Now that God has given Joshua and the Israelites victory in the Land of Canaan; they are suddenly faced with the huge and important task of actually possessing the land of their inheritance.
That will not be an easy thing to accomplish.
I’ve often noted the fact that you can tell what is in a man’s heart by looking at the things he possesses. What are your things?
WELCOME
Can we encourage you to study along with us today?
We are presently in The Book of Joshua – Chapter Twelve. This is the continuation of an on-going, every Thursday bible study. Eventually we hope to travel together through every chapter of our bibles, page-by-page with commentary provided from a layperson’s point of view who studies with the heart of a child who wants to learn more of the world of her Heavenly Father.
Please come along with us! We now have 144 people who are like iron sharpening iron, following along and adding their comments and questions.
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POSSESSING THEIR POSSESSIONS
We previously spoke of the fact that the Israelites now needed to take possession of their possessions from God.
Have those of us who follow God today accomplished this type of action in our own lives within this modern world?
God has called us all to take possession of the things He has freely given to us as an inheritance from Him in The Kingdom of Heaven. The people of Israel were advised not to waste time or wait. Neither should we. There is much to be done. All of it is urgent.
How much of what you own do you REALLY own? Have you learned how to live in abundance yet?
GOD GIVES A WAY
God long ago laid out the roadmap for us.
Can you control what happens to your land, your home, your “so called” possessions? How much of these are ruled by the world and its ways other than God?
Have you considered the possibilities?
Are you able to determine the best ways of how you should live with those possessions? Exactly where do you think they originated from? Joshua learned this lesson very quickly and so should we. Think on that for awhile and we will go further with it later in this study.
Joshua had to teach the tribes of Israel how to possess their own possessions. We all could take a lesson.
GOD ALWAYS KEEPS HIS PROMISES
God brought His people into the land He had long ago promised to the descendants of Abraham. He had promised them a rich and abundant life in this land. They could waste it; or they could learn how to florish within it.
Through the precious blood of Jesus; God promised an abundant life to the people who are walking around and giving birth to His Holy Spirit which resides within them today. These blessed people are the ones who believe enough to conquer life and walk through life in complete trust and obedience to God. This leads them into a life of great spiritual abundance.
This principle of trust, obedience and abundance is what Joshua had to teach to the people who had once been the slaves of Egypt.
REVEALING YOUR TRUE IDENTITY
Just stepping into a place does not mean that you have possessed it.
To possess a place; you must make it totally yours. The land must have the characteristics that you possess. It must reflect the life that you have been called to live. Your purpose must shine through to all that enter the land you now own. They must see who and what you are and what your life is all about.
All of the alters in your land must be dedicated to The One True God.
For Joshua and the Israelites; it was about reflecting God’s best ways to live. All of the lands were basing their core values around the Law of Moses which was given by God to become the ways of this new nation.
For us; those who are Christ followers and believers in the modern world; it is about taking those same laws higher into a spiritual plane that translates the love in which they were given to others.
A WAY OF WORSHIP AND LOVE
First and foremost, this way involves worship and love. It is the devoted love for God Almighty put into action. This would include love for one’s neighbor, which is a higher form of love than the love that the secular world has to offer. This love is brave enough to be truthful. It isn’t afraid.
The bold love I speak of proclaims the wisdom of God which brings all things unto submission to His love and grace and mercy.
Joshua had to show the people how to take physical and legal possession of what had become rightfully theirs. Abraham had possessed this land before the Canaanites ever did; but the sons of Jacob had sinned and these sins had weakened the land and it had stopped raining.
TRUE POSSESSION DOES NOT WEAKEN THE LAND
The sons of Jacob were compelled to move away from their inheritance because of the results of their sins.
The sins of Israel had kept them away from their beloved homeland for a long time. Through neglect of their great blessings from God, the men of Israel had been deceived and eventually were led into physical slavery and bondage in a foreign land by foreign and demonic powers.
The servants of God, first Moses and then Joshua, came forth from God to lead them into freedom again. It was a physical freedom that involved new ways to live under God’s perfect laws. The people of Israel now had to exercise that freedom in order to make it a true reality; but men have never been good at achieving such perfection.
Something or SOME ONE greater than man needed to come forth to make this work.
THE ABUNDANT LIFE OF JESUS
God’s people of today are also being led to take spiritual possession of the lands that God has promised them. They must learn how to possess the abundant life that God’s Son, Jesus Christ gave his life for. He wanted us to have an abundant life with God forever.
Jesus is our Joshua. He is still patiently leading us to take control of who we are. Like Israel; we must learn how to live into our true identity under God. When people see us they must come to see The God Who Created Us living through us.
For this to happen; we must begin to give up the ways we learned while slaves in a foreign way of life. The old ungodly things of the earth must be put away and destroyed. A group of ungodly men cannot reset the globe. Only God has that power. It is a sacrilege for anyone to claim such false powers to vulnerable people who blindly follow out of need, fear and destitution. That isn’t love – it is selfish control.
CONTROL IS NOT GODLY
Control is the opposite of God’s way. He gives us all a choice. Our own choices bring forth our destiny.
God has made all things new.
The new land must NEVER operate in the old ways of Egypt. Their gods are not to be our gods. Their ways are never to be our ways. We have ONE TRUE God; the Creator of Heaven and Earth. This must be remembered above all things.
If the land we are standing on to possess still has the residue of the old gods and demons and the old idolatrous ways; we must begin to make a change. As the Israelites conquered the land physically; we must begin to conquer our lands spiritually.
PRAYERS, DISCERNMENT, OBEDIENCE, HOLINESS
Pray over the land that you possess. Ask God to give you discernment for what it needs to accomplish God’s purpose for you and your people. Be brave and courageous like Joshua and live into those answers. Conquer your inheritance from God by following God into victory, fruitfulness and abundance.
