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God has already given you the promised land of victory in every area of your life. He's given you His Word to show you how to take that land. Now it's up to you.

Don't you think Christians ought to be wiser than the unsaved people of this world?

After all, we have the Word of God, the wisdom of the Creator of the universe in our hearts. We have the mind of Christ and the Holy Spirit inside us constantly teaching us what to do.

We ought to be the wisest people on earth.

But do you know what Jesus said about us? He said, "the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light" (Luke 16:8).

As a pastor, I've found that to be true in many cases. I've found, for example, that worldly people don't generally expect natural results without doing what it takes to get those results. They don't expect a light to come on before they turn the light switch. They don't expect their cars to run if they don't put gas in them.

They don't sit around crying and moaning and wondering why God doesn't love them enough to turn on the light or put fuel in their cars. They simply obey the natural laws God put in motion for their good. They know what to do, naturally speaking, and they just do it!

Christians, however, are a whole different story. Spiritually, they know what to do but many times they won't do it. Then they sit around wondering why God isn't blessing their lives.

I remember one particular lady who came to me years ago and said, "Sister Lynne, I don't understand why I'm not prospering financially. I've done everything I'm supposed to do. I've spoken the Word over my finances again and again. I've proclaimed, my God meets all my needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus. But He doesn't do it!"

"Well, if that's the case then God's a liar," I answered, "and I know God isn't a liar. So let me ask you this. Are you tithing?"

"Why, no!" she said. "I'm waiting for the blessings of God to come to me first. Then I'll start tithing and giving."

My friend, the Christian life doesn't work that way. Sometimes I wish it did because it would be easier, but it doesn't. God has told us in His Word exactly what we must do to receive His blessings and we need to stop arguing with Him about it. We need to stop being lazy and unbelieving. We need to stop resisting His Word and just do it!

Crossing the Jordan
Someone might say, "Well, I don't believe we have to do anything to earn the blessings of God. He just gives them to us."

It's true that we don't earn God's blessings. Jesus earned them for us. He paid the whole price for sin with His own blood; He made us righteous so that we can inherit all the blessings of God.

But even though we don't do anything to earn those blessings, there are some things we must do to receive them.

God gave us a picture of that process in the Old Testament when the children of Israel crossed the Jordan River to go into the Promised Land. Now, the Israelites obviously hadn't done anything to earn that land. It was their inheritance, given to them by God simply because they were children of Abraham. The Promised Land was a gift.

Yet they had to do some things in order to receive that gift. When it came time for them to cross the Jordan, the Lord gave them some instructions. He said to the priests who bore the Ark of the Covenant, "When you come to the brink of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan" (Josh. 3:8).

Clearly, God was going to part those waters so they could cross over. But they had to do something first. They had to step out on faith and obey God. They had to have enough faith in the integrity of God's Word to act on the Word before there was any natural evidence that it was going to come to pass. By faith and obedience they had to put themselves in position to receive that which God was giving them. They had to act on God's Word.

What happened when they did that? A miracle was put in motion.

"And when those who bore the ark had come to the Jordan and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were in the brink of the water for the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest then the waters which came down from above stood and rose up in a heap far off and the people passed over opposite Jericho" (vv. 15-17).

Don't think acting on the Word is just an Old Testament principle, either. Jesus taught about it in His ministry. He said:

Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Whosoever cometh to me and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like: He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great (Luke 6:46-29).

The letter of James written to New Testament Christians says essentially the same thing, "Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.... For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also" (James 1:22, 2:26).

Obviously, we are going to have to do some things if we want to enjoy the fullness of our inheritance in Christ Jesus.

What things will we have to do?

Quite simply, we will have to hear the Word of God and obey it.

Understand me now, when I say we must hear the Word, I don't mean we can just go to church on Sunday, hear a sermon, and ignore the Bible the rest of the week. For the Word of God to truly speak to our hearts day in and day out, we must make that Word a priority in our lives. We must put it first place before television, before work, even before our families.

Joshua 1:8 says it this way: "(The Word) shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe and do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall deal wisely and have good success."

How do we meditate the Word day and night? We stop trying to fit the Word into our schedules, and start building our schedules around the Word!

'Oh, Sister Hammond, that sounds hard!"

It's not. If you'll listen to the Holy Spirit inside you, He'll show you how. Some evening, He'll say to you, "Turn off that television program and go get your Bible." While you're driving down the road, He'll remind you to listen to a teaching tape instead of to the mindless babble of some radio disk jockey. He'll even wake you up early in the morning so you can spend time in the Word first thing every day. Then, in various situations, He'll bring the Word to your mind all day long.

