Going Where We have Never Gone Before
Sunday, December 31, 2017
By Rev James May
Is there anyone here who loved to watch Star Trek? I’ve been a fan from the beginning with Captain Kirk. I suppose I’ve seen nearly every episode more than once. Captain Picard, Captain Janway, and on they go. There’s a new version out now but I haven’t had the time or desire to get into that one. The point is that each episode began with the flight of the Starship Enterprise traveling through space at warp speeds and the famous line is, “Going Where No Man Has Gone Before”. Well, obviously someone had gone there, at least in their mind, or there would have been no story to tell.
On this last Sunday of 2017, I sense that the Lord is trying to tell us something is changing in our midst. No, it’s not a new exploration of outer space, nor is it a change in the path that all men are taking in fulfilling the prophetic word of God. God’s Word marches on toward its fulfilment relentlessly. Not one “jot or tittle” of the written word will fail to come to pass and no man, no prayer of the church, no amount of faith can keep that from happening.
However, where the world goes in fulfilling God’s word is not what I want to speak of this morning. I want to speak about where the church is going, and what can change, and what will change in the role that the church will play in these last days. I want to speak about how each of us can become a powerful agent of change to bring about the fulfillment of God’s word in these last days as well.
What is coming more clearly into focus every day is that the separation between the ways of the world, and of compromising churches; and the ways of churches that remain true to the paths of righteousness and holiness is going to be very different.
The world, and those who compromise to please the standards that the world expects, are headed down a path to the gates of hell and the wrath of God. They are traveling headlong into the time of the Tribulation because men are blinded by sin and being led by Satan’s deception into their own destruction. With each passing day they go deeper into sin, going into the depths of sin and depravity than any system of government has gone before. They are following their Father, the Devil, into a place of ever-growing darkness from which there will be no turning back.
On the other hand, the true church must take, and is taking a path that leads us into a deeper relationship with Jesus; into a closer walk in his presence; into a brighter Light of Revelation; and into a heightened sense of discernment concerning the will of God and where he wants to lead us.
The church that follows Christ ever closer, must go, and is going into a depth of the supernatural realm of God that the church has never gone before, and those who do not go there will find themselves left behind to wonder what’s happening and why am I not a part of it?
There are great days ahead; days of seeing and being used by God in the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit with a greater anointing and power of God to see miracles, signs and wonders in the earth. I believe the church is going to experience the full impact of what Jesus meant when he made the promise in John 14:12, when he said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.”
I was led to the Book of Joshua for this morning to give a message from the Lord to the church that is leaving behind the things of the past and moving on into a new place in Christ!
• If you want to be a part of what God will do in these last days among his people;
• If you want to be used in a greater supernatural way and allow the manifestations of the Holy Spirit in your life to become a greater reality;
• If you want to be on forefront of the battle against the forces of darkness and take down strongholds of the enemy;
• If you want to be used, and to borrow a phrase from the US Army, “be all you can be” in God’s army, then this message is for you.
This is God’s call to go where you’ve never gone before so prepare yourself for what may be called a hyper-jump in the Spiritual realm; for traveling by warp speed into a move of God that will take you into uncharted places in your walk with the Lord.
Don’t fear it, for remember, God is already in your future. He knows where he wants to take you! He is the Power that drives you forward and he has already established your goings and your destiny! The key is to follow him and allow the Holy Spirit to be your guide as you draw ever closer to God’s heart and know His will!
If God wills, we will begin a long journey this coming Wednesday as begin studying the journeys of Israel from Egypt to the Promised Land in a study called “Journeys in the Wilderness”. As the Spirit leads, we plan to take a close look at 42 encampments of Israel on their path from Egypt to Canaan and with the Lord’s help, relate it to our own journeys through this wilderness of life on our way to our Heavenly Canaan’s Land.
But for today, we are going to skip way ahead in that journey of Israel to the last stops on their journey as they were encamped at Shittim, near the Jordan River, which was the border of the Promised Land.
Just to give you a glimpse into what we will be looking at later on, let me tell you that Shittim is named as such for a reason. That name Shittim carries multiple meanings in the Hebrew language which the Torah and most of the Old Testament were written.
