Friday, November 15, 2019 The year of my Lord
I awoke with the words to this song going through my head: “Way Maker, Miracle Worker, Promise Keeper, Light in the Darkness, My God! That is Who You are! —Even when I don’t see it You’re Working, Even when I don’t feel it You’re working, You never stop, You never stop working! …
You are here… moving in this place… I worship You! I worship You!”
Holy Father… I need You first. My first intentions for this whole week were to seek You first, every single morning. I failed. Every. Single. Morning! I am longing for that intimacy, and I feel a distance trying to creep in. I know it is my fault! I have allowed myself to be distracted; And the time is lost, and the heavenly mana has evaporated, and the day is lost! And You even woke me up with singing!
I now realize that I have expected to be fed by You in the same way now, as I was while going through the wilderness! I have been in a wilderness for 40 years! (From the time the Lord appeared / spoke to me at 19 years old) Yes, the manna laid out on the ground has all I need for survival; But to thrive… That is different. Now it is time to enter into the Promised land! You told Your general Joshua to bring the children of Israel into the land. You told him time and again… “Take courage, be bold, do not fear!”
Deuteronomy: 31- 6. “Be strong and take courage; do not fear, neither be terrified of them, for it is Jehovah your God who goes with you He will not fail you nor forsake you. 7- And Moses called to Joshua and said in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and take courage for you will go with this people into the land which Jehovah swore to their father to give them; and you will cause them to inherit it. 8: But it is Jehovah who is going before you. He will be with you; He will not fail you nor forsake you. Do not fear, neither be dismayed.”
In Deuteronomy 31:22, 23: … And He charged Joshua the son of Nun and said, Be strong and take courage…and I will be with you.
Joshua 1: 5-9 “… I will be with you; I will not fail you nor forsake you. 6 Be strong and take courage… 7 Only be strong and very courageous, being certain do according to all the law… 9. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and take courage; do not be afraid or dismayed. For Jehovah your God is with you wherever you go.”
The Lord commands us to NOT be afraid or dismayed. We are to circumcise ourselves, go to cross over to the other side into our promised land, and begin eating off the land. We must dedicate ourselves to the entire obedience to the Word of the Lord! Again, and again I am told, “DO NOT FEAR for I Am with you!” Does that not also mean… Because God is with us, we are not to fear? Does the element of fear bring forth spiritual forces that are detrimental to our walking in the faith that the Lord is with us? Yes!! Fear and Faith cannot mix! Light and darkness do not mix, and neither can fear and faith. When the Lord God says He is with us…How can we possibly fear if we take our Lord at His Word that, “He is with us?” He says, “Do not be terrified of them! Do not fear them!” So, how can I be afraid of wind and waves that will never touch me? I will only look upon those things with my eye. Psalms 91 says, “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty…With His pinions He will cover you and under His wings you will take refuge; …You will not be afraid of the terror by night, or the crow that flies by day, or the pestilence that walks in darkness or of the destruction that lays waste at noon. A thousand will fall at your side, and ten thousand at Your right hand; but it will not come near to you. You will only look on with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked.”
So I must confess, Holy Father, I have disobeyed You time and again. I have indeed fretted and been dismayed at the storms I see in this life. I have lamented the darkness that is covering the governments of this world! But I know that You are in this. This is what You already told us would happen, so that we would understand Your faithfulness to us, Your children, when it does! You have said in Psalm 14: 1-2. “The fool has said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt; they commit abominable deeds; There is none who does good. Jehovah looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there was any who had insight, who seeks after God.”
…And now the voice of Holy Spirit spoke to me saying…
“This is the call to come into the Gates! Come into the Fathers house!
The darkness is descending as the sun goes down, and the night is approaching.
It is at the middle of the night that it is the darkest.
I have told you to not look upon those things that are happening on the earth, in fear:
For you cannot trust Me when you are afraid of the enemy!
