It is marvelous when God says something to you, but as you go along through various circumstances and changes from day to day, many times it seems as though you need a fresh word. That first word, you may feel in your heart, is not valid now: perhaps the Lord may have changed His mind because you stumbled around and faltered here and there; and maybe it just doesn’t hold true now.
Abraham was that way. God gave Abraham a promise; Abraham would walk with God, a few years would go by, God would meet him again and give him that same promise. Years went by and when Abraham was old God was still faithful to give him the promise and to fulfill it. That is the way these things happen.
When David was a boy, he was anointed by Samuel, who came over the hill down to the Bethlehem area and looked over all the sons of Jesse, giants of boys. God said, “I haven’t chosen these; for man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart.” “Don’t you have another son, Jesse?” “Well, I have one more, out herding the sheep.” He brought him in, young David. Samuel took the oil, poured it on his head and anointed him to be king over Israel. What happened? Well, he wasn’t king right away; in fact, trouble began for him. A lion came out which he had to kill; then he had to kill a bear. He took some provisions to his brothers who were in Saul’s army fighting the Philistines, where he volunteered to fight Goliath, and won. He then went into a period of persecution, mostly from Saul—a fugitive, banned from the people over whom God was anointing him to be king. Years went by and he was anointed and the word came over him again, because circumstances were such that it didn’t look as though the prophecies were going to come to pass—but they did. David was the greatest of all the kings of Israel, moving in wonderful things from the Lord.
Over the years God has been speaking some wonderful things over us. Sometimes prophecies come to us that are not wholly accepted. We never know—God Who can do all things is not going to leave His plan and His program for people’s lives, according to the time and chance of circumstances. He is able to deliver and He is able to bring forth that which He wants His people to walk in.
There comes a time when God starts speaking again to your heart, and He says, “Now is the time; I have told you this before but I will tell it again.” How many times did He tell the children of Israel, that which is repeated in the eighteenth chapter of Joshua? They came out of Egypt and God said, “I’m going to give you the land of Canaan to possess.” He had told Abraham, “I will give you this land to possess, Abraham, but your seed will go down into Egypt and be in bondage there for four hundred years. After that I will bring them forth and they will possess this land.” God kept speaking and speaking. It is wonderful to know that year after year passed, like this marvelous move of God that was forseen centuries ago, of which all the prophets spoke: the time of the restoration of all things (spoken of, as Peter says,—“by the mouths of all the holy prophets since the world began”). For hundreds of years God spoke to Israel, “I’ve given you this land to possess. This is going to be your land.” They believed with all their heart that it was going to be theirs, yet it is so easy to use the promises of God as a sedative or a tranquilizer to help you endure a situation when there comes a time in which the promises of God are not just to create a hope, but there is something that you should enter into aggressively, ruthlessly, relentlessly, and possess them because the time has come.
And the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled themselves together at Shiloh, and set up the tent of meeting there (the tabernacle): and the land was subdued before them. And there remained among the children of Israel seven tribes, which had not yet divided their inheritance. And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, How long are ye slack to go in to possess the land, which the Lord, the God of your fathers, hath given you? Appoint for you three men of each tribe: and I will send them, and they shall arise and walk through the land, and describe it according to their inheritance; and they shall come unto me. And they shall divide it into seven portions: Judah shall abide in his border on the south, and the house of Joseph shall abide in their border on the north. And ye shall describe the land into seven portions, and bring the description hither to me; and I will cast lots for you here before the Lord our God …
And the men arose, and went: and Joshua charged them that went to describe the land, saying, Go and walk through the land, and describe it, and come again to me; and I will cast lots for you here before the Lord in Shiloh. And the men went and passed through the land, and described it by cities into seven portions in a book; and they came to Joshua unto the camp at Shiloh. And Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh before the Lord: and there Joshua divided the land unto the children of Israel according to their divisions. Joshua 18:1–6, 8–10. Then they went in and took the land, and they settled in it.
Walk through the land and describe it. There is a lot in that attitude isn’t there? Don’t you think that sometimes people can be so concerned about Canaanites that they are not really concerned about their possessions? Your mind is marvelous, but it is like a hopper that feeds things into your subconscious and into your spirit. That is why Philippians 4:8 says, … whatsoever things are lovely … of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. We think about all the devils that need to be cast into the pit and the battles that need to be won, etc.; that is good, that is what we are going to have to do. But it is rather amazing how thinking about battle can sometimes increase it; and thinking about problems and hindrances can sometimes make them more difficult to overcome.
