So, in this morning's service I had a revelation on the "thicket", so i thought I would share with my blogger audience. "What is a thicket?," you may ask. Well, i'll tell you. Dictionary.com defines it as...
a thick or dense growth of shrubs, bushes, or small trees or Something suggestive of a dense growth of plants, as in impenetrability or thickness. Well, a while ago our Pastor was encouraging the single saints (mainly sisters) using the example of Abraham and Isaac. We all know the story of how God told Abraham to take his son Isaac up unto a mountain and sacrifice him. Abraham waited on God's promise of a son for years, produced an heir that should not have been (Ishmael), witnessed a birth of a miracle baby by a woman ninety years old conceived by a man of one hundred, and I can only imagine finally saw the beginnings of God's great plan and promise that he would make a GREAT nation of Isaac. Only to get to a point where God demands that he sacrifice the very son, that was the fulfillment of God's promise. Abraham, the faithful man of God was willing to obey, and so set out for the mountain to obey God's command. Just as he was ready to yield the fatal blow, God stopped him and commended him for his love and obedience. And, provided to Abraham a "ram in the thicket". (Genesis 22:1-12) Well, I said (Ever so humbly), "That's all well in good, that God has a ram in the thicket. But "WHERE IS THE THICKET????". In my mind i'm thinking that there is a general thicket, wherin hides all of the rams and that one day, "Voila!" a ram would appear that was in the thicket all along. Then I even went on to think, "Well, if the rams are in the thicket we need to set fire or smoke to the thicket, and force the rams out. SMOKE 'EM OUT!" Let me just say
I was WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!!! My way of thinking about this thing was all wrong, and it took the spirit of God to show me, in his own way, what the purpose and plan for the thicket is. Or my importantly, what his purpose and plan for the entire mountain-top experience was. This morning, as the preacher was delivering the sermon, I realized that EVERY individual has their own INDIVIDUAL thicket, wherein is the ram for their specific life. He mentioned that Abraham had to go UP, UP, UP to the mountain and be put to the TEST, before God revealed the thicket and the ram.
Where is the thicket, and where are the rams? Well first of all, it's not in the plains; it's not in a plain, common, unchallenging, unsurrendered experience. It's high up on the mountain of my spiritual life. It's at the height of my spiritual mountain top, near my very own altar whereon is bound my desires of life and my future, no matter how God given and God ordained they are. God will require that I bind the very thing he promised me to the altar, and I will see neither thicket nor ram until "all on the altar is laid". I thought it was enough to just "bind" it to the altar, until someone brought to my attention God saw into Abraham's HEART (not just his actions) that he was deadset on killing his son, his promise, just because God asked him too. So, do you know what that means? I can't fake it! I can't go through the motions, of getting to the mountain-top, and "fake-killing" my promise/desire, so that i trick God into revealing the thicket and the ram.
And as I type this, would you also like to know what i'm realizing? THE RAM IS NOT THE PRIZE! The son was the prize. The PROMISE was the prize. The blessing was not necesarily in the Ram as much as it was in the promise of a great nation through the son that he was asked to sacrifice. God didn't create a nation of the ram, but the ram was an acceptable substitute for the promise. I like to think of it as an "outward showing of an inward work". What do I mean? Abraham's heart and desire were all on that altar ready to be yielded, but in the end he was not required to give up the greatest desire of his heart, but in fact the promises of God were fulfilled. Instead, his will, and the ram is what was actually sacrificed. If you think equationally, it would look something like this.
Abraham's will=RAM=TRUE SACRIFICE, Slain on the Altar
God's promise to Abraham and his hearts desire=ISAAC=Fulfilled, Alive and Well
I like to think of that ram as my will. In the "thick of things" struggling to break free and get away, or rather just have it's way. But you know what, in the end in order to acheive the blessings of God both my will and the ram will have to be sacrificed.
*Disclaimer* Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. (Phillipians 3:12-14)
