TAKING BACK GROUND

And Joshua said to the people of Israel, “Come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God.” 10 And Joshua said, “Here is how you shall know that the living God is among you and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites. 11 Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is passing over before you into the Jordan.

Joshua 3:9-11

After four decades of wandering in the wilderness, the chosen people of God were finally ready to trust in their God enough to receive God’s blessing. All of us want to be blessed by the Creator, but few are willing to work for it, but first it is imperative that we recognize that there is more to the events around us than meet the eye. I have written about the two different realms of reality in some of my other posts and intend to write more in the future. The physical realm is what we can clearly see with our eyes and touch with our hands, but the unseen realm is something altogether more difficult to understand.

Although we cannot see the unseen realm with our eyes, we can definitely sense the spiritual around us, especially for those of us who are keenly aware of the metaphysical. Jesus told the woman at the well that there would come a day when people would worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth (John 4:23). These people are those who seek God and desire to know him intimately, not merely for handouts, but for a oneness with the God of all creation. Jesus followed up with letting this woman know that “they are the kind of worshippers that He (God) seeks” (NIV).

God desires a relationship with his chosen (John15:18-19). Jesus spoke to his disciples and told them that to love him was to obey him (John 14:15-21). This is the key to walking with the LORD. Obedience requires a great deal of trust. God is not asking for blind trust or faith. He sent his Son to show us who He, as the Creator. This was necessary for humans to witness the metaphysical as it manifested in the physical.

Those of us who have set our mind to seek the LORD, become acutely aware of the spiritual battle that rages all around us. It is precisely this spiritual realm that has infiltrated humanity as its vessels, in an attempt to destroy God’s crown of creation by causing division, strife, and perversity that leads to death and ultimately an inability to procreate (Gen. 3:15).

God’s chosen people must first trust in their Creator to realize any blessings. Scripture gives clear examples of how God’s promise of freedom and abundant living is destroyed by a lack of trust. We see this as early as Genesis 3, then we read about it in Numbers 13, 1 & 2 Samuel, and many more passages. During the exodus, the Hebrews were privileged to see God’s hand at work through miraculous signs and wonders, yet they failed to trust when they were called to be courageous. They were expected to believe because of what they had seen God do.

On this side of the cross, however, we have the benefit of seeing God’s redemptive plan in action. We have the Judeo-Christian story found in Scripture. There will be no excuse for those who claim to know God but remain in the shadows due to lack of trust in him. In our postmodern Westernized society, we are no different than the Hebrews of antiquity who were promised the Land of Milk and Honey.

The book of Joshua is a perfect example for what we are currently up against in our time. God paved the way for the Promised Land to his people, but they would have to work for it every step of the way. God’s people would have to trust him and they could not stop until they had conquered all of the pagan nations in the land of Canaan. God promised to continue his blessings as long as they remained obedient to his word (Deut.28; 30). But they failed by giving up too early and settling for less (Joshua).

The founders of America, on the other hand, begged God to help them pave the way for a new land of freedom and liberty. America flourished as a result. Sadly, in the American West, the past several decades have seen a steady decline in morality and the preservation of a biblical worldview. We have lost ground for the kingdom of God. It is no wonder that America the beautiful has turned into a land that our founding fathers would be repulsed by. The last three and a half years in particular have been an all-out war against anything that is righteous, just, pure, or godly.

Satan, has gained a great deal of territory and has used willing leadership to create hell on earth while professing Christians hide and look the other way as children are perverted, and people are deceived into believing that good is evil and what is evil is now touted as the good. If we trust in the LORD, we will not sit idly by and allow for injustice and perversions to dominate our land. We are now the Church as people of God (1 Cor. 6:19-20), and we cannot allow for the distortion of the Truth to continue on our watch. We have recently been given a window of opportunity to take back ground from the enemy. It is not a time to sit back and rest. That is what got us here in the first place.

We have now been given a gift from God to advance the kingdom without being chased down by a government that has been turned against the people. God will soon separate the wheat from the chaff and those who sit by and do nothing will have the same fate as the five virgins that did not prepare for the coming of the LORD. Everyone is required to get to work because the day is coming when no one will have the opportunity to work any longer (John 9:4).

Be wise and focus on the gifts that you have been blessed with. Do not wait, ask the LORD what you can do today to advance his kingdom.