It is better to say, “Satan, I spit on you—the idea of you; you’re a defeated foe.” Then you have reduced him down to the right size. Sometimes we can look at problems through the wrong end of the telescope and they loom up so big. Have you ever looked through a microscope at a fly? It might scare you so that you would run out of the room. You have never seen such a fearful thing as a fly under a microscope; but you could look at a dinosaur through the wrong end of a telescope and he would look smaller than a watch-fob. He would be no problem at all. David said, “Come, let’s magnify the Lord together. Let the Lord be just as big as He really is.”
You have been looking at the devil through the magnifying glass and he looks so big to you. You have been looking at him the wrong way—he is really not that big. He is the unwilling servant of God; he hasn’t done anything to you yet that hasn’t turned out to help you because God has made it all work together for good to them that love Him. You haven’t been through any test or trial valid enough to discourage you. You haven’t yet seen the greatness of the Lord or the power of His promises. It is very important that you understand that.
Let’s think about the land, let’s think about the people who are going to find the Lord—the publishing of the word and the books to come out that will change the thinking of people all over the world and open the door to this walk.
Let your mind think about what has yet to be taken. Many things will happen; riots are going to take place as pastors try to leave the old order churches. God’s cry is, “Come out of Babylon, and be not a partaker of her sins.”
Would you like to have nice warm milk and toast, a nice easy life, bedroom slippers, peaceful evenings, tranquil days? Forget it. We will be “those that have turned the world upside down.” That is what they did in the days of the Apostle Paul.
Oh, how long will you be slack to go in and possess the land which the Lord thy God has given you? Perhaps the last time you checked on the part of the land that is yours you got a crick in your neck from looking at that giant up there: didn’t God promise they would be meat to you? These are the possessions that God is trying to bring to us.
What about the things you are believing for in your own life? What do you want? You young couples who have been married only a short time: what are you believing for? Are you saying, “Well, we have great ambition now—we want to move to a bigger apartment and then we’re going to have a baby and maybe eventually we will buy a house.” All well and good; but why not let those be the other things that God will add to you? Set your heart first on the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Any young couple that enters into marriage today, without entering into that marriage in the will of God and to do the will of God together, is asking for a difficult life. Being very much in love will not be enough to get you through. There are a lot of people in love who are in the divorce courts right now. They can’t make it. That’s not going to be enough. What do you want to have—a lifetime of suffering? You can’t set your heart to walk with God in marriage unless you are properly mated; it is too difficult. You young people should give yourselves wholly to this: stop and think what your life could be together. It isn’t good to let the little things of weakness, difficulties, and hindrances, stand in your way; you can conquer them. When you beat those out of the way, you can go on in a companionship and a unity to do the will of God with all of your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength.
Sometimes the younger generation is disenchanted with the goals and objectives former generations sought for. I certainly hope so; I hope they are going to seek for something more than a little security and to be members of the rat-race. I hope that in their hearts there can be that which would join forces with their adults, with the authority that is over them in the Lord, and like one glorious army, move forward to accomplish all that God has set before us. How long will we be slack? One of the things that makes a person slack to go in to possess the promises is the fact that he hasn’t been thinking about it lately.
The Lord has to teach certain things about submission, of being one with the Body, so that you become an extension of it as you go forward, not just an individual expressing himself in what he feels is his ministry in the will of God for him. We are expressing the will of God for one another. You people who are working in the printing are expressing the will of God for me. When I preach this word, I’m expressing the will of God for you. The will of God is not a thing that is marked out as a different thing; but we’re all contributing different parts of doing the will of God. I can’t fulfill the will of God for my life without you and I don’t think that you can fulfill the will of God for your life without me. He has made us members one of another, and now we rise up in faith saying, “We’re going to possess it.” I will move ahead and you will help me. I want to see things wrought in my life and in the ministry that God has given me; and as I move ahead, I will help you and see the will of God wrought in your life. What an occasion of rejoicing it is when someone moves ahead! When one member is honored they all rejoice with him. When one member suffers they all suffer with him. We are certainly members one of another.
So we press into it with all our heart; not slack to possess the promises, but we overcome that slackness by doing one thing: review your prophecies; think about the things God has spoken through the years concerning your life and take them seriously. Say, “Lord, I’ll take it now, if the offer is still standing, I’ll take it.” If it doesn’t expire by July 31st it’s still valid. God is not changing. Perhaps you haven’t pressed in like you should, but has God changed His mind? No, God knew what you were when He first spoke to you. He wasn’t fooled by you for a single minute, He knew that He would have to give you those promises—you would believe them. What about your brother who is still stumbling? I wonder if God still believes all those things about him too? Well, I’ll tell you, when God prophesied over him He knew what a mess he was and He knew that the only way he’d ever make it was if He would just keep dealing with him and hold that promise out, and he’d love God so much that one day he’d reach up, grab a hammer and he’d crucify his old nature on the cross. By faith he’d let him die by the cross of the Lord. They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts. That is what God is doing with all of us. Lord, set a bomb under us and let us start walking through the land.
