PromiseLand
Pt. 3 - Promise Parasites & Partitions
I. Introduction
430 years of slavery has been left behind in a miraculous exodus punctuated by Pharaoh and his armies being wiped out at the Red Sea. The promise is next. Except it wasn't. Doubt and the residue of slave mentality has caused a straight path to become a snake path instead. An eleven-day journey has now evolved into a forty year march of death. In fact, only two of the original spies that caught a glimpse of the promise remain . . . Caleb and the Israelites new leader Joshua. Joshua moves the people across the flooded Jordan and after purification, that is the path to the power they will need, our lesson today is discovered.
But let's back up one second and reflect on the promise once again because it gives us a glimpse of what is about to happen.
Text: Exodus 3:7-8 (ESV)
Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
Before the Israelites entered the promised land, Moses told them,
Deuteronomy 9:1 (NIV)
Hear, Israel: You are now about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities that have walls up to the sky. 'You are now about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities that have walls up to the sky'
And now we see Joshua and the people poised to possess and we come to . . .
Joshua 6:1-2 (ESV)
Now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel. None went out, and none came in. And the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valor.
The promise included the prophecy regarding this lesson before they even arrived. Jericho is the fulfillment of that prophecy. I don't have time to deal deeply with the way Jericho was destroyed. You most likely know the account. Many of you could even sing a song, complete with motions, about the battle . . . "Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, Jericho. Joshua fought the battle of Jericho and the walls came tumbling down." We are enthralled by the impossible battle strategy and the intervention of God. This grabs our attention and we literally miss the lesson that we should have grasped when we read the promise.
There are two major obstacles to experiencing the promise that we must address right from the beginning.
Promises are almost always accompanied by parasites.
You can call them parasites. You could also call them squatters. Unlawful residents that skim, steal and settle on land that doesn't lawfully belong to them. They siphon off and claim ownership to territory that has already been given to someone else. Squatters claim rights over the spaces they have settled on by virtue of occupation, rather than ownership. They have no legal authority to be there. No claim other than the fact that they have been there.
Israel's first task upon entering the land promised is to unseat and remove these parasites. They should have known it because the promise informed them there would be resistance. But here they are less than a few miles into the promise and they come face to face with squatters who occupy what is not theirs. They have history but no authority.
I have discovered that my promises almost always accompanied by parasites! I have found that there will always be people that try to attach themselves to my promises. They have no right there. They will try to reap the benefit of the promise that was intended for me. They will use up my blessings. They like to use the collective "we" in an attempt to be included in the benefits of what I fought for and sacrificed for. Surely you recognize the people who hang around your promise that steal your joy, your peace and your provision. Surely you recognize that there are certain people who are using up what was meant for you. Their history with you causes them to act like they should be granted access into what is not theirs! They have history but no authority. They fortify with the word forever. I have always been with you. I have always been a part. I am a forever friend. You can spot these squatters because they will try to make withdraws where they have made no deposits!
Who has settled on your land that occupy your time, your energy, your efforts and in the process keep you from marching into your promise? Who is on your land? Who has settled in your promise? Who is stealing what is meant for you? Who is claiming benefits meant for you? It doesn't matter if they are named Hittites, Amorites, Unclities, best friendites, boyfriendites, girlfriendites, kidites, or coworkerites. They are parasites and you must address them and run them off or you will never get to the promise. They will distract, delay and detour you from getting the fullness of the promise. They put up a huge front.
Promises cannot be fulfilled until we deal with partitions.
The Children of Israel don't just encounter people they also encounter partitions. They are faced with what seems like an insurmountable obstacle. A fortified wall. Let's talk about the wall the Israelites face for just a second. The mound, or 'tell,' of Jericho was surrounded by a great earthen rampart, or embankment, with a stone retaining wall at its base. The retaining wall was some 12-15 ft high. On top of that was a mudbrick wall 6 ft thick and about 20-26 ft high. At the crest of the embankment was a similar mudbrick wall whose base was roughly 46 ft above the ground level outside the retaining wall. We are told that chariots could ride on top of the wall.
