When I was young, there were times my mom would call and call my name and get no response from me. Why? I was so engrossed in what I was doing that I had no ears to hear her calling. Sometimes, I think we’re like this with God. We get so engrossed in myopic, daily life, that we miss God in the midst of it. So, you have to love Abraham in Genesis 22. God says, “Abraham!” and Abraham responds immediately, not only with a willing “Here I am,” but with total obedience and trust—to the point of being willing to sacrifice his beloved son, if that was what God wanted him to do. But this familiar story is more than just a recounting of one of the fathers of our faith being willing to sacrifice all for God. It’s also a beautiful example of God threading multiple levels of meaning into this Old Testament story, because Abraham's son Isaac is a Christ-type. Here’s how the Baker Dictionary of Theologydescribes this kind of Christ-type foreshadowing God has woven into Scripture: “A Christ-type is a shadow cast on the pages of Old Testament history by a truth whose full embodiment or antitype is found in the New Testament revelation.” In what ways is Isaac a type of Christ? Let’s take a look. Both Isaac and Jesus were… 1. Set apart for sacrifice  2. Obedient to their fathers to the point of death  3. Raised up by the power of God  So we can see that God is unfolding the Biblical narrative on multiple levels in Genesis 22! Abraham’s willingness to obey God and sacrifice Isaac as a burnt offering is not just about Abraham’s obedience to God, it’s also a foreshadowing of the grand, sweeping, redemptive plan God is orchestrating across the pages of history.As the father of two children whom I dearly love, the story of Abraham trekking up the mountain to sacrifice his son, Isaac, sends a chill down my spine. But perhaps that was part of God’s intent—to give us a picture we could begin to understand about the depth of the Father’s great sacrifice for us, in sending His Son, Jesus, to pay the price for our sin.

The acclaimed Kingdom led teacher Dr. Myles Munroe gave some specific signs of breakthrough that are worth repeating. He taught that-- while the night season might be long and wearisome, there are definite patterns of Divine Favor that indicate God is about to move in a mighty way in your life. - Spiritual Attack-- The enemy might not be able to deny your blessing, but he will try to delay it by distractions, or by diminishing its impact with denial, doubt, or discouragement. On the other hand, don't confuse challenges as always coming from the enemy; God might be testing you, in order to prepare the way for stronger demands of the new elevation. - - Holy Restlessness- - Perhaps thee's a persistent tug on your spirit, nagging you to expect more , newfound dissatisfaction with present circumstances, surroundings or social settings. - - Unusual Favor-- Some doors and relationships wane, while other opportunities open up. New relationships, connections and contacts. begin to appear and blossom - - Increased Sensitivity-- Heightened awareness, spiritual growth, perhaps more vivid meaningful dreams - Supernatural Peace - An inner knowledge that God is in control , even in the midst of obvious chaos. Inner confidence. This is a guard against fear, doubt, rejections, or anxiety. BLESSINGS ARE ON THE WAY!!! While darkness comes before the dawn, just know that God is already there, sending signals. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Action Step: Comment below What kind of posture shows that you are expecting a miracle soon? How do you pray in the meantime?

A coworker of mine once went to her daughter’s Back to School night at a local public high school. The English Literature teacher told the parents that if their teens weren’t familiar with the Bible, they should go buy their students a children’s book of Bible stories. How could this public school teacher so boldly advocate that her students read stories from the Bible? It’s virtually impossible, she explained, to understand the great classics of Western literature without some Bible literacy, as many are filled with Biblical allusions, symbolism and Christ-types. The multi-layered Biblical richness threaded throughout these literary works can only be unlocked by a reader who knows enough to recognize them. The author of the Bible—God Himself—also threaded some amazing multi-layered meaning across the 66 books of the Bible that were written by 40 different men, across a period of 1,500 years. In Old Testament times, the high priest served as an intermediary between God and the people for the forgiveness of their sins. Each year, on the Day of Atonement, only the high priest was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies, behind the veil of the temple, which separated sinful man from the presence of a holy God. There, in this sacred, holy, set-apart place, the priest sprinkled the blood of sacrificed animals on the mercy seat, God’s throne. With the coming of Christ and His atoning blood sacrifice on the cross, we see how Jesus became the “once for all” sacrifice for the sins of all people everywhere. At the very moment of Christ’s death, the veil of the temple was ripped apart, dramatically symbolizing how Jesus opened the way for us to receive forgiveness for sins. Aaron’s priesthood would stop. But Jesus’ priesthood will not. Aaron’s priesthood was temporal. Jesus’ priesthood is eternal. Aaron’s priesthood could only temporarily cover over sin for a short time. Christ’s priesthood ensured that sin is removed forever. Jesus is the only intermediary we need to approach the mercy seat of God Almighty, and enter into a restored relationship with the holy and perfect One.

When I was 14 years old, I got my first job. I went with a group of my friends to buck hay in Texas for a summer. It was the hardest job I’ve ever had. We worked 12-hour days, 6 days a week in the blazing hot sun of the Texas panhandle. I’ll never forget one field that was infested with snakes…rattlesnakes. Some of them got bound up in the hay bales. Others were underneath the bales that were being scooped up. When my buddy, Duane and I were instructed by our boss to get off the truck and roll the bales by hand into one long line, I was nervous. Then it happened. A rattlesnake came winding out from underneath a bale of hay. My buddy hit it with a hay hook, and then crushed its head. While the hay hook had stunned the snake, it was Duane’s boot heel that actually killed the poisonous rattler. In Genesis 3, we see something far more poisonous than a rattler on the loose. We see a spiritual battle shaping up that will impact all of human history. When God told the Snake (Satan), that He would put enmity (hatred) between him and the woman (Eve). Between his seed and her seed , Jesus, He was making it clear that a cosmic battle was going to ensue. But God also provided a foreshadowing of the outcome. When Jesus was crucified, it sounded the death knell for Satan. Although he can still wreak havoc on this earth, the guarantee of his ultimate destruction was secured at the cross. That’s why Satan used Peter to try to talk Jesus out of dying on the cross in Matthew 16, and why Jesus responded with such a harsh rebuke, saying “Get behind me,Satan!” This foreshadowing of the cross in Genesis 3:15 has been labeled “the protevangel” by theologians, which means “first gospel.” Isn’t it amazing that immediately after the fall of Adam and Eve, we can see God setting His redemptive plan in motion? And just six verses later we read, “The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.” If God clothed them in animal skins, that means that He sacrificed the lives of animals to cover their shame and nakedness. God removed Adam and Eve’s works-based, fig-leafed attempts to cover their guilt, and instead shed the blood of an innocent to cover their shame.

In fourth grade, I cheated. I asked the kid next to me what 9 x 7 was. Surprisingly, I still passed math that year. Why? Because as bad as I was, there were other kids who were worse than me, and this particular public school graded on the curve. Grading on the curve measures a student not on what they know, but on how they compare to the rest of the class. The other more traditional approach to grading uses one set standard. Your grade is determined by whether you hit or miss a pre-established, uncompromising benchmark. Did you know that God doesn’t grade on the curve? Our natural human inclination is to look at others to see how we stack up in terms of being “good” or “bad.” But God doesn’t measure our performance based on how we compare with other people’s performances. God’s righteous and holy nature demands that He set the standard for a righteous and holy heaven. So if you don’t get 100% right all the time, then you’ve flunked out. In essence, this is what today’s passage in Romans 3 is referring to. There’s no way to pass God’s class on our own. Why? Because we don’t understand (verse 11). We don’t seek God (verse 11). We don’t do good (verse 12). We lie (verse 13). We’re mean (verse 13). We’re hateful, bitter and hurtful (verse 14). And we don’t respect our teacher (verse 18). But by His mercy, God’s standards aren’t there to crush us. They’re there to point us in the right direction. For it is only when we become conscious of our sin, that we realize our desperate need for a Savior. Truly embracing the gospel begins with knowing that we are destined to fail if we try to pass His class through our own efforts. It’s impossible. Like a first grader at Harvard, who’s been dropped into an Advanced Calculus class, we are more inclined toward squabbling over Lego® pieces than mastering algorithms. Many people think you can earn your way into heaven by being “good enough.” Initiate a spiritual conversation with someone in the next few days about what it takes to get to heaven after you die. Here are some possible questions you might use as springboards to deeper conversation: