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. 

Resisting the urge to live with the enemy

When Joshua finally led the Israelites into the Promised Land, it was the fulfilment of a promise God gave to Abraham hundreds of years before and which he confirmed to Isaac and Jacob.  God would give them a land to live in and he would dispossess the nations that lived there.

Just as God had miraculously parted the Red Sea 40 years before to lead the people out of Egypt, God now parted the Jordan, flowing in full flood, for the nation to cross over into the land God had promised them.  This was the start of taking the land.

The Israelites were not meant to cross the Jordan and settle along its banks where the pastures would have been good and there was plenty of water.  They had to go to war and forcibly take the land.  God was with them and fought for them but they had to be obedient and do as God commanded.  If they had stayed by the Jordan, they would have had to learn to live with the enemy not overcome him.  Whenever the Israelites did that, it led to compromise and turning away from God. 

When we crossed our Jordan and came to salvation, God did not want us to settle down on the edge of our promised land.  He wants us to take all that he has planned and purposed for us, our families, our communities but it means going to war.  God will fight for us and teach us how to overcome the enemy but we must avoid compromise and not learn to live with the enemy.

The devil wants us to settle on the edge of God’s purposes and not press in and defeat his plans and strategies.  It takes Godly obedience but the rewards are great.  If the devil can persuade us to settle down, he can wrap us up in compromise and draw us further and further away from God.

I sense today there is a need to wake up from the peaceful sleep that the devil has lulled us into.  Let us look afresh at our lives and consider if there are promises we have let go of and land that we have still to take in our lives.  It took the Israelites a long time to finally get all God had planned for them because too often it was easier to settle down, make terms of peace with the nations around them and God had to constantly stir them to fresh action and fresh trust in him. 

Let God stir us from compromise and show us how to drive the enemy from our lives and take decisive action to press into the promises of God.