“Positioned For Possession”
Text: Deuteronomy 1:6, Joshua 3:11-14; 5:2-12
I. Opening
It was the site of the original “Shock and Awe” campaign. Lightening. Thunder. Fire. Smoke. Trumpets sounding from the summit. The people were so terrified that they insisted that Moses stay between them and God. It was the place where Moses met and had forty-day conversations with God. Mount Sinai. It was at this mountain, also called Horeb, where the Children of Israel had some of their most profound experiences and revelations about God. It was here that they gained insight into their previously nameless and imageless God as He revealed Himself as Jehovah. From these peaks they learned about God’s character through the revelation of the Ten Commandments. This was an incredibly prominent landmark both geographically and spiritually for this fledgling nation.
In Deuteronomy 1:6-7a, Moses receives a Word from God. God speaks and says, “The Lord our God said to us at Horeb, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Break camp and advance into the hill country of the Amorites. . .’” Instruction has come that it is time to make a move. God is basically forcing the Israelites to leave everything they had learned about Him. They were made to leave their greatest spiritual experiences. They had to turn their back on their comfort zone and their understanding. Remember, they had circled this mountain for 38 years. Now, they were to leave the mountain and advance into unknown, uncharted territory. God informs them (verse 21) that this move is required because He has a land, a home, an inheritance that is theirs to take.
I believe it is time for many of us to get away from the mountain. We have camped at the mountain for too long. We have circled our present level of knowledge and revelation of God one too many times. We have been content to stay within sight of the experience that we had with God five years or even five months ago. Sure the scenery is familiar. The course is certainly predictable. Without a doubt it is more comfortable to walk in the familiar shadow of what we have always known. The path is easy to find. Just follow the tracks we have left behind year after year. However, I believe He wants us to advance. He wants us to head toward our possession and our promise. We can not get there until we first get away from the comfort zone we have constructed for ourselves. It is time for new experiences, a new revelation, a new path, a new encounter, and a new summit!
So the people begin to move. Moses is taken and buried by God. Joshua is now the newly anointed and appointed leader. He mobilizes the people and they cross the Jordan. They are going a way that they had never gone before. As normal, God shows up when we step out by faith and move outside our comfort zone. The waters miraculously pile up and the people cross on dry ground. The people of Israel are now closing in on their possession.
II. Positioned for Possession
A. Possession demands purity!
The people are out of the desert and now living in the Promised Land.
However, we must remember that God is always concerned most about preparing us for what He has prepared for us. He is concerned about our preparation because He doesn’t want us to visit places we can not possess. He doesn’t want us to just visit our promise He wants us to possess our promise.
They are living, benefiting, and enjoying the provision of the promise. But Joshua realizes that something is wrong. He realizes that they weren’t sanctified.
Many of us are enjoying and obtained the benefits and the provisions of the promise. We have enjoyed victories won by others. We have ridden the backs of other people’s prayers, warfare, work, and study of the Word. However, too many of us are not clean. Too many of us are unsanctified, unholy. We are in the camp and we are blessed because of it, but we haven’t been purified.
I declare to you that you can visit the Promised Land without being holy, but you cannot stay there. It is easier to obtain that it is to maintain (i.e. dates). Possession demands purity! Purity produces power to possess. Too many of you are content with visiting your promise. You visit the benefits. You occasionally visit your destiny, but you are unable to maintain possession. You can’t settle there or inhabit that place because of lack of purity. Your talent will get you to the Promised Land but it is your character that will enable you to stay there.
Some of you are acting like you are ready to possess your promise but you need to be purified. You need to take some time and get things cleaned up and cleaned out. You will never be able to possess until you first allow God to purify! It is time for you to be sanctified. I Thessalonians 4:3-8. The day of trying to live in the Promised Land yet staying as close to the filth of this culture is over. We cannot possess without purity!
B. Healing before possession
However, I also want you to notice that as soon as they went through the purification process they didn’t immediately possess the land either. The Word says that they waited to go forward until they had healed. The Word doesn’t just say they stayed in the camp, but specifically says they stayed in the camp in their specific place until they were whole.
I am convinced that too many of us want to do battle before we are whole. We don’t want to stay in our place. God has a place designed for us. He has a place He wants us to stay in and heal in. We must learn to stay in our place until we are healed.
God wants to put some of us in our place. Too often we want to force our way into the lime light, the stage, the ministry when really we need to stay in our place and spend some time becoming whole. That’s what this time is for you. It isn’t a waste of time. Stay in your place and allow God to purify you and to heal you. Get off the stage until you have time to heal. Some of you have been broken don’t get in a hurry. Allow God to heal you. Molested. Stay in your place. Lied to. Stay in your place. Addicted. Stay in your place. Not only does possession demand holiness but wholeness. You must heal before you can possess!
C. Time for possession
I also want you to notice that the people stayed in the healing place for a season. They didn’t stay there forever. They didn’t stay there the rest of their life. There came a day when it was time to get up and move forward into possession.
I am telling some of you that it is time to get out of the counselor’s office and move forward. It is time for some of you to get over your past and possess your future. Some of you have been licking your wounds long enough. You have been reliving your issues long enough. You have been crying and whining over what could have been, should have been, wished it was, why couldn’t it be different, long enough. You have been using your hurt and your pain as excuses to delay movement long enough. Yes, your environment has been tough. Yes, the experience was devastating but God changes our life by changing our revelation or perspective not our environment. Quit waiting for your environment to change. Heal and get up and change your perspective! Some of you have been limping and lying around camp long enough. It is time to possess your promise.
III. Closing
His mother longed for a child. He was a miracle baby. His thankful parent’s committed him to God. He was to be a Nazarite. Samson. Perhaps the strongest man in the world. I would recount some of his exploits but you have heard about them since children’s church. He experienced the power of God. At various times the Spirit of the Lord would come upon him and use him mightily. He knew what it was like to visit anointing. He knew what it was like to experience the presence of God. He knew what it was like to venture into the promise. He just couldn’t possess it. His lusts and lack of purity cost him possession.
David’s epitaph would read that he was a man after God’s own heart. His one desire was to build a house for God to surpass the palace that he was privileged to live in. He began to gather gold, silver, fine cloth, and all the needed elements for construction. Unfortunately, he learned that he would be unable to fulfill his promise and his dream. One of his last acts as king was to work it out so that his son Solomon could fulfill the promise. Solomon had everything a young man could want power, position, prominence, wealth, and wisdom. Solomon benefited from forays into the Promised Land. However, as you know he only visited the promise. He could not possess or maintain residence there. His lack of purity only made visitations possible. I Kings 11:4 “As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been.” He would never position himself for possession.
You can have everything that comes with the promise (power, moves of God, provision) and never possess it for your own! You need to get positioned for possession. I declare that you have visited for the last time. It is time to move into your promise. The only way to do that is to leave your mountain, get purified and sanctified, and by becoming whole! You cannot possess your promise without these steps.
