Leaving the Desert Behind

A Prophetic New Year

As you all know, each new year, I seek God for guidance or perhaps a clue as to what’s to come, or how he’d like us to prepare for the new year. Admittedly, I have gotten away from this the last couple of years. the last time I gave a prophetic message was at the beginning of 2019, God said it would be a year of trusting Him, the way little children trust their parents- completely. That even when out world is shaken He wanted us to lean on Him. That year would test me and my family as just 8 months after preaching that message I was on the precipice of death. A few months later we would all be tested by the pandemic. God told us that year, that trust was the theme of the upcoming season.

The Word Revealed

This year, as you know we started the year with a time of prayer. Prayer for our nation, prayer for the church universal, prayer for each other. We spent time worshipping and seeking God. This year I am a bit more excited about what God has for us, and I’m not sure I can fit it all into one sermon, but the word I hear for 2023 is Prepare to leave the desert, get ready for the Promised Land!

How Do We Do That?

First I had to think about the words that the Holy Spirit had spoken to me. I had to be sure I understood what He was saying, and not just jump to conclusions as to what I hoped He was saying.

Like you probably just did, I thought, “YES! We are going to enter the Promised Land this year!” But then I became a little bit more sober. We may indeed be entering the Promised Land this year, but that’s not what He said, He said, “Prepare to leave the desert, get ready for the Promised Land.”

Time to Pack

OK, having just taken a trip out of state, I think I understand the concept here. When you’re preparing to take a trip, you do the obvious- you pack your bags and you prepare for your trip. So what exactly does one pack for a trip to the Promised Land? And is that what he is even talking about anyway? Well since I’ve never had to prepare to enter the Promised Land, I thought it would be best to check scripture and find out what preparations (if any) were made the last time a people were moving into the promised land. So whereas I thought this was going to be a New Years message, once I really got into the message, I realized there was no way I would be able to convey this message in one or even a couple of sermons, so this will begin a new series on leaving the promised land. How many weeks? Who knows. But I believe that the scripture has a lot to show us about getting ready for the blessing of God.

Why Do We Need to Prepare?

Like the children of Israel, we have been prisoners in Egypt. We have been slaves of a system into which we were born. When God revealed that to me, it made my heart skip a beat, because if it was something into which I was born that means that what God has in store for us is far greater than what I had understood it to be. If it was something that hasn’t been seen in at least the last 50 years, then most of us may not recall the last time we lived in the paradigm of the world that God is describing. So I asked, “God, is this something that the world hasn’t seen in over 50 years?” And his answer was this, “Son it is a paradigm that the world has not seen in around 150 years!”

150 Years Ago

So I looked it up, and do you know what was happening 150 years ago?

In 1873, the civil war had ended just 8 years prior, the nation was devastated, and the people were divided. Brother against brother, and the number of casualties of the war totaled 620,000 Americans dead that was 2% of the population. By comparison, the Viet Nam war, the deadliest US war in my lifetime saw around 58,000 American casualties. To put the Civil war statistics in perspective, 2% of the current US population would be 6,685,127. Do you think the people were in a desert?

By contrast just six years after 1873, scientists in Thomas Edison’s lab would finally perfect the technology that Edison had begun 28 years prior and bring us electric light bulbs. In the years to follow a Golden Age of sorts would be ushered in, the roaring 20’s would bring a new level of wealth and prosperity for Americans. We would go on to experience one of the greatest revivals of all time when the Azusa Street Revival would hit about 25 years later, and of course the early 1900s brought us Aimee Semple McPhearson and the Foursquare Church, and Charles Parham and the Assemblies of God. It brought about a spiritual revival the likes of which we have not seen in over 100 years.

Back to the Beginning

Indeed there is a lot to look at in terms of the recent history of the Church entering into a Promised Land experience. In fact, you and I are products of that very promised land, and while we could look back to that time and see what the people were doing to prepare for it, after all, there are some uncanny parallels. We live in Nation Divided and there is indeed turmoil throughout the earth. But it seems to me that the most helpful thing to look at would be to examine what God directly advised as preparation for entering into the promised land to the children of Israel, when they were preparing to enter the very first promised land.

Instructions from Moses

Deuteronomy 10:12–15 TLV

“So now, O Israel, what does Adonai your God require of you, but to fear Adonai your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve Adonai your God with all your heart and with all your soul, to keep the mitzvot of Adonai and His statutes that I am commanding you today, for your own good? Behold, to Adonai your God belong the heavens and the highest of heavens, the earth and all that is in it. Only on your fathers did Adonai set His affection to love them, and He chose their descendants after them—you—from all the peoples, as is the case this day.

The first instructions from Moses were that God required love and obedience:

Love and Obedience

Many will say, “Yes pastor I love God and am obedient to Him. And I will say, sure but that’s not necessarily what God is asking for. Let’s read it.

