It was a glorious morning. Always, these crisp, cool mornings—I always think, you know, it says that creation reveals the glory of the Lord. On these kinds of mornings, particularly in Virginia weather, where this time of year it is so hot and humid, boy, I feel like the Spirit has fallen down and cleared out the air, and the Lord is indeed on the throne of our lives. And in fact, He is, even if the humid air is here.
So we bless the Lord this morning as we come together. Let us begin with a word of prayer.
Lord, we are coming to Thee this morning. Lord, I pray that, as we share together and share Your Word, as You have promised in Your own Word, Your words are sharp like a sword, and they cut down to the very being. Lord Jesus, touch our hearts in such a way that we are altered forever.
We pray this morning, as we come, Lord, that we would hear those words. Where there needs to be deliverance, there will be deliverance; where there needs to be encouragement, there will be encouragement; where there needs to be challenge, there will be challenge. But Lord, in all, may we all move on together as one man, preparing ourselves for Your soon return. Lord Jesus, bless this time. Bless Your Word, I pray, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
I would like to begin this morning by reading a few Scriptures. The first one—and it is not the key verse—is Deuteronomy 8:2. Let me start with verse 1.
All the commandment which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers.
And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God hath led thee these forty years in the wilderness, that He might humble thee, to prove thee, to know what was in thy heart, whether thou wouldest keep His commandments, or not.
Now to Joshua 1:1-2.
Now it came to pass after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, that the Lord spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ minister, saying,
Moses My servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel.
Moses, My servant, is dead. Now therefore arise, and go over this Jordan, thou and all this people, to the land which I give them, even to the children of Israel.
As I come before you this morning, the matter that is on my heart is this matter of the call to sonship: the spirit of sonship being upon us, that we might be a people prepared for the Lord’s return and able to enter into His kingdom as sons of God, not merely children of God. I will explain more about that a little later.
But this morning, the thing that is on my heart is that we take up this matter of the spirit of sonship, which is so necessary in order to fulfill God’s purpose. As we can see here, God puts out a call to the generation of the nation of Israel that was about to enter the promised land.
You will remember that they had come out of Egypt. They had been delivered. God delivered them with a mighty hand and parted the Red Sea, and they came through. For two years and about three months, they were in the desert, and God led them by His Spirit to the Jordan River. He said, “It is time to cross and enter the promised land.”
They sent out twelve spies to spy out the land. You remember, when they came back, the spies gave a glorious report. They said, “Hey, this is indeed the land of milk and honey. This is what God has been promising us. But there is a problem. There are giants over there: the Amalekites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Canaanites. And they are big. We are just nothing in their sight. It is too dangerous. No matter how glorious that land is, it is just too dangerous for us to go in.”
You remember how Caleb and Joshua stood up and said, “No. The Lord is surely able to deliver us from our enemies. He has promised this land. He has given it to us, and we are well able to go in and take it in the name of the Lord.”
But unfortunately, the people did not listen to God’s words through Joshua and Caleb, and they had to go back into the wilderness, where they wandered for another thirty-eight years.
Now, if you remember the story, God spoke to them before they went back into the desert, and He said, “You have so disappointed Me. You should have been ready, but you are not ready. You have missed My purpose for bringing you out of Egypt, and that is to go into the promised land.
“Now therefore, everyone from the age of twenty and up will never see the promised land. You will never be able to enter it. That generation of people will wander in the desert until they all fall away, and I will raise up a new generation that is able to go in and possess your possessions in the promised land.”
So you see that the Scripture I read from Deuteronomy summarizes what God was after as He led them through this desert experience, which we all individually and corporately go through in our lives. This desert experience is where the Lord trains us to totally depend and lean on Him.
Because, brothers and sisters, in the desert, where is there food unless it comes from the Lord Himself? Where is there provision unless it comes from the Lord Himself? How can you get up and live the next day unless the Lord is with you?
It says in the Old Testament that their shoes did not even wear out during those forty years. The Lord so took care of them. They did learn dependence on God in the desert, and they learned that God was their full provision.
But that generation which had originally left and had been delivered out of Egypt, out of slavery, could not overcome in their hearts and enter into God’s full purpose. So God used those forty years in the desert to raise up a new generation, one that would be able to go in and possess the land.
