Deuteronomy 11:8-9(NLT)
“Therefore, be careful to obey every command I am giving you today, so you may have strength to go in and take over the land you are about to enter. 9 If you obey, you will enjoy a long life in the land the Lord swore to give to your ancestors and to you, their descendants—a land flowing with milk and honey!”
God promised His people living in Old Testament times that He would give them a land. This land would not be desolate, but a land of hills and valleys that the Lord, Himself, would care for with rain and proper seasons. Crops would be plenteous and lush for livestock, and it would be overflowing with food to feed everyone. This is the blessing of increase! It is the way God ensures that life flourishes and continues to expand. This blessing includes His law of giving and receiving. It’s a law that guarantees blessings are received, shared, and boomeranged back to us. When we understand blessings on this level, we can’t help but see God’s commitment to prosper us all, but it is up to us to use what He has provided in the right way. His goal is for us to remain prosperous in every way and for us to go higher in our relationship with Him. This is achieved by our obedience to His Word.
God chose the children of Israel to be His chosen people not because of anything they did, He chose them to demonstrate to all of us what His favor looks like. Heavenly Father wants His people to spiritually increase in Christ so they can increase in life. He has an agenda to prosper and elevate His people, and there’s no room in this agenda for disobedience, rebellion, and arrogance, because these things do not represent His Kingdom. They are blockers to blessings, and He made this very clear when He reminded His people in Deuteronomy 11:8(NLT) “Therefore, be careful to obey every command I am giving you today, so you may have strength to go in and take over the land you are about to enter.”
In this verse, we have the ‘ultimate strategy for success’. We’ve heard this phrase used in the corporate and business arena, but God is the Originator of success. Everything He does is perfect. Heavenly Father made the promise, and the people had to remain Kingdom-minded in order to have the strength to reach out and grab the blessing. There can be no doubt from the truth expressed in Deuteronomy 11:8-9 that obedience to God’s Word translates to spiritual strength, and spiritual strength translates to the physical manifestation of the blessing. We might try to overlook the simplicity and potency of this truth but doing so means we will be without what we need when we need it.
There was a condition to the promise, and this condition was laid out since the very beginning, when God first created Adam. The condition to God’s promises is obedience! In Deuteronomy 11, Moses sought to drive home the importance of meeting this spiritual condition so that God’s people would be equipped to take possession of the blessing. There would be incredible obstacles and adversity, and they could only be in a position to navigate the difficulties by following God’s guidance. So that they would remain anchored in the promise, Moses reminded them of what God had done for them in the past, how He led them through the bondage of slavery and kept them through the trials and tribulations of wilderness living.
Notice how God continued to motivate them towards progress. He didn’t want them to stay in slavery or to remain in the wilderness. He desired their increase. He desired to give them more, but He wouldn’t force them to achieve success. They had to align themselves with His plan and step outside the comfort zone of fear to receive the promise. We must do the same. Each of us has a promise land that we want to take possession of, and it is just as important for us to remember God’s goodness as it was to His people living in Old Testament times. They had to be fully-persuaded that trusting God’s Word would empower them. This is true for us as well.
When it comes to a relationship, we can’t take possession of another person, but we can recognize a presentation when God makes it. If we are spiritually strong, we can reach out by attracting someone that is magnetized to the image of God’s love that we have developed in our hearts. But many of us won’t make the leap to go to higher spiritual heights. Like the Israelites, we continue to wander in the wilderness. Coming out of it will require us to saturate our minds and hearts with faith in God through Jesus Christ.
Realize that not only did God communicate the promise, He also told His people in Deuteronomy 11:9 that IF they obeyed, they’d receive. Have you asked God what HE has in store for you, or do you have your own ideas and expect God to follow? Do yourself the greatest favor, ask Heavenly Father to reveal what He has in store for you, then obey His Word to see His promise fulfilled. He honors His Word, He’s faithful to fulfill it, and you will never be disappointed by following God’s Word. ■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“The Condition That Must Be Met” written by Kim Times, edited by Reverend Fran Mack, for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2020. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.