Faithful To The Uttermost

'And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He doth judge and make war'. Revelation 19:11

Many times as God’s people, we receive great and precious promises from God. God gives us a little view into what He has planned for us. The experience of a lot of believers however is that these promises do not happen as quickly as we think they will. A lot of people wonder if these promises will ever be fulfilled, or if the prophecy or word they received was true. In this week’s study, I believe the Lord is seeking to set our focus on His faithfulness. Scripture says ‘God forbid: yes, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That you might be justified in your sayings, and might overcome when you are judged’ Romans 3:4. We will look at our study in two subsections;

• The Timing Of God
• The Importance Of Staying Focused

The Timing Of God

A lot of the time when we receive promises from God, we assume in our human nature that those promises are going to be fulfilled immediately, or in a short while. We forget that God is not a human being and He has His timing for everything. While we may think we are growing old by human standards, the Lord knows when the time is right. The book of 2nd Peter 3:8 says ‘But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.’  We might say, ‘But Lord, a thousand years is too long’, but the truth of the matter is that only the Lord knows the end from the beginning and He is the one who says ‘our times are in His hands’  We need the grace of patience to be added to our lives. I noticed that God was not just interested in bringing His people to the promised land in the book of Exodus. He used the journey to teach them about Himself; (how else could they serve Him in the promised land if they did not know Him?). He showed them His awesome acts and supplied all their needs. Note that even the challenges they were going to face had been carefully weighed by God. He made sure they would not go through any challenge that would be too great for them to handle. Exodus 13:17 tells us this: ‘And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the philistines, although that was near: for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt’. He made sure they would not be tempted beyond their strength. Beloved, let us take courage in the fact that God will not allow us to grow through trials that are beyond our strength. There is grace available to take you to the promised land. From the Israelites’ journey, we can also learn some important lessons. This will lead us to our second point:

The Importance Of Staying Focused

There are things for us to learn in the course of our own journey to God’s promised land (the place where He will fulfil His promises to us). One generation was consumed in the wilderness even though they had received the promise, while another generation made it to the promised land. The difference between the two generations was that firstly, one was not teachable while the other was ready to be taught. The older generation saw many miracles from God but any time there was a challenge the Lord wanted them to learn from, they murmured and went into unbelief. This happened over and over till the Lord declared them a stiff-necked people and they were judged. While we are waiting on God before we enter into His promise, we need to walk with God even through problems. What is God saying in the midst of the storm? Something to learn? A miracle on the way? The second difference between the younger generation and the older was that the younger ones stood out as a generation that learnt from the mistakes of their elders. They mixed knowledge with faith in God. To their faith, they added action, as can be seen when they went to spy out the land. They told Rahab confidently that "....when the Lord gives us the land, we will spare you and your family."  They believed, even though they had not obtained the promise yet. What can we learn from their story? As scary as it might be, the truth is that only we can keep God’s promises from being fulfilled in our lives. The Bible says ‘the Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness’. 2 Peter 3:9. How can we miss out on the fulfilment of His promises?

• Through unbelief. As God says, a double minded man is unstable and such a one should not think he will obtain anything from God.
• Being stiff necked and unteachable.  If the Lord keeps trying to teach you something in the wilderness and you steadily refuse to learn when you know what your sin is, you will either spend longer in the wilderness than you were originally intended to, or you will never see the fulfilment of the prophecy over your life.

As the people of God that have received the promise, we must therefore be patient, not be weary in well doing and not seek alternative solutions because we think the promise is taking too long. We must remain teachable and we will receive the promise, for ‘God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent: hath He said, and shall He not do it? or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?'  Numbers 23 :19

Remain blessed and highly favoured. 
Titi Obishai (MRS)