Abraham’s obedience was promoted by his faith! Because he believed God he was able to hope when, in the natural, there was no hope that he would become the father of many nations. He didn’t consider his own body, even though naturally speaking it was too old to produce children. Or that Sarah was not only past childbearing age, but also that she had never been able to bear children.

But God gave Abraham a promise. God made a covenant with him and that is what Abraham believed. In other words, Abraham didn’t believe what he saw, but he believed what God said. The Word says he did not “stagger at the promise of God.” He did not give place to unbelief. He was strong in faith and fully persuaded that God was able to perform what He had promised.

Throughout his life, God appeared to Abraham at different times and told him exactly what to do. Genesis 17:1-2 says:

And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect [upright]. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.

So Abraham obeyed God’s voice and followed His directions. The following passage from The Amplified Bible is a picture of Abraham’s total obedience to the Father:

[Urged on] by faith Abraham when he was called, obeyed and went forth to a place which he was destined to receive as an inheritance; and he went, although he did not know or trouble his mind about where he was to go. [Prompted] by faith he dwelt as a temporary resident in the land which was designated in the promise [of God, though he was as a stranger] in a strange country, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs with him of the same promise. For he was waiting expectantly and confidently, looking forward to the city which has fixed and firm foundations, whose Architect and Builder is God (Hebrews 11:8-10, The Amplified Bible).

By the supernatural power of God Sarah bore Abraham a son named Isaac. God gave Abraham the ultimate test as a father: to offer up his son Isaac on the altar. Look at this through Abraham’s eyes for a moment. Isaac was the son through whom he was to be the father of many nations. How could he do it? There was only one way—by faith.

By faith Abraham, when he was put to the test—that is, while the testing of his faith was still in progress—had already brought Isaac for an offering; he who had gladly received and welcomed [God’s] promises was ready to sacrifice his only son, of whom it was said, Through Isaac shall your descendants be reckoned. For he reasoned that God was able to raise [him] up even from among the dead. Indeed in the sense that Isaac was figuratively dead (potentially sacrificed), he did [actually] receive him back from the dead (Hebrews 11:17-19, The Amplified Bible).

Gloria Copeland

Faith is believing God’s Word enough to act on it. James 2:26 says, “…faith without works is dead also.” Weymouth says, “For just as a human body without a spirit is lifeless, so also faith is lifeless without obedience.” Faith is acting on God’s Word.

Abraham is a great example of obedience and faith. In Genesis 12:1, God told Abraham to get out of his country and go away from his relatives to a land that He would show him:

Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing.

Verse 4 of this chapter then says, “So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him….”

When the Lord told Abraham that he would have seed as numerous as the stars, the Bible says, “And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). Abraham and Sarah had never been able to have children, even in their youth. The same day God promised him seed, He made a covenant with Abraham (whose name at the time was Abram) declaring “unto thy seed have I given this land…” (Genesis 15:18).

Later God changed his name from Abram to Abraham which meant “father of many nations.” Therefore, every time Abraham declared his new name saying, “I am Abraham,” he was declaring, “I am the father of many nations!”

Isaac was the result of Abraham’s believing what God said to him, even though it was a natural impossibility for him to have a son. Romans 4:3 says, “…Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness.”

For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all, (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform (Romans 4:13, 16-21).

Gloria Copeland

God has always desired a people who would choose to walk with Him—to follow Him and to come into agreement with Himin the earth.

Generation after generation He has desired a people He could elevate to such a place that all the nations of the world would know they were the ones He had blessed.

But there has always been a problem. It existed in the Garden of Eden and was in the children of Israel in the wilderness. To a great extent, it’s in the Church today. The problem? Disobedient people.

Under the old covenant, the people had to be obedient by keeping the Law diligently, with their souls—their minds, wills and emotions.

Under the new covenant, we’re to keep God’s Word not only with our souls, but with our hearts (our spirits). It’s so much easier for us to be obedient to God than it was for them because we have a new heart, born again in the image and nature of God.

More than ever, we should be obedient to Him because now we don’t have to walk according to Old Testament law, but in newness of our born-again spirits. We’ve been reborn to be obedient.

While we’re here on the earth, we must do what we can for God. This includes being obedient and victorious in every area of our lives.

Jesus knew this when He was a man on the earth. He was raised among people who knew they had to obey the voice of God and keep His statutes. He learned what the prophets of God before Him had said, and began a walk of perfect obedience.

Gloria Copeland

Understand this, though. When I say hope, I’m not talking about the weak, wishful thinking kind of attitude most people call hope. Real, Bible hope isn’t a wish. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for….” There’s no room for faith in wishing! For example, take the statement, “I sure do wish God would bless me financially.” There’s no place in that statement for faith. It just won’t plug in anywhere.

The Apostle Paul said in Philippians 1:20, “According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed….” If you’ll look up the two Greek words translated earnest expectation and hope, you’ll find they’re two different words that both mean the same thing. So hope is earnest expectation.

There’s plenty of room for faith in earnest expectation. Say, for instance, “I earnestly expect to receive financial blessings. I earnestly expect to be free from poverty.” Faith can plug right into that statement. It just follows naturally. Faith becomes the substance of that statement.

Someone might ask, “How can you so intensely expect to prosper when the unemployment rate is up and the economy is down?” You can answer, “What I’m earnestly expecting isn’t dependent on the world’s economy. It’s based on what God has promised in His covenant. Because He said it, I earnestly expect it!”

Can you hear the faith in those words? Certainly! Real, Bible hope just opens the door so faith can walk right in!

Why don’t we see more of that kind of hope in the Body of Christ? Because it is born out of the promises of God’s covenant. And most Christians are using their believing faculties to believe in some sort of religious system that men have designed instead of believing the Word of God. Despite the fact that they’re born again with the seed of hope inside them, baptized in the Holy Spirit and walking around with a Bible tucked under their arm, they’ve become strangers to the covenants of promise.

You can tell those folks that 2 Corinthians 8:9 says Jesus became poor so we might be rich and they’ll answer, “Oh, yes, amen. I know it says that, brother. But I just don’t know whether to take the Bible literally or not.”

The reason they don’t know whether or not to take the Bible literally is because they’re not spending any time in the Word as a covenant. That’s what the word testament means. Did you know that? The New Testament is the new covenant! It’s not some kind of religious book. It’s God’s will and testament written down. It’s a covenant of promise God’s blood-sworn oath.

I want you to imagine for a moment that you made a blood covenant with someone. You both cut your wrists, bound your hands together, mixed your blood and swore an oath to each other in your own blood. That would be serious, wouldn’t it?

You know it would! But you have a covenant even more serious than that with Almighty God. It’s a covenant ratified not by the tainted blood of a sinful man, but by the sinless blood of Jesus.

I’ve meditated on that fact until it’s real to me. So when I pick up the New Testament, I’m not just reading a history book. I’m reading a copy of God’s will and testament and in my mind, I have Jesus by the hand and His blood is flowing down my wrist. Once you get a revelation like that, hope is no problem!

Gloria Copeland