Brothers and sisters, hallelujah. He is in charge. I do not know how you feel about things, but He is in charge. Nothing gets past our Lord that He does not know about—our lives personally, the church, and what He is doing in His work in these days.
Brothers and sisters, as I was before the Lord about this message tonight, the words of Ezekiel came to me: Ezekiel 40:4.
If you remember the background, Ezekiel was in captivity along with the whole nation of Israel. The temple had been destroyed, and they had been taken captive to another land. Brothers and sisters, it was a desperate time. The testimony of the Lord was almost totally obliterated, except in the hearts of a few of His people.
It was desperate times, brothers and sisters. And the Lord, with all that was going on, did not give up. He sought to recover His people, and He appeared to our brother Ezekiel in a vision. It is a tremendous vision. Read it if you have not yet. It is a wonderful vision of this Lord of glory who appears to our brother Ezekiel.
And He says:
Son of man, behold with thine eyes,
and hear with thine ears,
and set thine heart upon all that I shall show thee.
Set your heart on all that I shall show thee. For you have been brought here in order that I might show it to you, brothers and sisters.
These words are ancient, but tonight they apply directly to what the Lord is doing in our midst. He says to us, “Look. Behold with your eyes.” It was not just a matter of opening Ezekiel’s eyes; he was to behold this vision of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He was to hear with open ears what the Lord wanted to say to him, to encourage him and the whole nation. And He said, “My words—I want you not only to see Me, behold Me, and hear My words, but I want you to set your heart upon all that I will show you.”
Brothers and sisters, though I do believe that you are not here tonight by your own providence or your own will, I believe you are here tonight—including all of our young people and our children—by divine providence, that the Lord can reveal to you what He is trying to do in this last hour in recovering all that He needs to bring in that glorious bride for His Son.
Brothers and sisters, we need to set our hearts upon what He shows us this week. Not just take it in and write it in a notebook, but may it be engraved in your heart. He has brought you here with a purpose, and He wants us to set our hearts upon what He has to say to us.
As our brother Dana said, it is sovereign. The sovereign right hand of the Lord has brought you here, and now His left hand—that hand of the Holy Spirit—wants to work in your hearts and lives to make real what He wants to say to you in your life.
So, Lord, we just come to You tonight. We thank You that You have brought us here with a purpose. Lord, You are not just teaching us the Bible. You are trying to get into our hearts what is on Your heart: that recovery work that will go on until You finally have that bride for Your Son.
Lord Jesus, we want to respond to what You have to say to us. Lord, give us grace tonight. Open indeed our eyes, that we can behold You. Lord Jesus, open our ears, Lord, that it may sink deep into our hearts.
And, Lord Jesus, oh, by Your grace, may we be found setting our hearts upon what You show us, because what You really show us is who You are. We thank You, Lord Jesus, for this privilege that we have.
Now, our brother Dana has talked about the sovereign move of the Lord, His right hand and His left hand. We are already seeing something of that. Our brother Kenny talked about the Lord gaining a possession for His own: a people for His own possession, to be a testimony to Him, to be those who can lift up our Lord Jesus—the ones whom He is building up to be the bride of Christ.
Brothers and sisters, it is a tremendous work. And in these days, that work, I think, has been greatly restrained. Sometimes we lose our vision. Sometimes we lose our first love. And though we still know the Lord and have a relationship with Him, brothers and sisters, we are not actually moving on with Him as He would have us do.
So it is on my heart tonight to share my part in this: possessing our possessions. Now, brothers and sisters, this is a two-sided coin. We are to be His possession, but He is to be our possession. That is the only way the recovery work can ever be accomplished.
So let us begin tonight with Scripture from Joshua 1:1-3, Joshua 1:9, and Joshua 1:11.
Now after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord it came to pass, 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.
Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses.
Now verse 9:
Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.
Now verse 11:
Prepare you victuals; for within three days ye shall pass over this Jordan, to go in to possess the land, which the Lord your God giveth you to possess.
Let me read that again: you are to pass over this Jordan, to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God gives you to possess.
So, I want to give you a little history leading up to this point, right before they crossed the Jordan River into the promised land.
Abraham, if you remember, was promised this land. The Lord gave it to Abraham and his descendants: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Abraham went into the land and dwelt there. When he was one hundred years old, because of his faith in the Lord, the Lord touched the womb of his wife, and he had a son called Isaac.
The Lord was with Isaac. From Isaac, Jacob was born, and he had twelve sons, from whom came the twelve tribes of Israel.
