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| Invading Jericho and the Promised Land |
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by David A. DePra |
| See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and |
| the mighty men of valour. (Josh. 6:2) |
| One of the greatest miracles of the Old Testament was the |
| conquest of Jericho. Most Christians know that story by heart. God |
| had brought Israel across the Jordan on dry land and had told |
| them to conquer Jericho. Spies were sent in and were given help |
| by Rahab. Israel would then march around Jericho for seven days. |
| The walls of this mighty city would supernaturally collapse, and |
| Israel would prevail. |
| Jericho was the first place Israel would conquer after they |
| entered the promised land. It was the first part of their inheritance |
| which they would take into possession. They had been in |
| captivity for 430 years. They had wandered in the wilderness for |
| another 40 years. Now, at last, they were on their way to actually |
| taking possession of the land promised to Abraham. Jericho was |
| the FIRST step of experiencing the fulfillment of that promise. |
| YOU Drive Out the Inhabitants |
| Have you ever wondered WHY God made it so difficult for |
| Israel to take possession of the land He had given them? After all, |
| God could have easily driven out all of the inhabitants of the land |
| ahead of Israel. But He didn't. Instead of conquering these tribes |
| FOR Israel, God wanted to conquer them THROUGH Israel. Why |
| did God choose to work this way? |
| This question becomes especially important once we realize |
| that the promised land is a "type" of our inheritance in Jesus Christ. |
| Just as Israel was freely given this land, so are we freely given our |
| inheritance. We can do nothing to earn it. We must receive it solely |
| by faith. But we also have "tribes" dwelling in our "promised land." |
| We have the flesh. We have the residual patterns of the sin nature. |
| And likewise God says to us, "I won't drive these out FOR you. But |
| in Christ, I will drive them out THROUGH you." |
| So why does God work this way? Why didn't He simply drive out |
| the tribes for Israel? And why doesn't He simply get rid of all of our |
| tendencies toward the flesh once we are saved by His grace? If |
| we have received all things in Christ, free of charge, why must we |
| then overcome, conquer, and grow? |
| Actually, God answers this question directly: |
| I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to |
| whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their |
| backs unto thee. And I will send hornets before thee, which shall |
| drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee. |
| I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land |
| become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. |
| By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be |
| increased, and inherit the land. (Ex. 23:27-30) |
| Here we see exactly why God did not drive out the inhabitants |
| all at once ahead of Israel. If He had, Israel would not have had |
| the time, ability, or capacity, to enter and occupy the entire land |
| so quickly. As a result, the land would have been uncared for. It |
| would have become overgrown with thorns and weeds. Worse, |
| all kinds of animals and insects would have overrun the place. |
| Israel would have had an even worse time being able to finally |
| take possession of the land. |
| We see this all the time today. If a house, or piece of property, |
| remains unoccupied for a period of time, it isn't long before all kinds |
| of varments, plants, and animals overrun the place. The absence |
| of human life opens the door for the presence of every other kind |
| of life -- which would otherwise never enter in. |
| The reason why God would not drive out all the inhabitants |
| ahead of Israel carries a tremendous spiritual type for those who |
| have an eternal inheritance in Jesus Christ. God cannot go into our |
| beings -- our mind, will, emotions, and very soul -- and simply wipe |
| it clean of every possible foreign element as it pertains to His |
| perfect pattern in Christ. If He did, what would occupy these places? |
| These aspects of our makeup are what they are as a direct result |
| of our choices. We have BECOME that -- they are what we ARE. |
| Good or bad. For God to simply wipe the slate of our mind, will, |
| emotions CLEAN, and then immediately, all at once, somehow |
| replace them with something else, would mean that we would |
| cease to be who we are. We would have no memories, no choice, |
| no experience, and no emotional patterns. At best, we would be a |
| blank slate, without personality or character -- i.e., "the land would |
| become desolate." |
| It would only get worse from there. According to God, what would |
| happen next would be that "the beast of the field would multiply |
| against thee." If God did everything FOR us, instead of doing it |
| THROUGH us -- we would possess the land. But we would build |
