Our Promise Land Is Full of Oppositions

 Daneille Gray Snowden(c)2021

2021

Our Promise Land Is Full of Oppositions 

Have you been given a call, some call them dreams; where God has called you to a place, a people group, or an occupation? Sometimes, we obey this call immediately or we wrestle with it for awhile. 

But, when we do say, "yes!" That call (or dream) in truth becomes our 'Promise Land!' It is a place of purpose, and when we find that purpose, we shall be fulfilled and happy: Right? 

Ponder on that answer for a bit as I go on.

Usually before the promise land, we go through a place of training. In that training, God builds endurance and teaches us so much, in that, we gain wisdom, plus discernment. In the Old Testament, the Israelites walked through 40 years of what is called the Wilderness. In this region of the Middle East, this here is a harsh terrain, a dessert, hills and valleys. There is sometimes no water or food supply, and in addition there are a combatant of enemies in this journey. They enjoyed  40 years of living off a very basic but heaven supplied diet of quail and manna. In addition, there was a gleaning of the those that caused division as God gave His Law for them to live by. 

And now, with Joshua as their leader they arrive at the Promise Land, the place of purpose for the people of Israel. Moses was called to take them there, Joshua was chosen to bring them in.  Ex. 3:8  

“And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.”

-God told them to TAKE THE LAND! 

"And you shall take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given the land to you to possess it." Num.33:53

The New King James Version says: "you shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land and dwell in it, for I have given you the land to possess."

Think about this; all of the people groups that basically 'moved-in' throughout the years the children of Israel were captive in Egypt. Who were they? What were they like? And to the Israelites; they were a huge problem for them to fulfill their call. 

Why an invasion (taking the land)?

The Canaanites culture and ways (as written in Leviticus and Deuteronomy) worshipped demons, and demonic idols. They committed taboo sexual acts and sacrificed their children to their gods. 

Deut. 9:5 God said it is not because of your righteousness I want you to take the land but because of their wickedness. 

So, one of their callings was not to just live in a wonderful land full of milk and honey! It was to CLEANSE THE LAND! 

I truly believe as God's children, that today this too, is an important calling we have. Evil runs rampant, horrible things are being taught to our children, drug and alcohol addiction has destroyed many lives. Pornography, alternate lifestyles (contrary to God's Word) has not been accepted but being forced to be adopted into our workplaces, and living. Now is the time to cleanse the land. This must go, first from our families, our churches, and then our land. 

The cities that Israel totally took out were just their enemies military strong holds. It was not the civilian population areas. In Deut. 2 God told them to DRIVE the people out slowly. God offered the people groups here a peace offering but they refused many times. (Deut. 20)

They were to dismantle the dark cultural regime (part of their chosen purpose). 

We are called to bring down the strongholds of evil. 2 Corinthians 10:4 says: "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)."

Only three forces were totally destroyed: 

Jericho, Ai and Hazor (Josh. 6:21, 8:28, 11:13).

Personally, when I go through a long trial and finally I see God's Promises coming together in reference to the call and purpose He has on my life - I think, this is it, I am free! Life will be so full of happiness, bliss and ease. Wow! Not so! 

Although, there is joy and a deep feeling of contentment and purpose too! 

Allow me to exposit here with my personal story. 

We knew God called us to the mission field, even before we were married (33 years ago). Instead of going strait to the foreign field, God led us to several pastorates. And, they were hard ones. We pastored churches that were struggling for years before we took them. There was a lot to handle on every front. In the midst of that, at our last pastorate my husband became seriously ill. He was also working as a carpenter and roofer to supply for our family. He suffered terribly in this illness, as he was bedfast, plus in a wheelchair. We were without income for six years, with that we had three children to supply for. The years went by and we were told that my husband had months to live, at the same time; we answered the call to proceed to the mission field.  During this process, God healed my husband and we went to the field.

We were so happy to finally be doing what God called us to do. Then guess what - there were oppositions in the land. We faced a lot of difficulties and issues that was combatted with lots of prayer. Spiritual warfare was a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week battle. Then we were struck with one of our daughters becoming chronically ill. 

We are still missionaries to Africa, but it has not been a bed of roses. Still, it has been incredibly wonderful! If we didn't have the wilderness years, we wouldn't have been able to handle the oppositions in our promise land. 

Jesus had a call, and a promise land to take. This promise land was and still is, the souls of mankind. I love this portion of scripture-

Heb. 12:2 "...Who for the Joy (of accomplishing His Goal) endured the Cross..." 

In verse one of Hebrews 12, we are challenged to endure the race. In verse. 3, Jesus endured the evil pressed on Him. 

Jesus looked at His difficult path as joyful! He had great strength knowing that death, hell and the grave would be defeated (the oppositions in the land). 

This passage tells us to LOOK TO JESUS! To see Him in His character, His Word and example! One thing He did was to endure! God is gifting all of us endurance through trials and daily challenges. It gives us the ability to endure, because even in our wilderness we learn to follow Him. Remember, God provided the pillar of fire at night and the cloud by day for the children of Israel in the wilderness; and they followed.  The Lord will always make a way for us. And as we walk this wilderness way, then take the land, we will know He is right there -in matter of fact, HE GOES BEFORE US! 

Deut. 3:18: "The Lord is the One who goes before you. He will be with you."

Deut. 1:30: He will go before and fight for you!

Is.52:12: "For the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rearguard."

Yes, we shall arrive to our place of promise. When we arrive to this destination, may I encourage you to not be disheartened that it is full of oppositions.  Look at Israel today, they still have this issue. It reminds me when we till our garden and it looks all clean and ready for planting. As the vegetables grow, something else pops up too; weeds! 

Weeds will always grow, this can be anything that tries to stop God's perfect plan for His people. They must be removed. Sin, disease, deception, loneliness and simple exhaustion can be our battle. With God, all things are possible! We are not alone!

We have a wonderful promise land in glory that is awaiting us, it will be full of the streets of gold, the glory of God, peace and joy! It won't be long until we all journey there! Jesus is coming so soon! Meanwhile, go forth and fulfill God's call upon your lives!