Listening For Life (Part Four)

What are we listening for when we commune with God? The Bible tells us that if we will lean into Him, we will "hear and we will live". We can live because He wants all who come to Him to receive covenant promises that are to be received, experienced and outworked through all generations. Paul reminded a young Timothy to remember the faith that was seen in his grandmother and then his mother. He urged Timothy to lay hold of the promises of God for himself.


Generational blessings are accompanied by the covenant promises of God. When God spoke the promise to Abraham in Gen. 12:2 that "you shall be a blessing...and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed", He also spoke the same promise to Isaac and then to Jacob. What is remarkable about generational blessing, is that the Abrahamic promises are not dependent upon human performance. They happen because God is ever faithful to His Word and moreover is fully satisfied with the performance of His own Son.


What is required of us, is not so much our performance but our faith. Abraham, "by faith dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country..." (Heb.11:9) The believer dwells in the finished work of Christ and can therefore receive by faith in His finished work even though he lives in a "foreign country", surrounded by challenge and even unbelief. We also need to be "fully convinced that what He has promised He will perform" (Rom.4:21) Our job is to confess what He has already performed through Christ. For example, I can confess that He is my peace because He has already brokered peace. My outside world maybe the antipathy of peace but my inside world is at peace because He dwells in me!!


The believer's job is to identify with the new covenant which is the "better covenant". It is better because its promises do not depend upon my performance . Under the terms of the old covenant, the law would measure my performance but it could never change me for good. "The promise that he (Abraham) would be heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law but through the righteousness of faith. For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect..." (Rom.4;13-15) In fact the opposite to faith is the law! Are we listening by law or by faith?


Finally, Jesus said that "This cup is the new covenant in My blood which is shed for you" (Lk.22:20)
New covenant promises are sealed by the blood of Jesus. When we eat and drink, we are celebrating all that He has done. This is the worthy manner by which we are to eat and drink. We put faith in His body so that we experience healing and well being. Under the old covenant the believer was ever conscious of his shortfall but under the new covenant, the believer is to be ever conscious and thankful that he is now the beneficiary as well as the bearer of His finished work!


 "Incline your ear and come to Me. Hear and your soul will live and I will make an everlasting covenant with you..."














This blog is based on a message, called Listening For Life (Part Four), given by Ross Smith at The Vine Church, Logan City, Springwood, Queensland , Australia on 24th January 2016. The full message can be accessed by podcast from www.thevine.org.au/teaching.