Why Join in the Suffering of Others?

By Pastor Doug Riggs

5-25-97

God's Purpose for Working with SRA Survivors of Trauma

We do come to you acknowledging that we have a desire to meet with You and to enter into Your heart and that this would not just be teaching, but it would go beyond that which would put information in our mind, and to create through this time Father, a divine encounter and effect of what You are doing in our generation, so we might be alive to Your heart and to Your desire and to Your movement and to bring about consummation. We pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Introduction

I was trying to find some of my notes that I had when I presented to some pastors and therapists and counselors in Minneapolis. And I was not able to find that, but I remember pretty well the scriptures. So, I tried to put together as many as I could remember around what I presented in Minneapolis. And what the Lord put on my heart for that time was why shouldn't any church or why shouldn't any therapist or counselor get involved with people who have had such a horrendous background? It would be so easy just to shuffle them out of the church and not get involved with other people's problems, and just kind of have a nice time when we come to church and, just kind of gather around, and act as if everything's okay when so many people that are in church are hurting; and, of course, they will adapt and put on a smiling face often, and seek to adjust to whatever's expected of them or whatever is the assumed spirituality. We kind of just settle down in our churches and church becomes a thing we do on Sunday and maybe on Wednesday, and then we go about life and living it as something separate or other than what God really intended.

So, I wanted to present from the scriptures using the Old Testament as a background of New Testament, doctrine. We know that when God came to deliver and rescue Israel from their slavery and bondage to Egypt, that was a corporate redemption. That was not so much individual; that was a whole nation that experienced the deliverance and the power of God. Although I have mentioned this in the past, we are going to see a comparable Exodus as the church comes to full stature in Christ. We're going to see the Lord come in and provide a global worldwide redemption for the church, the body of Christ. And we have these clues in the Book of Revelation and in Revelation chapter one, verse four, God introduces himself as the one who is, and who was, and is to come. And that is a Greek paraphrase for the Hebrew tetragrammaton, I AM YAHWEH, I am that I am, Exodus 3:14. And so when the Lord Jesus introduces Himself as the one who is, and was, and is to come, that is a clue that something big is about to happen.

Inheritance

The God who appeared to Moses in the burning bush is about to do something in the church. And of course, there's been a 2000-year hiatus from the full intention of our Lord Jesus being realized there in Revelation 2 and 3, but nevertheless, the God of the Exodus is going to do a comparable and analogous redemption at the end of the church age.

Well, before that can happen, the church has to come into inheritance. The church has to come into possession of those unsearchable riches that are ours in Christ. And at salvation, we have been redeemed; we have been justified; we've been pronounced and declared righteous, but that does not mean that now that we are saved, that we've come into full possession of the inheritance that God has set before us.

And since we, and the dispensation of the church do not have a physical piece of real estate to take possession of - the possession of Canaan and the wealth of Canaan and the warfare around possessing the wealth and prosperity of Canaan, is now a Person. Canaan for us is a Person. Christ is to be possessed. We receive Him at salvation, but He is one to be possessed in the sense that Paul stated in Philippians chapter 3, I've suffered the loss of all things that I might gain Christ.

Now, how do Christians gain Christ when they already have him? It just simply means that the stature and the development and formation of Christ in the life of the believer comes through warfare, it comes through conflict, it comes through all the various aspects that we understand is experiential sanctification.

And so, there are all those individual aspects of our spiritual life, but then there's the corporate aspect that God has been monitoring since Pentecost. He knows what it's going take for all the church to come to a final spiritual position whereby the fullness of God that's in Christ can be displayed in the church because we see in Ephesians chapter 1, verse 23, "the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him", the church is designed in the purpose of God to be the fullness of Him, the very compliment of Christ, or the bride of Christ. God is preparing His bride because Jesus is not going to have a bride with spot and wrinkle, but it's going to be a bride without spot or wrinkle. We're in the business of trying to get aligned with God and His purpose and His power to find out these spots and wrinkles and to see them removed in preparation for the Lord's coming.

In the Old Testament, God's ways with Israel and the redeeming of that nation has many lessons for us in the church. And we know that when God appeared to Abraham in Genesis 15, when He made that covenant with him in Genesis 15, verse 12, He made a promise. And prior to God making this covenant, He did something very unusual. He could have just said, "Okay, Abraham, your posterity, your seed is going to develop into a great nation and someday I'm going to come and I'm going to deliver your posterity, Abraham. You're going to be the father of many nations, but specifically you're a father of that unique nation, Israel, that will be the nation that I would display my glory, my ways, and my truth to the rest of the nations. But He didn't do that. Before He made this covenant in Genesis 15, verse 12, He says, "Now when the sun was going down," and we know that when the sun goes down, it gets dark. And so, as we come to the end of this dispensation, and the dawning of the millennial day is upon the horizon, it's going to get very dark before it gets bright. And so, as the sun was going down, "a deep sleep fell upon Abram and behold," and here is the somewhat strange event, "a terror of great darkness fell upon him."

