TAKING THE LAND

SERIES: 2017 - The Year of Promise

“Taking the Land”

RF, February 26, 2017

INTRO Just because you inherit something, it doesn't always come easy.  We have all heard stories of massive inheritances conditioned on the fulfillment of some task or requirement. The means of meeting the conditions are there, but they have to be applied!

August 2015: A Manhattan millionaire hit the headlines recently by leaving his daughters $10 million each – as long as they attain certain life goals.  Mr Laboz left several conditions in his Will with the effect that if his daughters attend an accredited university, land a good job, marry well and do not have a child out of wedlock they will receive their full inheritance. His lawyers claim that he included these conditions as an attempt to ‘instill certain values’.  Although rare, such conditions in Wills are nothing new. Back in 1807 an Englishman left his estate to his wife and daughter on the condition that they did not marry a Scotsman and this provision was upheld in court.

God gave conditions to the inheritance of the Promised Land!

Genesis 13:14-17 (NKJV) And the LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are— northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered. Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.”

Deuteronomy 11:24-25 (NKJV) Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the River Euphrates, even to the Western Sea, shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand against you; the LORD your God will put the dread of you and the fear of you upon all the land where you tread, just as He has said to you.

Joshua 1:2-3 (NKJV) “Moses My servant is dead. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them—the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses.”

We walked around this place to claim it and possess it. I have known pastors who have walked around their cities.

God said you had to “walk out your inheritance”. What does that mean?  God has given us the land; we must possess it!  Much of Israel's history is about taking or re-taking the land.  we have to take the land, or re-take the land, God has given us.  How?

1.     Walk by faith, not by sight.

II Corinthians 5:7 (NKJV) For we walk by faith, not by sight.

Lot walked by sight.

Genesis 13:10-12 (NKJV) And Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere (before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah) like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt as you go toward Zoar. Then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east. And they separated from each other. Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom.

We don't hear God with our eyes!  Lot walked by sight and lost everything.

Abraham walked by faith: seeing the invisible and doing the impossible!  Oral Roberts wrote a great book by that title, “If You Can See the Invisible, You Can Do the Impossible!”

Hebrews 11:9-10 (NKJV) By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

Hebrews 11:12 (NKJV) Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude—innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.

Moses walked by faith.

Hebrews 11:27 (NKJV) By faith he (Moses) forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible.”

Oh that we could see the Lord! Oh that we could live in an intimate relationship with Him!

2.     Make decisions based on the Promise.

In Scripture, 'walk' means the way you live life.  We should live our lives based on the promises God has made.

Ephesians 4:1 (NKJV) I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called,

Colossians 1:10 (NKJV) that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

1 Thessalonians 2:12 (NKJV) that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.

Abraham had a promise from God Himself repeated many times: Genesis 12, 13, 15, 17...

Romans 4:17-21 (NKJV) as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.” And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what God had promised, He was also able to perform.!

Abraham had a covenant experience with God!  You can read about it in Genesis 15…

This allowed him to make incredibly tough choices based on the promise God made!

Hebrews 11:17-19 (NKJV) By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, “In Isaac your seed shall be called,” concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.

God wants to reveal himself to us so we can act on the promise!

End time revival...

Jesus Chapel School…

3.    INVITATION

      Ask God to give you a revelation!  Then act on it!