“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.
