Do You Still Want It

Do You Sill Want It!

Minister Tawaunna L. Jones

Our text is dealing with the dividing of the land God promised to the children of Israel. God promised it to them when they were still in bondage. God said “He would take them to a land that was flowing with milk and honey. It would have cities that they did not build, vineyards that they did not plant and they would eat the abundance.” God now has them in the land that He promised, while they are still in bondage! God made them a promise of their inheritance while they were still in captivity, in captivity, making bricks without straw. Although they were not in what God had for them, they were still people of promise. This implies that God can give you a promise of what you are going to have and you may not be delivered from your problems!

God tells you His promise for you, to make you sick of what you are in. Sometimes, the only thing that makes you turn from what you are in is the desire for something better. You can be standing in what God promised you and not know what part is yours. Unless God shows you, you may find yourself, making your self comfortable in something that was not intended for you. Making yourself at ease, telling yourself this is all that I am suppose to have. You may start to believe that God never intended to give you what He shared with you. This may be the reason why many of us are experiencing such discomfort. We have made our selves comfortable in something that was not designed for us. As long as you are comfortable, you will never push yourself or go after what God has promised for you! You will find yourself cheer leading everybody else as they move toward their destiny. God wants to know do you still want the blessings He has promised you. Do you still want it!

In our text we have God’s people standing in the land of promise but they have not taken possession of the property. They are in the place of their inheritance but all of the land is not yet conquered. Joshua is giving them what belongs to them, but there is still some land available to who ever is willing to fight for it. You can settle for what is yours, but there is also more if you want it. There is more that you can have if you are willing to fight for it. Some of us want more than just what has our name on it. If there is more available God, I want it! You can mark it as mine! I want it!

Joshua is dividing the land between ten tribes. There are only ten tribes because two of them decided to stay on the other side before they crossed over the Jordan River. Moses agreed for them to stay only if they would fight to help their brothers to cross over into the Promised Land. It is a bad thing when you have the tendency to like the first thing you see and settle too soon. One of the tribes that stayed on the other side was the tribe of Gad. Gad was the tribe of troops. They were warriors. They were the ones that fought to keep up the Holy standard of God. Yet, they stopped short of the Promised Land. They decided that coming out of bondage was enough for them.

There are some people who are only shouting because God brought them out of bondage. Real deliverance is when you are walking in, what God brought you out for. If you are not in what He brought you out for, than you are not completely delivered. Deliverance is a complete package. Deliverance is that I am now walking in the promise that God brought me out to accomplish. If you shouted just because you came out, how much more will you shout when you are walking in the promises of God?

Gad stopped short. Gad stopping short means a lot when you turn over to the book of Mark and read chapter five. In Mark chapter five it says that there was a man who was out among the tombs. He was out among the tombs, among the dead, cutting himself with stones and chains could not hold him. He was out of control. Jesus removed the demons out of that man. The people ran Jesus from the city because he allowed the demons from the man, to enter into the swine. Swine was the people way of livelihood. The children of Israel never dealt with anything as dirty as swine. The city where the man had the demons was called Gagara. The descendants of Gad formed that city. Because the tribe of Gad stopped short of the promise, stuff that they should never had to deal with, now that had to deal with. It was a city that became full of people with demons and swine was their livelihood.