Canaan is Closer than you Think!

Don't you love the start of a brand new year? There is something wonderful about a new start, a fresh change and a new season. I know that in the wisdom of God, seasons emerged as a blessing to those of us who would walk through life, and would be ready for a new season. I like what Israel Houghton says about new seasons..."they are not relative to a calender of months and days, but revelation and insight." My prayer for you is that even as we enter into a new season chronologically, that you would also have a fresh sense of revelation, purpose and insight relative to your life and ministry! Recently, I was reading about the call of God upon Abraham's life to leave his father's country, to take his family and to fully follow the Lord in a new season of life and adventure.

Abraham was literally asked of the Lord to leave everything that he had known, the people that he had grown up with and the life that he was comfortable with. He was under a mandate to follow the Lord into a new land, full of unknowns with nothing but the promise of God upon his life.

If I may, please allow me to make a couple of observations that I think are particularly applicable to many situations that we encounter in today's world. It's interesting to me that In Genesis, chapter 11, we find Abraham's father (Terah) setting out with his family to head to Canaan. In verse 31, he made it to Haran and stopped there. In fact, it's where Terah would end up dying. After the death of his father, Abraham enters into a brand new season of opportunity, revelation and challenge. Haran literally means "to be scorched, charred, burnt, angry and dry." How many times have we ended up in places just like that? Obviously, Terah had a vision to get to Canaan, but he never made it. He ended up about 400 miles from his destination. In today's travel, he was only about 5 hours away! The trick of the enemy is to get us stuck in a place that is charred and scorched and to end up dry and angry. That was the possibility that Abraham faced, except for the word of the Lord over him and his willingness to obey God and follow Him into the unknown.

With the promise of blessing upon his life (by the way, you have that same promise of blessing upon you! Gal. 3:14), Abraham set out to finish the job that his father started. He was headed to Canaan! The root word for Canaan is "Kana", which means to submit and to be humble. Wow! God has already released a blessing of promise upon Abraham, but in order for him to experience the fullness of the promise, he is going to have to walk humbly before God and submit to Him even when He doesn't understand all that is being asked of him. Abraham would discover a life of faith that would lead him into unexpected blessings and opportunities to bless multitudes. In fact, they were still talking about it way over in the New Testament and even in today's circles, we talk about the life of Abraham!

You might be in a place that you would define as Haran! Maybe you have begun this new season and it doesn't feel like a new season at all...it just feels like you're beating the same old drum, with just another chronological date attached to it. I'm here to tell you that God is calling you out of Haran! He may not be calling you to a different locale, but He is calling you out of a dry and angry season. He is calling you to a life of humbly submitting to His word over you, even if you don't fully understand it. You are a person of promise and a person of blessing and God has an amazing future for you. It may mean that you have to walk away from the things that you are comfortable with. Many times, my own comfort zone is what causes me the greatest amount of hindrance in my life. I must be open to new and fresh ways of doing things and to allowing God to bring new people into my life. My prayer for you in this new season is that you would come into a new revelation and a new insight into the calling and purposes of God for you and the ministry to which He has called you. There are multitudes of families that are waiting for you to walk into the realization of the blessing that is upon you. It's closer than you think and you are the anointed of God for this season and His favor surrounds you on every side even as a shield! God is for you, NOT against you!