I recently shared how having a word from God means having all that you need and how a word from God activates faith.  Seeing the manifestation of faith involves receiving.

I can buy my wife a gift, but if she does not take hold of it, open it, and then utilize it according to its purpose for her benefit, it cannot do her the good I intended it to do.

Someone’s refusal to take advantage of a gift does not mean the gift was not given to start with.

God can make amazing promises in your life. However, if you do not know how to receive and use them, they will not benefit you, and you risk missing out on the blessings God has in store for you.

Let’s look at this in the Word.

Genesis 18:16 Then the men rose from there and looked toward Sodom, and Abraham went with them to send them on the way. 17 And the LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing, 18 since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? 19 For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the LORD, to do righteousness and justice, that the LORD may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.”

The first thing I notice is the friendship between God and Abraham, which is expressed in these Scriptures.  God has just spoken a wonderful promise to Abraham regarding his heir and the generations to follow.  It is a marvelous, long-sought-after promise intended to bless Abraham tremendously.

God’s intentions are clear in the promise of a good future and the longevity of Abraham’s family on earth.

Verse 19 stands out to me. “I have known him,” God says. God reveals an intimacy between Himself and Abraham and then goes on to reveal why this intimacy exists and what is at stake in it.

God is intimate with Abraham so that Abraham may command his children and his household after him with purpose. What purpose?

“That they keep the way of the LORD, to do righteousness and justice.”  Why does this matter?

“That the LORD may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.”

The promise is made, and the gift is prepared, but for it to benefit the recipient, there must be an act of receiving the gift.  This case involves how Abraham leads his family.

Sometimes, people want to claim they have faith in God about something and expect it to be fulfilled without any thought of what such a promise might set them up for in order to be prepared for it.  They want something that is outside of God’s ways and out of step with His character as if He were some kind of great cosmic genie that exists to do whatever they wish so long as they believe it.

They want things based on their own brand of faith, which is divorced from any kind of intimacy with God. It is a faith devoid of knowing who He is to them and what He is truly like. In so doing, they claim they are believing God for something but lack any wisdom or ability to properly prepare for what God actually wishes to do to bless them.  As a result, they fail to see the promise come to fruition in their lives, and sadly, this can often result in an accusation that God did not come through for them.  The reality is that they never learned how to receive according to God’s way and God’s timing.  The giver of a promise determines the manner by which that promise will be realized, so it is important to get to know the giver.  The first step to being a good receiver begins with a desire to really know the Giver.  Knowing the character of the Giver strengthens one’s faith in the Giver’s ability to follow through on the promise made and be made aware of how to posture oneself to receive it when it arrives.