Now, what is this all about? Why did this happen to Abraham? Because the vision that God is about to give him, God is interested more than just giving us truth. He wants us to be identified with what He is doing, and with what he's about to do. This "terror of great darkness came upon Abram" simply because He was already identified with the future suffering of the people of God. This is the principle of identification. God caused Abram to be identified with what Israel would go through for 400 years; he got to taste that. And so, God transferred to Abram something of the experience that His seed, His progeny would go through in bondage and slavery. And this is what He says, God said to Abraham as this terror of great darkness fell upon him, He said to Abram - as He's speaking, he is now in this environment of terror and great darkness. "Know for certain..." and the words have power behind them because of this terror and great darkness, "Know for certain that your seed, your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed 400 years."

The Church Today

The church is right here; this is where the church is right now. We, the church is enslaved in the west; it is enslaved and oppressed. That's exactly where the body of Christ is. It doesn't matter if you walk into church, and you see everyone waving their hands and smiling and acting as if everything's all right. It is not all right. And we're not limiting that the value of their worship or are saying that that's wrong, or it's not real. We're just saying that there's a lot that the church is not in touch with. They're not experiencing the terror and great darkness unless you get in the kind of work that obviously the Lord has brought our assembly and others with the kind of history that you people know. And that's the truth; that's the real world. This is not the weird and bizarre; this is the real world. The weird and bizarre is where the kinds of things that we have experienced as a church is not known. Well, that's still covered up where that is hidden. Of course, it's not popular because you do not build churches on terror and great darkness in terms of that kind of an environment.

We have been through that as a church, we have been through terror and great darkness. We're not there now, thank God, but that's what we've been through. He says, "No, for certainty your descendants will be strangers in the land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed 400 years." That's a long time for God to be silent.

You have abandonment issues for many generations. They could be asking, "Well, where is God?" And they were pretty desperate by the time God showed up in Exodus 2 and 3. God says, "I have come down." When God spoke to Moses from the burning bush, and it was a thorn bush, it means God is willing to be identified with this accursed race, cursed in Adam, and manifest His glory. And He says, "I have come down to deliver my people. I've heard their cry. I know their sufferings. Now, Moses, you go." God told Moses, “You shall be as God to Pharoah". In such and some of the ways of God, God could do it. He could manifest Himself in some theophany and zap the entire nation. He did not do it that way. "And I will also judge the nation whom they serve."

Now, the church - it is very interesting when we began to move into the direction of taking possession of our real inheritance, it's then that we find the enemy in our midst. If we just remain status quo, we don't even understand what our inheritance is in Christ and we're not making any movement towards that inheritance, the enemy is silent. You won't stir him up. You'll stir him up through evangelism. You'll stir him up here and there, but you start talking about the corporate goal of the church of coming into full possession of their inheritance and begin to work in a practical way for God's people to move into that fullness, then all Hell breaks loose. Then we find out what spiritual ground we're really on.

To me, I've already made the decision. It's unto death; it's possession of the inheritance or death. I'm not interested in something in-between; a compromise - we'll settle over here on the other side of Jordan; we'll take up our possessions of Ephraim instead of crossing over Jordan, being identified in a practical way with Jesus Christ and His death, burial, resurrection, and going into the heart of His inheritance.

And so, God throughout history has always used a remnant. He has always had a people who would respond to Him and it's always been a remnant. It has never been a whole, although He has spoken to the whole of His people, only a tithe, a tenth have responded; that's history. You can see that by studying the Old Testament.

"I will judge the nation." We know from Exodus chapter 12, verse 12, that He not only judged Pharoah, but He judged their gods. And that when Jehovah Yahweh was confronting Pharaoh, He was confronting Egypt and their gods. This was a huge contest. And as we approach the end of the age and the consummation of the church, the contest will be no less for the corporate redemption of the church than it was for the corporate redemption of Israel. It'll be far greater because the church has a higher destiny and calling than Israel; and the issues are far greater. They have to do with the eternal dominion of Messiah through His church, His bride, in all the ages to come. It's not so much what God gets, even in this dispensation, or even in the millennium; it's the eternal state.

We are in for the fight of our life, and that's just the way it is. God has set it up that way because that's the only way we can appropriate these unsearchable riches that are ours in Christ - it's through conflict. If we didn't have conflict, we would settle down somewhere on the other side of Jordan and not even go in and take possession of that inheritance. We just would not. That's just the way we're designed. We seek comfort - and that's kind of a normal thing. We all like that, and we don't like to be disturbed.

"I will judge the nation whom they will serve and afterward they will come out with many possessions. And as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace," that is you will go into Paradise, "and you should be buried in a good old age. Then in the fourth generation, they shall return here," that is your seed, your progeny, here referring to Canaan, "for the iniquity of the Amorites," that is a general term for the Canaanites, "is not yet..." and the Hebrew says "full", - full.

Number 33, verse 40. Now the children of Israel, they've been redeemed from Egypt. They've gone to Mount Sinai; they've been there about a year. They've heard all the various instructions that would shape that nation's relationship with God. And as the theocratic nation, God is their king and that nation responding to God and coming into those blessings, they were in position spiritually to go in and take possession of the land of Canaan. And as they're coming up the east side of the Jordan and coming into position to cross over into Canaan, it says in Numbers 33 verse 40, "Now the Canaanite heard of the coming of the sons of Israel."

