“Meanwhile, the people of Israel settled in the region of Goshen in Egypt. There they acquired property, and they were fruitful, and their population grew rapidly.”
Genesis 47:27 (NLT)
• Covenant children prosper, blossom, wherever God instructed them to go (Genesis 46:2-4).
- If you are in partnership with God, all things will work for your good, even what the enemy meant for evil (Romans 8:28).
- The Israelites settled at Goshen in Egypt, they began to prosper there, and their population grew rapidly because God’s Presence was with them.
- Where you are as a covenant child does not matter, what does matter is: whether or not God has sent you there and His Presence is with you.
- The reason why the people of Israel prospered in the strange land, Goshen in Egypt, is because God told Jacob to go.
- “Then God spoke to Israel in the visions of the night, and said, “Jacob, Jacob!”
And he said, “Here I am.” - So He said, “I am God, the God of your father; DO NOT FEAR TO GO DOWN TO EGYPT, for I will make of you a great nation there.
- I will go down with you to Egypt…”
Genesis 46:2-4 (NKJV)
• The God who has been my Shepherd [Psalm 23:1]!
- Has this God been your Shepherd?
- Are you walking before this God?
- Has God been leading you in all your affairs?
- “The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked [in faithful obedience],
THE GOD WHO HAS BEEN MY SHEPHERD [leading and caring for me] all my life to this day, - The Angel [that is, the Lord Himself] who has redeemed me [continually] from all evil…”
Genesis 48:15,16 (Amp.)
• Jacob in his walk with God had series of encounters with Him (Genesis 28:10-17; 31:11-13; 32:24-30).
- Without personal encounters with God, you may not be deep in Him, that is, in your relationship with Him (1 Corinthians 9:1; 15:8; 2 Corinthians 12:1-4).
“Therefore… let us go on to perfection [maturity]…”
Hebrews 6:1 (NKJV) - Go beyond church attendance, endeavor to have encounters with God.
• When will this God be your God?
- “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob…”
Exodus 3:15 (NKJV)
- God wants your name to be added to the list of those who walked with Him and cut a covenant with Him.
- The people of Israel prospered in the land of Goshen in Egypt because the LORD was their God.
• The God of heaven will cut a covenant with you through obedience, and when you allow Him to shepherd you.
- You need to know this God personally and intimately.Go beyond your father’s faith.
- Isaac serves God, relates with God personally, he knew this God experientially. He did not serve God to please his father—Abraham. He had a personal encounter with God, he understood Him and walked with Him intimately, and likewise Jacob. The God became their God.
- Your parent’s faith is not enough. You need to experience this God by yourself.
- Their faith can only take you for a while, it cannot take you through the journeys of life.
- Your spouse’s faith is also not enough, know God personally and intimately.
- Do not serve God because you want to please someone: parents, spouse, family, friend or whomever.
• You need to develop a personal faith in this God.
- You establish a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, by accepting Him as your personal Lord and Saviour (John 14:6,9; Romans 4:25; 10:9-11).
- Having Jesus in your life gives you an access to God, the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:15,16).
- Shift your focus from man, let your focus be on God, to meet your needs (Hebrews 12:2).
- God is closer to you than you think, He lives on the inside of you in the person of the Holy Spirit—if you are born again (Deuteronomy 30:14; Romans 8:14; 10:8; 1 Corinthians 2:12).
- What bothers your heart should be communicated to God in prayer (Philippians 4:6,7).
• Jesus said:“And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you"(John 16:23).
- Stop seeing man as your help, let your focus be on God; He is the present help in trouble (Psalm 46:1).
- If you take a step to seek God, to know Him intimately, He will reveal Himself to you, to meet your needs.
- As you experience God’s faithfulness, your faith in Him becomes stronger and your trust in Him gets deeper.
- If you continue in your fellowship with Him, that is, sharing your needs and bothersome matters with Him, you begin to climb higher in the ladder of faith.
- God is waiting to build a strong, and lasting relationship–fellowship and communion–with you.
• If you allow this God to shepherd you as He did Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; you will not want and He will lead you, care for you, all your life (Genesis 48:15).
- “The LORD is my SHEPHERD; I shall NOT WANT.
- He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He LEADS me beside the STILL WATERS [water of rest].
3 He RESTORES my SOUL; He LEADS me in the paths of RIGHTEOUSNESS for His name’s sake.”
Psalm 23:1-3 (NKJV)
• You will not fail in Jesus’ name.
Peace!