This morning in my communion time with the Holy Spirit. He led me to share further insight into the truth of engaging with Him to manifest the God-breathed promise. Today I will explain in greater detail some of the most precious aspects of what the Lord will require us to do to be fully engaged with Him in the manifestation of the promise in our lives.

Firstly in Isaiah.51:1 & 2 the Lord says “Listen to Me, you who follow after righteousness, You who seek the Lord: Look to the rock from which you were hewn, And to the hole of the pit from which you were dug. 2 Look to Abraham your father, And to Sarah who bore you; For I called him alone, And blessed him and increased him.”

The Father is speaking here to us and you will notice that when He speaks He always reminds us to listen or pay close attention to what we are about to hear because it is important and we cannot afford to miss any part of it.

God the Father never engages in small insignificant talk, because what He says and speaks always creates things that are non existent and gives life to the things which are dead. This is why we should reverence conversations with Him with utmost respect and respond to them with prompt obedience.

“The Word of the Lord is our most valuable gift in life.” This is because His word to us creates everything we could ever need.

As a follower of Jesus we must follow after righteousness because Jesus loves righteousness and hates lawlessness.Hebrews.1:8 & 9. Everything Jesus did involved actions of righteousness and was based on a righteous heart action. Peter also makes this clear in the house of Cornelius in Acts.10:34 & 35 when He says I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but anyone who fears Him and works righteousness is accepted.

Again the Father points out here that the true seeker of the Lord needs to be a listener not a talker. Someone who always waits for what the Lord is saying. Always seeking to know what God is saying at any given point in time because he knows whose voice he needs to hear, obey and then follow after to have life.

So let us now take this reality as we look at these words from the Father.

We are to look to or observe the rock Jesus from whom we have been hewn or crafted. We are obligated to look at who is our foundation and His authenticity. How He brought us out from the pit we were in and changed our life perspective and made us brand new. We are to look at Abraham as part of the cloud of witnesses who inherited the God promise.

This is because the story of his life and how God picked him up from nothing and made him something is exactly what God wants to do with you. Pay close attention to and remember the details of how the Lord called him alone.

The Lord then separated him from everything he held dear and invited him alone to follow Him by leaving what he knew and understood in life. Then supernaturally the Lord blessed him, increased him and made him many in a phenomenal way.

When you look at the life of Abraham which the Holy Spirit led me to do again and you study him fully you will recognise that every time Abraham did not fully obey the directive from God he failed in the mission and had situations that arose which hurt him. He left Ur of the Chaldeans but unfortunately brought Lot with him who became a stumbling block down the road.

This block hindered Abraham from hearing the voice of God and only when Lot was finally separated from Abraham did God reveal to Abraham the full picture of the promise destined for him. Only then was Abraham able to engage fully with the Lord and go on to take the promise.

This is clearly reflected in Genesis.13:14-17 And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; 15 for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever.

16 And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered. 17 Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.”

When Abraham finally gained the promise of his son Isaac, Lot was not around because you cannot take the family you are to be separated from into the blessing the Lord intended for you because they will be the compromise that robs you.

In studying the complete story of Abraham’s journey over again I got to see where he fell short of the promise. I learnt what that compromise with Lot cost him and what it took to get him out of the pit it put him in again. Then to watch and see the process back to the place God intended for him to be at the given time, because he had not fully obeyed the instructions God had given him.

The Holy Spirit reminded me that He was speaking to me now in the final conversation with Abraham as he was now going to manifest Isaac his promise. Abraham needed to be found blameless in his conduct to walk this out completely.

He could not afford to walk loosely as he had done before over the years which kept him running cycles and circles of defeat and desperation. A salient lesson we must of necessity adopt to inherit our promise from God.

Even though he built altars to try to hear God. There was no voice of the Lord who came to lead and direct him until he separated from what was holding him bound. His family ties with Lot. The Lord is so gracious and kind when He points out here in Isaiah.51 what we need to do to move forward using the story of the life of Abraham as a proto type for us who follow righteousness.

Such a clear story for us to look at to empower us to win through more easily in our race because we have an example before us to glean and understand from.

So today as you listen to these words, receive the grace in them that enables you to revisit the promise God has for your life. Then ask Him to restore you from where you have allowed family ties to keep you in bondage that God wanted to deliver you from years ago. Allow the Holy Spirit to remove you from the plans and things you have done on the basis of men, and ministers suggestions.

Also take an inventory of all the relationships you have made which you hold dear, but which are keeping you from navigating forward in the promise of God. Go ahead and even relook your Church affiliations and see whether you need to make some separations which will free you to serve the Lord that you don’t want to contemplate which the Lord has been prodding at you to do.

Do whatever you need to do to be in the bullseye of the will of God for your life. You must be willing to put down everything to follow the Lord fully in this year so you can inherit the promise of the Lord.

You must be willing to deny yourself and stop holding on to self and expecting God will work with self. The Holy Spirit will not work with yourself but with who God wants to make you and separate you to become for His glory.

Let the grace in these words empower you to make the shift through to being willing to do it God’s way in Jesus name. Amen.