Promised Land

 

RelianceOnGrace

Promised Land

 

I was listening to the Toby Mac song Promised Land the other day and started thinking about how God is our promised land. Today it is more of a spiritual promised land, meaning our connection, guidance and protection with God rather than the physical land promised to the Israelite people of the Old Testament.

Matthew 4:17 tells us:

From the time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Jesus began with this message and continued it throughout His ministry here on earth. He continually referenced the kingdom in His teachings.

This tells me that Jesus brought the kingdom of heaven with Him to earth and made it available to us, this is our promised land.

Just like the Israelites, we must follow God’s instruction in order to possess the promised land in our lives today. God gave instructions for the possession of the promised land to Israel, and I would like for us to look at it so we can see how it pertains to us today. I am not going to list out all the scriptures so you will need to read them fully yourselves, but I would like to list out the instructions that God referenced in Numbers 33:50-56.

1.      Verse 51            Cross over the Jordan into the land

2.      Verse 52            Drive out all the inhabitants of the land

                          Destroy all their figured stones

                          Destroy their molten images

                          Demolish all their high places

3.      Verse 53            Take possession of the land and live in it

 

We have a part to play in living in the kingdom of heaven.

God has shared His kingdom with us because of His love and grace!

 

1.      We are a participant in this kingdom life that God has freely given to us. Everything that He has given to us is through His grace and we receive it through our faith, which He also gave us.

Ephesians 2:8               For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.

Romans 5:1-2               Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

2.      The process of driving out the inhabitants, molten images, and high places is the renewing of our minds. In Matthew 4:17 referenced above, Jesus says to repent. The word “repent” in the Greek is “metanoeo” meaning to think differently or afterwards. We are to change the way we think about things and come into line with the way Jesus thinks because kingdom living is different than living in the world.  Meaning, we don’t just go with how we have always done or thought about things. We open our minds to the Holy Spirit and let Him influence how we think, using Jesus as our example.

 

3.      Then we take possession of what God has so graciously given to us. We do this by making His word a priority in our lives. In every situation we look to God and see what He would have us do. Speaking God’s word over our lives and our situations is also key. I don’t mean just saying what you want out of any situation. We speak what God says in His written word or when He speaks a personal Word directly to us. God is continually speaking to us and the only questions is, are we listening? He has a solution for everything that we come against before we even have the problem, so if we are listening for His word, we can keep walking in our kingdom life. Many times, we will decide what we want to do and then ask God to make it happen. That is not how kingdom life works. Caleb heard what God said about the promised land and wanted to act on what God had said to do.  

Numbers 13:30            Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will surely overcome it.”

 

Learn from Jesus to live in the promised land.  

Jesus only said what the Father said (John 12:49-50). He spoke God’s word continually over His

own earthly life and over everyone He came into contact with.

God’s word is powerful and it accomplishes what it is sent to do. (Isaiah 55:11)

If we are speaking the word over our lives, we are saying what God says and it will have the same effect

in our lives as it did for Jesus.

 

Finally, I would like to look at what happens when we do not follow God’s instructions for entering the

promised land. Whenever we are struggling or running up against opposition in our lives, it’s time to

evaluate our thinking to see if there is an area that we need to address. We can ask God to show us

where our thinking is not lining up with His and ask Him to help us in this area.

 

Numbers 33:55            But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall come about that those whom you let remain of them will become as pricks in your eyes and as thorns in your sides, and they will trouble you in the land in which you live.

 

We aren’t going to be on the mark 100% of the time because I think only Jesus could do that but we

 can intentionally live by His example of making God’s word a priority in every area of our lives. We can

invite God into every area of our everyday life and watch how His grace will influence our attitudes and

bring us peace in knowing that His plan is better than anything we could think of.

 

Romans 14:17              for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.