Christine Caine - Possess The Promise, Part 3
They have filled themselves with Jesus, they've done everything they knew to do. You might be this exact same person. You have done everything! You kept faith in the wilderness. You've come into the Promised Land. You've had a cutting away. You're filling yourself with Jesus. You are now expecting to step into the milk and honey, and the blessing and the prosperity, and what do you do when you enter into Canaan, when you are not in the wilderness, you are in the Promised Land.
When happens when you get in the Promised Land, and the first thing you see is one stinking huge wall? Do you feel that the odds seem stacked against you in your life? Do you feel outnumbered, under-prepared, and in way over your head? Like a wall that you just cannot get around? Well, get excited. You are in the perfect place for a miracle. God does his best work in the midst of what looks like insurmountable odds. So get ready. I'm Christine Caine, and I have a personal mission to Equip and Empower people just like you, to connect with your God-given purpose and potential. I am so glad that you're joining us today. Let's dive right into the message.
Hey, everyone! I am so excited to be back, thank you for joining us, as we continue in this awesome series of "It's time to possess your promises". I can't express how excited I was when I found out that God actually had promises for me. Now I grew up in a very sort of religious household. I found Christ myself later, when I was about 21. But I grew up thinking that God was always really angry with me, and that he was like this big old guy in the sky, with this huge beard and this big stick, just waiting for me to do something wrong, which my mother told me was very often. And that he would just be waiting to go, hit me over the head and go, and like laugh, "Busted," you know, "There you go again".
So I kind of spent my whole life thinking God's really, really angry, and if I just don't make him angry, I'm going to be okay. And it didn't help that some of the people around me would often say, you know, "Don't do that, God will be angry with you. Don't do that, God won't be happy with you". And it was like, oh my word, you know, everything that I am, God's not going to like. And it was revelation to me to find out that not only did God love me, but he actually liked me. And that is like amazing! And not only did he like me, but he had promises for me! And the good news is, for you too, whoever you are on the other side of the screen, that God loves you, and he's got a book full of promise, in the same way that I love my children. And I have got promises stored up for them.
Now of course, I don't give them everything straight away. Sometimes we go, why doesn't God give me everything right away? Now, my daughter is 15, and since we've moved to the United States, you all are crazy and you give kids licenses at very young ages! And so, my daughter is saying to me, "You know, mommy, I could get my permit, I could get my permit". And I keep promising her a better car, the older she gets, before she ever drives. But there is no way I'm giving my daughter the keys to the car right now. She's going to slowly possess that promise as she proves responsibility to me. Well, it's exactly the same with God. Sometimes we think, I want it all now. And God says, "No, you go in and get it". Because the process of going in and getting it, develops the muscles that you need so that you can keep it once you've got it.
And so, a lot of us, if I gave it to my daughter too soon, if I gave them their inheritance too soon, they'd most likely just squander it, because they don't have the skills or the ability to know how to be a good steward with what I've given them. And some of it is for their own protection. Well, it's the same with God. He says, "Hang on a minute. Let's do it step-by-step so that you grow to where you need to go". You develop this spiritual muscle you need to lay ahold of the promises that he has. And once you've got them, you're able to keep them, because you've developed the promise, and you've developed the character and the muscles that you need to be able to do it.
So we've been working through a whole process of what it is to possess the promises of God. We've been camped in the book of Joshua, which is probably my favorite book of the Bible for this week, until I open up another book. But anyway, for this week, it's definitely my, whatever I'm reading at that time, that's my favorite, I tell everybody. And so, this is very pertinent to what we're talking about, because truly, the children of Israel lived for 430 years in Israel without possessing the promises of God. They were 40 years in the wilderness, and a whole generation died without possessing the promises of God, and now they were going to go in and possess. And I feel, for many of us right now, in the kingdom, this is a now word for us.
You know, we've been wandering in the wilderness for long enough, and it's time to now go in and possess. And we learned that you've got to cut some things off if you're going to possess the promises of God. You've got to cut off some weight, and you've got to cut off some sins, you've got to make some room for God to be able to do what he wants to do. You have to make sure you heal. You can't prematurely run into what it is that God has for you, or you'll be a gaping wound, leaking everywhere, and you'll self sabotage if you don't give yourself a chance to heal from where you were into where you need to go. You've got to fill yourself with Jesus. Every single one of us, everyday, this is a non-negotiable.
