Emmanuel Okoro (aka MrLift)

Your reward will be grand  "After all these things, this word of GOD came to Abram in a vision: "Don't be afraid, Abram. I'm your shield. Your reward will be grand!" (Gen.15.1)  Abraham had just won a great victory over four Kings and captured a great spoil from which he refuses to take anything saying "I'm not going to have you go around saying, "I made Abram rich.'' (Gen.14.23)  This shows to us that Abraham had complete and absolute trust in God. And we know that God will not let him down. So in our text God says to him: "Don't be afraid, Abram. I'm your shield. Your reward will be grand!" (Gen.15.1) After all these things - which things? After the wars in which Abraham took nothing, God comes along and assures him that He is his shield and that his reward will be grand.  If you trust God, God will not let you down. He told Abraham that because Abraham trusted him, his reward will be grand. This new month, your reward wi...

I made Abraham rich "That I'll take nothing from you, not so much as a thread or a shoestring. I'm not going to have you go around saying, "I made Abram rich.'' (Gen.14.23)  Riches are a byproduct of the blessings of God. Riches themselves are not the blessings, if they were, then every person who's rich could claim to have been blessed by God. But we know this is not the case. That's why, riches alone should not be used to judge the success or otherwise of a person.  Proverbs tells us that it is the blessing of the Lord that makes a person rich. And to know that it is from the Lord, it does not add sorrow to it. It brings peace of mind along with it.  The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it. (Prov.10.22 KJV) Deuteronomy tells us that God gives us the power to make wealth. That power that Moses talks about in Deuteronomy is what Solomon referred to as the Blessing.  " But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for ...

Open your mouth "So--on your feet, get moving! Walk through the country, its length and breadth; I'm giving it all to you." ( Gen.13.17)  What Abraham's legs were to him in the Old Testament, is what your mouth is to you is the New Testament. The New Testament instructs us that it is in believing in our heart and confessing with our mouth that we possess the promises of God.  In the Old Testament, Abraham was required to walk and wherever the soles of his feet treaded, God promised to give him for a possession.  " Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the uttermost sea shall your coast be. (Deut.11.24)  But for the Christian, the Apostle Paul showed us how to come into our possession.  "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with th...

Open your eyes "After Lot separated from him, GOD said to Abram, "Open your eyes, look around. Look north, south, east, and west. Everything you see, the whole land spread out before you, I will give to you and your children forever." (Gen.13.14-15) God had told Abraham from the onset to leave every other family member before embarking on the journey but Abraham had taken Lot his nephew with him. And this singular decision had blocked and blinded him from seeing all the possibilities that God had in store for him.  As soon as he had the courage to release Lot, God said to him, "Open your eyes...". This suggests to us that Abraham's eyes  were not open. That means Abraham was not seeing what God was seeing. And God wanted him to align with Him, so that the possibilities that He was seeing for him would come to fruition. Not until you see as God sees, you cannot have what God have for you.  That was also the case with Gideon whom God saw as a mighty man of va...

You will arrive  "He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there." (Gen.12.5 NIV) Most times people want God to endorse their dreams and put His blessing as a   stamp of approval. But when it is God that gives you the vision, that vision will already have God stamp of approval and therefore blessed and endorsed.  This is the case with Abraham in our text. It says that they arrived there. There being the destination they set out for. It is therefore instructive to seek God and get His plan for our lives. Why? Because this plan would already be blessed by God.  That's why one of the prayers that the Apostle Paul prayed constantly for the believers is that they will be in the center of God's will by being filled with knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding  "For this cause we also, since the day we...

Dispensing good to others "And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you [with abundant increase of favors] and make your name famous and distinguished, and you will be a blessing [dispensing good to others]. (Gen.12.2 AMP) God came to Abraham and said to him in a nutshell that if you follow Me I will make of you a great nation, and I will make your name famous. These are great promises premised on Abraham following God.  We know that these promises are based on Abraham following God because in verse one of chapter 12 God had said to him to go to a land that He will to show to him. So if God will show Abraham the land, it means Abraham does not know the land but for him to get there he has to follow God  We see a similar scenario played out in the New Testament, Jesus told his disciples to follow him and that in following, He will make them... "Jesus said to them, "Come with me. I'll make a new kind of fisherman out of you. I'll show you how to catc...

Go for your own advantage  "Now [in Haran] the Lord said to Abram, Go for yourself [for your own advantage] away from your country, from your relatives and your father 's house, to the land that I will show you. (Gen.12.1 AMP) In the matters of destiny there are no collective decision except it is a collective destiny. Terah Abraham's father took his family members with the aim of reaching and achieving destiny but he soon found out that in matters of destiny there are no collective decisions.  So in our text God says to Abraham, "Go for yourself, for your own advantage". And he is to do this away from his country, relatives, and father's house. You do not need everyone to make that dream a reality.  You see, when we do not have the courage to cut out those we need to cut out, life forces them out. See Jesus on his way to the cross, when the disciples couldn't pray with him even though he requested them to. And when the D-day came, they all forsook him.  ...