All the old must be cleansed. All of the new must be one hundred percent holy and of God and God alone.
Can we do this?
How did the Israelites go about claiming and possessing their lands once they had the victory of knowing that it was theirs?
GODLY PRIEST, LEADERS, WARRIORS AND STRONG CITIZENS
It was a slow, steady process.
This required the great leadership of Joshua and the priest of God who followed him. Great warriors were needed in the army. Mighty leaders were needed over the cities. Good godly citizens were needed within the cities. Strong walls and gates were required in order to protect the people. Rest to the soil was needed every seven days. The new abundance required firstfruits offerings and sacrifices. Hearts had to be changed before the fate of the lands could be changed.
ORDER, SABBATH, OFFERINGS, SACRIFICES
It all begins with men’s hearts.
The first place that began the process of change and transformation was the land given to the Reubenites, Gadites and the half-tribe of Manesseh. This was the first land the Israelites traveled through upon entering Canaan. It was east of the Jordan from the Arnon Gorge to Mount Hermon, and included the eastern side of the Arabah.
This was where God had allowed Israel to obtain a victory over King Sihon.
Sihon was the King of the Amorites who had previously resided in Heshbon. He ruled over the rim of the Arnon Gorge, from the middle of the gorge to the Jabbok River. That included half of Gilead and eastern Arabah from the Sea of Galilee to the Sea of the Arabah (the Dead Sea.) It went on from there toward Beth Jeshimoth and southward to below the slopes of Pisgah.
CHANGED HEARTS REQUIRED
Just think for a moment of all that had gone on in these lands before Israel came to possess them. There were horrid and unthinkable sins committed daily. They thought nothing of offering up human sacrifices, especially child sacrifices. Idolatry was rampant. Adultery was the norm. All types of sexual perversions existed and were considered normal and encouraged. Blasphemy was common. Murder and robbery were not punished. Deceptions were all around. Greed spread across the land. Hate ruled the land. Cruel and unjustified punishments prevailed. The innocent suffered atrocities every day. It is more than we can cover here.
Consider the King named Sihon who ruled there. His ways were completely pagan. This king was proud of that fact. Even his name indicated the meaning of who he was. Sihon means “wiping out; uprooting, eradicating; exterminating; sweeping away with great and extreme boldness. This was the characteristics of the king who had refused to let the Israelites pass through the borders of his country. Either you were LIKE HIM or you were no one. He considered himself a god and tolerated no one who worshipped any other god other than himself. This king was pagan through and through. His ways were continuously evil. He was bold and open about it.
SELF-CONTROL AND HUMILITY REQUIRED
Consider the meta definition of King Sihon’s name; one with a strong and seemingly unconquerable desire of the animal nature of man for sex sensation, also the most ferocious determination with which he carried this desire into activity when the mind of the flesh ruled in him with its destructive tendencies. This desire of Sihon is the central ruling thought of an Amorite state of consciousness, that where man is under the dominion of the carnal mind. This was the pattern of the things that had been going on in this land which the two and one-half tribes of Israel had now come to possess.
How could they possess such a place of evil and suddenly turn to live in peace and abundance?
By leaving the carnality behind.
MAKING THE CHANGE
They had to clean and clear the land of the existence of anything that had been there during the rule of King Sihon. He was no longer reigning over the land. The land that was once evil and pagan had come into the possession of God’s people now. It was up to them to change the place into one that was holy and pure and true. If not; the land would only deteriorate into something that wasn’t meant to be.
WARRIORS IN GOD’S ARMY
The people of these tribes had a huge task looming out before them. It is a good thing to know that these men who returned to the families they had left in this land were great warriors. They knew how to fight battles and win. They understood most of all that their power and strength came directly from God.
The people of the earth of today and the modern place we now call America also have a huge task before them. Our once godly country has now become a pagan and secular nation. The once godly leaders are now greedy and power-hungry pagans practicing the ways of false gods and demons.
THE LAND MUST REST FROM EVIL
All of the lands of this earth need a change. The entire globe must rest from all of this ungodliness. If God’s people don’t use the power of God’s love and mercy and bring about a transformation of the hearts of the inhabitants of the land; God will step in and give the land rest.
The world wasn’t created to become unholy. This is a fact that many of today’s environmentalist need to add to their list of things that need to be recognized, addressed and corrected. If you need to correct the science; go to the One who invented the sciences for your advice.
This earth was originally created to inhabit life and abundance. It was designed to reflect the mind and purposes of The Great God who created it. You can’t change that fact and survive. The people living on the planet called earth are still called to be fruitful and multiply in the purposes that God has given them so that they may flourish and populate the world.
NEVER MOVE BACKWARDS
We are moving backwards instead of forward.
This is because sin had unleashed its demons on the earth. The wrong-thinking of man has controlled the minds of greedy and powerful men and corporations. They have deceived and used the gullible and innocent and fearful population of this present generation. Fake universities have taught wrong-thinking. Presently they are implementing those thoughts and releasing them like puppets on strings.
What should we do?
PURGING THE LAND
Like the people Joshua was leading into the new nation of Israel; we must begin to purge the land of its demons and evil. The minds of mankind must come into the formation of the wisdom of God. We must implement the practices of our God who has always had our best interest in His Holy Heart.
This is a huge task. It is one which will take a long time and our greatest efforts. Transformation requires much prayer and obedience. It demands fasting before God.
If we are to accomplish the best ways that God has designed for us to live in abundance and plenty; we must begin to follow the laws that accomplish them. The sins of mankind must be purged and stopped. It should be more than a simple, rote obedience. The following must come straight from the heart and exist in the higher power of love that comes from walking this earth with God living inside our souls.
Fill your lamps with oil.
There is no more time to waste.
We must begin today.