Using the same example of Abraham, there is a lesson about discomfort in the journey of faith. Everything is not always rosy, convenient, and all pleasurable. All through the life of Abraham, he never bought a piece of land for himself to build. He was moving around in tents from place to place. The only time he bought a piece of land was when he needed to bury his wife, Sarah.

This shows that Abraham literally lived in tents all through his faith walk on earth with God. Yes, he received the promise child, Isaac, but the scripture helps us to understand that Abraham desired a better country than that which he came from.

We must be full of faith while expecting God to make good on His promise.

In all, it is expected that every believer walking by faith with God remains open to God’s leading and direction. We must be full of faith while expecting God to make good on His promise. For Abraham, we were told that he was strong in faith and gave glory to God. He was rejoicing long before the physical manifestation of God’s promise for his life began to materialize.

In the New Testament, Jesus said, man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. He was trying to say that there is a need to be a constant conversation between man and God so that one will be able to receive the instructions on what to do and what not to do. So, conversations are needed for action.

Using the same example of Jesus Christ, when he was born the angel instructed Joseph to depart from where they were because the King Herod was out to destroy all the children between the ages of two years and downwards. If Joseph didn’t receive this information and respond appropriately, the destiny of Jesus would have been jeopardized.

Countless people were alive in the days of Abraham, but God chose to make a promise with Abraham and to date, He has kept his word. The promise that God made to Abraham was that in his seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed. While we understand that God promised Abraham a child who was named Isaac, we know that the seed being referred to here was Christ and through Christ all the nations of the earth are blessed. The blessings that have come through this seed include salvation, healing, deliverance from sin and from hell.

The blessings that have come through this seed include salvation, healing, deliverance from sin and from hell.

There are so many conversations of action in the scriptures from where we can draw lessons. For instance, when Moses stood before the Red Sea, the entire army of the Egyptians was pursuing them from behind. The people were scared to death. They began to blame him for taking them out of the captivity they’ve been used to and bringing them to die in the wilderness. This must have been terrible for Moses. But Moses cried out to God. In the conversation between Moses and God, God was telling Moses to take an action while Moses was crying not knowing what to do. So, immediately after Moses heard from God, he stood up with his rod and pointed it towards the Red Sea. Immediately, the water parted to the left and to the right and the Israelites walked on dry ground. As they crossed to the other side, the Egyptians also decided to follow them into the Red Sea, but in the end, they were drowned.

So, the conversation between God and Moses before the Red Sea brought about an action that brought the deliverance for the children of Israel. This singular miracle and wonder has been told many generations after.

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There are plenty of examples of covenants of commitments, and while we will not go into all of them in this book, we will pick out examples that show the greatest traits and attributes that project the best lessons that we could take and apply in our lives.

First and most familiar is the covenant of God to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They are known as the patriarchs of Israel – the forefathers and first fathers, if you will. It started when the Lord called Abraham, then Abram, out to leave where he was and go where God was showing him:

The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s family. Go to the land I will show you.

2 “I will make you into a great nation.
And I will bless you.
I will make your name great.
You will be a blessing to others.
3 I will bless those who bless you.
I will put a curse on anyone who puts a curse on you.
All nations on earth
will be blessed because of you.”

4 So Abram went, just as the Lord had told him. Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he left Harran. 5 He took his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot. They took all the people and possessions they had acquired in Harran. They started out for the land of Canaan. And they arrived there.

6 Abram traveled through the land. He went as far as the large tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were living in the land. 7 The Lord appeared to Abram at Shechem. He said, “I will give this land to your family who comes after you.” So Abram built an altar there to honor the Lord, who had appeared to him. (Genesis 12:1-7)

After the instruction came the promise. And usually when God gives us a promise, it comes with something He wants us to do. Herein enters the commitment. As the Lord commits to do what He has promised, we must also commit to do what He is asking of us.

As the Lord commits to do what He has promised, we must also commit to do what He is asking of us.

The changing of name from Abram to Abraham is also an act of the covenant. Abram means father of one nation, while Abraham means father of many nations. The time in which this transition happened to Abraham is also an affirmation of the promise. And as always with God, there’s more:

When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to him. He said, “I am the Mighty God. Walk faithfully with me. Live in a way that pleases me. 2 I will now act on my covenant between me and you. I will greatly increase the number of your children after you.”

