Weekly Word

As we walk along the Christian road following Jesus, there are many truths that we need to understand. 

Possessing the Promised Land is a process.  As we begin exploring how to enter the Promise Land, it important to find truths that will cause us to change from the inside out.  It is only then that the ground that we gain will be growth that will remain.   

Jesus came to give us life and that more abundantly.  His promise is for all.

This week we will discover how renewing the mind, obedience, and warfare are important steps to conquering your own personal Canaan and entering into the Promised Land.

Deuteronomy 6:23-25 tells us:

“And He brought us out from thence, that He might bring us in, to give us the land which He sware unto our fathers.  And the Lord our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as it is at this day.  And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God, as He hath commanded us.”

God has brought us out of the world to bring us into the promised land.  This is a place of spritual victory. 
Verses 24-25  tells us that we cross over into our promised land by observing to do all His commandments.  Observing means to pay close attention to.  To look at something with observation.  When we take heed to his word and follow his commandments then victory and success is what He has for us.  Obedience to His will is key.

Deuteronomy 7:1 says,

“When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations befoe thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou.”

The Hebrew word for “possess” means “to occupy by driving out the previous tenants and possessing in their place, to seize, cast out, expel.”

Beginning this journey into the Promised Land begins in the mind. in the thought life.    As we obey Romans 12 present ourselves as living sacrifices, wholly and acceptable to God and take time to renew our minds according to His Word. we walk on the road to victory.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 says:

“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:   For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself agains the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”

We must pull down the strongholds in our minds and cast down all unrenewed, unscriptural, ungodly thoughts that are there.  Remember Jesus told us to take up our cross daily and follow Him.

Begin today to renew your mind according to the Word.  The Bible tells us that His thoughts are not our thoughts.  We have so many opinions.  It’s time to look deep into God’s Word and make His truth our opinion.

Allow Him to take you through the process of change and be on your way into your Promised Land.

Several years ago the Lord spoke to me and said,  “my people are battled scared but they have nothing to show for it.”  As He shared that with me, I began to look around.  You know when God is dealing with you on something; your eyes start to open to the thing He is bringing attention to.   You can see into people’s lives sometimes, you can see into their circumstances, and you might even see into the spirit realm, and you can see that they are surrounded with happenings and you can see kind of what is happening in their life.  Their words are kind of shallow.  They might say that this has happened and they begin to cry and weep, and they say that that has happened and they say oh well, I guess I’ll get through it if I just hold on long enough I know that I can make it through.  You begin to look at your own circumstances with new understanding.

But at that time I began to realize that many people didn’t even realize what was going on in their lives, all they knew is that they were going through a hard time in and they were desperately trying to hold onto Jesus, and just hold onto their promises.   

We are in a time and in a day that God is revealing to the Body of Christ what is going on and we don’t have to blindly walk through circumstances any more.  We don’t have to go day by day without recognizing and understanding that everything that happens in our life is for a purpose.

We are God’s children.  Now if you are a child and you have a good father and mother, we know they are taking care of us. What they prepare for us on a daily basis is good for us.  They have taken time to be sure that you have the clothing proper for the day and that we start out with a healthy breakfast. They make sure we have a nourishing lunch, they make sure that everything is in order and at the end of the day, we know we were well taken care of. 

It is the same way with God.  But many of us did not know that.  When we got up in the morning, we didn’t realize that God had already prepared our day for us.  We didn’t recognize that He was the one in control of everything that happened to us. 

Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.

We need to recognize when we are going through a period of testing and trial.  Every part of our life is in a season.  In Eccellasties it tells of the times and the seasons.  Every season in life is for a purpose in the life of each individual.  Every season has a very significant key to life in it.  Now that we are Christians we do not just idly walk along.  We might think we are but God never intended it to be that way. 

Every season that we go through has a specific purpose and that purpose in that season is to bring forth fruit, and that the fruit that will remain.  At the end of that season that we went through, we should know what happened to us.  We should recognize how we changed, how we grew, how that area in our life that before we could not overcome, was now healed.  There are many things that might happen during the various seasons of life. It is important to recognize the seasons and then to be victorious in the various seasons.
 

We do not have time to keep running around in the trials and being trapped in the trials, but rather come out in a newness of life in Christ as a result of the season and trial.

Today we will learn that we need to recognize a test.  “A colorful pattern appears on the TV set, accompanied by a chilling high pitched sound.  After getting everyone’s attention the announcer verifies this has been a test of the emergency broadcast system, I repeat, this is only a test.

Wouldn’t it be helpful if our trials were preceded by an announcement, this is only a test brought to you by the Heavenly Development System?  The challenge of life’s test is that they often catch us off guard.

We are usually not expecting them.  Of the tests come in disguise, even if we are alert we often do not recognize them.  This lack of recognition is one of the reasons people do not pass the test.  We must recognize the fact that life is a test and that we go through test after test after test. 

James 1:12

“Blessed is a man who preservers under trials, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him.  There are trials and there are tests.”

KJ” Blessed is the man when he preservers under temptation for when he is tried he will receive a crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those that love Him.”

What is a trial?  The word says blessed is the man who endures.  The word endures means to stay under or behind.  It means to remain, to undergo, to bear, to have fortitude, to preserver, to abide, to endure, to be patient to suffer and to tarry behind. 

It is interesting when you look up the word trial and find that it means trustworthiness.  It means experience, proof, acceptable, approved, a testing, a trying.

We must trust God in a trial.  A trial is to bring righteousness.  A trail is to bring peace.  A trial is to bring to us the good things.  So in our experience and in the time of trusting there is proof that God will fulfill what He had meant to happen.  In a trial, we must endure, and stay in the trial in order to produce.  We must not look for a way out; we must walk through the trial.  Now the trial will produce life in you and strength.

A trial means simply a test.  A place to stand.

There is a difference between a temptation and a trial.

Temptation means, the putting to proof of good, experience of evil.  Solicitation, discipline, provocation, adversity, temptation by trying. 

What is the reward for passing the test? 

When you have persevered, or endured, or you have endured under temptation, you will receive a crown of life.