I find it very interesting. God calls His people, and really what He is saying is, “This generation I have now raised up, you will go into the land.” It was a call to sonship. It was a call to take their place in God’s eternal purpose, to go in and do what the other generation was unable to do because they faltered in faith.
What a challenge. Now, if you do the math, you will find out that the oldest one there of that whole generation ready to go in would have been fifty-eight years old. That would be the oldest they could be, because they wandered for another thirty-eight years after God gave them the charge, and it was from twenty years old and up that was going to perish in the desert.
So the oldest person there would have been fifty-eight years old. The youngest would have been those born that particular day in that nation. We had a range of age from about one day old to fifty-eight years old—a very young people.
But there were two exceptions: Joshua and Caleb. We think that when Joshua and Caleb went in, they were probably young men. But actually, based on some things I do not have time to go into, you can figure out that they were around seventy-eight to eighty years old.
These two men were the only two that could go in and fulfill God’s purpose for His people out of that first generation. The only two.
And why? I have to believe, brothers and sisters, that these two men, when they were young—actually, Joshua and Caleb were around thirty-eight years old, in their late thirties, when they left Egypt. It could not have been forty. Caleb, it says, was forty years old when they went in to spy out the land, so we think Joshua and Caleb were contemporaries.
They were young men who obviously had the spirit of sonship upon them, because they were very responsible men. The point I want to make is that often we have been praying about the next generation in our midst, and we think in terms of our teenagers, young married people, college-age people, or those just starting to work.
But God’s heart is to have a generation that will serve His purpose regardless of age. So when we really pray for the next generation, if you want to get technical about it, it is everyone in this room whom God wants to enter into His full purpose and full thought.
Thank God, too. It says there were around six hundred and twenty thousand men who left Egypt. That is just the men, and they would have been numbered from the age of twenty and up. There could have been two or three million people.
Out of that generation, only two maintained that spirit of sonship and were able to enter in. So, brothers and sisters, it is important that not only do we know and have the spirit of sonship come upon us, but that we maintain it throughout our lives, that we might enter into God’s full purpose.
What is the promised land? I will get back to sonship in a minute. What is the promised land? The promised land is Jesus Christ. It is the riches in Jesus Christ.
You know, the land was full of milk and honey. Today, we look at our Lord Jesus Christ, and He is the One who is full of milk and honey—all that we need. All that God had in His heart is in His Son, Jesus Christ. So the promised land is really Christ.
And how can we know the riches of Christ today? The riches of Christ are found in His body.
Is that not where we see Christ in our brothers and sisters? That was God’s intention all along. It is not that we all individually just see the Lord. No, He reveals Himself through His people, through your brothers and sisters.
If you want to find the riches of Christ, we need to be looking at our brothers and sisters—not looking to find out what is wrong in their lives, in the obvious flesh that is in all of our lives, but to find Jesus Christ. That perspective and point of view will alter your view of your brothers and sisters.
Because there is that nugget of Christ in everyone. Oh, it may be hidden with much flesh, but the Lord is going to work on that and deal with it.
So I would say that to enter into the promised land, we need to have a revelation of what the body of Jesus Christ really is. It is the Lord Himself and a people joined into one man by the Holy Spirit.
What a revelation that is when that strikes you. You know, “Oh, we are all in the body of Christ.” But what does it mean to be a son in the body of Christ?
It means that you are no longer passive, but you are an active member. Let me give an example. If, for some reason, my arm is disabled, it is still in my body, but it is passive. It cannot really help the body. It cannot really be an active, integral part of the body.
Therefore, my hand loses out, my fingers lose out, and the rest of my body loses out on something that this arm should be providing. That is what happens when we lose this sense of sonship.
So what is the spirit of sonship?
The spirit of sonship comes upon us at various times in our lives. For each one of us, it is different, but it is needful that it comes. The spirit of sonship is something we need to experience and then maintain throughout our lives.
The spirit of sonship is when you finally decide, and the Lord shows you, that you can no longer remain a babe in Christ.
And what is a babe in Christ? A babe in Christ is one who comes and is fed. They listen, they are taken care of, they are encouraged, and they are happy.
You know, I have a new grandson. As long as you keep him fed, he is happy. As long as you change his diaper and clean him up, he is happy. As long as you play with him and jiggle him around, he is happy.