Before Israel got to Canaan, the spiritual forces of darkness connected with that nation. Israel was not so much engaged with that. In the wilderness they're dealing with the sins of the flesh - basically they're trying to learn how to trust God and knowing that He would provide and that He was faithful. But they start getting close to Canaan and things start to stir up. There's Og and these guys that are on the east side, Moab and Edom, and they begin to have some battles as they approach the inheritance.

And then as they're coming to position on the east side of Jordan, they're facing Jericho, which is that huge, fortified city, the entry point into Canaan; the Canaanites are all stirred up. And Numbers 33 goes through all the various journeys that the children of Israel had for those 38 years, because we know the first generation didn't go in. And then as they come up to Shittim, that place across from Jericho; the first generation had died out. Now a new generation is ready to go in. Why is that that way? Well, because the first generation of the church - they did not go in and possess their inheritance; they did not. And so, the church has been wandering for 2000 years in a wilderness corporately. This is not every individual because there have been individuals that have gone in, and we read about these wonderful saints - but the corporate aspect of the church has never gone in.

Deuteronomy represents that new generation that was going to go in and seize the opportunity to take possession of the inheritance. It's interesting, Moses who was given the law had to die first. So, no one goes in and takes possession of the land under the law of Moses. Moses is not the one who leads us in; it's Yeshua that leads us in. And Joshua is the Hebrew term for Jesus. It won't be Moses; it'll be Jesus.

Spiritual Battle for the Inheritance

These things that are here in the word of God are for our instruction. They have a literal interpretation for Israel, but there are spiritual principles and applications that God wants us to understand for the church at the end of the age. And the church is now coming into a position - posturing to take possession of that which God requires for the rapture to occur. The rapture is not something that's just event on a calendar somewhere. There is a divine criterion that is set forth in the word of God, and all the prayers of the Apostle Paul in Ephesians, Philippians Colossians, 1st Thessalonians, 2nd Thessalonians, those prayers that he prays for the church, as they are realized and the prayer of our Lord Jesus in John 17, as those prayers are realized, a remnant of that church will go in and take possession.

This generation has been selected for the opportunity to go in to seize that opportunity and to take possession of God's inheritance, but there are many enemies. That inheritance - those unsearchable riches in Christ - there are fortified positions blocking our access, and these fortified positions are not in a piece of real estate. They're now inside the souls of God's people. The enemy has put these things inside.

So it says in verse 50 of Numbers 33; and this is now the new generation, the old generation died out, and this is part of the posturing and the preparation to go in and take possession of the land, "The Lord spoke to Moses saying in the Plains of Moab by the Jordan opposite Jericho," this huge fortress, "Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, 'When you cross over the Jordan into the land of Canaan...'" Crossing through the Red Sea, that's like our identification with Christ in His death, burial, resurrection, ascension in terms of our position; we come out of Egypt, out of the world and out of this dominion of Satan into our union with Christ; we're redeemed. But Jordan is the practical or the experiential side of that death-union with Christ. And so, as they crossed over Jordan in the land of Canaan, "Then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy their figured stones and destroy their molten images and demolish their high places. And you shall take possession of the land and live in it for, I have given the land to you to possess it." I've given it, but you have to possess it - and to possess, that means you have to disinherit the enemy. And the Hebrew language here is very clear. If you're going to take possession of your inheritance, then you have to disinherit the enemy.

Disinheriting the Enemy in SRA/DID Work

And that's why we're in this work. That's why we're doing it. That's why every Christian counselor that is working with someone that is abused, especially where there's demonization and fragmentation inside, you are helping empower that person to go in and dispossess that which the enemy has occupied - and dispossess it for what purpose? So the Lord can be there. These figured stones and these images are not on the outside so much as they have been put inside.

"You shall inherit the land by lot according to families." Verse 55, "If you do not drive out the inhabits of the land from before you, then it shall come about that those who you let remain of them will become as pricks in your eyes and as thorns in your sides. And they shall trouble you." Many churches are being troubled now because they're not dealing with it; sweep it under the carpet; don't talk about these kinds of things from the pulpit; let's have our songs, three points and a prayer, and Amen, and send everybody home. Let's follow our three-point homiletical outlines.

Trash your homiletics! There's nowhere in the Bible like Paul to follow a homiletic outline. You only get that in seminary; that's where preachers get buried - seminary. It's worthless. You open up the word of God and teach them the word of God. That's what you're called to do, pastors. The only pastors that have a heart for God, they like to hear this. If they're stuck in their homiletical outline, the hair on their neck goes up - and that's good. Somebody needs to stir them up.

But if you do not drive them out, this is what'll happen - but we don't drive the people out; we have to find out those irritants, the pricks and the thorns that are there. It's not only afflicting them, but it's afflicting everybody. If you go in there and start fishing around and everybody gets troubled and then we don't press in - back off.

"They will trouble you in the land in which you live, and it will come about as I plan to do them, I will do to you." That's your favorite devotional verse for the day... that's probably what you memorized for the day, wasn't it? 'I got a verse from the Lord today.' "And as I plan to do to them, so I shall do to you." (Numbers 33:56)

Now, what is the Lord saying? Well, you come to Deuteronomy, and it's called the second giving of the law, but it's really reiterated and expanded. So, the new generation is being prepared by God through Moses to go in and take possession of that land. And so, all I can do is just cover a few things here. Deuteronomy two seven, "The Lord, your God has blessed you and all that you have done, He has known your wandering through this great wilderness.”

