Throughout the entire Bible, you will notice how important Abraham is to the Lord. Abraham has quite the story and is a beautiful example of how God can be glorified even in the most dysfunctional family backgrounds. Here are a few mentions regarding his family. Abraham’s father and brother died at younger ages. Abraham’s niece was also his sister-in-law because Abraham’s other brother, Nacor, made some unusual life decisions. Abraham kept calling his wife, Sarah, his sister to protect himself in unknown lands. Furthermore, Abraham had a weak leadership moment in listening to Sarah regarding Hagar, producing Ishmael. There are a lot of family issues that Abraham faced along the path of obeying the Lord.

So is a similar case for us.

We will have challenges and make mistakes that could seem to disqualify us from God’s promises. Yet, in all of this, we must be like Abraham and build altars wherever we go. Abraham knew the how-to and significance of sacrifice. When the miraculous promise came to pass with Isaac being born to an elderly Abraham and Sarah, Abraham did not neglect to continue giving God what was most precious. In fact, in Genesis twenty-two, when Abraham was being tested by God to offer Isaac as a sacrifice, the Scriptures state that Abraham called it “worship.” In life, when we face situations that are difficult to the carnal mind, we have an opportunity to obey God’s call to commitment as an act of worship.
Abraham set a pattern revealing that worship is a costly act for the human soul. Costly in the sense that we must submit to the Lord’s people, places, and things that are valuable to us.

Yet, this dimension of connection with God where we worship Him with costly commitment opens a greater level of faith for us.

Notice that Hebrews 11 talks about the result of Abraham’s attitude regarding sacrifice. The Bible says in verse nineteen that Abraham “[concluded] that God was able to raise [Isaac] up, even from the dead.” Where did Abraham get the inspiration that God raised people from the dead?

Up to this point in the Scriptures, no one had been raised from the dead.

This reveals that in a moment where Abraham saw a costly commitment as an opportunity for worship, God expanded Abraham’s mind and faith to believe for things that had never happened before. God responded to Abraham’s willingness and obedience by blessing his imagination with faith for unprecedented miracles.

Herein is the challenge for us all. When God calls us to greater levels of commitment in life-altering tests of faith, we must decide to obey God or our own selfish desires. Truth is, if we neglect to obey God, we won’t have any gain than what we already have. On the contrary, if we do obey God, we pass the test and are rewarded with faith for miracles nobody has ever seen before.

Abraham’s faith and imagination were stretched because he let his most valuable possession be on an altar.

Oftentimes, when our humanity is presented with difficult circumstances, the devil wants to take advantage of our imagination and pervert us with fear, anxiety, and depression. The devil knows that the imagination is a very powerful realm where people see things that are not, as though they were. He tries to cause to speak out the fear, anxiety, and depression we imagine and experience in our spirits. He does this because he knows the power of our imagination.

If we would allow the Lord to use our imagination, the torment and bondage so many people face would be destroyed.

God wants our imaginations to meet His power. Imagine if our generation stopped letting the devil use our imaginations against us and we let our imaginations be used for the praise, glory, and power of God. We would begin to step into greater levels of demonstration in the Spirit and see the name of Jesus glorified!

Don’t be afraid of having an Abraham-Isaac moment in your life. God has greater things in store for you! Lay it all on the altar and see Him manifest Himself like never before.

Hector Robles hosts a podcast and bible study channel by the name of Sparrow.Podcast. On a weekly basis, you can find new content regarding the Bible and ministry. He lives and works as an engineer in Columbus, Ohio with his wife, Savannah and they gladly serve at Calvary Apostolic Church.

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