253 ~ PROMISE TESTED

Hello, a big welcome to the We Are Zion sermon podcast.

We are a church based out of Chennai, India.

We are thrilled that you tuned in today and hope that you will

be refreshed, revived and energized by what you hear.

Our desire is that you will live life with a renewed sense of

purpose that stems from a vibrant faith in Jesus.

The year 2025 is 1 where we will be positioned by God to possess

our promise. Today's sermon gives us the

necessary courage and grit needed to endure seasons of

testing and trying that God walks us through in order to

receive the fuller picture of His promises.

How prepared are you to embrace God and His promises so that you

are ready to possess your promised inheritance?

Hi Church, What a joy it is to bring God's word to you.

Today we complete our series on Abraham.

He was the OG promised receiver, the one who just took God at His

word. We've been looking at him over

the span of two months and I know at least for.

I don't know about you, but for Geshom and I, this has been such

a eye opening season, a season of what God is actually calling

us into and the posture and stance we need to maintain.

And I even as I was preparing for today, we're looking at

Genesis chapter 22 today. But even as I was preparing for

Genesis 22 · chapter mention

it and I was, you know, thinking of what to title the word, this

is what I titled it. I said a promise, tested is a

promise. True, right?

And I was just reminded of the days when, just before we got

married about 17 years back, my mum would take Ghashram and me

out shopping for furniture for our house, our first, you know,

house. It was a very cute place and we

wanted furniture. We wanted a particular kind of

sofa and a centre table and all of those things.

And so we would go to different furniture shops.

And I remember Ghashram had this interesting habit of testing the

strength of all the furniture we touched.

So if it was a dining table, if it was, if it was a sofa or

whatever, the cupboards that we were looking at, he would press

it with a certain amount of force to see whether it would

withstand, you know, anything heavy.

And I remember being tense in the shops because I was like,

what are you doing? Are you trying to break it in

the shop? But I realized then that unless

you test something, it's worth its strength is not proven

right. And it's no different with God's

word. It's no different with the

Kingdom life. When God entrusts something to

us, unless it is tried in our lives, unless it's proven

worthy, it actually won't stand the test of time.

And I was reading Psalm 105 and this verse just jumped out at

me. This is what it says until the

time that his word of prophecy regarding his brothers came

true, the word the Lord tested and refined him.

It's talking about Joseph. It's talking about Joseph.

Let me read that to you again with Joseph in context until the

time of his word of prophecy regarding his brothers came

true, the word of the Lord tested and refined him.

Joseph had a word many years back of how his parents, his

brothers, would bow before him and he would be in a position

of, of being above them and they would bow down to him.

And it took many years for that to unfold.

And until it did, he had a series of tragic setbacks,

things that refined him, things that tried him until the promise

came about. And today we're going to be

looking at Abraham being tested at the very place of his

greatest fulfilment of his promise.

Like we saw last week. God tested him at that point.

And I want to ask you if you've had a word of promise that was

spoken over you or God gave you a word from the Bible that you

have been clinging on to, and yet you feel that the battles

have been more than the blessing.

And maybe you've been feeling the pressing has completely

wiped out the scope of the promise.

I want to encourage you today that the process is worth it

because without it, without a process of trying it and testing

it, the worth of that very promise will be missed.

Nothing which is not tried is worth possessing.

I want to just leave that with you.

Think about even as we get into today's reading, starting off

with verse one and as I read, I just want you to follow along

because I believe God has something very big in store for

us today. Genesis chapter 22, verses 1 to

Genesis 22:1–19

19. I'm starting with verse one.

It says sometime later God tested Abraham.

He said to him, Abraham, here I am.

He replied. Then God said, take your son,

your only son whom you love, Isaac, and go to the region of

Moriah, sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain.

I will show you. We need to pause there because

this is such a momentous ask. This is not something small.

Look at the way God describes Isaac to Abraham, your only son,

the son that you love, Ishmael has left.

This is the promised son. This is through whom the promise

will come through. And he's saying take him, go up

to the mountains, offer him as a burnt sacrifice.

Even as we in the coming weeks begin the season of Lent, we're

going to be looking at finding Jesus in the book of Leviticus,

right? Because there are overtones of

Jesus throughout the Bible, but the book of Leviticus highlights

the need for a saviour to save us from all these intense

sacrifices. And when you look at this burnt

offering, what was he being asked to do?

