Do your part!

Despite God's promise to the Israelites that He had already given the land to them, God expected them to explore it, to know its characteristics well, in order to be well prepared when the enemy's opposition came.

God wanted these men to enter the earth and possess it. God had told them: "That land is yours." He was committed to them. But when they entered there would be enemy tribes waiting for them. There were going to be wars; there would be fights, and God wanted them to be prepared.

It was not a walk around the park. God was not just going to kill the enemy and the Hebrews were going to come in and possess the land as if nothing had happened. No, they had to do their part too. They had to study the conditions, they had to prepare because there would be battles and loss of life until they conquered the land.

Brothers, I believe that this is the case in our lives as well. God has declared certain things about our life, but it is not like the devil is going to sit quietly waiting for us to go in and take everything that God has declared.

How many know that there is opposition and struggle in the life of the Christian? Before God's promises are realized, we will have to overcome opposition. Sometimes, we ourselves in our own flesh will oppose the blessings that God wants to give us. People we love are going to oppose our entering into God's blessings.

How many brothers turned to the Lord and right away the first enemy they had was people from their own family, from their own home?

Sometimes the oppositions to our life come from within ourselves. Sometimes our own habits, the emotional and mental ties that we have from the past, when we enter the ways of the Lord, get in the way of God's promises to us.

God wants to bless us and cleanse our land and organize our lives. But there are hurts from the past, emotional things that bind us, depressions, fears, inferiority complexes, ties to people, to environments.

How many people want to enter God's ways and love society and prestige so much and do not want to enter God's ways because the cares of the world, as the parable of Jesus Christ says, keeps them away? They want, the word falls on them, they feel love. When they go to church they cry, they feel joy for the Lord but there are enemies inside and enemies outside who are opposed to these people entering the ways of the Lord. We have to recognize and name those enemies, and then proceed to take them down and defeat them one by one throughout our life.

And you better understand this, study and spy the land in and around you. The Hebrews had to make a detailed reconnaissance of the land. They had to know both the good that was in the land as well as the enemies that were in it, so that when they entered the reality of that struggle they would be prepared. And I think that's the way we have to do it. You have to do your part to enter God's blessing. If you do your part, you can be sure that God will do His part.