Are you ready to possess the land? Walk through it; it is yours. Describe it; the vagueness in your thinking leaves a vagueness in your faith. God makes faith a positive thing, and He says, “Whatever you ask when you pray, believe that you have it, believe that you have received it and you shall have it” (Matthew 21:22 and Mark 2:24).
“If ye shall ask anything in My name”—is it to be vague and general—“Lord, I want that ‘anything’ ”? No—that ‘anything’ has to be definite, like “whosoever” will. It is a very general promise; but there has to be a “whosoever” and he is a definite, positive man.
Come and say, “Lord, I am one of those ‘whosoevers,’ I believe to receive.” And we do this when it comes to this promise, “Go through the land and describe it.” “I’ll take—let’s see … oh, that is a beautiful vineyard—I’ll take that one, Lord. And there’s that place that flows with milk and honey. Milk and honey mean a lot of cows and bees and various other things that go along with them: grass and clover. Oh, I’ll take that, Lord, because You promised me the land that flows with milk and honey.
You can see Caleb walking through the land—looking around and saying, “I’ll take that place Hebron. Isn’t that where the children of Anak are: the Anakim, the big giants? Yes, those are the old boys that bluffed us out forty-five years ago when we came through these parts, spying out the land; and the other ten boys said, “We can’t take those Anakim, they’re the biggest things you ever saw in your life! And those high walls they build around their city—you’ll never be able to take them.’ For forty-five years I’ve been thinking about that, now I’m eighty-five years old and I’m able to go out and come in and to make war just the same as when I first went into the land of Canaan. I’ll take that mountain—and the giants.
Well … just wait a minute … we’ll call in all the armies of the tribes.” “Never mind, my boys and I can take it by ourselves,” and they did. Caleb waited forty-five years to rise up and prove one thing: that the promise of God was valid. Of course, there were a lot more boys after forty-five years and the boys had boys and they had boys, etc. And you remember the girl that was in the middle of it—his daughter. The first one to top the wall would get his daughter’s hand in marriage; so she started bargaining right there, and said, “All right, what goes along with it, Pa?” “Well, a certain little piece of land over here.” “Do the water rights go with it? Fine.” She had an eye on the land that she was going to get and the water rights that went with it. The man had to be able to leap a wall and fight a troop if he was going to handle a woman of that nature afterwards. They were tough, those sons and daughters of Caleb; they went after it because they meant business.
Walk through the land and describe it. What do you want—what has God promised—what are you claiming? Go to war on it, you’ll get it. Wherever the sole of your foot trods; you have to position yourself right in the middle of it. Take it—relentlessly, aggressively—it’s yours!
How many things hath the Lord set before His people in this day? Yea, a multitude of promises hath He given unto thee this day. And if they were pieces of gold, thou wouldest be a wealthy people. But behold, thou art a people that are extremely blessed of the Lord and made rich in the promises of the Lord; and the covenants of God have their fulfillment in this hour.
Be not fearful in your heart, but press in. Be not dismayed, but be relentless in pursuing after the thing that God has set before thee. Let there not be within thee that which shall lag or grow weary, but pursue after it with all of thy heart; for the Lord shall give thee the strength and thou shalt surely possess thine inheritance, O house of the Lord. Thou shalt have the word that God would give unto His people in this hour. Ye shall be bearers of that word. Ye shall be a people that shall proclaim it unto the ends of the earth. Fear not, little flock, it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.
“Thou shalt be double blessed in this day because thou hast believed that which thou hast not seen, and that which the Lord hath revealed unto thee. And even as the days wane and go by and the things have not come to pass, should thy faith wane? Nay, but rather thy faith should grow stronger, because in thine heart dost thou know that it is closer to the day which the Lord speaketh of. Therefore let thine heart rejoice in the revelation which the Lord hath given unto thine heart, and believe on that.”
Behold, hast thou been wounded in the battle? Hast thou laid thee down to breathe and to die? Yea, thou hast bled awhile—get up and fight some more.
“Is not the victory yours? Walk in it. Is not the land thine? Go in and possess it. This is a great and new and memorable day of the Lord, and victory is ours.”
“O people of the Lord, rise up and possess the promises that the Lord has given unto thee. Walk forth with victory in thy heart; go forth through the door that the Lord has opened for thee; go in and possess the land that He has given unto thee. Go forth and fight the battle that He has set before thee with faith and victory in thy heart. Proclaim the victory of the Lord throughout all the earth.”