I have wanted to do a study of the Promises of God for quite a while and last weekend while listening to a livestream of a Going Beyond conference, I heard Priscilla Shirer mention that there are 8,810 promises of God in scripture. I started doing a little study on the promises of God and I discovered that there are some promises that are conditional and some that are unconditional. There are also places in scripture that God grants favor which is not necessarily a promise but just what it says it is favor. So for the next few weeks I want to look at some of the promises of God, unconditional and conditional and we will also look at people who asked God for favor and some got it, and some didn’t get what they asked for and what were their responses.
Some promises were to people in the Bible which have already been fulfilled. We have a lot to learn from these promises. We can be encouraged by them that when God says something He does it, he fulfills it. Some are ours for the taking as children of God. The blessings are still there for us. Some promises are conditional. They are ours for the taking, but they do require action on our part.
I want to start with some unconditional promises of God. I am not sure where this study will lead us exactly but I am looking forward to learning from it. While studying about unconditional promises one of the first ones that was mentioned on almost every article I read was this promise of God to Abraham.
“And the angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, ‘By myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.’” Genesis 22:15-18
Now some may argue that this would be a conditional promise but while this promise does rest on what Abraham had done and believed, there were no future requirements of him to receive the promise God was making to him. The language here to pay attention to is “I will surely bless you” and “I will surely multiply your offspring”. Abraham was set to receive the blessing from God based on God’s word. Abraham had been obedient in preparing to sacrifice Isaac, but he had no further requirements to receive the promise of God’s future blessing. God was making him a promise of future blessings and that he would multiply Abraham’s offspring. And from that promise came the nation of Israel but also Jesus came from the lineage of Abraham.
We know that Israel is God’s chosen nation and His chosen people right. But we also know that we have been adopted into the family of God because of what Jesus did for us on the cross. We are heirs of this blessing because of our adoption!
“This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 3:6
God had also, before this promise, made a promise to Abraham back a few chapters.
“No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.” Genesis 17:5
There you have it. The promises God made to Abraham have been fulfilled through the nation of Israel which came from Abraham’s lineage but also have been fulfilled for us as being adopted into the family of God by Jesus. We don’t have to do anything further for this promise to be fulfilled, it already has been. We are heirs with Christ and therefore we receive the blessing of being a part of the family. We have a birthright because God promised it so many years ago to Abraham! That’s the first promise we can stand on!
Restore 