Your Faith Must Stand Trial

  

This is another wonderful sermon by Bishop TD Jakes. 

Genesis 22:1-12

New International Version (NIV)

 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

2 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.”

3 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. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 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.”

6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, 7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”

“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.

“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.

9 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. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

12 “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.”

There will be a time in your life when your faith will have to stand trial. Where you will have to stand in a real court room.  I am not talking about “she talked behind my back or he didn't speak to me” I am talking about real trial, real test of faith.

God won’t take u out of the fire, but he will be a thermostat in the furnace.  He will regulate the heat in your life. He will put barriers on the enemy and tell him enough is enough. If God had not been the thermostat in your fiery furnace, u would have burnt up long ago. Every time you were on the verge of a nervous breakdown, God put a brake and said not today.

I cannot talk about faith without talking about Abraham, the father of faith who was born one nationality and crossed to another nationality in the middle of his life. By faith the gentile became a Jew. Out of faith he birthed a new nation out of old loins because he believed God. It was counted unto him as righteousness.  He wasn't right but he believed God so good that God said if you believe me I will go and credit it in your account. “I’ll accept faith as a medium of exchange just like businesses accepts money as medium of exchange in earth realm and yet money does u no good in heaven at all, because faith is the commerce of heaven and God said if you believe me I will go ahead and give u righteousness.  And not only righteousness, I will give u land, everywhere your feet trod, I will give u… if u can walk it out, u can have it. If u can stand upon it u can have it. You can walk with your blessing with your footprints.

Just say to your neighbor “watch my feet” my feet are marching towards something,  my feet are marching towards all things the devils said it wouldn't be mine, every time u see my footprints know that Before it’s over I am going to get that blessing. I may cry, I may crawl, I may tear my clothes, I may go through a crisis, it might be a long court case, it might be much deliberation, the jury might be hung for much and more but I am going to get it because I believe God.

Abraham’s faith had many preliminary hearings. ..Pretests… Trials “Abraham, leave your country and kindred” ...preliminary hearing.  Abraham who wasn't a warrior had to get into a fight to get Lot out of trouble. Faith took him to many trials and tribulations.

God told him that he will bring forth a son when he was old and the case dragged till his wife was past child bearing age.  Now she was barren and dead and the case extended till his body was dead. And when it was completely impossible with men, then God gave him a date and said “I will bless u”

As long as u can see your way clear, God will do absolutely nothing. It is when there is absolutely no way, for u to get it. When all of your plans have failed, then god will say “now I am ready to bless u”.  At this stage u will know it’s not by might, not by power but by His spirit. At this stage, no people can get the credit coz u know if it wasn't for God who was by your side, you wouldn't have got that blessing.

Now in genesis 22, god gives Abraham a chance to stand a trial. “Take your son, your only son”…Here Abraham acts as a shadow of what God would do to Christ.  When faith goes on trial, you have to get away from people.  And he begins to move and he goes a long journey carrying an inner circle of men. But when he is yet three days away from the test, the bible says he saw the place of test from far off. Three things I want to talk about and I will be finished. I want to talk to u about the place of the trial. I want to talk to u about the purpose of the trial. And I want to talk to u about the provisions of the trial. Abraham didn't know where it was coming but he knew it was coming. And god said I will show u the place. If you walk with god, god will show u what u r going to go through before u go through it. If u really walk with God, there will be some fore warning, some inner awareness, some awakening that equips yourself to buckle your seat belts to get ready to go through a test.  The problem is that we do not hear what the spirit is saying to the church. But if u walk close to god and don’t be surprised if the wind comes and He is not in it, the fire comes and He is not in it, and the earth quake shakes and He is not in it, just listen to the innermost voice and God will tell u who u can trust and who u cannot.

God told him to go to mount Moriah…but Mount Moriah was a range of mountains but in those ranges of mountains there was a particular place. Abraham didn't know which mountain in the range of mountains but god said “you will know it when you see it” and while he was yet three days away he looked up and saw the place. Standing almost in the shadow of Christ in the garden of Gethsemane looking towards the place where his faith would be challenged with the cross. He had with him as Christ did those inner circle of people, those people u think u can carry with you. But at the place of trial even your closest friends are barred from the court room.  Abraham being sensitive to this time in his life says to those who are with him “this is as far as u can go” and Christ says to peter, James and John “wait right here and pray’ and he went alone further to pray.

Abraham said “me and the lad are going yonder to worship”  “you are not worshiping God until u lay down something before him “something that you are related to, something that u r connected to something that is valuable to you.  Until you lay it on the altar, you are not really worshiping God.

Abraham said ‘we are going to worship but we will come again”. As long as you know in the back of your mind that when it’s all over, I am coming back again, no devil in hell can destroy u.

 If you keep in the back of your mind that I am coming out of this. “I don’t know how, I don’t know when, I don’t know who, I don’t know if I will be dead and he will have to raise me up, I don’t know if he is going to stop the knife in my hand, I don’t know if he is going to send an angel, I don’t know if he is going to send a prophet, but I do know that before it’s over I am coming out of this. I know I am coming out of this coz there is a prophecy over my life. And I haven’t done everything that God called me to do. And until I finish my prophecy, somehow or the other, there has to be a sequel, this can’t be end of the movie.  I have to come out of it. This may be a commercial, but it’s not over.

Look to your neighbor and say “expect me to come back”. In every person’s life, there is a place of test. There is a place in your life where everything u testified in your life has to be proven. There is a place in your life where everything u shouted about has to be tested. There is a place in your life where every bible class u taught must be proven. While u were talking, the place was set.  The place is where God has to prove to the enemy that you are more than just talk. God is going to prove his strength in your life when you come to the place. It is to prove to the enemy that when all hell breaks loose in your life, when your flesh is being pulled apart, u will do the will of your father.