Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
Once again, it was good to be in my home church yesterday. God is speaking clearly for a new season of intimacy with Him. The Spirit of God inspired me to prophecy concerning our attention in this year. If we have felt the earthquake, experienced the blowing of the wind, or been touched by the consuming flames of fire we must know that God is not in these things. These are simply things that happen when God walks into our space. When the mountain of the Lord’s dwelling rises in the nations the earthquakes, the wind blows, and the fire burns but we must look for God in the midst of these things. We cannot find Him in our ways, we will not see Him in our paths, but we will find Him in His ways, in His paths, and with His law of love in our hearts. Would we come to Him or will be drift away by the actions of His presence in our world? Things that move by His presence are simply driftwood fit for the fire and we must not drift away from Him in such times as these.
I have been addressing three key things to the present season in the church. Those three things are in regard to the courage of the Lord, holiness of the Lord, and faith in God. These are not attributes empowered by our own abilities, but testimonies of God’s grace as the power of His Spirit at work in our lives. How can we be strong in the courage of the Lord? Discouragement comes when we are detached from the true courage that comes from God. To be encouraged is to be attached to the place of true courage. That place is an abiding in the presence of God and He abiding in us in our journey of life. When the children of Israel entered the Promised Land, their doom was their continued detachment from God in their hearts. They constantly sought the works of God, but they did not seek to know the ways of God. The Lord had told Moses that this would be the fate of a stiff necked people.
Deuteronomy 31:22 Therefore Moses wrote this song the same day, and taught it to the children of Israel. 23 Then He inaugurated Joshua the son of Nun, and said, “Be strong and of good courage; for you shall bring the children of Israel into the land of which I swore to them, and I will be with you.” 24 So it was, when Moses had completed writing the words of this law in a book, when they were finished, 25 that Moses commanded the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saying: 26 “Take this Book of the Law, and put it beside the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there as a witness against you; 27 for I know your rebellion and your stiff neck. If today, while I am yet alive with you, you have been rebellious against the LORD, then how much more after my death? 28 Gather to me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their hearing and call heaven and earth to witness against them. 29 For I know that after my death you will become utterly corrupt, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you. And evil will befall you in the latter days, because you will do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger through the work of your hands.”
It was upon entering the Promised Land that Moses instructed Joshua to put the Book of the Law, the Torah, into the ark of the covenant as a witness against those who would not seek to become the people of God in the character, nature, way, power, and authority of His name. That Book of the Law was but a shadow of the truth that was meant to become the real testimony of what would one day be written upon the hearts and minds of the people of God. It was a testimony to the internal change that comes to the hearts and minds of humanity when they abide in the presence of God and they invite His presence in them in all things. When the people of God become the people of God they become a testimony of His ways, they walk in His paths, their hearts become a resting place of His Law of love and their lives become an influence of life to the world around them. The true Promised Land is the place of knowing the kingdom of God in human hearts. It is the place of knowing righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit from within.
When God’s presence lives in our hearts, we find the courage of the Lord from within. Our attachment to His Word and His Spirit within our hearts empowers us to know the courage that comes from Him in every situation of our lives. This is the true testimony of a Promised Land that cannot be overpowered by any enemy in our lives. This was shadowed in the journey of Joshua to the Promised Land. His testimony is a key to overcoming all the powers that are greater than us. They, like the seven nations in the land, are greater than us but not greater than God in and with us.
Joshua 1:6 Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. 7 Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. 8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”
To be strong in the courage of the Lord is to be strong in His ways, to walk in His paths, to live with His values in our hearts, and to influence our world with the heavenly influence of His presence in our lives in all things. Our knees must be strong, our hands must be strong, and our footsteps must walk in the path that leads in light and the increasing life of God to our world.
Blessings,
Ted J. Hanson
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