Now, one of Jacob’s sons, Joseph, at the age of seventeen, because of the jealousy and hatred of his brothers, was sold into slavery to the Egyptians. But God was with Joseph.
He rose to become second in power in the mightiest nation in that era, Egypt. He was second to Pharaoh himself. Twenty-two years after he was taken into captivity, a famine came upon the land. Joseph had advised Pharaoh, “Look, we need to prepare for what is coming.”
So the famine affected the land where his father was staying, and they needed to go down to Egypt to get grain to survive. You remember how they came down, and finally Joseph was reconciled; his brothers were recovered, and his father was recovered, because the Lord had worked sovereignly through Joseph and was with Joseph.
It was a wonderful place. The family had grown into a large family of seventy when Joseph brought them down to Egypt. He brought them to Goshen. It was a wonderful place, actually—a land with grazing for their cattle and rich soil so they could grow their crops, a place where they could grow into a nation.
It was wonderful, but it was not the promised land, brothers and sisters. The way the Lord had to get them to leave was to bring them under the oppression of following Pharaohs who did not know Joseph.
So they began to cry out to the Lord. They were basically in slavery, and for four hundred years they cried out to the Lord.
Finally, through Moses, He led them out of Egypt. Where did He take them? Into the desert, of all places.
After two years in the desert, the Lord brought them up to that Jordan River. You remember, He sent in the spies, and the spies came back and said, “Look, it is a great land. Look at all the riches we have found—the grapes and the fruit. It is marvelous.”
But this is it: you always have to be careful when you see the word but in the Bible. “But there are giants over there.” And they refused to go in. They refused to obey the Lord.
So, under the disciplinary hand of the Lord, they wandered in the desert for thirty-eight more years. Then the Lord brought them back up to the Jordan River, and that is where we are now in the Scriptures that I just read.
They came back to the same place at the Jordan River. Now the Lord, through Joshua and Caleb, is trying to encourage them.
So what is this promised land? Actually, they were really happy in Goshen, but that was not the promised land. That was not where the Lord wanted them. Eventually He got them out of there and marched them in the desert for thirty-eight years, until that original generation passed away.
And a new generation—and I am looking at them tonight—a new generation He raised up to prepare to go in and take that promised land, brothers and sisters: a land full of milk and honey. The Lord said, “I give it to you to possess.”
It is interesting. In Leviticus 25:23, it says:
The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is Mine.
Now, this is extremely important, brothers and sisters. Do not ever forget it. The Lord Himself said, “This land is Mine.”
It is interesting to me that the whole world is the Lord’s. All the universe is the Lord’s. He has all that. But, brothers and sisters, He says, “This place is Mine.” You are to regard it as special.
It had a special place in God’s heart. He set it aside for this people, the nation of Israel, to live in, to prosper, and to experience His full thought for His people.
He wanted to bring them into His full thought, and it could only be experienced in the promised land. They had lived in the desert for forty years, and the Lord had taken care of them. Their sandals did not wear out. They had manna to eat, and water followed them through the rock. Brothers and sisters, they were taken care of. Their basic needs were taken care of.
Now, we all need to learn that desert lesson: the Lord is the One we have to trust, the One we have to go to for our everyday needs and for our life. Brothers and sisters, but there is so much more.
The Lord did not want them to stay the rest of their lives in that desert, living that way. He had much more for them, and He said, “It is over here in the promised land.”
The Lord made Abraham an unconditional promise. He said, “All the land of Canaan is yours for an everlasting possession.” Brothers and sisters, if you really get behind this, you see that this is something of His eternal purpose: an everlasting possession where they could possess all that God desired for them, all that He wanted of them.
It was a promised land. It was God’s full thought for His people. We know that the promises He gave them were mostly physical blessings. But, brothers and sisters, we all enjoy the blessings of the Lord, yet He wants us to have much more than blessing. He has a full thought for us.
That is what we are trying to share with you this week. He has a full intention for you, for your life—young or old, brothers and sisters, every generation. Our brother said there is really one generation, and that is the generation of those who will follow the Lord.
The question arises: they had a promised land; do we today have a promised land? Do you have a promised land where you can enter into God’s full thought?
Well, Ephesians 1:3 says:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
And verse 11 says:
In Whom also we have obtained an inheritance.
Brothers and sisters, Christ is your promised land. That is where God’s full thought for you can be found: in Christ.
