“From the moment God first issued the promise of land to Abram, he described its occupants as quickly as its perimeters:
‘To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Euphrates – the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites’ (Gen 15: 18-21).
Our [New Testament spiritual] Promised Lands are characterized by the presence of victory, not the absence of opposition.
Earlier I asked you if your present belief system was working. One way we can measure our belief system’s effectiveness is to examine how consistently our biblical position as ‘more than conquerors’ (Rom 8:37) is fleshed out in our reality.
The children of Israel showed they were God’s conquerors on earth by conquering. Victory always assumes a counterpart defeat. We will never take our places as ‘more than overcomers’ with nothing to overcome. We will never be victors without opponents.
As we will continue to see in our journey, God gave the Israelites the Promised Land but told them they’d have to take what was theirs in a fierce battle. Why? Probably one reason was so they’d develop the strength to keep it once they conquered it. Surely another was to let them experience the thrill of victory that only a battle hard fought can bring. In God’s economy, much of what is worth having is proved worth fighting for.
Like the Israelites, you and I have been promised spiritual ground for great and abiding victory on a turf where our enemy stands in defiance. If you’re not presently occupying your Promised Land, rest assured the enemy is. Are you going to stand by and let him get away with that?
God has given you land, Beloved, but He’s calling you to go forth and take it. Your enemy is standing on your God-given ground daring you to take possession of it. Are you going to let him have it? Or are you going to claim your inheritance? Possession is the law of the Promised Land.
Red Rover, go over.
The Creator of heaven and earth – the One with the entire universe and its riches at His disposal – knows you by name, has planned a Promised Land for you, and longs to bless you. He wisely reserves the right to require your cooperation. Many promises of God are unconditional, but His promises of full-throttle blessing, abiding, fruit-bearing, and conquering are not.
Nothing in your life or mine is worth forfeiting the places of promise where our own 1 Cor 2:9’s are fulfilled. What God has prepared for you is more than your ears have heard, your eyes have seen, and your mind has ever conceived. Promised Land theology becomes and earthbound reality only to those who cash in their fear and complacency for the one ticket out of their long-inhabited wilderness.
– Beth Moore, “Believing God” pages 9-11