He was asked to take his son and keep him as the sacrifice on an

altar. And the thing about the burnt

offering was nothing was remaining.

It was just ash. It was just charred remains.

There was nothing that you could, you know, take back from

that. To read Leviticus chapter 1, it

Leviticus 1 · chapter mention

says there was a process to which the burnt offering was

placed. And this was way after the time

of Abraham. It was where they had to take

the animal. You know, the lever, it's the

priestly clan would actually take it, slit its throat, drain

the blood, sprinkle the blood on the altar, take out the inner

parts, wash it, arrange the animal on the altar in the fire

and, and you know, let that be offered up to God.

That was the process. And look at this, God is asking

Abraham, who a couple of chapters back, which a couple of

years back had learnt how to actually offer something before

him and God came and made a covenant with him.

He's now saying, put your son on the altar.

And as I was reading this, this whole week, as I was meditating

on this, it was just such a heavy thing for me because I was

like, God. I don't know if I could do what

you're asking him to do, to lay the very thing that God gave him

back on the altar. Let's see what he does next.

Early the next morning, Abraham got up and loaded his donkey.

He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac.

When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out

for the place God had told him about.

On the third day, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the

distance. He said to his servants, Stay

here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there.

We will worship and then we will come back to you, you know.

But the interesting thing is this is the first time in the

Bible that the word worship is mentioned.

Up until now, the 21 chapters of Genesis worship was never

mentioned, but here it's mentioned and it's mentioned in

conjunction with obedience, with sacrifice.

And it really begs the question, how are we looking at worship

today? A lot of times we we give

worship just the, you know, the limitations of singing,

worshiping with our hands lifted up, with music, with the words

coming up. That's what we limit worship to.

But every act of obedience to God is worship.

Every little thing we do in the midst of hardship, when we still

choose to lift him up, when we still choose to keep him as our

focus is worship. And it's interesting, the word,

the Greek word for worship is prosecutio, from which we get

the word prostate. It is basically a posture of the

heart and the body, which is basically saying, God, you are

so awesome. It is a position of complete

reverence and a laying down and submission and surrender.

And that was what he was telling his servants.

Abraham was saying, you stay here, I'm going to go worship.

But the interesting thing, which I think I've seen this for a for

a long time was the way he actually prophetically spoke

about what was to come. He said, you stay here while the

boy and I will worship. Then we will come back to you.

A lot of times in those moments of testing, what we speak with

our mouths is very important. What we declare and proclaim

over ourselves, over the situation is all important.

He did not say stay here. I don't know what's going to

happen. We might come back, we may not.

It may be just one of us. He didn't see any of that.

The reality looked hard, but there was something that he

trusted beyond himself that he could make these simple

declarations. And the word will there, me and

the boy will worship, and then we will come back.

That word, when you look at it from a, you know, grammatical

standpoint, is basically an imperative.

It's a future imperative. It's basically saying I'm

certain of something that will happen in the future.

How many of us in the season of testing that you may be in right

now are speaking out words of affirmation from the word of

God? God will rescue me from all my

foes. He will not slumber or sleep.

He is with me all the day long. He will restore me.

He will recompense me for everything that the enemy has

stolen. What are the declarations you

and I are making? Are we making those will

declarations or are we making those declarations which says I

never get a break, this will never change.

My spouse can never ever know what he actually does to upset

me. This person is always like this.

This is always my lot in life. What will be declared in a

season of testing Abraham is a model of how to declare in faith

that this is what we are going to be doing.

We will worship, we will come back.

Continuing, it says Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering,

placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and

the knife. As the two of them went on

together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father, Father, yes,

my son, Abraham replied, The fire and wood.

I hear Isaac said. But where is the lamb for the

burnt offering? Abraham answered, God himself

will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.

Another declaration full of faith.

Full of faith. Was his situation hard?

Yes. Did it look like he had his back

up against a wall? Yes.

But there's something about him and his relationship with God

that could enable him to say these rather wise things to his

son in those very pivotal moments.

These were the moments that he was shaping Isaac's faith.

He was shaping Isaac's destiny by the things he was saying, by

these exchanges. God himself will provide the

Lamb, and I just want to interject here that this is

almost a foreshadowing of what would happen thousands of years

later when Jesus, the perfect Lamb of God, was sent.

