We are sensing what is ours and the privileges we have. We must allow nothing to take away our aggressive faith and our violent approach to God, as we prevail before the throne of grace in intercession. We are in a transition.
God is doing the work in our lives that He promised, and we will take the necessary steps as we watch the path unfold. We cannot say, “I have not made it,” or, “I have made it”; because we are making it. Two things are necessary to appropriate fully what God is setting before us: the Word and prayer.
George Mueller, head of the famous orphanage in Bristol, England over one hundred years ago, was a man of tremendous faith long before the restoration had opened the door to such faith. He lived in the Word continually, reading it through many times, always on his knees. When something in the Word excited him, he would cry unto the Lord and pray earnestly that it might be fulfilled.
Joshua 1:2–9 gives us the key for a process by which we can have what we believe for in a greater measure than we have ever anticipated.
In this passage the Lord was speaking to Joshua: “Moses My servant is dead; now therefore arise, cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel. Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you, just as I spoke to Moses.”
Note the change of tense: “the land which I am giving,” and “every place which I have given.” It is ours, but we must take it; and sometimes there is a great deal of difficulty in actually possessing it.
“From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and as far as the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun, will be your territory. No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.
“Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate (to utter a sound, speak, roar: by implication to ponder: imagine, study )on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
What a Word to give to Joshua! Wherever the sole of his foot would step, God would see that he possessed it. Joshua would be invincible: no man would be able to stand before him all the days of his life. Note the instruction: “Be courageous and careful”—not concerning the enemy, but where God was concerned. He was to do exactly what God told him to do. Joshua was told that he would have success wherever he went (verse 7). We desire success too, in seeing many churches established and walking in New Testament divine order.
The next aspect of carefulness deals with living continually in God’s Word. God is telling us, as He told Joshua, “This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth.” Talk about the Word, Come together in small groups to quote Scriptures and prophecies. Pray and bless one another. Rehearse what God has said. Review the messages God has given.
Meditate on the Word day and night so that you will be careful to do all that is written therein; then your way will be prosperous and you will have success. We want to be the winners that God has ordained. We do not want our walk with God to fall short of what He has promised.
When the weatherman predicts thundershowers for a certain day, and then that day finds the sky only slightly overcast, it disturbs us because it seems that he was promising too much. God has promised us rain in the time of latter rain (Zechariah 10:1). Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord; He shall come unto us as the rain (Hosea 6:3).
There is always a balance between God’s sovereign promise and the initiative of faith. Both are required. It begins with God making a promise, but the human instrument that God is using must take an initiative of faith as though everything depended upon him. That is the way it usually works.
When God intends to do something, He makes a promise. When it is fulfilled, we are aware that God did exactly what He intended all the time; but He also required that the instrument He used have a strong, vigorous faith.
It pleases God to do it that way, linking Himself to the man who dares to believe Him, who thinks of nothing day or night except the Word that God has spoken.
He has a Word from God, and he is not passive or casual about it. Within his spirit is a violence to believe for that Word to be fulfilled. Sometimes it looks as if he is battling man and devil, while at the same time trying to twist God’s arm. He is battling against circumstances, marching around walls that refuse to come down. He is rebuking his mountains and commanding them to go away. He is praying, “God, don’t go to sleep on me!” Does that sound irreverent? It is not. Jesus taught us to pray that way.
And he (Jesus) spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint. Luke 18:1. He went on to tell about a widow who kept bothering a judge until he finally had her inheritance returned to her. Jesus concluded the parable with an important truth: And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him? Verse 7a. Day and night He wants that violent prayer.
It must be understood that prayer is an insistence on God’s Word. Prayer insists that a situation must be as God’s Word declares it is. Rehearse and speak His Word over and over so that it does not depart out of your mouth. Meditate on it day and night. Then you will have success and prosperity. Stand on the Word of God continually. This is the key to prosperity.
Psalm 1:2–3 speaks of the man whom God blesses: His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He learns to live in it. And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers. Success is achieved by delighting in the Lord and in His Word.
Of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the Israelites were the most blessed because they had received a Word from God. With great care they transcribed the Law and the prophets. Even to this day there are rabbis and scribes, in the old country especially, who can make copies of the Torah (the first five books of Moses) from beginning to end without one mistake, so carefully have they memorized it. They love the Law. In the synagogue, when the long scrolls of the Torah are brought in, the people kiss the tassel on the wrappings. What reverence they have for it! Paul knew the advantages of being a Jew, for to them had been committed the oracles of God (Romans 3:1–2). The Jews received a Word from God and became the custodians to pass it down and relay it to us. From the beginning they loved the Word, though today many have turned away from it.
