OBEDIENCE, BLESSINGS AND RIGHT PLACE - LESSONS FROM ISAAC

Pr. James Victor Lubwama

As Christians, we should be mindful of the events that reoccur in our lives. Famine was so severe in the days of Isaac just like it was in the days of Abraham, his father. Genesis 26:1 (NIV) says; 
“Now there was a famine in the land—besides the previous famine in Abraham’s time—and Isaac went to Abimelek king of the Philistines in Gerar”

Abraham also lied about Sarah being his wife when he visited Abimelek king (Genesis 20:2). The same events unfolded when Isaac lived in Gerar due to famine; when some people admired his wife, he claimed she was his sister. Genesis 26:6-7 (NIV) says; 
“So Isaac stayed in Gerar. 7 When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” because he was afraid to say, “She is my wife.” He thought, “The men of this place might kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is beautiful”

• We see that there was famine in Isaac’s time just like it was in his father’s time
• We also see that some people admired Isaac’s wife and he did exactly what his Father did
• We also see that both Sarah and Rebekah delayed to give birth to children; they were barren and only prayer and God’s intervention brought children.

Close The Doors Of The Past

The events that happened in the lives our parents or descendants usually repeat themselves and so we should be diligent. It is relevant to study and analyse the lives of your descendants and find out any negative events that keep occurring, and close those doors. These might be failure and limitation in some aspects of your life which are similar to that of your father, mother, or grandparents, and they may include; marriage failure, divorce, low levels of education, not being promoted at the work place, struggling financially, chronic diseases in the family etc. However, through prayer, those doors can be closed. You have power over those situations because the Holy Spirit lives in you; so you can uproot and bind them  (Mathew 15:13;  18:18); and by God’s power, your family and the future generation will be set free because Christ makes us unquestionably free (John 8:6)

We thank God because through Christ, we have been set free by the blood of Jesus we can be free and live abundantly. By accepting Jesus as our personal Savior we became temples of the Holy Spirit; for the Holy Spirit is the anointing that breaks yokes, sets us free and makes us new creatures. Isaiah 10:27 (KJV) says;
"And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing."

Go Where GOD Tells You

Genesis 26:2-3 (NIV)

“Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land where I tell you to live. 3 Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham”

During the famine, God told Isaac not to go to Egypt as a coping mechanism - Egypt represents the world systems. There is always an answer in the world during famine or insufficiencies but the problem is that those answers or solutions usually come with strings attached. God has a ministry for disaster preparedness and is always ready to rescue you in case of trouble. God told Isaac to dwell in the land of Gerar and promised to be with him, bless him and honor the covenant of His father Abraham. This means that if you want an encounter with God, you need to have a spiritual parent who has a covenant with God -  a spiritual father or mother that God leads you to and it is through this spiritual family that you can partake of the covenant and be blessed

There is always a world that God wants to show you; if He is the one that sent you there, then He will prosper you from there. But the question is, are you where God told you to be? Are you doing what God told you to do? God knew us before we were born and predestined where we should be for His own purpose (Jeremiah 1:5); and If you are in the right place, God will provide for you and bless you.

As Christians, we ought to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, be in the right place, do what God demands from us, and keep His commands if we are to live an abundant life. The problem we have today is that some Christians do not have a relationship with the Holy Spirit and thus do not hear His voice and hence do not do God’s will; there are also others that have heard His voice but excuses have kept them from obedience, and thus rebelled yet rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft (1 Samuel 15:23).

We see that because of Abraham’s obedience, Isaac was blessed and prospered because of the covenant God made with his father (Genesis 12). Abraham was obedient to God; he listened to the voice of God, was in a place where God expected him, was submissive and strictly observed God’s commands, and thus his blessing followed his children and their children. Genesis 26:5 (AMP) says;

“For Abraham listened to and obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commands, My statutes, and My laws” 

With Prosperity Comes Enmity

Genesis 26:12-16 (NIV)

“Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the Lord blessed him.  13 The man became rich, and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy.  14 He had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him. 15 So all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the time of his father Abraham, the Philistines stopped up, filling them with earth. 16 Then King Abimelek said to Isaac, “Move away from us; you have become too powerful for us”

When God blesses you and you prosper, it attracts jealousy from people around you.  Every new level attracts a new devil - at every new level of success, there is a new devil that rises up.  Because God was with Isaac, he prospered and became so wealthy and, thus the Philistines envied him to the extent that they filled the wells his father had dug with soil so that his flock could lack water and die. The envy was too much to the extent that even King Abimelek himself told Isaac to depart from their land

It is very important to fight the forces fighting us at our places of work because jobs are the wells that God has given us for our provision. Satan knows that a well is a source of provision, and so he works hard to destroy it. More importantly as Christians, we should dig our own wells - meaning we should create jobs to supplement our salary jobs but also to be a source of security and a fallback position, so that in case the enemy fills one with soil, there is an alternative. After Isaac had moved, he reopened the wells. Genesis 26:17-18 (AMP) says;

“So Isaac left that region and camped in the valley of Gerar, and settled there. 18 Now Isaac again dug [and reopened] the wells of water which had been dug in the days of Abraham his father, because the Philistines had filled them up [with dirt]” 

God Speaks From the Right Place

Genesis 26:23-24 (NIV)

“From there he went up to Beersheba. 24 That night the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bless you and will increase the number of your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham”

From the Valley of Gerar, we see that Isaac decided to move to Beersheba where his father also lived. Beersheba was a right place for Isaac to be because while there God appeared to him and told him not to fear, and promised to bless him and honor the covenant of his father. It is important for you to go to Beersheba - that place which is covenanted and where your spiritual parent is; it is the church where God can appear to you and activate the covenant he made with his servants.

And when God blesses you and you prosper, it will cause your enemies to look for you and want to work with you because of the blessing upon your life. In the end those who mistreated and rejected you will look for you when God raises you from the dust to the throne of honour – for when God blesses you, even your enemies will bow down before you. Genesis 26: 26-29 (NIV) says;

“Meanwhile, Abimelek had come to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his personal adviser and Phicol the commander of his forces.  27 Isaac asked them, “Why have you come to me, since you were hostile to me and sent me away?” 28 They answered, “We saw clearly that the Lord was with you; so we said, ‘There ought to be a sworn agreement between us’—between us and you. Let us make a treaty with you 29 that you will do us no harm, just as we did not harm you but always treated you well and sent you away peacefully. And now you are blessed by the Lord”.

Let us therefore have faith in God, listen and submit to His voice, and strictly observe and obey His commands. Additionally, keep your relationship with the Holy Spirit burning, and no matter where you go, if God sends you there and is with you, He will abundantly bless you and you will prosper.