But, brothers and sisters, it is up to us to go in to possess Christ, to possess our promised land—all the riches in Christ. He wants us to experience and to grow into that full-grown man, in the stature of the fullness of Jesus Christ. This is His thought for you.
We have been redeemed. We are the chosen ones. We have been foreordained in Christ for this very purpose, brothers and sisters. You have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ, and our charge is to go in and possess them.
We cannot just lie back and have it poured out on us. We have to be active spiritually. We must discover Christ—not just the doctrines. We must discover Christ Himself. We must experience some of that fullness.
Brothers and sisters, do you not think that will take an eternity—and even beyond, if there is a place beyond—where we need to experience our Christ, to be conformed to His image? It is all Christ. It is all about possessing Christ.
You know, I wish I had grasped this earlier in my Christian life, young men and sisters. It took me a while. But the Lord brought me in contact with a crazy charismatic called Kenny Pittman. He has already shared some of our story with you, but he had a profound effect on my life because the Lord was alive in our brother, and I could not resist him. I could not resist it.
We have had a wonderful—well, I do not know how many years now—it has been over fifty years together in the Lord. In those early days, I remember we worked at the city hall, and there was a state capitol park across the street. We started getting our lunch and going over to the park, and we would share about Christ.
It was wonderful: this Pentecostal and this hard-shell Baptist. We were just sharing Christ. It was not about doctrine; it was about Him.
We had been sharing from some of Brother Nee’s books together, and I remember so clearly that day when Kenny came up to me and said, “Jerry, it is all Christ. It is not I; it is Christ. It is not me; it is Him.”
Brothers and sisters, what a revelation my younger brother got in those very early days. I think he had been saved maybe six months. But what a revelation to start out with: it is all about Christ.
The point I want to make is that the Lord revealed that to Kenny, and it came to me as well. I had to think in my own heart, “What is my brother talking about?” Thank the Lord, He showed me.
But it is by revelation, brothers and sisters. It comes by the Spirit of God showing you, not just teaching you.
You remember the little song about the robe of righteousness? It says, “He does not see me as I used to be. He sees Jesus.” It is all about Jesus. It is all about Christ. It is not about me. It is not about us.
He never desired to improve your old man or to strengthen it, brothers and sisters. Not at all. He has done away with this old man in Christ, and He wants us to be completely occupied with Christ, not ourselves. Thank the Lord, it was crucified on the cross of Calvary.
I want to quote from Miles Stanford, a brother in the Lord. He said:
What becomes us now is to have the Lord Jesus before us, not the correction of our old man. The snare of trying to improve oneself is very common, and it is important to see that, however well-meaning it may be, it is really a denial that our old man has been crucified, and it only revives that which has been judged in the death of the cross.
Has God revealed that to you yet, or is it a doctrine that you know? Brothers and sisters, we need that glimpse. We need that revelation of the Lord Jesus, of what the Father has given us in His Son: everything.
We can come into our possessions because you are now in union with Christ. He does not just give these things to you as little Christmas packages. It is because you are in union with Christ that you can experience this promised land.
Sometimes we say in our life, “Lord, I want wisdom. I need wisdom. I need discernment. I need Your blessing, Lord. I need faith.” Those all may be true. You say, “I want to overcome.”
Then we find—at least I have found in my experience—it does not happen all the time. In the beginning, the Lord was merciful, but He wanted me to see something.
You cannot have wisdom apart from Christ. You cannot get help apart from His Son. You cannot even have faith apart from His Son. You certainly cannot overcome apart from His Son. It is because you are in Him, in union with Him.
I hope we have discovered that the life we have been called to is the life of Christ Himself. He is your wisdom. He is your blessing. He is your Overcomer.
Brothers and sisters, we all want to overcome. I struggle with it; I admit it. I am now, well, coming up on eighty-three, and it has been a struggle on and off in my life.
The Lord keeps saying to me, “Jerry, you keep on struggling, you are not going to get anywhere. I am not going to strengthen your old man so you can feel good about yourself. No, you need to lay hold of My Son, Jesus Christ. He is your Overcomer. Keep your eyes on Him, not yourself.”
You never get any spiritual blessing, never see something of the great promised land, outside of Christ.
Yet, brothers and sisters, I think most of us would confess that we have not come into all that fullness in our lives yet. So what is the issue?
You must choose to possess Christ. We cannot continue just to live a life in the desert. I call it hand-to-mouth: being taken care of. Now, the Lord does want to take care of you. He wants you to bring everything to Him. I thank Him for that.
