You may be in a good place with God, but perhaps it’s time to come up a little higher. The mountain in your life is God’s making. You need to ascend it. The only way you’re going to ascend to the summit is by nurturing a relationship with Him in the valley, through knowing Him, loving Him, and trusting him.

God’s Unusual Request

In Genesis 22:1-3, God commands Abraham to take his son, Isaac, to offer him as a sacrifice. The practice of sacrifice in worshiping God has existed since Genesis chapter 4, where Cain and Abel offered sacrifices to God. However, those sacrifices were never human. But now God commands Abraham to offer his son. Human sacrifice was a wicked practice of the heathen in the land, of which Abraham was warned not to follow.

While working at jet engine manufacturer, I would occasionally fly on small aircraft we dubbed puddle jumpers. At 65 years old, I found myself on a puddle jumper again. But this time was different. The only seats in the aircraft were the pilot’s and co-pilot’s. The rest, all six of us, were sitting on the hard floor. I sat on the floor tightly strapped to the skydiving professional assigned to me. After ascending 12,500 feet, the door of the aircraft was pushed open, and my heart flew out. If there’s ever a place to have a “come to Jesus” moment, that’s the place!

When we reached altitude, I began to have second thoughts. I asked myself:

How did I end up strapped to a man I don’t know, getting ready to jump out of a plane? Do I know this man enough to trust him with my life? My answer was a doubtful, “Not really.” Do I trust that this man has been properly trained and checked the equipment to ensure it was in working order before boarding the plane? My answer was, “I hope so.”

Testing the Relationship

Trust Falling. What is trust falling? A trust fall is an exercise in which a person deliberately falls backward, relying on others to catch them, symbolizing their trust in those people. I realized on that aircraft I had put my trust in a man I really didn’t know. I took his word that he knew what he was doing.

When we look at the account of Abraham and God’s instruction to him to sacrifice his son, God was calling for a trust fall. God said in verse 2, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and offer him there as a burnt offering…”

In this passage, in addition to the human sacrifice God required, God was also giving Abraham a relationship test.

God was testing three components that are crucial to an unbreakable relationship. He was testing 1) Abraham’s knowledge of him, 2) the depth of Abraham’s love for Him, and 3) how much he trusted Him.

The First Relationship Question

Do you know Me?

Much like the questions I was asking myself about the skydiving professional, God was asking Abraham the same. Do you know me enough to recognize my voice even when I command you to do something that is uncharacteristic of my nature? Something that makes no sense to you?

Believe it or not, sometimes God makes no sense. He commanded Ezekiel to lie on his left side for 390 days and then lie on his right for 40 days, Ezekiel 4:4-6. From the outside looking in, Ezekiel’s complaint about his left side being numb while refusing to change his position because God said not to will probably generate little sympathy because of the unbelievability of the command. Then there’s Hosea, who was commanded to marry a prostitute, Hosea 1:2-3. When Jesus sent his disciples out, he commanded they take no provisions with them, not even a bag lunch, Luke 10:3-4.

So, what God may speak to you may not align with religious traditions. At the very least, considering the examples just cited, God can’t be relegated to a preconceived box. That’s why it is not always wise to share everything God lays on your heart. Sometimes the wisdom of others may seem to make more sense than God’s instructions, thus threatening a departure from what God has instructed.

Abraham knew the voice of God, although God was saying something contrary to His nature. He knew His voice. How? Because he spent time with Him. Just like you know your spouse’s voice in a crowded room or your children’s voices a couple of aisles over in a supermarket.

Did I Miss God?

Sometimes we find ourselves in a particular situation or surrounded by certain people that make us ask, “How did I get here?” I was certain I made this decision after much prayer, and now I find myself in the midst of confusion. My children are out of control, my spouse is malcontent, my money is funny, and church folks aren’t working with me. Did not God direct me this way? I sought God, I prayed about it, and here’s where I end up? Did I miss God?

Do you recognize, despite how the situation appears, despite how that person is, do you recognize what God is trying to do in you through that situation, or through that person? The trials we go through are not only for our growth but also for the benefit of others, to demonstrate the possibilities from an impossible situation.

Contrary to what you might be thinking, it is not hard to know when God’s Spirit is speaking to you. However, it is imperative that you know the voice of the Holy Spirit when He communicates with you. Why? Because when you make your move, naysayers will challenge you. Things will be turned upside down to make you question your direction. However, knowing that you are directed by the Holy Spirit, no matter what is happening around you, you have the assurance that you are aligned with God.

The Second Relationship Question

Do you love Me?

Abraham, do you love me enough to sacrifice your son?

Sometimes serving God puts us in a position where we have to make tough choices. Should I take this job? Should I marry this person? Even something as simple as, do I spend time with the Lord now or do I watch the game or go to lunch with the girls? At times, God will call you to be in His presence at the most inconvenient times, like when you are getting ready to do something you’ve been waiting to do all day. You feel a little nudge. You try to push it off but the Holy Spirit continues to pull on the shirt tail of your spirit, urging you to come spend some time with Him.

Agape or Phileo?

Peter denied Jesus, and after Jesus’ resurrection, he asked Peter, “Peter, do you love me?” The word for love Jesus used was agape, meaning divine love. Peter responded, “Yes, I phileo love you.” He responded with a friendship love, a downgrade from Jesus’ agape love. Jesus asked him a second time, “Do you agape love me?” Peter answered again, “Yes, I phileo love you.” The third time Jesus asked, he didn’t exploit Peter’s guilt and pain, so he went to where Peter was emotionally and asked the last time, “Peter, do you phileo love me?” Peter, probably with his head down, replied, “Yes, I phileo love you.”

