Bill Johnson - How to Set Yourself Up for Success
They disqualified themselves for the very thing God had promised, and there is a part of the promise over your life and mine that actually takes active faith to fully apprehend and step into. This is where the Lord speaks to Joshua and says, «Moses, my servant, is dead; his job is not your job, basically.» Here’s something to remind yourself of: Joshua is now leading the descendants of the people who first received the promise about the Promised Land. They didn’t get it, although God promised it to them. Larry Randolph helped me understand this much better a number of years ago when he said God fulfills all of His promises, but He is not obligated to fulfill our potential. Sometimes the Lord gives us a promise that actually carries with it an invitation to potential, a possibility to a realm of maturity, development, conquest, whatever it might be. The promised land in the Old Testament was a type of the Kingdom of God in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, of course, it was a geographical area that we’ll read about in a moment. To inherit this vast piece of land, they would divide it up according to tribes and then according to families; that was their inheritance. It was a land that was so prosperous, so rich, and so wonderful that the Lord described it as a land flowing with milk and honey. In other words, it had abundance in everything that was right, and it was their inheritance.
When the twelve spies went in to check out the land, they came back saying, «It’s true; it’s a land flowing with milk and honey, but there are giants there, and there’s a very well-equipped military all through this land, much more equipped.» Remember, these are the children of slaves who are now supposed to go in and have military conquests; they have zero training whatsoever. These folks were very intimidated. They came back with part of the report saying, «Yes, it’s a land flowing with milk and honey; the giants are there,» and then they said something very eye-opening: «We are like grasshoppers in our sight.» In other words, «We are here and they are there, and there’s no way we can measure this challenge.» Because of their unbelief, they disqualified themselves for the very thing God had promised. There is a part of the promise over your life and mine that actually takes active faith to fully apprehend and step into. This notion that if it’s meant to be, it will just happen is nonsense; it’s absolute nonsense, it’s careless and lazy theology. There is a responsibility in this relational journey to continuously exercise faith in pursuit of what God has promised. I feel better having said that.
All right, let’s just get into this, and I’ll fix whatever I break later. All right, let’s go. Verse 1: «After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses’s assistant, saying, 'Moses, my servant, is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given to you, as I said to Moses: from the wilderness in this Lebanon as far as the Great River, the river Euphrates, and all the land of the Hittites to the great sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you.'»
Stop right there; let me kind of connect the dots concerning the Kingdom, and then we’ll read verses 5-9, which I actually return to on a regular basis—it’s my cabin. When we talk about the Old Testament Promised Land, it is, in the natural, a picture of the New Testament concept of the Kingdom of God. The fact is that when you enter a realm of maturity, a realm of conquest in some cases, it’s like a territory that you inherit. When you experience joy, when you experience deliverance, when you experience healing, whatever it might be, it’s always an invitation to a realm in God that you actually inherit. The Kingdom, King’s domain; it’s the realms of God’s dominion that we step into. Jesus announced to us that the Kingdom is at hand, and then He would say, «If I cast a demon out of you by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you.» So He is actually describing realms of personal inheritance.
Here’s somebody who’s tormented at night; they don’t sleep because of an abusive upbringing, whatever it might be. They have a rough time with their life. Jesus comes along—or you come along and minister to them, and break off that power—suddenly they sleep at night. What is that called? That’s called the Kingdom of God; that’s the realm of God’s dominion. Somebody—I just got a report this week—had throat cancer and was healed here. They came and were delivered, set free of throat cancer. What is that? That’s the Kingdom of God—the realm of God’s dominion that has no cancer which came upon this person’s throat and drove it from them. Recently, I know of five cases of Lyme disease in the last five weeks. It actually happened in a three-week period—five people with Lyme disease who were healed. One was bedridden for 38 years and another for 10 years. I watched as the Spirit of God flooded everything that was wrong and flushed it out of her body. If you can imagine a vase with dirt in the bottom, and you just keep pouring water until all the dirt is flushed out, that’s exactly what happened. The Spirit of God came upon her, and I have a video of her running around her swimming pool, which she had been incapable of doing for 10 years. As a result of that, two little girls who were bedridden, ages eight and eleven, also had juvenile arthritis and were completely healed. I have a video of them doing jumping jacks with their mom—things they were incapable of doing.
So the point is, we see the Kingdom—the Kingdom that has no affliction—come upon their bodies and literally flush out everything the enemy tried to do to steal, kill, and destroy their lives. What is the Kingdom? It’s all of that; it’s all of that. And that is the promised land for the believer. It sometimes includes financial blessing, prosperity in a business, but we never want to make the mistake of equating spiritual maturity with income and possessions. Neither do we want to equate spiritual maturity with poverty. Let’s throw out both; they’re both stupid ideas. You know God wants to bless you more than you can imagine. Well, let’s leave it there.
All right, I’m going to crawl into a hole and make a mess; I can see it all right. Verse 5: «No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. Be strong.» Now here’s where we have the words of instruction I want you to pay attention to. «Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you will divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be very strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you.» The law of Moses was the word of God they had at that time, so we can put in its place the word of God, the Scriptures that you now have. How many of you have your Bibles with you? Let me see them; hold them high. All right, I’m just taking a roll; just trying to see. We’re talking about the word of God now, okay? The word of God, in this case, the law which Moses my servant commanded you, «Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.» Please notice prosperity and success are biblical terms. We just can’t let Wall Street’s definition affect our position because real prosperity starts on the inside.
So the target of the Lord is that He wants everybody in this room to be ridiculously prosperous, but His target is the inner world—it’s my emotional and mental health. All right, verse 8: «This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you will meditate on it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. Then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.» Then you will make your way prosperous? I thought the Lord did it! No; He gave you the tools. «For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.» Say this with me: «I am responsible for my own prosperity. I am responsible for my own success.»