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| Faith will cause you to move out of a place of poverty, stress and fear |
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JOHN ECKHARDT
Have you ever found yourself reading a Scripture you
know or have heard many times in church, but on that particular day, its
meaning becomes brand-new to you?
We should always be looking for and expecting new
revelation when we come to read and study God's Word.
When this happens to me, I am inclined to go deeper
into God's Word to see what else He wants to show me concerning the word or
idea.
This article started as a prophetic word. During a
Tuesday night service at the church I pastor, Crusaders Church in Chicago, I
prophesied about moving into a good land.
After delivering that word, I began to do a word study
in the Scriptures regarding "the land" — the land of Canaan, the
promised land, inheriting the land and the good land.
The good land is a picture of kingdom living — living
in the glory realm and in the promises of God.
The good land is God's country. It is a place where
goodness, abundance, prosperity, excellence, refreshing, beauty, nourishment,
blessing, satisfaction, plenty and glory are ways of life.
We receive abundant harvests, and all our works are
fruitful in the good land.
It is a place where becoming fat and large is a spiritual
picture of prosperity, wealth and the anointing.
I have a passion to see people live in prosperity,
abundance, peace, joy and victory in the land God has promised us in Christ.
The good land is also a picture of the promised land
to which God was leading the Israelites upon their exodus from Egypt.
He was leading them to the physical place called
Canaan. God Himself brought them into a good land, a land of milk and honey (Exodus 3:8; Numbers 14:8; Deuteronomy 31:20; Ezekiel
20:15), as He promised their forefather
Abraham (Geneses 12:7).
Today, God's people enter the good land through Jesus
Christ, as we have now by faith become the spiritual seed of Abraham (Romans 11:11-31).
The good land is no longer a
physical place but a spiritual representation of what was purchased for us by
the finished work of Jesus at the cross.
It is a
metaphor for our spiritual inheritance in Christ and the blessings we have as a
result.
So now because
of Christ, the saints of God dwell in this land and possess it by faith.
Our Inheritance
"Earth" in the Bible's original Greek language is ge,
which literally means "land."
That's a big distinction, because when you hear or
read the word earth, you may think of the entire planet.
But when you think of land, the concept of the
physical area adjusts to mean only a portion of the planet.
Of course, when God sent the Israelites in to possess
the land, they were not going in to possess the entire planet.
They were possessing the land of Canaan. God gave them
parameters (Numbers 34:1-12).
When Jesus said in Matthew 5:5 that the meek will
inherit the earth, He had certain spiritual boundary lines in mind.
Though the verse is commonly quoted, there is a lot
more to it than meets the eye.
Several Scriptures talk about the good land.
Psalm 25:13
says, "His soul shall dwell at ease; and his seed shall inherit the
earth [the land]."
In Psalm 37, the phrase "inherit the
earth" (or land) is mentioned five times (verses 9, 11, 22, 29, 34).
But the book of Psalms was written almost 1,000 years
after Joshua led the people of Israel into Canaan, yet still we find several
references in Psalm 37 to inheriting the land.
Why is the Word of God still talking about possessing
the earth?
First, I believe that all the promises of God are
fulfilled in Christ.
Christ is the fulfillment of all the Old Covenant
promises and all the Old Covenant types and symbols.
As part of the
Old Covenant, God told the Israelites, "I am going to bring you into a
good land. This is going to be your inheritance. This will be your
possession" (see Deuteronomy
5:31, 6:1, 26:1).
But the inheritance of the physical land was something
that was temporary, earthly, physical and natural. It was a type of something
greater, which we find in Christ.
Passover, Pentecost, Tabernacles, the priesthood, the
sacrifices — all these things were types and shadows of a greater reality in
which the fulfillment is Christ.
So, when Scripture says, "The meek shall
inherit the earth," it is an Old Covenant picture of what we inherit
in Christ.
The land is Christ; Christ is the promised land.
Christ is our inheritance.
So, blessings, prosperity, peace, shalom,
favor, land flowing with milk and honey — all these are types and symbols of
what it means to live in Christ and to walk and live in the Spirit.
So many people today, especially Christians, are
focused on the physical piece of land housing Israel, the Gaza Strip and Palestine,
as if that is to be the focus of the kingdom.
They miss the fact that the land God sent Israel into —
and please catch this because you must understand types, shadows and figures in
order to rightly divide the Word of God — is a natural representation of
something much greater in the Spirit.
Though they were sent into this physical land, we must
understand that God has something much bigger in mind than just a physical
piece of land.
The kingdom of heaven is much bigger than that.
Receiving this broadened perspective can be a problem
for some Christians whose eyes are so locked on the natural and the physical
that they miss the spiritual reality of what we possess in Christ.
Literally, Christ is the good land. Living in the
Spirit is the good land, and that is the land given to us.
