Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.

Genesis 15:6

Abraham believed, and God called it righteousness in him.  This is the basis of our justification in the cross of Christ, for it is by faith that we have access to this Grace called Calvary (Romans 5:2).  Without faith, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6), for one must first believe that God is, and that He rewards those that diligently pursue Him.

This is the picture of faith.  When Abraham, then Abram, heard God speak, and God showed Him the stars in the sky and that his descendants would be like unto them in number (Genesis 15:6), he took God at His word.  Later, when Abraham was told to sacrifice his one and only true heir, Abraham believed that God could raise him back from the dead (Hebrews 11:19).  Faith saw the promise of God’s word, and grabbed a hold.

There is something different when God speaks.  It is not a mere word, it is a spiritual thing.  When you believe in that word, something supernatural happens every time, as God does not need to speak according to the pattern of the existing world for something of Him to come about.

Faith is the substance of the thing hoped for (Hebrews 11:1). Abraham 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 (Romans 4:18 KJV, portion).  Despite everything looking exactly the opposite, and continuing on that way for a span of over 10 years or more (Ishmael was said to be around 13 when Isaac was born), and despite all hope apparently disappointing, Abraham continued to believe.

You can’t actually have faith in something that isn’t real.  If what you think is faith is in something that is false, it is always different.  Faith is the substance of what is hoped for.  That which is hoped for is called hope, and when you hold the spiritual substance, or underlying nature of the thing that you hoped for, which is what substance means, then that is what Faith is.  Because having the thing in faith is to have the thing for real, even if it is yet unseen.

This is true of believing for something tangible that you can touch, but it also true of any word spoken by God.

Consider the promise, “So shall thy seed be.”  This was the promise.  This certainly had been a hope of Abraham, that at least he could have an heir and that his lineage might not pass away.  This is the passion of every man with the heart of a father, unless for some reason God has chosen another path form them.  To have a family, and to be able to pass on yourself, along with your name, your skills, your knowledge, your life, is of great importance to any man past the age of 20 or so.

Yet, Abraham was frustrated.  Although it would be centuries before Solomon wrote it down, Abraham probably felt the proverb, “Hope deferred makes the heart grow sick.” (Proverbs 13:12).  To have a wife well beyond child-bearing years, and himself nearly dead as he thought, must have been a most crushing weight at times to think about it.

Yet, despite the years, and despite the time, and despite the mistakes along the way even after the promise, God had promised him a family line, because God had chosen him.

When God makes a promise, we know that it is Eternal.  Yet, we also see another pattern through the scriptures that promises must be received and mixed with faith (Hebrews 4:2).  Because of their unbelief, the children of Israel in the desert fell in the wilderness.  Not having believed the promises of God, God said they would not enter His rest.  Yet, as Paul put it, there remains yet a Sabbath rest for God’s people, by faith (Hebrews 4:9).

Faith is that spiritual substance.  Although Abraham might not have been able to grasp the shape, the vastness, the multitude, he caught the substance of the words, and the word was enough.  Against all hope, Abraham believed in hope, and so became the Father of many nations.  What the Lord had promised, He is even yet today fulfilling in the Jewish people.

Yet for us, today, who continue to hear His voice, we hear His words and truth, and we must with softened heart believe Him.  We must believe Him, because in His voice is something different than another.  Hearing His voice is to find a treasure worth selling all for.

Whether we see something of God, or merely hear a Word, it is enough.  Any word from His lips, mixed with any amount of undiluted faith, always brings forth the miraculous results of heaven.

You see, Abraham was our father of faith.  He heard God speak.  It is only if you hear God speak, whether through the written word or in your own heart that you can believe Him.  When you hear His Word, you see Jesus, who is the Word.  You see His character, His nature, His unrevealed self.  You see His presence, and you become a partaker of God’s divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).

Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God

John 1:12

To those who, like Abraham, hear His Word, Jesus Christ, and believe, salvation comes, deliverance comes, healing comes.  To those who, like Abraham, only see a crude picture, and despite the intervening years, despite the pain and the loneliness even caused by the Word itself, yet still believe, past all hope, God has attributed it to them as righteousness.

There is something about being believed that conveys respect.  There is something about being taken at face value that is right, even for a person.  And, all the more so when you are Truth itself.

Abraham’s faith stretched far beyond what He could see, forward through the three or four thousands years since his life on this earth, and into the future.  His nation is still a mighty nation in the Earth, and is the central part of God’s continuing plan.    Even the Messiah, Jesus, came through him because he believed.

He had to wait.  He had to endure, but we will reap if we faint not (Galatians 6:9).

He is the pattern of faith to us all.  We must hold onto that word when we hear it, and never let it go.