Believe in His Covenant

Have you found yourself struggling to be who you think you should be in the Lord? You have wrestled with it all this time and maybe the Lord hasn’t called you to be that. That could be why you’ve had so much trouble. “What am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to be? Who am I?” A lot of people go through that “Who am I?” when they get in their late forties.

We see something that looks appealing in the Lord and say, “I want to be that or I want to be this.” That may not be what God wants you to be, so there is a constant frustration. You are trying to be something you’re not supposed to be.

I think probably everyone has fallen into that trap at some time or another. You decide on who you want to be: what your calling is in life, what you want to do, your career, etc. You have your dreams because you have the input from all the influencing things around you. You pick out the thing that seems the best; what you like the most, and it may not be what God wants you to be at all.

We are in the days of Genesis, the days of beginnings. God made a covenant with different ones in the Scriptures. In Genesis 6:18 He made a covenant with Noah. We are learning something about the Scriptures we have not fully understood before. God is speaking to people with whom He has made a covenant. That is what it is all about. A lot of people use the Scriptures to teach and preach their particular brand of Christianity, but the Word is written and given for those whom He has made a covenant. It is a step by step process of coming into an awareness of the God of the covenant. I think one of the most amazing things that has been coming to light for me is that God makes a covenant with someone He chooses. That person He chooses probably may have not been looking for Him at all. Just out of the blue God looked at the land of the Ur of Chaldees. All those people were worshipping idols and He chose one man – Abram. He said, “I’ll make a covenant with you. I’m going to make you a great nation. This is what I am going to do for you” (Genesis 12:1-3). You probably wonder what Abraham did to deserve all that. He didn’t do anything. In what way was he better than the others? The other people may have been better than him, but God made a choice. He chose Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob; He chose each of them.

Matthew 22:32 I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

God says, “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” Those men died thousands of years before. They were people with whom God had made a covenant. It was an everlasting covenant. They were still alive in God and so was the covenant He had made with them. Has He made a covenant with you? When He makes a covenant with you, He puts limitations upon Himself. He ties Himself to you through that covenant.

It is most interesting to see how God just chooses someone for apparently no reason whatsoever. Jesus comes along and He sees James and John mending their nets, getting ready to do a little fishing (Matthew 4:18-20). He walks up to them and says, “Follow Me”, and they begin following Him. He told them, “I’ll make you fishers of men.” You know what that represents. Being a fisherman is symbolic of becoming a Christian. So Christians are out doing their religious thing, mending their nets to catch some people and bring them into their group, and the Lord comes up and says, “You follow Me.” He pulls them out of the realm they are in, pulls them out of their religious activities. “Hey, I’m doing what I believe God called me to do. This is what my life is all about.” Then God reaches down and pulls them out of that completely to make them something else.

Have you been a Christian mending your nets, involved in some religious work? We’ve all been there. We’ve mended our nets or whatever religious work we thought we should be doing. Many Christians have been caught up in some religious work trying to please God. Then suddenly He reaches down and pulls them out of those wonderful works so He can make them an empty channel He can flow through. He makes a covenant and the process of the emptying out of self begins.

Enoch was 65 years old when he began to walk with God (Genesis 5:22-24). For three hundred years he walked with God and he “was not” because God took him. Most people say God yanked him off the face of the earth and took him up to heaven. He became a “was not.” Could it be that he became a “was not” and then walked with God for three hundred years? God does not have complete access to move through you until you become a “was not.” When you become a “was not” self is obliterated, erased, and then God has a channel through which He can function and accomplish His will.

Genesis 6:17 And, behold, I even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.

Let’s take this out of the history and into the mystery. God is going to send a flood to destroy your flesh nature, wash it away. Have you come to the place where you realize that all the kings of your earthen nature, all the desires and lusts of the flesh, all your selfishness and self-centeredness has warred against your every effort to be in the will of the Lord? The flesh nature is a constant downward pull. One time we were going through the mountains. We got almost to the top of a really high mountain and my wife said, “This is far enough.” So we stopped and on the edge of the mountain was a railing. The other side of that railing went straight down. I walked up close and I could feel it pulling. The gravitational pull was very strong, making me feel it would pull me right over the side. There is a constant pull of your flesh nature, pulling on you all the time, even when you are not aware of it. So when you want to walk with God you find yourself having to cross the grain, to go against the current. Fighting the flesh nature can be futility. You can’t overcome it. But when God looks upon you and says, “I choose this one. I make a covenant with this one”, from that point on you don’t fight the downward pull alone. The Lord comes forth in your life to conquer the enemies of your flesh nature (Revelation 6:2). That is what He says in this verse – I am going to destroy all flesh.