We have not only the old covenant, but also the new. By the Holy Spirit the words of God have been revealed to men, down through the ages to the present time.
There have been moments when God has pulled back the mystical curtains of restraint upon us and said, “I know I created you without the ability to foresee, but take a look and I will show you how it will end; I will show you what I had in mind. I will give you a glimpse into the ages of eternity past, and you will feel My heart beating. Ages ago, before you were born, I knew you and wrote your name in a book and predestinated you to be conformed to the image of My Son. How I have loved you people!”
Open your heart. Read the stories of men who hardly knew what the answer was, but who had open hearts to God and listened to His Word. Do not get the idea that Elijah was so different from you. He was a man of like passions as we, but he was a wise man. When God revealed to him that He did not want it to rain, Elijah prayed earnestly that it would not rain. He knew that the sovereign promise of God is always connected with a violent initiative of faith on the part of some individual. So he prayed, “Don’t let it rain! Don’t let it rain!” He told Ahab, “It will not rain for three and one-half years.” And it did not rain. Finally the day came when it was supposed to rain again; so Elijah bowed his head between his knees and prayed earnestly, “Let it rain, Lord!” He then sent his servant to look out over the sea to see if there was a cloud. “No cloud, Elijah.” Again he prayed. “See if there is a cloud now,” he told his servant. “No cloud, Elijah.” He prayed again and again. The seventh time the servant came back saying, “I saw a small cloud the size of a man’s hand.”
“Ah, that’s it. Now it is going to rain.”
Three and one-half years before, God had said that it would not rain, but Elijah still linked that sovereign promise of God with his earnest, fervent initiative of faith. No matter what God says to us, we should not be passive about it. That is the time to be excited and aggressive, to move in fervently and earnestly.
Theoretically, that is the way salvation works too. God provided it, and whoever believes is saved (John 3:16). Salvation is beautiful, but those who receive the deepest experience are the ones who earnestly and fervently cry out to God, “You have given a Word; now save me.” And God saves and delivers them out of all their sins.
There is a balance between the sovereignty of God and the human initiative of faith. Therefore, we believe the promises that God has given, and we also rehearse them in our hearts day and night. We shout them and believe them as we praise God. God told the Israelites that He was going to bring down Jericho, but they still had to make the appointed rounds and shout at the walls before they came down. The same is true today. A generation is coming forth who are believing God with all of their hearts. Through a combination of the sovereign promises of God and the initiative of faith, they will see marvelous things happen.
When a man delights in the Word, when he lives in it day and night in continuous meditation, three things result: he is fruitful, he has permanence, and he has prosperity. He will be an oak of righteousness (Isaiah 61:3). An oak tree lives for a long time, though not as long as the redwoods in California. Many are still standing that were growing when Jesus walked on this earth. God promises that in the Kingdom, a man’s years will be as the days of a tree (Isaiah 65:22). We will live as long as a tree, century after century.
God used a great deal of common sense in His work of creation, though at times it seems absurd. For example, why does the large watermelon grow on a vine thinner than a man’s finger, whereas the tiny acorn grows on a huge oak tree? There is a story concerning a scoffer who was arguing with a Christian about God’s apparent stupidity, saying, “Why didn’t God put the watermelons on the tree and the acorns on the vine?” The Christian waited until the unbeliever fell asleep under the oak tree; then he climbed the tree and dropped a watermelon on him. The scoffer soon agreed that God was not stupid after all!
Which would you rather be—a watermelon or an oak tree? Do you want a life that blazes for a moment, or one that endures? We have permanence in the Word. We bring forth fruit in our season. Our leaves, with an evergreen quality, do not wither; and whatever we do prospers.
Believe for one another. When you intercede, pray earnestly, crying unto God. God has given a promise, and we will not back off, saying, “We’ll wait to see what happens,” for then it will not happen. God does not fulfill His promises that way. You must believe.
God told Joshua, in effect, “I have given you all of this land, wherever the sole of your foot treads; but when you go into the land of Canaan there will be giants behind high walls. You cannot put the sole of your foot over the walls, but you can make a way. You can walk around those walls and shout until they fall.”
When the twelve spies went into the land of Canaan, there were so many giants guarding the vineyards that they had to sneak in and steal a bunch of grapes. It was so large that it took two men to carry it. Let us not sneak blessings from the Lord; let us go in and deal with the giants! The provisions and promises are ours, but it is up to us to appropriate them. We will possess the land violently with persistence. You can have any victory you want, but you will have to go after it with all of your heart.
