The ministry is given through Brother Stephen Kong.
Please turn again to the book of Deuteronomy, the fifth book of Moses.
For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land,
a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths,
springing forth in valleys and hills;
a land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig trees and pomegranates;
a land of olive trees and honey;
a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness,
thou shalt not lack anything in it;
a land whose stones are iron,
and out of whose hills thou mayest dig copper.
And thou shalt eat and be full,
and thou shalt bless the Lord thy God
for the good land which He hath given thee.
For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs;
but the land, whither ye go over to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven,
a land which the Lord thy God careth for: the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.
And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto My commandments which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul,
that I will give the rain of your land in its season, the former rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy grain, and thy new wine, and thine oil.
And I will give grass in thy fields for thy cattle, and thou shalt eat and be full.
And it shall be, when the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land which He sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee, great and good cities, which thou buildedst not,
and houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and cisterns hewn out, which thou hewedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not, and thou shalt eat and be full.
I think that is all we will read.
We have been considering together the books of Moses. The first book, Genesis, tells us of the purpose of God. And what is God’s purpose? His purpose is man. He is looking for a man, created and recreated in Christ Jesus, who is conformed to the image of His Son—not merely an individual, but a corporate man. That is the purpose of God.
The second book, Exodus, tells us of the work of God. Because the man whom God created had fallen, God began to work. He works the work of redemption: how He redeems us out of the world, as typified by Egypt; how He delivers us out of the tyranny of Pharaoh, the tyranny of Satan; how He leads us to Himself; and how He dwells among His redeemed ones, as typified by the tabernacle. The work of God is the work of redemption.
Then the third book of Moses is Leviticus. After the tabernacle was set up, God called out of the tent of meeting. He called His people to come and serve Him as priests. So, brothers and sisters, we who are redeemed of the Lord are all called—not merely a few are called.
In the case of the children of Israel, because of their sin, only the tribe of Levi, the house of Aaron, was chosen to be priests. But because the redemption of our Lord Jesus is so complete, we who are redeemed are all called to be priests. We are a holy priesthood, to serve God in His house.
Then we find the fourth book of Moses, the book of Numbers. The book of Numbers tells us of the ways of God. It is related to testimony. We are now going through this world as a wilderness, but we carry upon us the testimony of Jesus.
Because that testimony is so pure and heavenly, God has to deal with us in order to bring us into agreement with the testimony that we bear. So, in the book of Numbers, you find how God chastens His people for the sake of bringing them up to the testimony they are to bear.
It is not for the sake of punishment. It is not for the sake of destruction. It is for the sake of training, for the sake of bringing them up, that they may become partakers of the divine nature of God.
Today we will fellowship concerning the last and fifth book of Moses, the book of Deuteronomy. The book of Deuteronomy, of course, tells us of the law of God in connection with the land—the inheritance.
If you open the book of Deuteronomy, you will find that the whole book may be divided roughly into three parts.
The first part is Deuteronomy 1 through Deuteronomy 4:43. This is the first part of the book of Deuteronomy. It is a review, a looking back, a recital of all the past history of God’s leading of His people.
Moses went back to retrace the history of God with His people, from Egypt through the wilderness up to the land of Moab. It is a looking back to the past history. Now, why?
We are told to forget what is behind and to press on toward that which is before us, toward the goal. Yet sometimes you find that the Spirit of God leads us to look back too. Why is it that here the Spirit of God leads the people to look back to past history?
Because this is a new people. This is a new generation. Therefore, they need to be reminded of God’s past dealings with His people in order to stir up within them a love and affection for God.
Brothers and sisters, the only reason that we can look back is that we may look back to the goodness of the Lord, so that our hearts may be stirred to love God with renewed love. That is the only reason we can look back.
If it is not for that purpose, do not look back. Do not look back to see how far you have gone and become proud of yourself. Do not look back to see how deeply you have fallen and become discouraged.
