Promise 27 Gen. 13:14-15

Gen. 13:14-15 - "The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, 'Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and your descendants forever.'" One c an just imagine how Abram felt when Lot chose the choicest land, the land well-watered and lush, and he was left with the drier land, harder soil, not much for his animals to graze on. I'm sure he was hanging his head low for a while, wondering how he was going to provide for his family in that rough environment. Then, God came to him and said, "Now, lift your eyes..... pick your head up, cheer up, cause I have great things in store for you." He didn't say, "Don't worry Abram, I've given you everything else that Lot hasn't taken, I'll be with you in your difficult time, helping you get by."No, God is the God of abundance. He is the One who works beyond our beliefs, our hopes, our understanding and gives it all. He doesn't hold back on us. He doesn't want us to "just get by" or to strive. He lifts our heads up and says, "Here, I'm giving you the whole lot." We have been blessed with access to the full riches of His glory, He hasn't held anything back from us, so lift up your heads all you people of God and receive from the abundance of your God today!

Promise 26 Gen. 12:7

Gen. 12:7 - "The Lord appeared to Abram and said, 'To your descendants I will give this land.' So he built a altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him." How often does the Lord appear to You? I've just recently been challenged to write down every encounter I have with God that is in the form of "vocal" appearances or word pictures or prophecy or a new revelation of who God is, because I NEED to remember what God is telling me. Just like Abram, we have a lot of ground to cover and there are certain points along the journey that need to be remembered because they will be significant in the future. For Abram, his journey is not going to be an easy one, but he's laying the remembrance markers for what God is promising him. When the Canaanite armies look too big, he has that altar that reminds him, "O but my God is bigger and He promised me victory in this land." When we are in our journeys and times get difficult, what markers have been laid to remind you, "O but, my God is bigger, He promised me victory in this land."?

Promise 25 Gen. 12:1-3

Gen. 12:1-3 - "Now the Lord said to Abram, "God forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father's house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed." God told Abram to "Go" then He said, "And I will...." There will always be great things that happen when God tells us to stop what we're doing and go to where He tells us. When we are obedient to Him, He blesses us. Not only are other people effected by our obedience but, God personally gifts us with His blessings not just by caring for our needs, but by gifting some of our desires too. He doesn't ask us to step out of our comfort zones without reward.

Promise 24 Gen. 11:6-8

Gen. 11: 6-8 - "The Lord said, 'Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down there and confuse their language so that they will not understand one another's speech.' So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city." I can't help but think of the church when I read this. Many of our western churches can get so focused on their projects that get them closer to heaven, they get so inward focused. They have their plan and their goal and their strategies, all packaged. It's a church growth package to build it high up to heaven. What they miss is the "Us" factor. God said, "Look at what the people are doing, once they get their minds together to do something, nothing will stop them, so let US go down and scatter them, shake them up, remind them of who WE are." The church gets too focused on the stuff they have control over, that they forget to factor in God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. They get so set on their will they forget to consider God's will. God never intended the church to be contained in one tower, the church was always meant to "go", to be scattered, to cover all the lands. They are to look to the Spirit and allow Him to spread them to where God wants them to be. God wants them to take Jesus into all the world with them. May the Lord break down the towers of our day and promise to spread the church throughout the nations!

Promise 23 Gen. 9:16

Gen. 9:16 - "When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the ever lasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth." God was speaking to Noah and telling Him how He is establishing His covenant with him by placing the rainbow in the clouds. Noah responds, it is so very subtle and easy to miss because it doesn't say "and Noah said,", but his response is in quotations marks and the person is changed; "Then I will look... between God and every...." When God gives us a promise we need to respond to that promise. We can't just say, "Oh, Ok God, thanks!" What did Noah do? He said, "When the bow is in the cloud, I WILL look upon it, I will remember this promise, this covenant between God and all living things. What is this saying? 1 - He will remember the promise, 2 - He will pursue it, 3 - He will stand on it, trust it, put his hope and faith in it. God's promises to us are not given just so we can have warm fuzzy feelings, to feel better. His promises are there for us to pursue and to embrace. Which promises of God have you put on the shelf, ignored or need to pursue more? Have a good think, and then respond!

Promise 22 Gen. 9:12-13

Gen. 9:12-13 - "God said, 'this is the sign of the covenant which I am making between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; I set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between me and the earth'." The previous verse explains the covenant, "I establish my covenant with you; and all flesh never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth." When I read this I think, "But Lord, what about all the people who have died in floods?" There have been many people who have died in floods, what this promise says, is, "I will assure that there will always be a way of escape." He will not wipe out everyone on the earth again with a flood, that is reassuring, So why do so many people die in floods? It's simple really, (for some but not for all of course, especially those who live on islands and can't escape the terrible storms) we build our homes in gullies, in flood zones, we are sometimes more motivated to live in beautiful areas then by safety. People are willing to "risk it" to have a good view. Lake, river and ocean front properties are money making schemes. It's not God's fault when people are swept away by floods that were not intended to destroy. He gave us His promise, we should live within the safety of it.

Promise 21 Gen. 8:21-22

Gen. 8: 21-22 - "The Lord smelled the soothing aroma; and the Lord said to Himself, 'I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing. As I've done. While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease'." God had the prime opportunity to give man good, pure hearts as He started from scratch with Noah's family, but He didn't. He realized that man was going to be evil and yet He was willing to let man continue to be born. He wasn't going to respond to man's evilness in the same way, nor take it out on the animals. He promised that the days will continue, man will continue to be as they were. It was His sovereign choice to allow man to continue to make that choice between good and evil. He had a plan, and I really believe at the time of His admission that man will continue to be evil from their beginnings, that He already new He was going to have to send His Son because of it. What a choice He had to make! He made it out of love. Noah's offering to Him showed Him that there was hope that man would choose to do right and make good decisions. That offering stirred the compassion of God once again for His children. Oh the love of the Father!

