* God gave them the land but they had to fight to take possession of the blessing.

Comments by Joan Boney:

God promised the land to the children of Abraham, but when it came time for them to enter the land, they had to fight to enter into the blessing of God.

In the New Testament we see we also have to "fight" to enter in to the promises of God.

Hebrews 3 

 

12  Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. 

 

13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 

 

14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; 

 

15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear HIS voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. 

 

16 For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. 

 

17 But with whom was HE grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? 

 

18 And to whom sware HE that they should not enter into HIS rest, but to them that believed not? 

 

19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

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All these things written in the scriptures are given to us as examples so we would not sin as they sinned.

Do you think everything will go well after God tells you to do something?  

Persecution often comes after God speaks to us.  It is up to us to keep what God told us before us day and night so we can have the strength to enter into the blessing of God.

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God chose to have Joshua replace Moses and lead the children of Israel into the land which HE (God) had given to them.

God said to Joshua:

Joshua 1

1 Now after the death of Moses the servant of the LORD it came to pass, that the LORD spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying,  2 Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel.  3 Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses.  4 From the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast. 5 There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

Now God is going to give Joshua instruction concerning preparing himself and succeeding in this calling.

6 Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them.

7 Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.

8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.

9 Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.

It is up to each of us today to fight the good fight of faith, for after God speaks a Word to us, it is not unusual for the devil to try to convince us that it was not God who spoke that Word to us.  Also devil will twist some of the words and try to get us to forget part of the instructions given by God.

The devil is always opposite to the Word given by God and will take us in an opposite direction if we allow it to happen.

Our own flesh wants to go in the way of the flesh which is opposite to the way of God.

Galatians 5:19-21   Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

So we must choose to do the instructions which God has given us and hold fast to that Word that is from God in the matter at hand.

I Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.

We refuse to turn loose of that Word given by God on the matter at hand.

The devil will try to convince us, as he tried with Eve, that God did not really say "that" to her.

Genesis 3

1  Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

4-5  And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:  For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

The devil showed Eve another way to go:

6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

Eve did not keep the Word from God before her. 

God told Joshua to keep the Word before him day and night so that he would have the power to do "that" Word that is from God. 

The fight of faith for us is to continue to believe "that word" which God has spoken to us and to hold fast to that exact instruction to enter into the promise of God.

Devils, other people, circumstances of this life, and even our own flesh will try to persuade us to go another way.

But there is only one way to go, Jesus, the Word.

 

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