Wednesday Week 5 — Just A Minute Lord

by | Jan 31, 2018 | Daily Devotional, General |

Scripture Reading For Today – Genesis 12:1

Looking at my own marriage and listening to the frustrations of many married women that I have heard complaining about their husbands, it seems that the men have one particular trait that really irks their wives – the unwillingness to do as they are told, how they are told to do it, and especially not when they are meant to do it. Men (some men at least) always seem to be able to find ingenious ways to delay till tomorrow (if ever), what needed to be done yesterday.
Abraham was a typical “man’s man”. He took his “delayed doing” to an entirely new level, when he took 5 years to do what God had asked him to do.

“Now the LORD had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you.”
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭12:1‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Let’s look at what Abraham did in Response:

 Delayed Response 
“31Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (the son of Haran), and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and with them **he set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. When they came to Haran, they settled there.* 32The lifetime of Terah was 205 years, and he died in Haran.” Genesis 11:31-32

“So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan.” ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭12:4-5‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

 Note the statement at beginning of Genesis 12:1;

“The Lord had said to Abram….”
 
And in Acts 7:2-4; Stephen in his testimony at his trial, gives us further background on Abraham’s call:

“Brethren and fathers, listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, and said to him, ‘Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you.’ Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell.” Acts‬ ‭7:2-4‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Genesis chapter twelve was written in reference to the previous incidence of God’s call to Abraham. God had instructed him earlier to leave Ur of the Claldees
to go to Canaan. However, Abram went only as far as Haran and dwelt there till the death of his father, Terah. (See Genesis 11:27-32).
 
The time that lapsed between when God called him out of Ur and the delay in Haran before he eventually left for Canaan was at least 5 years.
 
Abraham dithered in his response to obeying God’s instructions to him. He got to a comfortable place where he allowed himself to settle in, and delayed the fulfilment of God’s promise to him:

1Now the LORD said to Abram,
“Go out from your country, your relatives, and your father’s household
to the land that I will show you.
2Then I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you,
and I will make your name great,
so that you will exemplify divine blessing.
3I will bless those who bless you,
but the one who treats you lightly I must curse,
and all the families of the earth will bless one another by your name.” (Genesis 12:1-5 NET)

The promised possession that was meant to be secured was not Haran, but Canaan.

“…he set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. When they came to Haran, they settled there.” (from Genesis 11:31)

 Like Abraham, you might have started off in obedience to God’s invitation to come out and move forward into His promised inheritance for you, but you have
got to the place where you have pitched your tent in an in-between land and you have settled for a substitute of destiny; a counterfeit of your destined
inheritance!

God is calling out to you today to get up and go. Do not settle for less than He has purposed for you.

Delayed obedience is as damaging as outright disobedience is. Delayed obedience will always equate to delayed blessings.

Dear friend, God is asking you to look over your life today, and see if there is any area or any situation where you have delayed obeying His instructions to you. Do not put away till another day, what He has instructed you to do.
 
May you find strength and grace in Christ, as you get up and go forward in obedience to the call of destiny that is upon your life in Jesus’ Name.
 
Shalom,

Pastor Wale Ola

LIFE APPLICATION
1. What is God saying to me in today’s message?

2. What was ministered to me in the bible verses that I read today?

3. What are the changes or adjustments I need to make in my life to align with the word of God?

4. What is my commitment to the word for today?

5. What practical steps can I take to benefit from the word I have read today?

 

 

PRAYER FOCUS
Repent of any act of disobedience that the Holy Spirit will reveal to you today.

Ask God to show you areas of your life where you have allowed yourself to settle for less than what God has instructed and purposed for you to possess or to do.
 
Make a commitment to address and redress the situation(s) immediately. Bind the spirit of procrastination and ask God to quicken an urgency in you to obey His word.
 
Break yourself free from every spirit of limitation that has been working in your life to keep you bound in a place that is not the place of your appointment.
 
Release yourself by the power in the Name of Jesus and in the blood of the lamb, to arise and go forward to possess God’s promised inheritance for you.
 
Song For Today: I Will Rise – Chris Tomlin