Judah Smith spoke at the 2008 Hillsong Conference. One of the things he pointed out was our response to God. In Genesis, before getting to chapter 15, God had already made a promise to Abram, giving him and his descendants all the land he could see in all directions. Chapter 15 starts out by saying, "After this." After the things that God had promised and shown to Abram, after all that, Abram still said to God, "You haven't given me what I wanted, how I wanted, when I wanted it, in the package I wanted it...So what can you do for me."
Abram's statement seems like a pretty dangerous coming from one made from dirt to the Creator of the universe and all that is in it. But isn't that what we all do? Don't we look at our circumstances, forgetting everything that God did for us in the past years, months, weeks, days, and hours, seeing only what is ahead of us, we complain and whine. And when we do, God says to us, as He said to Abram, "Do not be afraid...I am your shield, your very great reward," (v 1). But to Him we answer sarcastically, "Great. Goody...so what." In his teaching, Judah Smith says that often, we can't see beyond our circumstances because we are looking at heaven from our earthly perspective. He said we need to look at earth from a heavenly perspective. Think about it this way: Can an ant see as far and wide as an elephant sees? No. If the ant is given the same perspective as the elephant, could he see it then? Yes. And we can, too. Far too often, we look at the world through our flesh and blood human eyes. If we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us, we no longer have to look at the world that way. If we will but ask the Holy Spirit to help us see things through God's eyes, from His perspective, I bet we'd complain less, pray more, love more, have more compassion, and be much more effective. Why? Because once the ant has the elephant's perspective, he won't go back to taking the long way around, following the crowd, standing in line whining and complaining about his opinion of what's fair. Instead, he'll take the smartest route to get the desired result.
That's exactly what God did with Abram. He took him outside of his ant perspective, and gave him the vast view from the top of the elephant. "Then He brought him outside and said, 'Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.' And He said to him, 'So shall your descendants be,'" (Genesis 15:5). Sometimes we have to be pulled "outside," outside our circumstances, outside our field of vision, if we are to grab hold of the things that God wants to do in our lives. Where in your life is God saying to you, "Do not be afraid; I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward; look now and see everything that I want to give you as a blessing"?
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be the glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever, amen. ~ Ephesians 3:20-21
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