Chapter 10 ~ Rules of Conquest

As I said before, in that land that I am promised, 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. 

Our inheritance of land is a property that needs to be conquered.  I wish the land that the Lord has for us did not need a battle.  I have hoped it was just handed to me on a silver platter!  But that’s not God’s way.  So, how do I do take it?

I think it a good time to reiterate God’s obligation in my Covenant that I am expecting the Lord to uphold: “To possess the land that He has given to me as my spiritual inheritance and to know how to possess it.  To take it all by faith.”  I believe my land (to the best of my knowledge) is my healing; and revival for myself, my old church and the whole world.

But you will cross the Jordan and settle in the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and he will give you rest from all your enemies around you so that you will live in safety.  Then to the place the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his Name—there you are to bring everything I command you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, and all the choice possessions you have vowed to the Lord. (Deuteronomy 12:10-11).

After the writing of the Covenant, the Lord began to speak to me about possessing the land which He has prepared.  God started by giving the scripture of Exodus 23:20-33.

I pondered how could I take instructions from thousands of years ago and make them my own today?  Through prayer I began to identify what I must do to own what God has prepared for me.  I have broken up my obligation into four parts:  Daily Requirements; Sin Avoidance; Faith Requirements and Engage the Enemy.

On a parallel note, the instructions I will provide can aide in the evil days we find ourselves in.  There are many who are weary of the pandemic and the disruption to their lives.  I understand, however, we are in unchartered territory in these dark days.  If you have read my previous book, in addition to my current book and posts, I pray you comprehend where the Lord is going with all we are experiencing.  God wants us to be prepared for harder days ahead, He wants us to grow up and take off our ‘rose-colored’ glasses. 

I hear Him say: “If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses? And if in the land of peace, in which you trusted, they wearied you, then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan?” (Jeremiah 12:5).

The first step is to prepare yourself daily by putting on the whole armor of God. 

Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.  Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.  In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  (Ephesians 6:13-17).

As I mentioned before, I have broken up my obligation into four parts:  Daily Requirements; Sin Avoidance; Faith Requirements and Engage the Enemy.

DAILY REQUIREMENTS: 

• Pray and meditate on God’s Word, day and night. Do not let it depart from me.  I am to do what is written in the Word. I am to have a healthy fear of the Lord and be obedient to His Spirit.  Then, He will lead me into the land He has prepared for me.  Exodus 23:20-21.             
• Take charge with confidence and not presumption because the Lord goes before me. Exodus 23:20.   
• Serve the Lord God and He will give the victory and ownership which is the victorious life He lives in me. Then I am blessed with all spiritual blessings which are the possessions He has provided for me.  The Lord will fulfill the number of my days.  Exodus 23:25-26.

20 Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.

21 Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him.

25 So you shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness away from the midst of you.

26 I will fulfill the number of your days.

SIN AVOIDANCE:

• Listen to the Holy Spirit’s voice and obey Him. Be sure my sin will find me out.  Exodus 23:21.
• Do not serve other gods, no idols are to be left in my life (i.e., clothes, money, a job, etc.). Exodus 23:24. 
• Fight against making a covenant with false gods or the spirits of the enemy. For instance, the spirit of fear or the spirit of jealousy for they will definitely snare me.  Exodus 23:32-33.

24 You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their works; but you shall utterly overthrow them and completely break down their sacred pillars.

32 You shall make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.

33 They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against Me. For if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.

FAITH REQUIREMENTS:

• Believe God, the Word of God and God’s voice. It is Authority and my map. 
• Even though the Lord has given the land, He will not drive out all the enemies at once. My faith will help rid the land of the enemies of the past.  My faith will drive the custody of my inheritance for the future.  As I grow and increase, He will release more to me.  Exodus 23:29-30.
• God has predestined my boundaries. With His help and my trust, I can have all that He has preordained for me.  Exodus 23:31.

29 I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you.

30 Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased, and you inherit the land.

31 And I will set your bounds from the Red Sea to the sea, Philistia, and from the desert to the river. For I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you.

It seems that the Prayer of Battle aka God’s Battle Cry is the Shema.  This is the prayer necessary to possess our land.  How do I know this?  Because the Shema has been requested of me for over twenty years as the prayer to bring in the Lord’s will for a situation, including my own.

My original encounter with the prayer occurred in 1997 with one of my first prayer partners, Lois.  Here is the story: “One night, Lois (former prayer partner) had a dream and the words she received were in Hebrew.  Unbeknownst to her and to me, she was quoting the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-13) in her dream.  The next day her boss, who was Jewish, translated the words for her into English; we were blessed at the experience.  Little did I know that many years later, the Shema would be the prayer the Lord would ask me to pray daily for the deliverance of my church and for the great end-time revival that is to come.”

(The Shema) Deuteronomy 6:4-13 ““Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one!  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.  And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.  You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

So it shall be, when the Lord your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build, houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant—when you have eaten and are full— then beware, lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. You shall fear the Lord your God and serve Him, and shall take oaths in His name.”

The New Testament version:

Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’  (Matthew 22:37).

And a prophetic word on the subject: “There are still battles that will need to be fought and those that will be won are numerous.  The battle is Mine to fight but you will be the one who wields the sword.  Take this not lightly but prepare yourself in prayer; the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-13) is what will need to be prayed to rid the land of the wicked forces.  This diabolical source has been from of old and will not be disposed of without a fight.  Gird your waistband and give no thought to the enemy; be prepared.  Fight on, for the battle will soon be revealed.” 

Now, why did the Lord give me the Shema to pray every day for the battle and to rid the land of the enemy?  I do not know for sure, but it has been confirmed over the years.  And one time dramatically by my good friend Gloria.  In the midst of heating up of the spiritual environment at my former church, she sent me an email. 

Gloria wrote: “This is what I think I heard from the Lord; ‘I am very angry at the Head Pastor, his ministry is a sham, he is a fake.’  Also, I am to pray for your protection, which I knew and I am.  So now I laugh and ask God to throw all the things He told me into the fire to test them.  Then I saw in gold (in the sky) SHAM.  I was so scared and also God gave me Deuteronomy 6:4 (the Shema).”

Well, there you go!  God confirmed the Shema through my good friend and I did not tell her of this verse ahead of time.  To top it off a month after this incident, the Head Pastor announced that the Shema was the ‘vision’ of the church.

“Then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their engraved stones, destroy all their molded images, and demolish all their high places; you shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land and dwell in it, for I have given you the land to possess.”  (Numbers 33:52-53).

If there are those of you who are ready, willing and able to possess your land, start praying the Shema every day in your prayer time.  See how God will move your mountains.

On a final note, I am saving Engage the Enemy for the next chapter as it will take some time to unpack.  It will include spiritual warfare on a fairly simple level, the introductory steps.  We are told to be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves to withstand the ways of the enemy, for we are not ignorant of his devices.  Until next time, be watchful. 

“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”  (Hebrews 11:6).