The Rock Weekly – May 14, 2025

 

The ‘Promised Land’ Requires Battles

“You will possess their land (the promised land); I will give it to you as an inheritance, a land flowing with milk and honey.” –  Leviticus 20:24

“For no matter how many promises (promised land) God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ, and so through Him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God.”  – 2 Corinthians 1:20 

When we think of the Promised Land, we most often picture a “land that flows with milk and honey”.   This is often imagined as a beautiful peaceful land that the Lord has for the Israelites…and now has for us, that is lush with resources and provision…somewhat of a utopia with birds singing, streams flowing through the meadows, and the sunshine on our face.  Taken into today’s language, we would say that this ‘promised land’ or the promises of God are the kingdom riches of resources and prosperity.  And in one sense this is true, but that is only one side of the coin. It is so important that we understand the other side of this coin. In the Bible we also see that the ‘promised land’ is where the Israelites had to step up their game…they had to go to battle to take territory.  It wasn’t just given to them.  And these enemies often had armies that were much greater in size, more fortified, and more advanced in warfare.  Armies that it would make no rational sense to go up against.  Yet, God brought the Israelites into the ‘promised land’ to fight battle after battle!  He also required that Joshua remain in prayer and verbal meditation on the Book of the Law – day and night!  He required a radical obedience and trust to the Lord, and commanded them to be “strong and courageous and to not be fearful or discouraged”.  This was by no means a vacation for the Israelites…taking the promised land required fearless warfare against the enemies of the Lord…and they fought and defeated 31 kingdoms with the help of the Lord…listed out in Joshua 12! 

“When you go to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than yours, DO NOT BE AFRAID of them, because the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, will be with you.”  Deut 20:1

Over the past week, the Lord has been speaking to me about taking the ‘promised land’.  Stay with me on this. 😊  I believe we have, in a sense, crossed the Jordan.  God has already done amazing things among us.  He has given us His Spirit to lead us…in a similar way that the Israelites had the ark of the covenant of the Lord and Joshua told the people to follow it – “then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before.” (Joshua 3:4)  We are now in a time where the Lord is calling us to take territory…to take the promised land, but we must be aware that this is going to require us to fight battles and in doing so, that we have the mind of the Spirit and do not rely on our own understanding.  If we do not have this battle awareness, we will have a tendency to ‘shrink back’ in fear and discouragement and possibly miss out on the territory the Lord has for His people.  Hebrews 10:38 says, “My righteous ones live by faith, but if they shrink back, I will not be pleased with them.” 

May we be bold and courageous in the Lord and in His mighty power!  May we walk by faith and not by sight.  May we fix our eyes on Jesus who gives us faith and sustains us with faith so that we will stand firm in the full armor of God and engage in the battle as we “pray in the Spirit on all occasions, with all kinds of prayers and requests!” (Eph 6:18)

May the Lord be with us in the battles!  I love you all dearly!

Pastor Mike and your Rock Staff

 

 

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