Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, "Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?" And Abraham said to God, "If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!" -Genesis 17:17, 18
When God gives us a vision, and we accept it, we are then empowered to move forward in faith. A vision from God keeps us moving onward when we might otherwise have given up. God can place vision upon our hearts that on the surface looks impossible, but through that vision we are provided with hope – hope that comes only from the Lord. If I were to ask how many of us believe that God can do the impossible, I would hope that all of us would lift our hands in agreement with that statement. God cannot only do the impossible, but He will do the impossible through us. When we begin to delve deeply into God’s Word we find that time and time again God placed before His servants a vision that probably seemed to them to be impossible. Some of them even told the Lord as much.
When God told Abraham that he and his wife Sarah would have a child in their advanced age, Abraham said this; “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!” (Genesis 17:18). God had just confronted Abraham again with a powerful and wonderful vision; your descendants are going to be more numerous than the sand on the seashore and the stars in the sky. Abraham looked at that, he looked at his age, his wife’s age, and in so many words asked God this: "Wouldn’t it make more sense to do this the easy way? I already have the son I had with my servant girl; why not make him the child of promise?" Let me pose a question in response: Since when has God ever done things the easy way, and since when does God allow His followers to try and accomplish His will in some easy discounted manner? God doesn’t operate that way and He never has. The easy way requires no faith. But accomplishing God’s will His way requires that we trust Him and live by faith. A vision from God has a way of reminding us of that.
Anytime God provides a vision He always empowers us to see it through to completion. The question is, will we trust God and believe even when the vision seems impossible? Victorious faith does not waver and does not doubt God, even when it all seems impossible.
