POWER THOUGHT:
WHERE IS YOUR FOCUS?
Scripture: Genesis 15: 5-6
Are you ready for some great
results to happen in your life? God gave
us the pattern for experiencing abundant changes and results in our lives. This teaching can enable you to participate
with God for mighty turnarounds and victories too.
“Then God led Abram outside and said, look at
the sky. There are so many stars you
cannot count them. You descendants also will be too many to count.” Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord
accepted Abram’s faith, and that faith made him right with God.”
God was actively involved with the
vision He wanted Abraham to experience, and He wants you to participate with
Him as well so you can experience the great things He desires for you!
First God got his attention by
leading him outside!
Then He told him where to look and
place his focus!
Then He told him what His plans
were for him.
Then Abram believed the Lord (not
his circumstances!)
The visual was vital so that it
would be easier to believe the promise!
God had given Abram some amazing
promises and instructions that would enhance his life in Genesis 12: 1-4. “Now
the Lord said to Abram, Go for YOURSELF (for your own advantage) away from your
country, from your relatives and your father’s house, to THE land I will show
you. And I will make of you a great
nation and I will bless you (with an abundant increase of favors) and make your
name famous and distinguished, and you will be a blessing (dispensing good to
others). And I will bless those who bless you (who confer happiness or
prosperity on you) and curse those who uses insolent language toward you; in
you will all the families of the earth be blessed and by you they will bless
themselves. So Abram departed as the
Lord directed him and lot, his nephew went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran.
What does that mean to you as a
New Testament believer?
A large part of the Apostle Paul’s
ministry was to encourage people to focus on who they are in Christ Jesus and
to believe the promises given in His Word concerning our lives.
Galatians 3:8. And the Scripture
foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to
Abraham beforehand saying, In you all the nations shall be blessed. SO THEN
THOSE WHO ARE PEOPLE OF FAITH ARE BLESSED AND MADE HAPPY AND FAVORED BY GOD
WITH BELIEVING AND TRUSTING ABRAHAM.
In Galatians 2:20 Paul says we
inherited Jesus’ faith. “I am crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me and the
life which I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God.”
How powerful is it to know we have
access to Jesus’ faith because He lives inside of us. Faith is His gift to us to be used as He
would use it.
Also, 2 Peter 1:1-4 Simon Peter, a
servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious
faith WITH US through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus
Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied to
you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
Peter considered the faith He
operated in to be very precious and he said we have obtained the same gift of
faith as they received!
And, which is big, grace and peace
gets multiplied the more we know we understand who lives in us and His desire
to operate through us.
Verse 4 Whereby are given to us
exceeding great precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the
divine nature…..
Peter referred to the promises of God as
exceedingly precious and the benefits are that we become more like Jesus!
Take time to think of things you
deem as precious in your life and what time and thought are given to them and
the results from doing so.
It is exciting to know that the
time we give to God’s promises is like sowing seeds into our garden of life
that will result in exponential benefits because our faith, which comes through
the Word, becomes ignited because of our connection with Him.
Every individual is very important
to the Lord just as Abraham and Sarah were and we release our faith to receive
just as they did.
In fact, the Word says, Psalms
100:3 NKJV “Know that the Lord, He is God.
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep of His
pasture.”
Again, it is very interesting and
powerful how the Lord worked with Abram in Genesis 15: 5-6! He had to bring Abram outside of his
circumstances to get his mind off of what was going on inside of him. God had to take him out of his surroundings
to get him to look up so that he could see and comprehend what God was saying
to him.
In my mini book, “Focused Faith
Gets Results,” I refer to having a vision of what we desire as using our
spiritual binoculars. We use the “eye of
our faith” to visualize and then release the dreams/vision with our words in
prayer in Jesus Name.
God says, “NOW faith is the
substance (vision/dream) of things hoped for (or focused on) the reality of
things not (yet) seen.” Hebrews 11:1
God had to get Abram to look up
instead of down and around. God gave him
specific instructions that he was to follow.