Would you like to see your life change completely? Would you like to break into new gifts and ministries? Then shake off your limitations. You have the promises. Go after them, praying and believing, pushing and helping one another along. Our prayer must he aggressive, appropriating, and adamant.
Luke 11:5–10 records a familiar parable. And He said to them, “Suppose one of you shall have a friend, and shall go to him at midnight, and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and from inside he shall answer and say, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs.” The literal translation is “shamelessness,” not “persistence.” Do not be embarrassed about being a nuisance. Keep knocking at the door. The Kingdom of God was not made for the bashful, but for those who shamelessly storm the door.
“And I say to you, ask” (“and keep asking”—the Greek aorist tense indicates action continuing into the future), “and it shall be given to you; seek” (and keep seeking), “and you shall find; knock” (and keep knocking), “and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks” (and keeps asking), “receives; and he who seeks” (and keeps seeking), “finds; and to him who knocks” (and keeps knocking), “it shall be opened.” That is the way you must go after the promises of the Lord.
Do you really want a walk with God, or are you rather passive about it? Are you truly hungering and thirsting after righteousness? Then you cannot secretly pet the little sin of the old carnal nature and say, “It’s a shame I have to give you up, but I do. I don’t think you are too bad, and I wish I could keep you because you are only a little sin.” The psalmist reminds us, If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. Psalm 66:18.
Ask God to help you to hate that sin the way God hates it. Purpose to read the Word until you think the way God thinks and you feel the way God feels. The world thinks in rebellion toward God because they do not know His Word; they do not understand how God feels. They know nothing about God; therefore they are busy making fun of Him and denying Him.
We know better because we love Him and we open our hearts to Him. Because we are believers, we will believe what He says and meditate upon His Word day and night. When we step out of line a little, we will go back to the Word and it will straighten us out. The Word is like a level by which the walls of Zion will be built straight. Keep preaching and believing the Word and getting into the thing God has for you. Cry for it, earnestly believing!
Someone must break through. We cannot be conned into thinking that because we have not seen the fulfillment it cannot be done; for then it will not be done. Someone will come along who dares to live in the Word to the point that he refuses to accept as valid any limitation; and because he believes, he will move into the miraculous. He will put his foot on the water and walk across the sea. Somewhere along the line the exploits and greater works have to be done (John 14:12).
Do not use the promises of God as a shot in the arm, as a stimulus to make life seem marvelous and to put you on top of the world. That is not what the promises are for. They are not intended merely to give you a little spiritual lift. For far too long, sermons have been only for inspiration, enjoyed for the moment and forgotten in a few minutes. You want to hear a Word from God and then make it a reality; make it happen. You want a Word from God that you can walk in and believe for. Live in this Word. Walk in it. Meditate on it day and night. Read the Word of God prayerfully, saying, “Lord, how long has it been since You did that? Don’t you think it is time You did it again?” Push the issue! He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He says, “I am the Lord, I change not” (Malachi 3:6). With Him there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning (James 1:17). Believe for it to happen again.
Review this message carefully in your mind, because it is not only a sermon; it gives instructions. Pray aggressively and learn to live in the Word. Along with the Word, read the prophecies and the living Word literature. They give the emphasis that the Holy Spirit is bringing to this generation, and they refer back to the Word. The prophecies are filled with Scripture; they focus you on it and help you get into it. Let us become addicted to the Word and rehearse it together until we cry our defiance of Jericho’s walls, until we shout at the mountain and see it move. Everything that stands to hinder the people of God must be brought down. Let us be what God wants us to be.
Forget any idea of having a place. You do not have to be jealous of anyone. There are so many churches and so many open doors that everyone is needed. One will chase a thousand, and two will put ten thousand to flight. There are not many of us, but what wonderful things we will see! Do not think discouragement and say, “I am nothing. I can’t do anything.” That may be true; but you are believing to become. You can be whatever you dare to believe, whatever you read in the Word. You can be a Gideon, a Daniel, a Joseph, a Peter, a Paul, a Stephen. You can be any of them—or all of them.
Would you like to be a walking Bible? Let it fill your heart. We are to be living epistles, read and known of all men. The Word of God is to be written on the fleshly tables of our hearts (2 Corinthians 3:2–3). We are God’s edition, His Kingdom Bible for this generation.
Do not make prayer a mental exercise. Look upon the prayer of your spirit as being like a big cannon. When you read the Word, it aims at what you are to shoot, at what God wants you to claim; and after you light the fuse, it is done. Reading the Word gives you the aim and the direction for what God wants, and violent prayer reaches in to take it.