Reading on, the two of them went on together.

When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham

built an altar there and arranged the wood on it.

He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar on top of the

wood. Then he reached out his hand,

took the knife to slay his son. But the Angel of the Lord called

out to him from heaven. Abraham, Abraham, here I am, he

replied. Do not lay a hand on the boy, he

said. Do not do anything to him now.

I know that you fear God because you have not withheld from me

your son, your only son. What a moment.

What a pivotal moment for Isaac and Abraham.

It was not just a, you know, life defining moment for

Abraham. He was walking in faith all his

life, or at least for the last 30 years.

But this moment for Isaac must have been etched in his memory

forever. My father chose to obey God and

God came through. Isn't that amazing?

And the thing here is, you know the word for fear Do not do

anything to him. Now I know that you fear God.

And when I was reading it, I was thinking, really, Lord, did you

just figure that out? Now?

Didn't Abraham follow you faithfully these 3035 years?

Why did you say, Now I know that you fear him, but this fear is

just the sense of awe and respect.

You have to understand. Abraham and God were like

friends. They spoke to each other like

they were friends. But this friendship was was

grown on the soil of trust, was grown on the soil of love and

understanding. And so Abraham knew that God, if

he asked him to do this seemingly terrible thing to his

son, would have a plan. It was built on trust.

And yet God had to test Abraham's heart to see if his

posture had shifted in all these years.

And it's beautiful because it says here now I know that you

fear God because you have not withheld from me your son, your

only son. The interesting thing is that

this withhold is something a lot of us do.

God has given us everything we have, but when we have to

dedicate these things back to God, to surrender them back to

God, it's hard because we somehow think we were

responsible for it to begin with.

Abraham knew on every level that Isaac was given to him, and he

had to relinquish Isaac back when asked.

What a beautiful relationship of trust and love and honour.

I want to ask you, how tightly have you been holding on to the

things God has entrusted to you? You know, the the hard thing

about being entrusted with things in this earth is that

it's entrusted to us for a time. And there will come a time when

God says, let go, I'm taking it back.

How ready are we? Because I myself, I've been

asking myself that. And I said, I don't know God, I

don't know. Abraham looked up and there in a

thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns.

He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt

offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place.

The Lord will provide, and to this day, it is said on the

mountain of the Lord, it will be provided the name that Abraham

called on. We looked at El Olam last week,

the eternal God, but this week we're looking at Jehovah Jaira,

our provider. And the other intonation of that

is the God who sees. We saw how he saw Hagar and

Ishmael in the desert. He is the God who sees and

provides. He saw that this man Abraham,

his beloved friend, had literally placed his precious

promised child on the altar out of fear and reverence of him.

And in seeing that he provided the substitute.

And this is what I want to leave with you.

When God sees you, what does he actually see?

It's easy to put up a facade with friends, with family, but

what is God seeing in the inner workings of your heart that he

needs to step in as Jehovah Jireh?

I saw that God observed Abraham's obedience and came

through. What does God see when he sees

you and me? When He watches us?

When no one else watches us? Does He say she's being faithful

with the little Let me give her more.

She's been faithful to do the things that no one gives her

accolades for. I want to bless her.

She has not complained. In the midst of severe struggle

and tragedy, I'm here. I'm ready to step in.

She has fought the battles marked out for her, and now I

will step in and bring the victory.

What is God seeing when he sees us?

Some of us are demanding things from God, but what would God see

in the quietest moments of your life?

What would God see when no one else is watching Jehovah Jireh?

God provides. He will provide the Angel of the

Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, I

swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done

this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will

surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the

stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore.

Your descendants will take possession of the cities of

their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth

will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.

Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off

together for Beersheba, and Abraham stayed in Beersheba.

I want you to highlight this one word which makes such an

apartment ending to our entire series.

It says your descendants will take possession of the cities of

their enemies. He's literally speaking 400

years down the line. He's literally saying this is

what's going to happen to your generations.

They will be in a place where they'll be able to dispossess

the enemy and take over those lands.

If you look at the promises given to Abraham right from

Genesis chapter 12 onwards, you'll find that there's a

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

gradual refining of the promise. The promise was first given as a

sevenfold blessing. He says those whom you bless

will be blessed. Those whom curse you will be

cursed. Through you I'll bless the whole

earth and all of that. Then he talks about, you know, I

am your shield and your great reward.