| no character in the process. And without that, the "beast of the field" |
| would overrun us -- the greatest "beast" being pride. |
| You see, it is not sufficient that the "land" be made fit for us to |
| dwell in. More importantly, WE must be made fit for the land. WE |
| must be adjusted spiritually so that we can actually experience our |
| eternal inheritance. |
| Most of us little clue as to what it means to experience the things |
| of God. We think what we have experienced is IT -- when it may |
| not be "it" at all. Only if we drive out the old inhabitants, through our |
| choices of faith and obedience can we properly learn and grow, |
| and be prepared for the fullness of what He has for us. |
| God is, in this age, doing a work in us. He is preparing us for the |
| next age. But in this age, He is merely planting the bare grain. We |
| have names for these "seeds." We call them things like faith, hope, |
| and love. That is good. But in the eternal ages, these things will |
| be released and come forth into what they really are. THAT is what |
| we don't know. We have no point of reference point for it. Yet, if we |
| will go on with God, and "drive out the inhabitants of the land," we |
| will experience the fullness in the eternal ages. We will become, |
| through that process, the individual God intends us to become. |
| What we are talking about here is spiritual character. Spiritual |
| character is not a gift. It can't be "pasted on" to you or I. It must be |
| developed through the power of choice. Through faith and |
| obedience I must allow God to work through me to drive out the |
| things of the old creation, and must begin to allow Him to adjust me |
| for eternal life in Christ. |
| Conformed to Christ |
| The gospel of grace tells us that there is nothing we can do to |
| earn our inheritance. Of course. An inheritance is never earned! |
| It is inherited! Through birth! But in order to be able to take |
| possession and live in your inheritance, you have to be made fit |
| for it. You have to develope the character necessary to reign and |
| rule with Christ over it. |
| Thus, God has done it all FOR us. But He won't do in all IN us |
| without the yielding of OUR will. That is our part. If we do yield, |
| however, His will shall be done in us. We shall become conformed |
| to Jesus Christ. |
| This is why we are able to say, on the one hand, that we possess |
| all things freely because of Christ, but on the other hand, that we |
| must do what God commanded Israel to do: Go IN and take |
| practical possession of what God has given us. |
| How do we do this? In many spiritual ways and in many settings. |
| Every place the sole of our foot touches (spiritually) is now ours |
| in Christ. But once we take that step and plant our foot -- we must |
| STAND. We must stand by faith and refuse to be moved. And this |
| will entail, by the power of choice, driving out the inhabitants of the |
| land -- all of our old patterns of unbelief and flesh. |
| In Christ, we have all the power of His death and resurrection to |
| do this. Because the victory is already finished, we cannot fail to |
| prevail. But remember -- the victory isn't over an enemy "out here." |
| We have met the enemy and the enemy is us! Thus, we see the |
| "cost of grace." The "cost of grace" is that I must drive out the old |
| man. I must be crucified with Christ. I must be raised a new |
| creation. So what is the "cost of grace?" It is really that I must |
| relinquish what is worthless and take possession of what is |
| eternal and priceless. |
| The process of spiritual growth -- conforming us to Christ -- is |
| God's primary purpose for this age. Most of us have been taught |
| that His purpose for us is to preach the gospel -- to witness to Christ. |
| But it is not. It is to BECOME His witnesses. Then we can preach |
| the gospel and it will witness, because WE will be a witness to what |
| we preach. And we'll be prepared for the eternal ages. |
| Jericho in Us |
| Jericho had walls and gates. It was totally fortified. No way in. |
| And in was entrenched in the promised land. God told the children |
| of Israel: |
| See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and |
| the mighty men of valour. (Josh. 6:2) |
| Now read the words of Jesus to His disciples: |
| He (Jesus) saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon |
| Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living |
| God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, |
| Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, |
| but my Father which is in heaven. And I say unto thee, That thou |
| art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of |
| hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of |
| the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth |
| shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on |
| earth shall be loosed in heaven. (Matt. 16:16-19) |
| See the parallel? Jericho was a place representative of "the |