You can only look back to see the goodness of the Lord, and that will excite us into renewed love for our Lord. That is the first part of the book of Deuteronomy.
The second part, which is the main part of the book of Deuteronomy, extends from Deuteronomy 4:44 to the end of Deuteronomy 30. It is the expounding of the law.
This book is called Deuteronomy because it is the restating of the law for the second time. The law was given at Mount Sinai. The Ten Words, the statutes, the ordinances, and the precepts were recorded in Exodus and also in Leviticus.
But here, before the children of Israel as a new generation were to enter into the promised land, Moses restated the law and expanded the law in order to give them understanding. They were to know what the law of God was.
If they kept the law of God, they would not only be able to enter into the promised land but continue in the promised land. If they did not know the law of God, they might rebel against God, do things that offended God, and again be driven out of the promised land. Therefore, the restating and expounding of the law was very necessary.
That is the present.
The third part of Deuteronomy is from Deuteronomy 31 through Deuteronomy 34. These chapters look forward to the future.
In these chapters, God, through Moses, gave warning as well as blessing to the children of Israel. God warned them in the form of a song. He warned them that after they had entered into the land and enjoyed the land, they were to be careful lest they became fat and began to kick.
If they disobeyed God after entering and possessing the land, they would lose it. They would be scattered among all the nations. But, of course, in God’s mercy, He would gather them again.
Warning, however, is not the last note in the book of Deuteronomy. Blessing is the last note. After the warning, Moses blessed the children of Israel one by one in prophecy, according to how God sees His people and what God will do with His people.
So, roughly, the whole book is divided into these three parts: the first part looks backward to stir within the new generation a love toward God; the second part presents and expands the law of God; and the third part looks forward to the future with warning and blessing.
This afternoon, we would like to consider just one thing: a preview of the land.
The children of Israel were then on the eastern shore of the River Jordan. The promised land was on the other side of the Jordan. Nobody of that generation had been to the promised land except two.
Only two persons had been to that land before: Caleb and Joshua. You remember, thirty-eight years earlier, they were among the twelve spies sent to spy out the land. They had been there. They knew what the land looked like, and they knew what was in the land. But they were the only two who had experience of that land.
None of the others knew the land. Even Moses had not been to that land. Yet, before they were to enter it, God gave Moses a revelation of the land. Moses had never seen it, and yet he could describe it. Why? Because God gave him a preview. God gave him a revelation of that land.
Why should there be such a preview, such a revelation? There can be only one reason: to warm the hearts of the children of Israel so that they would want to go in. That is the only reason.
If we do not know what the land is like, we may not want to go in. If God has not shown us what the land is like, there will not be such a moving in our hearts, such an attraction to that land.
So, in order to move the hearts of the children of Israel to want to go in, God gave Moses a revelation of the land and passed that revelation on to the children of Israel.
Now, dear brothers and sisters, what is our promised land? We have a land that God promises to us. What is our promised land?
Oftentimes, we think of our promised land as heaven. Heaven, of course, is our promised land. Heaven is our inheritance. One day we will go to heaven; we will walk on streets of gold, enter through pearly gates, and play harps all day long. That is included, brothers and sisters, but that is not all.
What is our promised land? What is it that God has promised us? Of course, we know that our promised land is none other than Christ.
God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. We often use that in preaching the gospel. We say that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
God gave His Son, but we receive everlasting life. Is the Son greater than everlasting life? God does not merely give everlasting life. God gave His Son. Yet we receive everlasting life, and that is all. Is that not strange?
When we are burdened with sins, we go to God and say, “Oh God, have mercy upon us. If only You will forgive our sins.” And God says, “All right, I will give you a package called forgiveness of sins. If you believe and receive it, your sins are forgiven.”
Then we may begin to feel, “Well, our sins are forgiven, but there is not much life in me.” So we go to God and say, “Oh Lord, give me life too, because this life of mine is no life at all. I want a better life.” And God says, “Fine, I will give you another package called eternal life.”