But that is like living in the desert. He wants much more from all of us. He does not want us to live our entire lives in the desert.
They lived forty years until that original generation passed away. Brothers and sisters, may we not pass away living our entire lives in the desert. The Lord is saying, “There is more. There is more than this life in the desert. It is a necessary part of your growth, but it is certainly not where I want you to end up. It is not where I want you to dwell.”
Look, brothers and sisters. May the Lord give us a heart and set our hearts on saying, “We will not settle for less.”
I think of the apostle Paul. Look at all the great things our brother saw, all the great revelations he had. He had that wonderful vision on the Damascus road, and he was lifted into the third heaven, into paradise. He saw things there that God would not even allow him to share with us.
What a revelation our brother had, how much vision he had. But toward the end of his life, his cry was, “That I might know Him.” Oh, I need more revelation of Him.
How given our brother was to Him, but revelation never stopped in the apostle Paul’s life. It kept growing and growing: “That I might know Him.”
Brothers and sisters, I think most of us have tasted of Christ. Do not lose that taste. You need more and more every day.
My challenge tonight to all of us, including me, is to lay hold of God’s full thought for you—God’s full thought for the assembly that you are in; God’s full thought, not yours.
May He give us a heart not willing to settle for less. May He show us all that He desires. Do not settle down. Do not be satisfied.
Brothers and sisters, the older I get, the easier it is for me to say, “Lord, it is time to just settle down. These knees are weak, and my body is a little weak, and it is not cooperating with me like I would like.”
But, brothers and sisters, in the spirit, just like the apostle Paul, we should never settle down. We should never just sit on the curb and watch life flow by.
I remember a great example of this: the two-and-a-half tribes of Gad, Reuben, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. When they were east of the river, they looked at the land and said, “This is a good land for grazing our cattle. It seems to have everything we need. I think this is what we want for our possessions.”
They did not cross over the Jordan River. Neither did they enter into God’s full thought for their life, because they became satisfied with where they were.
Now, brothers and sisters, as I thought about this, it was a bit frightening to me. The Lord did not rebuke them. He did not warn them. He did not say, “You are making a big mistake. You need to get up and get in here, and let us cross this river.”
He did not encourage them in any way. He just said, “Okay, if that is what you want, if that is what you are satisfied with, I will bless you.”
Brothers and sisters, amazing. They never entered into God’s full thought for what He had for them.
Joshua 1:9 says:
Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.
The key words are: do not be afraid, nor be dismayed.
You remember the first time they came to the Jordan River, and they sent in the spies. They came back with a great report, but also a bad report. The good report was that the land was full of riches, food, honey, and grapes. It was wonderful. They all recognized that.
But the bad report was, “This is not for us, because to go in there, we have to take on these giants. We are like grasshoppers compared to these people.”
Even though they had a good report, the bad report discouraged the people, and they did not go in to possess their land. It was a negative report, and it brought fear and dismay upon all of Israel. It did not just affect the spies; the fear and dismay spread among the people, and they would not go in.
What a tragedy that fear and dismay—which is fundamentally the sin of unbelief—brings into our lives. As you know, only Joshua and Caleb actually entered in from that first generation that came out of Egypt. They were the only two.
So what was Joshua and Caleb’s secret of being so bold, not coming under fear and dismay?
Their eyes, brothers and sisters, were not on the giants. Their eyes were on the Lord. It is such a simple truth that we fail so often. When circumstances do not look good, when we face a giant of some kind in our life, we tend to fall, get dismayed, and turn our eyes away from the Lord to the problem—to the issue.
Their eyes were upon the Lord. Secondly, they trusted His word. They said, “Look, the Lord has given this to us. We can go in and take it. Yes, there may be giants there. I know there are giants there. But the Lord is with us. We can take it. It is ours. We need to go in and possess it.”
In other words, brothers and sisters, this is a marvelous point if any of us as Christians can learn it: they simply believed what the Lord said to them. You get that? They simply believed what the Lord had said to them. That was it.
They trusted the Lord. They had no doubts, no fear, no dismay. Unbelief is a real giant, brothers and sisters.
I want to give a quote. Once there was a brother who had a sin in his life that repeatedly defeated him, and he could not overcome it. Most of us have probably experienced something like this in our lives.
One day, he read Romans 6:14:
For sin shall not have dominion over you.
He prayed to the Lord. He said, “Lord, Your word says sin shall not have dominion over me, but my situation attests to the fact that sin does have dominion over me. Nevertheless, today I believe Your word. Therefore, I declare I have already overcome my sin.”