My contention to you this morning is that every promise we have received from God will almost always be accompanied by the necessity of addressing a walled off area of our life. Too often we have allowed another king to set up unlawful residence and our ability to truly experience the fullness of the promise is contingent upon our willingness to tear walls down. We must expose every inch of our life to God. The walls that we allow to be built in our life are huge obstacles to getting our promise.
Let me see if I can explain what I mean. You each have written down the promises that God has made you. You should have now added to that list the steps you must take to participate. You are now poised to experience the fullness of the promise. Have you noticed that as you take steps towards that fullness walls show up?
You are about to walk into promised joy and old, hidden and maybe even forgotten anger rises up like a wall and it keeps you from promised joy? I thought I dealt with that. Where did that rage come from? It is a walled off area. Have you been so close to promised peace and out of nowhere anxiety floods in and you can't sleep, breathe, relax? Has exhaustion become a wall that keeps you from promised rest? Has promiscuity or perversion become a partition, an area that is off limits to God that keeps you from promised purity? Those are walled off areas of our life that must be addressed in order for us to experience the promise. You can't bypass the walled off places and expect to enjoy the promise. These areas have no legal right of ownership. Instead they simply occupy and try to convince us they are permanent and have legal right to stay!
I have literally watched hundreds of people and even experienced it myself . . . we get excited about the promise God has given us and then fail to ever fully live in that promise because we come against these massive walled off areas of our life that seem impenetrable and we begin to think it is just always going to be there. So, we refuse to address the walled off areas of their life and in the process, we miss the promise. We caught a glimpse of it. We tasted it for a second. But we fail to possess it.
The only thing standing between most of us and the fulfillment of deliverance is a wall. Even after we are willing to cut off who we need to cut off or drive out, too often we fail to deal with the walled city. The last holdout.
What is our last walled place? What has set up a fortified area in your life? You are free in every area but one. He has exercised deliverance in every area but one. That one place is fortified and until the wall comes down you can never truly be free. You can never fully experience the promise.
What is your wall? Habit? Mouth (negative or nasty)? Love? Relationship? Thought life? Dream? Plans? Defense mechanism?
You can have all of me but this. And that one thing is the thing that keeps you bound. It is usually the first thing you encounter when you finally make up your mind to enter the promise. It will raise its head every time you start toward your promise. You are closer to God than ever and that habit comes back. You are closer to being fulfilled than you have ever been and surprise out of nowhere a relationship comes along. You are almost at victory and that thought that you thought was forgotten comes rushing back.
The key to fulfillment of the promise is that you have to destroy Jericho. It stands in your way. You must allow the allow the deliverer to invade, walk, explore and liberate every inch of our being. Jesus made it a policy to tear down walls - anything that separated us from the completing work of God. He tore the veil. So, we wouldn't be separated from the Father. He tore that wall down. He destroyed the Middle wall or the partition in Ephesians 2:14 - walls of separation between men/women/Jews/gentiles so that we could experience each other. He is a wall dropper. If you will let Him!
Notice, if you will, the method used by Joshua as instructed by God to defeat Jericho. They circled. Wait a minute they just finished circling for 40 years. More circles? Aren't circles wasted effort? Aren't circles futile. There are two different kinds of circling. You either circle to put off or you can circle to put out. Too many of circle to put off entering the promise. That is delay. That is circling out of disobedience. A lot of us have been circling the same area for too long. However, you can circle out of obedience. You can circle to target. You can circle to say all of my attention, all of my efforts, all of my prayer is going to focus on this one thing until it is leveled, removed and put out of my life. It is time to circle whatever it is that has been walled off in our life and put it out.
So, our task today is to identify the people and the area of our life that needs to be circled! Identify it. Circle it for a Jesus invasion. When you win this fight, it starts the domino effect and you march into the fullness of everything God has promised. You can't march any deeper until you unseat the squatters and stop at the walled places and level them.
