Today we continue our series, “Progress On Purpose.” I told you that God wants us to walk in “NEW LEVELS IN 2021!” But if we are going to do so, we must be intentional about our progress. With that in mind, as we lay the foundation for the year, I told you that I would discuss “Leveling Up” in five areas:
1. Spiritually
2. Financially
3. Physically
4. Internally
5. Externally
In the last area, I am addressing leveling up your external relationships. I will cover the following topics in this section:
1. The three people you need in your life (the roles you need filled)
2. Discerning when to let people go
3. The importance of choosing the right friends
4. Surrounding yourself with people of like-precious-faith
Setting the stage:
For the past couple of days we have been looking at the story of Abraham and Lot. Yesterday I stopped at Genesis 13:13. Let’s pick up the story from verse 14 today.
(Genesis 13:7-13 NLT)
14 After Lot had gone, the Lord said to Abram, “Look as far as you can see in every direction—north and south, east and west.
15 I am giving all this land, as far as you can see, to you and your descendants as a permanent possession.
16 And I will give you so many descendants that, like the dust of the earth, they cannot be counted!
17 Go and walk through the land in every direction, for I am giving it to you.”
So what does this mean for you today? A few things.
1. God promised Abraham a NEW THING when He promised him land.
In Genesis 12 God approaches Abraham while he was still an unknown man, living amongst his people. God promised to make something great out of this 75-year-old man, with a 65-year-old barren wife. God tells him to leave and to leave everyone behind.
Abraham leaves with his wife Sarah, and his nephew Lot tagged along. By chapter 13, God had made Abraham very rich. He had cattle, silver, and gold. But he did not have land. He was roaming around, like a nomad. In chapter 13, God promised to give Abraham land. But notice that this promise did not come until after he and Lot separated.
As soon as Lot left, Abraham was free to open his heart to all God truly wanted to give him. It is at this point that God promised to do a new thing in his life: give him LAND.
God wants to do a new thing in your life all the time. But maybe, like Abraham, your associations are holding you back. There are things you may not be able to SEE until you disconnect from people who are clouding your spiritual sight.
2. Abraham had to SEE what God wanted to give him.
God told Abraham that he could have all the land that he could SEE! In other words, God was telling Abraham to open his eyes, spiritually, to all the land He was destined to receive. This was land God ordained for Abraham and his descendants forever. But the key is that Abraham had to SEE IT in order to HAVE IT! This is a major point. I have taught on this point many times.
Even 400 years later, when it was time for Abraham’s descendants to take possession of land, they had to be able to SEE IT in order to HAVE IT!
(Deut 1:8)
Lord said to Moses, “See, I have given you this land.”
Here are some things we can glean from th
— If you can’t SEE IT, you can’t BE IT!
— If you can’t SEE IT, you can’t HAVE IT!
— If you can’t SEE (by faith) what God is attempting to give you (by grace), you run the risk of missing out on God’s best.
— God speaks to you about the plans He made for your future, but you must mix faith with what you hear.
— Your ability to SEE Spiritually will dictate what you are able to release your faith for, and what you are able to receive from God.
— Where there is no grace there can be no faith. Faith begins where the will of God is known. In order to release faith, you must be able to discern what God has already given you by grace. This is exactly what happened with Abraham and the land. God was saying, “As far as you can SEE, you can HAVE! I have provided the grace for you to have the land. Now you must provide the faith. Your faith will tap into my grace. If you have little faith, you will only tap into little grace and the land will be small. But if your faith can SEE what I am giving you in the spirit, you can have the FULLNESS of what I destined for you to have!”
— Once God reveals to you what He already gave you (in eternity), you can release your faith to access it (in time).
(2 Cor 4:18)
The Apostle Paul said, “We focus our eyes on what we cannot see, not what we see. What we see lasts only a short time, and what we cannot see will last forever.”
— We are supposed to spend time looking at things we can see that are beyond our physical eye’s ability to look.
— In the Spirit, we can see into eternity, from time, and come back equipped to live informed by that revelation.
— In the Spirit, we can see into heaven, from the earth, and come back to LIVE OUT what we saw!
— The Father wants you to see yourself becoming the person you were born to be, doing what you were born to do, all for His glory.
— Your capacity to believe either releases God TO, or restricts God FROM, moving in your life.
— Once God reveals His plans for your life, your part is to accept and fully embrace the grace to become the man/woman God planned. But you must be able to SEE YOURSELF in the Spirit.
— Your legs will never take you where your mind and heart have never been. If you can’t SEE IT, you can’t HAVE IT!
*** Your life will change drastically the day you believe what God believes about you!
I will stop here for today, and tomorrow I will drive home the point that none of this happened until Abraham separated from Lot.
That’s enough for today.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, I have finally arrived at the point where I believe what You believe about me! I am who You say I am. I can do what You say I can do. I am the person You birthed me to be. I walk in my divine assignment. Nothing and no one can stop me, because I believe what You believe. I can see what You see. And since I can SEE IT, it is only a matter of time before I BE IT! You reveal Your plans to me, I behold the glory for my life, and I become what I behold! But I also understand that I will never SEE Your fullness if my sight is clouded by the wrong relationships. This is why I LEVEL UP my relationships in 2021. GREATER IS COMING FOR ME! I declare this by faith! In Jesus’ name. Amen.
This is Today’s Word. Apply it and prosper!