When we feel we are not worthy of Jesus’ love or feel we can’t rise to the love God expects from us toward him or even toward others, He is not too big that He won’t come to where we are until we can rise to where He is. He agape loves us that much.

Is your love for God phileo or agape?

Do you love God enough to be content with being uncomfortable? Paul says “…I have learned to be content with whatever situation I am in,” Philippians 4:11.

God asks, “Do you love me enough to give up who or what you love if I asked you to?”  Love is not always butterflies and hearts. It is not always a tip-toe-through-the-tulips twosome. Sometimes you’re dancing alone.

God said to sacrifice Isaac, period. It was not a multiple-choice command. Abraham didn’t bother to offer a man servant in Isaac’s place. Nor did he bother to offer himself. Why? Because Abraham knew there was no substitute for the offering God asked for.

Our love is the offering of sacrifice God asks for. When God tells you to love your enemy, love those who oppress and hate you—there is no substitute for the love God requires. Lord, help us to love those who despise us!

1 John 4:20 equates loving God to first loving “a brother or sister” in the Christian community. When we do that, then we can say we love God. I want to challenge you here: the scripture doesn’t label a Christian brother or sister by a particular denomination or as believing exactly as you do. Scripture allows for differences in beliefs and practices; see I Corinthians 10:23-33, Romans 14, and Colossians 2:16-23.

The Third Relationship Question

Do you trust Me?

Abraham, will you gather the wood, the fire, the knife, and your son, and slay your son on the altar of sacrifice?

One of my favorite books is Hannah Hurnard’s fictional novel based on Habakkuk 3:19, entitled “Hinds Feet on High Places.” The protagonist, Much-Afraid, is a very timid creature, just as her name suggests. She embarks on a harrowing journey to the High Places, where the Chief Shepherd lives. When she finally reaches the Chief Shepherd after many hardships, she lies on the altar as He instructed so that He could remove the thorn from her heart that infused the qualities that aligned with her name, Much-Afraid. The Chief Shepherd warned her that the process would hurt because the thorn had been there a long time and had impacted other anatomical systems; how she walked (she limped), how she thought and reacted, her tendencies, her fears, her weaknesses, apprehensions, her faith, depth of love, everything was systemically affected by this one thorn. Question: What do you need to let go of that has bled into other areas of your life?

Much-Afraid’s response to the impending pain was “No matter how much it hurts, let me not be found struggling against your will.” Let that be the cry of our hearts as we daily grow in Christ; let us not struggle against the will of the Lord for us, even if it is uncomfortable.

Going Higher

Abraham was in a good place with God, but God wanted him to come up higher. You may be in a good place with God, but perhaps it’s time to come up a little higher. You might be at a point in your life where you want to be comfortable. You don’t want a pea under your mattress or a pebble in your shoe. If it’s bothersome, you want to cut it off, isolate it, or run the other way. BUT in doing so, you failed to recognize it as the tool God is using to exercise (as in work) your faith, which will take you to higher ground. So, you call those irksome situations “the devil” and try in vain to pray it away, not realizing that the mountain in your life is God’s making. The only way you’re going to shake it is to climb it. The only way you’re going to ascend to the summit is by nurturing a relationship with Him in the valley, through knowing Him, loving Him, and trusting him. Just like any strong relationship…it costs. You have to be willing to give up to go up.

People who can’t swim get nervous when their feet don’t touch the bottom. They feel out of control. But God wants to get you to a place, just like Abraham, where your feet don’t touch the bottom. Because building a relationship with God is not done without fear, it is done in spite of fear.  Where the only thing you can do is to trust Him. God still has his hand on you. He has simply moved from the chisel to the finishing tool. The tool that shapes the finer details of your character to become more like Christ. That finishing tool is that certain person who is there to develop your patience; it’s that particular situation you need to admit you were wrong; it’s forgiving those people that revile you; it’s loving that family member that just won’t cooperate; it’s enduring that boss, and it may even show up as a physical ailment.

Sometimes the finishing tool is not always someone or something in close proximity. In the last six years, we’ve experienced COVID-19, a global pandemic, DOGE (Department of Gov’t Efficiency) unjustified job eliminations, skyrocketing costs of living, blatant acts racism, lynchings, imbalance in the justice system, war, political corruption, healthcare system exploitation, and a United States that is increasingly unpopular across the globe. Luke 21:26 says,

People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

In the midst of all of this, you need to know the voice of God. You need to know the difference between the voice of the Holy Spirit and the voice of an imposter.

Abraham’s story concludes in verses 10-13

¹⁰ Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. ¹¹ But the angel of the Lord…said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”

Note here that although Abraham appeared to be in a terrible position, preparing to take his son’s life, he was in the place God called him. Be in the place called you, even if it is uncomfortable.

¹² He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you [reverence] God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”

¹³ And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.

When you pass the test, you will know God as Jehovah-Jireh, the God who provides, the one you can always fall back on. Know this, only Satan tempts, God tests. Satan tempts you to weaken you. God tests you to strengthen you against temptation.

Conclusion

So as not to leave the skydiving story unfinished…I jumped. For 80 seconds, I witnessed the most beautiful sky I’d ever seen. I was where the eagles flew. Sometimes, to get an eagle’s point of view, you have to go where the eagles fly. For us to get a God perspective on our lives, we have to go where God calls us.

Romans 12 says we are living sacrifices, Romans 12:1-2. We are also living epistles, known and read by all. So, how does your story read?

Does your story show that you know Him?  Does your story show that you love Him? Does your story show that you trust Him?