THE GOD OF
ABRAHAM, ISAAC, JACOB, AND US
By Dan Luehrs
Recently the Lord has been speaking to me about
these three patriarchs’ Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob and when I asked Him for understanding about them He spoke
this message very clearly to me.
“You have had
the Abrahamic Covenant and the Isaac Covenant and now you will have Jacob’s
Covenant in fullness.”
My first thought was, “What is Jacob’s Covenant?” We
hear so much about Abraham’s Covenant with God but so little about Jacob’s, I
than thought about how God had changed his name from Jacob to Israel in Genesis
32:28. But what does that have to do with you and me? A lot as you will see!
When God did something great for these men, it was not just for them alone, but
for the whole. I do not believe that the word God spoke to me was just for me,
but for all the overcoming saints.
If you know anything about the Jewish feasts you
know that there are three main feasts that we must experience in order to come
into the fullness of God. The first experience is Passover; the second is
Pentecost, and the third experience is Tabernacles. These were Old Testament
teachings and feasts that all of Israel had to participate in if they wanted to
obey the Law of God and please Him. These were not implemented by man, but by
God Himself on Mount Sinai for Moses to teach the people and to be kept by all
of Israel and not just Moses alone. But before we can understand Jacob’s
Covenant we must look at the Abrahamic Covenant which is first in the order of
the three, for God is a God of order.
THE GOD OF
ABRAHAM
“I am the God
of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Matt 22:32 NAS).
There must be a reason why the Bible uses this same
term thirty-two times. God must be telling us something about these men, their
lives, their covenants. Even Jesus made mention of them five times as to their
relevance to us in the New Testament.
Abraham is known as the man of faith because he left
everything he had known to follow God and we know that faith pleases God. “So Abram went forth as the LORD had spoken
to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he
departed from Haran” (Genesis 12:4 NAS). Just as the disciples left
everything immediately to follow Jesus, so Abraham followed the Lord into a wilderness
by faith. He had acquired many riches and lived a comfortable lifestyle before
God called him to leave it; he chose to live by faith with an unseen God rather
than to trust in the uncertainty of riches.
God chose to make His covenant known through the
faith of Abraham who was once an idol worshipper. “… The father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they served
other gods” (Joshua 24:2 NAS). God could have chosen any other great
man of faith like Seth, Enoch, or Noah to do this, yet He chose someone that
was outside the immediate family of Adam and knew nothing about the living God
that these men served.
The covenant of faith was a covenant of blood;
Abraham’s circumcision was a sign to his faith with the cutting away of the
flesh and the sacrificing of ones self wholly to God. A person would truly have
to be committed to God to do this! It was a type of salvation that we are now
experiencing today through the blood and cross of Jesus Christ; this truth was
magnified in the Old Testament through Moses and the Passover Lamb. Yet our
return back to God all started with Abraham our father in the faith. He trusted
God and followed Him with all of His heart into the desert of Canaan until his
life ended there not even possessing the land that was promised to him, but
said in faith that another generation of his would. Now that’s faith not seeing
in the natural what was promised to him and yet believed steadfastly!
As wonderful as eternal salvation is through the
promise of God to Abraham, God did not stop there. He promised Abraham the
whole earth which Adam lost in the fall and not just the land of Israel alone. “Clearly, God's promise to give the
whole earth to Abraham and his descendants was based not on his obedience
to God's law, but on a right relationship with God that comes by faith”
(Rom 4:13-14 New Living Translation). Hear this, not only was salvation begun
through the covenant of God with Abraham, he was also given the promise that he
would possess the whole earth through his descendants. That is you and me my
friends! Do you see that we who are Abraham’s seed will be given the whole
world because of our birthright in Jesus Christ and Abraham? This is the
Abrahamic Covenant that we are to take hold of by faith in obeying God. Yes,
you also have received the Abrahamic Covenant by faith through a relationship
with Jesus.
THE GOD OF
ISAAC
“In order that
in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so
that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Gal 3:14 NAS).
Our salvation or the
Passover Feast was received through faith in Jesus Christ as our Passover
Lamb. In addition to this Abraham had yet a second promise made to him by God
which was called, “The promise,” the promise of a son in his old age. If it was
hard for him to believe for the whole earth, how much more difficult was it now
for him to believe for a son when he was seventy-five years old? Somebody say,
impossible! But Abraham learned that no spoken word of God was impossible
because he saw His faithfulness in impossible situations over and over.
The story and life of Isaac is all about the coming
of a son by faith to receive the families inheritance, because God had already
told Abraham that He was going to give him the land, but Abraham could not
understand how he could keep it without an heir. “And Abram said, "O Lord GOD, what wilt Thou give me, since I
am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus” (Genesis
15:2 NAS)? God then went on to tell him that the seed from his own body would
be the heir to all that God had promised him, for it was through Isaac’s
descendants that he would inherit the land. It was through Abraham’s son and
grandsons and great grandsons and so on that he would inherit the land and did
so through the children of Israel. Without a son Abraham was sunk, but through
the faithfulness of God the promise was fulfilled.
The same is true of us in the New Testament, that’s
why we are called the sons of God, because we too are sons of promise. “And you
brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise” (Gal 4:28 NAS).
Promise of what you ask? Of being a son of God! Paul likened the birth of Isaac
as a son of promise to our sonship by faith. “But as many as received him (Jesus), to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on his name” (John 1:12 KJV). God has given us the power to become the sons of God as we obey the
promptings of the Spirit of promise which we are to receive. Yes, when we were
first saved, we became sons, but immature baby sons never the less. But what
God is looking for is mature sons that look and act like Jesus, this is why He
is the pattern Son which we are to follow because He knows the pathway to
making us mature in spirit.
The Holy Spirit is making us into mature sons and as
we are baptized in the Holy Spirit of promise, we also are experiencing the Feast of Pentecost which Isaac is a
symbol of. “… But to wait for what
the Father had promised, "Which," He said, "you heard of
from Me; for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the
Holy Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1:4-5 NAS). We are the sons
of promise because we are sons of God when we are filled with and led by the
Holy Spirit in our lives as Abraham was. It is the Holy Spirit’s job to make us
into the image of the one true proto-type Son, Jesus. This is our promise in
the New Testament, that God would give us His power to be changed into the
likeness of His Son and then reign with Him. Yes, if you have been baptized in
the Holy Spirit you also have received the Isaac Covenant through this baptism
of promise.
Let me give this to you in a nutshell so that you
may fully understand. God the Father had the birth of a miracle Son named
Jesus, even as Abraham had a miracle son come forth from him to inherit the
earth. Jesus came forth through the loins of Abraham, but never had any
biological sons to be born to Him while living, so He left no one to inherit
the earth seemingly when He died. But instead He brought forth spiritual sons
made through the seed of the word of God in His very likeness so that they
would not die and could inherit everything that He is and has, which is
everything in heaven and earth! “And if
children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if
indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him” (Romans
8:17 NAS). Remember, God needs sons just as Abraham did so that they could
inherit the earth, for the earth is the Lord’s and His people are to inherit it
as their own as promised to Abraham. But the wicked one and his people were to
have no part in it whatsoever! Jesus promised this to us, “Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matt
5:5 NAS). This earth is ours and we will inherit it, and one day righteousness
and holiness will reign on the earth as it does in heaven.
We who are God’s people will fulfill this promise of
receiving the inheritance even as Israel conquered the land of promise as their
inheritance. God had to wait for four hundred and thirty years before He could
give Israel the Promise Land for several reasons, one of those being that
Abraham’s family was not big enough to take the land and hold it. God was
waiting for millions to be born before they could go in and possess the land.