Come into the chambers of intimacy with Me.
Do not dwell in the public square. Do not throw My pearls before the swine to be trampled.
I called you to “BE.” “Be” light to the darkness. Bear My Light to the nations.
“Be” still and know that I Am God. I go before you. I do not send you before Me!
I go before you and I give you the victory. I Am the Victor!
You are to go where I send you, and proclaim My Name to those I send you to.
This is My work.
Why argue with those who are yet blind and deaf, and whose heart cannot receive the truth?”
Circumcise your heart unto Me and Me only.
Have I not asked for My people, who are called by My Name to circumcise their hearts to Me?
The things of the enemy are devoted to destruction.
Do not harbor them in your tent or under your tent.
You cannot comprise with evil.
It must be rooted out. You cannot control that which is lawless…
The spirit of the world is behind FB.”
I know that my Lord is referring to Joshua 7:10 when Jehovah said to Joshua, “Rise up! Why have you fallen upon your face? 11. Israel has sinned. Indeed they have trespassed My covenant, who I commanded them; indeed they have taken of that which was devoted to destruction; indeed they have stolen; indeed they have been deceptive; indeed they have put it among their goods.
12. Thus the children of Israel are not able to stand before their enemies; they turn their backs before their enemies, for they have become something devoted to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy that which was devoted to destruction from among you. 13 Rise up, sanctify the people, and say Sanctify yourselves… “there is something devoted to destruction among you O Israel; You will not be able to stand before your enemies until you remove the which was devoted to destruct from among you.“
This is such a powerful teaching of the Lord. There are several points we need to understand. Yes!! The Lord feeds us and sustains us in the wilderness with His daily mana, and it is a time of testing. Forty (40) is the number of testing, as the children of Israel were tested in the wilderness for forty years until all the men of war who were 20 years of age and older, who refused to enter into the promised land, died. Then, the Lord led the next generation into the Promised Land.
We must realize this Promised Land was not and is not a walk in the park to enter. There is good reason the children of Israel were terrified to go into the land, and the Lord repeatedly exhorted them all and their general, Joshua, “Do not fear them! I Am with you! Be of courage! Be very brave!” This was a wonderful rich and glorious land, but for the 400 years the children of Israel were becoming a nation in Egypt, Satan had been fortifying this promised land with fearful giants, the offspring of the Nephilim. Still, we must then ask, “How could they doubt they could go forth into the Promised land of Canaan with all the power and might the Lord had demonstrated in freeing them from Egypt after 400 years of bondage to Egypt: The greatest power in the world?” After all ten of the signs and plagues the Lord rained down upon Egypt to destroy them, their army, their economy, their families, leaving the land of Egypt behind them in run-ins; Should they not realize that when the Lord God said He would give them the land, and He was going before them, He would do it all for them? All they had to do was, “Go forth! Enter in!”
We have the same doubts like this all the time ourselves! We look at the “Giants”… Those people of power in the world, the huge governments, authorities, corporations, those who are opposed to us. We look at the obstacles; our lack of understanding how, lack of money, lack of time, lack of help, lack of ability, lack of position or connections… always it is a perceived lack within our selves. When we get caught up in focusing on our own lack and the size of the opposition, we fall into a trap of faithlessness. In this trap of the enemy, we no longer see the proof of GOD with us through our last trial. We only look at the intimidating fearful challenges before us. We know we have no power before such enemies and immediately we drop our weapon...Our Faith; Without which it is impossible to please Him. And we forget the Sword of the Spirit, (Who is) the Word of GOD. His Word that cannot be broken! We plant our feet. We fret. We fear and doubt and listen to the enemy, and finally we turn back; as the children of Israel did when they determined they would not go into the Promised Land when God told them to go forth!