And not only has there been this great wilderness from Pentecost until now in terms of the church's journey; if you study church history, it has been a wilderness. For 1100 years, the whore dominated the church, the Roman Catholic church. There have been more Christians die from the Roman Catholic church than any other religious institution in all of the church age. And then we have people saying, "Well, they're not so bad." It is a harlot - but it doesn't mean that everyone inside knows this; there are believers inside this harlot system, but it's nothing but Nimrod and Semiramis, that's all it is. And anybody that doesn't know that, you are ignorant of history and the facts.

So, "I've known your wandering." God not only knows this when He says this to those who are coming out of tremendous affliction and suffering, but the whole church. He says, "These 40 years the Lord your God has been with you; you have not lacked a thing."

As they're positioned and they're ready to go in; Deuteronomy 2 verse 24, what is the mandate for this new generation? What is the mandate for the body of Christ in this century? Verse 24: "Arise," get moving, "begin to take possession and contend with him in battle."

The Challenge Before the Church

And so, God waits. 'Okay, church. Are you going to take up the challenge? The opportunity is set before you. The age can be consummated; it's in my heart to do so, but I need a John the Baptist remnant people that will respond.' And so, if you're a therapist, you're a counselor, you're a pastor, or you're a member of the body of Christ, God tells you to arise and begin to take possession and contend with those enemies that are placed in God's people to dispossess Christ - they can't get rid of them. They're born again, but they need to dispossess them. Paul says in Galatians 4:19, "I'm in travail again until Christ be fully formed in you."

The enemy has got to be as much formed in God's people as he can, and he knows what he's doing. We don't know yet. Generally speaking, the church is ignorant. But our enemy is very shrewd, and God has allowed this, so that with those vast resources in Christ we can begin to appropriate those riches and those resources so that we can go in and dispossess an enemy that's far greater and more intelligent than we are.

On our own, we can't do it. So, that postures us to begin to lay hold of that which is supernatural, that which is bigger than us, which is the Lord Jesus Himself. So, this is a tremendous opportunity. We are to arise, get moving, begin to take possession and contend with our enemy in battle; that's Satan himself, because the opportunity that God has set before the church in the first century has never been seized. The apostles went to be with the Lord, and they were living in the expectation of the Lord coming in their generation. But that generation did not seize the opportunity; they went out into wilderness. And now there's a new generation right on the brink. They have to be willing to allow the Lord to bring them into identification on a practical basis with Jesus Christ and His death, burial, resurrection, and go in and take possession.

Deuteronomy 4 verse 37, "Because God loved your forefathers, therefore He chose their seed." Remember, we saw that prophecy in that passage in Genesis 15? "Because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their seed after them. And He personally brought you from Egypt by his great power." There's the corporate redemption of Israel. Notice: "driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you to bring you in and to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is today. Know therefore today and take it to your heart, that the Lord, He is God in heaven above and on earth below; and there is no other."

They had spiritual warfare with Og and these other guys on the west bank. They didn't defeat them militarily. Balak of Moab hires Balaam who is a pagan prophet to use occult power. And when that didn't work, then Balaam advised Balak to put a stumbling block before Israel. That's 2nd Peter 2 and the whole book of Jude, the dispensation of the church. And it's like the whole blueprint of what God is doing in this generation is doing the work that's here. And this blueprint was not made known in any other generation. It's before us now; He is revealing what he's doing in this generation - uniquely so.

And Deuteronomy 6 - it's just understanding a little bit about what God is saying to these people as He's preparing them to go in. This is the book of Deuteronomy. Once they camped on the east side of the Jordan facing Jericho, this whole message is given to them. In fact, it was all given in one sermon, the whole Book of Deuteronomy; probably a pretty long sermon, probably about three or four hours. There are also some parts in Numbers that were given.

It was through Josiah who began to read these things in what was the 60th year - 70th year when there was a revival that began to take place in Josiah's house. He began to read the word of God. And then He began to take action and lead Israel back into spiritual freedom and blessing that they had forfeited through breaking the covenant and going into idolatry.

Deuteronomy 6:18: "And you should do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord." This is all prospective of gaining possession of the inheritance, "that it may be well with you." Is it well with people today? No, it's not well. So many of us, because we, instead of doing what is good and right in the sight of the Lord, we've been doing what good and right in our own sight. We're doing our own thing. And so that's what all the rock singers promote, whether it be rebellion or rejection of authority. In other words, everyone who listens to these kind of things says, 'I want to listen to those kinds of influences that are out to destroy me.'

"Do what is good and right in this sight of the Lord that it may be well with you that you may go in and possess the good land which the Lord swore to give you forefathers." How do you possess the good land? How do you do it? Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 19, "By driving out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has spoken.”

