As believers in Christ, our God is the God of Abraham. This means that we need to know and experience God as the God of Abraham in all His aspects. First of all, God is the One who calls us by appearing to us as the God of glory. His appearing attracts us, and He draws us to follow Him and go out of wherever we are unto Himself.
Secondly, the God of Abraham is the God who blesses us – He is a blessing God. He not only appeared to Abraham as the God of glory but He also blessed Abraham and even made him a blessing to all the nations. You could say that in Abraham’s life there were four main stages:
- Abraham was called out by God. The God of glory appeared to Abraham and called him out, promising him a land and a seed, and blessing him. This is the stage of Abraham’s coming out of Ur of Chaldea (Gen. 12).
- Abraham experienced God in living by faith (Gen. 13-14), and God took care of all his necessities. God spoke to Abraham in Shechem and then in Bethel, and He as the God of the Most High took care of his living by blessing him – Abraham lived by faith!
- Abraham lived by grace to fulfil God’s purpose (ch. 15-17). Abraham learned that he needs God’s grace to fulfill God’s purpose, and he experienced what it means to take God as the all-sufficient One, the El-Shaddai (Gen. 17) not merely for taking care of all his needs but even more so that Abraham may live by grace for the fulfilment of God’s purpose (the bringing forth of the seed).
- Abraham experienced having fellowship with God on a human level. In Genesis 18 we see that God came as a man to Abraham and he had fellowship with him on a human level, gaining Abraham to be the intercessor He needs to rescue Lot.
We need to experience God calling us out by His appearing to us as the God of glory. We need to experience living by faith and trusting in God to take care of all our necessities. We need to experience living by God’s grace for the fulfilment of God’s purpose, for Christ to be brought forth and manifested in us. And we need to experience having fellowship with God on a human level to intercede for the brothers and sisters according to God.
Abraham’s experience of God needs to be repeated in our life since the God of Abraham should also be our God.
The God of Abraham is the God of Blessing
When God appeared to Abraham the first time, He called him out of his father’s house and his land unto a land that He will show him, but when God appeared to him the second time, He promised him certain things and blessed him.
God not only called Abraham but also blessed him and promised to make him a great nation, make his name great, and make him a blessing to others (Gen. 12:1-4). Our God is a God of blessing, and the blessings He bestowed on Abraham is the blessings that we can enjoy in the spiritual realm today as believers in Christ.
God called Abraham to go up from the land where he was to the land that He will show him, and He promised him to make him a great nation, make his name great, and make him a blessing to the whole world.
Let’s see the two main aspects of God’s blessing to Abraham and how they apply to us today as believers in Christ, the spiritual descendants of Abraham:
God Blessed Abraham, Promising Him the Land
Don’t think that Abraham was not attracted by God’s promise: God promised Abraham to bless him and give him a seed, even make him a great nation, and give him the land of Canaan.
The physical aspect of God’s blessing to Abraham was the good land (see Gen. 12:7; 13:15; 17:8; 26:3-4), which was a type of the all-inclusive Christ, the allotted portion of the saints in the light (see Col. 1:12 and footnote 2 in Recovery Version Bible). This Christ has become and is realized by us as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit (see 1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17).
The blessing of the land given to Abraham points to and is fulfilled in the all-inclusive, life-giving, compound Spirit as the consummation of the processed Triune God who is now joined to our spirit to be the reality of the good land as our bountiful supply for us to enjoy (Phil. 1:19; Gal. 3:14 and footnote 3).
The total blessing of the gospel is THE SPIRIT, the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit who is joined to our spirit and imparts all of God’s blessings and riches to us for our enjoyment and supply!
Day by day we can enjoy the blessing of Abraham by exercising our spirit to enjoy this wonderful Spirit, the all-inclusive person of the Triune God processed to become the life-giving Spirit dwelling in us in a subjective and personal way for our enjoyment! Hallelujah for the Spirit with our spirit!
Thank You Lord for becoming the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit as the spiritual reality of the promise given by God to Abraham! We can now enjoy the reality of the good land by exercising our spirit to enjoy the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the consummation of the processed Triune God! Praise You for joining us with God as one spirit. Thank You for all the spiritual blessings with which the Father has blessed us in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. Hallelujah for our God of blessing!
God Promised Abraham to Make Him a Blessing to Others
God not only blessed Abraham but also promised to make him a blessing to others, even to the whole world, “in you all the nations will be blessed” (Gal. 3:8).
In Gen. 9:26-27 Noah blessed his sons, saying that Japheth will dwell in the tents of Shem, God would be the God of Shem, and Japheth will be enlarged. Abraham was a descendant of Shem – our God is the God of Abraham. Abraham was enlarged (as Noah prophesied and God promised), and he has tents in which the descendants of Japheth need to dwell.
The Europeans are the descendants of Japheth, and they spread out all over the world. When we as descendants of Japheth dwell in the tents of Shem, we are blessed and enjoy the blessing. We all need “a tent” in which we can rest and enjoy life.
Christ Himself when He came to the earth was God tabernacling among men (John 1:14): He was the tabernacle of God with man. The New Jerusalem is God’s eternal tabernacle, His eternal tent, in which many Old Testament saints and New Testament believers from all the nations will dwell to participate in the eternal blessing of the eternal life (see Rev. 21:2-3 and footnotes).
When we believe in the God of Abraham, “the God of the Jews”, we “enter into the tents of Shem” and we enjoy the blessing given by God to Abraham; Abraham becomes a blessing to us (see John 4:22). We can enjoy God as our rest, peace, enjoyment, and salvation by believing in the God of Abraham.
Through Abraham the Lord Jesus Christ came, and Christ is the real blessing for all the nations. Whoever believes into the Lord Jesus is saved, has his sins washed away, is reconciled to God, and enters into the enjoyment and participation of all that God is in Christ as the Spirit.
Also, whoever curses God’s people receives a curse, and whoever blesses God’s people receives a blessing (see Num. 23:21; 24:5, 9; cf. 1 Cor. 1:2; 2 Cor. 5:17).
When we bless the people of Israel we receive God’s blessing. When others bless us, they receive God’s blessing. Throughout the history we have seen that this is true. It is good to pray,
Lord, bless Israel. May blessing be upon the nation of Israel. May God bless His physical people on earth, the Jews. May God bless the church, His spiritual people. May God bless all the believers in Christ with much enjoyment of the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit who indwells them! May God make the people of Israel and the church people a blessing to all the nations in Christ Jesus! May the Lord Jesus Christ be blessed! May the Lord Jesus Christ be given all the glory and the honor forever and ever, Amen!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Andrew Yu’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Galatians (msg. 34), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Genesis (2), week 8 / msg 8, The God of Abraham seen in His dealings with Abraham.
- Hymns on this topic:
# With the calling comes the promise / Of the kingdom life on earth. / This becomes our strength and motive / To get out of all the dearth! / Lord, we’re crossing every river— / For this You must call us on, / Till Your kingdom and expression / On this earth are fully come. (Hymn on God’s Calling of Abraham)
# He’s the Spirit of Reality. / He’s the secret. He is one with me; / He’s in my spirit. God dispensed in me / From my spirit, soul and then, body, / Producing reality. (Hymn on the Blessing of the Gospel)
# O God of glory, shine; draw and we’ll follow You. / Our strength and motive be, it’s nothing we could do. / Your light attracts us, Lord, ’til all else fades from view— / O Lord, do shine on us, we pray. / O Lord, do shine on us today; / Till all our background fades away, / Till You alone we see, / Shining so gloriously— / O Lord, do shine on us today. (Hymns #1190)
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