Your, your people will be, you know, foreigners in a land for a

time, but I will rescue them. He keeps refining the promise.

Then he talks about Isaac coming into the picture.

Through him, I will reckon your generations, he's further

exposing the promise, He's further explaining it to him.

But this is when there's clarity about the depth of the promise,

because he says they will actually take possession of the

land. So while Abraham was just like a

wanderer through this promised land, his descendants will

actually take possession. And you have to understand that

you can only possess a promise after the promise is tested,

because only then the condition of your heart is known to God.

Only then the posture of your heart is known to God.

Only then the strength of your faith is revealed.

The test will display your obedience or your

insubordination. No word from God is left

untested in our lives, especially if the promise has to

do with your destiny. It will be tested because

whatever is tested will be proven true.

I want to just give you a couple of verses that I was reading and

which was alarming to say the least because I realized, Oh my

gosh, I didn't realize the power of God's word up until now.

It says in Psalm 12 verse 6, it says the words and promises of

Psalms 12:6

the Lord are pure words like silver refined in an earthen

furnace, purified 7 times. It's amazing because in the

Passion translation, the people who actually translated this

version have written a small note and they said that the

vessel of our heart. Is the Crucible in which God's

Word tests us and it refines us 7 times over until the word is

purified and assimilated into our spirit.

So it's so important. That's why we talk about

biblical meditation. That's why we say read the word,

meditate on it, chew on it. It's not important to read huge

tracts of scripture and know nothing.

The important thing is to take that one word so that one

promise and justice. Mull over it.

Allow it to work in you, allow it to wear your defenses down.

Allow it to take away everything that's not of God.

S that what remains is pleasing to God.

Psalm 119 verse 140 says Your promises have been thoroughly

Psalms 119:140

tested and your servant loves them.

You want more proof? Psalm Proverbs 30 verse 5, it

Proverbs 30:5

says every word of God is tested and refined like silver.

He is a shield to those who trust and take refuge in Him.

Psalm 18 verse 30 says As for God, His way is blameless.

Psalms 18:30

The word of the Lord is tested, it is perfect, it is faultless.

He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him.

I have been in a season of testing for a while and I know

for a fact that the promise is just here.

I can almost touch it, I can almost feel it.

But the testing that God has walked me through has been

incredible. When I look back, hindsight is

2020, they say. When I look back, the promise

that He gave me, the word that he gave me has been literally

carried by me for almost 3 1/2 years.

Four years. I have carried the promise in my

heart, in my spirit. And while I have not yet seen

the fulfillment and the fruition of that promise, I know for a

fact what that promise is going to entail.

Because every season where it was tested, where it was put in

a refiner's fire, what has come out has been gold.

What was let go of was anything less valuable than gold?

And I was this weak, this, this, you know, metallurgy that was on

my head. And I thought, let me study up a

bit about it. And there's one branch of

metallurgy called pyrometallurgy, which is

basically the extraction of metal from its ores using heat,

right? And I was watching the process

of how this is done. So these metals, which are

maybe, you know, steel or carbon or, you know, whatever, these

huge copper ores, they're mixed. The metals are mixed in.

So there's a lot of impurities in this metal, this, you know,

this chunk of metal. So what they do is they put it

into the fire, it becomes liquid, it melts and at

different temperatures when as they are, you know, exposing it

to different temperatures, different impurities melt off.

And then at this ideal temperature, they pour this

molten metal into casts, right? And it takes the shape of

certain weapons or vessels or whatever.

So I was watching this one tutorial and as I was watching

it, the name of the, the person who runs the, the YouTube

channel was something around the word of sword engineering or

something. And that's when it, it struck me

as to why this happens with the word.

You know, when the word comes to us, it comes to us in seed form.

That's what the parable of the sower talks about.

Remember that the, the sower sows the seed and the seed goes

and falls on different soils. The one on the path gets taken

away by the birds. The one in rocky soil doesn't

have any kind of roots. The one in the thorns gets

choked and then there's the one in the good soil.

So when the word comes into us, it comes in as just a seed.

