Step out of your tent!

In Genesis 15:1-6, the Lord speaks to Abram in a vision: do not be afraid, I am your shield, your very great reward. Abram answers that he has no child and that his heir will be Eliezer of Damascus, a servant in his household. Then God takes him outside the tent and says: look up at the sky and count the stars, if indeed you can count them. So shall your offspring be. Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.

This is a word to encourage you. We don't preach the prosperity gospel, but we don't preach a theology of misery either: the opposite of wrong isn't always right. God wants to bless your life.

Abraham was called at 75, in Ur of the Chaldeans, an idolatrous land. Until he was 99, he received several promises from God about his descendants. In that process, I see five points that also show up in our lives: limitation, perspective, God's nature, capacity, and transformation.

1. Limitation

God promises offspring, and Abram looks at his reality: I have no child, my heir is a servant. He wasn't being pessimistic or optimistic. He was simply describing what natural eyes could see. He was wealthy, but Sarah was barren and was already past the age of having children.

Looking at reality isn't a sin. It's wisdom. Proverbs and Ecclesiastes teach us to live in practical ways. But there is a difference between reality and truth.

• When Samuel anointed David, the reality was that Saul was reigning over Israel.
• God's truth was that David was already the chosen king.

Optimism and pessimism belong to the natural realm, to temperament. Faith belongs to the spiritual. And God's truth is eternal. The name Abram meant "exalted father" when he didn't even have a child yet. God's Word goes deeper than any natural effort, even to dividing soul and spirit (Heb 4:12).

2. Perspective

God begins speaking to Abram inside the tent and ends up speaking to him outside of it. Besides the problem, Abram had the wrong perspective on the problem. Inside the tent, even the best tent in the desert, when he looked up, all he would see was the ceiling.

The tent represents what you have built with your own hands. When you look at life from inside it, everything seems limited. Sometimes we call that modesty: "You don't need all that." But it's just natural vision, with no faith at all. If we can do everything in our own strength, why would we need faith?

Jesus said: open your eyes and look at the fields, they are ripe for harvest (John 4:35). Faith isn't optimism. Faith is looking at things from God's perspective.

The widow of Zarephath had her last handful of flour, and the prophet Elijah asked her to make a small loaf of bread for him first (1 Kings 17:8-16). She had to move from a natural perspective to a spiritual one, and only then did the miracle happen. Don't wait for the miracle in order to believe. Israel saw water come out of the rock and still grumbled. You believe, and then the miracle happens.

3. God's nature

"Look up at the sky and count the stars." The heavens declare the glory of God (Ps 19:1). He knows each star by name (Ps 147:4). A limitless God does things that reveal who He is.

Sometimes we want God to improve three little things in our tent. But God doesn't give gifts our size: He gives gifts His size. When we give someone a gift, we give according to our reality. God gives according to His. He owns all the gold and all the silver.

Smallness isn't humility. And the greatness God promised Abraham was never about Abraham. It was so that all the families of the earth would be blessed through him (Gen 12:3), because Jesus would come from his line. What God does in your life is for His glory, not yours.

4. Capacity

Sarah said the Lord had kept her from having children (Gen 16:2). She looked at her own capacity. Eliezer was what they had. Hagar, the Egyptian servant, was what they could produce. That's how Ishmael was born.

Looking at reality isn't a sin. But trying to produce the promise in your own strength is sliding into the flesh. Paul teaches that Ishmael was born according to the flesh and Isaac according to the Spirit (Gal 4:23, 29). God's promise is for what is birthed in the Spirit.

When we plan the year, we often just multiply what we've already done. That's still looking from inside the tent. God doesn't just want to multiply your past. He wants to do something new. Eliezer is what you have, Ishmael is what you can make happen, but God wants to give you an Isaac, something you've never produced.

5. Transformation

At 99, when Ishmael was already 13, the Lord visited Abraham and promised that within a year Sarah would have a son. Sarah laughed. Where was she? Inside the tent (Gen 18:10-12). The things the Spirit speaks don't fit inside the tent.

Faith comes from hearing the Word of God (Rom 10:17), not from the miracle. Around that same time, at 99, God changed Abram's name, "exalted father," to Abraham, "father of many nations" (Gen 17:5), when he still didn't have the son of the promise. He became our father in the faith, the man who was looking forward to the city whose architect and builder is God (Heb 11:10).

Everything God does in our lives reveals who He is. And as we come to know who He is, we understand who we are in Him.

Conclusion

One word from God is enough to change your reality. He isn't doing the math before He blesses you. His measure is pressed down, shaken together, and running over (Luke 6:38), and it isn't just for you: it's for sharing.

What tent has been limiting your view, and what would happen if today you stepped out of it to look at the stars God wants to show you?