Allow me to lead you through an example of how a type
and shadow may be read in the Old Testament and then seen in the New Testament
as fulfilled.
Deuteronomy 8:7
says, "For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land
of brooks of water, of fountains and springs that flow out of valleys and
hills."
What does water represent in the Bible? It represents
the Spirit of God.
Jesus said in
John 7:38b (KJV), referring to the believer, "Out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water."
And in John 4,
He said, "The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of
water springing up into everlasting life" (verse 14).
The good land is a picture of living a Spirit-filled
life: worship, prophecy, words of knowledge and wisdom, discernment, tongues,
interpretation, miracles.
That's what we have in Christ. Life should never be
boring when you have the Spirit of God flowing consistently.
Your life should be full of water, full of fountains,
full of depth and full of the river of God (Psalm 46:4).
The water of the Spirit of God should always be
flowing in your life; if you are not experiencing that, you are not living in
the good land.
And if you allow it, the enemy will rob you of what it
means to live in the good land, to live in the blessings of the Spirit of God.
As you study all the things the people of Israel
inherited, realize these are types and shadows of what you have in Christ.
When Christ
says, "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth"
(Matthew 5:5), He is not referring to something physical.
He is referring to something much greater than the
physical. He is referring to living in salvation, redemption, abundance, glory
and shalom.
This is the good land.
Blessed Are the Meek
If you are wondering who "the meek"
are in Matthew 5:5, let me uncover the mystery: you are the meek.
The good land is part of your inheritance in Christ.
You are blessed and an heir to the land. It is yours in Christ!
My paraphrase
of Isaiah 1:19 says, "The meek are humble, teachable, and able to be
corrected by God. They are willing and obedient; therefore, they eat the good
of the land."
When you read the phrase "blessed are the
meek," know that it is all about Jesus and our restoration through
salvation to His image and likeness.
Jesus is a picture of the meek.
In Matthew 11:29, He said He was meek and lowly in
heart. He has inherited the earth in the sense that He possesses the entire
world.
Psalm 2:8 (MEV)
tells of the promise of the Father to the Son, who becomes the King: "Ask
of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of
the earth for Your possession."
Christ's dominion is over the entire earth. Jesus is
the embodiment of meekness, and when we enter into Christ, we take on all that
He is; therefore, we take on His meekness.
His meekness becomes part of our lives. We cannot be
meek apart from Christ.
All the promises that are revealed to us through
Scripture and by the Spirit of God are found and fulfilled in Christ.
So blessed are the meek — blessed are those who are in
Christ, the meek one — for they shall inherit the earth, or possess the land.
Appropriated by Faith
Being in Christ is more than being saved. It's more
than going to heaven. It's more than just being justified.
But many believers have not allowed themselves to live
in the good land because of tradition, religion, fear, doubt and other people's
interference.
They never use their faith to appropriate the land.
When Jesus asked the disciples, "Who do you
say that I am?" (Matthew
16:15b), we are witness to Peter's
revelation of who Jesus is: "You are
the Christ, the Son of the living God" (verse 16b).
My desire is that people get a revelation of Christ
and thereby get a revelation of the good land.
The enemy will work overtime on your mind and emotions
to keep you in an exhausted and frustrated state so that you will believe the
good land is for super saints and not for you. This is a lie.
This is one of Satan's strategies to get you to
believe his lies, to make vows and partner with him, and to empower demon
spirits to wreak havoc in your life.
You may hear
words such as, "Things will never work out for you."
You begin to
agree with the deception and speak it over yourself: "Things will never
work out for me."
This is the work of the enemy, and as he influences
what you speak, his demons will honor your word.
They understand the realm of covenant and keep you on
the outskirts of the good land by sowing lies into your heart and mind.
You must rise up, break those lies, renew your mind
and begin to prophesy the blessings of the good land. The good land is not just
for others; it is for you!
Believe what God is saying to you in this hour.
I believe that by faith you can inherit the promises,
rest, joy, peace, favor, glory and all the great things that belong to us as a
result of inheriting the land.
The land does belong to you as a child of God. It is a
spiritual inheritance. It is a spiritual land that belongs to you.
And you can have it by faith if you understand what
the land is, what it represents and how we possess it in Christ.
I believe God wants you to live in the good land to
enjoy His blessings and promises that are in Christ.
The more revelation and understanding you receive, the
more you confess this and believe and walk in this.
Whatever your current situation is, faith will turn
your whole life around.
Faith will cause you to move out of a place of
poverty, stress and fear, and into a place of abundance, victory and favor.
Begin to confess this and believe it, appropriating it
by faith. Rise up. Come out of bondage. Come out of the wilderness.
Come out of that dry place. Get into the good land and
dwell there all the days of your life.
John Eckhardt is overseer of Crusaders Ministries. He is an
author and speaker who has ministered in more than 80 nations.
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