ICS Daily Devotions
God Calls Things Not as Though They Are
Genesis 17:5 (NKJV) No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations.
Abraham had a calling to be the father of many nations, but he and Sarah didn’t even have a son yet. Sarah was beyond childbearing age and Abraham was really old, so in the natural, it was impossible for it to happen, and how foolish it would sound to their neighbours and friends when they knew the meaning of “Abraham” while he was still childless. However, that is how God works because He calls it by faith that Gideon is a mighty man of valour and Abraham is the father of many nations. God will be the one who will bring to pass whatever He has called them to do. Likewise, God is addressing you and I very differently despite the fact that we are not perfect.
Ephesians 1:3-6 (NKJV) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
This is the positional truth that belongs to us even though we are not perfect and still subject to the work of the flesh. You might not feel like it, but this is how God looks at you and addresses you now. God has chosen to call us children of God, accepted in the Beloved by God and seen as holy and blameless before Him. We have the imputed righteousness of Christ the moment we chose to accept Him as our Lord and Saviour. Jesus is the lifter of our heads, and He has taken us out of the miry clay and set us on the Rock! He believes in His creation, especially when we are a new creation in Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit to walk in righteousness and holiness. He has given us everything including a measure of faith (Romans 12:3), and we are able to grow our faith by listening to the Word, acknowledging all the good things that belong to us In Christ and rest in His perfect love for us!
In fact, we should be able to do more exploits and overcome more challenges because of these new redemption realities that have been made available to us, and that Jesus is interceding for us right now at the right hand of the Father.
Sermon Series: You Are in the Hall of Faith! (Part 1)
