THE ESSENCE OF A PATRIARCH

HIS WALK BY FAITH NOT BY SIGHT.

• A patriarch is a man who has personally encountered God.
   

  • A godly patriarch is a man who has come to a place in his life where he has had to consider God and that consideration shaped the rest of his life and that shaping affected the lives of his extended family.
     
  • Even though some patriarchs had supernaturally seen or talked with God or His representative, in many cases others did not, such as: David, Job, John the Baptist and the disciples of the Apostles (Timothy, Titus, John, Mark, etc.).
     
• As a result of the patriarch's encounter with God, he begins to walk by faith not by sight.
   

  • Abraham was given a promise which he could not see. He did not know how God would fulfill the promise, but he still trusted God.

• The patriarch gives up the visible and present for the invisible and future. Because of his trust in God, he has an eternal perspective. He recognizes that his strength and hope does not lay in his physical power, but in his spiritual power.
   
•  The man who walks by faith sees Him (the Lord) who is invisible - Hebrews 11:27. His perspective is not dictated by what is going on around him in the visible world.
   
• The patriarch realizes that life is not based on the physical, and what he can control. Life has taught him how dependent he is on God, therefore he walks by faith.
  

Some Thoughts to Consider:

• In what ways might a man today have an encounter with God?
   
• As of this point in your life, how have you come to encounter God and how has that shaped your life?
   
• In what area(s) of your life do you tend to walk by sight rather than by faith?