| gates of hell." These can never prevail against the church, as |
| typified by Israel in the Old Testament. |
| But there are other Truths tied up in this passage. Notice for |
| instance, Jesus statement that "the gates of hell shall not prevail |
| against it." Often we think of the enemy as the one on the offensive. |
| We think the church is on the defensive. This seems to make |
| sense because we do have the victory, don't we? And we must |
| STAND in the victory against the enemy, mustn't we? And that |
| makes things appear as if we are in the fortified city, and that the |
| enemy is the one attacking US. But this isn't how Jesus pictured |
| it. Nor is it the way the story of Jericho pictures it. Clearly, the |
| enemy is the one in the fortified city, and the church is the invader. |
| We see this pictured in other places in the New Testament. For |
| instance, read I Corinthians: |
| For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For |
| the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God |
| to the pulling down of strong holds, casting down imaginations, and |
| every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, |
| and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. |
| (I Cor. 10:3-5) |
| Again, we see a picture of the eternal invading the natural. And |
| of the victory of Jesus Christ taking possession of that which was |
| occupied by the enemy. And of the believer taking possession of |
| what God has freely given. |
| Thus, instead of the enemy trying to invade and conquer those |
| who belong to Christ, we find that in God's perfect pattern, it is the |
| believer who is to invade and take possession of that which was |
| formerly possessed by the enemy. The believer is to "drive out" |
| the enemy, and occupy the inheritance God has given. |
| To natural thinking, this might seem like we have a victory to win. |
| It might seem as if the enemy must be defeated and driven out, and |
| until he is, nothing is won. But this isn't the Truth. Just as Israel |
| already possessed the land, so do we already possess all things |
| in Christ. Yet we must go in and face the enemy. But the purpose |
| here isn't to defeat the enemy. It is to drive out a defeated enemy. |
| The purpose is to exercise faith in the finished victory of Christ, to |
| work out that faith through obedience, and to take possession of |
| that which God has won in Christ. |
| The Rock |
| When Jesus said that the gates of hell could not prevail, or stand, |
| against the invasion of His church, He said it was BECAUSE of |
| someone this was so. Who? Because of "the Rock" upon which |
| The gate of hell would not prevail because of "the Rock" upon |
| which the church was to be built. |
| Do you see that? When Peter made the proclamation, "You |
| are the Christ, the Son of the Living God," Jesus said, "Upon THIS |
| Rock -- not Peter -- but upon that revelation of Jesus AS the Christ, |
| upon THAT Rock, would the church be built. And against THAT |
| church -- built upon THAT revelation -- the gates of hell could never |
| prevail or stand. They MUST come crashing down as surely as |
| did the walls of Jericho. |
| Now, there could be only one reason why fortified gates and |
| walls -- gates and walls which have been there for ages and |
| ages -- could not prevail. That reason is this: The victory is |
| already won. The gates and walls have no power behind them. |
| They are ready to come down. But God says He isn't going to go |
| ahead and blow them down independent of us. No. Rather, He |
| ordains that WE be His instruments -- even if all we do is march |
| around the walls and never so much as reach out and try to push |
| them over! |
| Here is where faith comes in. The enemy has no power today. |
| None. Ziltch. Zero. But he does have permission to do one thing: |
| Try to deceive us into thinking he does have power. He has God's |
| permission to threaten us, incite fear in us, and to try to make us |
| believe that it is all up to us. Just as Jericho must have surely |
| looked invincible to the Israelites, and just as it must have seemed |
| as it there was NO victory forthcoming, so it often looks to us in the |
| Christian life. But no. The victory is won. It is simply a matter of |
| walking through the steps of faith and obedience, and the walls |
| will eventually fall. |
| The gates of hell shall not prevail against the revelation that |
| Jesus is the Christ. They shall not prevail against the church. But |
| the gates of hell are not merely the world, atheists, or opponents |
| of the Truth. There are gates of hell in each one of US. Yet they |
| are gates and walls which are as paper walls. Their power lies |
| in their appearance, feelings, fears, emotions, and self-will. But |
| if we will believe they will, in time, fall to the ground. |
| The Accursed Things |
| God told Israel exactly what to do in order to conquer Jericho. |
| He was very clear to them as to what they were allowed to do, and |
| NOT allowed to do. God commanded: |
| And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest |
| ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, |
| and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it. But all the |
| silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated |
| unto the LORD: they shall come into the treasury of the LORD. |
| (Josh. 6:18-19) |
| Here we see God's command directed toward two types of |
| items which Israel would find in Jericho. First, there were the |
| "accursed" things. These were items which had been used by |
| the inhabitants of Jericho to worship false gods. Included among |
| these were statues, garments, and other tools of the occult. These |
| items were to be totally destroyed. Secondly, there were the |
| valuable things -- such as silver, gold, brass, and iron. These were |
| not to be destroyed, but were to be salvaged by Israel and added |
| to the "treasury of the Lord." |
| Again, we see spiritual types. The accursed things are those |
| things which must totally die. They are of the sin nature, and of the |
| flesh. They cannot be brought forth and incorporated into the new |
| life in Christ. But there are other things which CAN. These are the |
| elements of the personality and human makeup which are not, of |
| themselves, evil and wrong. God made us and it was very good. |
| And He intends to take those elements and sanctify them unto His |
| glory. |
| A Christian born again in Christ does not become inhuman. He |
| has sensitivity, emotions, a mind, a will, and emotions. These are |
| not obliterated through the new birth. They are regenerated. They |
| are salvaged and brought into "God's treasury." |
| Note this: They are brought into "GOD'S treasury." They no |
| longer belong to US. They belong to HIM. They are dedicated to |
| Him and are to be used unto His glory. |
| In the case of Jericho, Israel did not obey God. One of the |
| children of Israel, Achan, the son of Carmi, had been involved in |
| the conquest of Jericho. But he disobeyed the command of God |
| on all counts. He later confessed: |
| And Achan answered Joshua, and said, "Indeed I have sinned |
| against the LORD God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done: |
| When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and |
| two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels |
| weight, then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold, they are |
| hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it." (Josh. |
| '7:20-21) |
| Achan had taken BOTH an accursed thing, and a thing to be |
| salvaged, and kept them for himself. He had committed a great |
| sin. |
| The greatest sin we can commit against God is not necessarily |
| some outward breaking of his law -- although we certainly should |
| never take such sin lightly. An even greater sin is to take the very |
| things of God -- things I may have obtained in a great victory -- and |
| then use those things for myself. |
| How might one do this? Leaders, for instance, carry that |
| possibility with them. If someone has a special gift from God to get |
| insights from the Bible, or to counsel others, or to teach people, |
| they might take the gift the Holy Spirit has given them and use it, |
| not to glorify God, but to glorify themselves. This can be quite a |
| subtle thing. Achan, remember, HID what he had stolen for himself |
| and buried them in his tent. Only because God knows all things, |
| and will judge them, was the Truth able to be known. |
| Today, as has always been the case, people -- leaders and |
| non-leaders alike -- take the things of God, things which God has |
| given them, and use it to their own profit. They use the things of |
| God, the name of Jesus, and the position they might hold, and use |
| it to get rich. Or perhaps to gain a following. Or perhaps to build |
| themselves up as spiritual giants to be greatly admired of men. |
| Instead of bringing the things God has given into HIS treasury, to |
| use unto the edification for all, some hoard it for themselves. Jesus |
| said whether your heart is, there will be your treasure. In Achan's |
| case, it was in his tent, in a hole he had dug. |
| Now, that's what some of us do with the "good" things which God |
| has given us from our victory. But what about those things which |
| were to be utterly destroyed? Some even take those and hide |
| them in their tents. We settle down beside these wicked things, and |
| make a treaty with them. Or we justify them by saying that they |
| aren't really as bad as God says they are. |
| There is a passage in the book of Ezekiel which speaks to this |
| point. |
| And he brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, |
| behold, a hole in the wall. Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig |
| now in the wall: and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door. |
| And he said unto me, Go in, and behold the wicked abominations |
| that they do here. So I went in and saw; and behold every form of |
| creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the |