He simply believed God’s word.
That is so simple, is it not? That is why they were so victorious. Later on, he said that when the same temptations came, he would still fall if he looked at himself. But whenever he trusted the Lord, looked to the Lord, trusted His word, and said, “God, Your word cannot be untrue,” he experienced victory.
He simply believed God. That was Joshua and Caleb’s secret. Their eyes were not on the giant. They recognized the giants, but their eyes were really on the Lord, and they believed what the Lord had told them.
Brothers and sisters, oh, faith. We thank the Lord. We make it complicated, but He makes it so simple. He says, “Just believe Me. Believe My word.”
Brothers and sisters, there are times when we are all confronted with giants. Sometimes it is difficult circumstances, the cares of life, and we become dismayed. It is a giant—forces that come against us from the outside.
But there is also a giant inside. It is not only unbelief, but the great Goliath: self, the flesh, our flesh.
Brothers and sisters, self is always concerned about self more than God’s word, more than God’s heart, more than God’s desire. It does want God’s blessing.
Remember Jacob, that fleshly brother of ours? Thank the Lord he was finally delivered, but it took quite a few years. He was concerned about himself. He wanted that blessing, remember? He wanted the blessing, and he fought for it. He was deceitful. It was the flesh, the life of the flesh.
That is the way it is. It was a giant. It was the big giant in his life. But thank the Lord, the Lord was faithful.
Brothers and sisters, when you get dismayed, I think Oliver Greene said this—I am not sure—when you get dismayed, it is really that you are dismayed with yourself. You expect something of yourself instead of the Lord.
What deliverance there is from being dismayed when we can simply say, “Lord, You are the One that I need. You are the One that I look to.”
The Lord has done away with self on the cross. I think we all know that. But the Lord would say to us when we get dismayed, “You need to get your eyes back on Me. At the cross, I triumphed. I was victorious over your flesh. I put it under My feet.”
So when self rises up, brothers and sisters, in your life and wants to run your life, do not attempt to use willpower, because that is the flesh as well. It cannot fight itself.
What you do is declare the truth. You can say to your flesh, “You have been put under the Lord’s feet. Therefore, in the name of the Lord, you are under my feet.”
That is faith: not to believe you can do anything, but to believe in His completed work. That is faith. Not to believe that you can do anything, but to believe in the completed work of Christ.
When we get dismayed, faith vanishes. It is like putting a hole in the boat. Eventually the boat will sink. It might be slow, but eventually it will sink.
Dismay renders us spiritually helpless, brothers and sisters. Beware of dismay, because it renders you incapable of possessing the promised land, of possessing God’s full thought for you.
So the answer, I think, is obvious. These things—particularly dismay, because I have dealt with it in my life, brothers; I know these things—create a veil on your heart. Do you know that? Have you ever felt that distance when you are in dismay? There is like a veil, and there is a veil on your heart. It is a lack of faith, a lack of believing in Him.
But the Scripture says, if you turn to the Lord, the veil will be taken away. Let me read that. This is 2 Corinthians 3:16-17:
Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.
That is the way the veil is removed.
There is only one simple way, brothers and sisters, to overcome: to be occupied with Christ and believe His word.
Brother Sparks has meant a lot to me over my lifetime. He said, “You need to understand that God’s satisfaction is His Son, Christ. That is His only satisfaction.”
Brothers and sisters, He can be satisfied in you only because He is satisfied in the Christ in you. That is what He is satisfied with. So do not present yourself—the old man—before the Lord. There is no need to do that. You present His Son, Christ, before Him.
When you come before the throne in prayer, do you just walk in there? No, brothers and sisters. You are in there because of what? The blood of the Lamb. You recognize His Son and His work.
Brothers and sisters, get Him as your satisfaction in your life before God.
So the secret is not focusing on ourselves, but really on the Lord Jesus. It is a fundamental requirement: simply have faith in Him, to abide in Him, and to believe His word.
You have thought about this word, abiding in Christ. To me, it means to be occupied with Him, to dwell in Him, to rest in Him, to gaze upon Him, and to behold Him.
Abiding in Christ, brothers and sisters. So how will the veil be taken away? To be occupied with Christ. That is the answer.
He is your land of fullness. He is your promised land, and you need to possess Him. He is your full thought. He is what God is bringing you into.
Brothers and sisters, there is another thought, and it brings me to this: in our spiritual life, we need to purpose in our heart.
