'The Lord has given you the land! Possess it! Go in armed ready for war!' - Deuteronomy 3:18.
It is God’s command, not a request, to go and take the land!
I want to be very simple, the first command of God to the Israelites was, possess the land! Take it! It is yours! That is what I am talking about. I want to show it to you in three ways, the first is, you need to see what it is. The second thing is, you've got to possess it and take it. And then the last thing is, don't lose it.
Let me show you how. These people, the children of Israel, are just like you. God uses them in the Old Testament as an illustration of your life, of what is going to happen to you. God had given a wonderful promise to these people: they would be traveling in a wilderness, but then that they would enter a Promised Land.
It is so easy to know what is in the Bible, but then dismiss it. We read it, study it, preach it, 'spiritualise' it, until there is a danger that we make it mean something else. But everything in the Bible can happen today! Don't limit God. I want to challenge you to a new kind of faith. We are commanded to go in and possess all the blessings which God has promised. Get into the Word of God, search for and mark every promise that you want in your life in red - then every promise you don't want, cross it out – no, NO!! I want you to have the faith to go and take them ALL! I hear Christians saying I can't – but my Bible says I can do all things through Christ.
God's command to the Israelites was to go in and possess the land. His command to believers is the same!
What does it mean to 'possess' the land? Look at it by faith – take it by action – fight for it by power!
When I look at the promises of God, and the Bible is full of them, I want all the good things – so I have been going in and taking them! Power for miracles and healing, I'm in there, taking it! Anointing from the Holy Spirit, yes I pray, then I go in and take it! Revival – again I go and possess the promise. I can find enough scriptures for me to believe and know that God wants revival in Russia more than I do, so in I go!
It is the same with all our lives. God has given us so many promises, it is not presumptuous to accept them by faith, then go and take them.
Take the land! Possess the promises of God. So many believers are without power because they don't understand the promises and power of God to those who believe. Don't just take 'spiritual' blessings – take the land, possess what you need in the material realm as well. When Israel went in, it meant war, a spiritual fight, but it also meant that they could have the milk and the honey, all their material needs supplied.
Don't lose what God has given you by allowing doubt and unbelief to cause your faith to waver. Stand strong. Possess the blessings – and keep them by faith. The moment the Israelites rebelled against God they started to lose their inheritance, but when they sought the Lord they obtained every blessing.