Genesis 17:1-2 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, "I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless. I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers."

After 24 years of waiting on the promise of the Lord, Abram (Abraham) once again hears the voice of the Lord say..."I will greatly increase your numbers." Really God? I'm 99 and my wife is 89. We have NO children. Even when I tried to make this promise come true, it backfired (Ishmael and Hagar have caused some real turmoil.) Now, God, you tell me AGAIN that you will greatly increase my numbers?

How would you respond if you were Abraham? But notice how God defines himself: God Almighty, the Hebrew is El Shaddai. This is the first time God reveals himself as El Shaddai. El is a prefix for Lord. Shaddai comes from the root Bosom. The best translation I have heard is that El Shaddai is the "All Sufficient One". In the bosom of the Lord we find provision, comfort, protection, life! God tells Abraham, I am fully capable of bring forth my promise. I am the All Sufficient One.

Equally important is the instruction the Lord has for Abraham: Walk before me and be blameless. Abe, you're not responsible to make this promise come to reality (you tried that with Ishmael and that didn't work out so well.) I am capable of bringing forth my promise to you. All I ask of you is to walk before me and be blameless.

Now that sounds easy. But in reality, often we'd rather try to make it happen than walk it out in righteousness (rightly aligned with God). In fact, walking it out blamelessly is so hard that Abraham asks God for an alternative. Look ahead in the story a couple verses. Genesis 17:17-18 Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, "Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?" And Abraham said to God, "If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!"

Abraham responds to God's instruction by saying, I'm too tired Lord. I'm too tired of believing in a promise for which I see absolutely no progress nor any potential of it coming forth.
How God? How can you be El Shaddai in this one? Then Abraham makes this appeal, won't you simply bless my best effort - I'll be satisfied with that.

Have you been there? Have you believed for the impossible so long that you don't have the strength to believe any longer? Have you in desperation asked God to simply bless your best effort so that you can be unburdened from the weight of the promise? But there is a difference between God's provision to you, and his Promise for you. God in his mercy will always provide, but God in his all-sufficiency (El Shaddai) will birth his promise. For example, God's provision to the nation of Israel was manna for 40 years in the desert. God's promise was the Promised Land! There is a great difference between manna in the desert and flowing milk and honey in the promised land.

The story of Abraham continues with the Lord saying that he would surely bless Ishmael. He would become a nation and be the father of many leaders. But, the Lord's promise, destiny, and favor will be upon Isaac. The Lord said, I am El Shaddai. I will accomplish this. Your part is the walk before me and be blameless.

Be encouraged. God will always provide for you, but the promises that he has put in your mind and heart are his destiny for you. Ask him to be El Shaddai. Tell him you believe in his all-sufficiency. Tell him you believe he can and will birth those promises. Walk before him, and with his help and through Jesus, be blameless in your walk. Then you will walk right into the promises he has for you.

The predominate western world, modern and post modern worldview is Entitlement – the world owes me the life I desire.

A Christ (Christ-like) (Christian) worldview is Gift – I have been given life, genuine life, life that I lost because of my sin and it has been given back to me. I am not entitled to it, it has been gifted to me. God has brought himself and his life to our circumstances. We live by his Spirit in the midst of our circumstances. As we have integrity with his character, we shine his glory and release his life into our circumstances.

When we feel we are ‘entitled’ we are selfish, we are takers, we grasp and cling, we demand and get offended when we don’t get what we feel we deserve – and we feel we deserve everything. We drain life from others and yet we’re never satisfied because when we’re entitled, we’re always entitled to more. Satisfaction and entitlement don’t co-exist. Satisfaction births peace. Entitlement rejects peace. How can we be at peace when we know we have something coming to us that we don’t have yet? Something we deserve. Something that is being kept from us. It breads anger, resentment, jealousy, frustration, and the list goes on. Each of these is a toxin in our lives.

When we realize that God has rescued us, given his very life to us so that we may have life, we are grateful. We want to live generously. We value life as something to live, something to share. We were caught in the grip of circumstances (what were thrust upon us). We were drowning in it. We were being drained of joy, love, energy, and of course peace. But we have been rescued. We have the fountain of life from which to drink. We aren’t entitled to a better life - we have been given an eternal full life. And the fountain of life never stops flowing. We can endlessly drink of joy, love, energy and of course peace.

When our circumstances define us, we try to control them and they inevitable end up controlling us, destroying us. When we live our lives above the circumstances, we are free. Even in the most difficult circumstances, we can live free. We have been set free...see that we stay free.

...more on this topic on Sunday morning, May 10th.

What does it mean to Live above fear? Do we deny it? Do we say there is no reason for fear? Do we become the proverbial frog in the pot? Or do we ignore the fear? It’s there but we refuse to acknowledge it? Do we stick our head in the sand. By the way, do ostriches really do that? I’ve seen little kids cover their faces as if to say, "if I can't see you, then you didn't just see me run naked into the room full of guests."

Or do we somehow defeat the fear? Beat it into submission, like every Will Smith movie…Independance Day, Men in Black, Men in Black II, I am legend...saying, “I do not fear what is terrifying to everyone else…”

The book of Revelation, the final entry in our Bible, reveals a great Cosmic battle of the end times. Evil has reached it’s full ugly blossom. An epic final battle of Good and Evil is pictured for us in this grand vision of the last days, full of symbolic languages and images, allegory and reality. The fulfillment of promise. The completion of battle and the final victory. One reality coming to a most dreadful end while another springs forth in majestic grandeur. There are plenty of fearful things: events, destruction, battles.

The interesting thing is, in all of Revelation the word 'fear' only appears three times. The first time, well that one says fear God and glorify him. But the second...well that one also says fear God and glorify him. But the third…well, it also says fear God and praise him. That's it. The three times the word 'fear' appears are all directed to our need to be in right relationship with God.

There is a difference between fearful, dreadful, terrifying situations, even doom and gloom, and living under a Spirit of Fear. Revelation describes a great and dreadful cosmic battle. But Revelation instructs us that when the battle starts blazing, we better know we are aligned with God.

I'm going to wrestle with what that means to us tomorrow morning at Wellspring. Specifically, the question of the day will be: How do we live in faith, love and hope when fear is all around? If you miss the services, you can catch the audio at http://www.wellspring.net/

Does this picture remind you of anything? Sam reaching down for Frodo hanging over the fires of Mount Doom? The first time you jumped into the deep end without your swimmies on? A pretty good rendition of Stephen Cahill?

Does it represent our great desire to be rescued from the swirl of our lives? I sure don't know all the answers even for myself let alone all the possible challenges you face. But together, let's wrestle with some of the questions. Let's reach with all we have to the outstretched hand of one who is reaching down to us. Let's grasp for his promises. Let's live out of the resources of an eternal kingdom, not out of the limits and emptiness of this temporal world. The scriptures call us to live in this world but not be of it. How do we do that?

This should be an interesting series. I know I'm looking forward to it...and I barely know what I am going to share. But I do know that God offers us the opportunity to live above brokenness of this world. I do know that as we seek it, specifically, as we seek him, we will find him when we seek him with all our heart. Let's go seeking...