But the beautiful thing is when we are refined, the word causes

refining. Like in the life of Joseph, the

word that he received as a prophecy refined him, tested him

till he came out as gold, till he was capable of handling the

throne room of Pharaoh. And so just like us, the testing

and trying of the word in our lives refines us just like that

metal ore which all the impurities are being pulled off

and the pure metal is then being cast into something.

God is doing something in us when the refining process is

happening. And the refining is important

because it's evidence that the world is doing its work In your

life. If you're not going through a

refining, you need to be worried.

If you're not going through a season of justice, going through

this, you feel like everything is against you for a season, you

know, you know for a fact, God, you're refining something in me

so that I can handle the promise at the end of this tunnel.

And I just want to encourage you that the testing will shake you

to the very roots. But when it does, the things

that are unshakeable in your life will be left standing

beautifully. Like I was saying, for me, this

refining season has been so good because God has been true to his

word. When he said, I will restore

your health, he's restoring it. When he says I will heal wounds,

he's healing wounds that I didn't even know I had on the

surface. He's healing stuff deep within.

When he says I will recompense, he means it.

He's not kidding. But he will carry you through a

season of testing so that the promise gets clearer.

You have to understand that when something is planted in seed

form, when God refines it in these refining fires, the word

becomes a hammer like Jeremiah writes.

The word becomes a sword like the apostle Paul writes.

It is powerful. It's double edged.

It is so, so clear as to its effect in battle.

And I want to encourage you. Maybe up until now you just have

these promises as seeds, but you feel like, Oh my gosh, the gates

of hell have opened against me. I want to encourage you.

God is in a process of shaping those seeds into weapons.

He's shaping them into the sword that you will need for the next

season to fight those giants. He is shaping it into a hammer

which will destroy every stronghold that you have

believed and allowed in your life.

The refining process is all important.

We cannot do without it. When you look at Abraham's life,

a cryptic promise, different promises, they all took shape in

this final promise given to him after the testing.

Your descendants will possess the cities of their enemies.

And it's important to understand to possess something that

someone else already has, you have to dispossess them.

And you will need these weapons to dispossess.

And as we close up, I just want to leave a New Testament

perspective with you. Hebrews Chapter 11, verses 17 to

Hebrews 11:17–19

19. It talks about Abraham in

hindsight, right by faith. Abraham and God tested him,

offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises

was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God

had said to him, it is through Isaac that your offspring will

be reckoned. Abraham reasoned that God could

even raise the dead and so in a manner of speaking, he did

receive Isaac back from death. What I want to highlight here is

a very interesting thing that there was a two way St. on this

relationship between Abraham and God, right?

Abraham according to God and we look in the book of Romans,

Romans chapter 4, verse three, it says Abraham believed God and

Romans 4 · chapter mention

it was credited to him as righteousness.

And here it says Abraham reasoned that God could even

raise the dead. Abraham, the word for reasoned

is the same word as the word for credited.

So if you have to put an equation as this, OK, it's a

very simple equation, it's basically that Abraham was

credited as righteous by God. God was credited as faithful by

Abraham. Their relationship was on par

because each of them looked at the other and credited to them

something way beyond their imagination.

Abraham looked at God and said you are capable of resurrection.

God looked at Abraham and said you are righteous because you

trust me. What a beautiful relationship.

And that's a New Testament perspective when we look at it

in hindsight. God counts you and me already

righteous because of what Jesus did on the cross.

You and I are counted righteous, but how do you count Jesus?

What do you impute to Jesus? And that's where I want to leave

two things with you. How do you and I handle the

season when the promise is being tested?

And this I want to share from my life.

This I have seen it come to pass.

The first thing is you have to embrace your promise tightly.

OK, first thing, embrace your promise tightly.

Too many people, when the testing has gotten too hard,

when the refining has gotten too intense, have let go of the

promise, he says over here, by faith, Abraham and God tested

him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice.

He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one

and only son. Before he could release his son,

he'd embrace the promise. All these chapters that we

looked at was actually Abraham progressively embracing the

promise tighter. Was there a mistake of Ishmael

along the way? Yes, they were human.

But sometimes we have to remind ourselves that the promise is

worth holding on to. You need to embrace the promise

tightly. The word for that, the Greek

word for embrace, is Anna dekho Mai, which actually means to

willingly take up responsibility, to receive or

accept. And when you take up the promise

that God gives you, you're actually accepting the

responsibility that comes with that promise.

