Invading the promised land
Last week the Lord spoke to us about recalibrating us.
Alan shared about his friend who has a powerful car. There was nothing wrong with the car but he wanted to make it more powerful.
This fits in with what I believe God is wanting to do with us over the coming months. In a number of different areas – worship, prayer, faith, presence, spiritual gifts.
I believe the Lord wants to speak to us about a number of things that in one sense will not be new to us but where he wants to take us up a level. Greater understanding, greater insight and greater experience.
Eg faith. We’ve read about it in our bibles, heard sermons about it, read books about it, heard stories about it, we’ve experienced it – but the lord is wanting to expand us in it. If you like, he is recalibrating us. Calibrating is about measuring – he wants to give us a greater measure!
An overall theme over the next few months is going to be – Invading the Promised Land.
I’ve chosen the word invading deliberately. Because this in one sense is what the Israelites did. They were an invasion force for God – to drive out ungodliness and to be a nation ruled by God. It may sound a bit too aggressive a bit uncomfortable.
We too are called to be invaders in the world we live in. Not compromising with ungodliness but also to seeing the advance of his kingdom in real and tangible ways.
The promised land metaphor. In the bible it was a fulfilment of God’s promise to Abraham.
I believe that we can see this on two levels:
- The promised land of our inheritance in who we are in Christ – the benefits to us now and in the future of our salvation
- For us as a church the promised land of Workington and surrounding areas. We can in a prophetic sense see our community as his promised land for us. This is our inheritance.
Now if we imagine the Israelites after they crossed the Jordan – they were in the promised land. In reality they were in the land. But they had not yet possessed it. They hadn’t taken control of it. There are many Christians like that. They are in – but they haven’t yet possessed all that there is available to them. They’ve set up a defensive encampment just inside the borders and have set themselves up in a defensive formation.
In fact there were two and a half tribes – Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh that didn’t even settle in the promised land. They thought there was better land for them outside of God’s promises.
As christians we can often rely on things that seem better to us but are not in God’s plan. They may appear to be the better option, even the more blessed option the easy option and we can convince ourselves they are what God is calling us to.
For the 2½ tribes potentially the easy option was to settle for the good land outside his promises and still try to accommodate God into their lives. The potentially hard option was to face Jericho.
It’s not that God wants us to take the hard option because he’s mean. No he wants us to choose the option that is in line with his promises. The tragedy was that the 2½ tribes were soon taken into captivity by their enemies.
Lets not be christians who just accommodate God into our lives as an add on like the 2½ tribes.
But let’s not just set up camp just inside the borders
Lets take hold of our full inheritance. Let’s push into aspects of his promises that we haven’t yet fully explored. Lets go “further up and further in”. There are exploits of faith ahead for each of us and more blessings to be enjoyed.
How do we “invade” more of the promised land that Christ has for us?
By the Spirit.
Recalibrating means first and foremost more holy spirit. A greater measure of holy spirit. The holy spirit must permeate everything we do. Both corporately and individually.
In the promised land God was going to amazingly bless their normal work. God wants to do that. To bring supernatural blessing to our normal work.
The promised land was not just for the people. It was for God. The more battles they won, the more blessing they received, the more he was glorified. The more of his purpose fulfilled.
So – we are to be invaders – forcefully advancing to take hold of all that the Lord has for us. Every answered prayer is an expression of his kingdom coming and the kingdom of darkness being overcome. Every prayer is an expression of our seeking to take the promised land.
We need to not just have a settling mentality but an invading mentality.