The Word of God is a book full of God’s promises to us. Promises that were all fulfilled through the finished work of Christ. As we look at our lives we might question why we aren’t seeing these promises manifest in our lives. Promises of protection, health and wholeness, provision, breakthroughs… you can go on and on. But as you look at your life you cannot look at it through a worldly fleshly perspective. You must look at it through the lens of grace (His unmerited favor). One of my favorite stories in the Old Testament is the story of Elisha and his young servant that is found in 2 Kings 6. In this story the Syrian’s where out to make war with Israel but Israel was able to avert the Syrian’s attack a number of times because of Elisha. Elisha would send the king of Israel word in advance of what the Syrian army was attempting. Because of this Israel was always a step ahead. In the Syrian king’s frustration he sent the Syrian army to capture Elisha.
2 Kings 6:14-15 14 Therefore he sent horses and chariots and a great army there, and they came by night and surrounded the city. 15 And when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an army, surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?”
By all accounts that is an awful situation to be in, completely surrounded by your enemy’s army with horses and chariots. A full-blown out attack. Have you found yourself in that situation, in your darkest moment where everything seems to be against you? Look at how Elisha responded to his servant who saw the trouble with his natural eyes.
2 Kings 6:16-17 16 So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” 17 And Elisha prayed, and said, “Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
What awesome truth for us to live by. We can choose to focus on our circumstances, to dwell in our negative situation from a worldly perspective. To only see what is happening to us and around us in the natural and live in fear. Or we can receive His super abounding grace in all situations and live a life led by the Spirit and see with unveiled eyes the finished work of Christ. The enemy wants to deceive us to keep us focused on our natural worldly circumstances knowing that that keeps us trapped in the negative situations that are never from the Lord. The enemy will flood us with worldly knowledge (bitter water) to have us focused on what we see instead of the Truth. But the fact is that the unseen is greater than the seen 2 Corinthians 4:18. Now I’m not saying that the circumstances and situations that we find ourselves in are not real, they are very real but they are not from the Lord. And His finished work is greater, you must continue to receive His constant grace that makes your heart fertile ground to receive and focus on what is already yours because of Christ. And watch His finished work manifest in your life. Don’t dwell in your negative circumstances as though that is what the Lord has for you. As you receive His grace (the fullness of Jesus) you will find yourself seeing more and more of who Christ is and what He has freely given you. As you receive His grace the Holy Spirit will show you the things that have been freely given to us by God (1 Corinthians 2:6-16). Things that only the Spirit can reveal as it does not come from worldly wisdom. Like Elisha the Lord wants your eyes opened to what He has already done through His Son Jesus. So that you live always seeing and receiving the finished work of Christ. As the Spirit opens your eyes to see the fullness of the finished work of Christ in the Word you will have boldness to speak to your circumstances. You will live speaking the language of grace that is tangible and concrete, the Word of righteousness that has power to move mountains. This is what Elisha did, he spoke from the truth that he saw. Truth that is greater than the natural circumstances.
2 Kings 6:18 So when the Syrians came down to him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, and said, “Strike this people, I pray, with blindness.” And He struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.
This story ends with the following verse 23 Then he prepared a great feast for them; and after they ate and drank, he sent them away and they went to their master. So the bands of Syrian raiders came no more into the land of Israel. In your negative circumstances don’t dwell in silence but speak the finished work of Christ, and watch the things that come against you go their way and come back no more. It is never about what you must do but about what He has already done for us. The minute we think that we must do something to receive from Him we start living in self-righteousness. The law and self-righteousness veils our eyes to the truth. That is a trap to live stuck in our circumstances and looking at our natural situations and to ourselves and the ways of the world for help. But fleshly self effort and the ways of the world will always fail. It is only through the fullness of Jesus, His grace upon grace through His finished work that allows us to live from glory to glory on victorious ground. This cannot be clearer than how it is written in Isaiah 30.
Isaiah 30:1-7 “Woe to the rebellious children,” says the Lord, “Who take counsel, but not of Me, And who devise plans, but not of My Spirit, That they may add sin to sin; 2 Who walk to go down to Egypt, And have not asked My advice, To strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, And to trust in the shadow of Egypt! 3 Therefore the strength of Pharaoh Shall be your shame, And trust in the shadow of Egypt Shall be your humiliation. 4 For his princes were at Zoan, And his ambassadors came to Hanes. 5 They were all ashamed of a people who could not benefit them, Or be help or benefit, But a shame and also a reproach.”
6 The burden against the beasts of the South.
Through a land of trouble and anguish, From which came the lioness and lion, The viper and fiery flying serpent, They will carry their riches on the backs of young donkeys, And their treasures on the humps of camels, To a people who shall not profit; 7 For the Egyptians shall help in vain and to no purpose. Therefore I have called her Rahab-Hem-Shebeth.[a]
In Isaiah 30 Israel was in a time of need and instead of looking to the Lord for help they looked to Egypt. Egypt represents the world and all of their ways. In our lives we should never look to the world for answers, the success that you see in the world is a mere shadow. It is not the truth and it is not eternal. In our negative circumstances it might be difficult to see the success the world has in the very areas we are suffering in. And we might question why. The Lord’s answer to this is to come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. – Hebrews 4:16. To receive more of His grace to continue to believe in Him and His finished work and not go to the world for answers. The Lord doesn’t want us to go to the world and live under the ways of the world because He loves us and He knows that what the world has is not the truth, it is not eternal and it is not founded on His grace (His unmerited favor), it is all based on fleshly self effort that fails.
