POSSESSING THE PROMISE
As the brave priests stood in the middle of the dry Jordan holding up the Ark of the Covenant, all of Israel crossed the riverbed on dry ground. They then carefully chose twelve stones from the dried riverbed, each one representing one of the twelve tribes. They had honored the faith of the patriarchs by crossing and now they would build a memorial signifying that they had received a covenant. When the twelfth stone was chosen and the Priests bearing the Ark came out of the river bed the water came rushing back and their way of escape back to the old way of life was cut off.
I can almost picture the multitude staring with their jaws dropped in awe as the waters that once separated them from their promised land closed the doorway to their avenue of retreat. They had passed the proverbial point of no return.
As Jesus came out of the water He also chose twelve stones known as the twelve apostles. Just as Israel was built on the foundation of the twelve sons of Jacob, the church would be built on the foundations of the apostles.
"And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hades shall not prevail against it." Matthew 16:18
Peter would later write in one of his epistles:
Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by god and precious, you also as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:4-5
In my opinion, there is little doubt that Peter was referring to the statement Jesus made in Matthew 16:18. This point is again revealed in John's vision of New Jerusalem.
Now the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them the names of the twelve apostles of the lamb. Revelation 21:14
God is building His church upon us and we are entering into His labors. We have been made partakers of the same covenant of the twelve tribes and the twelve apostles. They serve as a memorial to us that we will possess the Promised Land because Christ has made a way for us. We have passed the point of no return. We know we will prevail in this conquest because we have the Kingdom of God in our hearts built upon the doctrines and faith of the apostles who have went that way before us.
Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2
In heaven there is a triumphant church and that is the church we belong to. We are of the faith that will overcome. We must never wait. We have the living memorial of how Jesus opened the way for us. Like those twelve stones that were plucked from the riverbed so we have been plucked up from the muddy bottom of sin and now we are living stones being built together as a memorial of what Jesus did for us.
One major step in possessing the land is to honor those who have gone before us. My parents were faithful believers, my grandparents were faithful, their parents were faithful, and many generations were faithful. I know that most of what God has done in my life is the answers to the prayers of those who were before me. Those previous generations are proof we will succeed, and when we are gone we will be proof to the next generation.
Another Sign
I believe that the red sea parting was a prophetic picture of what would occur at the Jordan which was a foreshadow and type of what Christ would do for all mankind. Likewise, I believe the Lord is faithful to give each of us a prophetic picture of our destinies as we begin our journeys. It was forty years after the red sea experience yet I believe Joshua expected the miracle at the Jordan because he had seen it at the red sea.
I had this experience early in my life of ministry. One evening in a tent revival in my hometown I stood near the back of the tent as god begin to speak to me. He told me that I would travel the nations and see many souls saved and that I would begin in Russia. At the time I was in my early twenties and could not believe what I was hearing. I had never even been on airplane. I could not imagine going to that place as this was near the end of the cold war. But just a few months later I found myself in Russia enjoying the ministry seeing thousands coming to Jesus. It was a prophetic picture of how God was going to use me in the future.
I admit I was very inexperienced and without a doubt did very little well, nevertheless it worked. It was not me doing it was God. Just like the Red sea and the Jordan. It is God who does the impossible. When we let our feet take us He will make a way. Because of that success in Russia, I have a memorial in my mind. God had parted the Red sea of communism and made a way for me to walk into my destiny. Leaving the past and entering into the promise he gave me.
The following four years I was shocked that it did not keep happening just the way it did in Russia. I prayed and prayed until it suddenly happened again and again. This time I left the wilderness to find myself in the promised land of destiny.
Perhaps you have had a flash of promise only to find yourself in the wilderness. True enough God is keeping you but your heart burns for the city whose builder and maker is God. It is time for you to cross over. God has made you promises accompanied by previous victories. Don't make the mistake of believing the best is behind you. Build a memorial of your victories and let the river close the wilderness way. Your future is brighter than your past, or your now. Your promise is greater than you provision.
A new generation stands opposite the wilderness struggles of the previous. Finally joy filled the camp as these celebrated the promise made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They knew this was their land because of the covenant of promise made with Abraham.
Therefore, they reinstated the covenant through circumcision which their fathers had forgotten. A new generation was now Abraham's seed, and they had a right to their inheritance. They were the ones he had prophesied of.
Similarly, we must take the covenant not through circumcision but through baptism. According to Romans 6 baptism is the act of partaking of the death, burial, and resurrection. This is our entry into the covenant. Because we are in Christ the promise is also ours.
We know we have entered into the promise because we have crossed the waters through baptism into Christ. Baptism is the circumcision of the heart and we are partakers of the promise. In fact we are now children of the covenant and the land is ours because we have inherited it.
A People of Promise
Four hundred years the proud Jewish people lived in Egypt as slaves. Their days were spent building and serving the Egyptians. They were not consumers but rather slaves. The spent their days filled with shame and resentment. They were not designers, merchants, or owners but they were for the common use of labor. Every day they would perform the tasks given to them by cruel Egyptian overlords. They worked very hard to please their bosses just to receive from their hands beatings, daily rations, and few if any other benefits. They knew only one way of life for a few centuries, the way of slavery.
When God delivered them out of Egypt and through the Red Sea He drown the pursuing Army and forever rid the Israelites of Pharaoh and his chariots. They were now free, yet it seemed Egypt was still part of them. The cold talons of Egypt's grip had dug deep into their mind and would not release the free for another whole generation. This generation, although free, would not build houses, till and nurture crops, they would not dig wells. Every day they would arise from their slumber and somber out of their tents to gather the day's manna. Never more than a day's worth or it would spoil. The following day they would repeat the routine with the exception of the seventh day and that day they rested from the monotonous process.