Or later you find that you are sick, so you go to the Lord and say, “Lord, I am sick. I need healing.” And God says, “Fine, I will give you a package called divine healing.” Then, after you receive that package, you are healed.
Does God give in that fashion—in pieces and bits? Does He cut a piece for you and then, after you press Him very hard, cut another piece because He is stingy? Does He hold back and hold back until you press Him so hard that He has to give you a little bit and then another little bit?
No, that is not like God. God so loved the world that He gave. When He gave, He gave it all. He gave His only begotten Son.
He does not merely give eternal life. He does not merely give forgiveness of sins, comfort, peace, healing, gifts, or power. No. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.
God has only one gift to give, and in giving that gift, it exhausts God. If you go to God and ask for more, God says, “I have no more to give—no more.”
What God gives to us is His Son. If you have His Son, you have it all. Forgiveness of sins is in the Son. Eternal life is in the Son. Healing is in the Son. Comfort is in the Son. Peace is in the Son. Power is in the Son. Wisdom is in the Son. Everything is in Christ.
God has given us Christ because He loved us so much. Brothers and sisters, when we preach the gospel, we often make the gospel very small. We say, “If you believe in Jesus Christ, you will have eternal life.” Our whole eye is upon eternal life, not upon the Son.
But the gospel is the gospel of the Son of God. God gave His Son to us as our inheritance.
The Lord Jesus is the land. He is our inheritance. He is our portion and our cup. No wonder my cup runneth over. My portion falls in good ground. I have a goodly heritage. Why? Because it is Christ.
Christ is our promised land. In order to stir our hearts toward wanting Him, desiring Him, and seeking after Him, how we need a revelation of what He is.
Brothers and sisters, God has given us Christ as our inheritance, but we do not know the breadth and length, the height and depth of Christ. We do not know what God has given us.
We know only a little bit. We are like the children of Israel: we have never seen it. Because of that, we do not desire Him as we ought.
Oh, if only God would give us a revelation of Christ! What a Christ we have! Then we would run after Him, because there is so much in Him that we do not yet possess. We need to possess Him in all that He is. He is ours.
That is the reason why, when Paul wrote the letter to the Ephesians, he wanted to show the Ephesian believers what God had given to them.
With the Corinthian believers, Paul was not able to share with them the full counsel of God. He could only tell them of Jesus Christ and Him crucified—the basic truth. Why? Because they were carnal. They could not understand or accept it; they would look upon it as foolishness.
But with the Ephesian believers, Paul was able to share with them the whole counsel of God. What is the full counsel of God? The unsearchable riches of Christ.
Yet even when he shared with them by words, he found that it was impossible—impossible. So he prayed. He prayed for God to give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of God.
We need revelation, dear brothers and sisters. Spiritual things begin with revelation. If we do not have revelation, no matter how much we have heard, read, or gathered as information, it is dead. It is not real.
But when God gives revelation, it is different. Immediately you find that there is a response between you and God in that revelation. You cannot remain neutral any longer. You cannot be passive any longer.
When a revelation is given, it draws you to God—to that which has been revealed. You cannot rest until it becomes an experience.
So, brothers and sisters, we need to pray and ask God to give us a revelation of what a Christ we have. We need a preview of the land. That will warm our hearts, stir us up, and press us on, so that we may run after our Lord.
Let us look at a few descriptions of the land. We begin with Deuteronomy 8:7:
For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land.
A good land. Canaan is a good land. Why is it good?
Go back to the book of Genesis. In Genesis 1, after God said on the first day, “Let there be light,” and there was light, God looked at it and said that it was good. Every day, after God had done something—except on the second day—God said that it was good.
On the sixth day, after man was created, God looked at all that He had done and said that it was very good—very good. Then, in Genesis 2, God looked at the man He had created and said, “It is not good that the man should be alone.” That was not good.
What is the meaning of “good” in Scripture? Oftentimes we think something is good, but actually it is bad. Oftentimes we think something is very bad, but it is very good. We do not know what good is.