In verses 3-4 of Isaiah 30 the Lord says 3 Therefore the strength of Pharaoh Shall be your shame, And trust in the shadow of Egypt Shall be your humiliation. 4 For his princes were at Zoan, And his ambassadors came to Hanes. There is an eye-opening truth in these two verses. It says that our reliance on what seems as a strength in the ways of the world will become our shame and our trust in the shadow (it does not last) of the world will be our humiliation. Because his princes were at Zoan Zoan was Egypt’s major fortified city in the northern branch of the Nile in the time of Pharaoh. As per Easton’s Bible Dictionary Zoan was where “Pharaoh held his court at the time of his various interviews with Moses and Aaron.” This is also referred to in Psalm 78:42-43. The name Zoan means ‘stronghold‘. This stronghold never lasted, it is a city that was rebuilt over and over and today is considered a mound of ruins. In Smith’s Bible Names Dictionary it says that ‘The present “field of Zoan” is a barren waste, very thinly inhabited.’ It is a picture of the strength in the ways of the world. Even the world’s best, where their princes are is only a shadow that doesn’t last. The best the world can offer ends up as a mound of ruins, a barren waste. It also says And his ambassadors came to Hanes. The meaning of Hanes as per Hitchcock’s Bible Names Dictionary is ‘the banishment of grace’. The worlds ambassadors (authorized representatives), which is the world systems that speak knowledge (bitter waters) of the ways of the world speak from a banishment of grace. There is absolutely none of God’s grace (unmerited favor) in the ways of the world. And that is why putting our trust in the ways of the world will be our shame and humiliation. Because their strength is merely a shadow that ends up as a mound of ruins and the knowledge that they speak is from the banishment of grace (unmerited favor). It is all based on self-righteousness, fleshly effort that always fails. The Lord wants us to always seek His way, and all of the ways of the Lord are grace and truth (Psalm 25:10).
In the story of Abraham there is a very interesting look at this. When Abraham was 75 the Lord said the following promise to him.
Genesis 12:1-2;7 Now the Lord had said to Abram:
“Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. 2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.”
The Lord made a tremendous promise to Abraham and Abraham did just as the Lord had spoken. And in the coming years Abraham inherited Canaan and God made a covenant with him.
Genesis 15:1-7
After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”
2 But Abram said, “Lord God, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 Then Abram said, “Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!”
4 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.” 5 Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”
6 And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.
7 Then He said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it.”
Abraham and Sarah didn’t have any children but God’s promise to him was that the world would be blessed through him and that he would give him a son from his own body and his descendants would be as many as the stars in heaven. Abraham believed in the Lord but as the years went by they lost focus and instead of relying on the promise of the Lord Abraham and Sarah decided to make the promise manifest on their own. Abraham went to the ways of the world (Egypt) and slept with Sarah’s Egyptian maid, Hagar (a picture of a believer going to the ways of the world to try to receive the promises of the Lord). 15 So Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram. – Genesis 16:15-16. The following 16 years are a silent time in Abraham’s story, it is a picture of God’s heart of no condemnation. Abraham and Sarah continued to live as though their lives were complete but the promise of the Lord still remained. And when the Lord makes a promise it will come to pass. In your life as you read the Word of God and see His promises for you know that they will come to pass as it is already completed in the finished work of Christ. The Lord gives you visions and dreams because that is the future He sees and has for you. Don’t give up as the years go by and you don’t see it manifest, don’t look to the ways of the world to produce results. Remain steadfast and keep your eyes on the faithful One, Jesus Christ. His promises in your life will come to pass.
The next chapter starts when Abraham was ninety-nine years old and it starts with the Lord re-stating the covenant He had made with Abraham. But this time He changes his name from Abram to Abraham and from Sarai to Sarah. Adding the ‘h’ to their names, the fifth letter in the Hebrew alphabet representing God’s grace. And as the Lord reminded him that His covenant was between him and his descendants Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” 18 And Abraham said to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!” – Genesis 17:17-18. God’s response was 19 Then God said: “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him. 20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. 21 But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year.” 22 Then He finished talking with him, and God went up from Abraham. – Genesis 17:19-22 Only our God can respond in such a loving way. He doesn’t rebuke him for Ismael (a picture of trying to get His promises with his own efforts and by the ways of the world). In fact He tells him that Ishmael (the things he has produced on his own) He will bless and make fruitful and will multiply. But the great covenant of grace (unmerited favor) will be with Issac (the promises of God that manifest in our lives because of Him and none of us).
In our lives that always need the promises of the Lord to manifest continue to look to Him and His finished work. Don’t rely on your efforts or the ways of the world to get the Lord’s great promises that He fulfilled in the finished work of Jesus. Continue to receive His abundance of grace and His gift of righteousness and reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
Grace Revelation 
Felt blessed reading it!
Posted by Revelation of Grace Ministries | August 24, 2013, 7:03 amIt is very exciting post that has not only challenged my heart as a child of God but has reborn in me a new faith and new fresh perception of the plan and promise of God in my life.Many time we have the attendance of using our worldly thinking in resolving our situations ahead of us.I am very renewed to patiently Waite through the grace of God
Posted by pastor Wilfred Davis Akutu | May 14, 2014, 10:24 amIt’s good to hear that Davis. It gives me great joy to hear that you now have a “new fresh perception of the plan and promise of God your life”. You will reign in life brother through the One, Jesus Christ as you continue to receive His grace and gift of righteousness.
Posted by aram2255 | May 15, 2014, 11:34 pm