—They refused! Not only that, they rebelled against God, and His appointed leadership of Moses and Aaron, (Numbers :13- 15 lays out the story.) First, God told them to enter the land flowing with milk and honey He declared He would give to them! In rebellion, they decided to appoint twelve men to go and survey the land. The result was the affirmation that indeed the land was magnificent. Two men were required to carry a single bunch of grapes back to the camp. For forty days they studied the land and it’s people.
Did the Lord their God tell them to do this? No. The end result was that ten of the twelve men came back and declared that the people of the land were too great for them! They were afraid of the giants of the land and they declared that they are not able to to go up against the people and their fortified cities! (Numbers 13:27-33)
Excuse me!! Did the Lord GOD ask them to fight the inhabitants of the land? NO! He declared He would give the land to them! HE would drive them out! Did the children of Israel forget about the way the Lord God delivered them out of Egypt? Did a single one of them need to fight a single Egyptian? Didn’t they leave Egypt with 400+ years of wages, the wealth of Egypt with. them?? Did they forget the parting of the sea that drowned the chariots of Pharaoh? Did they forget the Lord God gave them water from a Rock in the dessert, manna from the heavens, shade from His cloud by day and heat and protection by His fire by night? Did they forget He fed them meat, healed all their diseases… spoke to their leader face to face, gave them His laws of life, forgave them their sin of idolatry, and walked in the midst of their encampment?
Bold in their rebellion, they accused the Lord their God of bringing them out in the dessert for their children to die. They despised the deliverance and promises of the Lord their God and declared that they wished they had died in Egypt! In Bondage! Egypt is representative of “House of Bondage and slavery.” They are saying, It would be better to live and die a slave. Then, they went further in their accusations against the Lord saying, “It would be better to die in the wilderness, and that their Lord God is leading them into a trap… a land where they and their children and wives will fall by the sword and become plunder to the inhabitants!
Now… they take the final step in rebellion against the Lord God, and decide to appoint for themselves (notice leaving God out of this?) a Captain to lead them back into bondage in Egypt! (Numbers 14:1-4. ) –What “Bravery” to level such a charge against the Maker of Heaven and Earth and all creation! It is breathtaking in its incredible foolish rebellion and lack of faith in the LORD. They held the mercies of the Egyptians above the mercies of their God. They now considered their bondage to be “good” and freedom in their own rich land to be evil!
It is worth contemplating the mercies, grace and faithfulness of the LORD God that He did not wipe them all off the face of the earth at this time! Can you imagine giving such a marvelous gift to your child and going to such lengths to free a people, out of faithfulness to a friend (Abraham was called a Friend of God) many years before… Now you are setting millions of his children free, and they accuse you of doing evil and want to go back to bondage?! What would you do?
Me?? I would wash my hands of them all! But God!! Rich in His mercies and grace, and faithful to ALL His promises forever!
The Lord God then pronounced judgement upon them for their refusal to enter into His promise, but sentenced them to wandering in the wilderness until all the men who were of age at their rebellion were buried in the dessert, and the children they claimed would die in the dessert, He declared they are the ones who will enter into His land of promise.
So, what was the response of this rebellious people? They rose up (Again) in rebellion against HIs judgement upon them. Wow! Now, disregarding His judgement to not enter, they now determined that they would take on the giants and inherit the land anyway, under their own power! They presumed that the Lord God would still protect them and essentially say, “Just kidding about that judging your rebellion back there…” and accompany them in this new rebellion! –Presuming Him to be with them, when HE said, “NO!”
Of course they could not stand before their enemies!! They hid REBELLION in their hearts! We cannot stand before our enemy, the spirit of this world, ( the enemy that surrounds each and everyone who is headed towards that Promised land:The Kingdom of God) if we harbor anything belonging to the enemy in our hearts. What things belong to the enemy? Pride, Jealousy, Covetness, Rebellion, Disobedience, Presumption, Lawlessness, Fear, Unbelief, Sexual Impurity, Adultery, and Idolatry.
