The Promised Land: Another Picture of Our Spiritual Journey

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POINT #1:  God wants our complete and full compliance to His words and commands.

"Now, let's make POINT #1 relevant to us.  Consider this concept that I want to share with you.  This is another picture of the journey to the complete healing of your broken spiritual heart.  It is very similar to the picture of the Tabernacle that we viewed and studied in Chapters 1-4.  Let's look at Israel's journey from the bondage of Egypt to their life in the Promised Land.

You hopefully have walked through the door of the Tabernacle into your salvation.  If you have, then at that very moment, you also walked out of your Egypt, the place of your spiritual bondage.  Now you are set free from the penalty of your sin, but you may have not yet arrived at your Promised Land, living in the moment to moment blessing and presence of Almighty God.  You have entered the Outer Court where you have been reveling in your salvation and are following God, but you not likely to have been constantly obedient to Him and His commands.  You, in a sense, are wondering there in a wilderness, not quite understanding how to consistently obey.

Then, when you purposefully stepped into the Inner Court (if you have), you found it to be a place where you began to remove (dispossess) the gods and sins that were in your "land"--your hearts.  This can be likened to the 'crossing of the Jordan into the Promised Land,' where the Israelites began to remove the inhabitants because they were idolaters that worshiped other gods.  Sanctification takes place in you in the Inner Court where you begin to experience the Promised Land by systematically removing all that is in opposition to the God of your heart.  A similar cleansing of idol worship took place in Canaan, the Israelites' Promised Land, before God would  allow them to live in His Land of Promise.

Once all of the people of the land (the Canaanites) and their false gods were removed, then Israel could live daily in the constant and abiding presence of their God, in His blessing and favor, without the influence of false gods.  This is why it is called the Land of the Promise.  If Israel would do everything that God would command them to do, by removing all who were in opposition to Him, they would live in paradise on earth, in obedience to God and His blessing upon them.

God has a 'promised land' for Christians today. That promised land is on the other side of the veil of our crucified flesh. That promised land is the spiritual practice of obediently resting in God. The promised land, for us, is in the Holy of Holies, right here on earth!