Bless All the Nations

6/2/1996

I recently heard a man speaking about Abraham and the call that God had for him to sacrifice his son. This man said that we shouldn’t be worried about our being satisfied but we should be worried about God being satisfied. When he got his son Isaac, Abraham was satisfied. But it wasn’t until Abraham was willing to die to his desires and come to a sanctification, a giving away, an abandonment of his life and all the things God had given him…it wasn’t until he was willing to sacrifice Isaac that God was satisfied. Because what was God after? Making Abraham happy? No, God wasn’t after making Abraham happy. God was after blessing every tribe and tongue! That was what the Promise was about. He wasn’t just trying to bless Abraham, but He wanted to bless all the nations of the earth through Abraham.

If Abraham wouldn’t cooperate, then God couldn’t bless all the nations of the earth through Abraham, could He? Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice himself and let go of himself (which is what he did when he sacrificed Isaac), was what satisfied the Father. Because only through that act, the scriptures say, could God bless the nations through Abraham.

Again, Abraham was empowered by his willingness to abandon himself. He was empowered to the extent that his life could bless all the nations of the earth. It was only because he abandoned himself into the Father’s will, which was quite a costly, extravagant, and excruciatingly painful thing that God called him to do. Certainly beyond anything any of us have ever been called to do. And yet it was only then that God could bless all the nations of the earth. God’s satisfaction was dependent on Abraham’s choice to sacrifice a part of himself in Isaac.

I want us to ponder the fact that God wants to bless the nations of the earth through your life and through our lives. I just want us to have that kind of mindset. Don’t think about yourself and what could make you happy and what could satisfy you. Think about what will satisfy God! It’s not just your obedience that satisfies God. That does make Him happy, but He wants to bless the nations of the earth through your life and our lives. He can’t do that unless we sanctify ourselves and pass these tests of giving away our very life as He called Abraham to do.

Our satisfying God only happens when He has blessed the nations of the earth through us. And He can’t empower us with the power of His Son unless we empty ourselves, make ourselves nothing and become wet clay in His hands. So consider the bigger picture here. He wants to bless the nations of the earth through each and all of us and He can’t do that if you won’t abandon yourself. He wants to bear much fruit, but if the seed won’t fall to the ground and die, it abides alone, as John 12:24 says. That seed won’t bless the nations of the earth. For those that will die however, it bears much fruit. Ponder all of that—the meaning of suffering and its enlarging and deepening and refining and equipping aspects, and then respond correctly to that. The beauty of that process is phenomenal.

No place else on earth but in Christianity will you understand the mind of God and the place of suffering as being a friend and not an enemy. “You meant this for my harm, but God meant it for good.” The terrible act of Joseph being thrown into a pit by his own brothers ended up meaning the redemption of multitudes. The redemption of multitudes then ended up in four hundred years of slavery. So you might say, “They were redeemed but then they were enslaved so did it really work?” Well, then Moses set the captives free and delivered them into the Promised Land. The whole flow of how God does His business involves cycles of suffering and cycles of choices that God has sovereignly made and involves our willingness to be obedient to Him.

In that short span of time in Hebrews 2 and 3, you can see four or five times, the value of even Jesus Himself suffering. If Jesus can suffer and be enlarged by it and be equipped by it and be brought into supernatural resurrection power by it—why not us? Why do we have to fight it? Why do we have to kick and scratch and scream? It’s hard to kick at the goads anyway. We’re not going to be happy when we’re fighting God, having clenched fists and fussing and fuming.

I personally can think of at least 10 things that are happening right now in different people’s lives where these things we’ve been talking about apply very, very directly. And if we were to take a poll in here and write them on the wall one by one, there are probably 200 or more additional things that are exactly what we’re talking about. Maybe just a few people closest to you know about it. In any case, these things are very, very true, and if you won’t embrace them you will die in mediocrity, and that would really be a shame. Your life is already short. It withers like the grass and the flower and it vanishes like the vapor. It’s already short. Let’s make the most of it and use it to bless the nations rather than to die alone.

Change your thoughts to embrace God’s way of equipping you in supernatural ways. Quit whining about it or backing away from it or trying to put it out of your mind if those are things you’re inclined to do. The way to find God isn’t to steel yourself to it or resist it with a fury or a vengeance. That isn’t the way to find God. Few will be those who find the supernatural quality of life. There is no reason we all can’t be amongst those few, because now you understand. If you didn’t understand God’s mind about it before, you do now. So now you can choose to have the right attitude, if you are willing, for Jesus’ sake, and to bless the nations.