August 16 -- "Not Utterly Driven Out"

 Today’s Reading: Joshua 16 & 17

"Not Utterly Driven Out"

This was a failure on the part of Joshua and the children of Israel. By not utterly driving out the Canaanites, they failed to take full possession of the Promised Land, thereby not entering into the complete victory God had promised them.  

The whole experience of the children of Israel coming out of the bondage of Egypt, passing through the wilderness, and coming into the Promised Land can be viewed as a spiritual allegory. It is representative of us as Christians coming out of our “Egypt,” the bondage to sin. The Red Sea is equivalent to our baptism and coming into a new relationship with God. God has promised unto us a life of victory over our flesh if we will follow Him and trust Him. Forty years in the wilderness is like those periods of time in our lives where we struggle with our faith and trust in God. Crossing the Jordan River represents us finally coming into the walk and the life of the Spirit that God wants each of us to experience and to know. 

The Lord wants us to take every square foot of His promises!  He desires that we take full victory over every area that the enemy has had a stronghold in our lives. If we allow any of these strongholds of the enemy to remain, they are going to be a continual and constant problem to us in our spiritual growth.

All the areas of your flesh (maybe it is a bad temper, maybe it is anger, maybe it is pride, or lust, or whatever) have to be dealt with in your life. God wants to give you complete and full victory over every area of your flesh. He has provided all that you need. But many times, just as the children of Israel failed to utterly drive out their enemies and those enemies return to cause future trouble, we too can fail to drive out these “inhabitants” of our hearts.  

Their failure to drive out the enemy utterly worked to their own disadvantage. So many times in our own lives, those areas where we fail to go in and lay claim to our victory in Christ are the very areas where we find ourselves attacked by Satan in the future, and oftentimes defeated in the future because we failed to fully take the promise that God has given to us and lay claim to the full victory that we can have as we walk in the Spirit.

The failure of complete victory is one of the sad and tragic notes of Joshua’s leadership. They did not utterly drive out the inhabitants. They did not fully take the land. They did not conquer all that God had given, and it later worked to their own harm. So let us not follow after the same example, but let us press into our walk in the Spirit, entering into His fullness by conquering every aspect of our fleshly nature.

Don’t put limitations on your limitless God.  He is not limited by your fears or failures.  And don't let a single inhabitant remain in the "land." None of them are as innocent or as impotent as we may perceive.  Failure to utterly drive them all out will work to your disadvantage. He can conquer every enemy in “the land!”  So, press on and utterly drive out the unwanted inhabitants of your heart by the power of His Spirit.