Strength to take the land

Look at the nations and watch – and be utterly amazed.

For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe,

 even if you were told. Habakkuk 1: 5

I woke up this morning with the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves by Verdi from his opera Nabucco running through my mind. I didn’t know anything about this opera, I just knew the tune. The opera is based on the Hebrews in exile in Assyria singing with longing for their homeland, similar to Psalm 137. 

It then occurred to me that when God led the Children of Israel out of Egypt after 400 years of slavery, they had no idea what the Promised Land was like. No one had ever seen it, not even Moses. They had no vision. Even when the spies returned after their expedition to scout out the land, 10 of them saw the Promised Land through the eyes of slaves, not as Children of Israel. It was all about identity. 

They didn’t see God as the covenant keeping God of Abraham or themselves as his people. Despite God having released them from slavery through mighty miracles, they didn’t see themselves as holy and dearly loved, a treasured possession. They were just worthless slaves.

That leads me to ask, how do we look at our situations? Through the eyes of slaves to sin or as children of God with an inheritance to take hold of? 

This last year has shown us that like the Children of Israel, none of us have been this way before. None of us have endured a pandemic and none of us really know what the way ahead looks like.  We can look at it as slaves bound by fear and insecurity believing we are never going to be free of the virus, or we can look with eyes of faith as children of God. He is laying before us an opportunity, never given to previous generations to press into something of God that will be so spectacular we wouldn’t believe it, even if we were told. 

Bill Johnson says that if Israel had walked into the Promised Land a few weeks after leaving Egypt, they would not have had the maturity to maintain the inheritance. The Lord will put us in situations so we have to push through to build spiritual strength, trust and faith in God so when the answers to our prayers and longings are released, we have the maturity to give all glory to God. 

These last 13 months have been a time for perseverance, patient endurance and seeking God.  Many of us have had time and space to build up our spiritual muscles, to learn to trust God in the wilderness for provision and presence. This will mean when we stand on the edge of our promised land, we will have faith and courage to cross over and a deep trust in God believing him to see souls saved, strongholds demolished and our nations turn to Jesus. 

The prize is enormous but if we have used the last year to fix our gaze upon Jesus, to know his voice, to hear his strategies, to catch the whisper of heaven and see a glimpse of his glory, we will have the maturity to give all glory to God when his sovereign power sweeps our nations. 

We know God wants to save our nations but all glory must go to him. When thousands are saved, blind eyes opened, deaf ears unstopped, the lame walking all that must be heard is an anthem of praise, thanksgiving and adoration to our God from his amazed, awe-struck, blood-bought children, overwhelmed by his goodness and love.