Remember Daniel? When he was in captivity, he purposed in his heart that he would not eat the food of the king, but would eat vegetables. Actually, he got healthier and better than all the rest of the children they were training at that time, simply because he believed in the Lord.
Well, I cannot pass on until I say this one more time: let us not become like the two-and-a-half tribes of Israel, being satisfied east of the Jordan River. Lord, help us to go into that promised land.
We need to talk about their entry into the promised land.
How am I doing on time? What? I am good? All right, thank you. Sometimes I praise the Lord, and sometimes I lose all time. That is a wonderful thing.
Have you thought about crossing the Jordan River? They had to cross the Jordan River.
The interesting thing was that when the Lord brought them there, you would have thought He would have dried it up or at least made it a little stream. It does become a small stream at times, and you can just walk over it. But it was at full flood stage.
Obviously, the Lord was trying to show them something about possessing their possessions, about entering the promised land, about obtaining God’s full thought.
What does that Jordan River at full flood stage represent, brothers and sisters? It represents the full power of death. Not only is there physical death, but there is spiritual death. There is even death within us. There is the enemy pressing us with an oppressive spirit—death all around us.
You may not realize it—I do not want to get you depressed—but, brothers and sisters, the Lord does not want us to be naïve. When we go into that promised land to possess Christ, the full force of hell is going to be against it. He wanted them to see that, and He wanted them to learn the way through the enemy’s oppression.
If you remember, the priests stood with the ark on their shoulders—that is Christ. As soon as their feet touched the water, the water stood up and backed up, the land became dry, and they crossed over.
Brothers and sisters, the mighty power of the ark, of our Lord Jesus Christ, of His victory, is the only thing that can overcome death—this full force of death that we find against us in our spiritual life.
But, brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus overcame death. He wants you to learn that in your spiritual life and learn to depend on it. “Lord, You have overcome this death that oppresses me, that is against me.”
He took on death. He overcame it. He put the enemy to open shame, it says. He is now our Victor, and He is our resurrection life.
Brothers and sisters, this Jordan River crossing does represent the fundamental work of God’s Son on Calvary’s cross, but there is more.
If you remember, as they were crossing the river, the Lord told them to take twelve stones out of the river and put them on the other side as a memorial that they could always remember. Then they were to take twelve stones and put them in the river. They all crossed over, and the water flooded back over the twelve stones in the river.
Brothers and sisters, that is Christ’s work on the cross. That is the fundamental work of you being crucified in Christ. Then there are the twelve new stones on the other side: you are raised in Jesus Christ.
Have you possessed that work of the cross in your life, brothers and sisters, knowing that you have been raised with Christ? You have been crucified with Him. That is why you do not have to worry about that old fellow anymore.
Brothers and sisters, you have been raised with our Lord Jesus Christ. That is the power that we need to go in to possess the promised land, to possess our possessions. It is identification with His death, burial, and resurrection. That is the life that we live.
Your natural life, your natural abilities—they are done away with on the cross. You have to have that new spiritual ability out of the resurrection life of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But there is still more. I hope you all do not get too tired tonight. There is still more.
Those twelve stones that they put up were at Gilgal in the promised land. You remember what the Lord asked them to do? He asked them to circumcise all the males.
Now, we know that circumcision was God’s covenant with His people, but all the time they were in the desert, nobody was circumcised. So it was necessary for them to be circumcised.
What does this represent, brothers and sisters? It represents our flesh being taken away.
Brothers and sisters, your flesh is the life of your soul. It is your soul life. It is the life that dwells in your soul, and that soul of yours needs to be transformed through the work of the cross so that your soul becomes filled with the life of Christ instead of self.
You know, our flesh is very interesting. I just mentioned Jacob. Brothers and sisters, the flesh can desire the things of the Lord. It can try to latch onto the things of the Lord. Jacob is a perfect example—how he deceived his father and how he tried to trick his brother. I mean, he did not just try; he did it.
Brothers and sisters, that is the flesh. In Romans 7, we see Paul saying, “The things that I want to do, I cannot; but the things I do not want to do, I am doing.” It is the flesh at work, brothers and sisters.
It wants everything for itself. Even the things of God, the flesh desires for itself, for its own fulfillment.
One thing about our flesh: it is not capable of possessing the land. It is not capable of coming into God’s full purpose for your life. He will never bring it in, brothers and sisters.
