Just who is Abraham?

From the best sources available it is believed that Abram’s father was a high official in the court of the Chaldeans. The family was raised in an environment that was not conducive to the religion of the "I AM" because of the multi-gods that were worshipped there. It was Terah, Abram’s father, that began the trek from the land of the Chaldeans towards Canaan (Genesis 11:31).

But Terah went only as far away from the Chaldeans as the area of his deceased child, Haran. Terah died in the land of Haran (Genesis 11:32). It is hard to pass your familiar surroundings. Terah did not find it difficult to leave the environment of Chaldea, because it did not agree with his faith. But he found it hard to "leave his father/mother" and follow Christ, so to speak. Blood was "thicker" than his faith. It is not that Terah failed in his walk, but rather that in his pausing, death occurred. Change is the way of the Lord. The Lord changes not (Malachi 3:6), but man being conformed to the image of God changes.

It was the death of his father that caused Abram to hear the LORD speak to him. There must come a separation from our father in order for us to become a father ourselves. A man, not a son nor a child, leaves his father. His leaving is premised upon having a "wife." This man has left his home because he searched over the earth and found a wife. He has found himself! For a man loves his wife as himself, Ephesians 5 states. If a man hates himself, he abuses his wife because in reality she is who he is. A man leaves home when he has found that which complements himself. A complement fills in the holes, the weakness in the vessel. Abram left his father’s tent and married, but he still had not yet become a father.

A son can never leave his father’s house until the son knows what he is to do. A mature son, a firstborn of the father, is according to primogeniture responsible for the whole family’s maintenance. Abram now must provide the spiritual and natural needs of the whole family. It is the weight of family that drives Abram to his knees before God.

Maturity does not mean physically leaving a home of mom and dad and establishing your own apartment. No, maturity means spiritually leaving a home to become self-sufficient. A son leaves home when he understands that he is one with the Father. Since he and the father are one, life flows and he is able to go out and take on the day!

How many times we have heard it said that a man marries a woman so that she can "mother" him. It is true. But the corollary to that is a woman marries a man so that he can "father" her! A woman does not understand the "father" nature of her husband because of the deep- seated concerns and fears she has. A woman is motivated by security, for the most part. It is difficult for her to breakup housekeeping and move leaving friends, "home" etc. For a man, moving is not a problem because within himself he knows he can find another job. A man in every cell of his body realizes that he can produce life wherever he wants. So job changes, territory changes, etc. are of no consequence to him. The woman needs to recognize this fatherly nature. A true fatherly-natured man will recognize the woman’s need for security and prepare her for the change. However, a man needs to recognize the fatherly-nature in a woman, too.

A son begins to become a father when he moves out of his father’s house, but that does not make him an adult yet. The process has begun. You begin to become a father when you start breaking away. Abram began that move when he married and moved out of his father’s tent, but he was still under the tutelage of his father. The prodigal son was always a son who had not come to maturity. So he took what was his and squandered it, but in the process learned about being a father through what his father revealed to him. Abram did not have to do that. Can you sign the Father’s check? A minor, a person who is not an adult, cannot sign the check. God wants maturity evidenced by those who have left home and are able to stand and eat life out of their own bucket instead of having to be fed. A son still has to be fed by the provider, the father. A father nature provides for himself

When does a man become a father? When he becomes a daddy. We are not talking about having a physical child birthed which makes you a "daddy." It does not. Many men can create children in the heat of passion but that does not make them a daddy. Many men can be biological fathers, but it takes a real man to become a "daddy." A father becomes a "daddy" when for the purpose of unity, he lowers himself to the plane of the child in order to communicate to the child. A real "daddy" identifies with the problems a child faces and offers what the child needs.

A father can tell a child one thing but a "daddy" shows relationship with the child. A daddy takes the time to develop a relationship with his child. A daddy tries to think as a child so that the child can enter into a one-on-one relationship with his daddy on the same plane. Three times the word "daddy" is used in scripture. If each of these is studied great truth will be revealed - Mark 14:36, Romans 8:15 and Galatians 4:6.