| house of Israel, portrayed upon the wall round about. And there |
| stood before them seventy men of the ancients of the house of |
| Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah, son of Shaphan, |
| with every man his censer in his hand; and a thick cloud of incense |
| went up. Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what |
| the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the |
| chambers of his imagery? for they say, The LORD seeth us not; the |
| LORD hath forsaken the earth. (Ezek. 8:7-12) |
| This "chamber of imagery" is the place where we do, say, think, |
| and choose -- but don't really think God sees us. We don't quite put |
| it in those words, mind you, because we do know that God sees |
| all. But somehow, there is no sense of conviction or openness |
| about it before God. This "chamber" belongs to US. And in it we |
| subtlely worship our other gods, and entertain and linger among |
| those things which God says are not to be a part of our lives. |
| The parallel to Achan is immistakable. Members of the body of |
| Christ take that which is wicked and evil, and are at ease with these |
| things. They allow them to remain, or even use them for their own |
| agenda. But to God, these things are an abomination. |
| What God really wants us to do is found in the book of Acts. The |
| scripture applies to Jesus Christ, but also to our life before God in |
| Him. The passage illustrates what our attitude should be unto God. |
| I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, |
| that I should not be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my |
| tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope. (Acts |
| 2:25-26) |
| This is a picture of One whose "face" is always "facing" towards |
| God -- that is -- His life is open and surrendered. He has not walled |
| off any part of it for His own. His is using no part of Himself for His |
| own agenda. He has taken nothing of Jericho and hidden it for |
| Himself. |
| This is to typify the life of the Christian. And while we cannot |
| possibly imagine how to do this, for we have little grasp of what we |
| are made of, God will bring us to deeper and deeper levels of it. |
| Just as God took Israel deeper and deeper into the promised land, |
| so God brings us deeper and deeper into the life of Jesus Christ. |
| Spiritual Weakness |
| Even before Achan confessed his sin, Israel began experiencing |
| the consequences of that sin. They were routed by the men of Ai. |
| This led to the inquiry wherein the sin of Achan was discovered. |
| Notice what God said to Joshua regarding this sin: |
| Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant |
| which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed |
| thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have |
| put it even among their own stuff. Therefore the children of Israel |
| could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before |
| their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with |
| you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you. |
| Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against |
| tomorrow: for thus saith the LORD God of Israel, There is an |
| accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel: thou canst not stand |
| before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from |
| among you. (Josh. 7:11-13) |
| Do you want to know why the body of Christ doesn't have the |
| miracles of the first century today? It isn't because God did away |
| with miracles. It isn't because the gifts ceased with the apostles. |
| It is precisely because of the reasons God gives in this verse. We |
| have "taken of the accursed thing...and have put it even among our |
| own stuff." We have brought all kinds of terrible things into the body |
| of Christ. Therefore, God CANNOT use us the way He used the |
| first century body of Christ. To do so would be a false witness. God |
| would be saying, "I approve of this." He cannot. |
| Remember -- miracles are signs, not for believers, but for |
| unbelievers. Jesus said they would "follow" where the true gospel |
| was preached. So when you preach a watered-down gospel, or |
| add to it with false teaching, there can be no witnessing miracles. |
| God will not witness to that which misrepresents Him. |
| Of course the ironic thing today is that we have even found a way |
| around that. If God won't witness to false teaching, and won't |
| witness to us when we have taken wicked things and made them |
| part of "our stuff," well, then WE'LL make the miracles happen |
| without God! So we have hundreds of "miracle services" every |
| year, claiming many fantastic miracles. We have thousands of |
| promises and claims of miracles as a result of giving money to |
| these ministries. But when all is said and done, and the evidence |
| is really examined, there are FEW miracles. We just don't see |
| happening today what once happened in the body of Christ. |
| Miracles are NOT, of course, the important thing. The spiritual |