Oh, if you want to know the fullness of Christ, His full purpose for your life, it has to be His life. It has to be that resurrection life.
Let me read Luke 9:23. This is the Phillips translation. I kind of like this version.
Oh, can one of you brothers open that thing for me? My hands are kind of weak.
Brothers and sisters, in possessing our possessions, we have to daily walk the way of the cross. Even stooping is difficult.
Let me read the Phillips translation:
If anyone wants to follow in My footsteps,
he must give up all right to himself,
carry his cross every day,
and keep close behind Me.
If anyone wants to follow in My footsteps, he must give up all right to himself, carry his cross every day, and keep close behind Me.
Brothers and sisters, this is a daily walk of the cross. The King James Version says, “Deny yourself,” does it not? “Deny yourself, take up the cross, and follow Me.”
It was a commandment. It is not just something where He says, “If you want to do it, you can; but if you do not…” He wants us to take up our cross daily and follow Him. “Deny yourself,” He said. That is the way the flesh comes under the control of the work of the cross.
You need to be very clear about this: denying self is not self-denial. Self-denial, or self-control, is really self controlling your life. I hope you got that. It means you are still in control, trying to control.
To deny self is not that. So what does it really mean? It means you refuse to recognize self in your life.
When the self-life expresses itself and its desires, you say, “Now, who are you? I do not know you anymore. You have been crucified. I do not know you. I do not know who you are, and I have no reason to gratify your desires. I have no reason to yield to your temptations. I do not know you at all.”
This is a challenge, but this is our responsibility. Once again, this is not self-control—denying yourself things and pleasures. It is just not recognizing yourself at all and yielding to the Holy Spirit.
Brothers and sisters, we need to come to the place in our lives where we truly can say, “Not my will, Lord, but Your will be done.” We have to learn to really be adjustable to the Lord Jesus Christ.
With those same words of our Christ: “Not my will, Lord; Yours be done.” Oh, this is a difficult thing for me, Lord, but Your will be done.
There are times in our lives when the Lord says, “This is My will. This is what I want you to do.” And you say, “No, Lord, it is not my will. My will is kind of crosswise with Your will at this point.”
What do you do when you get to this point? Because it will stop you from possessing your possessions if you are not willing to do His will.
When we come before the Lord, we do not want Him to look at us and say, “I had so much more in mind for you. I had so much more in mind. You did not enter My full thought. You could have had it all. I had so much more.”
Brothers and sisters, may not those eyes burn through us at the judgment seat, because He wants us all to enter into His full thought.
That brings me to the point: not my will, but Thy will be done. When you find yourself struggling with doing the will of the Lord, brothers and sisters, and you find it very hard, what do you do?
Philippians 2:13:
For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.
The Lord works in you. You cannot work it up, but you can go to the Lord. You know what you need to say? “Lord, I am not willing right now, but Lord, I want Your all. I want everything, Lord. I am willing to be willing.”
That is a big secret in the Christian life: to be able to just go to the Lord and say, “Lord, this is a difficult struggle for me, but I am willing for You to make me willing.”
Brothers and sisters, I have had a few experiences with this. He is faithful. He will do it.
I remember the story of Corrie ten Boom. She was in one of the prison camps during the war, where six million Jews were taken into these camps and many of them died in the gas chambers. She was there in one of those camps.
Her sister was with her, and her sister eventually died in the camp before they actually sent her to the gas chamber. But, brothers and sisters, after Corrie was freed and came back, one day the Lord brought her face-to-face with one of those guards in the prison camp.
Strangely enough, the Lord had saved this guard. He was a Christian. He was in the Lord. The Lord brought him face-to-face with Corrie ten Boom and said to Corrie, “Corrie, you have to forgive him. You have to forgive him.”
Brothers and sisters, I cannot comprehend what was in our sister’s heart, but I am sure all the awful things that this guard had done came before her. She looked at the Lord and said, “I just cannot do it, Lord. I cannot forgive him.”
Then she said, “But Lord, I am willing to be willing.”
And you know what? She reached her hand out to this guard. As she did, the Holy Spirit filled her whole being.
Brothers and sisters, she came into something of the fullness of that promised land that day. It could have been done no other way except through the work of the cross. The real secret was, “I am willing to be willing.”
I am getting close to the end. I hope you can bear with me. I am sweating pretty bad right now.
Brothers and sisters, I mentioned it before, but there is a great warfare in possessing Christ. It is interesting: Matthew 11:12 says:
From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.