He threw up on me the other day when I was doing it, but he was happy. Thank God, he is a joyful little kid, and he is a lot of fun. He just laughs and giggles. He is this marvelous new baby in my family, and I thoroughly enjoy him.
But would it not be a shame if he remained a baby—if he were still like a six-month-old when he is six years old?
Sonship is when you come to that realization in your life: “I do not want to be a baby anymore, just receiving and receiving, being taken care of, being passive in my life with the Lord and with my brothers and sisters.”
It is when I make that decision: “Hey, I need to be responsible, a responsible member of the body of Jesus Christ.” It is no longer good enough for me just to come to a worship meeting, a prayer meeting, or a ministry time to be fed.
If I get fed and am satisfied, hey, I am happy with the assembly. But if whatever is fed to me that day I do not particularly like—you know, my grandson does not particularly like vegetables; he prefers peaches and things like that—if I am not happy with that, then I am dissatisfied in the assembly and with my brothers and sisters.
But no. Rather, when the spirit of sonship comes upon you, you realize that you are just as responsible for that meeting as anyone else there. You are just as responsible to your brothers and sisters, so that when you come, not only might you be fed, but you are able to feed them.
It might be with something the Lord has shown you that week, dealt with you about, or shown you in His Word. When you come to the prayer meeting, it is not good enough merely to be there.
If the spirit of sonship is upon you, you will open your mouth because you know you are responsible. You can hear the prayers. You are attentive to what is going on, and you realize that you are doing business with the throne at a prayer meeting.
All that is going to happen on this earth ultimately rests on that interaction between God and His church, between God and His body, because the church’s responsibility is to bring the will of God down to earth.
When we come to worship time, our brother spoke on priorities—priorities. Forgive me, Stephen. He acknowledged that we all have extremely busy lives. We really do.
I doubt there has been any time in the history of this world when it has been more hectic, with more things—more whatever—to attract us to other things other than Christ and His business.
And yet, brothers, if the spirit of sonship is upon you, we know, regardless of our circumstances, regardless of the hectic life, that we have got to be about the Lord’s business.
Indeed, when we come to our time of worship, we have taken some time to be before the Lord. We can honor our Lord and just say to Him, “I love You,” in front of our brothers and sisters.
You know, the table is just a family time. It is kind of like a family reunion that you have every week. You have been away, you have been in the world, and you have been doing all these things.
You have been connected to the Lord all week, and when you come, you just want to be able to concentrate on the Lord and who He is, to put aside everything else, enjoy the Lord Himself, and express to Him your thanksgiving and love. That is what it is all about.
It is not about deep spiritual content or sharing something powerful in the midst of the assembly. There is nothing more powerful to a father’s ears than for his child to say, “I love you.” I guarantee you that.
Well, sonship means you are no longer satisfied just being along for the ride. You are no longer satisfied with other people feeding you. You know you have a responsibility to feed others.
Actually, sonship, scripturally—and I think Lance spoke on this at the conference—is being placed as a son in the family. It is being at the point at which the father looks down and says, “You need to be responsible now. You are responsible, young man, and I am starting to bring you into this.”
In the Jewish tradition, it is, “I am bringing you into the business now, and you have got to start being responsible and learn the business.” That is what the bar mitzvah is all about. It is being recognized that now you are no longer a child, but you have become a son in the family.
You remember our Lord Jesus Christ when He was twelve years old and they had taken Him to the temple. You have to remember that in those days there were multitudes of people, and the families were together.
I am sure, as happens sometimes, they thought their Son, Jesus, was with one of the families. They were on their way back, and they discovered that He was missing.
We actually had that happen at the conference a number of years back. A family took off—it was a large family, and they were counting heads and everything. They got about three hours up the road and realized that one of their children was missing.
So they, of course, in desperation called back, and we were still there. We said, “Yes, we have your child. Please come back.”
But our Lord Jesus—they started looking for Him. They went to the temple, and there was our Lord. He was talking with the priests and sharing the Word of God. They said, “Son, what have You done?” And what did He say?
He said, “Do you not realize I have to be about My Father’s business?”
Our Lord Jesus had the spirit of sonship upon Him. It had come upon Him, and He was the Son of the law. I find this so very interesting and so instructive.
