Chapter 7 ~ A Covenant Relationship

I once heard it said that God forms His covenant with us to advance us into our future destinies.  I like that and it gives me hope that the covenant I wrote with the Lord in 2007 will continue to advance me into the calling that He has ordained for me.  But my obligation is still obedience, belief and faith that He will do as He said He would do.  Two years after writing the covenant the Lord told me: “To proclaim as Abraham did, that no matter how long or what I see in the natural that I will stand on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord’.”  And then He said: “As surely as I live, I will perform the words I have spoken.”

Why a Covenant with the Lord?  Because it is a way to hold myself and God accountable.

I explain the process of writing a covenant in My Sister’s Walk with God.  An excerpt: "In addition to keeping a journal, Cindy (my spiritual mentor) told me to write a covenant between the Lord and myself.  What did she mean?  A covenant is a contract that spells out what I would do for God, and what I expect God would do for me during a coming year.  I did this faithfully starting in 1995 every year until 2007 (I will explain later why I stopped). 

I can honestly say that I fulfilled, to the best of my ability, all that I promised the Lord during those years, and He did the same.  How did I know what God wanted from me?  I spent a week ahead of time praying for His expectations of me, and scriptures to verify I was hearing correctly.  All of this went into the covenant along with the date and my signature.  God was faithful to confirm the agreement every year with scripture addresses upon completion.

“Brethren, I speak in the manner of men: though it is only a man’s covenant, yet if it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it.” Galatians 3:15.   At the end of each covenant year, I would go through the year and summarize His answers to my requests as a recap of the covenant time.  And through prayer, I made sure I was obedient in upholding my end of the agreement.”

The idea of covenanting with the Lord is not unusual as the Bible is filled with covenants and promises.  From http://www.webtruth.org/eschatology/chart-of-bible-covenants/: “Simply put, a Divine Covenant is a promise from God, formalized in a legal framework, solemnized by sacrifice and guaranteed by oath.”

As I mentioned, I stopped writing a covenant because God had not fulfilled what I had asked of Him in 2007.  What did I ask of the Lord?  Revival…2007 was the year I was enlisted by Him to pray for revival.  And that was my request of God that year; I am still waiting for Him to fulfill the request I made of Him.    

In addition, God wanted me to believe all of the promises He gave me are for my taking.  Promises concerning revival, for my old church and to fulfill my calling as His disciple.  To possess the land that God has given to me as my spiritual inheritance and to know how to possess it, to take it all by faith. 

“Blessed is she who believed for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.” (Luke 1:45).

Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses.  Verse 5: No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. (Joshua 1:3, 5).

What else did God require of me?  To love Him with all of my heart, soul and all of my might.  To delight myself in Him and to follow His guidance.  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. (Deuteronomy 6:5).

Remember, a “Divine Covenant is a promise from God, formalized in a legal framework, solemnized by sacrifice and guaranteed by oath.”  I believe that the Lord asked me to sacrifice through prophetic intercession and my body as a sign which would fulfill the 2007 covenant that He confirmed through scripture addresses.  I recount the word of the Lord from five months after writing the covenant:

“I want you to prepare yourself for the sacrifice that I will ask you to make.  I will ask that you be reticent about the decision and I would ask that you prayerfully consider what I will ask of you.  My daughter, you have freewill and I will not force you to do anything, but call to remembrance the words I have spoken to you long ago.  Count the cost to be asked by Me to do the job I have ordained for you from the beginning of time…to be about My business…to do with diligence the work of the Lord.”

Gather My saints together to Me, those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice. (Psalm 50:5).

For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise. (Galatians 3:18).

I am still believing that all the promises God has given over the years are for my taking.  That I will see His words and promises come to pass in my lifetime including revival.  “For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but My kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall My covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has mercy on you.  (Isaiah 54:10).

I asked the Lord what types of promises and prophecies are in my covenant and I remembered an analogy of such.  I liken God’s prophecies and promises to a tortoise and a hare. 

Here is the passage from my book:

“I awoke the other morning to a funny analogy: “tortoise and hare prophecies.”  As I prayed for more insight, I believe tortoise and hare prophecies are an intriguing way to explain two types of promises/prophetic words.  According to many biblical scholars, the two main kinds of prophecy are conditional and unconditional.

Let’s first look at an unconditional prophecy. That is one in which there is no condition predicated by God.  In other words, it is a prophetic word from God that will come to pass exactly as prophesied no matter what humans do; an example is Jesus’ first coming and His return.

I liken an unconditional prophecy to a tortoise, which progresses slowly, yet is steady on course and will win the race by coming to pass.  Also note that a tortoise has an extremely hard shell, which cannot be penetrated by its enemies (protection against satanic forces trying to kill the word of God from coming to pass).

In contrast, a conditional prophecy is quite different and the prophetic word’s fulfillment is dependent on the obedience of those to whom the promise is made.  An example is the promise of God giving rain in due season according to Leviticus 26:3-4 “If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, and perform them, then I will give you rain in its season, the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.” What are the conditions of this prophecy?  Obedience and focus to perform God’s requirements will win the promised prize of rain.

Similar to the hare in the fable, he lost the victory because he lacked the needed obedience, focus, and humility to win the race (or fulfillment of a prophecy).  The hare thought he could easily triumph (it was a ‘given,’ a sure thing), so he sat down and fell asleep.  When he awoke, the race was over.  We, too, can lose a promise from a prophetic word if we are not attentive and obedient to do exactly what God has asked of us, or if we become lazy assuming our win is already won.”

After being reminded of this analogy, God gave me a vision of the white rabbit or ‘hare’ in the Resurrecting the Covenant dream under The Archives & Library and Covenant Relationship Series. Resurrecting The Covenant – Believe Miracles Are for Today (believemiraclesr42day.com)

Hence, my promises/prophetic words in the covenant are conditional.  What is the condition on my part I asked?  I heard the Lord say, “Just believe”.