You're telling God, I take this promise as my own.

I'm willing to walk through the fire to get to that promise

because that's what the refiners fire will look like.

But if you give up prematurely, it means you are not holding

onto it tight enough. Matthew chapter 13 verses 2021

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

says the seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who

hears the word and it once receives it with joy.

But since they have no root, they last only a short time.

When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they

quickly fall away. Trouble or persecution comes

because of the word. The word that is implanted in

you will trigger the refining. It will Causeway you to receive

a refining. Will you fall away or will you

hold on to the word? I love that it continues to say

the seed falling on good soil is those who receive the word,

understand it and bear fruit. We sometimes think bearing fruit

happens in the best of seasons. It can happen in the midst of

pruning. It can happen in the midst of a

dry season. It can happen no matter what

because of the fact that what we have received is on good soil.

We are understanding it. We're receiving the refining.

We're coming forth as gold. When trouble or persecution

comes because of the Word, we sometimes assume I've got a

word. Now God has to do what He said

He has to do. God will test us.

He will try us so that we are made capable of carrying that

promise. So that's the first thing.

Embrace the promise tightly. What has God promised you?

Has He promised you a family? Has He promised you increase?

Has He promised you restoration? Has He promised you a payback?

Has He promised you a settling of accounts?

What has He promised? Will you hold on to that

promise? Something that I do as a

personal habit is I revisit the promise almost every other day.

On discouraged days, on the highest of days, I open my book,

the the journals in which I've written.

I relook. I've stuck the promises around

my house and I keep looking at it.

I keep believing it. And I think, Lord, I know this

is the promise you've given me. I know you're coming through.

Embrace the promise tightly. The second thing that I want to

leave with you is embrace the promise giver tighter.

So what happens many times is that we embrace the promise so

tightly, we forget that there's someone who gave us the promise

to begin with. And he's the one who's faithful

to his word. He's the one who gives because

he loves us so much. He's the one who has such pure

motives and intentions. He is the one that I need to

focus on. And like I said, the word that

that is used for reasoned Abraham reasoned that God could

raise the dead to life. Same word used for God credited

righteousness to Abraham because he believed it.

Same word, Logi zomai. What are we saying?

God, I trust you with this promise.

You've given me the promise. The promise is great.

But more than the promise, I adore you.

I love you. I will hold on to you.

Because what happens in a season of testing the promise feels

more distant. You know, it's like a

smokescreen. You know, the fires are opened

out around you. The promise seems distant and

blurry. But the beautiful thing is when

you are embracing the promise giver tighter, it's literally

like you're holding on to him and still keeping the promise in

view. And it becomes much easier to

walk through the fire. And I want to encourage you that

you would embrace the promise giver tyter the seasons of

refining are real. But it's even better when you

hold on to him. See, when you embrace the God

who gave you the promises, when he tests the promise, you have a

number holds barred situation. You're saying, God, you gave it

to me. Here it is.

Do with it as you will. I love this that the psalmist

writes in Psalm 85, verses 8 to 10.

Psalms 85:8–10

It's a life that is marked by someone who's holding on to the

promise giver. This is what it says.

I will listen to what God the Lord says.

He promises peace to His people, his faithful servants, but let

them not turn to folly. Surely His salvation is near

those who fear Him, that His glory may dwell in our land.

Love and faithfulness meet together.

Righteousness and peace kiss each other.

What is he talking about? It sounds so abstract and

poetic, right? What he's actually saying is

that when you have embraced God to this extent, you know that

you're going through a hard season.

You know that there's a promise that is to come.

But when you have embraced God, you know that salvation is near.

You know that He's carrying you through it.

You realize that every attribute of God that you didn't even know

about is coming on display. If God says He'll give you

peace, you'll find that in the midst of chaos you'll be so

peaceful. If God said that love and

faithfulness will be around your neck, you will find that you

will experience God's love from the most difficult situations.

You will find people's faithfulness will astound you

because they are mirroring the faithfulness of God,

righteousness, and peace. You will see the goodness of God

in every little situation, even in the hardest season.

And I want to encourage you that you would embrace God tighter

than you embrace your promise. Because as you embrace him in

the testing, in the trying, you will start to uncover new facets

of God himself. You start to see him in all his

goodness. You start to see his attention

to detail, that nothing is arbitrary with God.