What really is Idolatry? It is anything that occupies the first portion of your affections above the Lord your God. The 1st Commandmant is “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all our mind and all your understanding!” Everything that comes before or beside Him in our time, money, affections, thoughts, devotion, concern, love and care, is therefore an Idol. It can be money, your job, addictions or ingrained distractions of any and all kinds. Jesus makes an astounding statement about idols in Matthew 10:37-39, after clearly speaking about the price to follow after Him and to be His disciple, He makes this final statement, “He who loves father or mother above Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter above Me is not worthy of Me; And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his soul-life shall lose it, and he who loses his soul-life for My sake shall find it.” Jesus sets the price and standard of being called “His Disciple” incredibly high! It is easy to say, We do not worship any idols, but Jesus clearly defines the “hidden idols” we do not recognize!
We must now understand the wife of Lot who looked back at the burning city of Sodom and was turned to a pillar of salt! Why did she look back? One must guess that when Abraham negotiated with the Lord to save the city of Sodom and Gomorrah for the sake of just 10 righteous people… he counted his nephew Lot, his wife, and their children and their mates. The Lord sent two angels on a rescue mission to deliver Lot and his family from the city to safety. As it turned out, only Lot and two daughters made it out alive. Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt as she stopped and was looking back at the city where her children were perishing, where she grew up, where her friends were, where her treasure, her house and her things were. But understand, she was longing in her heart for a place so corrupted God destroyed it from the face of the earth!
Jesus said, “Before you put your hand to the plow, count the cost.” In Luke 9:62 Jesus says, “NO one who puts his hand on the plow and looks behind is fit for the kingdom of God.” It is easy to say we will follow Him, when we do not count the cost. The cost is Faith that He will take care of us and do all He has promised, and HE will take us where HE promised to take us! But there IS a cost we must pay! The cost is the things which destroy us! In the eyes of the LORD, clinging to them is like clinging to your cancer, or fatal diseases!
So… Do not be too hard on the Israelites! They were in a dessert. They were hungry and thirsty with no obvious signs of water or way of caring for their needs. God knew this! He was testing them to see their hearts and to show them their own levels of faith in Him. He tests us too! The tests of faith are for our benefit, since He already knows what is in our hearts. The testing reveals our Idols! –What do we crave? What do we desire? What keeps our heads turning back away from Him who is leading us on paths of freedom? Is it children, marriage, money, addictions, power, prestige, standing in the community or our reputation, a big house, our job, friends, social life, degrees, “being in the Know”, followers on social media, selling books, selling out stadiums for people to come and hear what you have to say, think, or sing?
Any THING that occupies a place in your heart that competes with your love and obedience to Jesus, is an idol, and IF you desire to enter into HIS Promised Land, He will show it to you and bring it down…
Simply, given time, and not revealed, those things that so gradually take over your life are idols, and behind every idol there is a demonic stronghold waiting to capture you!
Why?? How can there be an enemy stronghold behind putting your family first in your life? How is that even possible? It is because it competes with your devotion to the Lord! And the enemy will do ANYTHING to cause you to drift away from the place of protection and absolute faith in HIM, and most of the time you are not even aware it is happening! That is why you must be on your guard against ALL things we may become addicted to!
Continuing with our story of Israel, after 40 years in the dessert, when all those who rebelled against the Lord had indeed died in the dessert, it was now time for their children of Israel to enter into the land of Promise under the leadership of Joshua. First, they were commanded to get rid of all their idols. Israel could not enter into the Land of God’s promise and face the giants of the land, carrying the idols of the land of bondage they came from, and the demonic attachments that were connected to them! They had to be rid of them. That is the same with us. We cannot leave behind our slavedom to the world if we are still attached to and influenced by the things of the world.