Such strange words. When we think of the kingdom of heaven, we think of being at peace and at rest. But the Lord said, “The violent take it by force.”
When they came into the promised land, remember, they were immediately faced with what? The wall of Jericho. It was impenetrable. There was no way they could assault that enemy fortress and take it down. They did not have anything to do it with, but they had the Lord.
The Lord did this strange thing. He marched them around seven days, and on the last day, seven times. When they finally made that last lap, they shouted the name of the Lord, and the walls fell down.
Brothers and sisters, it was all God’s work, but this enemy fortress was broken into. That was the way they began to possess the promised land.
It was that warrior spirit that they had in their hearts, but they did not fight with flesh and blood. They fought with the mighty hand of God.
Brothers and sisters, there is always resistance in the promised land. Violence characterized their entire time possessing the promised land. They needed a militant warrior spirit.
What is that? It is a militant determination to possess all of your inheritance in Christ, all of God’s full thought for you—that warrior spirit. “Lord, I have to be diligent. I am militant about this, Lord. I have to have it. Lord Jesus, I will not be satisfied with less.”
Brothers and sisters, my dear brother Sparks once said, “God is not satisfied with us yet, but He is bringing us into that promised land.” He talked about violence and the warrior spirit.
This was his thought that so touched me: the warrior spirit is that you desperately mean business with the Lord. You desperately mean business.
“Lord, I am desperate about this. I will not fall short of what You want from me. Lord, I have to have what You want for me.”
The Lord brings us into those places, and you need to say, “Lord, I need to possess that. This is something new for me. You are showing me something new, a new revelation of Yourself. I need to possess that thing.”
“Lord, I really need You. I need Your discernment. I need Your wisdom.” But the Lord says, “Look, I am your discernment. I am your wisdom. I am your overcoming power. I am the Victor. Every place you put your foot down, I will give it to you.”
So, brothers and sisters, revelation alone is not enough. We have to put our foot down on it and say, “This is what You have shown me, Lord. This is mine. I will not back off of this ground that You have given to me in Your word.”
The Lord will make you a warrior, brothers and sisters.
Are you desperate tonight? Is the Lord showing you something, and are you saying, “Lord, I am desperate for that. I need much more of You than I have ever thought. Lord, I need to possess my possessions in Christ. I need to come into Your full thought for my life, for this assembly that I am in.”
This brings up one more thought that I want to share with all of us. Mostly what I have been talking about tonight has been more on a personal basis—your possessing of Christ, which is needed.
But, brothers and sisters, you do not just possess Christ individually. You possess Christ as an army. You go in—it is the church.
In Ephesians 6, you see that warrior, right? That warrior is a corporate warrior. It is not just one person. Brothers and sisters, you need to see that in possessing this land, it will take more than you. It will take you and your brothers and sisters working under the Lord’s headship as one.
Brothers and sisters, I want to say this, and you can disagree with me, and that is okay: I do not think anyone really ever comes into the fullness of what God wants for them without your brothers and sisters, without being a real living part of the body of Christ—a functioning member, brothers and sisters, a joint of supply in the house of God.
Brothers and sisters, we are not just to be receivers. We are to be givers and doers in the house of God. This is what church life is all about: possessing the full thought that God has.
Our brother Kenny shared it: the Lord is possessing a peculiar people. He is possessing His church.
That church will eventually mature into the bride of Christ, and that is what we are all about. That is His full purpose.
When you come to the end of the book of Revelation, you see God’s full purpose there. What do you see? You see the heavenly city coming out of heaven, down as the bride for the Lamb.
Brothers and sisters, this is His heart. This is what you are made to be a part of. It requires that each one of us come in and possess our possessions in Christ, because that is the way not only you are matured, but the church is matured into the fullness of the stature of Christ.
It says Christ is the Head of the body—the fullness of Him that filleth all in all. Brothers and sisters, how critical it is that we not only grow individually spiritually, but also grow as the body of Christ.
Lord, we just come tonight. Lord, I think You have a full thought for everybody in this room—Your full thought for them, Lord.
Lord, You said earlier, our brother said, what You have begun a good work in us, You will complete. That is Your word to us, Lord—Your word of encouragement, if we just yield to You.
Oh, Lord Jesus, we come to You. We want to be those who keep our eyes on Thee. We want to be those, Lord, who simply believe Your word.
Oh, Lord, may Your grace be upon us for the rest of this conference. May You bring us into the fullness of what You intended for this very hour that we are in.
In Jesus’ name, amen.