Promise 20 Gen. 6:18

Gen. 6:18 - "But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall enter the ark - you and your sons and your wife, and your sons wives with you." God is telling Noah that him and his family will be protected in the process of building this ark, while in preparation for a massive rain that they've not yet seen ever in their lives and He will save them from the terrible flood. He is giving His promise. It's a promise that is not questioned, a promise to be trusted, it will never be broken. We can trust in God's promises to us, we can stand firm in them. The problem with people these days is that either they forget God's promises so they go into frenzies of worry or they don't seek for God's promises, or they don't quiet themselves long enough to hear what God has to say to them. God is a God that can be trusted so let's give Him a chance, stop and hear what He has to say, what covenant does He want to make with you?

Promise 19 Gen. 6:17

Gen. 6:17 - "Behold, I, even I am bringing the flood water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life, from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish." Not a fun promise! You can see how difficult it was for God to have to make this decision. First, He took delight in His creation, but then man turned on Him. His beloved turned to evil. It's interesting that in vs. 12 it doesn't say that the devil tempted and corrupted man, but it says, "all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth." We use "the devil made me do it" far too much I think. It was man, himself, who did wrong and that corruption spread out of control. Then, it was God, Himself, who had to put an end to it. He made sure that we understood that it wasn't the devil who brought the flood that destroyed evil man, but it was God who wiped out the evilness of man. It is only God who can take that evil away, man cant do it himself. As much as it pained God to wipe most of His creation off the face of the earth, it was His love that motivated Him to preserve and protect His chosen ones. Our promise; He will remove the evilness within us and save us by His love. Thank you Lord!

Promise 18 Gen. 6:8-9

Gen. 6:8-9 - "But Noah found favour in the eyes of the Lord.... Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God." God had become sorry that He made man. Verse 5 says that "every intent of the thoughts of man were evil continually." We can grieve God, grieve Him to a point of despair. Enough for Him to want to wipe us off the face off of the earth. But on the other hand we can also please Him, and delight Him like Noah had done. God delights with those who walk with Him, who are blameless and righteous. The promise goes two ways. God will not tolerate evil men, He will smite them. It will still break His heart to do so. And He will bless those who walk with Him, who choose to live as His children. it's not a difficult choice to make, which promise to pursue. What am I doing more, grieving Him or pleasing Him? Which promise will He choose for me?

Promise 17 Gen. 5:24

Gen. 5:24 - "Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him." What an incredible epitaph! Enoch and God were always side by side. Then God took the lead and walked him straight up to heaven. It saddens me the number of times that I have wandered away from God's side. I didn't realize that I had the very best of everything right with me. Why in the world do we think there is something better elsewhere? The great thing about our loving Daddy is that He comes to find us when we wander and draws us back to His side. One thing is for sure, I won't be off wandering when it's time for that stroll toward heaven. Lord keep me at Your side the whole way! Amen!

Promise 16 Gen. 4:26

Gen. 4:26 - "To Seth, to him also a son was born; and he called his name Enosh. Then men began to call upon the name of the Lord." Look at the contrast between Adam and Eve and Enosh. Adam and Eve once walked with God, but then they sinned and hid from God. Now Enosh is born to Seth and the people begin to pursue God once again. Seth was a new beginning for Adam and Eve, they had lost two sons already and God blessed them with another. Was it the stories that he heard about his brother Abel that caused him to raise Enosh to love as Able did? or give God the 1st of everything he had? When God redeems us or our families, He gives us new beginnings. We have choices to make in those beginnings, to live like we did or to go forward pursuing God and giving Him 1st fruits of all we have. There will always be new beginnings in our lives because each season of our lives are one. What are you going to do with your next new beginning?

Promise 15 Gen. 4:15

Gen. 4:15 - "So the Lord said to him, 'Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him seven fold.' And the Lord appointed a sign for Cain, so that no one finding him will slay him." When God told Cain that he would be a vagrant and wander the earth, Cain became frightened that others would kill him. Because God loves His people He didn't say, "Well Cain, you deserve it, an eye for an eye, you killed your brother, why shouldn't they kill you?" No, He put a threatening sign on him to others as a way of protecting him. Cain didn't stop belonging to God when he killed his brother, God still had compassion on him. Often times we think bad people deserve the bad things that happen to them, but the opposite is true, they need to be brought to the Father. So many people think that if they do something horrible God will be mad at them and turn away from them. Our Heavenly Father is a compassionate God, His thoughts are not our thoughts, His ways, not our ways.

Promise 14 Gen. 4:7

Gen. 4:7 - "If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and it's desire is for you, but you must master it'." God is telling Cain that if he does well; makes the right choices, then he'll feel a lot better about it, but if he doesn't then the doors are opened up for sin to overcome him. There is a promise and a command in this verse. The promise is: If we do those things that are good, honest, holy and glorifying to God, we will feel good, we will feel full and lifted up. The command is: if we choose to do otherwise, then we open a foothold for the enemy. God didn't say we will be tempted, He said we will be succumbed to sin, but, He also said, "We must master it." Which to me means that it is I who opens the door to sin. The enemy doesn't open the door when we are doing good, it is when I do not make the right choices that sin enters in. I can't blame the enemy for what I've done, and I need to take hold of that sin and not let it overcome me. Just as I opened the door, I need to close it. God made it simple though, if you do good, you don't have to worry about the sin.