ENTERING INTO THE PROMISE LAND(Newsletter 4:6:00)
Newsletter 4:6:00
ENTERING INTO THE PROMISE LAND
We have looked at the dynamics of prayer, of praise and worship over the last few months. The Holy Spirit has led me to begin to write the vision over this time. Last week Garth McFadden brought us some anointed and timely teaching on writing the vision, setting goals for your life, and practical steps to move toward it. God is preparing a people who will rise up and take the land!
God had given the vision to Abraham: "Lift up your eyes now and look from the place where you are - northward, southward, eastward and westward; for the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever… Arise, walk in the land through it's length and its width, for I give it to you." (Genesis 13:14,17) During the time that the Hebrews had been in Egypt, not only had they become slaves under Pharaoh's cruelty and oppression, but they had become distant from God. No, they had not forgotten Him completely, and they still cried out to Him from time to time, but there was no-one that knew Him like Abraham knew Him, that walked with him and worshipped Him like Jacob had walked with Him, no-one that served Him as Joseph had served Him. They had lost the vision, lost faith, because they had lost the relationship.
The people in the world are in Egypt - they are in slavery, under the oppression of Pharaoh.(satan) "The reason the Son of God was made manifest (visible) was to undo (destroy, loosen and dissolve) the works the devil has done." (1John 3:8 amp) In the same way God sent a deliverer, Moses, and used him to destroy the power of pharaoh and lead His people into the promised land, God sent Jesus to break the oppression of satan and lead us into the promised land - heaven on earth! Tragically there are many who get saved, but continue to live in Egypt, to live in slavery to the god, and the course of this world. Because while they would like to enjoy the blessings of God, they are not interested in serving God. They desire freedom, but the freedom to serve themselves. Six different times, God sent Moses to Pharaoh, to command him: "Set my people free, that they might serve (worship) me." When God did get them out, He couldn't just give them the promised land. Because of their slave mentality, the land would have eaten them up! Because, in spite of the many miracles, their hearts were still far from God. They saw God as another Pharaoh - another hard taskmaster. They couldn't comprehend 'freedom of service.' After 400 years under Pharaoh, they could only conceive 'bondage of service.' Most traditional religious thinking is still charged with this slave mentality. What they believe and teach about God is a more apt description of Pharaoh than 'the Father of Mercies, and the God of all comfort.' For many, God is not real to them. Some may have lots of information, others experiences, but many lack their own living relationship with Him. And so they never truly believe, or run with the vision - the divine destiny that God has for them. He wants to get to you, so He can get work through you. Joshua stood out among the Hebrews. He dared to believe God, to run with the vision. To put it all on the line, and step out in faith. And he only had Caleb to stand beside him. They stood alone. They could be accused of being cranks, 'hyper-faith fanatics.'
Before God could take Israel into the promised land, certain characteristics had to be established in their lives:
1) DIVINE PRESENCE People associate the wilderness time with suffering. But
they had been brought out of slavery, to where they could worship freely.
|
"He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people."
(Ex 13:22) Instead of Egyptian slave drivers with whips, they had the presence of God. They failed to become sensitive to His presence - to enjoy the companionship that the Father offers.
"So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the Son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle." (Exodus 33:3)
We have heard much about 'Joshua the warrior,' but little about 'Joshua, the friend of God.' And God wanted the company of His people so much that He was prepared to confine His presence to the tabernacle. He couldn't dwell freely among them, or His glory would destroy them because of the hardness of their hearts.
2) DIVINE PROVISION They needed to learn that: "Where God leads, He feeds,
and where He guides, He provides." Provision, not just to sustain, but to prove the relationship. And to develop them to live in the promises. They preferred a guaranteed and familiar feed, in slavery, than an unknown promised land of milk and honey, in freedom. "So you shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness from the midst of you. No one shall suffer miscarriage or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days." (Ex 23:25&26) This is the promise of the covenant. To those who serve (worship) God. He has always intended His people to be a blessed people, that all the world might see and know that He is a good God! "For you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He that gives you the power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant." (Deut 8:18)
3) DIVINE GUIDANCE. "And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar
Of cloud to Lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night." (Ex 13:21)
They needed to learn to trust His guidance - that He would always lead them the best way. To move when the cloud moved, and to stop when it stopped.
You want to lead, you go alone. Refuse to follow, you go alone.
When God was ready to lead them into the promise land, there were only three who were prepared to follow. Who had seen His acts, learned His ways, and were ready to run with the vision. "He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel." (Psalm 103:7) The others saw His acts, but because of slave mentality, failed to learn His ways. Only two of all those men got to enter the land - Joshua, and Caleb. "But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land.." (Numbers 14:24) What God asked from them may have seemed a hard thing - it meant facing the giants with only God's promise of victory - but it was a good thing, because the land was for them!
What will bring anyone out of the wilderness is the revelation that God is a Good God. And that He is with you always. You will never, ever, be alone. Never again do you need to face any giant, any hardship on your own. Jesus promised He would never leave you or forsake you. Learn to worship, to be sensitive to His presence.
What will bring you out of the wilderness is the revelation that God has a good plan for your life. That wherever He is leading you, He is leading you to His highest good for your life. Trust Him!
And learning that the land He is leading you into is a land flowing with milk and honey. Where it takes two men to carry one bunch of Grapes! And if the going gets tough on the way, He hasn't lost the recipe for manna! He hasn't forgotten how to command ravens, or where the fish is with a coin in it's mouth! Or how to feed five thousand with a little boy's lunch!
The calling to serve God is a high calling, But it's not a hard calling. Unless we fail to develop these characteristics. Then it will not only be hard - the odds are when God tells us to 'rise up, and enter in' we will want to turn back to Egypt. Either way, you're gonna serve somebody.
It wasn't through hardship of service, but a blessed life that Joshua could say at the end of his days:
"Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." (Joshua 24:15)
I was going to close out here, but God has just been speaking to my heart. He showed me how Jericho belonged to Him, because it was the first fruits. But thereafter, all the spoils of all those cities went to the children of Israel.
He spoke to my heart: "That is all I require from my children. The first fruits. All the rest is for them to enjoy, that all the earth might see and know that I, the Lord Your God, am a good God."
-Steve & Jenny
|
