YOU’VE BEEN HERE LONG ENOUGH
DUETERONOMY 1:1-8
I started out last week by saying that we are in a season of challenge—and that God is challenging His people in an effort to show those whose hearts are truly towards Him
I said last week that these are strategic times in the Kingdom of God—and that it’s a time to discover what we were born to do
Now I want to begin this week by saying that I believe that God is ready to shift the wine skins
The old is out and the new is in
Now before you start getting nervous on me, what I’m referring to is Old Mindsets
One of the greatest challenges to change and taking new territory for the Kingdom of God is resistance
Old Mindsets will always resist anything that is either unfamiliar or uncomfortable
Now I believe that there ought to be some form of structure—however, structure is not something that the church should fit into; but rather structure should somehow fit into what God is currently speaking
I said all that to say this; that God is shifting us—He’s shifting us as a church body, He’s shifting us in our mentality—and if we don’t allow God to shift us, we’ll find ourselves living in cycles of redundancy that bare no fruit.
In Deuteronomy 1:6 tells us that “The LORD spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mountain:
Turn and take your journey, and go to the mountain of the Amorites, and unto all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates.
Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give unto them and to their seed after them.”
(Turn to somebody and tell them, “It’s time to leave the comfort zone!”)
When we constantly find ourselves caught up in cycles, going through the same battles, recovering the same territory; it is then apparent that the plan of God is not being followed
If any of you would be honest in here this morning you’d admit that over the past 2 years, 5 years, or maybe even ten years or more; you’ve found yourself dealing with the same old demons, facing the same old challenges, experiencing the same limited breakthroughs, and running from the same giants—and you keep saying “here we go again”
But I stopped by to tell somebody this morning that if what you see in your windshield is the same thing you see in your rearview mirror……HONEY YOU’RE ON THE WRONG ROAD!
The reason the windshield is bigger than the rearview mirror is in order for you to be more focused on where you’re going than where you’ve been.
It’s imperative for us to recognize this morning that God is wanting to break us out of cycles where we continually go through the same highs and same lows
In Hebrews 12:1 we are told to “Lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset you
It’s not a whole lot of things that causes us problems; we more often than not get tripped up by the same thing
Jesus said to His disciples one day that if you have the faith the size of a grain of mustard seed than you can say to “THIS MOUNTAIN” be thou removed.
Most of us are worried about everybody else’s mountain when its
“THIS MOUNTAIN” that keeps standing in my way—and I find myself walking in circles.
The children of Israel walked around the same mountain for forty years
(Tell somebody that “That’s too long for anybody to be caught up!”)
Now when they first went to the wilderness it was to worship the LORD and to receive instruction from God while being protected and provided for
(watch this now!)
But what often begins as a blessing—ends up as a curse
And it ends up as a curse when we stay longer than we should have.
Egypt began as a blessing……when Joseph first invited his father and brothers to Egypt, it was because of a famine in the place that they were
But what started out as a blessing, 430 years later ended up as a curse
There are situations that occur in our lives and God blesses us to come through them, but in our hearts through unforgiveness and in our minds through dwelling on the past causes bondage to occur out of what should have been freedom
Often times even a great move of God is met with opposition and resistance……and the only thing that’s opposing it is what God had done in the past…..people wanting to stay where God was rather than where He is
The people that fight what God is doing today are oftentimes people who were used by God in a previous season and they stayed longer than they should have.
Then there are churches that stayed in cycles longer than they should have.
The church that I came out of as a young Christian was at one time considered to be a cutting edge ministry, and a church on the move, but their success became their hindrance and they were caught in a cycle and stayed there
There comes a day when God is saying that “I’m moving you out of this place or this season and I’m shifting you to enter a new dimension in your walk.”
Now in our text we found out that it was only an eleven day journey from Horeb to Kedesh-barnea
Kedesh-barnea represented the place that they were to cross over into the promise land
Now you know the story of the 12 spies and how 10 came back with an evil report and two came back with a good report but look what happened…….
The people came to they’re day of entrance into a new season and backed away because of challenge, not knowing that the God who promised was able to perform
I also want to submit that they did not recognize their God given potential to overcome what they considered to be “to big”
Throughout the history of mankind, God has sought to overcome the blindness of His creation as they discount their potential and doubt their worth.
It is important for us to understand that the boundaries of what God can accomplish through you were set long before you were born.
And what God wants us to do is to see ourselves and our abilities the way He sees us.
And until we truly begin to fulfill our God given potential, we will forever wonder around in cycles of redundancy, never possessing what has already been promised to us.
Listen church!
Every new dimension will require something more of you than where you’ve been.
And I believe that what the children of Israel were intimidated by was what that next dimension was going to require of them.
Even though it was a land that devours its inhabitants and it was inhabited by men of great stature, what they didn’t realize is that God was about to cause a shift to take place—God wanted them to become men and women of great stature and that He would rebuke the devourer for their sake.
It was God’s intention that when He got them into Canaan He was going to change the processes, change the system, and change the structure—because God never intended for them to be bound by structure but rather that structure would adjust to their new season.
You see up to this point they were bound by having just enough, but now the manna will cease and through sowing and reaping they were to have more than enough.
God said you have been here long enough!
If you don’t desire to grow, you won’t grow! If you stop desiring for productivity, your life will produce nothing
God‘s message to the church is: “Go up! Possess the Land!”
God’s people weren’t meant to stay where they are; they were meant to go forward.
The church must not be satisfied with what she already is or has, or she closes the door of greater experience that is available for her.
The church is not a dead monument; it is a living, dynamic organism that has the state of becoming.
If you look at our text, God spoke to His people through His servant saying, “Enough of your stay here! Go up and possess the land!”
What is the implication of this command of God to His people?
What is its significance to the church?
IT IS A CALL TO ADVANCE!
God is passionate for the advancement of His people. In this passage, God says, “You have stayed long enough in this mountain…now set up your journey. Go up and possess the land.”
It is both a command to leave the place where they were staying –a place where they were already accustomed, and to advance their journey toward the Promised Land.
God’s desire for His people is not to stay in a spiritual status quo
Instead, He wants to see His people progressing with great measure in their spiritual journey.
• As the Israelites lived long enough in Mt. Horeb their passion for the Promised Land had grown cold.
Their emotional fervor, their excitement and their exuberance for God’s Promise had to some extent started fading.
“It’s okay here. We’re already accustomed here. No more adjustments.”
The promise was still in their minds, but the intensity of their passion for it has waned. So God came to rejuvenate their emotions. “Go up and possess the land.”
• God dislikes half-heartedness, lifelessness, and, as the Spirit of God says to the Church of Laodicea, “lukewarm” spirituality.
God wanted His people to come to a new horizon of experience.
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The Israelites were becoming accustomed and contented with their stay in the mountain.
They had comfort, ease and safety in that mountain.
Everything is fine, why should they go up to another place?
First because that was not the place where they should be.
Next, they can never come to that place until they leave the place where they were.
This gives us the principle that “what has been should not determine what will be.”
So for them to be in the place God wants them to be, they must go through new horizons of their journey.
Exactly true with us. If we want to be a person God wants us to be, we must be willing to go through new horizons of our spiritual journey.
What we have been should not determine what we will be or what we are to be spiritually.
