Satan is so bothered by these words: the land is ours .. and the house is ours.
For he didn’t stop proclaiming that the land is his and not the Lord’s, even in front of the Lord Jesus himself, when he said to Him: " And the devil said to Him: All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish " (Luke 4 : 6).
But God’s word that told us that Satan is a liar and father of liars, deny these words and denies Satan’s claims as it says:
" The earth is the Lord ’s, and all its fullness… " (Psalms 24 : 1).
He is the only king and the only owner, and He was pleased to give it to us.. sons of Adam: " The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord ’s; But the earth He has given to the children of men " (Psalms 115 : 16).
In order to highlight this subject in a realistic meticulous way, let us know that because of Adam’s fall, Satan took authority, and conquered our land and homes, but after the Lord had been crucified and rose from the death, he gave us back the authority, and smashed Satan’s head, and appointed us to possess the land again.. because it is ours !!!
And in the Old Testament, most of the battles were around the possession of the land, and here is Caleb the man of faith saying to the afraid unbelieving people in God’s word and His promises: " Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it " (Numbers 13 : 30).
We go up and take possession, because the Lord is pleased with us, He gave us authority to possess it, He removed protection from our enemies and cast our fear on them.. and before Joshua died the Lord said to Him:
" …You are old, advanced in years, and there remains very much land yet to be possessed " (Joshua 13 : 1).
And today we are in the New Testament, where our war are not against flesh and blood, and they are not military battles to conquer land in the literarily meaning, the same battle is still going on, to conquer the land in a symbolic meaning, this is what the Lord speech clarifies to us, which He said to Paul the apostle when He called him: " To open their eyes , in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me " (Acts 26 : 18).
We possess the land which Satan controls and captivates the souls in the dark, and takes them under his will, blinds their eyes so they don’t see the light of gospel and be saved.. this is the frame of our work to possess and conquer lands in the new testament.. And the Lord is still saying to us today and He will keep on saying to His children until He comes back again:
" there remains very much land yet to be possessed ".
And He challenges us to possess it, and He expects us to have the same reaction Caleb had:
" Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it ".
This is what I encourage you to do today, to wake up, refuse every lukewarm and laziness, ask the Lord to grant you power and enthusiasm and desire, so you can work hard with effort in order to possess the lands, which are in the circle of your ministry and in the vision of the church you belong to..
But what we will meditate on today in details, is the protection of our lands and houses which we took back.
Satan is a stubborn odd, proud, deceiver, and a liar in the same time, he refuses to admit that his head was crushed and that he was robbed of his authority, he refuses to admit that we own the land, and he will keep on trying to resist you, to deceive you to lie on you to argue with you, because he wants to take back what you possessed of lands he already had.
Two incidents from the Old and the New Testament clarify the picture for us:
1- From the Old Testament:
" Now Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the people of Ammon, saying: What do you have against me, that you have come to fight against me in my land? And the king of the people of Ammon answered the messengers of Jephthah: Because Israel took away my land when they came up out of Egypt, from the Arnon as far as the Jabbok, and to the Jordan. Now therefore, restore those lands peaceably " (Judges 11 : 12 – 13).
The Lord gave his people the land and asked them to go up and possess it, and they did.. But the king of Ammon came back to fight the people.. and "Jephthah" asked him why did you come to fight us in our land, which the Lord gave us?
And the king answered him saying: You took away my land and I am here to restore it.. so restore them to me peaceably.
This is a symbol of Satan’s work who refuses to confess the defeat, and who keeps saying that the land is his, and he always try to argue with you and he proposes solutions by appeal and by force, in order to take back what you took from him.. so be careful..
If you continue reading the passage from the book of Judges, you would discover what I am telling you, where "Jephthah" started to explain and justify to him how, why and how he took the land, and he gave a way to Ammon’s king to argue with him..
Don’t do this with the enemy.. he is a deceiver and a liar, and he has a good experience in the hurtful discussions, learn to keep God’s word abundant in you, study it deeply, understand your rights and role and the missions God gave you, then you will not argue and discuss and converse with the devil, but you will proclaim his defeat and the smashing of his head, and you will order him to flee away, and you will take hold of your land, and continue walking in God’s plan for your life.
Look what the Lord has done when He faced the unclean spirit, and this spirit started talking to Him: " Now there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, saying: Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are — the Holy One of God! But Jesus rebuked him, saying: Hush up, and come out of him! And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him " (Mark 1 : 23 – 26).
A firm answer: hush up.. get out..
He doesn’t understands discussions, arguments and compromises.. the devil understands only one language:
Authority, firmness, and stamping on him.. this is what we should always do.
2- From the New Testament:
" When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. Then he says: I will return to my house from which I came. And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there… " (Matthew 12 : 43 – 45).
In the New Testament also.. the unclean spirit comes out, but still insists that the house is his: "I will return to my house from which I came".
Here is the danger, and here we should be careful:
As much as it is important and decisive to restore the lands.. it is most important to protect the lands that we restore.. especially in front of what we read about Satan’s insistence to restore the lands and his claim that they are his !!!
How to protect our lands and homes?
" I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; They shall never hold their peace day or night " (Isaiah 62 : 6).
