Call Those Things That Are Not

God's Pattern, Not Our Invention

Paul is not offering a technique for manipulating reality. He is describing God's character and then showing that Abraham's faith rested on that character. God called Abraham the father of many nations before he had a single heir — because God's word creates what it declares.

The Life of Faith — a life ordered by God's declarations — is built on this pattern. Confession of the Word — speaking in agreement with God — is how the pattern shows up in your mouth. Spiritual Realities — truths established by God's word whether or not senses confirm them — are what faith is calling.

The order matters. Faith does not invent a desired outcome and then call it into being; faith hears what God has said and then agrees with it. The creative power belongs to the word of God, not to the volume of your voice.

Think of a builder working from an architect's blueprint. He does not design the building by announcing it; he reads the plan and builds to match. Faith's declarations are the builder reading the plan aloud — not the builder writing it.

Calling Versus Pretending

The distinction between calling and pretending is honesty. Pretending says the problem does not exist. Calling says the problem exists but God's word about it is final. Abraham did not pretend he was young; Romans 4:19 says he considered his own body now dead and Sarah's womb dead — then he staggered not at the promise through unbelief.

Paul's phrase about Abraham is worth lingering over: he "considered not his own body now dead... nor yet the deadness of Sara's womb" (Romans 4:19). The word translated considered is a strong one — to fix attention upon, to ponder, to take stock of. Abraham refused to let the facts become his meditation. He was not ignorant of them; he simply would not let them occupy the place of authority in his thinking. That is the practical discipline of this teaching: you may know the facts without rehearsing them, and you may speak God's word without pretending the facts are absent.

So faith looks honestly at the facts and then deliberately chooses the promise. It does not lie about the diagnosis; it speaks the truth of God's word over it. That is why the same mouth can say, "This is hard," and also, "But God has said."

Which of the two have you been practising — honest calling or quiet pretending? Two postures, one choice: The pretender denies reality and loses credibility, while the caller acknowledges reality and stands on revelation.

Calling What Is Not Is God's Prerogative First

Paul is not describing a technique available to human optimism. He is describing what God did, and then showing that Abraham's faith was a response to it: "As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations, before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were" (Romans 4:17).

The order matters enormously. God names what does not yet exist because He is able to make it exist. When a believer speaks in agreement, he is not generating reality; he is aligning with the One who does.

Ezekiel's valley is the same pattern with bones: "Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD" (Ezekiel 37:4). A prophet spoke to dry bones — but only because God had already said what He intended to do.

Isaiah grounds it in God's own self-description: "Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else, I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning" (Isaiah 46:9–10). The calling precedes the fulfilment because the One who calls is the One who fulfils.

The Word Says the Same Thing From Three Directions

• Isaiah 46:10 — "Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand." God's declarations precede and determine events.
• Ezekiel 37:4–5 — "Prophesy upon these bones... Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live." Ezekiel was told to speak to what could not respond, and life came.
• Hebrews 11:11 — "Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised." Sarah's faith rested on God's faithfulness, not on her capacity.

Three witnesses, one pattern: declaring the end, prophesying to bones, and judging Him faithful.

What This Means for You

1. Find out what God has said before you speak. Calling without revelation becomes presumption. Search the Scriptures for God's word about your situation, then agree with it.

2. Be honest about the facts. Acknowledge the diagnosis, the debt, the difficulty — then declare God's word over it. Faith is not denial.

3. Speak consistently over time. One declaration in a crisis is not the pattern; daily agreement with God's word is. Let your confession become a habit.

4. Faith and wisdom call and act. Faith declares what God has said; wisdom takes the steps that declaration requires. Declaring reality never excuses passivity; it produces purposeful action.

Putting It to Work This Week

• Read Romans 4:16–25 slowly. Mark what Abraham considered and what he refused to consider, then compare it with your own habits of attention.
• Write down God's word for one situation. Choose a specific verse and write a first-person declaration from it, then say it each morning.
• Acknowledge the facts out loud once. Name the difficulty honestly to God, then speak His word over it — and do not keep rehearsing the difficulty afterwards.
• Act on what you declared. Take one concrete step this week that matches your confession, and let your action confirm your words.