Verse 22, "Moreover, the Lord has showed great and distressing signs and wonders before your eyes against Egypt, Pharoah, and all his household. And He brought you out from there." Why? Deuteronomy six, verse 23, 'He brought you out in order to bring us in.' In other words, we have been saved; we have been redeemed in order that God would bring us in, to - what? As Paul says in Ephesians 3, "the unsearchable riches of Christ;" to "gain Christ", as Paul says in Philippians 3. We've been redeemed - but now that we have received Christ, we might gain Him - individually and corporately. "He brought us out that He might bring us in to give us the land, which He has sworn to their forefathers,"

Chapter 7, verse 1, "When the Lord your God shall bring you into the land where you are entering to possess it, you shall clear away many nations before you." And He names these nations, He says, "seven nations greater and stronger than you. And when the Lord, your God shall deliver them before you, you shall defeat them.' No if's, and's or buts about it. When the Lord says you shall defeat them, that means you shall defeat them. "Then you shall utterly destroy them. Now for us, we're not destroying people, but we are to destroy, to dispossess, these demonic entities that arrogantly have been put into the lives of God's people as a thwarting action of God consummating His purpose in this dispensation. And our enemies know exactly what they're doing. They don't want us to know what they're doing, but once we catch on, things begin to change. He says, "You shall defeat them, and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them and show no favors to them. Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them." In all cult activity there's intermarrying with various people who represent positions in the cult. Marriage is a very important phenomenon in cult activity.

"You shall not intermarry with them. You shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons. For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord will kindled against you and He will quickly destroy you." And everybody stands up who proclaims grace and says, 'Well, thank God we live in the dispensation of grace and we're not under law and God won't do that to us.'

Oh, really? You better go back and read first Corinthians chapter 10, the first 11 verses, and you better take a second look, because God was speaking through Paul when He said, ‘Corinthians, do you remember what God did in the wilderness? He's going to do that to you if you don't flee from idolatry.’ He was warning the Corinthians and He was using these passages.

And so, the church is basically biblically illiterate; and thank God there are some exceptions to this. We're always grateful when we meet people who are in fellowships where they're growing and have an understanding of God's word. That's always so refreshing; but then it's so disheartening. I went to a Bible study Friday night in Minneapolis, and these people left their church - they were in there 30-some years and all they heard was the gospel every Sunday morning. That's abominable. God never meant for church to be a place where people get saved. You don't find that in the early church, people going to churches to get saved. They were saved in the marketplace; they were saved out where they were, and when they got saved, they came to church to get built up, to be edified, to be equipped, to grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to understand the heart and mind of God. And we've totally apostatized; pastors are no longer working; all they got to do is give the gospel every Sunday. They think they're fulfilling the plan of God, and they are a total failure. That is not why they're in the pulpit. If they're doing their job, the people would be out evangelizing, and people would be getting saved outside the church, and they would be coming back in. It's very grievous to the Lord - and it doesn't mean the Lord doesn't want you to give the gospel on Sunday, but that's not why you're there. You might spend three to five minutes - that's all you need.

And it's that serious. Our nation is in serious and dire trouble. The Senate did not pass, by the way, that law that would prohibit those late term abortions; they did not pass it. God took note of that. That means they'll still be killing babies in their late term, crushing their skull and sucking out their brains - you might as well hear it, because that's what they're doing. God sees it.

And so, it's not going to continue folks. We're living on the grace and mercy of God in this nation. Now. It's just amazing that He is still continuing on with us as a nation. And God not only deals with us as individuals, He not only deals with churches, like He did with Corinth and Revelation 2 and 3, but He deals with full nations and when He deals with nations, it always affects the people of God that are within the context of those nations. And the word is full of these examples. So, we need to be alert to what God is saying and what He's doing. To me it's not all the negative things that are going on, but the opportunity that God is setting before his people. That's what we need to understand, the opportunity to move into that, and the power of God and seize the opportunity so that God's desire and his heart can be realized in this generation. We have that opportunity to move with God.

So, He says you're not to intermarry with these pagans; you shall not give your daughters, etc. "They shall turn your sons away from following Me and serve their gods, and the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and He will quickly destroy you. But thus," verse five, "you shall do to them; you shall tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and hew down their Asherim," these are images of idolatry, "and burn their graven images with fire." Now watch this, verse 6, "For you are a holy people to the Lord your God," you're set apart to Me; "the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession." See, as you go in and take possession of your inheritance, God gets His inheritance in you.

And Paul says, ‘I pray that you would know, that God would make known to you the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.’ God has an inheritance in the saints. What is that? Christ fully formed in you, individually and corporately. And why is that important? Because in God's heart and goal for the body of Christ is so that to be filled into all the fullness of God can be realized; and God has never changed His mind. His heart has not moved. He has spoken. The question is, have we really listened? And have we ever really entered in to His heart to see His heart's desire realized?

"The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own special treasure," To be His treasure is to be possessed and acquired, "out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth."

Taking a Land full of Giants: Power of the Lord

Deuteronomy 9, "Hear, O Israel! You are crossing over the Jordan today to go in and dispossess nations greater and mightier than you, great cities," - listen to this - "fortified to heaven." Well, anybody ever heard of a 'construct'? These are fortified positions, folks, and there are real entities here. The very spirits, these strongholds that were in Canaan are the same demonic spirits that made up these people that were in these physical fortresses of Canaan, these same spirits are in our land today. But the fortresses are now inside; they are inside God's people. They've been put there by the heads of the new world order; they have hired specialists and sources like (Josef) Mengele to assault the people of God and put these structures inside them. And they know what they're doing. They're not just in a total trans-state and don't have any idea what they're doing. They have sold themselves out to Mengele; and they are completely dedicated to their cause.

