The Inspired Moment the Inspired Walk

I'd like to begin by reading from Genesis chapter 15, starting at verse 1. After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. Fear not, Abram, I am your shield and your exceedingly great reward. But Abram said, O Lord God, what wilt thou give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus? And behold, thou hast given me no offspring, and a slave born in my house will be my heir.

And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, This man shall not be your heir, your own son shall be your heir. And he brought him outside and said, Look toward the heaven, number the stars, if you are able to number them. Then he said to him, So shall your descendants be.

And he believed the Lord, and he reckoned it to him as righteousness. Now we read a passage like this, and we say to ourselves, Abraham was lucky. I mean, God spoke to him, came to him in a dream, took him out and showed him the stars, gave him a promise.

Abram got clear revelation. Now if we got clear revelation, we could believe like he did. Now this thing which happened to Abraham that night, when God spoke to him and promised him a son, and children as numerous as the stars, descendants, could be called an inspired moment.

A brief encounter during which Abraham saw things and heard things and understood things which he knew came to him from the unseen God. Now this inspired moment that Abraham experienced was really no different from the inspired moments that most of us have had. Most of us have had them, and if we haven't, we will.

Revelation comes to anybody. Revelation comes to absolutely anybody who seriously seeks God. Everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds.

And to him who knocks it will be opened. I'm talking about those encounters with the Spirit of God in which you know that God spoke to you. It may be a thought that comes through our mind, a word that somebody speaks, a passage of scriptures that's quickened to us, a coincidence at work, an unusual dream, something that happens to us in which we know was contained a promise from God to us, or a word from God, or a command from God.

During that inspired moment, we know God spoke to us. Now the thing about Abraham was that the life he lived between the inspired moments was an inspired walk. With several exceptions which scripture makes no attempt to hide, Abraham took the light that came to him in those special moments and he lived in that light.

Abraham believed God and was reckoned to him as righteousness, meaning he took that word which was given to him in the special moment and he lived in that word during the ordinary days. And thus he transformed the ordinary days, brought the glory of God down into his ordinary walk. We are inclined to rejoice in those special moments, those inspired moments.

Talk about them with our friends, remember them, write them down. But the life we live during the dull days tends to be dull, uninspired, often faithless. Lord, give me some more inspiration, I'm getting depressed.

And the Lord said, walk in the light I already gave you. Do something with the word I already spoke to you and every day of your ordinary life will be inspired. Now we need to learn from Abraham two clear lessons.

First, we need to learn to recognize the inspired moment when it comes. And second, we need to take the glory of the inspired moment and bring it down into our daily walk. First we need to recognize the inspired moment when it comes.

Many times God in some wonderful way draws near to us and speaks a clear word. And the Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men stood in front of him.

When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth and said, My Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by since you have come to your servant. So they said, Do as you have said. And Abraham hastened to the tent, to Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal.

And Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant who hastened to prepare it. Then he took the curds and milk and the calf which he had prepared before them, and he stood by them under the tree. He could have said, What do you guys want? What are you doing wandering around here in the wilderness in the heat of the day? But this man was so hungry for God that he was able to recognize when he was in the presence of the Holy.

So he jumped up and ran to them and bowed down before them and welcomed them. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall recognize the messengers of God when they come.

They didn't have shiny faces. They didn't have wings sticking out their backs. They were ordinary looking men.

But this man, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall recognize the voice of God. Where is Sarah, your wife? He said, She's in the tent. The Lord said, I will surely return to you in the spring, and Sarah, your wife, shall have a son.

And Sarah was listening at the door of the tent behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age, and it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, After I've grown old and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure? And the Lord said to Abraham, Why did Sarah laugh? And said, Shall I indeed bear a child now that I'm old? Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time, I shall return in the spring, and Sarah shall have a son.

At the appointed time, I'm going to return, and your wife Sarah is going to have a son. Is anything too hard for me? Now when this happens, Abraham grabs it. He takes hold of that special, that inspired moment.

He welcomes it. Every time Jesus walked into a village, every time he sat down and talked with somebody, he brought an inspired word from God. There were those who received it, who stopped everything and listened, and worshipped, and yielded.

And there were many who were just too busy with their own program, often too busy with their own religious program, to stop and hear what this man Jesus is saying, and bow before him, and submit to the glory that's coming. In contrast, we see again, Peter, throwing himself down at Jesus' knees in a fishing boat. Depart from me, I'm a sinful man, O Lord.