What is good? Anything that is in the will of God, anything that accomplishes God’s purpose, is good.
All things work together for good to those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose. Oftentimes, however, we do not see how all things work together for good.
Suppose I am walking along, suddenly I slip and fall down. What good is there? I may break my hip. What good is that? “All things work together for good”—but what good is it?
Unless you see God’s purpose, unless you see that even in such a tragedy God is using it to conform you to the image of His Son, you will not see the good. If you see it and cooperate with God in it, then it is good. If you do not see it, it is not good.
God said this land is a good land. Why? Because it is the will of God. It is the purpose of God. Is not Christ the will of God? Christ is the purpose of God.
The will of God is centered upon Christ. The eternal purpose of God is to head up all things in Christ. Therefore, only Christ is good. There is nothing good but Christ.
Whatever you may have, if it is not Christ, it is no good. That is the reason why even Paul had to acknowledge that in his flesh there was no good thing. Why? It was not Christ; it was Paul.
But when you enter into Christ, when Christ becomes what you have, that is good. It is a good land.
How good is it? It is a land of water brooks, still waters; a land of springs, living waters; and a land of deep waters, rivers of living water.
Of course, we know that all these are descriptions of the Spirit of God. As we receive Christ, He gives us His Spirit.
The Lord Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman. If you drink the water from Jacob’s well, you will thirst again. But if you ask of Him, He will give you water to drink, and it shall become a spring, a fountain within you. You shall never thirst again.
In John 7, on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, the Lord stood and cried, “If anyone thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, from within him shall flow rivers of living water.”
Dear brothers and sisters, what is Christ? God gave to Him the Spirit without measure. He is the One who baptizes with the Spirit. He is the One who gives us the Spirit of God.
He gives His Spirit to us as springs within us, as deep waters, and as rivers of living water. We shall never thirst again. Not only shall we never thirst, but we shall quench the thirst of many thirsty ones, like rivers.
There is nothing that satisfies more than water. Food is related more to nutrition. We need food—nutritious food. But water is always connected with satisfaction.
You may have very nutritious food, but you may not be satisfied. You need water. Water brings satisfaction.
Oh, brothers and sisters, as we walk in the land, we will find still waters. He will lead us beside still waters. The Holy Spirit within us is like those still waters.
The Holy Spirit within us speaks in a still, small voice. It is so still, so calm, so soothing, and so powerful. That is the water brook.
He also springs forth within us as a fountain of living water, and He is like rivers of living water. Brothers and sisters, in Christ we experience the Holy Spirit in all His activities.
We experience the indwelling Holy Spirit, the anointing within us, and the speaking in a still, small voice. We experience the fullness of the Spirit from within and the power of the Holy Spirit without. All the activities of the Holy Spirit are in Christ.
Outside of Christ, the Holy Spirit cannot work. The Holy Spirit never operates outside of Christ. He always operates on the basis of Christ and with the purpose of bringing us into Christ.
You can never separate Christ from the Holy Spirit or the Holy Spirit from Christ. The Holy Spirit is given to glorify Christ and to form Christ in us. That is the work of the Holy Spirit.
This is a land of water brooks, springs, and deep waters that gush forth in valleys and hills. We are not surprised to find water in the valleys, because water always falls downward. But often, when you are in the mountains, you find water there too.
Sometimes in our daily experience, we seem to be in the valleys.
Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
for Thou art with me;
Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.
Sometimes in our daily experience of life, we seem to fall into valleys—deep and low. The sun may not be able to shine its light into the valley. It is dark. This is our life experience.
God has not promised that we will never enter a valley. Sometimes He leads us there. But in the very valley, you find the water. If you can find water in the valley, then the problem is no longer a problem.
When we have deep and low experiences, the Holy Spirit is there to satisfy us. At other times, we may be on the hills. We may have mountaintop experiences. We are so elated and exalted.
