|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
ENTERING INTO THE PROMISE LAND(Newsletter 2 July 00)Newsletter 2 July 00POSSESSING YOUR PROMISE LAND This week we continue to explore the parallel between Joshua and the Hebrew children entering the promise land, and our walk of faith today in Christ Jesus. God had broken Pharaohs power over the Hebrew children. Jesus broke satan's power over us. Colossians 1:12 "[The Father] has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love." (Amplified.) "God disarmed the principalities and powers ranged against us and made a bold display and public example of them, triumphing over them in it." (Colossians 2:15) God rolled away the reproach of Egypt off them. He has freed us from sin consciousness. No more are we lawbreakers, because there is no more law (except the law of love.) "Having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross."(Col 2:14) He gave them a land of milk and honey. "Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified and made us fit to share the portion which is the inheritance of the saints (God's holy people) in the light." (Colossians 1:12) "The thief comes only in order that he may steal and may kill and may destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance - to the full, till it overflows." (John 10:10) There are those who would maintain that the promise land is not until we get to heaven. But then, people fail to enter their promise land today for the same reason that the Hebrew children failed to enter in. Unbelief & unpersuadableness. (Heb 3:19, 4:6) The challenge is even greater for us today, because they saw Pharaoh destroyed with their own eyes. We have to take God's word for it, and learn to see it with the eye of faith. Unbelief refuses to believe what it cannot see. The land Jesus promised - the place of life to the full, till it overflows - occupies all three realms - physical, mental and spiritual. There is a promise of not just healing, but divine physical health - Isaiah 53, Matthew 8:17, 1Peter 2:24, Romans 8:17. Of not just provision, but prosperity. And there is a promise of healing for the soul, of perfect peace. "You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in you." (Isaiah 26:3) Several weeks ago, I made this statement:: "God brought them out of Egypt to take them into a place of blessing, a place of plenty. It wasn't so much a geographical place He had prepared, but a place in Him." So while our inheritance covers both the physical realm, and the realm of the soul, because it is a place IN HIM it is first and foremost a spiritual realm. "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh." (2Corinthians 10:3) You must establish your place, your inheritance, in the realm of the spirit before it can be established in the soul realm, and it must be established in the soul realm before it will be manifest in the physical realm. IN other words, the battle must first be won in the spirit. |
"Or else how can one enter a strongman's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strongman? And then he will plunder his goods." (Matthew 12:29) The first thing Jesus did when He sent His twelve disciples out, was to give them power and authority over the powers of darkness. (Matthew 10:1, Luke 10:19)
Thank God, as we saw in Colossians, the enemy is defeated. But his strongmen still occupy the land. The Hebrew spies (Nu 13) had their eyes on the giants in the land, Joshua and Caleb had their eyes on the houses that the giants were living in - the land they were occupying. Their land.
They believed three things that God had told them - without any physical evidence to support it - only His word for it. (Numbers 14) 1) They believed that God had given them the land. 2) They believed that the enemies protection had departed from them. 3) They believed that God was with them.
You may have been in the wilderness of lack for years. Your inheritance in the saints entitles you to abundance. But that abundance is in the possession of the thief, who thinks he owns it. Do you think he is going to meekly run along when you try to move in? He is going to have to be evicted, forcefully! (Matthew 11:12 - the violent take it by force!) You are going to have to believe, hold fast to those same three things. And initially, there will be no physical evidence - no outward sign to go by. Because you cannot see the realm of the spirit, and that is where the strongman abides. First the spirit of poverty, infirmity etc. must be bound and evicted. Then, having been established in the spirit, the battle of the soul must be won. 2Cor 10:5 "- bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ." That is, in obedience to THE WORD. And as the realm of the spirit is established by rising up and taking action (taking authority) and the realm of the soul is established by action (Being strong and of good courage - steadfast minded, Josh 1:8) so then shall the physical realm be established - by taking action! They would still be in the wilderness if they waited for it to come to them!
"Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon
I have given you, as I said to Moses.." (Joshua 1:3) "Behold I give you power, and all authority, to tread upon snakes and scorpions, and to crush the enemy." (Luke 10:19) Of course, there is always the danger of getting off in the ditch. Of seeing a devil under every rock. But that's easy to discern, both in your life and others.
To Caleb, cleaning out the giants was no big deal - two step simplicity. Locate them, and RUN THEM OFF. Those in the ditch will make a song and dance about it Those in faith will accept it as an established fact - "Are you still here? (yawn) Then shut the door behind you on your way out!" In the ditch on the other side are precious saints who are beating up on themselves - examining their own performance because they haven't received their inheritance. Doing all the right things. I'll tell you where you are missing it. The giants are still in possession of it! We are not here to engage them in a tug-of war! We are here to run them off! "Devil, you are defeated. Get your hands off my inheritance, NOW, IN JESUS NAME! ON YOUR BIKE!"
These principles can be applied to any one of the promises of God. For yourself, or for others. Dealing with the unsaved, again the battle is won in the spirit first. Their minds are blinded (2Cor 4:4) so if you try to win in the soul realm without first establishing it in the spirit (which is why so many blow it) you are going to create confusion and simply alienate them. No, it is not persecution for the Lords sake, it is persecution for being a fruitcake! Some of them are bound up by spirits that have been on the family for generations. "Turn them loose devil, IN JESUS NAME!" Yum, yum. Demons, the breakfast of champions! -Steve & Jenny
-Steve & Jenny |