They said, “Son, You indeed need to be about Your Father’s business.” You see, our Lord Jesus, when He was born as a baby and as He grew, began to have that sensing and realization through the Holy Spirit that indeed He was the Son of God.
When He reached that age, you notice He said, “I have to be about My Father’s business,” and He was in the temple. His earthly father’s business was carpentry, but here He was in the temple. By then, He had come to the full realization that He was the Son of God and that He had to be about the Father’s business.
You remember how they said, “Okay, but You need to come back with us.” And He did. He obeyed.
I think this is so instructive. Often, when we think of being about the Father’s business, we think we have got to be out doing things. But in God’s eyes, being obedient is far better than sacrifice.
Being obedient. You know, our Lord Jesus Christ had to learn how to be obedient. He was the Son of God, and when He was the Son of God, He did not have to obey anything. Everything obeyed Him. So He had to learn obedience.
That process had not been completed in God the Father’s eyes, so He went back with His family, and He learned.
I think it is so interesting. He had to be responsible from the age of twelve to thirty years old. Those years are hidden in the life of our Lord, but it says He grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.
He was about the Father’s business. What was He doing? He was obeying His parents. He was learning from His parents. He was, of course, studying the Scriptures. And, you know, He had to learn a trade—His father’s trade. He became a carpenter.
Sometimes we think that would be a waste, but no. He learned much about being a carpenter. If you are a good carpenter, you know how diligent you have to be. Every cut needs to be exact. Every carve of the knife has to be exact.
In those days, craftsmanship was honored above anything else in a business. And He was a craftsman, a carpenter.
Brothers and sisters, He lived a life like you and I. From the Scriptures, most scholars believe that His father Joseph probably died at an early age, and He became head of the household.
He knew what it was in this life to be head of a household, to be responsible for a household. God the Father trained Him much as head of that household.
And, of course, at the age of thirty, the calling came—the calling to go to Calvary and give His life up as a sacrifice for men’s sins.
The spirit of sonship: He was a Son whom the Father was proud of. He did the Father’s will all of His life, in the little things—in being a son to His earthly mother and father, in learning a trade, and in learning itself.
You know, He did not just look at the Word of God and automatically know how to read. He had to learn how to read.
So the spirit of sonship is when you finally come to the realization in your life—and God has to do it—that you have come into that place where you are responsible.
When I thought about this, I wanted to use the word not only responsible, but accountable. Now, you may not come to the realization of accountability until later in your life, but I want to say this to you: we are accountable.
We may not always be responsible, but we are always accountable. At the judgment seat of Christ, we will all be taken into account. Were we a son? Were we obeying?
Those who have entered into sonship and maintained that spirit are those who overcome. They will be the vanguard in bringing the Lord Jesus back to this earth, and they will be the ones who reign and rule with Him in the kingdom age.
I was struck with Jim’s word last week when he said that our purpose is to reign and rule with Christ. But I tell you, if the spirit of sonship does not come upon you, you will never reign and rule with Him during the millennium.
We need to realize that there is a thousand years ahead of us that we are being prepared for. It is called the kingdom, before the New Jerusalem comes down and everything is finally complete and the Bride is joined to the Husband.
There will be a thousand-year period preceded by the judgment seat of Christ, which will determine our place as sons in the kingdom.
How we respond today to the spirit of sonship will greatly determine what we will be doing in the kingdom age. Some will have the honor and privilege of reigning and ruling with Christ.
I think Joshua and Caleb are examples of those who, at a young age, had this spirit of sonship upon them. As they grew older, they maintained it, and they were able to go into the land.
In Hebrews 2:10, it says that He is calling many sons to glory. It does not say many babies—many sons to glory. Yes, to have many sons, you are going to have to have many babies, but they need to come into sonship.
It is not a matter of age, brothers and sisters. It is more a matter of the heart. Let me explain that to you.
Samuel was dedicated to the Lord by his mother. She offered him up to the Lord for His service. He was a Nazirite from birth. I do not have time to go into the significance of that, but it basically meant that he was dedicated to the Lord, to the Lord’s house, and to His service.
At around three or four years old, after he had been weaned, she took him to the temple. Eli the priest was there, and Samuel served the Lord. It says he ministered to the Lord—four years old.
