When you know for sure that it is God who has promised, there is a conviction that must be built in you.
Joshua 1:3 (NKJV)
This week, special emphasis has been laid on reorienting your understanding of the past season: The 40 Days of Prayer and Fasting. So you do not just see it as a period of abstinence from food and the desires of the flesh, or as a wilderness season whose end has now finally arrived.
Your major takeaway this week must be that you now understand, much more than ever before, that the 40 days of consecration were a preparation for something.
So, the question that you must ask is simple: “What has God prepared me for?”
And this is the focus of today's devotional. To point you to the next season: The Season of Possession.
Let us consider one of the first places we see this in Scripture.
Joshua 1:3
New King James Version
3 Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses.
Many times we read this text without a full understanding of the context. Moses, the vessel through which God used to deliver the children of Israel from the Egyptians, had just died.
For a brief moment, it seemed as if that was the end of a season. But God spoke to Joshua, one of the two successors, that his promise to bring His children to the promised land had not changed or ended. He reminded him of the exact words he had declared to Moses. “Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you.”
The first thing that should catch your attention in this verse is the tense used. God did not say “I will give you” or “I can give you, if you ask me.” He said: I HAVE GIVEN YOU.
This simply means that the promised land was a gift from God to His children. It was not earned. It was not merited. The Israelites did not display a superior level of faithfulness to God to be deserving of the promised land. If you go back in history, you would see that God had made a covenant with Abraham.
Genesis 12:7
New King James Version
7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
Take a look at the timeline:
The Promise: God promised the land to Abraham as an eternal possession for his family.
The Wilderness: After leaving Egypt, Moses and the Israelites travelled toward the Promised Land.
The Possession: Joshua advances with the children of Israel into the Promised Land and takes control of it.
For many believers today, they're in between The Wilderness and The Possession. But God's will is not just that you see and know that there is a promise. His will is that you enter it. That you take possession of the land. When you know for sure that it is God who has promised, there is a conviction that must be built in you.
Let's see what the Bible says about the word of God.
Isaiah 55:11
New King James Version
11 So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
It is impossible for God's word to return to Him void. His word always accomplishes what he pleases. His word always comes to fulfilment.
Joshua 21:43
New King James Version
43 So the Lord gave to Israel all the land of which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it and dwelt in it.
Read that again. Slowly. Digest it. The Lord gave ALL! Not one, two or three, but ALL the land he had sworn to give them. This is the God you serve.
Now, consider all that the Lord has said to you these past weeks. The dreams and visions you've seen. This same God has spoken, so you must be assured that his word is not going to fall to the ground.
But you still have a role to play. You must obey that which God has commanded you. It would not have mattered that God had promised Canaan to the children of Israel if they remained in the wilderness. You cannot remain in one place when God has said to move! This is the season to possess the land. You have prepared for this possession! What God has given you is waiting for your movement.
There would have been no Acts of the Apostles if the Apostles hadn't acted. There will be no move of God in your space if you don't move. Not because it will be by your power, but because that's the principle of the kingdom. This is how you take cities for Jesus. This is how to conquer territories for Jesus!
Prayer
Heavenly Father, I declare that this is my season of possession. For the rest of this year, I run with every word you have given me. Through my obedience, every prophecy is advanced, and I move with an assured confidence in your word.
