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Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied. Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”
Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about.
– Genesis 22:1-3
This week we focus on the 5th of the 6 messages God gave to us for 2013, which is:
- God’s release of Kingdom authority will demand us to offer up our “Isaacs”, putting to death our ambition – Genesis 22:1-19
God is calling us to prepare for a coming season when He will begin to release the “Josephs” to their “storehouse” assignments. This preparation is critical because it will make a night and day difference in the way that God entrusts us with kingdom authority – the capability, influence, and wealth vested to us for bringing Christ’s witness to the world.
God is doing a “new thing” to prepare the meek to inherit the earth. He is awakening us to our Kingdom destinies. He is fashioning us into “culture transformers” through the shepherd’s anointing. In all of this, the Lord will purify us into vessels that can steward kingdom authority, like that of Joseph, Abraham, and Moses. In this purification, God will take us through a process of putting to death our self-ambitions, thereby, demonstrating a testimony that we can be entrusted with kingdom authority.
Authority always comes from the testimony, shown to God and to people, that we are qualified for such power and influence. The testimony comes through the testing in our ambitions, the heart demonstration of selflessness in our strivings. Some have said that Sun Yat-sen, the Christian revolutionary, established authority from the testimony of his selflessness. Vested with such authority, he then was able to play a key role in liberating China from 2,000 years of monarchy.
In establishing our testimonies to become vessels of authority, God would often lead us into two types of situations:
- Contradiction – as when God tested Abraham’s self-ambition as the “father of nations” by demanding him to give up Isaac;
- Scarcity – as when God tempered Moses’ self-ambition by driving him to a place of desperation such that he must rely on God to validate his leadership to the people.
God is raising up today’s “storehouse builders” through circumstances of contradictions and scarcity. We should not come against these situations. But should embrace them as opportunities in the path of the cross, to purify ourselves from self-ambition, to establish a testimony of selflessness – as one qualified for authority.
Market Place Meditation and Prayer
- Describe the picture the Holy Spirit has placed in your heart concerning your call to kingdom authority – capability, influence, and wealth.
- How is the Lord leading you into a testimony for authority, into circumstances of contradiction and scarcity?
Lord, we ask that good shepherds would be risen up to awaken your storehouse builders to their destiny. Let that destiny call sustain their pursuit of selflessness.