But if you do not find water there, that is dangerous. You will die. When we have uplifted experiences and forget Christ, when we do not look to the supply of the Holy Spirit, we die spiritually.
So, dear brothers and sisters, in Christ you will be able to experience the Holy Spirit in all His activities and in whatever circumstances you may be. That is glory.
Now you find that it is a land of wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, pomegranates, olive trees, and honey; a land wherein you shall eat bread without scarceness and lack nothing. First there is drink; now there is food.
It is a land with all kinds of food.
It is a land of wheat. In John 12:24, the Lord said:
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit.
Our Lord Jesus is the first grain of wheat. He fell into the ground and died; therefore, He bears much fruit. We are wheat. In other words, we have the life of Christ in us.
When you offer the meal offering, it is flour from wheat. You use fine flour and make cakes and wafers, and then present them to God as God’s food for His satisfaction.
Brothers and sisters, this speaks of the life of Christ on earth. He came down from heaven and lived on earth as a man. But that life was pure and sinless.
You can examine that life from every direction. As wheat is ground into powder and every particle is exposed, so was the life of our Lord Jesus. It was mingled with oil, full of the fragrance of frankincense—pure.
Brothers and sisters, do you know that the life which is in you is that life? Oftentimes we forget. Even after we have received eternal life, we think that eternal life is merely a guarantee, an insurance policy to use after we die in order to enter heaven.
But that is not so. What is eternal life? Eternal life is the life of Christ, the life of wheat. As Christ lived on earth two thousand years ago, He is now to live in you here. He will live just as He lived two thousand years ago. You cannot change Him.
We feed upon Christ as the fine wheat. As we feed upon Christ, He lives in us in the same manner of life in which He lived two thousand years ago. That is Christian living. You do not live by yourself; you live by Christ.
Then there is barley. Barley is the first grain harvested. Therefore, barley in Scripture speaks of resurrection.
The barley harvest came first, and the children of Israel had to present the firstfruits—a sheaf of barley—to God in the temple. It speaks of resurrection.
Our Lord Jesus is not only the One who came down from heaven and lived on earth; He is raised from the dead, and now He is in heaven.
He is not only the manna for our wilderness journey; He is the old corn of the land, that we may have strength to overcome our enemies.
Barley means that we walk in the power of His resurrection. Therefore, we overcome principalities, authorities, powers of darkness, and evil forces in the heavenlies. We feed upon barley. We are on resurrection ground. We are on ascension ground.
We feed upon Christ as barley. Therefore, there is victory.
Not only barley, but you find that it is a land of vines. Of course, this is evident in John 15. The Lord said:
I am the true vine, and ye are the branches.
Abide in Me, and I in you,
and ye bear much fruit.
The vine in Scripture speaks of communion—our communion with Him and His communion with us. As we abide in Him and He abides in us, all His riches flow into us and produce fruitfulness.
Only by abiding in Christ can we bear fruit. We can develop the fruit of the Spirit: love, peace, joy, longsuffering, kindness, and so forth. Christ is the land of vines.
There is communion. There is a rich supply of life until it breaks forth in fruitfulness.
It is a land of fig trees. What does the fig tree represent? In Palestine there are many fig trees. Often, when the prophets describe the golden age and the kingdom of God, they say that everyone sits under his own vine and fig tree. It is a picture of prosperity and plenty.
When our Lord Jesus entered Jerusalem for the last time, He saw a fig tree with leaves but no fruit, and He cursed it. In the beginning, when man sinned, he used fig leaves to cover his nakedness, but they did not do the job.
God took away those aprons of fig leaves and clothed them with skins. The fig tree here represents righteousness. We have no righteousness of our own, but Christ is our righteousness.
As we know Him as our righteousness, the Holy Spirit works His righteousness in us until it becomes the righteousness of the saints. That is represented by fig trees and their plenty.
Then there are pomegranates. I was surprised that many people in this country do not know what a pomegranate is. In my old country, we had many pomegranates, and we loved them.
