He Went Out

“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.  The idea is to be insulated, insured, and settled.   Our careers, relationships, insurance policies, retirement plans, and assets are the foundations by which we craft our own little castles.  The imaginative certainty is enough to keep us from experiencing greater depths of the true reality of faith.  When you trust in this world you are parlaying your own destruction in hopes we might gain more imaginative certainty.  All the while there is a depth of faith that could be ours remain unexplored except we “go out not know whiter we went.”  

             Before God called Abraham, he was living around his family, friends, and no doubt trying to make his own way in this life.  He had a house, a wife, and perceived a future.  Then God called him.  The call of God is a special thing, it demands action.  It demands acceptance 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 beyond all that he knew.  His faith would have to be totally in God: all that he had, was, or ever would be, placed in the hands of God.  It was the promise of God against 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.  You know you must “go.”  Pack up your things, sell your house, quit your job, gather your family and get in the car ready to drive.  Where to?  You have no clue, but 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.  He obeyed, thereby experiencing faith reality.  The certainty is imaginative because in a moment our little castles can be razed to the ground.  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 Christian, sanctified people; the only difference between imaginative certainty and faith reality is obedience. He is calling us to live by faith, faith in his Son, faith in his Word, faith in the Holy Spirit.  That He will teach, lead, and take you way out of your comfort zone.  It’s comfortable to build our own castles (not easy but comfortable).  It’s comfortable to trust in the things of this world.  The way of personal gain is tried but not true; the way of losing all so that we might win Christ is true but less tried.  It takes abandonment, obedience, sacrifice, and perpetual going out.  It may be lodging someone who needs a bed, going out and preaching on street corners, going out and quitting your job because it causes you to work on Sunday.  Reaching out to people who don’t look, talk, think or have any way to repay you.  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.