So is it now! “And Enoch also, the
seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with
ten thousands of his saints” (Jude 14 KJV). God has been building an army
of believers in heaven and earth for nearly two thousand years and will one day
come with them as He shouts from heaven to declare the kingdom age has come to
earth when He and the saints will rule and reign forever and ever. I believe
that it may take one thousand years before the whole job is done and the earth
is restored, but never the less it will be done by Him and His bride. This is
what you and I are being prepared for in this life, isn’t it exciting?
God gave Adam and Eve a
perfect earth to have dominion over, it was without fault or sin until they
disobeyed Him and gave it up to the evil one. Things on earth begun to decay
and fall into sin very quickly until it spread throughout the entire earth. The
jobs of the sons of God have to do with us first being restore back to God
individually and becoming like Jesus. Then the job of restoring the people back
to God, then finally it’s time for the earth to be restored completely as it
was when Adam and Eve had it and even better. This is the restoration process
that God has been doing in us and through our many trials and tribulations; He
is making us into the likeness of His Son. “For
it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are
all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of
their salvation through sufferings” (Heb 2:10-11 NAS). Why is God bringing
many sons to glory? Because all power in heaven and earth has been given to
Jesus and He is going to share it with the sons of God in glory to change
mankind and the earth with His great power. It’s about the earth being filled
with the glory of the Lord! God wants the land back from the devil and his
people; He did not create the earth for the evil ones, but for the righteous.
As more and more people get saved and filled with the glory of the Lord the
earth will one day be filled with the glory of God as the water covers the sea
because He is filling His people so that the earth will shine.
Just as Abraham was to claim the land that he walked
on as his, so must we! I therefore claim Intercession City, Florida and the
whole state as my inheritance before God and His holy angels. Sounds crazy
doesn’t it? But try and tell Abraham and the Children of Israel that, for they
saw the reality of the promise of God. The problem with Israel was that one
generation who knew God died and another generation came along after them who
knew not God and quickly fell away from Him and lost the land as God said they
would. But when Jesus came He changed the whole spectrum for us as sons of God
because we like Him will have an endless and sinless life on earth for eternity.
“Who (Jesus) has been constituted a Priest, not on the basis of a bodily legal
requirement [an externally imposed command concerning His physical ancestry], but
on the basis of the power of an endless and indestructible Life. For it is
witnessed of Him, You are a Priest forever after the order (with the rank) of
Melchizedek” (Heb 7:16-17 AMP). What this is saying is, Jesus was not in
the linage of the Levite priesthood, but because He rose from the dead He had
an endless life to be both, a king and a priest in the order of Melchizedek. No
one in Scripture was known as both a king and priest, but Melchizedek and Jesus
who were both with no beginning or ending and this is what we are called to be
in Christ so that we might possess the earth with an endless life never having
to lose the land again because of sin. Doesn’t serving Jesus and overcoming our
flesh come into a whole new light when we realize what we are called to do and
be?
THE GOD OF
JACOB
“Then the man
said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you
have struggled with God and with men and have overcome” (Genesis 32:28 NIV).
Now here comes the story of Jacob, the overcomer.
When we have matured and have overcome in this life, God will give us a new
name as He did Jacob. Jesus said in Revelation 2:17, “… To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden
manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the
stone which no one knows but he who receives it.” Our new name will
reflect our calling and character in God and His kingdom. Jacob’s Covenant and
name change meant that he was to prevail in all the promises which were given
to Abraham and Isaac through the birth of his twelve sons families which would
inherit the land.
Jacob is the second son of Isaac, his name means,
“Deceiver.” This name would characterize his life until he fought with God and
overcame and his name was changed to Israel. Could it be that we too are
wrestling with God in our life as he did? I believe this to be the case so that
we can have a name and life change as Jesus comes into our lives to change us
into His image. Abraham also had a name change and had circumcision to prove
his covenant of faith with God. Isaac was the promise of God and did not have
to work for anything, but was given all things as an inheritance from his
father, even as we have been given the Holy Spirit of promise as a gift. Jacob
was given a name and character change, and was given power with God because he
had overcome. It was not until Jesus overcame death and hell that He was given
a name above all names and was given the authority to send the Holy Spirit so
that we too would be overcomers to rule and reign with Him in the kingdom of
God.