But it was a beginning of worship for Peter. He was taking hold of and welcoming an inspired moment. Or these two disciples on the road to Emmaus, they start talking with this stranger, and as they break bread with him in Emmaus in the evening, their eyes are open to him.

And they welcome that glory. We need to learn to do that. I mean, this inspired moment will often happen when we gather together like this, in the name of the Lord.

Something happens during the singing of a hymn. Or a word is spoken by somebody in the flock. Or as we're eating the bread, a burden lifts.

An answer comes. A fear evaporates. Sometimes it happens when two or three are gathered in somebody's house, or when we're alone.

Sometimes out of the mouth of a complete stranger comes a word which we know. May God give us the purity of heart, the hunger and the thirst for Him that enables us to grab hold of that thing when it comes, and not miss it. Now, the second lesson we need to learn from Abram is to take the glory of that inspired moment and bring it down into our daily walk.

The inspired moment is a gift from God. The inspired walk is our thanks offering back to God. And see, if I take the gift and I don't do anything about it, it doesn't really do me much good.

Reading now from Genesis 17, starting at verse 1. When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said, I am God Almighty, El Shaddai. Walk before me and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.

Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. I am El Shaddai, the Providing God, the Breasted God, the God... Walk before me, walk the walk of faith, live the life of faith, and you will be blameless.

No longer shall your name be Abram, which means exalted father, when a guy has no kids. But your name shall be Abraham, father of a multitude. For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.

I will make you exceedingly fruitful. And I will make nations of you, and kings shall come forth from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your descendants after you, I am El Shaddai, the Almighty God.

Walk before me, that is, live in my presence, live the life of faith. Which for Abraham means, live by faith in every day of your life, in every area of your life. Allowing faith in God to rule, for instance, his relationship with Sarah.

Allowing faith in God to direct his relationship with his servants, the way he deals with his servants, the way he looks out for his impulsive nephew, Lot, the way he raises his son, Isaac. All these things are governed by this man, passionate faith in the living God, El Shaddai. I am El Shaddai, walk before me.

Take the glory that I give you here, and translate it into daily living. Pour out in your daily living, the grace that I give you here on the mountaintop. Now that's exactly how we live, when we follow Jesus.

That's exactly the life he's calling us to live. And we hear Paul talking about this in Galatians chapter 2, verse 20. Paul says, I have been crucified, it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

That much of that verse is a statement of faith, see, but that statement of faith now has to be translated into living. And so the verse continues, and the life I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

The life I now live in the flesh, in the real world of buying and selling and working. And so now my faith comes in, to the marketplace, into the bedroom, into the kitchen, into everything I do. Jesus says to us, his disciples, exactly what the Father said to Abraham.

I am El Shaddai, the God who is with you, the God who takes care of you. Walk before me and be blameless. Take the grace that I give you, when you gather in my name, when you eat my flesh and drink my blood, when you pray to me, take that and translate that into living.

Take my name with you, down into the valley. Take my spirit with you, out into the wilderness, and you will be blameless. About a week.

So I pull it out, repair the lock more or less. So I pull that one out, bend the thing a little bit so it stays, and more epoxy. Glad we had that epoxy there.

Doesn't look the best, but it works. After I turned the porch light, I'm lying there thinking, what are they going to do tonight? And it was like almost audible. Psalm 127 comes bingo, except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

It is vain for you to, no matter what, maybe the place, and so this applies to us. Okay, now the same thing applies, for instance, things are going rough at work. Walk before me.

Practice my presence. Know that I am with you there, and you will be blameless. Your walk will be inspired.

Things aren't the way you wish they had been or would be. You're walking around with a wound that some Christian inflicted on you perhaps. Walk before me.

Get your eye off the wound. Know that I am with you. Walk before me, and you will be blameless, and your walk will be inspired.

And so what Jesus said, now the 11 disciples went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth shall be there for and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, all the day, even to the end of the age.

So we take the promise down from the mountaintop. We hold on to that promise as we go through the routines of actual daily flesh and blood living. The promise, there is no temptation and there is no trial and there is no obstacle that will not give way to the glory of the Lord.

When we hold on to that promise that Jesus said, walk before me, know that I am with you, and every day of your life will be transformed by me. The hardest day, the darkest day, the dullest day will be transformed by me, says the Lord. Into a foretaste of the coming glory.

Let's just wait upon him now and just practice his presence as we wait before him in silence.