To Gain the Good Land (4)

The Lord gave the word;
Great was the company of those who proclaimed it:
“Kings of armies flee, they flee,
And she who remains at home divides the spoil.” Psalm 68.11, 12

Get ready for a struggle
Bringing the glory of God consistently, and increasingly, into all the social and cultural arenas of your life can be a struggle. The world is against us for one, just as it was against Israel as they worked to subdue the land of promise. The world has its set ways, its preferred protocols, and its established methods and norms, and these don’t always coincide with the interests and intentions of the Lord. We may be eager to bless others with the blessings of God’s promises, but we need to be realistic about what to expect from the people around us.

When we come, like Moses with his face aglow, bringing the glory of God by word and deed into the “occupied territory” of our neighborhoods, communities, workplaces, schools, and so forth, we can expect to meet some resistance on the part of those who think we should keep our religion to ourselves.

Now we might be tempted to back down, cross back over the Jordan, and leave the occupied territory of our Personal Mission Fields to its present rulers. But how would that advance the Kingdom of God? Do you pray the Lord’s Prayer? Do you plead with the Lord, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven”? Do you expect the Lord to accomplish the progress of His Kingdom in some way other than by you? If so, you don’t understand either why you have been redeemed, or what the Lord is seeking to do in and through your life.

The progress of the Kingdom
When Israel crossed the Jordan into Canaan, it began a series of campaigns to reduce every sector of the land to its own control. David summarizes this conquest in Psalm 68. Only by a concentrated, ongoing effort at purifying the land of its pagan peoples, and plundering their cities and farms, could Israel become established in the land and begin to glorify God as a nation. Years of warfare and struggle followed that first victory at Jericho, and the conquest never was completed, either in Joshua’s lifetime or throughout the period of the Old Testament. But those who understood they were called to glorify God – kings like David, Solomon, Hezekiah, and Josiah – kept up the struggle by every available means, always seeking to purify the land of every pagan influence and, at the same time, to plunder every good blessing and device for advancing the Kingdom purposes of God.

We’re called to do the same. Whether we’re thinking about our own lives in the world, our churches, or some ministry activity, we need to be prepared for the fact that glorifying God – raising the banner of Christ and His righteousness in every area of our lives – is going to be a struggle. We must set our minds to overcome every evil influence in our surroundings with the goodness of Christ and the glory of God (Rom. 12.21). Purifying and plundering constitute a two-pronged strategy for Kingdom advance in the world.

Let me clarify: Jesus insisted that He was in the business of plundering the devil’s holdings, taking back from wickedness and evil, every person, and everything about every person, so that His Spirit could use them for the Kingdom and glory of God (Matt. 12.22-29). He plundered the devil to bless those who were taken captive into the liberty of the sons and daughters of God. As we persuade others to consider Christ, talk to people about the Christian worldview, and encourage everyone to follow the moral and ethical guidelines of God’s Word, we’re doing the work of purifying and plundering to which the Lord has called us.

Begin here
Any time you challenge the status quo you can expect resistance. We must begin this effort of purifying and plundering in our own lives, by repenting of all known sin and retooling every aspect of our lives, and all the members of our bodies, as lamps and lighthouses for God’s glory. This we do by “fueling up” each day with the Word of God and prayer, and by planning for and taking up practices of love and witness, as the conduits for the spiritual energy flowing from us (Ps. 90.12, 16, 17).

If our lives are pure, if we take back everything in our lives – all our thoughts and affections, values and priorities, words and deeds – for the progress of God’s Kingdom, then the blessings of God will flow through us to others.

Thus, purifying and plundering our own souls and lives, we are set to show up for the struggle of purifying and plundering our Personal Mission Fields for the blessing and glory of God.

We are called to make God’s glory known everywhere, and we can only do this by challenging and seeking to remove and replace every thought, idea, practice, procedure, or settled way of doing business that offends the glory of God, replacing these with ways of being and doing that honor God because they reflect the reality of the risen Christ (2 Cor. 10.3-5; Rom. 12.21). For Israel, entering the good land of Canaan, this involved a struggle that lasted for years.

For us, pursuing the good land of God’s promises and glory, this will require a lifetime of preparing well, showing up faithfully, and working to purify our lives and life spaces, and to take every thought and every thing captive for obedience to Jesus Christ.

For reflection
1.  Do you find it to be a struggle to bring the glory of God into the different areas of your life? In what ways?

2.  Meditate on Romans 12.21. What does this require in your own life? How does it serve as a guideline for your life in the world?

3.  Read 2 Corinthians 10:3-5. Give some examples from our day of what Paul is speaking about in these verses. What does this passage require of us?

Next steps – Preparation: Today, start making a list of things you encounter in your Personal Mission Field that you think might be offensive to God and hurtful to other people. Write them down. Make them a focus of your prayers. Talk to some Christian friends about your observations. Ask them to pray with you and to share their thoughts about how you might begin, graciously and winsomely and patiently, to “purify and plunder” these areas of your life for the glory of Christ.

T. M. Moore

This is part 3 of a 5-part series, Living toward the Promises. You can download this week’s study as a free PDF, suitable for personal or group use, by clicking here. You can learn more about living toward the promises of God by ordering a copy of the book, I Will Be Your God, from our online store (click here).

We invite you to register for the free online course, One in Twelve: Introduction to Christian Worldview. In this course T. M. Moore provides a sweeping panorama of how life in the Kingdom of God unfolds in an age in flight from God such as ours. Set your own schedule and study at your own pace. Learn more, and register for One in Twelve, by clicking here.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.