"You should go in to dispossess nation's greater and mightier than you, in great cities fortified to heaven, a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know of whom you have heard, 'Who can stand before the sons of Anak?'"

So, the church begins to see the immensity of what it means for some people to programmed, to have thousands of alters in vast regions inside one person. They say, 'Oh my gosh, this is too much for me.'

"Know therefore today that it is the Lord your God who is crossing over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and He will subdue them before you, so that you may drive them out and destroy them quickly, just as the Lord has spoken to you. Do not say in your heart when the Lord your God has driven them out before you, 'Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess land,' but it's because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you."

Are you're not holy enough? That's right. So, 'Step aside, anyway, in the name of Jesus Christ. We're going in!' You got that right. 'Jesus Christ is my righteousness.' So, we got that settled. 'You want to name my sins? Go to the cross and name them.' That'll shut them up.

"It is not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart," verse 5, "that you are going to possess their land, but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord God is driving them out before you, in order to confirm the oath which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." And the reason why we can go and do this is because God the Father is loyal to the Lord Jesus. And He's doing this on the basis of His grace. "Know, then, it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this inheritance, the good land to possess, for you are a stubborn people."

Of course, we look at that and say, 'That's not me. I'm not stubborn. I'm a totally compliant person to the Lord all the time.' Yeah, you might be, but you get into the warfare and it's interesting how these little things begin to surface. I mean, when you get into the real battle that the Lord has, then we say, "Oh, I didn't know my heart was even that way." God did. It didn't change anything. And we go on and hopefully these things can be brought to the surface and a lot of it needs to be healed, obviously. And there's a tremendous amount of healing that needs to come in the body of Christ and it's very exciting to see what God has been doing in Ed's life as a trained therapist all these years; he saw that it's taken very, very long and he began to pray and God began to show him the Lord's way of doing this. Now he doesn't even see himself as a therapist, nor as a facilitator; and he's letting God do what He said He would do and what He promised to do in the word.

And, so, that's very nice for me too. I like to hear these things. I get excited when I hear about these things. I'm never jealous. I'm always excited when I hear when God is doing something somewhere. (Deut. 11:10-12) It's a place where the demonic is. It is a place where there are fortresses. It's a place where you are overwhelmed; the odds are completely against you, but isn't this amazing? It's also a place that drinks water from the rain of heaven (Deut. 11:11). So, the very thing that the church wants to run away from is the very place of blessing. Amazing. And the church lives in poverty in the west because it doesn't know where to look.

Ed was sharing with me the other day that he had this tremendous pain and this burden that he was carrying around. And then in a session one day, this alter came out who could see spiritually, and told Ed that he was carrying this excess baggage, and the Lord brought healing into his life. But He chose this person that often people would want to reject because they're 'the lepers', you see. And so, God gave him a special blessing through the eyes of this alter he is working with - got to drink a little water from heaven.

It is "a land for which the Lord your God cares." Yeah, the Canaanites are there. Yeah, there are demon possessed people over there. Yeah, there's all these things that seem to be overwhelming and you're outnumbered by your enemies, but it's a land where "the Lord your God cares; the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning even to the end of the year."

And for us, who are the eyes of the Father on? "This is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased." "Looking off and away into Jesus." He's the land; He's the good land for us. It's not a piece of real estate; it's the Person.

In verse 18 of the same chapter, "You shall therefore impress these words of Mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand," so whatever you put your hand forth to do, you can be reminded of My promises and who I am; "and they shall be as frontals on your forehead." So, they'll govern your thinking. And "you shall teach them to your sons..." do we? "... talking of them as you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down, when you rise up." Uh, that sounds like a religious fanatic to me. But that's only what the pagans say. God says it's normal. And "you shall write them on your doorposts and on your house and on your gates." So, wherever you look around, you go into the house, you see all these scriptures; scriptures everywhere; scriptures everywhere.

"So that your days and the days of your sons may be multiplied on the land, which the Lord your God swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens remain above the earth. For you are to be careful to keep all the commandments which I am commanding you today to do it." And how did he do it? By loving God. If we love God, then we will do them. And by loving God, He gives to us that power and that grace and that life whereby we can obey Him, and "to walk in his ways and to hold fast to Him." That is a bond that is based on love: davak. "Then the Lord will drive out..." - notice, if we love Him, "the Lord will drive out all the nations from before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you." It doesn't matter who it is. If it's generational princes that have never experienced exorcism before, who cares! it doesn't matter. "Every place on which the soul of your foot shall tread shall be yours." And not every person does as much walking and treading as another. Some people do more treading than others. And that's a fact. Paul was a person who put his foot on lots of territory; he put his foot on a lot of territory. He gained Christ in an immense way in the short life he lived. So "every place in which the soul of your foot shall tread," - there's your inheritance - that will be what you possess. Even though I've given the whole land to you, it's only where you put your feet is yours.