Now, his main service was opening the doors of the temple, which had to be done at sunrise. I do not know about you having a hard time getting up in the morning, but Samuel had that responsibility, and he carried out that responsibility faithfully.
Eli was the priest. He was an older man. At some point in his life, he had taken on that responsibility as a son, but the spirit of sonship was not steady in his life. He did not keep strong that sense of responsibility.
At this point, God was no longer speaking through Eli the priest to the people. He was there doing a service. He realized he was a part of everything, but the Lord was unable to speak to Eli.
Even though at some point in Eli’s life he had realized that he had a responsibility in the house of God, he was not faithful to the Lord in carrying out his responsibility. It says he honored his sons more than the Lord, and the service to the house was desecrated.
Well, the Lord raised up this young man Samuel, who was so responsible. When he was around twelve or thirteen, the Lord spoke to him. Amazing.
He spoke to him three times, and Eli finally realized, “Hey, this is the Lord trying to speak to this young man.” He had enough maturity still to realize that the Lord was speaking to him. He said, “Go back and tell the Lord, ‘Speak, Lord; for Thy servant heareth.’”
And Samuel did. The Lord had the prophet that He was after.
Golly, do you have to be thirty, forty, or fifty years old before this spirit of sonship comes upon you? Of course not. Samuel had a heart for the Lord from the very beginning.
It did not deter him that the elders around him were not standing for the Lord. Eli’s two sons were really evil. They were stealing the food that was supposed to be sacrificed to the Lord. They were taking rewards from the people for serving them. They were awful.
So Samuel did not have any peers around him who were really standing for the Lord or who were the Lord’s, but he remained faithful. He had the spirit of sonship upon him, and it stayed strong with him all his life.
God made him the prophet to the people, and eventually he was responsible to anoint David as king of Israel.
David himself—remember David’s life. What was he as a young man? He was put out with the sheep. He had the responsibility of taking care of some sheep.
Boy, I tell you, I read a little book about shepherding sheep one time, and I was amazed at how difficult it is to take care of sheep. But in taking care of those sheep, David began to have a nurturing heart—a shepherd’s heart.
In fact, the spirit of sonship was obvious upon David. You remember when he was in the field and a bear attacked the sheep. Did David run, like most of us would have done? No.
He experienced the Spirit in his life. The Spirit came upon him, and he actually slew the bear. The same was true with the lion.
The spirit of sonship was upon this young man. He was responsible for those sheep, and nothing was going to harm them. Nothing. It was his responsibility.
No wonder the Lord looked upon this man and said, “Here is a man after My own heart.” You know what he did at the age of fifteen or sixteen? He was either fifteen or sixteen.
The Israelites were fighting. Remember the story of Goliath? It almost sounds like a fairy tale, but this man was about ten feet tall. I remember I figured out the weight of that weaver’s beam, and I figured out real quickly that I could not carry that man’s spear.
He was a giant of a man, and he was defying the army of Israel. They were sitting over there on the other side of the mountain, listening to the giant rail against them and against God.
David came into the camp, just a young man, but he had the spirit of sonship upon him. When he heard Goliath, he said, “What is going on there? I will take on this giant.”
They allowed him to do that. Just think of that. There were men there who were forty, fifty, and probably sixty years old—warriors, men who had grown up being warriors—and they would not take on Goliath. But David said, “I will.”
What did he say when he came to the giant? He said, “You come to me with sword and spear, but I come to you in the name of the Lord.”
He knew the Lord. He was a son indeed. He knew the significance of the name of the Lord. He knew that the name of the Lord was more powerful than any weapon on this earth or any man, and he was able to stand in the name of the Lord.
Young brothers and sisters, it was because he had given himself to the Lord that the name of the Lord meant something to him in his life. He had experienced the Lord personally as a young man, as a shepherd in the field with a bear and a lion.
He knew about warfare. Through those experiences with the lion and the bear, he knew that he could take the life, but only in the name of the Lord.
That is why he took off the armor. He said, “I cannot fight this giant man’s way. It has got to be the Lord’s way.” The spirit of sonship was on this young man.
He became, from being a shepherd of a few sheep, the shepherd of the nation of Israel, God’s chosen people.
