How Long Are Ye Slack?

Jos 18:2-3 (There were 7 tribes who had not taken possession of their inheritance)

3 And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, How long are ye slack to go to possess the land, which the LORD God of your fathers hath given you?

Slack: fail, (be) faint, (wax) feeble, forsake, idle, leave, let alone (go, down), (be) slack, stay, be still, be slothful,

(Heb 6:12 ) That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

Slothful: sluggish, i.e. (literally) lazy, or (figuratively) stupid:--dull,

Joshua’s rebuke tells us that it was not a weakness or a failure on God’s part that they had not taken possession of their inheritance, but a slackness and slothfulness on their part.

We have been preaching about putting on the whole armor of God

(Why Put on the armor if there is not a battle to be fought?)

What is our first focus in warfare?

( It is not to hold the fort till Jesus comes and then be carried home).

It is to possess that which has been promised to us, To take possession of our inheritance

Possess: to seize, to rob, also to expel, to ruin:--cast out, to impoverish, consume, destroy, disinherit, dispossess, drive out, enjoy, (take) possession, seize upon,

Why is this our first focus?

Because until we are in possession of our inheritance we cannot help any one else to receive theirs.

The Spirit that God is looking for in this day and hour is the Spirit of the the tribes of Rueben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh

They took their inheritance on this side of the Jordan

Numbers 32:32 We will pass over armed before the LORD into the land of Canaan, that the possession of our inheritance on this side Jordan may be ours.

Deut 3:18-19-20 Ye shall go over armed before your brethren until the Lord have given rest unto your brethren, as well as unto you,

The reason the 3 tribes were able to go ahead and fight for their brethren, was because they had received their inheritance already.

Moses or Joshua didn’t give the children of Israel their inheritance, God did. Moses and Joshua were only instruments God used to bring them into their inheritance.

Jordan= death

Many Christians have determined that they have to cross Jordan = die before they can receive their inheritance.

7 Tribes = representative of the church; had not received their inheritance, Not because it was not theirs, but because they were slack to go in and possess it.

Too many of Gods people have settled into a someday mentality,

(But Faith is always now).

Like these 7 tribes they’re waiting to cross over Jordan to possess their inheritance.

Some how we’ve come to believe that we have to die before we receive our inheritance.

Since when does the beneficiary of the will have to die to receive what the will entitles him or her to?

It is when the testator or the writer of the will dies, that you are entitled to take possession of the contents of the will.

Jesus Christ was the express will of God for us, all of the riches of Heaven are contained in Christ

Heb 9:15-17 And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

16 For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.

17 For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.

The will is of force, only after the death of the testator= the one who wrote the will.

Jesus died to bring us into possession of our inheritance

To bring the kingdom of God to us: (thy kingdom come thy will be done).

But for some reason we have been convinced that we have to die before we can have our inheritance.

If that was true then the old testament type of the promise land= the inheritance of the children of God, is false because they got theirs while they were still alive here on earth.

The old was a type of the new, The promise land can’t be a type of heaven because there are no giants in heaven.

How long are we going to be slack to possess the land which the Lord our God hath Given us?