Photo by Ksusha semakina
The Lord said to Abram after Lot had separated from him, “ Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward. For all the land that you can see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. “
Genesis 13:14-15
God had called Abraham to separate from all his kinsmen.
The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people, and your father’s household to the land I will show you. Genesis 12:1 It’s clear that he was to leave everything and everyone. Yet we see that Abram decided to carry Lot with him.
In Hebrew, the name Lot means “veil, hidden, covering”. God couldn’t speak to Abraham because something was between him and God. There was a veil of disobedience between Abraham and God. And until the veil was separated Abraham wasn’t going to be hearing from God. And when Lot got away from Abraham God spoke to him and revealed the promise he had for him.
Disobedience becomes a veil that covers the promises of God from us. Disobedience becomes a covering over our ears that hinder our ability to hear God. Disobedience hides the path that God has placed in front of us.
Sometimes, we don’t understand why God is asking us to lay down some stuff. But God knows that with time, those things or people will become a hindrance in our walk with Him. So He requires a complete separation.
He calls us to walk away from the friends we have known since high school. He calls us to break a relationship that we’ve invested in for years. He asks to lay down a dream that we have had for a very long time. But only because he is calling us into the promises he has for us.
The hardest things to separate from are those that we believe are good for us. Abraham didn’t see how Lot could be a problem in his life. He seemed quite harmless, but God did.
Sometimes we make light of God’s commands. We pick and choose what we will do and not do. We miss to understand that even a little disobedience can become a veil of covering in our relationship with God if we are not careful.
Few things to remember:
Disobedience will bring strife into our lives. And there was strife between the herd’s men of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. Then Abram said to Lot, “Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen for we are kinsmen. Genesis 13:7-8
Whenever there is something or someone that shouldn’t be in our lives, strife will be present. God allows the things we decide to keep outside of His will to bring tension and conflict until there is a separation. If there is no conflict then we will be happy to keep our disobedience.
Disobedience prevents us from seeing God’s goodness. Jeremiah describes the man who distrusts the Lord and says, he will be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when good comes… Jeremiah 17:6.
Disobedience will block and cover our ability to discern when good is coming. We won’t be able to access what God has for us.
Sometimes we are weeping over delays in our prayers while God is waiting for us to separate from the things He told us to leave a long time ago.
You won’t see the spouse God has for you until you let go of that relationship you keep running back to because you got lonely.
You won’t see the godly friends that God has kept for you until you let go of the friends that keep talking you out of wholehearted obedience.
You won’t see the promises God has for you until you lay down the dream you have for yourself.
Obedience is how we love God. If you love me , you will keep my commandments. John 14:15 Obedience is costly. It will require immense faith and courage sometimes. But it’s only when we get up and go do what He asked of us that we prove we really love him. It’s not how well we sing of our love for Him. It’s not how much we tell others of our love for Him but how well we keep His commandments that prove we love Him.
God sees disobedience as witchcraft. I love the NLT translation, Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft, and stubbornness is as bad as worshipping idols. 1 Samuel 15: 23a witchcraft feels a bit extreme. We don’t look at our little disobedience as rebellion, but that’s what it really is. We also don’t see our disobedience as stubbornness but that’s how God sees it.
Disobedience leads to death. Saul died because he was unfaithful to the Lord; he did not keep the word of the Lord and even consulted a medium for guidance. 1 Chronicles 10:13 He died because he didn’t obey God. We don’t die like people in the Old Testament because of the grace of God in the New Testament, but our relationship with God dies. Our ability to hear Him clearly dies. Our dreams in God die. The blessings that God gave us die in disobedience.
Sis, if God has asked you to separate or leave behind anything, do it quickly without hesitation.
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