Deuteronomy 10:16–22 TLV

“Circumcise the foreskin of your heart therefore, and do not be stiff-necked anymore. For Adonai your God is God of gods and Lord of lords —the great, mighty and awesome God, who does not show partiality or take a bribe. He enacts justice for the orphan and widow, and loves the outsider, giving him food and clothing. Therefore love the outsider, for you were outsiders in the land of Egypt. Adonai your God you will fear—Him will you serve. To Him will you cling, and by His Name will you swear. He is your praise and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things that your eyes have seen. Your fathers went down to Egypt with 70 persons, and now Adonai your God has made you like the stars of the heavens in number.

Now, what does that remind you of? How about Matthew 25:37-43

Matthew 25:37–43 TLV

“Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You? Or thirsty and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger and invite You in? Or naked and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ “And answering, the King will say to them, ‘Amen, I tell you, whatever you did to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ Then He will also say to those on the left, ‘Go away from Me, you cursed ones, into the everlasting fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger and you did not invite Me in; naked and you did not clothe Me; sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’

Are we seeing a pattern here? God is looking for compassionate people as described in Isaiah.

Isaiah 58:5–12 TLV

Is this the fast I have chosen? A day for one to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and spreading out sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast and a day acceptable to Adonai? “Is not this the fast I choose: to release the bonds of wickedness, to untie the cords of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to tear off every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the homeless poor into your house? When you see the naked, to cover him, and not hide yourself from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will spring up speedily. Your righteousness will go before you, the glory of Adonai as your rear guard.” Then you will call, and Adonai will answer. You will cry and He will say, “Here I am.” If you get rid of the yoke among you— finger-pointing and badmouthing— If you give yourself to the hungry, and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness, and your gloom will be like midday. Then Adonai will guide you continually, satisfy your soul in drought and strengthen your bones. You will be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters never fail. Some of you will rebuild the ancient ruins, will raise up the age-old foundations, will be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Streets for Dwelling.

Those aren’t the only promises we have though.

The Promises of Love and Obedience

Moses also give us some promises concerning this first requirement.

Deuteronomy 11:8–12 NKJV

“Therefore you shall keep every commandment which I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land which you cross over to possess, and that you may prolong your days in the land which the Lord swore to give your fathers, to them and their descendants, ‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’ For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden; but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven, a land for which the Lord your God cares; the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.

Look at the promise closely. Has it not felt lately that we have to work really hard for revival? Has it not felt lately that serving God is getting harder and harder? Has it not felt lately that we are fighting an uphill battle? Why is that? Well at some point during the last 150 years we stopped loving God, and loving the people. We stopped being the people that God called us to be and we found ourselves in the desert once again. Maybe it was through no fault or our own, it doesn’t matter, God is asking us to get prepared for the upcoming promised land. Look at what Jesus says:

John 14:21 TLV

He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him.”

And again, let’s go back to the promises to Israel.

Deuteronomy 11:13–25 TLV

“Now if you listen obediently to My mitzvot that I am commanding you today—to love Adonai your God and to serve Him with all your heart and soul— then I will give rain for your land in its season—the early rain and the late rain —so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil. I will give grass in your field for your livestock, and you will eat and be satisfied. Watch yourselves, so your heart is not deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them. Then the anger of Adonai will be kindled against you, so He will shut up the sky so that there will be no rain and the soil will not yield its produce. Then you will perish quickly from the good land Adonai is giving you. “Therefore you are to set these words of Mine in your heart and in your soul. You are to bind them as a sign on your hand, and as frontlets between your eyes. You are to teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up. You are to write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied on the land Adonai swore to give to your fathers, as long as the heavens are above the earth. “For if you will diligently keep all this mitzvah that I am commanding you to do—to love Adonai your God, to walk in all His ways and to cling to Him— then Adonai will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves. Every place where the sole of your foot treads will be yours—from the wilderness to the Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, as far as the western sea will be your border. No one will be able to stand against you—Adonai your God will put the fear and dread of you upon all the land where you tread, just as He has promised you.

Conclusion

That’s about all we have time for today, but rest assured that there is more to come next week. This list is lengthy, and yet it is so good. God is making promises to us, and the good news is I think you and I have done a great job with observing the first Instruction for preparing ourselves for the promised land. I mean, I’ve seen us love others, and help others financial and spiritually, I’ve see us love God with all our heart, mind and strength, and I know that we are being diligent about keeping his commandments, or mitzvot as they were known to the children of Israel.

Here’s what I think. I think that this Promised Land to come is going to be much like the previous one. We are going to see great strides in technology, in finance in politics, in medicine and in the social order. I believe that we are going to see a unification of our families and our nation, and I believe that we are going to see a mighty revival break out across the land. We need to prepare our hearts, and we need to put ourselves in the best position to receive this tremendous blessing from God. This next wave of God’s goodness that is about to flood over our land. Will you pray with me?