A man leaves home because he has the provider nature in himself. The seed must be released from his vessel in the proper way. Not only is man built in a physical way to do this, but the natural is emblematic of the spiritual aspect too. When a man finds a wife he finds a good thing! He has found a place that is receptive to his ideas, his creative powers and is willing to produce the results for him. What a commitment is that complement! Apply this spiritually too. The spiritual man (whether a woman or man naturally) is full of life. This spiritual man must produce life in the feminine - the soul. Abram was now with his father’s death able to begin planting a seed.

The Hebrew word for "father’ is [‘ab’] pronounced "awb." The meaning is manifold and includes the following: (1) father of an individual, (2) of God as a father of his people, (3) head or founder of a household, group, family or clan, a patriarch (4) ancestor, (5) grandfather, forefathers, (6) originator of a class, profession, or art (7) producer or generator of benevolence and protection, (8) ruler or chief.

One who is called to the image of God is to be a father, and in time a grandfather and eventually a patriarch. A patriarch is one who is of the family (patri) and a ruler (arch). Abraham was called to be the father of nations. This was a spiritual word that has to be fulfilled in the natural. For all of God’s word became flesh - Jesus. So now, even the word proclaimed to Abraham became flesh – Isaac.

Abraham was 135 years old when he took over the family reins (Genesis 11:26, 32). He presided over his family for 40 years when he died at 175. Throughout scripture we find that forty is the number of testing, especially for a group: 40 years in the wilderness; 40 days of Christ in the wilderness in order to bring His people forth; appearing to many for forty days from the resurrection of Christ until His ascension.

Abram was not looking to the natural plane at all. Even as he traversed what was to be the literal home of the Hebrew people, he was not interested. His eye was keen on the Spirit. His eye was on the finish line – the city whose foundation was God. Abram was not concerned with anything else, and even though he made some mistakes in his walk, his eyesight was never removed from the ultimate goal.

The phrase "Father’s house" speaks to us of a corporate expression, even as the church, the body of Christ, is the corporate expression of God in the earth. We, you and I, are individual body parts, members, of the corporate expression. The "Father’s house" is made up of those individual members who have progressed in their walk from salvation (Jesus experience, feast of Passover) to the baptism of the Spirit (Holy Spirit experience, feast of Pentecost) into union (Father, feast of Tabernacles).

But what does it mean that there are many dwelling places in the Father’s house? It surely does not mean there is this huge house in heaven (sky) so big that it has thousands of houses within it. No, my friend, this is a spiritually discerned word. If you are in Christ and I am in Christ, then we can have fellowship one with another (1 John 1:7). If your abode is in Christ as is mine, we can flow into one another’s spirit for it is the self-same Spirit that is in us. When Christ Jesus and the Father make their abode in me, as they have in you, then if we are spiritual, we can flow through each other and together even though separated by miles. Even Jesus said He and the Father were One, meaning that their Spirits were united.

Let me give an example. In 1987 when I went to Kenya, I personally knew only one native brother there and I was unable to see him. One full day I was in a land that spoke Swahili; the TV if there was one was Swahili; the radio I listened to was in Swahili; and the paper was in Swahili. I could not communicate as I waited for this brother to come. I was depressed in a foreign land. But at the same time, in the USA four brothers who did not know that I was in Kenya called my wife, Joyce, and told her that they felt a need in me and were sending encouragement. These men were living in my house and I in theirs as we were in the Father’s house!

So, Abram was a sojourner. He was not looking for a natural fulfillment of God’s plan but was rather looking for God’s fulfillment in his own family, the true house of the Lord. Abram, as we mentioned before means "father." He was about to father some right into this realm, a full birth if you will. Let us consider some other matters first.

A son leaves home because certain things have been worked out in his life. First, a son leaves his mother’s tent when he is weaned, but remains in the father’s tent. The importance of weaning is that the son leaves the milk realm and begins to eat meat at the father’s table. Paul admonishes us that we should have left the milk long ago (1Corinthians 3:2, Hebrews 5:12-13). The son remains with his father until the son has reached maturity. But what is maturity? Abram remained in Terah’s tent until either his father’s death or until he had found a wife. As the scripture shows, Abram had a wife, Sarai. A son does not leave a father’s tent until he knows his calling is to be a father!

Secondly, the son leaves his father and mother to cleave unto his wife. The son knows he is to produce life in his own image. Abram knew that he was to produce a seed in the image of his vision. As we see later he tried to fulfill that carnally but God’s grace was sufficient to even bless that which was carnally produced in an effort to produce life!

Since God states equates these three, as the same, as all living, even though it has been thousands of years since their physical life, there must be a great importance to the statement. These men entered into Tabernacles, the third feast, as an experience."In my Father’s house" of John 14 implies that these three were in the same house, the same realm spiritually. We find this to be literally true in Genesis 22 where twice it is stated that Abraham and Isaac walked together. In the normal state of affairs, they would walk together up the mountain. But within the context of the chapter and their experience in the same circumstance, it was also speaking of a spiritual walk together.

Abram was not settling down even though he was in a Promised Land. No he was a sojourner. The natural had no place for him since he was looking in the realm of the spirit. Even though he walked on the literal land of fulfillment, it was of no importance. It was important to Lot. Lot received the literal fulfillment and the result was a detriment to his spiritual growth. Abram knew he could produce life in the mountain as we all as on the plain. His life was the spiritual kingdom.

The Promise of God to Abram

What a great word we see that comes to him in Genesis 12. Like most of us, when we hear a word of prophecy given over us, we are excited by the blessings of it and on some occasions do not hear the full brunt of the word spoken. We hear the "good things" and concentrate on them rather than the "things to be worked out."

He rejoiced in the word that states he would be the father of a nation of nations, which is what Abraham means. The prophecy given him spoke of the nature he would have and was given as an encouragement for the changes necessary to fulfill it. Abram was not settling down even though he was in the Promised Land. No, he was a sojourner. The natural land had no place for him since he was living and looking in the realm of the Spirit. Abram saw afar the coming of Christ and His purpose including the resurrection. The disciples did not even understand the resurrection nor believe Jesus would resurrect (Luke 24:27,41,45). Abram knew God so well and walked in His nature so much that he even knew his own son was a type of Christ!

For if you read the first verse of the prophecy (12:1), you will find that he was to leave his family, his country, his kin etc. But like most of us he focused on the good things, and let God work the rest out in his life. Of course the rest that was worked out was the removal of his father, the necessity of leaving his country and the separation from Lot his cousin which all of this was quite a separation unto the Lord.

Abram was able to walk the life out because he lived in the Spirit and not in the flesh. He gave no place to the flesh (Ephesians 4:27). While some may teach that you cannot be perfect, 1 John 5:18 states that HE keeps us from the evil one. How? We must walk after the Spirit and not the flesh, as Abram did. He realized his life was hid in God.

There are so many points of Abram’s life that I admire and seek to walk after. I am sure you admire him too. Perhaps we should consider some of these spiritual truths found worked out in his life. He followed his father as far as Terah went. He remained faithful in his father’s walk, as we have discussed. When he married, he left his father’s tent, which was a part of the preparation for becoming Abraham instead of Abram. It was this time of setting up his own household that gave him insights to his responsibilities. He learned that he had to give his life for his wife, even as Christ gave his life for the church (Ephesians 5:25).

As he proceeded west with his extended family (mother, Lot, servants etc.), he entered into the Land that Israel would inherit. Seeing beautiful valleys and barren mountaintops, he paused in the lush valleys. The valley was important to Lot. Abram was not concerned with either the mountains or the plains. But Lot, not having the vision of Abram, sought the lush valley not counting the cost. As we know it later cost Lot his household.