The glory and presence of God was always visible in either a cloud by day or fire by night. Without knowing where they were going, no compass, no maps only the cloud and fire. They were to move and stay based upon the sky. Never failing to go where they were supposed to, never away from the presence of God, they simply followed the cloud. Sometimes I wish I had a cloud to follow.
The cloud occasionally led them for days without water, so God provided them a rock that was source of water for them. The first time Mosses was instructed to strike the rock and water gushed from it much like when the rock of ages was struck with a sword and water mixed with blood flowed. I believe this event is symbolic of the Holy Spirit. The next time he was to speak to the rock symbolizing the relationship a believer has with the Rock since He was first struck for us.
Nevertheless these one million nomads wandered in the wilderness without providing for themselves life's basic needs. They ate what God gave them. They drank what God gave them. They wore the clothes for forty years that God caused not to wear out. They traveled the paths that God led them on. They made no plans, planted no crops, dug no wells, and made no maps for more than forty years. Their children grew up in the wilderness and had no skills.
But suddenly this unskilled and untrained generation was across the river Jordan challenged by obstacles they had never been trained to address. They were now in the famed land promised to their fathers that flowed with milk and honey. However, they were used to the ease of manna and water not necessarily the zealous stinging of honey bees nor the labors of taking milk from a cow. Their culture was changing. Now they would learn the art of bee charming, dairy farming, ground tilling they were to shift from a nomadic culture to a farming culture.
Another culture also had to be developed if they were to survive the opposition of walled cities guarded by armored giants racing about in chariots. They would have to learn blacksmith skills and forge weapons learn to use them and make maps so they could conquer the land. Clumsily they were changing their identity from children of provision to children of promise.
A careful study of Joshua 1:1-9 reveals four promises to Joshua as he took the Promised Land.
a. every where his foot touched was given to him
b. no man would be able to stand against him
c. divide the inheritance that was promised to his fathers
d. To make his way prosperous.
These promises were not made to the wilderness pilgrims but rather to those who had entered the Promised Land. They were not for the children of provision but rather for the children of promise. The coveted blessing of prosperity does not come through provision but rather through the promise. The life across the Jordan sounds sweet but it is not a life of ease but rather one of productivity. The promises made to Joshua were in cooperation with Joshua's action. He had to step on the land to receive it, in order to defeat his enemies he had to fight; he had to divide the inheritance and \travel to have a prosperous way. The Promised Land is filled with walled cities guarded by armored giants. So this Promised Land must be taken and then it must be farmed and worked to get to the promise.
Prosperity is a promise that proceeds from the promise, not the provision. Often God's children confuse the provision with the promise. The result is we spend our time in search of the next miracle instead of sowing and reaping a miracle harvest. It is true that God has provided for us a land but it will take our reliance upon the promise to posses it.
We have been given more than manna that lasts a day. We have been given the land that flows with milk and honey. Therefore, we must learn to milk cows and to fight bees. We have to learn warfare if we are to posses all the promises of God. It seems the whole world is crying for peace and safety. It has even become the attitude of the church. It seems we want a treaty or cease fire with the powers of darkness. Forget it! The kingdoms of darkness and the Kingdom of Light will not coexist. One has to go. We have been made children of promise and given power over darkness therefore I must conclude I have to fight so that darkness can be defeated.
I refuse to lie down and give our King's creation to the thief. We must take the land back from the enemy. Souls should be given back to the one they were created for. We have a responsibility to take the prosperity God has blessed us with and make it produce fruit worthy of the kingdom.
The Promised Land is not for the thoughtless shadow boxers but for men and women who are willing to make plans, draw maps, and fight battles to posses the promise. Without these kinds of people the Kingdom suffers. If we will work the ground, the ground will work for us. The last generation of believers is the most prosperous in the history of the world because they learned to sow and reap. Yet the best is to come because this generation is learning warfare and strategy to take unreached and the unchurched. We are on the cusp of a wealth transfer into the hands of the righteous through evangelism and power.
The responsibility of the church is to battle wicked realities such as poverty, disease, and war. This can only be done as we turn our eyes to the Jericho like fortresses of tormented people in unreached nations.
Living on the Promises
It must have been quite a feeling when the river closed behind them. I am sure the young were excited and the elderly cautious as their way of escape disappeared. Without a doubt, this would separate the warriors from the wanderers. They had left the land of provision and now faced giants.
The first morning they awoke possibly feeling the effects of their first night eating the produce of that precious Promised Land. They would leave their tents that morning and find that everything was different. They looked at the ground and there was no manna there, they looked to the sky to see if they were on the right track but there was no cloud there. They had entered the realm of faith living. The fruit of promise is sweet yet it takes a different mindset to posses it.
If we aren't careful we will look to the ground for provision and the sky for a sign and wander is God really with us. The answer is absolutely. The people of God should move from the cloud following mindset and begin to believe the cloud is following you. God promised us to go where we go. To give us everywhere we step. This is our promise. You don't wait for the thing to be given but rather take it by force. I am of course referring to spiritual matters not physical force. However, don't be surprised if the blessing does not come until you make the first move.
Amazingly, a careful study of the way they traveled through the wilderness reveals that the Ark of the Covenant always went before the people. Contrarily once they had crossed the Jordan the Ark of the Covenant always followed them. It is amazing that Jesus said
"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observes all things that I have commanded you; and lo I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Matthew 28:19-20
Wherever we go, He goes. In the wilderness miracles lead the way but in salvation signs follow.
"And these signs will follow those who believe.." Mark 16:17a
The promise is only received after the provision is sown. This may be the most difficult thing to sow your provision. Provision is just enough and when you sow your just enough God will give you more than enough. On the other hand if you eat your just enough you will fail to reap your more than enough.
