What Is The Land God Has Promised?

8/27/21

What is land that God has promised and that I am supposed to possess?  What is the land you are supposed to possess?  In other words, what is the vision of what your life is to become in Him?

For many years I thought I knew but it was rather nebulous just “Prepare the way of the Lord”.  What does that mean?  It is not like “Get on a plane and go to Africa”.  It seems the vision of what I imagined my ministry to be has become much more unclear over the years.

"God gives you visions and promises of what your life is to become in Him. The thing is, it doesn't come fully assembled. It takes work - applying and persevering when you don't feel like it, following the Master's instructions until the job is done.  A good vision is worth sticking to and persevering for. Get moving and stick to it even when it's hard. That promise, vision, life, that you saw, you will one day see with your eyes, fully assembled."  Sapphires@hopeoftheworld.org (May 26, 2021).

Some people have very vivid ideas of what God has called them to do; I wish that were the case with me.  It’s hard to see the forest through the trees and the trees are my affliction.  I struggle with the fact that I am separated from a church.  Though, I heard it said recently that separation is the key to fulfilling your calling. 

As it was with so many in the Bible (Moses, Joseph, the prophets) including Jesus, they experienced a time of separation to prepare them for their destiny.  A setting apart as it were.  Like a wilderness experience where God alone is their sustenance.  The longer the separation, most times, the greater the calling (unless one is in sin).  It is this time of being set apart when the Lord accomplishes His purging for every good work that the servant will accomplish. 

Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.  (2 Timothy 2:21).

It is significant to ask the question, so what is the land that God has promised as my (or your) possession?  Certainly, if we are to possess it, we have to know what it is.  In addition, a knowledge of how to possess the land that the Lord has intended for me to own and occupy.  And it is the same for all of us, the need to understand the will of God for our lives and what He wants us to accomplish for His glory while we are on this earth. 

For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.  (Luke 11:10).

“For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden; but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven, a land for which the Lord your God cares; the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.”  (Deuteronomy 11:10-12).

The land or territory God promises to each of us is discovered through prayer and it is possessed through faith.  In other words, our Promised Land is our sphere of influence in this world.  Vernon McGee so aptly stated: “Possess the land! No one shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life (Joshua 1:1–8).  Just as Joshua possessed the land by faith, possess today by faith your spiritual inheritance. Take it all by faith—we are in enemy territory. God gave the Israelites 350,000 miles; the tribes only possessed 30,000!”

I can tell you that during the dark years of affliction I have certainly questioned what the land was that I was promised.  There were times when I had given up on possessing my land, whatever it may be.  Though this was the case I still had in my spirit an unction that swelled up in my dreams.  Over the years, I would awake to me pronouncing “No one will be able to keep me from entering in” or variations of that theme.  Was that me or was that the Holy Spirit?  I believe it was the Spirit of God strengthening me by having me speak the words He wanted me to believe.  I guess it was similar to a prophetic utterance.  It can be the same for you if you persevere.

“So it was, when the people set out from their camp to cross over the Jordan, with the priests bearing the Ark of the Covenant before the people, and as those who bore the Ark came to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the Ark dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks during the whole time of harvest), that the waters which came down from upstream stood still, and rose in a heap very far away at Adam…”  (Joshua 3:14-16).

I see the Jordan in my life (the analogy) as the affliction that I have lived with for over 5 years.  The waters of the Jordan are deep, dark and foreboding.  They can overflow its banks, just like my emotions and circumstances.  All of us have a Jordan that needs to be crossed.  Crossing the Jordan is not easy nor is it conceivable unless the Lord goes before and creates a way.  God will make a way where there seems to be no way.

The Ark of the Covenant according to the above verse went before the crossing; perhaps that is the same with my 2007 Covenant that I resurrected.  In addition, maybe you have a covenant with the Lord that goes before you?  And on the other side of the Jordan is the Promised Land.  The land that was promised is beyond the Jordan.  In that land I am to worship and bring my offerings I have vowed to God.  It is an inheritance of land that will still need to be taken.  How do I do that?

The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant.  Psalm 25:14