Where We Set Our Foot

This morning I have been following the threads of some of our conversation we had last night at our home group, and some of the imagery I had in a dream last night, and came across the following verses - Deuteronomy 11:13-15,22-25 NIV:

[13] "So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today---to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul--- [14] then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil. [15] I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied." 

[22] "If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow---to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him and to hold fast to him--- [23] then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and stronger than you. [24] Every place where you set your foot will be yours: Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea. [25] No one will be able to stand against you. The Lord your God, as he promised you, will put the terror and fear of you on the whole land, wherever you go."

This past December, I spent some time looking at possessing the land and how it related to the ministry of the early church. Here is a link to the first of a couple of my blog entries on this subject: https://amomentwithgod-srh.blogspot.com/2024/12/possessing-land-and-eternal-life.html

I find myself back in this theme this morning with some additional perspective.  Last night in our home group we were talking about how healing and miracles can change the atmosphere of a city, or even a region.  We were looking at Acts 3 - 5, and how the healing of the man born lame, through Peter and John, caused a massive conversion of 5000 people.  

Looking at that event this morning through the lense of the verses from Deut., I think this was a dispossessing of the spirit of unbelief over Jerusalem.  I love the promise found in verse 24 above, "Every place where you set your foot will be yours"!  What an incredible promise, and one that for the most part went unfulfilled in the Old Testament.  Israel never possessed all of the land mentioned, which was one of the signs of the fulfillment of this promise.  One wonders if that means this promise was for the Church, for clearly the Church has impacted almost all the known nations and peoples!  I say almost, because there are definitely unreached people groups, and groups we might think are outside the reach of the Gospel.

Last night we talked about pressing in to see the Lord work signs and wonders, to have our faith increased that we might be vessels through which the Holy Spirit might move and bear witness to Jesus Christ as our Messiah and Savior!  This morning I am encouraged that this is right and good in the eyes of the Lord!  His heart is for expansion, for increase, for dispossessing the spirit of unbelief, and the spirit of this age.  He is about Glorifying the Name of Jesus for all the world to see!  

Lord, thank You for calling us to continue Your ministry, to bear witness to who you are, to the fact that You are the Messiah, the Savior, the Christ!  Thank You Holy Spirit for bearing witness to all of this through us, and in us!  Help us to expand our perspective, increase our faith and step into all that You have purposed and planned!  You have promised that every place where we set our foot will be ours, and we only want to step where You tell us to step!  

Amen and Amen!