PromiseLand
Pt. 4- Promise Praise
I. Introduction
40 years removed from being slaves. Turned into soldiers by the routine of ruts. Marching in the wilderness. Circling out of disobedience has put off the promise long enough. So, now Joshua has picked up the reins of leadership and has crossed the Jordan and Jericho has fallen. The first domino has toppled, and victories would continue for the next 7-10 years and 31 different kings have been dethroned until the people could rest in complete possession of the Promised Land.
We have identified our promises. You have written them down. You have pinpointed your participation. What you have to do to position yourself to receive. And now you have spent the last 7 days circling - targeting the last remaining strong hold, walled off area of your life in which a squatter - someone with history but no authority - has set up residence. The wall should have come down this week.
So, just like the Children of Israel it is time to now experience the fullness of the promise!
So, let's contrast a couple of things that we need to see so that we can possess the promises!
I want to first remind you of the occasion in Exodus 15 where the Israelites begin their journey into the wilderness and 3 days in, they have only found bitter water. So, in Exodus 15:24 it says the people grumbled to Moses. They cry out. In Exodus 16, a repeat performance but this time about food. They cry out for food and God sends manna and quail. And then again in Exodus 17, they are thirsty and cry out, grumble for water. Moses strikes the rock and water flows.
So, in each of these instances the Children of Israel are crying out to God for their basic needs. They cry out to God. Another way to say this is that they were making their petitions, or their needs known. That may be the most basic definition of prayer. I know they did it couched in complaining and grumbling. But let's be honest isn't that the tenor many of our prayers? The pain we are in at the moment bleeds into the tone of our petition. So, for just a second, let's cut them a little slack. If we are in dry, hot dessert day after day and no food or water on the horizon wouldn't our prayers start to sound similar to theirs. If we had been passed over at work for 2 years. If our hours are being cut. If we have been alone and everyone else around is finding true love. So, let's for the moment lay aside the tone and see instead this truth . . . before the promise is possessed, they prayed for what they needed.
Now, let’s fast forward to the end of the story. They have taken possession of the land. It is here that we find the contrast and learn the lesson.
Joshua is about to die. He knows it. He stands before the Nation of Israel and lists all of the things God has brought them through. He is leading up to reminding them of the covenants they have made to God and has them renew their dedication to God. In the statement he makes he says something that shows the difference between the wilderness and the Promised Land. He drives home that Canaan stood in stark contrast to the wilderness. Canaan was rich in agriculture. Notice what Joshua says!
Text: Joshua 24:13 (MSG)
“I handed you a land for which you did not work, towns you did not build. And here you are now living in them and eating from vineyards and olive groves you did not plant."
I have read this passage a number of times and failed to contrast it with how things worked in the wilderness so, I missed the lesson. Let me help us . . . We are moving into our Promiseland when
We learn to thank God for what we used to have to pray for.
Before they get to the Promised Land they had to pray and believe for food. When they get to Canaan, food is already there. In the wilderness they had to pray and believe for water. When they get to Canaan water was already there. They had to learn to change their prayers because the evidence of God's goodness was so apparent that they had to move to praise.
Do you see it. In the wilderness we have to cry out, pray, and petition. In Promiseland it is already provided. In the wilderness I had to pray to God for take care of all my bills. In Promiseland my bills aren't even a concern. In the wilderness I am crying out for healing. In Promiseland I am enjoying divine health. In the wilderness I petition God for peace. In Promiseland my mind is stayed on Christ, so peace is just normative. In the wilderness I was grumbling about my need for joy. In Promiseland I realize that if the Lord is in me so is joy and I simply walk in the strength of that Joy as a byproduct of Who is in me.
The lesson is this . . . some of us need to recognize that the season in our life has changed and therefore our approach should change. Our attitude should change. We are still approaching God like we are in the wilderness. We are praying, crying out, petitioning for things that should be our normal, everyday experience. It is possible to be in a season where you are praying for peace. However, it is also possible to walk into a season where you have so much peace you don't ask for it anymore. Instead, you just thank Him for it!
Isn't that the promise? Jesus said it like this, "I have come for you to have life and life more abundantly." In other words, I have come so you don't have to keep praying for stuff that you should have so much of because I am in your life that instead of spending your time asking you spend your time thanking! Not just life - life abundant. Abundant peace. Abundant joy. Abundant healing. Abundant provision. Abundant rest.
So, like the Children of Israel, if we identify our promise, participate in our promise, target the last strong hold, then it is time to shift our prayer life to praise life. We need to get woke to the fact that His goodness and mercy are following us. We need to wake up and realize that He deserves praise because we are living in our promise.
So, I came to inform you, let you in on a shocker, a secret . . . surprise . . . some of you are thinking you are in the wilderness, when the truth is you have become so used to acting like you are in the wilderness that you have failed to realize you are living in the promise! You are there! You just haven't recognized it. You were so overcome with worry in the wilderness that even though you are in the promise you never laid down the worry. You are so accustomed to griping in the wilderness that even though you have now walked into the promise, you have failed to change your prayers. You used to fret in the wilderness and even though you are in the promise you fail to simply trust and believe! You were so comfortable with complaining that even though your season has changed you perspective hasn't and subsequently you find things to complain about rather than finding things to praise about!
It is time to change our prayers of petition to prayers of praise. The indication of whether or not you’re in the wilderness or in Promiseland is whether you spend all of your time requesting rather than rejoicing. Praying rather than partaking.
We have got to learn this lesson because we need to also realize that thanksgiving not only effects and moves us it also moves God. That is why David said, "come and magnify the Lord with me." You can't make God any bigger than He already is. However, you can begin to thank Him, and our perspective of God enlarges and then God hears our opinion of Him and He swells up to or lives up to that opinion and expectation. Our thanksgiving moves us, it moves God and it moves those around us. That is why we are instructed to gather and sings songs, psalms and spiritual songs. It as I give thanks that those around me begin to look up and believe that if God did it for me, He can also do it for them. Our thanksgiving not only moves us, God, those around us it also moves our enemies. In the campaign into the Promised Land the Bible says the nations would hear about the God of Israel and were afraid. The result was those enemies would either try to make peace or they would experience defeat. As you learn to be thankful and magnify God it causes your enemies to either get in line or get out.
You know you are entering Promiseland when your worship becomes a weapon.
In literal terms what Joshua has just informed the Israelites is this . . . your God has caused your enemies to provide for you!
Anyone ready to live there? My enemies want to curse me, but instead they end up blessing me. My enemies want to steal from me, but instead they end up bankrolling me. The wealth of the wicked is laid up for the righteous. What the enemy meant for harm; God can bring good out of it!
How do we live there? We worship our way in as our enemies make their way out!
So, the final step into Promiseland is to begin to thank God for what He has already done. Do you have needs? Do you have desires? Do you have wants? Sure. But wake up. Look around you. Shift your prayers to praise. Watch what happens. You will walk deeper into Promiseland than you have ever ventured in your life!
Let's practice that today. I know you came in here today with worries, wants, concerns and cares. However, for the next few moments why don't we take some time and act like people who have something to be thankful for. Why don't we scare our enemies into packing their bags. Let's let our perspective catch up to our promise.
