“Then I commanded you at that time, saying: ‘The Lord your God has given you this land to possess. All you men of valor shall cross over armed before your brethren, the children of Israel. But your wives, your little ones, and your livestock (I know that you have much livestock) shall stay in your cities which I have given you, until the Lord has given rest to your brethren as to you, and they also possess the land which the Lord your God is giving them beyond the Jordan. Then each of you may return to his possession which I have given you.’ “And I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, ‘Your eyes have seen all that the Lord your God has done to these two kings; so will the Lord do to all the kingdoms through which you pass.” (Deuteronomy 3:18-21, NKJV)
Searching the Scriptures, I have begun to SEE something I have never seen before. It’s in Deuteronomy 3:18,21 before the Israelites crossed over Jordan into the Promised Land. So many times we feel Israel is a picture of the Church, but there is a sense that we are losing sight of our goal, which is the Kingdom of God in eternity. The more I read the New Testament and what Jesus said and did, the more I am convinced He spoke more about the Coming Kingdom than He did about salvation - salvation being the preparation for the Kingdom!
In Deuteronomy 3, Moses is addressing the nation before they crossed over into the Land, reminding them, “I commanded you at that time saying, ‘The Lord your God has given you this Land to possess it… And I commanded Joshua saying, ‘Your eyes have SEEN all that the Lord God did to those two kings (of the Amorites) - the Lord shall do the same to the kings over there, where you are going!’”
The Lord began to speak to me as I read these words. God has gone before us, and we have to realise that everything He has done in the past is the witness and the testimony of what He will do in the future. God is saying strongly to the Israelites and to Joshua the leader, “You have witnessed with your own eyes and experienced what I have done to those kings on this side of the Jordan. When you cross over and go into battle in faith, I will do the same to the kings on the far side.”
What a challenge to us! So many times, when I’m in difficulty, I’ve been reminded of what God has done in the past. One of the biggest things which became a challenge to me when I was in the communist prison in 1972, was that only 8 years earlier in 1964, God had so remarkably healed my throat cancer, that the doctors could SEE the scar where God ‘operated!’ So in the prison I was saying, “Lord, if You could work a miracle which was so tremendous, You can get me out of this prison!” - Can you understand the power of that miracle, so great that the doctors said, the cancer in your throat did not just disappear, ‘somebody’ had cut it out with a knife and they could see where ‘somebody’ had operated! Can you understand the prophetic significance of what God did back then? It’s a reminder to me of Jacob when he wrestled with the Lord and God touched his thigh, and from thereon, for the rest of his life he carried the mark of God.
So in Deuteronomy, what God is saying is, “Look, what I have done in the past, I will do it again in the future!” But Moses continued in vv23-28, “At that time I pleaded with the Lord, ‘O Sovereign Lord, You have begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your strong Hand. For what God is there in Heaven or on earth who can do the deeds and mighty works that You do? Let me go over and SEE the Good Land beyond the Jordan, that fine hill country and Lebanon.’ But because of you (Israel), the Lord was angry with me and would not listen to me. And the Lord said to me, ‘Don’t speak to Me anymore about this matter. Go up to the top of Pisgah, and I will let you SEE it, but you don’t cross it!’”
What came to me so strongly as I read this, is that we need to have a CLEAR VISION in front of us. Something tangible. All my life I’ve been working towards a goal which is something I’m seeing. When I look back and see what God has done in the past, I have absolute confidence that God is going to continue to do that, even ‘beyond the Jordan’!
As I was thinking this over, the Lord began to reveal something else to me. I never regard myself as a ‘prophet’, but in one sense I am more of a prophet than I would admit or than you may realise. I don’t prophesy over people and tell them what their future is going to be, nor am I going to prophesy in vague terms. The things God reveals to me actually happen. For example, 20 years ago we produced the film ‘The Rape of Europe’ which has proved so prophetic. During the 2016 referendum, when my film was shown on TV, people asked, “How did David know 20 years ago about Brexit?” What God reveals to me, actually happens, and I have to be part of the fulfilment of it.
With Moses here, God says, “No, I will not let you cross over into the Land, but I will let you SEE it with your eyes!” Before crossing over Jordan, Moses was the only one who saw the land, apart from Joshua and Caleb who, years before, crossed into the Land as the only 2 of the 12 spies and believed God. So apart from the 12 spies, Moses was the only one who didn’t cross over Jordan, but to whom God gave the ability to SEE it! Because another word for prophet is ‘seer’, someone who SEES.
This reminds me that 3 or 4 times I have ‘SEEN’ something. One of the first times was when I was in the communist prison, 1972. I had just gone through the trial and I knew I would be sentenced to something that could be up to 10 years with no remission. Three days later, back in my cell, I had a dream, and in that dream I SAW myself out of the prison, back in London, in the Royal Albert Hall speaking to 10,000 people. I dismissed it, how could this be? But the vision was so clear and so specific, I knew the date, because in those days the Elim Churches to which I belonged, every Easter Monday held a convention in the Royal Albert Hall. So I could SEE prophetically the date I would be out of prison, specifically, speaking in the Royal Albert Hall! It was nearly 8 months after when that dream was fulfilled, literally. Prime Minister Harold Wilson had come to Czechoslovakia personally to release me, I flew home with him, and the Churches called me and said, “We’ve seen on television your miraculous release, will you come and speak on Easter Monday in the Royal Albert Hall?” So what I SAW in a dream had become a literal reality.
I want to challenge you, whatever circumstance you’re in, whatever it is, get before God until God will OPEN YOUR EYES and you begin to live now in the faith of the miracle that’s coming. That’s how I live! I don’t just lie under the constraints of today, whatever the constraints are, I’m not looking at that, I’m LOOKING BEYOND, TO SEE WHAT GOD IS GOING TO DO! I’m SEEING THE LIGHT OF THE KINGDOM AND THE GLORY. O God, OPEN ALL OUR EYES and give us a glimpse of the GLORY OF THE HEAVENLY JERUSALEM. In Jesus’ Name! Amen