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March 1 TAKING THE PROMISED POSSESSION Read Joshua 4-6. “Now the people came up from Jordan … they camped in Gilgal on the east border of Jericho” (Jos. 4:19). Joshua responds to God’s call and leads the people to possess the Land of Promise. He has the priests bear the Ark of the Covenant into the Jordan River and the waters stand up on a heap (Jos. 3:16) permitting the people to cross over right against Jericho. Joshua has all the men who were born in the wilderness circumcised and God rolls “the reproach of Egypt” off them (Jos. 5:9). The manna stops because they can now eat the fruit of the Promised Land! They observe a Passover and the captain of the Lord’s hosts appears to Joshua telling him that the land is holy! There before Israel stands Jericho. They obey God and march around Jericho for six days and on the seventh day with the blasts of trumpets and the shout of the people its walls crumble except of the section where Rahab, who befriended Israel’s spies, lived (Jos. 2:1-24). And so by following God’s direction Israel begins to take the gift God gave them. Perhaps you did not read the devotional for the 29th of February but there we discovered that the crossing of the Jordan River is not a type for death. It is a picture of entering into the active work of possessing that which God has given. It is a type for the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. There is no battling in heaven but there are battles to be won possessing all that the Lord has promised. The New Testament tells us to believe God’s Word and then to take our possession by acting upon the promise. Jesus tells the disciples that “whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive” (Mt. 21:22). The Israelites could not take what God had not promised but God told them to take it! And so it is with Christians. Whatever you ask according to His will we can take. The book of James encourages us to battle in prayer for our fellows. The prayers of faith will save the sick (James 5:13-15). Such praying tells in the Kingdom of God. We are more than conquerors in Christ. The prayers of the saints are effective not because they wrestle with God but because he knows what God’s will is and wrestles with and overcomes all the spiritual wickedness that is in the world. We battle with the world, evil opposition, but not with God! He has given the promise. We take the whole armor of God, pray in the spirit and take possession of that which Satan has held so long (Eph. 6:10-18). No gate of Hades can stand against the onslaught of the saints. Beware of spiritual laziness before God. Wrestle with the wrongs in the world and the evil spirits that are behind them. We are overcomers. But we must do the overcoming if we are to possess all that He has promised. Prayer: “Lord, I take that which You have given me and drive out all that which is not of You. Amen.” Evening Reading: Leviticus 24:1-25:46 Mark 10:13-31 Psalms 45:1-17 Proverbs 10:21 |
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