Genesis 6:18 But with you will I establish My covenant; and you shall come into the ark, you, and your sons, and your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.

This is the ark of the covenant which is God’s preparation to bring you through the troublesome times. He said, “I will establish My covenant with you and you shall come into the ark, you, and your sons, and your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.” Notice that this ark-covenant is for the whole family. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved and thy house (Acts 16:31).

Genesis 12:1-3 Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from your kindred, and from your father’s house, unto the land that I show you:
2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing:
3 And I will bless them that bless you, and curse him that curses you: and in you shall all families of the earth be blessed.

What did Abraham do to deserve that? He didn’t do anything; God made a choice. Paul said, “What did you have that you did not receive? What can you boast about? What did you have?” (I Corinthians 4:7). Everything we have we received from the Lord. We can’t boast about it. God made the choice. He chose Abram and pulled him out of a land, out of his country, and said, “This is what I am going to do.” Now I want to look at a verse in Genesis 17.

Genesis 17:2 And I will make My covenant, between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.

I will make My covenant. It says in the margin, “I will give My covenant, to set in operation the things promised.” Do you realize that when God makes a covenant with you, He has obligated Himself? He chooses to obligate Himself to you. He chooses to put restrictions upon Himself. “I am making this covenant with you. This is what I am going to be to you. This is what I am going to make you.” He restricts Himself to that particular work, and He will not break it. God does not break His covenant with you.

Genesis 17:1 And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before Me, and be thou perfect.

I am the Almighty God! Now, that is not an unfamiliar term to us. We praise and exalt God, but it is quite a different thing to know Him as the Almighty God. His covenant with you opens the door for you to know Him as the Almighty God. The Almighty God to the average Christian is one thing, but the Almighty God who has made a covenant with you is something else. Do you follow what I am saying?

Genesis 17:1-4 And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before Me, and be thou perfect.
2 And I will make My covenant, between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.
3 And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying,
4 As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations.

God didn’t say, “Let Me talk to you, Abram. How would you like to be a father of many nations?” God does not ask what you would like to be. He makes the choice of what you are to be and then He says He’ll make you that. You shall be a father of many nations. I wonder if there was any way Abram could have gotten out from under that. “You’re going to be a father of many nations.” God makes a covenant and then He says, “This is what you are,” and from that point on you can put all your weight down on what God has said. Worry, concern, doubt, and unbelief are eliminated. Have you been living in the realm of not knowing for sure who you are or what you should be doing? This covenant eliminates all those negative things. God says, “This is what I am going to make you. This is what you are and this is what you are going to be.”

Genesis 17:5 Neither shall your name any more be called Abram….

You have become a new person so you need a new name. You are not what you used to be. You were one thing under the dominion of your adamic nature, but when you come under the covenant of God you become something else and so you need a new name.

Genesis 17:5-7 Neither shall your name any more be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made you.
6 And I will make you exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come out of you.
7 And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your seed after you in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto you, and to your seed after you.

We learn from Galatians 3 that this covenant God makes with Abraham is very, very important. It is important because we come into that covenant, too. Paul says that God did not make the covenant with Abraham and his seeds, rather He made it with Abraham and his seed, singular. His seed is Jesus Christ and if you are Christ’s, then you are a part of that seed. Thus, the blessings and promises to Abraham come down upon you. You may say, “How can I become a part of this covenant? What can I do?” You cannot do anything to earn it. Submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Let Him be the Lord over you and through you. That is what’s missing with many Christians. They call Him Lord, but He’s not Lord. The Lordship of Jesus Christ will take on a new meaning when you come into the covenant of the Lord.

Genesis 17:8-9 And I will give unto you, and to your seed after you, the land wherein you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.
9 And God said unto Abraham, You shall keep My covenant therefore, you, and your seed after you in their generations.

Do you have any doubts about whether you are going to keep the covenant of God? God says you are going to keep the covenant. “I don’t know if I can do that. I’ve been trying for years and I find my faith is not great enough. I constantly fall; my dedication is not great enough. How am I going to keep this covenant?” God says, “You are going to keep My covenant.” That seals it right there. God says, “I am going to accomplish it. I am going to do it.” Do you understand? What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that you believe into Him whom He has sent. John 6:28-29. Believe in the Lord! Believe in His covenant!

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