| condition of the Body is the important thing. But if you want to know |
| why we haven't seen many miracles since the first century, you will |
| find your answer in tragedy of Achan. We have mixed the wicked |
| things of darkness with the things of God and called it Christianity. |
| We have used even the GOOD things God has given us for our |
| own profit and agenda. God isn't going to bless that. Ever. |
| Overcoming |
| The lack of miracles is the least of the consequences which arise |
| when we take the accursed things and make them part of our own |
| stuff. We lose the ability to stand before our enemy. That is |
| because overcoming requires faith. And I can't have real faith |
| unless it is unconditional and to the death. When I have an agenda, |
| and a personal gain in mind, it is certainly NOT unconditional. |
| Many of us, when faced with a spiritual battle, begin to rummage |
| through the spoil. "Well, I know that I shouldn't have this among my |
| stuff, but I'll bury it in my tent, just in case I need it." This can be |
| subtle and deceptive. Rather, we should say, "Everything good |
| belongs to God. Everything evil is to be mortified and shunned." |
| God never tells us to mess around with unclean, accursed, or evil |
| things. He always uses words like, "flee from" or "put off." We are |
| never to entertain or linger among those accursed things. |
| But WHAT "accursed things" is being spoken of here? Well, we |
| certainly have, as a church, taken the things of the world and pasted |
| on them the name of Christ: The world's music, the world's financial |
| practices, the world's authority system, etc. But we have taken |
| things even further: We have allowed to remain in us the world's |
| mentality; the world's way of thinking. |
| The point is, the problem with the body of Christ isn't "out here" |
| in what we DO. It's IN HERE -- in what we are. Many of us act as if |
| being a Christian is like belonging to a social club. We call |
| ourselves by a new name, and associate with new people. We |
| try to follow a list of guidelines and rules. But beneath it all, there is |
| a CORE of something in us which has never been broken. It is a |
| fundament of something which remains fully IN TACT. It is rather |
| off-limits to God -- although we would never tell Him that. We just |
| change the subject whenever God shines His light upon it. But it |
| is there. It is OURS. We secretly belong to ourselves, and not to |
| God. |
| There is a big difference between someone who is trying to |
| discard the accursed things of the old nature, and someone who |
| has taken them and buried them in his tent. Note that. Everyone of |
| us is going to carry along some of these old things among our own |
| stuff. Likely we don't know they are even there until God shows us. |
| That's ok. God knows that. But when God shows us they are there, |
| we must discard them. We must destroy them. There is a world of |
| difference between that, and someone who is NOT trying to get |
| free, but is trying to rationalize and justify what they are. They are |
| as Achan. They have buried the things of the enemy with their own |
| stuff. |
| Solutions |
| It was only after God supernaturally revealed that Achan was the |
| guilty party that Achan confessed his sin. At that point, he was put |
| to death -- because under that theocratic set-up it had to be. God |
| was showing this type of thing could not be tolerated. Besides, |
| there is no evidence Achan repented, or was sorry. His confession |
| was forced out of him. Nonetheless, once the sin was revealed and |
| purged, God delivered Ai into the hand of Israel. |
| Likewise, only if the body of Christ gets serious about believing |
| and obeying God, and about sanctification, will we, as a group, be |
| able to invade the territory of the enemy and take possession of |
| what God has given in Christ. |
| Do not be deceived. Today the body of Christ is NOT invading |
| the territory of the enemy and driving him out. No. We are making |
| treaties with the enemy and continuing to act more and more like |
| him. Or, in some cases, we aren't even entering into our spiritual |
| inheritance at all. We think we are "in the land." But we aren't. We |
| haven't even crossed the Jordan as of yet. |
| The biggest deception of all occurs when the people of God |
| rejoice that they have taken possession of the inheritance of Jesus |
| Christ, when, in fact, they are still dwelling outside of the land. In |
| truth, today's church is doing just that -- in general. People have |
| settled for a land which is agreeable to them; which contains no |
| tribes to drive out. And as a result, they claim victory. But many |
| have not yet even begun to enter into the real things of God. |
| Thankfully, we have the promise of Jesus to the effect that the |
| gates of hell would not ultimately stand against the revelation of |
| the Christ. God will yet have His way. He will yet have a Body of |
| believers with which to fellowship through the eternal ages. |