Outwardly, a pomegranate does not look especially attractive. It is reddish and brownish; it is not completely round, and it looks rather rugged. But when you open it, it is full of seeds, and every seed is covered with a layer of juicy, reddish flesh. It is good not only to eat but also to look at.
In the Song of Solomon, the description is, “Thy cheeks are like a piece of a pomegranate.” In other words, the inward beauty of the Lord is manifested. Pomegranates speak of the beauty of the Lord.
Who can tell the beauty of the Lord? It is beyond description. On the garment of the high priest, around the skirt of his garment, you find one golden bell and one pomegranate, one golden bell and one pomegranate.
It speaks of the fruit of the Spirit and the power of the Spirit. As he walks, the golden bells ring. The pomegranates do not make a noise, but they provide such a sight.
Oh, brothers and sisters, our Christ is a land of pomegranates. His beauty shall become our beauty because we are joined to Him and live in the land.
It is a land of olive trees and honey. Olive speaks of anointing, the fatness of the olive. Olive trees grow under the tender care of God.
Olive in Scripture speaks, in one sense, of the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit is like oil. But here I think it speaks especially of the loving care of God.
Do not worry about what you shall eat, what you shall drink, or what you shall be clothed with. Look at how the heavenly Father takes care of the birds of the air. Consider the lilies of the field, how your heavenly Father clothes them with such beauty. Not even Solomon in all his glory can be compared with them.
You are much more precious. Your heavenly Father takes care of you. That is olive.
Honey, of course, speaks of sweetness. How we find the fragrance of Christ and the sweetness of Christ. In Christ, you have all these things.
You have not only good nutrition but good flavor too. Sometimes people prepare food with good nutrition but no flavor, and you do not like to eat it. It is tasteless.
But in Christ there is not only good nutrition but good taste and good flavor. He is good. Taste the food.
In the second part of Deuteronomy 8:9, it says that the land’s stones are iron and that out of its mountains you may dig copper. Iron and copper speak of spiritual strength.
Not only is there spiritual drink and spiritual food, but there is spiritual strength. In Christ there is strength. Christ is our strength.
For when I am weak, then am I strong.
Thank God, if you want to have iron and copper, they are there, but you need a little digging. You need to dig. As you dig, as you empty yourself, then you will be filled with His strength.
This is our land. This is Christ. This is what He is to us. Thank God, there will be no scarcity of food. There will be plenty.
The Lord said:
I came that they may have life,
and may have it abundantly.
Not barely living, but living in abundance. That is the life in Christ. It is quite a disgrace if we do not live like that, because Christ is not that. You are in Christ. You can enjoy Him in all that He is.
Now turn to Deuteronomy 11. Here we find another description. The children of Israel had come out of Egypt, so they had an impression of what Egypt was like.
Egypt was a land by the River Nile, and by the Nile there was fertile land. Once a year, the Nile overflowed and fertilized the land. But during the rest of the year, how did they cultivate the land? They had to use their feet to bring water from the River Nile to irrigate it.
I do not know whether you have seen this. In this country, you do not see it much anymore. But in China, that is the way you see farmers. They prepare the land and sow the seed, but then they need water.
The river may be nearby, and they use water wheels. They use their feet to pedal the wheel, holding onto a bar, and bring the water into the land.
Some farmers are more ingenious and more wealthy. Instead of using their two feet, they use an ox—usually a water buffalo. The buffalo goes around and around, and the wheel, with its small compartments, brings water up bucket after bucket and pours it into the land.
It is a tedious job, but that is the only way.
But God says that the land into which you enter is different. It is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks water from the rain of heaven. You do not need to use your feet to paddle the water and bring it into your field.
It is a land that drinks the rain from heaven. God rains upon that land and gives water in abundance.
In other words, the resource is not human; it is divine. When you try to draw anything from human resources, you need much effort and bring up only a little bit.
But when you have heavenly resources, there is no effort. God gives. He gives.
It is a land which the Lord thy God careth for, for the eyes of the Lord thy God are constantly upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year. Think of that.