Once, I was distracted by FB. I have since deleted my account and in return all that time I spent looking at the things of the world through the eyes of FB and their censors is back where it belongs; in the service to my only KING! It is HIS Words I am to be meditating on day and night… Not what so and so said or did. The constant scare mongering of the world, the constant onslaught of propaganda from the world… It is in direct opposition to the COMMAND of my Lord to, “Only be COURAGEOUS!” Did you catch that?? He said, “Only. Be. This way.” – Only be strong and take courage. (Joshua 1:18) That is a direct command of the Captain of the Host of Heaven before He led His general (Joshua) in front of His children into the Promised land! They were given no other option of the way to “be”. –All the men of war who were raised up in the dessert were commanded to not be afraid!
We should not consider that they had no reason to fear. There were indeed true giants in the land. In the four hundred years that Israel was in Egypt, and becoming a nation, and the Lord God was watching over them, the enemy was populating the land that was promised to Abraham and his children with giants and very terrifying people. When you consider the size of a single bunch of grapes was so large it had to be carried by two men, imagine the size of the men of war of this place. Perhaps in comparison, the chariots of the Pharaoh were small in scale to the fear brought on by these enemies of the people of God! As people facing challenges, we instinctively look to ourselves and our own strengths to accomplish victories…
That is not God’s way. HE wants us to have only one instinct, one reaction to danger and threat: Look To Him. Run to Him! Obey His directions and listen only to Him.
Before they could enter into this promised land and defeat their enemies, Joshua made knives of flint (a Rock) and circumcised the children of Israel. In circumcision the flesh is cut away by the rock knife. There is a three day time period of recovery and then, the children of Israel celebrated the Passover on the plains of Jericho. And on the day after the Passover, that very day, they ate of the produce of the land; and the manna ceased on that day! (Joshua 5:11)
Are we not God’s people, and are we not seeking to enter into HIS Promised Land? Are we not all seeking the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness? Do we not have far, far greater enemies than those of flesh and blood seeking to keep us in bondage and frightened and deceived into believing we have no strength, and all the other lies of the enemy?
We must again pay attention to what the LORD is telling us through these scriptures. If we are to overcome our enemies we must put away all the idols of the world. We must then circumcise our hearts unto our Living Lord; Dedicate our hearts, making our flesh subject to Him alone! And how do we cut away the sinfulness that would attach to our hearts? We do it by the ROCK of Christ! He is the Rock that was cleft for us! He hides us within Himself so that we cannot be touched by our enemies who come through the idols that enslaved us! Leave them behind on the other side of the river! –For passing through that River Jordan is our baptism into a new life in Christ!
Now we celebrate the Passover of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and arose again in Victory over sin and Death itself! As we walk in His Victory we leave behind the manna of the wilderness to enter into and eat of the richness of the land of Promise! We are made ready to follow the Captain of the Host of Heavens Armies, our Warrior King, Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man to victory over all our enemies! Notice that in Joshua chapter 6, before Joshua led the army of Israel towards the massive fortified walls of Jericho, he was met by the Captain of the Host of Heaven with His sword drawn. –And Joshua was instructed to remove his sandals, for where he now stood was made holy!
When we come to Him, leaving behind the idols, the fear and darkness with our heart circumcised and receive Him as Lord and Savior (as our Passover Lamb of God) we are now ready to follow our Warrior King, the Captain of Heavens Hosts into the battles and victories that He gives to us! Only, we must not harbor anything of the enemy within us! Notice the absolute and stunning victory the Lord handed to Joshua at Jericho! Not a single man lost his life! The children of Israel followed the instructions of the Lord to the letter. Notice that after that massive and supernatural victory over Jericho from the Lord, they grew prideful in their thoughts, believing their next conquest, Ai, would be a easy victory. Without consulting with the Lord God who led them out of Egypt with a mighty and outstretched hand, fed and protected them in the wilderness, and gave them supernatural victory over Jericho… they charged ahead and failed miserably.
NO matter where we are in this life’s journey the Word of the Lord is our guide and will never fail us: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding, but in ALL your ways acknowledge HIM, and HE will make your paths straight!” Proverbs 3: 5,6