And verse 25 and "there shall no man be able to stand before you; the Lord your God shall lay the dread of you" - not just the dread of God, - "the dread of you."

It's good to know counselor, therapist, believer, "the dread of you". I love it. That makes me feel real good. That gives me esprit de corps - I don't know about you. "God shall lay the dread of you and the fear of you on all the land on which you set foot as He has spoken to you." Isn't that great?

Chapter 12, verse 8, "You shall not do what you are doing today. Every man doing what is right in his own eyes; for you have not as yet come into the resting place." For us, the Lord Jesus is our resting place, "and you have not yet come into the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you. When you cross the Jordan and live in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies around you so that you live in security, then it shall come about that the place which the Lord your God shall choose for His name to dwell," - that would be the very place where His tabernacle, His presence would be set up, so the whole world can know what God is like, - "His name to dwell." The whole of God's character and name can be seen in the person of Jesus.

Chapter 18, just a couple verses. The priests were to go in to God and represent the people to God; and then as they would hear from God, they would come from God and represent God to the people. Now notice: everyone but the Levites when they went into the land of Canaan would get a physical piece of real estate. But notice the Levites. "The Levitical priests, the whole tribe of Levi shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the Lord's offerings by fire as his portion." "They shall eat the Lord's portion and they shall have no inheritance among their countrymen. The Lord is their inheritance," - a Person! And the whole body of Christ is a royal priesthood.

The Lord is to be possessed, people. And what does that mean in the language of scripture? You have to dispossess the enemy - princes that are blocking us from taking full possession of the Lord himself. Those various attributes that the Lord Jesus Christ has perfected in His humanity, everything that we are to possess of God. He's the key; He's the Royal Heir; He has already ascended; He is already seated the right hand of God the Father, "far above all rule, authority, principle and power", and in the last verse of 1st Peter chapter 3, it says this: Jesus took his seat at the right hand of the majesty on high, after every ruler, authority, principality and power were made subject to him.

It Is Time to Wake up and Take the Land

We're asleep, folks. We don't either really believe this, or we don't even know it.

"The Lord is their inheritance as He promised them." And that is a type, the whole dispensation of the church. We're not Levites; we're a royal priesthood.

Chapter 20, "When you go out to battle against your enemies and see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, is with you." Yahweh Shama, the Lord is there; He is present.

"Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age," Jesus says.

"Now it shall come about that when you are approaching in battle," - B A T T L E - warfare, "the priest shall come near and speak to the people." He's going to come out and represent God to you, and the priest who's speaking on behalf of God and communicating God's mind, "He shall say to them, 'Hear, O Israel. you are approaching the battle against your enemies today. Do not be fainthearted." In other words, do not lack resolve; do not be afraid, or panic or tremble before your enemies. "For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to deliver you."

Chapter 23 verse 14, "Since the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp," - for us, we could say by way of an application here, each local church is like a camp, in a sense, where the Lord designs to be a representation of His body; when "the Lord walks in the midst of your camp to deliver you and to defeat your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy," - must be set apart to the Lord; must serve His purpose, to represent His heart and desire, "and He must not see anything indecent among you, lest He turn away from you." It's not a salvation issue; it is a victory issue; it is an inheritance issue. It has nothing to do with our eternal standing with God. It's all about the inheritance; all this whole Book of Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 26 verse 16, "This day," - and we live in the time of the church when God is saying, "Okay, arise, and you can begin to contend with him in battle - "This day," Deuteronomy 26: 16, "the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul. You have today declared the Lord to be your God, and that you would walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments, His ordinances, and to listen to His voice. And the Lord has today declared you to be His people, a treasured possession. He has promised you that you should keep all His commandments," - why? notice - "and that He shall set you high." Are we? - Positionally - but what about experience? God says, 'I'll make your enemies the tail, but if you disobey me, you'll be the tail, Israel; and your enemies will be the head, and you'll be the tail.'

God "will set you high above all the nations, which He has made," and you shall be, Israel, as my people, you shall be for praise; you shall be famous; "and that you shall be a consecrated people to the Lord your God as He has spoken." That's what He wants to do. The real God wants us to be in the presence of our enemies, for a praise, and fame, and honor, and that's what we call testimony. Wow! Those people certainly got something I don't have. Where did you get that? Well, it says right here, verse 17, 'the Lord is our God,' - that's why; 'the Lord is our God.' And this is what He's done.

Chapter 31, " So Moses spoke these words to all Israel," the new generation getting ready to go in and possess the land, "And he said to them, 'I am a hundred and twenty years old; I am no longer able to come and go, and the Lord has said to me, 'You still not cross this Jordan.'" We know why - "It is the Lord your God who will cross ahead of you." Isn't that interesting? The Lord will cross ahead of you; He's the captain of the Lord of hosts, you see. "He will destroy these nations from before you and you shall dispossess them. Joshua is the one who will cross ahead of you, just as the Lord has spoken." And our Joshua, the Lord Jesus, has already crossed over. He's already there, waiting. "The Lord will do to them just as He did to Sihon and Og, the king of the Amorites to their land when He destroyed them," - as you were coming up the east side of the Jordan, and "The Lord will deliver them up before you, and you shall do to them according to all the commandments which I have commanded you. Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you." "He will not fail you or forsake you. Then Moses called to Joshua and he said to him in the sight of Israel, 'Be strong and courageous (Joshua) for you shall go with this people into the land which the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and (you Joshua,) you shall give it to them."

