Wherever you go, I’ll give you that land, as I promised Moses. (Joshua 1:3, CEV)
Joshua succeeded Moses as Israel’s leader. What qualifications did he have to become the leader of a nation?
1/ Of the 12 scouts, only he and Caleb showed complete confidence that God would help them conquer the land.
2/ He was one of only two living eyewitnesses to the Egyptian plagues and the Exodus from Egypt.
3/ He was Moses’ personal aide for 40 years.
4/ and most of all GOD APPOINTED HIM (Num 27:18-23).
Heathen nations had reproached the Lord and His people because the Hebrews had failed to take possession of Canaan, as they expected, soon after leaving Egypt. Their enemies had triumphed because Israel had wandered so long in the wilderness, and they had mockingly declared that the God of the Hebrews was not able to bring them into the Promised Land. The Lord had now signally manifested His power and favor in opening the Jordan before His people, and their enemies could no longer reproach them. {PP 486.1}
Jesus invites and enables us to show forth His praises while we enter into the location of our sorest trials.
A friend of mine dying of cancer wrote the following words last night when I asked him how he was doing:
“I am looking for an immediate rescue from my painful circumstances, and yet it is often these pains that are expanding my heart to search and find the presence of the God, who is my closest companion and eternal Savior”
As a caregiver in the past, who lost his wife to cancer, I too felt this kind of painful circumstance, acutely at times.
Right at the most severe, acute moment of my grief, was the moment that The Holy Spirit had been waiting for.
“The entrance of Your Words gives light; it gives understanding…”(Psalms 119:130)
Part of a verse I read this morning reads like this:
“Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you” (Joshua 1:3)
As a Christian, I am finding that besides the literal ground, not occupied for Christ, there is also the often unclaimed territory of the un-trodden land of divine promise.
That,s why, I think, God said this to Joshua:
“Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, THAT I have given to you.” And then God drew the outlines of the land of promise, and said it is all yours, on one condition. That you shall measure it off using your own feet, by walking completely through the whole length and breadth of the promised land.
But the people then never did that to more than about one-third of all that property, and as a result they never had more than just one third. They had only what they measured off, and no more.
In Hebrews 11:9 we hear about the “land of promise,” that God always opens up to us. I have come to see it as God’s will that we should, as it were, also measure off THAT territory by the “feet” of trusting faith, and believing obedience (to His call).
Jesus, claiming and appropriating ALL of God’s promises for our very own “territory.” And that is such a vast, beautiful land to explore with our own two feet!
As we search for the presence of God in our suffering, our grief, we can take possession of God’s promises. What a magnificent “territory” for faith to hold on to and then march right on through the length and breadth of, yet in my struggles, my faith has rarely done it yet.
Let us each enter into all of our inheritance. Let us lift up our eyes in all four directions, and start to measure this “land” by our own two feet, and then rejoice as we hear Him say:
“All the land that you see, I will give to you.”
I once read a beautiful Christian quote that goes like this:
“We should NOW acquaint ourselves with God by proving His promises.” (GC 622)
And surely, as my late wife was dying, as I roiled in acute grief, I remember finding a special promise for every single need that arose out of our sometimes very dire circumstance.
Friends, we are given a very special assurance about God’s promises in His Word:
God made great and marvelous promises, so that his nature would become part of us. Then we could escape our unhelpful desires and the corrupt influences of this world. [that all in the cancer world would certainly know about]. (2 Pet 1:4)
The power to lead a godly life comes from God. Because we don’t have the resources to be truly godly, God allows us to “share his divine nature” in order to keep us from sin and help us live for him. When we are born again, God by his Spirit empowers us with his own goodness. See John 1:12,John 3:6; John 14:17-23; 2 Cor 5:21; and 1 Pet 1:22-23.
God’s promises gave both my late wife and I a place to rest. A wonderful new land of possibilities to explore together. A new land where we did not have fear or pain. I remember she had been comatose for a week or so, yet when I asked her one day
“if you only had one thing you could say to me “before you go” what would it be sweetie?”
And to my absolute shock and amazement, she sat right up in her bed, she smiled that big cute smile that I loved, and said in a voice too loud for someone ‘as sick as her”
“I WAS LOVED.”
She never spoke another word after that, and she died in my arms shortly after. We still “meet” from time to time as I make periodic forays into that bright, beautiful, verdant “territory” of God’s promise about the resurrection. (1 Thes 4:12-18)
I know that when she was with me that she loved to travel to that place, the promise of the resurrection, and measure it off by talking about how wonderful it will be when the resurrection finally happens. She would “measure the whole territory” off by walking me through all of her thoughts about the amazing things she “saw,” and was so looking forward to.
I have to say in conclusion that whenever I have measured off the territory of God’s promises with my own two feet, I have always come away from the situation at hand exclaiming:
“I was loved.”
In verity, wherever Judah should set his foot, well that should be his! Wherever Benjamin should set his foot, that place should be his!
Each person reading this today can get their personal inheritance by actually setting their own foot upon it. Everyone should take this verse and put their own name into it! Don’t think that when either had set his foot upon a given territory, he did not instantly and instinctively feel, “This is mine”?
During the end times that we are entering now, this is exactly how God’s people will “go in” and each will enter their own promise land of God’s promises. There will be no other way to survive it all. The course of God’s people should be upward and onward to victory.
A greater than Joshua is leading on the armies of today’s Church Militant. One is in our midst, even JESUS, the Captain of our salvation, who has said for our encouragement:
“Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” “Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” He will lead us on to certain victory. What God promises, He is able at any time to perform. And the work He gives His people to do, He is able to accomplish by them. (2T 122).
I have been asked:
“David, why is it that you seem to have so much peace and joy in “your religion?””
I can only reply
“I just walk into my promised land and measure out with my own two feet, my own two hands. The promise of the resurrection.”
the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. (1 Thes 4:16-17)
Have you discussed this promise with your loved ones? Have you discussed this promise with your friends? Have you discussed this promise with your co workers? Have you discussed this promise with your neighbor?
Oh wow! Praise God! I have ALL that is in THAT promise!
I feel rich, beyond measure!
I have the lived experience that has shown I can “MEASURE OUT” that divine promise by my own two feet across the entire length and breadth of all my trials, my entire life! Knowing that ALL of the riches this “precious promise” brings is mine!”
Today, I continue to explore this Promised Land. MEASURING God’s promises. I am so blessed to know God is leading me once more to that territory where He has promised rest, quietness, confidence, in the gift of someone to love.
Jesus is amazing!
Jesus! Our God is an awesome God!
Thank you Jesus!
I wake up every day thinking:
“I was loved.”