Your Canaan In The Desert

As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, recently I have been consumed with the book of Joshua. I realize to some it is not as fascinating as dissecting Ezekiel, or Daniel. I can't include the book of Revelation, because I've been posting studies on it regularly on the Hand of Help website, and by the way, the newest teaching on the church of Thyatira is up. I checked.
As the tentacles of darkness reach out beyond the church walls, past the watchmen and the sentinels, I believe it is more important for us to discuss our relationship with God, our sanctification, and the spiritual aspects of our walk, rather than what tomorrow holds for the world.
Let's be honest, the writing is on the wall, and a confluence of events is shaping up and coming together, in such a way that even the world must grudgingly acknowledge that a higher power, an invisible hand is at work.
Evil begets evil, and one cannot live with the expectation of a better tomorrow, if his heart is not bettered today. A great majority have given themselves over to this present darkness, to the world and all its evils and its lusts, and I am talking about the great majority of so called Christian men and women.
We no longer desire true spirituality, because many deem the cost of experiencing such glory too steep. We make due with counterfeit movements, with an imitation of true spirituality, because it's much less painful on the flesh, and though in the depths of our hearts we realize it's not the authentic move of God, these fakes allow us to cling to those vices, and sins that the flesh so loves.
I've come to believe that deception is so successful in today's Christian world, because the average Christian loves to have it so. We no longer desire the cross or the yoke of Christ, we just want the benefits, the blessings the prosperity, the easy life, we want to be lied to over, and over again, because believing the lie keeps us from hearing our conscience screaming and crying out.
If you've done any extensive study of God's work, you will already know that the book of Joshua in the Old Testament, is typological of the book of Ephesians in the New Testament. It is a fascinating study, one from which much wisdom can be gleaned, and much knowledge had.
Their journey through the desert had ended. Now it was time for the people of Israel to cross the Jordan under the guidance of a new leader, and lay claim to the Promised Land. God's command in fact, was to go and possess the land, to chase out the current inhabitants therein, and obtain what was rightfully theirs.
As believers, we make the same journey from the desert to God's Canaan, which represents the heavenly places, and the heavenly things of God, wherein we enter by the power of the Spirit of God, which unites us with the Christ, who died and rose again. We are made to sit with Christ in the heavenly places, rejoicing first and foremost in the glory that He obtained through His victory over the enemy, over sin, and over death.
It is Christ's desire to bring us into that level of maturity, and one day, when our journey here on earth comes to its end, to welcome us into the Kingdom that He has prepared for His faithful.
While awaiting this blessed day however, we must be faithful in fighting the good fight of faith, against the spirits of darkness which are in the heavenly places, that we may possess every last piece of spiritual land that God has granted us by right of inheritance.
The difference between the symbolic journey from the desert into Canaan, and the literal journey, is that while Israel had finished their journey through the desert before entering Canaan, the desert and Canaan for us remain a constant. We can be in the desert, but not of the desert, merely traveling through it, we can enter into the Canaan of God's promises while still living here on this earth. You and I can have our Canaan in the desert, where we will never go hungry for lack of truth, where we will never go thirsty for lack of living water. He will give us manna from heaven, and water from the rock, He will guide us into the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
It is in the desert that God proves Himself to those who obey; it is to them that He reveals the mysteries of Christ, the beauty of godliness, and the riches of the glory of His inheritance.
With our gazes ever onward toward our destination, we journey through this earthly plain, seeing glimpses of Canaan every day of our lives, realizing the goodness and mercy of our eternal Father.
When one is renewed in the spirit of their mind, and has put on the new man, which was created according to God, in righteousness and true holiness, he sees beyond the veil of this present existence, he sees beyond the current circumstances, struggles, and trials, knowing that in order to reach the Promised Land, he must traverse the desert places. One cannot reach Canaan without crossing the desert. Our duty is to keep walking, difficult as it may be at times, put one foot in front of the other, marching ever onward, knowing that home awaits.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr.