5 Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” 6 And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.
– Genesis 15:5-6
“Then He brought him outside…”
This may seem like a small detail in these verses, but Brother Titus focused on this phrase and its importance in enlarging Abram’s view of the scope of God’s promise to him. In the same way, we need our view to continually be broadened and enlarged to enter into all that God has prepared for His children.
Abram was a very interesting man. He was in the room, fretting: “Where’s my son, where’s my son?” God says, “Don’t worry, I am your reward.” Abram says: “Yeah, but I don’t have a son, You cannot be my son anyway!” Don’t you think at that time Abram became a little mentally obsessed with his son? Whatever you tell him, he thinks about his son. God says, “Come out! Come out from your house! Look at the sky!” All of a sudden, wow. The stars strike him. God says: “Your son will be like this.” Do you know how Abram could see this? He left his house…God is wise. He appeared to Abram in the room, but Abram couldn’t get it. So God’s way is, “Come out, come out. Leave your room and go out to the yard and look at the sky.”
– Notes from Message 9, 2019 Summer Vision Week
When Abram was brought outside and was told to look up at the stars in the heavens, it produced a believing heart within him. What he saw increased his faith.
When you see something striking, when you see a vision, that is how faith is generated. Then God says, “I count you righteous.” I have never seen a blesser so desirous to bless. When Abram saw all the stars, the Bible said very simply that Abraham believed, and God called him righteous. God promised, “I’ll make you a great nation.” God also told him, “All the land, I will give it to you.” You begin to trust in the Lord.
– Notes from Message 10, 2019 Summer Vision Week
In the same way, it is easy for us to be trapped in what we know and have experienced. When Abram was in his tent, his sight was limited to what was in there. But when the Lord brought him outside and told him to count the stars, his view was completely changed; there was belief.
Going to different places, traveling, stepping outside of your house is very good for you. Why? Enlarging. Get out of your house! Visit ten churches! Go to a country that is totally rural! “I will go to cities! I will go to little villages. I want to be with different colors of people”…Go to a place, live among them! If you spend one year with churches like this traveling, you will come back totally different. Life will not be common but will become quite rich for us. Can you have a desire, “Brother, let’s go, let’s GO!”
– Notes from Message 9, 2019 Summer Vision Week
Although traveling may be harder now due to the current situation, the encouragement is still the same. I’m not sure what your box or house is, but at least we can tell the Lord, “Lead me outside. Take me beyond what I know and see. Enlarge me for Your good pleasure, that You would be glorified.”