3 Abram fell with his face to the ground. God said to him,

4 “This is my covenant with you. You will be the father of many nations.

5 You will not be called Abram anymore. Your name will be Abraham, because I have made you a father of many nations.

6 I will greatly increase the number of your children after you. Nations and kings will come from you.

7 I will make my covenant with you last forever. It will be between me and you and your family after you for all time to come. I will be your God. And I will be the God of all your family after you.

8 You are now living in Canaan as an outsider. But I will give you the whole land of Canaan. You will own it forever and so will all your family after you. And I will be their God.”

9 Then God said to Abraham, “You must keep my covenant. You and your family after you must keep it for all time to come.

10 Here is my covenant that you and your family after you must keep. You and every male among you must be circumcised.

11 That will be the sign of the covenant between me and you.

12 It must be done for all time to come. Every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised. That includes those who are born into your own family or outside it. It also includes those bought with money from a stranger.

13 So any male born into your family or bought with your money must be circumcised. My covenant will last forever. Your body will have the mark of my covenant on it.

14 Any male who has not been circumcised will be separated from his people. He has broken my covenant.” (Genesis 17:1-14)

When the Lord said then that the covenant will last forever, it was true, as here we are millenniums later and the covenant is still intact.

 

Here was when the Lord showed Abraham the fullness of the plans He had for him. When the Lord said then that the covenant will last forever, it was true, as here we are millenniums later and the covenant is still intact, with Abraham being recognized as the father of the Jews in modern times.

Canaan did go on to become his and his descendants, but as mentioned, the covenant with God was two-way and Abraham had something to do. In this case, it was the circumcision of the males. And as the Lord asked Abraham to keep it for all time, so he did. We still find this practice today in many cultures, not just necessarily in the Jewish customs.

When the Lord makes a commitment, He means it, and He means it for all generations to come.

 

When the Lord makes a commitment, He means it, and He means it for all generations to come. When He says that the covenant is for a thousand generations, we can trust that it truly is for a thousand generations. If He says that it is for this certain lineage and family, we better believe that up to this day there is favor among the ascendants of these people.

The amazing thing about the covenants of God is that they are not just for us, but they are also for the generations after us. It creates an opportunity to have discussions and conversations with the Lord about the possibilities that the future holds. It gives us an avenue, of sorts, to invent what is to come as long as we remain true to the covenant that we have made with the Lord.

 

 

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What is it you’ve wanted for so long? Have you made a request for it in your prayers?

Here are several tips on how you can build deeper, more meaningful conversations with others that convey a sense of security and commitment:

1. Listen

This sounds like a no-brainer, but so many of us have a hard time just listening. I have encountered people who cut people off and the last thing we want, is to make others feel as if we are not interested in what they are saying or that what they are saying is not important.

We need to learn how to hold back our opinions for a moment and just lend a listening ear.

2. Ask questions

Once they are done speaking, show greater interest by asking questions. Clarify why they feel that way, why they think the way they think. Probe and gather more information, not in a way that is offensive, but in a way that conveys your genuine curiosity. Ask open-ended questions that could lead to deeper topics and more intimate conversing.

3. Utilize body language

Do not turn your body away from the person speaking and I greatly advise against looking at your phone while all of this is going on. Lean closer and show through your body how engaged you are in this conversation. Don’t cross your arms, but leave them open and extended so that the other party will not feel as if you are judging or uninterested.

4. Summarize what has been spoken

Recount what they told you and confirm whether you got it correctly. Try to show how you are reflecting on and properly digesting the words and statements that they say.

If you want to build deeper relationships and build a strong sense of leadership, you must first understand that leadership is relationship. We need to know how to build trust, intimacy, and connections with the people around us. We need to show people how we are people of integrity, because how can we trust people who are deceitful and have no sense of ownership and responsibility? And without trust, there can be no relationship.

We need to know how to show that we are committed to the cause, and in this case, the relationship.

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Language is an essential characteristic of the tri-personal God (the Father, Son, and Spirit). It is a necessity of His social being and a communicative attribute of His truthful nature. Thus, when God speaks, He speaks truth (Prov. 8:8-9). However, because of the presence of sin in the human heart, the “straightness” and “rightness” of God’s word is humanly viewed as foolish (1 Cor. 2). Hence, the root-problem between God and Man is “natural.” Meaning, the characteristics of their natures are opposite from each other. For this reason, when God speaks from His level, man can’t understand it because he views it according to his own context as a sinner. Now, this does not mean that the divine words are not clear and understandable by common sense and reason. The human problem according to St. Paul is the sin within him (Rom. 1:21).

The natural problem then resides in the spiritual and moral nature of man. Man views and interprets God’s word according to the impulse and dictates of his sinful nature – sinful earthly bias. Thus, even though God said, “all the words of my mouth are righteous,” that they are all felicitous in their divine context, on the human context they become infelicitous. In other words, God’s word is misinterpreted because our human understanding is affected and influenced by sin.

Let’s take for example the teaching of Jesus in Mt. 5:33-37 regarding Oaths. Jesus said,

“Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ But I say to you ‘Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.’”

In this passage, Jesus is not opposed to making an oath before the Lord as admonished in Lev. 19:12. The issue that he’s pushing here has to do with Jewish misinterpretation and misrepresentation. The Law tells them to swear to God in truth and sincerity. However, because they want to hide and cover up their insincerity before God and their neighbors, they twisted the clear statement of Lev. 19:12. They said that only those oaths which literally used the name of God in their vows are seriously accountable to God. Thus, if a Jew is making a business contract with his neighbor and he wants to express his sincerity in that transaction, he could raise his hand towards heaven as a sign of his commitment. Nonetheless, such kind of vow, although solemn in the sight of man, is not serious in the sight of God. They believe that God will not hold them accountable in that situation. But as you can see, Jesus utterly shattered this kind of attitude by saying that the sacredness of a vow is not literally tied to the verbal pronouncement of God’s name. Rather, every vow is sacred as long as the presence of God is invoked upon it.

God’s words are always felicitous. As a God of all situations and conditions, God speaks with clear and true context. He is never out of context. Therefore, whenever and wherever we think or see that God seems to speak infelicitously; we need to remind ourselves that our human context – as sinners – hinders us to see and understand the righteous beauty of God’s word. For this reason, man should humble himself at the foot of the Cross in order to receive the Spirit of God who will enlighten his mind to the truth of God.

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However, as constatives have their functions, we have to understand that constatives are not as powerful as performatives. There are people who simply said, and then there are the people who went on and did. The impact of this is powerful and life changing.

Anyone can speak a lot of words and act smart and knowledgeable. Yet we believe what is spoken if we see in the life of the person how he does and serves other people – how he lives out what he says. As such, the disciples were commissioned by Jesus to not just speak, but to also do:

When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.

3 He told them: “Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt. 4 Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. 5 If people do not welcome you, leave their town and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”

6 So they set out and went from village to village, proclaiming the good news and healing people everywhere. (Luke 9:1-6)

There is a power in doing as you are saying. Here, we can see that the disciples proclaimed and healed, putting together performatives and constatives in a very powerful and mighty way. They were also warned of the things they were not to do, and they didn’t do those things.

In another passage, Jesus spoke out a performative and the disciples went on to perform what Jesus said:

15 He said to them, “Go into all the world. Preach the good news to everyone. 16 Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who does not believe will be punished. 17 Here are the miraculous signs that those who believe will do. In my name they will drive out demons. They will speak in languages they had not known before. 18 They will pick up snakes with their hands. And when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all. They will place their hands on sick people. And the people will get well.”

19 When the Lord Jesus finished speaking to them, he was taken up into heaven. He sat down at the right hand of God. 20 Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere. The Lord worked with them. And he backed up his word by the signs that went with it. (Mark 16:15-20)

Jesus told them to go into the world and preach, and they did. Out of a performative spoken by Jesus to them, they went on to preach and do signs and wonders. What’s even more amazing about this verse is that it speaks of how the Lord backed up his word by the signs that went with it.

In the same way, if we are going to disciple people or teach people and instruct them in the ways they are to go about life, we must also be able to back up the things we say by the things we ourselves our doing. If we want our lives to speak to others in a powerful way, we must learn how to use not just constatives but also performatives – if not more so.

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What is it you’ve wanted for so long? Have you made a request for it in your prayers?