Daniel was taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar’s troops and taken to Babylon. He was a teenager, between sixteen and twenty years old. He was just a teenager.
They were pretty smart people. They said, “Hey, we are going to take the nobles’ children, the ones who have been educated, and we are going to teach them and let them serve with us in our courts. We are going to take the finest of them and really train them to be real Babylonians—learn our ways and be able to help us.”
Boy, can you imagine? Sixteen or seventeen years old, being taken from your parents—someone coming into your house and taking you somewhere to a foreign land—and now they say, “We need for you to learn our ways.”
You remember how the man who was taking care of him said, “Look here, you need to start eating the king’s food. We have got to get you in shape here if you are going to stand before the king.”
Daniel said, “Wait a minute. This food has been served to idols. I have to remain faithful to the Lord.” Now you think about this. Would you, as a young person, say, “Why has the Lord done this to me? Why has He allowed this tragedy in my life? Why should I be faithful to a God who allows this to happen?”
The spirit of sonship was on this man. There is no doubt about it, because he said, “No, I am going to remain faithful to the Lord in the face of these dire circumstances. I do not have anyone back home to help me anymore, to encourage me or nurture me. I am on my own here. It is just me and the Lord.”
“I am going to remain faithful to the Lord. I may not understand what He is doing in my life, but I will be faithful because I know that I cannot eat this food served to idols. It is defiling, and I refuse to be defiled.”
Young people, there are many things in this world that can defile you. Many things. Be careful. Let us be a Daniel.
Lust. Desire for power. Money. Love of the world. All of these things defile us, and Daniel refused to be defiled.
Boy, what a spirit of sonship upon this young man. You know how God honored Daniel: He gave him the dreams, and he became the number two person in that kingdom and ruled over the affairs of that kingdom.
Eventually, God gave Daniel the visions of the future and of God’s coming back—a little stone that would crush the toes of this giant and fill the whole earth. What a man Daniel was. And he was only sixteen or seventeen years old.
Jeremiah, once again, was sixteen to twenty years old. He was brought up to be a priest. His father was a priest, so he was in line to be a priest, and as a young man he had been training for the priesthood.
But God spoke to him. I do not have time to go into it. He said, “I want you to speak to My people.” Priests are the ones who serve in the temple, take care of the sacrifices, and help the people.
Jeremiah was a timid person. He was not one of these bold guys. He was timid and reserved, and yet he had the spirit of sonship upon him.
When the Lord called him and said, “I want you to speak to My people,” he said, “Wait a minute. I am just a child. I cannot speak.” And the Lord said, “Yes, you will speak for Me.”
The message Jeremiah had to speak to the people was a very difficult one, because he had to tell them that God’s judgment was coming upon them. They did not want to believe it.
This very timid, reserved young man spoke the Word of God, and they hated him for it. But he loved them. If you read his life, you will see that he continued to love them. He never gave up on them, and he never stopped speaking for God.
Boy, what a difficult life. But you see, the spirit of sonship was strong in this young man, and he remained responsible even when the people turned against him.
Joshua, as I have already said, was around thirty-eight when he left Egypt. About two months after leaving Egypt, the Amalekites came up against the Israelites in the desert. It was one of the few battles in the desert.
The Amalekites came up against them, and Moses chose Joshua to lead in the battle. It is a very instructive battle for us, particularly for young people and for us older ones too, because the Amalekites represent the flesh—the self-life.
What I want. Self-satisfaction. Self-will. Selfishness. Lack of obedience. An unsubmissive will. Those are the manifestations of self. Self always manifests itself in evil ways.
We have this flesh with us all our lives, but Joshua was called out to do battle against the Amalekites. In other words, he was diligent as a young man in dealing with his own flesh, with his self-life.
Sometimes we tend to be passive in this area of our lives. We say, “Well, the Lord is going to forgive me.” Oh, it is very destructive.
It was the first battle that they encountered. Once you have been delivered, once you have been saved in Jesus Christ, the first battle you will face is yourself. It is your greatest enemy, greater than the enemy himself, because it is a tool in his own hands against you.
Joshua went into battle, and Moses went up on the mountain. As long as Moses held his hands up, Joshua and the men prevailed in the valley. But when Moses began to drop his hands from tiredness, the Amalekites began to prevail.