You must fill yourself with the Word of God, with worship, gather with believers in church. We've got to fill ourselves with Jesus. And of course, continuously, we've got to move out of our comfort zones from where we are into where we're going. That's the journey. You've got to keep moving on. We go from faith to faith, from grace to grace, from glory to glory. We are not meant to set up camp here on earth. We keep moving forward. And then, the fifth thing that we're going to have to do, and now we're moving into Joshua, chapter six, so we're making some progress.
In Joshua chapter six, the Bible says in verse one, "Now Jericho was shut up," sometimes when I reprimand my daughters for saying "Shut up", they go, "It's in the Bible". Anyway so, "Now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel. None went out, and none came in. And the Lord said to Joshua, 'see, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valor. You shall March around the city, all the men of war going around the city once. This you shall do for six days. Seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark. On the seventh day you shall March around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. And when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, when you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout, and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people shall go up, everyone straight before him'. So Joshua, the son of nun," that always cracks me up.
What do you do at school during role call? "Who's your dad"? "Nun, I don't have none, I'm the son of nun". Anyway, or a nun? Anyway, no, no, no, let's stay on track. Okay, "So Joshua the son of nun called the priests and said to them, 'take up the Ark of the Covenant and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams' horns 'before the ark of the Lord'. And he said to the people, 'go forward,'" you find that God always tells us to do that, go forward. "'March around the city and let the armed men pass on before the ark of the Lord'. And just as Joshua had commanded the people, the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams' horns before the Lord went forward, blowing the trumpets, with the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord following them. The armed men were walking before the priests who were blowing the trumpets, and the rear guard was walking after the ark, while the trumpets blew continually. But Joshua commanded the people, 'you shall not shout or make your voice heard, neither shall any word go out of your mouth, until the day I tell you to shout. Then you will all shout".
We'll get to that in a moment. That's a lot of scripture right there, I know. And for many of you, if you sort of fell behind in your Bible reading plan this year, I've just caught you up right there. So you're right up there. But, I want you to know that if you're going to possess the promises of God, you have to make sure, number five, that you see what God sees. Now we've got to understand Jericho was considered the greatest walled fortress of all time. History tells us that these were the most fortified walls in ancient history. They were 20 foot tall, six feet wide, the inner wall was 30 feet wide, I mean it was, 20 feet wide, sorry, and 30 feet tall. These were the strongest, most fortified walls, they were impenetrable. There was no way that they were going to conquer this city.
I mean, the children of Israel, they had, what did they have really? Not much, they didn't even have any nuclear bombs, they didn't have any AK-47s, they did not have any artillery. They had toga, sandals, and a chauffeur. That's awesome. Because that's normally what God gives you when he wants you to take a city. He makes the odds impossible. I need you to understand that. If you are confronting something right now, it might seem impossible to you, but God makes sure all of that is the case. Because impossible is where God starts, and miracles are what God does. And if the situation is not impossible, you're not going to need God. If you are able to manage it yourself, if you are able to resource it yourself, if you are able to do it with your own gifts and talents, you don't need God. You're able to do it yourself. I don't need a God that can do what I can do, I need a God that can do exceedingly abundantly above and beyond anything that I could ever ask, hope, or think.
So the children of Israel, can you imagine how they felt? After 430 years in captivity, they had the miracle of the Red Sea parting to deliver them. The miracle of the Egyptian army drowning in the Red Sea. The miracle of manna from heaven, falling for 40 years. The miracle of clothes and shoes not wearing out for 40 years, I'm still traumatized by that, we'll move on. The miracle of following the cloud by day. The miracle of a pilar of fire by night. The miracle of surviving 40 years in the wilderness with all the cray-cray animals. The miracle of the river Jordan being dried up and pushed back until the children of Israel crossed over.
Can you imagine, they have seen all of these signs, all of these wonders, all of these miracles, now they have had their cutting away, on top of everything else, in Gilgal. And now they have healed. They have filled themselves with Jesus. They've done everything they knew to do. You might be this exact same person. You have done everything. You kept faith in the wilderness. You've come into the Promised Land. You've had a cutting away. You're filling yourself with Jesus. You are now expecting to step into the milk and honey, and the blessing and the prosperity, and what do you do when you enter into Canaan, when you are not in the wilderness, you are in the Promised Land, what happens when you get in the Promised Land, and the first thing you see is one stinking huge wall? It's not what you were expecting.
