SEE IT, STAKE IT OUT AND SETTLE IN IT
(Gen 13:14 NIV) The LORD said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, "Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west.
(Gen 13:15 NIV) All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever.
(Gen 13:16 NIV) I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted.
(Gen 13:17 NIV) Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you."
(Gen 13:18 NIV) So Abram moved his tents and went to live near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron, where he built an altar to the LORD.
After Lot had parted from him, God said to Abram. Lift up your eyes and look from where you are and look North and South, East and West.
Abram had started with a vision and with dream. God had said to him to leave his home and go into the unknown. There had been a word from God to go. But along the way conflict and pain had come into Abrams life. The only family he had was his nephew Lot. They were obviously close and yet there came a conflict between the herdsman of Abram and those of Lot, until finally Abram reluctantly said to Lot his friend and relative. We must separate. You choose where you will live and I will go in the opposite direction. It was a difficult decision. It was one that brought pain to Abram and yet he had to let it go. He had to deal with this situation. All of us have a Lot to deal with in our lives from time to time.
Until Abram obeyed the Lord and let Lot go, he didn’t get another word or vision from the Lord. Even though God had spoken to Abram in times past, God did not speak to Abram until he had let go of this relationship and this situation.
AFTER LOT HAD PARTED FROM ABRAM, GOD SAID TO ABRAM, LIFT UP YOUR EYES.
What are you going to do after the tragedy, after the devastating experience within your life. It’s time to let it go.
When we finally come to terms with these things, things that we have to let go of, we always get a fresh word from God, a fresh vision. You have to let go of the old to get the new.
God comes to Abram in verse 14 and says to him, I want you to get a new vision, and here is where it starts
“I want you to lift up your eyes from the place you are.”
Abram was no doubt discouraged and downcast. Eg: People who are downcast always look down.
He was looking at the dust of the ground and God comes to him and says Lift up your eyes and look. You have to understand this morning that you will never see the stars by looking at the ground.
It’s time to get your eyes off the ground. Off the negatives, off the things that aren’t working out. It’s time to change your thinking and look up from where you are. Where you look is the direction you are going in. What you focus on is going to determine where you end up.
God says to Abram. “Lift up your eyes and look from this place where you are, northward, southward, eastward, and westward.”
Don’t let your uplifted vision be confined to just a few things in your life. Let every facet and area of your life benefit from your uplifted vision. Don’t be satisfied with just better health. Enjoy abundance, enjoy prosperity, enjoy peace and relationships. God is saying to Abram don’t leave anything out of the picture. Look north, south, east and west.
God then goes on and gives Abram the key to making your life one that counts and one that experiences the fulfillment of God’s plan.
(Gen 13:15 NIV) All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever.
1. YOU MUST SEE IT.
Notice God doesn’t give Abram map co-ordinates of what land belonged to him. He just said. All the land you SEE will be yours.
Until you see it with the eye of faith it is not yours. The blessings still exist, the destiny still exists, the healing still exists, but it becomes your blessing, your healing, your future, when you see it.
All the land you SEE is yours. Conversely all the land you don’t see won’t be yours.
We have got to start seeing. Lift our eyes and start to see. If Abram had only look in a 10 metre radius around him, then thats what he would have got. If he looked just to the North, thats all he would have got. What you see is what you get.
God wants us to see with the eye of faith, all the things that he has prepared for us. God says in Ephesians that you have been prepared for good works. There are things that have been prepared for you. There are husbands of faith, women of God, children moving in the things of God for you.
You will never get it until you see it! And you will only get what you see.
There is so much more to see than we have seen.
There is more! Do you really believe it? Then why have you stopped looking? Jesus probably won’t come back this year. Stop waiting for the rapture. There is so much more NOW!
Ephesians 1
“I ask the God of our master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory-to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focussed and clear, so that you can SEE exactly what it is he is calling you to do, and grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for Christians. Oh! The utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him.
In Hebrews 11 we read about the men and women of faith. In verse 13 it says they SAW the promises of God and welcomed them from a distance.
Men of faith and women of faith are people who have SEEN something.
What have you seen? Allow a desire to grow within you. This is not all there is to life. There is more, much much more. Allow the Holy Spirit to birth within you a hunger for more. Open your spiritual eyes and look to the North, the south, the east and the west.
ALL THAT YOU SEE! WILL BE YOURS.
Secondly if we are going to be possess the land of promise for our lives, we have to stake out our claim.
2. STAKE IT OUT
Don't lost the vision and the dream.
Not only do you have to see it, but you have to stake out your claim.
(Gen 13:17 NIV) Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you."
God instructed Abram to go and get the feel of the land he was giving him. Go and walk through it. Suss it out. Check out the length and breadth of the land. Indulge yourself in feeling it.
A lot of people see things but they never stake their claim on it. They never let it get into their spirit. They never allow themselves to really feel it as theirs.
You can imagine Abram walking through the land and imagining a great metropolis rising out of nothing. Imagining the voices of children running through the streets. His children, his descendants etc.
It’s time to stake out your claim. It’s time to get used to what you see, so when it happens it is no surprise. I saw this happening in my spirit.
3. SETTLE IN THE LAND OF PROMISE.
Not only did Abram see it, not only did he stake it out, but it says in verse 18 that he moved and went and settled in the land.
(Gen 13:18 NIV) So Abram moved his tents and went to live near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron, where he built an altar to the LORD.
Not only did he see it, not only did he walk through the land, but he decided to move address. He decided to move into his destiny and live in it forsaking the things of the past and instead embracing the things of today and tomorrow.
It’s time to move camp. It’s time not only to hear about our destiny. It’s time not only to see what is possible. It is not only time to imagine a great future, it’s time to embrace the future in the present and live as if the promise was already fulfilled.
Abram moved into the land long before it actually became his and his families. He decided to let go of yesterday and move and live as a new man in a new place.
It’s time to declare that it is yours and to live like it is.
Others have seen that God wants their children to be blessed. You need to start speaking that blessing out. They are mighty men and women of God. Start to live in that land. IT takes years often for it to take place, and there are many tests and challenges along the way, but if you are going to inherit it, then you have to live in it.
There are people here who live in loveless marriages. God wants you to see something. His destiny for you is for your marriage to prosper. Let him open your eyes. See it, Stake your claim on it and then settle in that destiny. Start to live and act as if your husband was the most loving, romantic man in all the world. Husbands start living and acting as if your wife was responsive and gentle and wanting to give herself to you.
(Heb 11:15 NIV) If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.
(Heb 11:16 NIV) Instead, they were longing for a better country--a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
Eg: Elisha and Elijah.
He saw something. HE tore his clothes and put on the new mantle. He wrapped himself in his destiny. He then went and smote the waters.
He changed his identity. He chose to deal with the past. He chose to leave the past and instead wrap himself in his future. Not live in the past with a faint hope for tomorrow, but chose to confront and deal with the past.
There will be tests along the way. When Elisha came to the waters edge, on the other side where 50 of his peers. People who didn’t think he had much. People who didn’t believe he could be different. He had a choice to make. Either live in his destiny and confront his past or be a failure. He unwrapped the mantle and smote the water.
It is not a time to hide the past or bury it, or deny the weaknesses, it is time to confront the past and change your identity.
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