s promise

Genesis 17

1 And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.

2 And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.

3 And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying,

4 As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.

2peter 3:9

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

(Whole Chapter: 2 Peter 3 In context: 2 Peter 3:8-10)

The Evidence of God’s Promise

As I was preparing this sermon, I didn’t even realize it at the time, but God was already confirming what he would have his people to hear on tonight. The more I got into God’s word, the more he began to show me all of the promises that he has made, and that these promises are so evident and so obvious, but we’ve missed them because we’re looking for our answers in all the wrong places.

The scripture tells us in the book of Genesis the story of Abraham and some of the promises that God made manifest through him. In around the 17 Chapter, when God was speaking with Abram, he told him he was going to change his name. He told Abram that he would no longer be called Abram but Abraham. See there’s one thing that we overlook as Christians, that once we come into the presence of God, we will never be the same again. (Hallelujah!)

2 Corinthians 5:17 says

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

This is what God does for us…he takes us and makes us new. So he told Abram, that he would no longer be called Abram, but Abraham, meaning Father of Many Nations! See, God was already getting Abraham ready for the promises that he was about to release on him. God was already showing the evidence of his promise and Abraham didn’t even realize it! Whew!

But something was going on here as God was speaking to Abraham, now you’ve got to realize this point…God always had a relationship with Abraham…as we see back in Genesis, about the 12th chapter, where God was telling him, I want you to move out of this land that you’re in, and to get away from your kindred, and even out of your father’s house, because I’m about to make a mighty move on you. He was already talking with Abraham, and telling him that he was his own, and I believe Abraham understood this, just as we do today. Because I’m sure that I’m not the only one of us that knows for a fact that God has been dealing with us and talking with us from a young age. But watch this thing, as God is preparing us, we have to be obedient. We ask God to order our steps, but when he tells us to do something, we say, we don’t want to do it that way. God already has mapped out the plan for us and even wrote the directions out to a T, but because it’s going to totally upset everything that was around us, and totally take us out of our comfort zone, we begin to compromise what he has told us to do.

My mother shared with me some major mistakes that she’s made in her life, and it was all because she didn’t obey God’s commandment. A situation came up in her life, that was to effect her whole being, and she questioned God on whether to go or not to go, but because God gave her the answer the night before she was to make the move, she went the way her mind led her. She tells me this from time to time, because she remembers, oh so well, how God had already warned her to go in the other direction. So she realized that after she decided to take matters in her own hands, that the promises that God had laid out for her would come much later in life than if she had just done what God told her.

But Abraham feared God to the point that he knew to go the direction that God had instructed him to go. Here is a lesson learned for you saints, if you want God to bless you, be obedient! If you want God to stand on his promises that he made for you, be obedient! So fast forwarding to when God had appeared and was talking with Abraham, notice the bible says here that Abraham was 99 years old at this time. God told him, I’m going to bless you, just like I said I would! He told him that all the promises I’ve made for you are about to be manifested, and you will have a son born of your wife, Sarah within a year’s span.