I wonder if there's still that flicker on the inside of you that I'm speaking to today. That in many ways you've been disappointed, you've been betrayed by people. If you are honest, you even feel that you've been disappointed by God. "Where were you, where were you? I did it your way, God, and there's a Jericho wall! Why'd you put the wall there? I thought this would be a time of milk, and I thought this would be a time of honey, and I think I've done it all! Why'd you put the wall there for"? But I need you to, I want to speak to that flicker on the inside of you right now that if you've hit that wall, this thing you're looking at something, and it's saying, "You can't get over me, you can't get around me, you can't get through me".
Maybe you've fought this long fight and hard for your marriage. Maybe you've been serving God faithfully, and you've been believing for a ministry opportunity, and it just seems like it never happens for you. Or perhaps you just can't get rid of this bitterness or this offense. Or the shame, or the guilt. There's this wall, and everything in you're like my friend don, you're like, "Really, God"? Everything in you just thinks, "I've done it. I've done everything I know to do. I've hung on as long as I can hang on. And God, I cannot take another wall". Well I'm here today to speak into your life, and hope to say, you know what? I'm here to help you see beyond the wall to the promise on the other side of the wall. That same promise that God gave you, it still stands on the other side of the wall.
"And the Lord said unto Joshua, 'see, see, I've given you the victory. See, I've given it'". I know that in the natural, it seems like every circumstance is coming against you. And it seems like that wall is going to stop you from walking into the promises, but I need you to know that we serve the God that still tears down Jericho walls. You have got to believe the truth of the Word of God over the facts of your circumstances. If God said it, then you will do it. You have got to know that honestly God's truth always trumps the facts.
When I was told that I was adopted, I was sent my documents from the government. And these documents simply said that my birth certificate said that I was unnamed. It said "Child's name", and then it had typed in the word, and you can see that on the screen, typed in the word "Unnamed", number 2508 of 1966. Do you know what it was like when I got that document? And then the devil started this tape recorder, "See, Christine, you're not even a name. Your mother didn't even give you a name. It says typed in the word 'unnamed'. You're just a number. No wonder you were abused for all those years, Christine, because you're not even worth anything". And that tape recorder, see we've all got that tape recorder that plays in our head, that says, "You're worth nothing". And then that fact is screaming at you, that my mother didn't even give me a name. I was just a number.
You see on this other document form the social worker, it says that I was unwanted. It says, "It is evident that this woman," my biological mother, "is disconnected from this child, and wants to get this over and done with, and go back to work as soon as possible". Now, that was documented two weeks before I was born. So again, as you see right there, on the screen, I have two documents, black and white, ink on paper, one is a birth certificate, one is a social worker report, and that's how many of us, we define our lives. You know, if the government said it, it must be true. And so that statement from the department of community services, "She's unnamed, she's worth nothing". Or that statement from the royal hospital for women, that says, you know, if it's the medical profession, it's got to be true. And I love all of these organizations, but they don't have the last word, that's what I'm trying to say.
So that document says that I'm unnamed. This document says that I'm unwanted. And then the third document you see right now is from one of the most prestigious social work schools in Australia, the University of New South Wales. I was running a youth center in Australia at the time, and we were having so much success, and so many students were coming through and doing our internship program. And the students in the fourth year of the social work program, were wanting to come and do their internship with us at the hills district youth service. But the problem was that we were a faith based youth center, and although they like our results, they didn't like our methodology. And so, that is the logic of the world, can we do things differently but still get the same result? Uh, no. Anyway, and so what happened was, they were wanting to, the students from this fourth year program, the most prestigious social work program, wanted to come and do their placement with me at the youth center. But here was the deal, I've got a degree in English and economic history.
So basically, I can read golden books and count to 10. So, I did not have the right qualifications in order to run this community based youth center. So although we had these great results, I was flying down to our local government and speaking to the cabinet every six weeks about youth policy. We were helping to implement changes in schools. We were doing a whole lot of things around Australia, innovative programs with at-risk young people. We were getting great results, but the truth was, I didn't have the right qualifications to do it. So they called me into this meeting, and I sat before all of the faculty, and talk about being intimidated, to walk in the midst of this university faculty, I was just a kid having a go because I believed that God had called me to do something.
