Numbers 14:7-8(NKJV) 7and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying: “The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. 8If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, ‘a land which flows with milk and honey.’
This week we have been looking at the relationship between the journeys of Israel from Egypt to the promised land and the journey of the believer from the New Birth to the fulfillment of his or her destiny in God. We have found that the wilderness experience of Israel was not the point of their deliverance. The wilderness was designed by God to transform them from a mob of slaves into a nation. This nation would then be able to fulfill the call God had on their lives. It is the same for us as believers.
For Israel this process was typified by two places, the wilderness and the promised land. The goal was the promised land. Today I want to contrast those two places and the lifestyles they represent. For us to get to our land of promises we need to know what it looks like. What defines it and how is it different from the wilderness time of preparation.
The wilderness is a place where we simply survive to get to the next test. There was never any ground taken. In the wilderness Israel was continually “passing through.” The whole point of the wilderness was preparation.
A good example is the battle fought with the Amalekites in Exodus 17. They did not fight them in order to take territory to dwell in. They fought them to be allowed to pass through the land. Nothing was established.
In our lives I believe we need to examine the battles we are fighting. Are they simply for survival? Do they establish anything in our lives? Do they take ground for the Kingdom of God or do they just allow us to pass through until the next trial comes? Any area of your life in which you answer yes means you are still in the wilderness in that area.
When Israel got to Canaan there were probably far more battles to fight than when they were in the wilderness. However in Canaan those battles were to take ground. They were not just passing through any more. They were not just surviving. They we possessing the Promised land God had given them.
We need to move from simply passing through life to possessing life. We need to stop fighting battles that just get us to the next day and begin to win some wars that will establish us at new levels in the natural and in the spirit. If you are still in the wilderness, that’s fine. It is part of life and growth but don’t stay there. Understand that you can go beyond the wilderness and begin to possess the land God has promised you.
The Wilderness is all about preparation. In the Wilderness Israel received the law and the commandments. This was to prepare them to walk right before God. They learned to believe God daily for food and God provided manna. However manna was not the point. The point was to learn to trust God. In the Wilderness God did many things to provide for them in very miraculous ways. Yet this was not God’s best for them.
As we are growing in Christ we are being prepared to walk as adult Christians. God will allow certain things in our lives that he will not later. Why? Because when we come into adulthood the stakes will be higher. When we are being prepared we are provided for, often without much faith on our part but if we want to take our promised land we are going to need to believe God for ourselves.
If the wilderness is about preparation, the promised land is about occupation. We are to occupy until Jesus comes. It is often easier to win a war over a nations military than it is to occupy the nation afterward. When we occupy we must govern, not just the occupied territory but ourselves as well. We become responsible for the place we occupy. Fully walking in the land of promises is the ability to take responsibility for our actions and for the move of God in that place.
The wilderness was a land of miracles of provision. For many of us this would be the highest life we could attain to. Every morning Israel awoke to a miracle when they saw the manna on the ground. They experienced the miracle direction of the pillar of cloud and fire. Their clothes didn’t wear out, They got water from a rock and even more miraculous the rock traveled with them. This sounds like the most spiritual kind of life. However when they entered Canaan all that stopped.
The promised land was not a place of miraculous provision. It was a miraculous land. It was a land where provision was the norm not the miracle. For us, I believe we need to recognize that while individual miracles of provision are certainly available and exciting, God has something better for us. To fully fulfill our destiny we cannot be expending all of our faith believing for miracles to pay the bills or remain healthy enough to function or for our children and marriages to survive.
The promised land is the place where destiny had to be fulfilled. That means we need to use our faith to believe for others to be set free not for our own survival. How do we get to that place? By realizing that God has given principles in the Word that will free us from the need for daily miracles by making our lives miraculous lives. However walking in principles requires adulthood responsibilities.
Healing is great. However if I have applied the principles in the Word that give me divine health I can pray for the healing of those around me. Miraculous provision financially is wonderful, however if I am walking in divine prosperity I have both resources and faith left to help someone else. A child rescued from addiction or some other terrible thing is great, but children raised in the Lord who walk upright before him can rescue someone else’s children.
If we really want to fulfill what God has for us we must learn to walk through the times of preparation and childhood and get to the promised land of adulthood. This is not a onetime thing for us. We are always both preparing in some areas and walking as adults in others. There is no shame in being in the wilderness. Just don’t stay there. There is so much more life for you to live and so much more God wants to do through you in our wonderful land of promises.
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