The Unfulfilled Promises

Sunday, September 21, 2009

Are you most like people that have unfilled dreams, visions, and promises? Maybe you have given up on the expectation that you will ever receive them? In the fourth chapter of Hebrews, the writer speaks about the “remaining promises” that God had for Israel and why she had not “entered into” their fulfillment.

What’s keeping you from seeing your “unfulfilled promises” come to pass in your life? Yes, it may be the sovereign hand of God who may be testing or teaching you through a “wilderness” experience of unanswered prayer and promises. Israel wandered 40 years, instead of 40 days, for clearly revealed reasons. Maybe you haven’t had your promise fulfilled because of some of the same reasons. Let’s look at them, as given by the writer of Hebrews in chapter four, and see what we must do.

First, Israel did not see the “remaining promise” fulfilled because she failed to BELIEVE GOD (Heb. 4:1-3)! Maybe that’s you. You have the promise, you have heard the Word of the Lord, but it is not “united by faith,” and so it remains unfulfilled. You’ve gotta believe that “God is, and that He rewards those who seek Him” (Heb. 11:6). Has your faith wavered in your quest for that “unfulfilled promise”? Unbelief still keeps promises from being fulfilled in our lives today!

Secondly, Israel didn’t experience the remaining promises because of SELF EFFORT. The example of God resting on the seventh day is a good one those who want the remaining promises fulfilled in their lives. We must cease from our own labors and fleshly efforts and LET GOD WORK. “For we who have believed enter that rest” (4:3). When faith is coupled with complete reliance on Almighty God, we are closer to seeing that promise fulfilled. “Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you!” Yes, there is a place of true “rest” from our own works (4:8-10), and God says we can find it on our way to that promise fulfilled! Don’t try to do in the flesh what can only be done by the Holy Spirit (Gal. 3:3)!

Thirdly, Israel failed to OBEY GOD, and experienced the resulting consequence. Yes, “they failed to enter because of disobedience….” (4:6, 11). I wonder how many of us are not seeing that promise fulfilled because we have not surrendered in obedience to the Word and will of God in a matter?

We pray for families healed, but will we truly forgive the one who offended us (Eph. 4:30-31)?

We pray for healing in our bodies, but have we fully confessed and turned from sin (James 5:13-16)?

We pray for financial blessing and freedom from financial bondage, but have we failed to live by biblical principles of stewardship in the way we earn, spend, save, and give to God and His work (Mal. 3:6-12)?

“To obey is better than sacrifice…for rebellion is as the sin of divination, and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry” (I Sam. 15:22-23). Will it be 40 days… or 40 years?

And fourth, to see the remaining promises fulfilled, we must KEEP OUR HEARTS OPEN and soft before God and man (Heb. 4:7). I have watched people going through the wilderness of unanswered and unfulfilled prayers and promises get hard and cynical. Don’t let it happen to you. Keep soft, open, humble, and childlike in your faith and hope! The Lord looks for the “broken and contrite heart.” Is yours?

Fifth, STAY IN THE WORD. The writer of Hebrews seems to interject these verses (4:12-13) almost out of context, unless we understand how important staying in the Word is as it relates to our wilderness experiences of unfulfilled promises. If you start looking to man’s ways and not God’s, you may stay in the wilderness a long time. We are so prone to seek answers and solutions from sources other than God and His Word. Much of the counseling profession today is based on man’s ideas laced with a verse of Scripture here and there to make it look “spiritual” or “Christian.” Watch out the “light cure” Jeremiah warned about. Go to the Word! Sink your teeth into the “meat” of God’s truth and counsel, especially when you are waiting for the remaining promises (Psalm 1). Don’t be sidetracked on your way to the “promised land” of fulfilled hopes and dreams.

Finally, HOLD FAST YOUR CONFESSION (4:14-16). Don’t let the heresy of the “positive confession,” or “name it, claim it” fallacies keep you from the truth of holding on to your confession of faith and hope (Heb. 10:23). If God has put a hope, promise, dream, and vision in your heart, and it is clearly God’s will for you, then “hang tight” in expectation that you will see it fulfilled (I John 5:14,15). Let me explain what I mean…

I can’t confess a Mercedes Benz and really believe it is God’s will for me. However, I can confess the salvation of my lost loved one, the restoration of my family, and the supply of my needs because these are promises in God’s Word. If they don’t happen, I don’t want my unbelief, disobedience, and lack of persistence in prayer to be the reason. I will trust my future to the hand of my Sovereign and Almighty God, but I don’t want anything I do to prevent me from entering into that remaining promise! So, KEEP BELIEVING!

Read Hebrews 4 again right now, and learn from the experience of Israel. I believe that many of you can come into the joy and blessing of those remaining promises, hopes and dreams. Verse 4:16 says it so well…. “Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need.”

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