So now the Lord Jesus is the one who gives us that very blessing and inheritance that is ours in Him. "And you (Joshua) shall give it to them as an inheritance. The Lord is the one who goes ahead of you." The Lord is the one; He is "the one who goes ahead of you. He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear," - or suffer a panic attack, because that's what it means, to be shattered by terror, that's the Hebrew for this.

And then chapter 33, as He closes out this prophetic blessing as Moses proclaims this blessing upon the nation, God speaking through Moses; Deuteronomy 33 verse 26, He says, "There is none like the God of Israel." Deuteronomy 33:26, in other words, Jeshurun - Israel isn't really upright, but this is God's intention and by seeing through God's eyes and through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ, there is none like the God of the righteous, those who walk uprightly with God is Jeshurun.

Notice, "Who rides the heavens to your help and through the skies in his majesty, El Olam, the Eternal God, is a dwelling place. And underneath all the everlasting arms and He drove out the enemy from before you, and He said, 'Destroy!' He said, 'Destroy!' I love to do that in the name of Yeshua: "We destroy you that stand in the way of God's work in these people's lives today. We proclaim destruction upon you in the name of Yahweh, whoever you are." - these filthy gods.

"So Israel dwells in security, the fountain of Jacob is secluded." See, God is the source of all life; and He is set apart. "The fountain of Jacob is secluded, in a land of grain and new wine; his heavens also drop down this refreshing dew. Blessed are you, O Israel; who is like you, a people delivered and rescued by the Lord." That's their corporate deliverance. God, "who is the shield of your help and the sword of your majesty!" The sword - notice, it's "your majesty." "So your enemy shall cringe before you, and you shall tread upon your enemy's high places."

And that's what God wants to do in the body of Christ today. Why? So God's people can come into their inheritance and Jesus Christ and get His inheritance in the saints.

Joshua chapter 1, "Now it came about after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, that the Lord spoke to Joshua the son on Nun, Moses' servant, saying, ‘Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise and cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land, which I am giving them, to the sons of Israel, every place on which the soul of your foot treads I have given it to you just as I spoke to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even as far as the great river Euphrates,’" verse five, "No man will be able to stand before you (Joshua) before you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you. I will not fail you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall give," - that is in the Hebrew, "you shall cause this people to take possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only (Joshua, remember this) be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant commanded..." - for us (the church), walk in the spirit, because the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus is our law in terms of empowering dynamics - "Do all according to the law which Moses, my servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or the left, so that you may have success wherever you go." In other words, God has a blueprint; we don't have to come up with anything original. Just listen to Him.

"This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall habitually meditate on it day and night." Why? "So that you may be careful and you may be wise to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. Have I not commanded you be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you..." He is "with you wherever you go." "He is with you wherever you go.”

And at the end of Joshua's life and journey, this is the testimony, Joshua 21 verse 43, Joshua 21:43, "So the Lord gave Israel all the land which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they possessed it and lived in it." Not fully; that will only come under the greater David, Jesus Christ. King David brought them as close as they ever got to a full possession; they never touched all the boundaries. The early church never touched all the boundaries of what was set before them. They started to move out through persecution, carnality; then they shrunk back and they never took it. Now God is setting before this generation - He wants us to go all the way in, and come to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, to be filled into all the fullness of God.

And they lived in it, and in verse 44: "And the Lord gave them rest on every side." Rest comes as we take possession; rest comes as we disinherit the enemy; and I think it's from rest that we are to go into battle, and that's Hebrews 3 and 4. "The Lord gave them rest on every side according to all that He had sworn to their fathers, and no one of all their enemies..." - notice this - "stood before them.” Loud-mouths that they were, ‘You're not going to come in here. You're not going to do this, that and the other.’ Nevertheless, they did it anyway. The enemies did not stand. "The Lord gave all their enemies into

their hand. Not one of the good promises which the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass." And that's greater reality than any phenomenology. There are all kinds of phenomenology; phenomenology will be here and gone, but this will remain. So, everything has to come into alignment with what God's word says.

Lord, you know what our inheritance is. And so we trust You to empower us through our Lord Jesus Christ to stay focused on your objective and to allow You to make us men and women of God, and to be the people You created and redeemed us to be in its fullest sense, and to be the salt and light that You intend us to be as Your people in this dispensation. No matter how dark it gets, You have made all provision for us to live a life that pleases You, a life of godliness. And so, we thank You for this time and to have the privilege of partaking in the new move that You are beginning to do in the midst of Your people. And You know we have been praying. We believe that we have yet to see all that God is willing and able to do for those to whom Satan has done his worst. We thank You that it's only the beginning. It's going to get better and there's going to be more efficient ways in which we see You working, but we're just glad to partake in what we see You doing now. But we look forward - to see the whole church equipped - those that will respond - and to see Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. We pray this in Jesus name, Amen.

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