You start to see how he keeps time.

He's never late. He's never late.

You start to see his intelligence, how he sees things

that you never see, how he plans for things you could have never

planned. So it's important that you

embrace your promise tight. Don't let go of it because

that's what the enemy wants you to do.

He wants you to relinquish the control over that inheritance

that is marked for you. He's saying let it go.

It's not worth it, this fight not worth it.

But you need to say no. This was a promise given by God.

I hold on to it. But then even tighter than that

is you need to embrace God Himself, the promise giver.

So even as I close, I just want to reiterate on a couple of

things we talked about today. First thing is that the burnt

offering is significant. You know, our God would never

ask a person to sacrifice their child on an altar.

That was something that the Canaanite nations were doing and

Abraham probably knew that. But here he was willing to take

the thing he had longed for for 25 years and place it on the

altar and say, Lord, it's yours. He was yours to begin with.

I'm giving him back to you. And I love that in the New

Testament context, through Jesus, you and I are not

expected to offer these sacrifices.

But you know, a burnt offering symbolises a life of surrender.

Because when you give these things to God, a burnt offering

actually consumes it completely. I'm just going to share on the

screen something that happened this week.

My son decided to to bake bacon. I'm guessing he thought because

it's bacon, you should bake it. So he put it in the oven, put it

on high temperature and he was doing something else.

And suddenly both of us could smell something burning.

We go running and we had a burnt offering in the in the oven.

And the interesting thing about this is we took it out, you

know, and it was unedible. It was so crispy, we were scared

our teeth would break. And I was thinking about how

something that's offered on, on a, you know, in the, in the Old

Testament, the priestly requirements to offer a burnt

offering was just literally giving it all up.

You had to get this pure animal, no blemish, the best of your

flock. You gave it and you didn't get

anything in return. And a lot of times during the

testing and refining seasons of our life, God will actually

challenge us to release the very things that we have just held so

tightly. But I want to encourage you that

you will see the Providence of God when you release the things

that you're holding tightest. Because he sees your heart, He

sees your posture, He sees your faith, He sees your obedience.

The things no one sees, He sees. He will come through for you as

Jehovah Jireh. But would you release?

Would you release what you hold dearest to him?

Because it's so much safer in His hands than in US.

The second thing I want to leave with you is the refiner's fire

tests the quality of our faith. It tests the purity of the word

that we are receiving. Am I receiving the word for what

I want it to be, or am I receiving it for all it's worth?

Because God has a plan for you which that promise you're

claiming you don't even have a clue how big it is.

But with each refiner's fire, you come closer to discovering.

Discovering with greater clarity the extent of that promise,

right? God has a way through the fires

of the refining to reveal things without undoing things.

Earthly fires tend to destroy, but the fire of God, the

refining fire of God, reveals things just to you so that you

see, this is who you are. This is who I am.

God, I need help. It doesn't unravel all the good

work that God has done in you. So I pray that you would embrace

the refining. You won't run from it, and it's

important that you allow God to purify you, to refine you

through the Word that He deposits in you.

And as you wait, as you are in the season of refining, what are

you declaring? Remember that word?

The boy and I will worship. We will come back.

God will provide. What are the will statements

that you are saying of late? It's a habit that I do.

Whatever passage I'm reading, I'm looking for those will

statements and you keep finding it throughout Scripture.

Psalm 23 says this. I will, surely, I will.

Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my

life, and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.

Psalm 121 has this. He will not slumber nor sleep.

Indeed, he who watches over is red will watch over you.

You see these these will statements are everything.

This past week I haven't been well had a severe flu, terrible

throat infection. And as I was lying in bed

thinking about you know what I was going to speak, I remembered

this particular the declaration point.

And as I lay there with this terrible headache, terrible body

pain, I kept saying this out loud.

I kept saying, Lord, I will overcome because I'm an

overcomer in Christ, because you have overcome everything I have

overcome, I will overcome. So the statements you make in

the season of testing are all important, all important.

And finally, remember this, that the ultimate aim of every

promise that is given to you in Christ Jesus, every single

promise has to do with your destiny, has to do with a

Kingdom based destiny. It's not about you.

You were not saved for yourself. You are not going through what

you're going through for yourself.