But first, you have to make the decision. You have to make the choice to make the Word the priority in your life.

No Modifications or Substitutions, Please
The second decision you'll have to make is to trust the Word of God enough to act on it. For instance, when you see God says that tithing will cause the windows of heaven to open and bless you, then act in faith and tithe! Don't wait for a convenient time. Don't wait for the day when you have some extra money and you can afford to tithe. Just do it and do it now!

Don't modify the Word, either. Do it just the way God says. Don't say, "Well, I can't afford to tithe 10 percent so I'll just give five percent - God will understand."

If you do that, you'll miss out on the full measure of God's blessing.

That's what happened to Peter the day he allowed Jesus to preach from his boat. After Jesus had finished preaching, He wanted to bless Peter so He gave him some instructions. He said to Peter, "Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught" (Luke 5:4).

Notice, Jesus had already prepared that blessing for Peter. The fish were already out there waiting on him. But Peter had to do something to receive that blessing. He had to act on Jesus' Word.

But Peter didn't fully obey that Word. No doubt, he thought, "What does this carpenter-turned-preacher know about fishing? I can't catch fish in the daytime. The fish will see the net and swim away. What's more, I'm tired. I've already washed my nets and I want to go home and sleep."

After all these thoughts ran through his mind, Peter answered Jesus and said, "Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken in nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net" (v. 5).

Do you see what Peter did? He modified Jesus' Word. Instead of putting all his nets back into the water, he just put down one net. What caused him to do that? Three things.

Human Reasoning, Unbelief and Laziness
The first was human reasoning. What Jesus told Peter to do didn't make any natural sense. More often than not, that's the way God's Word is. It doesn't make natural sense. It doesn't make natural sense when you can't pay your bills to think you'll be more prosperous by giving away 10 percent of your money. But that's what God asks us to do.

If we go by human reasoning, we'll never obey God. If they had trusted human reasoning, the Israelites would never have marched around Jericho seven times and then shouted, (How on earth could that make the city walls fall down?) the blind man Jesus healed would have never gone to the pool of Siloam to wash mud from his eyes, (How could that possibly heal him?) the servants at the wedding feast of Cana would never have filled those pots with water. (What could that have to do with getting more wine?)

Most of the time we will not understand why God is telling us to do a certain thing but we must trust Him and do it anyway. That's why He says in Proverbs 3:5-6, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

The second thing that kept Peter from fully obeying Jesus' Word was unbelief. He didn't believe he would actually catch that draught of fish that Jesus promised. One thing we'll have to settle within our own hearts if we're to enjoy the full blessings of God is the integrity of His Word. We must dare to believe that what He says He will do.

We must believe that, not just in our heads, but with our whole hearts. We must settle the fact that He and therefore, His Word can absolutely be trusted.

The third hindrance Peter encountered was fleshly laziness. He'd already washed his nets. He was tired and wanted to go home. How many times have we heard the Lord say to us, "Spend some extra time in the Word tonight," or "Get up early tomorrow morning and pray about this situation." But our flesh rebelled. It was lazy and instead of taking authority over it, we yielded to it and missed out on a boatload of blessings just like Peter did.

When he let down that one measly net, the Bible says, it encompassed such a great load of fish that it broke! Of course, Peter immediately realized his error and called his partners out to help him but he still lost that first load of fish!

Over the years, I've realized we are the ones who determine how richly we are blessed. God has already provided all the riches in glory for us. We can disobey God completely and miss out on all of them. We can obey Him half the time and end up halfway blessed. Or we can obey Him all the time and be 100 percent blessed!

Why not decide today to be a part of the 100 percent group?

Make up your mind to start every day by choosing God's way, by saying, "Lord, I'm going to live for you today. I'm going to put the Word first place in my life and I'm going to do what You tell me to do."

Don't just think about God's Word anymore. Don't just talk about it. Start acting on it!

Step out and put your feet in the Jordan. Set your miracle in motion by acting on the Word. Then watch God roll back the waters of impossibility for you. God has already given you the promised land of victory in every area of your life. He's given you His Word to show you how to take that land. Now it's up to you. So go on - Just do it!

Copyright © Mac Hammond Ministries
All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Author Biography

Lynne Hammond
Web site: Lynne Hammond Ministries
 
A teacher and an author, Lynne publishes a newsletter called Prayer Notes, has written numerous books, and currently serves as the national prayer director for Daughters for Zion. Her passion for inspiring and leading others into the life of Spirit-led prayer continues to take her around the world to minister to believers whose heart cry, like hers, is “Lord, teach me to pray!”
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