By REV. TIMOTHY L. MELTON, PASTOR
(Transcribed by Myra D. Colgate)
Cherokee Pentecostal Holiness Church
Read Genesis 22:1-19;15:1-15; Isaiah 49:8-11,13; Hebrews 11:8-19
All believers have an advantage, and possibly are considered as having an unfair advantage. The children of God have an advantage in the Earth, because they serve the God to Whom the Earth belongs! They serve the God directing their steps. They serve the God sending the answers, by His testing of them, as they keep on walking up that mountain. He is the God Who has given them all the answers!
So, one can say, “I’m going through a test. I’m going through a trial, and it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever been through. I’m not sure which way to turn.”
How about, “Don’t turn?” Put one’s eyes on Jesus and declare, “I’ll go where You’d have me go.”
My wife, Cassie, and I have a saying that we’ve had for many years. “We’re unwilling to step out from underneath the umbrella of the Blessing of God.”
This means, “we go where He goes, we stop when He stops. When He goes faster, we go faster. When He backs up, we back up.” Why? “Wherever He is, we want to be.”
People look at our lives and ask us, “How’d we do it?”
My Dad said to me, just last night, “All the Blessings of God are on your life. It has to be God because you’re not smart enough.”
Of course, I had to agree with him. How many realize, we don’t have to be smart, just smart enough to be obedient? We don’t have to be fast, we only keep up with Him? There’s a God in Heaven waiting to Bless us.
“Their own answers are crawling up the other side of that mountain. If one doesn’t stop, doesn’t quit, they’ll have their answer. And, when there, “they’ll find out the God of Heaven has a Great Plan for their own life.
Anyone asking, “Why did Abraham have to go through all this?”
“The test Abraham had to pass, wasn’t a little one for him, nor would it have been for any of us. Elderly Abraham, showed God obedience without any signs of hesitation or complaint. Could he obey God’s overwhelming request, in this most difficult decision, by making this, a forbidden sacrifice of his only son’s life, at over 110 years of age? Isaac, born of their own bodies, a miracle already, was he willing to place him on that altar, the knife in his own hand? Without a complaint, could we have done that? Would Isaac have allowed it? How much Abraham had to trust God! Could any of us say, we would’ve done it? Would God have entrusted any of us to do so?
God wanted us to see how amazing His Blessing really is, sent our way, through His Son, Jesus, climbing that same mountain. By the way, if one goes back into Jewish Tradition, it was on Mt. Moriah that Abraham offered Isaac, and was the same Mt. Calvary Jesus would be offered on!
What God’s trying to get us to see, through the largest test, humanity has ever taken, His purpose, is to get His Blessing to us. This is the Truth, no matter where we reside in the world today. The Greatest Blessing is still Jesus.
As one man was willing to give up his beloved son, Isaac, the God of Heaven decided to give us, His Son, Jesus. While the ram offered, was their sacrifice, instead of Isaac, the God of Heaven gave up, for everyone, His Son, Jesus.
While the ram took the place of Isaac, Jesus took the place of everyone choosing to believe. He did it all for us. The Bible declares in Revelation, “He was the Lamb slain from the foundations of the Earth. He was as good as already slain from the foundations of the Earth. He was already slain on the Cross of Calvary before Abraham was even born, before Isaac was ever placed on that altar.
Regardless of where one is, what one has done in life, wherever one’s been, what’s been said about them, doesn’t matter. Jesus already was given for each one of us. We’re not telling anyone life is easy. God knows every step each has taken, has already finished everything in one’s life, before He started any of us. He already knows all about each one of us. “I will bring each of you to an expected end.” He knows each of us intimately. He wants us to know Him, intimately.