Between Abraham and the kingdom of Israel there was
Isaac and Jacob (his name changed to Israel); the same is true for us. There
are three covenants to the fullness of the kingdom of God that we are called
too, there are two more experiences after Abraham (Salvation) and when we have
had all three experiences we will have the fullness of the King and His
kingdom. The completeness of our experience in Christ comes through our
relationship to the Abrahamic, Isaac, and Jacob covenants into the fullness of
being mature sons of God.
There are a people about to arise in the earth
called the manifest sons of God who
will usher in the kingdom of God; they will go forth with all the power that
Jesus walked in and more to restore the people and the earth to its original
glory without sin. Romans 8:19-23 speaks of these wonderful things to come.
“For the
anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons
of God (those
who experience Passover and have come to maturity). For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but
because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will
be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the
children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the
pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we
ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit (Pentecost), even we ourselves groan within ourselves,
waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons (Tabernacles), the redemption of our body.”
You might be asking yourself what this all has to do
with Jacob? Everything! His life is a type of manifested son of God with power.
In Genesis 32:28 God made a covenant with Jacob and His name was changed to
Israel because he prevailed with God and became an overcomer. Israel means, “HE
WILL RULE AS GOD.” This will be our feast
of Tabernacles, when we are experiencing Tabernacles as the last of the feasts and receiving our glorified
bodies and coming forth in the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ to change mankind
and the earth. Every move of God that has manifested on the earth since the
time of Jesus will all come together in them like an accordion manifesting the
power of God through His people like and atomic explosion.
THE GENERATION
OF JACOB
“This is
Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him, who seek Your face”
(Psalms 24:6
NKJV).
We are the generation of Jacob who are called to seek the face of God, and are also called to live in the time of Jacob’s troubles in the earth and to overcome them. This one thing will ensure our victory and preparation in the time of great tribulation; seeking His face daily by staying filled with the Holy Spirit. We are called to live in the time of Jacob’s Covenant also; his covenant was and still is to prevail in all that was promised to Abraham and to take back the earth one person at a time. Psalms 24 tells who and what these people are like and who may stand in God’s holy place of authority as the kingdom comes.
v They will usher in the King of glory.
v They will continually seek His face.
v They will have clean hands and a pure heart.
v They will ascend to the Lord and stand in His holy place.
v The heavy presence of the Lord will rest upon them and their house.
v The everlasting gates of heaven will be opened to them.
v The revelation of God’s word will be revealed to them.
In Galatians 6:16 Paul calls us, the church, “The Israel of God” (We are to rule as God) because we are called to rule and reign with Jesus who is God in His throne throughout eternity. That is why Jesus called us, the church or the Ekklesia. One of the interpretations of the word church is, “the called out ones,” but this is not the whole meaning of the word. The original Ekklesia is the governing body of the country of Greece. It’s a term used for those who are in authority to rule and reign, as we have seen that God has called the church to reign over all the earth. God has a ruling body of authority in heaven and earth and it is us, the church! We are now to rule over our flesh first, then over all evil powers of darkness in this age and then over all of God’s creation, we are to rule as God would rule in wisdom and power!
This is the covenant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is
for us to take ownership of the earth and rule with God! Their blessings are
ours for the asking. Will you dare to ask for their covenant of promise? God
Himself is our great reward and covenant of promise. “After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision,
saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward”
(Gen 15:1 KJV). We will receive Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob’s Covenants in
fullness by faith when Jesus comes to change these vile bodies into the
likeness of His glory and power in the Feast of Tabernacles.
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