When the unclean spirit said I go back to my house from which I came, he did go back, he found it empty and swept, so he went and took with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself.. he didn’t find one to protect that house.. didn’t find guards.. so he entered with more power !!!
The Lord says: on your walls on your walls Jerusalem I’ve set watchmen, they never hold their peace day and night.. day and night.. never silent not for one moment.. they watch and guard all the time.. so the unclean spirit won’t come again..
If you look meticulously in the book of Nehemiah you would read the details about building the wall of Jerusalem, its doors, its gates, each door by its name, and you would read about the guards who didn’t leave their positions not even for eating, and this has a spiritual meaning, it is to learn how to build walls, and doors, and how to watch them with guards all the time.. for the battle after gaining the lands and the homes, is a protection and watching battle by excellence.
" Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one ’s youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them; They shall not be ashamed, But shall speak with their enemies at the city's gate " (Psalms 127 : 4 – 5).
The confrontations always happen at the city’s, lands’ and houses’ gates.
Let’s go to Esther book to learn more..
" In those days, while Mordecai sat within the king ’s gate, two of the king ’s eunuchs, Bigthan and Teresh, doorkeepers, became furious and sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. So the matter became known to Mordecai, who told Queen Esther, and Esther informed the king in Mordecai’s name. And when an inquiry was made into the matter, it was confirmed, and both were hanged on a gallows; and it was written in the book of the chronicles in the presence of the king " (Esther 2 : 21 – 23).
The city’s gate.. the king’s gate and any other gate are places for the enemy’s activity and God’s sons activities at the same time..
The enemy’s plots will be made at the gates in order to enter them and try to spoil God’s plans for His people an children.. and there is also the right place for the establishing of God’s children to watch the gates, to unveil the enemy’s plans, to spoil and destroy them. The readiness of Mordecai at the king’s gate made him hear and discover the plan of the eunuchs to kill the king, which gave him the opportunity to stop the plan, to spoil it and to kill the enemies..
The key of Mordecai’s life and success was "his watching eye" at the king’s gate, to protect the king..
He didn’t know that saving the king and what he did, would be recorded in the kingdom records, and that the life of the king and his appraisal of Mordecai, would end in killing Haman and spoiling his plan to kill God’s people at that time. But Mordecai’s readiness and his vigilance as a consistent guard at the king’s and the city’s gate, made him discover the enemy’s plan and destroy it, and save a hole nation.. What do we learn today form this?
Like we saw two weeks ago that the Lord predestined our time and place of existence , and that He prepared good works for us to walk in, and He gave us a mission, we should watch and be vigilant and ready guards all the time, at the gates of our houses, churches, ministries and lands..
We must have a "vigilant eye" like Mordecai’s, to discover and uncover all the enemy’s plans, who’s planning to return to the places from where we casted him out, because he is still claiming that they are his, we should spoil his plans and destroy them..
The scholars say that “Haman the Agagite” is from Agag lineage the king of Amalekites whom Saul kept alive when he didn’t obey God’s word to kill all Amalek, and this people, the word says that God sworn He will have war with them from generation to generation:
" For he said: Because the Lord has sworn: the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation " (Exodus 17 : 16).
And because of Mordecai’s watching eye, his discovery and uncovering of the enemy’s plan, God continued his war against Amalek and defeated them, so they missed the opportunity to kill God’s people at that time.
In Jethemane:
" Then He came to the disciples and found them asleep, and said to Peter: What? Could you not watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Again, a second time, He went away and prayed… And He came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy " (Matthew 26 : 40 – 43).
Sleeping disciples.. they couldn’t stay watching with him.. and the Lord is asking them with a warning and blaming accent:
What? Could you not watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. But.. this warning didn’t work well because He came back and find them asleep again.. because their eyes were heavy.
Their eyes weren’t like Mordecai’s eyes.. eyes watching the smallest move of the enemy.. but they were heavy so they slept..
Beloveds: today the Lord is asking us to watch with him on the gates of our homes, churches, cities and lands.. The battle is still on and it is violent.. and the war with Amalek is still going on from generation to generation.. He is sitting at our gates, preparing plots and putting plans to enter, claiming that we stole the land from him.. and we our eyes are heavy and not watching, we are not able yet to watch with the Lord not even for one hour, we are still fighting to have daily quiet time with the Lord for at least ten minutes.. but the situation is more dangerous and meticulous to be solved in ten minutes.. We are entrusted with the destiny of our children, churches, people or nations maybe.. entrusted with God’s plan to our community.. each one of us has his "Amalek" and "Haman" who are planning to enter our gates and our churches’ gates, ministries’, and lands’, and we our eyes are heavy and we’re sleeping..
So let us cry out to the Lord today to open our hearts by the Holy Spirit, so we can understand the deep meaning of this message of His.. and to touch our eyes like He touched the blinds eyes, so we can see the battle going in the spiritual realm, and to make us ongoing watchmen, watching with Him so He can make us discover the enemy’s plots that are being made at the gates, so we can expose them, spoil them and destroy them, and wipe away the name of Amalek from under heaven, and hang Haman on the stick he had already prepared to hang us on.
