A Story Like That

"The only requirement of us to see the impossible come to life is our lives submitted to God."

ABRAHAM WAS THE ONLY ONE on planet earth that knew what He knew of God’s promise to him. He spoke with Almighty God, who said he and his wife Sarah would have a son in their old age. Who would believe a story like that? We are told that Sarah laughed. Their son, Isaac’s, name means “laughter.”

David was called to the palace to comfort King Saul, who was tormented by a demon night and day. Someone in the palace had heard of David’s reputation. They should go get that shepherd who played the harp. He’d killed a lion and a bear. So there sat David in the palace in the room with the king, whose office the prophet Samuel had anointed him to take. King Saul had no idea. But I mean, … awkward.

Esther was picked from a slew of women to be the new queen. Here was a girl vaulted from nothing on the social ladder to the most important woman in the land. That she was a Jew would prove key to the salvation of her people. How did this moment of deliverance happen to land in her lap?

Rahab was a prostitute who lived in Jericho’s wall. Yet, she became the protection of Israel’s spies, and God rewarded her with the rescue of her family when the city walls fell down flat. Only Rahab’s place survived. No one anywhere would ever believe a story like that.

These all had what I call “Abraham moments,” that place in time where God uses someone to do something incredible that would boggle the mind of everyone else if they knew it. And there is not time to tell “of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens (Hebrews 11:32-34).” Except that these men and many others found themselves in a place that required extraordinary faith.

Like Jesus’ mother, Mary. The angel Gabriel appeared to her to tell her she would bear the Messiah. She’s a virgin, so how is this possible? No one anywhere would believe her if she told them that. Joseph had to have it confirmed in a dream, and cousin Elizabeth felt her baby, the prophet John, leap in her womb and was filled with God’s Spirit.

Which makes my point. Man would not believe what God was doing, but GOD WAS THE ONE DOING IT.

The question must be asked of us, in our lifetime. What would you do if you were Abraham? What if God gave you a vision like he had of “an horror of great darkness” and prophesied your children would be afflicted in a strange land for 400 years? Many would not believe. But Abraham not only believed, he changed his name, which must have turned heads, and years after Isaac was born, Abraham walked with him up the mountain and there, built an altar to lay him on it because God had asked. The Scripture says Abraham believed God would raise Isaac from the dead if need be. That was GREAT FAITH, and it was accounted to him as righteousness.

Abraham asked God to save Sodom and Gomorrah. Here again, we see His faith. We would have shouted, “Burn the place down! My nephew Lot took that land from me anyway!” Problem is, we don’t expect God to ask us to do these great things. If we find ourselves in a difficult place, we moan about the problem and don’t see the deliverance. If by chance we do see it, we want it over and done and way behind us. We’re content to go back to life as normal. Nothing in God is supposed to be normal anymore.

Peter had an angel let him out of prison. The angel led him out of town, unlocking all the gates and doors, and Peter thought the whole thing was a dream until he showed up where the church had holed up and the little girl inside wouldn’t let him in.

Paul survived shipwreck, which he had prophesied to them. He told the centurion and all the sailors on the ship that it would not end well. They didn’t believe him. Some couple weeks later, after spending days on board in a major storm, they end up in the water floating on bits and pieces to an island where the natives tried to kill them. That is, until a snake bites Paul and he doesn’t die. Wait. What?

God delights in the impossible. In fact, the harder it is, the less likely it can be done, the more likely He will act because then He gets all the glory. Here’s the thing about our mighty God. He doesn’t want to leave us with any doubt that it could have happened any other way. Whereas our human mindset is, “This can’t be done,” and so we give up, we should be like Abraham and believe.

Now, Abraham tried to help God out at first. Don’t do that. If God promised you a solution, no matter how crazy it seems, then be sure the steps you take are those He has spoken. There are many roads to Rome but only one way to heaven. His name is Jesus. And no matter how many other ideas men come up with to find peace “in the afterlife,” He’s still the only one. He needs to be the only one in our everyday lives as well. God works in many ways to bring about the completion of that impossible solution. He can use anyone in our path from doctors to those in any other known profession. But He is the one guiding us forward. It is not “we ourselves” making random choices.

Paul, then Saul, was headed down the road to Damascus as his usual Pharisaical self. He still hated Christians. He was not repentant for having taken their lives and had plans to arrest more of them. Then Jesus in a bright light spoke to him from heaven and he was left blind. What to do? Well, he was told to continue into the city and wait there. For three days, he prayed, and then a man named Ananias came and laid hands on him. Immediately, his sight was restored, and he was filled with the Holy Spirit. Paul’s choice was to kill Christians, and he felt he was doing the right thing. God’s heart was to make him a vessel of Christ who would change the world and write most of the New Testament.

We must have God’s perspective. Then the solution He chooses will not seem strange at all. What our mind doesn’t accept, what people will never understand, is not only viable in God, but it will happen exactly as He said. This is God who planned redemption before creating the world. Before He spoke light and time into existence, He’d already chosen a body for Jesus to be born as a human and die for our sins. He designed seeds to die in order to produce more seeds before there was any death at all. In light of that, nothing He asks of us should be strange.

The only requirement of us to see the impossible come to life is our lives submitted to God. This means our thoughts, our choices, our habits, everything becomes His. He loves us and will never ask us to do what He has not equipped us for. He is all we need in peace of mind, wisdom, strength of character, and favor with men. There is nothing lacking in us with His salvation. We need not fear things will go astray. Even if it looks that way for a time, God’s ending is good. There are simply too many examples of this to put on one page.

These are the last words of John. “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.”

If that was true then, how much more is it true now?


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com