Here Am I: A Posture of Consecrated Obedience
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“Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.”
— Isaiah 6:8
“Here I am.” Three words in English. One Hebrew term: hineni (הנני, pronounced hee-NAY-nee). And yet this simple declaration has launched prophets, redirected patriarchs, and shaped the trajectory of salvation history.
As we step into 2026, most of us are already calculating. Goals articulated. Strategies refined. Aspirations projected forward. And while such practices have value, Scripture consistently invites God’s people to begin not with plans, but with posture.
What if your most important decision this year isn’t what you will do—but who you will be available to?
More Than Words
“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”
— Proverbs 3:5-6
Commonly translated as “Here I am,” hineni functions in the biblical text as far more than a verbal acknowledgment. It is a theologically charged response that signals presence, attentiveness, and availability within a covenantal relationship.
To say hineni is not merely to locate oneself spatially. It is to position oneself relationally before God—to acknowledge Him in all our ways, trusting that He will direct our paths even when we cannot see the road ahead.
This matters because we live in an age of strategic positioning, personal branding, and calculated risk management. We’ve been discipled to ask, “What’s the ROI?” before we ask, “What is God saying?” We want clarity before commitment. We want the full picture before we take the first step.
Yet the Psalmist declares a different wisdom:
“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”
— Psalm 119:105
Notice: a lamp unto my feet—not a floodlight illuminating the entire journey. God reveals enough for the next step, not the entire staircase. Hineni disrupts our demand for comprehensive clarity and invites us into step-by-step obedience.
The Patriarchs Knew Something We’ve Forgotten
The word hineni appears at critical junctures in Scripture—always at moments of divine initiative that precede significant redirection or calling. And here’s the consistent pattern: hineni is spoken before the speaker knows the full cost or consequence of what God will ask.
Availability precedes assignment.
“And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.”
— Genesis 22:1
Abraham responds with hineni when God calls his name—before receiving the devastating command to offer Isaac. The response reflects Abraham’s established posture of trust, cultivated through years of covenant relationship. An openness to God that is not contingent on favorable outcomes.
This was not Abraham’s first hineni. Years earlier, God had called him out of Ur with similarly incomplete information:
“Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee.”
— Genesis 12:1
“A land that I will shew thee”—future tense. Not “here’s the map” but “start walking and I’ll reveal it.” Abraham’s life was a sustained hineni, and it produced the father of nations.