The feminine noun of Shittim is “shitta” in Hebrew and it refers to the acacia tree, which is a thorny tree that tends to grow in dry places in the Middle East. When we studied the Tabernacle we heard of this many times throughout the building of many of the articles of furniture and the walls, including the Ark of the Covenant.
The noun occurs mostly in the plural form as “shittim”, and is probably a word that was also taken from Egyptian language as well. What’s significant about that is that the Egyptian God, Horus, was said to have emerged from the acacia tree. The Acacia tree, in Egyptian mythology was known as the tree in which life and death were enclosed.
Horus was depicted in the form of a falcon whose right eye was the sun, or morning star, which represented the embodiment of all power, and whose left eye was the moon or evening star, representing healing. Horus then, was the Sky God, who held all power and the ability to heal all things.
One of the characteristics of the acacia is its thorns. It's not specifically mentioned, but Moses burning bush and Jesus’ crown of thorns may very well have been woven from acacia twigs.
The verb form of Shittim is “sata” in the Hebrew language and it means to turn away from a righteous life towards an unrighteous one and particularly one that involves extra-marital, and adulterous relations.
How many times did Israel run into trouble and come under God’s judgment over its history because they were unfaithful to God. God said that they were an adulterous people, always seeking after strange gods of their neighbors.
Does not this encampment at Shittim, on the very border of the Promised Land, give us a warning that God requires faithfulness? He requires that He is first in our hearts; first in our worship; first in our Love; first in our obedience to His Word; and first in our service at every step of the journey.
Every day of our lives, and in every step we take in serving the Lord, we must ever be mindful of Shittim – that choice on whether we will be faithful to our Lord and His Word, or we will turn aside to serve self, or to chase after other things that will become our self-made gods.
As Christians, we are not immune to chasing after other gods, no more than Israel was. Now God is speaking to each of us, saying, “Beware of Shittim!” Draw closer to God’s Heart! Follow only after the leading the Holy Spirit! Obey only the Word of God! God where God leads and you won’t be found in a “spiritually adulterous condition” where God will have to bring you judgment for unfaithfulness or be forced by his righteousness to leave you in the wilderness to die in sin and shame.
As we step forward now into the move of God; into that greater depth of his Spirit and his presence, and we go into places in the supernatural realms of the Spirit that we’ve never gone before, what happens in Joshua chapter 3 become very important for us to remember!
Joshua 3:1 And Joshua rose early in the morning; and they removed from Shittim, and came to Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over.
Joshua 3:2 And it came to pass after three days, that the officers went through the host;
At the banks of the river, only a few steps away from going into the Promised Land, they stopped one last time. They had already left Shittim behind and this was their show of commitment to follow Joshua all the way so that the promises of God to Abraham would be fulfilled.
Three days they were there, the same amount of time that Jesus would spend in the grave while he went down into Paradise to set the captives free and to take the keys of death and hell from the devil. They took three days to contemplate and to prepare themselves for the entrance into the promise that they had counted on and prayed for and worked for, for generations. It was there, right before them. All they had to do was walk in obedience and take it!
Finally, the moment of truth arrived! All of the promises they had made to Moses, and now to Joshua; and all of the promises to God; and all of their times of praise, worship and wandering through the wilderness would now be proven in their greatest step of faith – by stepping into the water of the Jordan and crossing over to take the land before them.
However, there were a few more things that they had to know and do before they could step out!
Joshua 3:3 And they commanded the people, saying, When ye see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it.
Joshua 3:4 Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure: come not near unto it, that ye may know the way by which ye must go: for ye have not passed this way heretofore.
This is the first part of the message I have for you from the Lord this morning! When God moves you move, and when he doesn’t, you stand still!
The greatest danger of going into a greater depth of the supernatural move of God is that we get ahead of God! We must make certain that what we do is of the Lord for the devil loves to create counterfeits. The danger is that if we get ahead of God, then we will tend to become filled with pride and presume to take the glory for ourselves.
• If you have a word of Knowledge, be sure that the Lord is giving it to you, so that it does good and not harm to whom it is spoken.
• If you have a prophetic word to speak, make sure that you are led of the Spirit to speak it!
• If you’re led by the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, full of the Holy Ghost, and staying near the heart and dwelling in the presence of God, then you have nothing to fear!
But make sure that you’ve left Shittim behind! Make sure that you’re where you should be in the Lord, lest you are led by the wrong Spirit!
