“By faith Abraham, when he was called to
go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed;
and he went out, not knowing whither he went.” Hebrews 11:8
We live in a society of imaginative certainty. Typically, risk is only acquired if the
reward is calculated to be greater; faith is a concept entertained only when
pertaining to personal profit. The idea
is to be insulated, insured, and settled.
Our careers, relationships, insurance policies, retirement plans, and
assets; the building blocks by which we craft our own little castles. Once inside, we heap to ourselves all that we
hold dear and fight off anyone or anything that might threaten our kingdom. The imaginative certainty is comfortable enough
to keep us from experiencing faith reality, and while we think we are safe; we
are in fact rotting from within. We are
parlaying our own destruction in hopes we might gain more imaginative certainty;
all the while there is a glorious faith experience that certainly would be ours
if we but “go out not know whiter we
went.”
Abraham lived many, many years ago in the land
of Haran. Not unlike you or me, Abraham
was living around his family, trying to make his way in life, with the tools
that this world had to offer. He had a
house, a wife, family and friends. It is
safe to assume that he was prosperous and living a comfortable worldly
lifestyle (being that Haran was in northern Mesopotamia and on a major trade
route). Then God called him. The call of God is a special thing, it
demands action. It demands affirmation
or denial. It demands that you follow or
flee. Abraham was not called to advance
his kingdom; in fact the opposite, Abraham was called to leave all that he knew
and go out into the complete unknown. He
knew God called him, he knew he was promised that somewhere over yonder was a
land for his inheritance and that God would make him a great nation, but beyond
that he knew nothing. His faith was
totally in God: all that he had, was, or ever would be was placed in the hands
of God. It was the promise of God verse
the comforts of life. Imagine if tonight
you received a verse, scripture, or unction from God that told you to “go out.” You know it’s from God, and you know little
else. Only that you have to pack up your
things, sell your house, quit your job, gather your family and get in the car
ready to drive….where? You have no
clue. Where do you go? God will tell you. Will there be dangers? God will protect you. How will you eat? Where will you sleep? What about your family? What will your wife or husband think? The Lord will provide. This was Abraham’s reality; he lived in
imaginative certainty before God called him and He obeyed, thereby experiencing
faith reality. The certainty is
imaginative because in a moment our little castles can be hewed to the
ground. The faith is reality because
when we trust in the Lord and “go out” we experience the reality of living in
faith and by faith.
As
Christians and sanctified people; the only difference between imaginative
certainty and faith reality is obedience.
God is calling us to “go out” every day.
He is calling us to live in faith; faith in his Son, faith in his Word,
faith in his Spirit; that it will teach, lead, and take you out, way out of
your comfort zone. It’s comfortable to
build our own castles (not easy but comfortable). The way of personal gain is tried but not
true; the way of loss so that we might win Christ is true but less tried;
because it takes abandonment, obedience, sacrifice, and perpetual going
out. Going out and lodging someone who
needs a bed, going out and preaching to prisoners on death row, going out and
quitting your job because it causes you to work on Sunday. The way of “going out” is the way of faith;
it is total dependence on God and absolute abandonment of self. It is the way Christ lived, and calls us to
live as well. Lord help us by faith to
go out.
