@ Etude- Obedience

@ Etude- Obedience

Now ( in Haran) the Lord had said to Abram, 
“Go away from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you.”

Genesis 12 v 1

Abram aka Abraham was asked by the Lord to move out of his own native place Haran to the land of Canaan. He displayed the attitude of unquestioning and willing obedience to the direction of the Lord. Abraham was promised that he would be greatly blessed, his name would be famous, that he would become a great nation, that he would be a blessing and through him all the families and nations of the earth would be blessed. Anyone who curses him would also be cursed. The same blessings we can lay claim to and enjoy when we render willing and unquestioning obedience to the directions of the Lord. Abraham , St Paul later writes to the Hebrews, went where he did not know, he lived as a stranger and dwelt in tents like a nomad. We too are spiritual heirs of Abraham. We should be willing to go places for God, to enter unfamiliar territory, to leave our comfort zone. We should regard ourselves as strangers in this world, a peculiar people. We are like nomads living in temporary places like tents but with hope that when we arrive in the kingdom of God we will have mansions or permanent, eternal dwelling places.

Obeying the word the Lord has for us is the precursor of eternal blessing though we may undergo the temporary discomfort of suffering in this world. The Lord has called us to live with our focus on reaching the Eternal City and being her citizens. This life and its travails are but a preparation for our final destination. The Earth is only our transit station. Our hope in Jesus who declares us worthy citizens of the Eternal City helps us cope with the challenges of this life. Like Abraham, we are not to seek such blessings for ourselves alone but for all nations, families and all people.

The Holy Spirit is hovering all over the earth, looking for such faithful and obedient hearts among mankind, in order to manifest the glory and grace of God. We are to be ready to be channels of blessings to all nations. The Lord wrought in Abraham’s life a change of direction. Canaan itself was not the promised land that the descendants of Abraham was led into but it was the foreshadow of the promised land in eternity. For leaving behind his father, his relatives, his friends and others he knew, Abraham was given scores and hundreds upon hundreds, thousands upon thousands of brothers, followers and family members. Next to Jesus and Moses, Abraham remains a VIP or Very Influential Person of history. The people of three faiths respect the name , Abraham.