Enemies in the Land

In a gushing tribute to the father of modern terrorism, a CBS News anchor described Yasser Arafat as a “dedicated thorn in the side if the Israeli’s”. I’m quite certain this secular news reader had no idea how true those words were.

Num 33:55
 But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell.   

Before they entered the promised land God spoke through Moses, telling the Hebrews that they were to drive out the inhabitants of the land. God said that those inhabitants who were allowed to remain would become thorns in their sides. That was true then and it’s still true today.

Israel’s failure to remove their enemies from the land God promised to them has resulted in death and destruction of innocent men, women and children. Yasser Arafat was the very embodiment of God’s warning.

The things that were and are true for physical Israel are just as true spiritually for the church. God has given us a promised land. We are instructed to inhabit that land. But just like the physical land promised to the children of Abraham, our promised land is already inhabited by enemies. The difference is that our land and enemies are spiritual not physical.

1Cor 10:11
Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

Jesus said the Kingdom of God is within us. He said it doesn’t come by observation, meaning that it can’t be seen or brought forth with the physical senses. This kingdom within us is our promised land. It is this land in which God wants to rule.

Before you were born again, you were completely ruled by your flesh, your physical senses. You had no capacity to even understand the things of God much less obey God.  Now that the spirit of Christ lives in you, you have a war going on. Just like the Hebrews warred physically against the Canaanites you must wage a spiritual war against the lusts or desires of the flesh.

Gal 5:17
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

When Joshua led the Hebrews into the promised land, God allowed them to take it only a little at a time. God did not drive out all their enemies at once because they were not strong enough to hold onto all the land. He led them against their enemies one at a time.

Ex 23:29-30
I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land

This is exactly the way in which we grow in the kingdom of God. Little by little God drives out our dependence on and trust in the flesh. Little by little we learn to hear from God and obey Him.

In the natural, the Hebrews enemies were the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.  In our flesh, our enemies are covetousness, idolatry, fornication, murder, false witness, blasphemy and evil thoughts.  These are the enemies that inhabit our land and these are the enemies that God wants to drive out so that His spirit can rule completely in your life.

Jesus said if we continue in his word, we would become his disciples and the truth would make us free. We know that in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God (John 1:1-2) So, the word that Jesus was talking about was Christ himself. As we continue to feed upon and practice the word, we become His disciples. In other words we become more and more like Him.

This is what Jesus meant in the parable of the sower (Mark 4). The word was sown and produced fruit. In some it produced a thirty fold return. In others it produced sixty fold. Still others produced a one hundred fold return.  The word sown produces the very character and nature of Christ in us. That character and nature is produced in stages. Some are walking in the thirty fold return, some in the sixty fold nature of Christ. A few will even manage to attain to the one hundred fold nature and character of Christ.

As the word of God begins to produce the nature of Christ in us, God the father will bring our enemies before us one at a time so that we can identify and overcome them. The same basic enemies trouble all humans but they react differently in each individual. For example I may have a greater problem with covetousness than you do but fornication (physical or spiritual) may be a greater enemy in your life than in mine. God deals with each person individually.

This is why we must judge ourselves against the standard of Christ and not by what we see of other people. Most people make the mistake of judging themselves by others. They say, well, I may have my faults but I’m not as bad as that person over there. This kind of thinking is simply your flesh justifying itself. Other people are not the standard, Jesus is.

The truth is we don’t even know who our spiritual enemies are until God begins to reveal them to us. You have no idea the depth of darkness that inhabits your own heart until God shows it to you. And even then He only reveals it a little at a time. If God showed you all at once how wicked you are, you’d probably fall down dead!

Jer 17:9
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? 

Jesus spoke of this process in John 15:1-2

I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

If you’ve ever done any gardening you’ll understand what Jesus was talking about here. When you prune a tree or plant it causes that plant to produce fuller branches or more fruit. When a branch fails to produce at all you cut that branch off and toss it in the trash.

As the word begins to bring forth the character and nature of Christ in you, God purges or prunes you which causes more fruit to come forth. This is how we go from thirty fold to sixty fold to one hundred fold. A person that fails to produce any fruit is cut off and thrown into the fire.

This process is why many Christians seem to always be struggling with some problem. God brings us to a place where we must call upon him to be delivered from a situation. The situation that you find yourself in reveals your spiritual enemy. If you fail to identify and overcome that enemy you will find that you will be defeated by that same problem or enemy over and over in life.

Many Christians fail to understand this process. It doesn’t help that the apostate leaders of the church tell people that all their problems are caused by the devil. That is what most people are taught. Every time you come up against an enemy you are told that it’s the devil attacking you. You are told that he is attacking you because you are so righteous and holy or because you are doing such great things for God. This is a lie. The devil may be attacking you but he can only do to you what God allows, no more and no less.

God allows attacks to come so that we will act on His word and be delivered. This is what produces the character and nature of Christ in us. This process should be expected in the life of every Christian. This is part of the process of taking up our cross. This is part of laying down our own life in exchange for the life of Christ. Our lives are going to be a struggle but the struggle should lead us from victory to victory, from faith to faith just like the Hebrews did in taking the promised land.

Romans 1:7
For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

So, the character and nature of Christ is produced in us step by step. One at a time God brings our enemies before us so that we can identify and defeat them. When we fail to defeat an enemy, that particular problem will be a torment to us as long as it is allowed to remain.  

Just like God warned the children of Israel, those enemies they failed to overcome would be thorns in their sides and pricks n their eyes. Those enemies that remain would torment them just like the physical enemies of Israel do today.

The enemies we allow to remain in our lives will torment and vex us. The things we fail to overcome will war against us to keep us from becoming one hundred fold Christians. These are the things that keep us from fully manifesting the character and nature of Christ within us.

Gods grace is available and sufficient to drive out every enemy and overcome every hindrance in your life. Don’t allow your spiritual enemies to remain like physical Israel has. Ask God to reveal them to you. Ask God for his power to go before you to bring you victory over your flesh so that you can walk fully in the Kingdom of God on the earth just like Jesus did.

Zech 4:6
Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.

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Steve Lumbley 2004  www.apostasywatch.com
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