Jarrod and I like to attend these pastor conferences in the city about once a year. A couple years ago, the pastor of the church felt like his son had a word from God for the people in attendance. His son was in his mid-teens and stood awkwardly at the front with a Bible wearing jeans, a T-shirt, and converse shoes. He timidly relayed the message God gave him and we could all feel the anointing on him but knew he had some growing to do (don’t we all?!). Now let’s fast forward a couple years to this last weekend at the youth conference. This young boy, who so timidly spoke years ago as an emerging pastor, has now come fully into his gifting as an adult. He stood up at the front with a presence of God’s power and a witty, dynamic personality. He held the audience captive for his humorous stories and powerful words from God. It is easy to see he is OWNING his gift. He’s taken possession of what God has given him and is walking fully in it as a confident, Spirit filled speaker. It isn’t hard to see the difference in him a couple years ago, hesitantly entering this gift God gave him, and now, boldly standing on the hill with a flag in the ground saying, “I want this!”
This is an illustration of Joshua 13 where Joshua is now old and there’s more land to possess. God gave them the biggest regions and now it’s their responsibility to finish up the smaller regions – to drive out the smaller tribes and take possession of all the land promised to them. The Jews chose not to drive these last tribes out and as a result, they still exist – in the land that should have been Israel’s…the land that was promised and handed to them on a silver platter. Every tribe of Israel split up the land they owned and received a physical inheritance of land and/or resources except for the Levites (the priests), whom received a spiritual inheritance. (Numbers 18).
You might be thinking, “What the hay?! What did the Levites do to get cut out of the physical inheritance??” I’ll tell you – they were the priests! They didn’t need the physical things…because of their direct relationship with God all their physical needs were taken care of. This was the greatest gift of all! They inherited the offerings set on the table of God. They got intimacy with the Holy One! What does this mean? It means they were honored to be part of the family business, to be filled with the Holy Spirit – the direct line to Jesus, and they received gifts and fruit from the Holy Spirit. (Find out about your gift HERE).
There are two things I feel are important about this passage:
1) The gift of spiritual inheritance (discussed above).
2) The importance of driving out those last tribes to take full possession of the land.
Why was it important to drive those last tribes out? Why does it matter? Because not driving them out meant they didn’t take advantage of their full inheritance. They let it go – gave it away. How does this translate to today? Think about your mind and heart as the Promised Land. Think about all the thoughts and feelings as the tribes. Now consider the ill-mannered thoughts and feelings as the tribes that remained in the Jews’ Promised Land. By allowing those thoughts and feelings to take homestead in your heart and mind, you’re not taking full advantage of your Spiritual inheritance. You’re not allowing the Spirit to flow freely throughout and therefore are not operating at your highest level. The fruit you bear might be rotten – maybe not ALL you do is rotten but there might be one “tribe” left that’s permeating the good. It hinders you. It prevents you from having all God has given you.
I’m encouraging you today to eradicate those “tribes”. Go before God and ask him to bring to your mind what needs to be gone. Whatever that first thought is – even if you REALLY think its true and try to rationalize and talk yourself out of it – give it over to God by renouncing it. Then ask him to permeate that space you made with the opposite. For example, when I asked, I heard self-condemnation, which means I’m super hard on myself and don’t see my value. I renounced the self-condemnation and asked God to fill me with HIS confidence in me, to fill me with the ability to see my value in situations and to find encouragement in all I do. Now you try! I’ll be praying for my readers to have the ability and desire to hear from God today and for you to fight off those tribes through him.
This is an illustration of Joshua 13 where Joshua is now old and there’s more land to possess. God gave them the biggest regions and now it’s their responsibility to finish up the smaller regions – to drive out the smaller tribes and take possession of all the land promised to them. The Jews chose not to drive these last tribes out and as a result, they still exist – in the land that should have been Israel’s…the land that was promised and handed to them on a silver platter. Every tribe of Israel split up the land they owned and received a physical inheritance of land and/or resources except for the Levites (the priests), whom received a spiritual inheritance. (Numbers 18).
You might be thinking, “What the hay?! What did the Levites do to get cut out of the physical inheritance??” I’ll tell you – they were the priests! They didn’t need the physical things…because of their direct relationship with God all their physical needs were taken care of. This was the greatest gift of all! They inherited the offerings set on the table of God. They got intimacy with the Holy One! What does this mean? It means they were honored to be part of the family business, to be filled with the Holy Spirit – the direct line to Jesus, and they received gifts and fruit from the Holy Spirit. (Find out about your gift HERE).
There are two things I feel are important about this passage:
1) The gift of spiritual inheritance (discussed above).
2) The importance of driving out those last tribes to take full possession of the land.
I’m encouraging you today to eradicate those “tribes”. Go before God and ask him to bring to your mind what needs to be gone. Whatever that first thought is – even if you REALLY think its true and try to rationalize and talk yourself out of it – give it over to God by renouncing it. Then ask him to permeate that space you made with the opposite. For example, when I asked, I heard self-condemnation, which means I’m super hard on myself and don’t see my value. I renounced the self-condemnation and asked God to fill me with HIS confidence in me, to fill me with the ability to see my value in situations and to find encouragement in all I do. Now you try! I’ll be praying for my readers to have the ability and desire to hear from God today and for you to fight off those tribes through him.
Great post. : )
ReplyDeleteThank you, Deanna!
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