You're going through it for a larger Causeway, and I pray that

as you understand that, you will understand that the trying of

the promise is so that you will possess the promise.

Possession happens when you dispossess the enemy and every

word of God that is being deposited in you.

As it gets refined, I pray it'll become a weapon that you use

against the enemy, the spiritual enemy, to pull him down, to take

out strongholds and for you to occupy that territory.

What is God giving you as a word that you believe is a destiny

changing word? If he's given you a scripture

about an enlargement of your territory, if he's given you a

scripture saying I will pay you back, if he's saying I will

strengthen you, I will help you, it is for more than just what

meets the eye. So as you walk through testing,

remember this that the testing makes things clear.

It pulls away the dross. It keeps behind the gold and

then it becomes a powerful weapon in your hands to takedown

the enemy and possess his land. The enemy for far too long has

taken up valuable territory. He's taken our joy.

He's taken our health. He's taken our children.

He's taken destinies. He's taken legacies away.

He's brought in rifts in families.

He's brought in divorce. He's brought about church hurt.

He's brought about things that now we didn't know existed a

long time back. He brought in trauma.

He brought in abuse. But those territories belong to

God, and God wants to heal us so that we take back the things

that belong to us in the 1st place.

What is it? God is going to use you?

What is it that through His promise, He's going to wield a

powerful weapon to take back territory that the enemy has

taken? Start asking God for that.

Even as we pray, I want to just invite you.

If you're saying someone asked me to watch the service, I don't

know who Jesus is. You know this story talked about

a ram that was stuck in a thicket, right?

And just as Abraham was about to kill his son Isaac and offer him

as a burnt offering, the Angel of the Lord stopped him and

said, don't I know you fear me? And instead of Isaac, that

little boy who would have been put on the altar, God provided a

substitute in that lamb, in that ram.

And Jesus is the picture of the substitute.

You and I, because of our sinfulness, should have been on

that altar. You and I, because of our

sinfulness, should have been on the cross.

But Jesus, the perfect Lamb of God, was our substitute.

He came instead, moved us out of the pitch, said, don't worry

about it, I take your sin upon me.

And he was crucified. He was killed and dead and

buried. He rose again today.

He is alive. He lives in each of us through

his Spirit. And that's the Jesus we're

talking about. And if you are saying I want

that Jesus, I know how sinful I am.

I know how I deserve to be punished.

But if you're saying he's a substitute, I want to choose

him. Can you repeat the simple prayer

after me? Heavenly Father, I admit I'm a

Sinner. I need help.

I thank you for your Son Jesus, who is my substitute.

I accept him into my life. I pray that he will forgive me

of every sin, wash me clean by his blood.

Thank you that I am now a child of God.

I pray all of this in Jesus name, Amen.

Amen. Welcome to the family of God.

It's the greatest decision you could have ever made.

Now that you are in the family of God, we encourage you to

start to read His word, to start to understand what God has in

store for you because you're not alone.

You have a family of believers around the globe.

So many of us who are following Jesus, who are trying to figure

out the things that he has for us.

And you are not alone. So we would urge you to get in

touch with us. If you were someone who made

that prayer, get in touch with us, we'd love to journey with

you. If you're in another country,

we'll connect you with someone. But welcome to the family of

God. Can the rest of us pray this is

you? You've been saying I'm in a

season of refining. I'm in a season of testing.

I'm exhausted. I want to encourage you.

He's not done with you yet. Your promise is within grasp.

Father in Heaven, I just pray that each of your people right

now, wherever they stand on the spectrum, maybe some are just

receiving their promise. Maybe some are walking out the

testing season. Maybe some are holding the

weapon that has been refined but don't know what to do with it.

God, I pray for revelation like never before.

I pray for people to know what You are calling them to possess.

I pray that Lord, what you are testing you will prove to be

true. I pray that they will stand the

test of time. For those who have not held on

to the promise, who have not embraced it.

God, I pray today they would embrace that promise with all

that they have. I pray for those who have not

embraced you, God, that they would embrace you and never let

you go. I pray that Lord, you will work

in them. You will work through them.

God, I pray that their declarations, the words of their

mouth and the meditations of their heart will be acceptable

to you in the season. God, that we will not declare

anything that is not of you. Help us O God, help us,

strengthen us and be with us. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.

Amen. God bless you.

Have a victorious week. Thanks for listening to this

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