And so, as you can see, they wrote in this document, that although I'm a woman with enormous innate potential, I need to take several years out to study for the relevant qualifications. You can see that, black and white, ink on paper. It's right there on your screen. And you know what happens? Most of us, that's how we define our life, by that black and white ink on paper. See, I'm not in denial here. I'm not sort of a happy and clappy, blab it and grab it Christian that's in denial about reality, I'm telling you I see exactly what you see. So you see those three documents right in front of you, there they are. On the one, you see, from the department of community services, "Unnamed, 2508 of 1966". I'm not denying it. It's right there, black and white, in front of you.
Then you see the second document, "Unwanted", from the royal hospital for women. I am not denying it. It's there, it's stated, it's in black and white. And then you see the third document from the university of New South Wales, right there it says, "Unqualified". I'm not denying it. Three documents from three major institutions of which I respect them all. But most of us define our lives by what they say. What is it that you say, "Well, Christine, look at the facts. Can't you see what this medical report says? Can't you see what this bank statement says? Can't you see"? Well, I'm seeing it and you're seeing it, on the other side of that screen. Unnamed, unwanted, unqualified.
There it is, black and white, ink on paper. I can see it, but you know what? I found myself another black and white ink on paper, and this is called the truth of the Word of God. And you have to understand that the truth always overrides the facts. The city of Jericho was tightly shut up, that is a fact. No one came out, no one went in, but the Lord said unto Joshua, "See, I've given it to you".
Well you know what, that document says "Unnamed" and I remember when I got those documents from the government, I mean it was like a knife in my heart, just to see that word "Unnamed, 2508 of 1966". And I felt the Holy Spirit say to me, "Christine, I want you to turn to Isaiah 49, verse one". And I didn't even know that was in the Bible. I said I knew Isaiah was, but I didn't know that particular verse. And I read Isaiah 49, verse one, and right there it says, "Listen to me, o coast-lands, and give attention, you peoples from afar. The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name".
I had a choice in that moment to believe the facts or to believe the truth. They're both black and white ink on paper, and it would take as much faith to believe this black and white ink on paper as that black and white ink on paper. What you choose to believe will determine your destiny, that's the bottom line. That document said that I was unwanted, but the Lord said, "Chris, I'm 139, before you were formed in your mother's womb, I wanted you, I knew you, I called you". That document from the education department, it says that I'm unqualified. But my Bible says that he whom he calls, he qualifies.
I want you to know that if you build your life on the truth of the Word of God, and not the facts of your circumstance, you could step up and go in and possess the promises that God has for your life. You do not need to be limited by the facts when you have the truth. That's why this word is living. That's why this word is active. That's why we can possess the promises of God. The Lord said unto Joshua, "I need you to see beyond the facts to the truth".
That's how faith operates. Faith is not calling those things that are as though they are not, that's called lying. Faith is calling those things that are not as though they were. The city was shut up, but God had already given them the promise. So you have to see beyond the problem to the promise, and you need to begin to declare and decree, and confess the promise of the Word of God over the facts of your circumstances. If you do that, you will move past your past. You will step into the fullness of the promise that God has for you. And you will possess the next phase of all that God has for you.
I don't know what your spiritual wall is, but I do know that God has a promise on the other side of that wall, and God is still the God that tears down Jericho walls. And I am believing, for your healing. I am believing for your deliverance. I'm believing for your restoration. I am believing for your breakthrough. I am believing that our God is still a got that does miracles. He can make a way where there is no way. Don't get so focused on the wall that you forget the promise on the other side of the wall. All the promises of God are in Christ Jesus. Yes, and in Christ Jesus, amen to the glory of God. Let me pray for you.
Father, I thank you. I thank you for your word. I thank you that the truth always trumps the facts. And father, I pray for every single person on the other side of the screen today. Father, I pray in the name of Jesus, that whatever impossible circumstance they that they remember in this moment, that what is impossible with men, is possible with God. With God all things are possible, and nothing is impossible with God. So father, I believe for Jericho walls to come down. In the name of Jesus, I believe for divine healing, divine restoration, divine reconciliation, divine appointments, divine alignments, miracles, signs, and wonders in people's lives. In Jesus name, amen, and amen.