When Its Time to Claim God's Promise

Has God given you a promise? A word of prophecy, perhaps? Or a scripture that transcended the page to become written upon your heart?  Maybe it was spoken in silence, an intimate dialogue between His Spirit and yours.

If you're anything like me, you've clung to that promise. Oh, how you've clung! You've waited. You've hoped. You've pondered.  Eventually, you've second-guessed.  Why?  Because time passed. God's promise didn't come when you thought it would.  It didn't come how you thought it would. So, like the Israelites wandering in the wilderness, you started to wonder, "Did I miss it?"

Let me assure you today, the promise still awaits!  Once God speaks, he will fulfill, "...for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable" (Romans 11:29, NIV). 

Some of you are even now at the edge of your promised land; it is for you that I am writing today.

You see, as uncomfortable as the "wilderness" is, some of us aren't exactly eager to fight the battle it will take to claim our "promised land."  Or perhaps you weren't aware that claiming the promise requires a battle! Remember, the battle is what kept the Israelites out of the promised land in the first place. Their fear of going into battle turned an eleven-day-journey into a forty-year-road-trip. 

Why?  Although God had set them free from their physical slavery in Egypt, they were still in bondage.  Fear had them paralyzed. So when God said, "Take the land," they responded, "We're not equipped."

How many of us feel that way today?  We know we've been delivered, but we aren't quite living in our freedom?  Though we can see God's provision in our past, fear is holding us back from receiving the fullness of his gifts in the present.

God allowed the Israelites, as well, to see and taste the good things of the land, but their focus was upon their enemies.  How could this be?  Why, after he'd wrought so many miracles to lead them out of bondage, were they unwilling to face the battle? The answer? Their trust was misplaced. They were comparing what the battle would take with their own ability to fight instead of comparing it with their God.  On the other hand, when it came to resources, they were trusting in the provisions they'd brought with them out of Egypt, and, thus, were not hungry enough for God's bounty in the promised land.

The wilderness has a way of stripping us, does it not?  It reveals where our trust is placed.  It reveals that God is our true source of strength.  It reveals that our own resources are insufficient. 

It also has a way of making us hunger and thirst.  But this is necessary, for Jesus said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled" (Matthew 5:6). When you truly become more desperate for what God has in store than for the illusion of being able to control your circumstances, you will be ready to face the battle.  It is time to step out in faith.

"How long will you put off going in to take possession of the land, which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you?" (Joshua 18:3, ESV)

If this is resonating in your heart today, if God has been showing you that its time to enter into what he has promised, don't let fear hold you back! God is able to fulfill all that he has promised. 

Besides, there's more at stake then you may realize even now.

When the Israelites first had the opportunity to enter the promised land and they let fear turn them back from the fight, what happened?  They lost their opportunity, yes.  But not only that, the fight fell to their children.  

This realization hit me hard in church last Sunday morning.  We have men in our congregation who have served in the military.  As I watched them, and the love that they have for their children, I thought: There is no way they'd ever let their children go into battle in their place.  They'd do anything they could to win the battle so that their children could live in freedom. 

Shouldn't we be doing this spiritually as well? The truth is, we are constantly in a war - a spiritual war - and the consequence of refusing to fight is a slow death.  This is the lesson of the forty years spent wandering in the wilderness, an entire generation, dying off, one by one, until God could raise up a people willing to fight, willing to trust in Him instead of their own strength. 

So what will we do when God reveals that its time for us to enter in and take possession of our promised land?   Will we be the generation that conquers the giants? Will we take the land so that all our children have to do is walk in their inheritance?  

I pray that we do not shrink back in fear, but that we face the enemies head on, knowing our God will fight for us. He will keep his promises. Though he calls you to battle, he promises victory!

"Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed," says the Lord who has compassion on you. "Afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted, I will rebuild you...I will make your battlements of rubies, your gates of sparkling jewels, and all your walls of precious stones.  All your children will be taught by the Lord, and great will be their peace.  In righteousness you will be established: Tyranny will be far from you; you will have nothing to fear. Terror will be far removed; it will not come near you.  If anyone does attack you, it will not be my doing; whoever attacks you will surrender to you...no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and this is their vindication from me," declares the Lord. 

Isaiah 54:10-17