God’s eyes are upon that land. In due season, He gives the early rain and the latter rain for sowing and harvest. But there is one condition.
If you hearken diligently to His commandments, to love the Lord your God and to serve Him with all your heart and soul, then He will give rain to your land in season—the early rain and the latter rain.
If you depend upon human resources, it is merely a matter of effort. But if you depend upon heavenly, divine resources, it is conditioned upon obedience.
If you obey God, if you hearken, God will give rain. But otherwise, if God shuts heaven like brass, then you are finished.
The first time I was in Palestine, when I flew from Beirut into Jerusalem, I looked down upon the land and it was desert. I could not understand. I remembered that the Bible said it was a land flowing with milk and honey, and yet I saw desert.
Only here and there could you find a few houses, but they lived in the desert. After we landed, you could take up the earth in your hand and see that it was like powder—like powder.
Of course, when I visited in the 1960s, rain had already begun to come back. But for a long, long period, there had been no rain in Palestine. No rain. If there is no rain, there is no way—no way.
Because they disobeyed God.
So, dear brothers and sisters, how we praise God that our resources are unlimited. Our resources are from heaven. They are effortless, plentiful, endless, and inexhaustible.
But do not take this lightly. If you do not hearken to God, you will see that God shuts up heaven. Then you will be dried up. Nothing can grow.
That is why the Arabs who lived in the land had such difficulty cultivating it. It was all powder. Only when rain came did you immediately find the land full of green.
In Palestine, there is rain for half the year and no rain for the other half. But there is the early rain and the latter rain—good for sowing and good for harvest.
It is a land that God takes care of. The eyes of the Lord are upon the land. Is that not true of our relationship with Christ?
There is no lack of rain or heavenly resources in Christ. But if you do not obey, it seems as if there is no rain. Everything is dried up. Thank God, we have to depend upon Him.
One reason why God gave Canaan to the children of Israel was that they had to depend on God. God brought them to a place where they had to obey Him. If they did not obey God, they were finished.
Thank God, He does the same thing to us. We are stuck with Him. If we do not go on with Him, we are finished. But if we go on with Him, oh, the plenty—the plenty.
Finally, in Deuteronomy 6, God said that when they entered the land, they would find great and good cities that they had not built, houses full of good things that they had not filled, wells that they had not dug, vineyards and olive trees that they had not planted. They would eat and be full.
Not only would they go into a land of water, a land that could grow all kinds of food and fruit, a land with iron and copper beneath the earth, and a land that received rain from heaven; when they entered the land, they would find that the land had already been prepared.
Vineyards and olive yards were already planted—not by them. Houses were already built—not by them—and filled with good things. They just walked into a full house. Cities were already built. They did not need to build them; they merely entered in and had all the protection. Think of that.
Is that not true? The Lord said, “I will build My house.” He is the Executor. You do not build it. He finds it, He fills it, and He does it all. All we do is enter into what He has already done.
That is our land. In one sense, of course, we have to cultivate. In another sense, the land is already ready.
In the parables, the Lord says that the master prepares the vineyard and then engages people to work in the vineyard. We are like people who work in the vineyard, but the vineyard has already been prepared by the Master.
In other words, we find spiritual fullness. Everything is full. Everything is ready. Everything is done. We just enter into it.
For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily,
and in Him ye are made full.
That is our land. Brothers and sisters, does it warm your heart? Do you want to enter in?
Oh, may the Lord give us a revelation of Christ.
Our heavenly Father, do open our eyes and reveal Thy Son in us, that we may see what a Christ we have.
Lord, draw us, that we may run after Thee. There is so much, so much indeed, that we do not even know.
Eyes have not seen, ears have not heard, and hearts have not conceived what Thou dost give to us.
Oh, how we praise and worship Thee. Thou art the great God. Thou hast given us a great gift.
But Lord, strengthen our spirit that we may possess our possession, to the glory and praise of Thy name. Amen.