Only God Did

"God always provides proof."

GOD MADE Abraham a promise. A crazy one. And knowing the human mind and our natural habit of doubt, He confirmed it to him by changing his name. Now, I have heard this preached as Abraham’s new confession. He was Abram which meant one thing and now he’s Abraham which means the promise. But the reason for the name change was greater than that. It was an unchangeable sign in Abraham’s thinking which removed any doubt. When He fell back on, “I’m too old. Sarah’s too old,” and a dozen similar doubts, He had to then say, “But God changed my name.” There was no removing it. He didn’t come up with that idea, and it didn’t “come from the devil.”

God is the guarantee for crazy promises, and the Bible is full of them. But He knows how we think, He knows His promise is crazy, and He knows without something definite to cling to that we “know that we know” is God, we’ll give up and turn loose of what He’s said. We begin to reason it out. “But maybe” and “But maybe not” enter in from a thousand directions. Abraham remembered God’s promise. God had said his descendants would be more in number than the sand by the seashore. Yet it took the name change, years later, to cement it. Yes, in his confession, but heavier, as something He knew only God did.

For Noah, it was a huge boat. He lived nowhere near the ocean, and every single person alive was violent (chamas) and the reason for the boat. God saw Noah’s heart and would save his family from what would cleanse the world. What Satan had caused, God would undo. And there staring at Noah was this massive ark he constructed for many, many years. Only God could have given him such a task. It didn’t come from him. It definitely wasn’t the devil’s doing. Amidst all the sin and destruction around him, Noah was righteous (2 Peter 2:5). Honorable. And dedicated to holiness. God had promised salvation. The boat was proof.

God always provides proof. There are so many stories of God’s miracles which came about because that person knew God had spoken, and He’d given them a sign. David had Goliath. Every time he doubted God’s promise that he would be King of Israel, he could not deny God had used him to destroy the giant. Gideon had the fleeces which God had caused to be exactly how Gideon had asked of Him. We teach these as doubt. God saw them as faith. Moses had his shepherd’s rod that God had changed into a crocodile then back into his staff.* I find it fascinating that Moses and his brother, Aaron, accepted God’s crazy instruction, barely batting an eye (Exodus 7:6), even when they saw the copycat plagues of Pharaoh’s magicians. These will never happen again. All the works of the devil have been destroyed (dissolved), 1 John 3:8.

God is faithful, reliable, trustworthy. He is truth. He does not use evil against us. Read Jeremiah 29:11 and James 1:13. Read Psalm 119:68, Romans 8:28, and James 2:17. Top those off with Ephesians 3:20: “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.” His power worketh in us and that is proof of what He will do. His Son died for us. He is God’s Word which became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). He is proof of salvation. He died, and He rose again, healthy and whole. But in each of us individually, God gives us that one thing that we know came from Him. I have several that overcome all my doubts. I’ve heard stories from the lives of others who were rescued because that crazy thing God said He’d do had to happen. He said this thing or showed them that one. Suddenly a dyslexic man could read and knew Jesus was real. A musician lost in sin gets a phone call from his mother while in a bar in Mexico. A man trained as a Pharisee, who is murdering Christians, sees a bright light on the road to Damascus.

“I could say a lot more, but there is not enough time. I could tell you about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets (people who spoke God’s messages). Because they believed God, some of them won wars against other countries. They did what is right and fair. And they received good things that God had promised. Some of them caused big wild cats called lions to shut their mouths.” (Hebrews 11:32-33, EasyEnglish)

“So then we ourselves know about all these people who believed God. They are our examples. They are like a very big crowd all round us. They show us how we can live for God.” (Hebrews 11:1, EasyEnglish)

*Exodus 7:10, H8577, as opposed to Genesis 3:1, H5175, Rabbi Meir Solaveichik

Photo by Kasturi Roy on Unsplash


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