One other thing that is very important that we need to highlight about Abraham was his separation. Remember, in order for him to be a father and to journey, there was a condition.
Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him. (Isaiah 51:1-2.)
And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.
And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee
(Genesis 17: 3-6.)
Abraham’s Separation
One other thing that is very important that we need to highlight about Abraham was his separation. Remember, in order for him to be a father and to journey, there was a condition. He was called out of his father’s house, out of his kindred and out of his nation to follow God. Everything that Abraham did was marked by separation. Whatever Abraham did that did not conform to God’s demand of separation, God came back to visit it. God would say to him, This is not part of it.
When he went down to Egypt, as far as God was concerned, this was not recorded as a time in the will of God for him. It was like God pressed a stopwatch. It was when he returned and went back to the altar that God began to speak to him again. God did not give it to him to see all the land until he separated from Lot because God did not call Lot. Many times we are trying to function with people that God has not called to journey with us. With them we will not be able to journey and cover the whole land because they will begin to become a burden and a hindrance to us. God did not call Lot. God called only Abraham.
God called Abraham but at the beginning of his journey, his father, Terah, relocated with him and others to Haran. In Genesis 12 the wording is, Now the Lord had said to Abram meaning it was not in Genesis 12 that God called Abraham. What we have in Genesis 12 was a repetition of the call. It was in Genesis 12 that he finally left his father and it is also here (in Haran) that it was said that his father died.
Meanwhile, his father did not die physically at the point of Abraham’s departure from him. Terah was 70 years when he gave birth to Abraham and Abraham was 75 years when God called him but his father died at the age of 205 years. If you add 70 and 75 and subtract it from 205 you will get 60. In other words, Terah lived another 60 years after the separation. That means when Isaac was born, Terah was still alive. Abraham’s separation was total. This is important.
What is troubling us as Africans is that most often we do not fully depart from our ungodly foundations, our father’s house, the altars, and unrighteous cultures and traditions. The Scripture says look unto Abraham. He is your pattern. God called him alone blessed him and increased him. The Scripture says to us to forget our father’s house so that the king may desire our beauty (Psalm 45).
There are certain things that if we are not disconnected from in our father’s house spiritually, and sometimes physically, we will never be able to enter into what God has called us to do. Clearly our inability to live a life of separation, devoid of mingling with traditions and the gods of our father’s house and land rob us of consecration and power before God.
Abraham’s journey was a journey of separation. The separation that began with his country, kindred, his father’s house also extended to Egypt, Lot and Ishmael. May we be called out of our father’s house and all that will be a hindrance to our journey with our Master.
In Genesis 17, God demanded from Abraham that he walk before Him and be perfect. And this was after he had walked with God for between 24 and 25 years. In this encounter with God, a few things were new demands from God upon Abraham. Apart from circumcision, which we explained above, he was asked to change his name from Abram to Abraham. Abraham did not frown, questioning God why He didn’t make these changes at the beginning of his journey. Well, from this we learn that God’s demands are not once and for all from the beginning of the journey.
There will always be things in our lives that He will choose to deal with one after the other at different points in time. Therefore, we must never conclude that all issues have been settled.
There are still certain things in me, and perhaps in all of us, that God is yet to deal with. It is a journey, from glory to glory and from one level to another. I pray that we will journey so that what God wants to do in our lives will be established.
While we seek the Lord to raise for us in Nigeria a leadership that will lead us to the Promised Land to harvest all the prophetic utterances over the years by men and women of God, we need to see that what the nation needs are sons who have been raised, trained and commissioned to lead our nation into the Promised Land carrying the mantle of leadership as priests, as kings and as prophets. These are the Davids we are longing for.
We are called to rediscover Abraham’s foundation and walk as he did; to follow him so that through us God can raise a people who will birth movements and ministries that will impact and affect the architecture of nations and cities generations. Whatever we build that is not of God will become our prison yard. Jerusalem is a city of blessing because the foundation was spiritual. We know how David came into this place [Jerusalem]. We know the battle he fought. The Jebusites said to David saying, David you want to take this place. It is the lame and the blind that will fight with you. That speaks volumes but David dealt with it and took the city and built it. May we be able to deal with those things so that we can build that which is eternal.
In a teaching, a dear brother said though we thank God for the exodus that happened there is still going to be another exodus. Bro Reuven did not say the Exodus was just for the Jews, but even today, for the Church. There is need for another exodus from the Church – to come out of her. To come out of things that have no foundation in God; the things that have become a prison, things that have become cages, caging the souls of men, and stopping us from journeying.
Those things do not say you should not be a Christian, read your Bible, pray or speak in tongues but they just don’t allow you to journey into the good things of the Spirit of God. God wants to deliver us from the things that will not allow us to journey with Him. There is a depth in God, there is a height in God. There is a breadth and length in God that we must journey into like Abraham did to lay hold on eternal realities.