God is showing us something through this young man that we cannot forget and that we have to be diligent about all our lives: we need, as sons of God, a fighting spirit—a spirit willing to go against the flesh all our lives and be diligent about it.
The way it happens is so marvelous and instructive. Today, we have the flesh with us. How are we going to beat the flesh in our lives? How are we going to deal with the flesh in our lives?
We find out in Romans that our old man has been crucified in Jesus Christ. We know it. You, included with Him, were taken to the cross with Christ and crucified. Now, do you believe that?
It is hard to believe when you see the flesh acting up in your life, but it is true. As far as God is concerned, it is done with—victory over it. Brothers and sisters, we have to come into that victory.
We are in the valley. The Lord on the cross has won the battle over flesh, self, and the old man. He is crucified there. It has got to become real in your life, and you are in the valley.
So what happens when the flesh begins to show forth in your life? You have to look back and say, “Lord, I believe that this flesh was crucified with You on Calvary’s cross.”
The Word of God says that the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. You cannot fight the flesh with your will. When it begins to entice you in your life, when it begins to come upon you, you have to remember that the real foundation, the real victory, is what Christ has done on the cross.
You can declare that, and then you allow the Holy Spirit to empower you not to act upon the flesh, because only the Spirit can fight the flesh.
So you really have to trust the Lord that He will empower you to overcome. And He will.
What you will find out is that the flesh becomes very subdued in your life. But until the Lord comes back, it will always be there. Yet it can be kept basically on the cross, where it is supposed to be.
Secondly, I will try to make this quick. The other key to Joshua and the spirit of sonship was that he had an abiding spirit. Let me explain that.
In Exodus 24:13, when Moses went up to the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments, where was Joshua? He did not stay in the camp, brothers and sisters. He went about halfway up the mountain.
For forty days and forty nights, Moses was before the Lord in the presence of the Lord. Joshua was not, but he stayed there. He was not in the camp sinning, but he was waiting on the Lord all that time.
As a result of the sin in the camp, you will remember how God took the tent of testimony and moved it outside the camp. Moses would go out to the tent, receive the Word of the Lord, and then go back and tell the people.
In Exodus 33:11, it describes an event where Moses had gone to the tent, heard from the Lord, and gone back to the camp. But Joshua, a young man, remained. Why? Because that was where the presence of the Lord was.
Joshua had that life of abiding in the Lord. It is through abiding that we bring forth fruit.
We think sometimes that we have to make fruit or generate fruit. But if we will abide in Christ, the fruit comes naturally. Abide in the vine, and the fruit comes naturally.
We are all in the body of Jesus Christ. We all have something of Christ in us. We need to be diligent about our flesh, because as long as the flesh is prevailing, the fruit will not come forth.
But if we subdue the flesh through the work of Calvary and abide in the presence of our Lord, fruit will come. And we bring the fruit into the house of God, and all are edified. All are served.
That is the way we enter into the riches of Jesus Christ in His body.
One last word. We are coming to the close of this age.
The next stage is not heaven. The next age is the kingdom age. It is referred to as the millennium. The Word of God teaches that the marriage supper of the Lamb is that thousand-year period.
It is God’s desire that we reign and rule with Christ during those thousand years. The Lord will come back. There will be the judgment seat of Christ.
Those who have taken on that spirit of sonship, maintained it, and overcome the evil one by the blood of the Lamb throughout their lives—it does not mean they are perfect. I do not have time to go into the word of their testimony.
They were faithful to the Lord in the word of their testimony and by the blood of the Lamb. So they were not perfect, but they were faithful. That sense of responsibility remained with them all of their lives.
Now, that was true of Joshua and Caleb. They were able to go into the promised land to possess the riches there because the spirit of sonship had been upon them all their lives. They maintained it and were faithful in being responsible and accountable to the Lord.
The kingdom age is upon us. In Luke 21:24, it says:
And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led captive into all the nations:
And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
Then they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds.
The period of the Gentiles began when Nebuchadnezzar from Babylon came in and captured Jerusalem in 524 BC. In 1967, for the first time—with the exception of one very, very small period in history—Jerusalem had remained divided.
But in 1967, in the Six-Day War, Jerusalem was no longer divided and came under the total control of the nation of Israel.
What does that mean? It means thirty-six years ago.