Go outside - look up - do it now - count the stars - if you can.
Verse 6 is very powerful: “And he believed the Lord.”
I believe the more we believe and
lean on God’s promises and accept them as God’s will for our lives, we
participate with Him in getting them accomplished.
If you take time to read the first
few verses of Genesis 15, you will see that the Lord had made some promises to
Abram - but - Abram was telling the Lord all the reasons it could not happen.
Don’t we do the same thing? We look at ourselves, our circumstances -
literally look around instead of looking up!
Some important things to think
about and relate to how we think about our lives in connection with how God
worked with Abram are as follows:
God did not give up on Abram
because he had questions and
concerns, and he has not given up on you.
He brought him outside of his
circumstances so that he could give
Him a picture to focus on.
This caused faith to come to Abram
and faith pleases God.
Now take time to think about your
circumstances. Be challenged to consider
how much God loves you and how mighty He is to do great things when faith is
activated. In other words, Look Up! Be willing to ask Him what His big plan is
for you and trust Him to show you.
Again, as New Testament believers,
we are to focus our attention on all that Christ Jesus has already accomplished
on the cross for every believer. Our part is to receive it and believe what the
Bible states in the following Scripture:
III John: “Beloved, I wish above all things that you
would prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers.”
Beloved is such a beautiful term
of endearment spoken to us by the Lord.
He desires us to realize how much He loves us and how it pleases Him
when we allow knowledge of who He is in us to flow outward to our souls.
Soul prosperity is vital to our
receiving the things God has planned for us.
The soul encompasses our mind, our will and our emotions which are all a
part of our experiential life.
Sometimes we carry negative
emotions and memories from wounds failures and criticisms that hinder our
believing that we are indeed “God’s beloved,” and these thoughts can prevent us
from moving beyond our current circumstances.
If this is your case, step outside
of your normal thinking pattern and allow Jesus to help you see yourself living
and experiencing III John:
Healthy, Happy and Prospering in
your daily life.
The world pattern says, I will
believe it when I see it! But, faith and
the vision and dream God offers is: I believe for it therefore I will see it
come to pass! See it with your spiritual
binoculars as the Scripture promises and then stand knowing it is on its way!
True soul prosperity comes through
removing the old clutter - past experiences and painful memories and allowing
Jesus to replace them with His purpose and plans for you. It is very much like defragging a
computer. Remove the old program and replace
it with the new program.
As you think about Abram and how
honest he was with God by openly sharing his worries, frustrations and
concerns, notice that God did not shut the door on Abram’s future, but, in
fact, showed him how to believe for great things.
Trust and ask Him to do the same
for you.
Proverbs 29:18 “Where there is no
vision (no revelation of God and His Word and something to look upon with
contentment) the people perish; but happy and blessed is he who keeps the law
(instruction) [of God].
This is the good news! God desires
you to have a focus, a vision and something to look upon with contentment. This can be realized in your life when you
believe it is true for you too!
As mentioned in “Focused Faith
Gets Results,”
take time to write down your heart’s desires
and find pictures, photographs, magazine articles, etc., that can help you to
more clearly bring your faith vision into focus. Make it a habit to pray over them thanking
the Lord for His faithfulness to fulfill His promises. You can imagine Abram
looking at the stars nightly and remembering God’s promise to him. Remember, his circumstances were not always
the greatest, but he kept looking up.
And, it came to pass!
The absolutely amazing part of
this teaching is that the following Scripture clearly lets us know we are to be
a part of the benefits promised to Abraham:
Galatians 3:29 says: “IF YOU
BELONG TO CHRIST, THEN YOU ARE ABRAHAM’S SEED AND HEIRS ACCORDING TO THE
PROMISE.”
Today, decide your focused faith
will bring great results to you and those you love so that your testimony will
also be:
“AND IT CAME TO PASS!”