Taking what was told to Israel as they stepped out, it’s better to delay doing what you feel led to do, or say what you feel led to say, and to know without a doubt that God is giving it to you, than it is to move too hastily, lest we begin to be in dangerous ground.
God is leading the church, and that means each of us, into a place that we’ve never gone before spiritually.
• Some here are going to be used in a greater fashion than ever to bring forth words of knowledge, words of wisdom, giving forth of prophetic utterances, even having dreams and visions as promised in the Book of the Prophet Joel!
• Some here will be used in the Gifts of Healing, in the working of Miracles, and In the Gifts of Tongues and Interpretations.
• Some are going to be given greater and more powerful anointing to preach the gospel,
• All of will be used to be a witness for Jesus, even in ways and means, and under circumstances that you never dreamed possible.
It’s not going to always feel comfortable, and at times you might even feel as though you’re stepping out too far, but that’s normal because you’re going into strange and unfamiliar territory where you’ve never been before!
• Are you ready?
• Do you really want to be used by God?
• Do you really want to be a part of what God wants to do in these last days?
• Are you satisfied with mediocrity, or are you ready to be a Spiritual Warrior, unafraid and armed with the power of the Holy Ghost and powered by His Spirit?
God is ready to move! The time is now to let go of the past and step into the future that God has prepared!
• God is ready to use his church and to help his church become the supernatural spiritual powerhouse that can make a difference in the world.
• God is ready to pour out the Holy Ghost upon all who will receive him.
• God is ready for the spiritual awakening and to send a great revival in the land.
• God desires to see the souls of men saved and for his church to be a glorious church, shining in the Light of Truth in this dark world!
The Holy Spirit is moving! The Ark is moving! Jesus is leading the way! Get behind Him, and stay with him! Don’t get left in the wilderness! Watch where God moves and go with him!
You’ve never seen the move of God like you’re about to see, but if you will just follow the Ark, follow after God, you’ll not only not get lost by the wayside, but you’ll be a part of that great move!
The second part of the message that the Lord has for us this morning is found in Joshua 3:5.
Joshua 3:5 And Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves: for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.
That’s what the Spirit is saying to the church this morning! Sanctify yourselves! This is not the time to get entangled with the things of the world! This is the time to give your full commitment to serving the Lord! This is not the time to allow the cares of life to draw you aside from having a closer relationship with Jesus! This is the time to draw closer to him every day; to get into his presence as much as you can!
Sanctify yourselves – throw out the trash in your life by getting rid of anything, everything and everybody that drags you down and weighs you down, takes up all your time, and keeps you so occupied that you can’t have the freedom to draw closer to God’s heart!
Understand that God will help you work all things out! I know you’re busy. God knows your life. He knows the things that you have to do. He knows your schedule and the demands are placed upon you. But the Word also says in 1 Corinthians 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
That way of escape is not always getting you out of your schedule and demands, but it’s sometimes a way that is made through it all, in spite of those schedules and demands. God will make a way for you if you seek for it and desire to be near him with all your heart.
Sanctifying yourselves means that each of us must make that choice!
This isn’t a corporate body choice that we can say as a church, this is what we will do. It’s an individual commitment, that is joined by every other individual commitment, until as a body of Believers we are all committed and then we can say that our church is ready to move on into a new supernatural realm in God! It begins with me and you first!
Through our personal sanctification the Lord is given liberty to move within us as he wills. The wonders that I have spoken of, that the Prophet Joel spoke of, that Jesus himself said that we could do, are all there, just waiting on us to sanctify ourselves and get into the presence of God! They will happen! It is going to come to pass in the lives of all who will sanctify themselves and prepare to move out with God when the Spirit leads without fear and compromise!
That is the word of the Lord to his church this morning. Now the choice is ours as to what we will do about it!
As a body of Christ, a congregation, I think it’s appropriate for us all to stand and go to God in prayer right now. Let us, as a body, commit our ways to him; commit to drawing closer to God; commit to following the Spirit wherever he may lead! Let us make the commitment to sanctify our lives and prepare to go where we have never gone before into a greater spiritual realm of walking with the Lord!
You can also come and make your personal commitment, or you can do that when you’re ready, wherever you are. The altar is open if you desire to come and pray.
