Review this word. We are entering into its last phase as we turn this year. Then, we will receive “fresh orders.”
This word is being pressed into me and leaving an impression upon my spirit. As an emblem pressed into warm wax, each day the word presses a bit deeper, leaving a more clearly defined pattern.
We are recently received fresh orders about our assignment in this North Florida region, an expansion on the assigned we received many years ago, an expansion that was activated at the head of the year, Sept 30.
Careful study and research is needed because this is revelation that will guide us through next steps of strategic advancement. The Bible reveals God so we can recognize Him and His ways more clearly when He involves Himself in history. We should expect God to point us the way and to make the way He is pointing more clear through His written Word.
The promise and strategic directives God gave Moses were repeated to Joshua. The outcomes of these two leader’s assignments are examined in the days of the Judges: unfinished assignments left future generations in a lurch.
Judges says the cultures Joshua’s generation left in place became a testing vexation to Israelites of subsequent generations. What God asked Moses and Joshua to do would have left future generations in a totally different spiritual environment, but failure of their leadership, their generations, played out in startling parrallel to God’s promised concerns. Making unholy alliances leads to unholy culture, impure kingdom, and consistent vexing of the spirit.
When Joshua received the mantle of Moses, God gave him the same promise we will examine here, and Joshua received a visitation of the angel God promised to send before Moses, an assignment of angelic armies that waited for Joshua’s generation to do what Moses’ generation did not.
The angel repeated to Joshua, “take off your shoes,” when God had made it clear that the land his naked feet touched would be holy ground, that his feet were to tread on that holy land and make it holy again. Joshua’s assignment was Moses’ so Moses’ promises were given to Joshua as well.
Exodus 23:20 “See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. 21 Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him. 22 If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. 23 My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out. 24 Do not bow down before their gods or worship them or follow their practices. You must demolish them and break their sacred stones to pieces. 25 Worship the LORD your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you, 26 and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span. 27 “I will send my terror ahead of you and throw into confusion every nation you encounter. I will make all your enemies turn their backs and run. 28 I will send the hornet ahead of you to drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites out of your way. 29 But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you. 30 Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land. 31 I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the River. I will hand over to you the people who live in the land and you will drive them out before you. 32 Do not make a covenant with them or with their gods. 33 Do not let them live in your land, or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare to you.”
My angel goes ahead of you. This angel will be visible to you from behind because he goes ahead of you. What he says and what he does tells you what to say and what to do because he announces what you are going to say and do when you advance.
Of course, great debate and discussion follows these announcements of God’s angel. In some instances, the angel seems to identify himself as God by stating that he is the God of Bethel or the God who appeared and spoke, so some assume, understandably, that this means the angel is God, thus a theophany of Jesus before His birth.
We do know that angels carry God’s voice, so we can also see this angel as God’s messenger carrying God’s voice and God’s voice saying, “I am the God of…” In this way we can see the angel as an angel, not as God. Other discussions center upon whether or not the angel is worshipped, etc. Interesting…
But not the main point here, and I mention it because a clear distinction needs to be made between God’s part and our part in this conquest scenario. Some assume that God’s part is so great that their part is just to mop up and enjoy the end result. Others assume God is empowering them to be god-like and end up taking too much credit for the part God does.
The angel is leading into a direct, facet-to-face confrontation with God’s enemies. The angel has been ready to proceed with this conquest since the days of Moses but has been waiting for a faithful generation. In other words, the angel isn’t going to have this confrontation until someone goes with him, follows him, some who can possess the land once the land is freed of God’s enemies.
God says, “My angel, my terror, and my hornets are sent by Me to your enemies, ahead of you, to prepare My enemies for your arrival, your words, and your actions.” In other words, these inhabitants are not Israel’s enemies until they follow this angel into confrontation with them! As they follow God’s angel into this confrontation, God will confront their enemies. “You face My enemies,” God says, “and I’ll face your enemies.”
My Angel isn’t Your Angel
My angel will go ahead to guard you along the way by showing you the way and bringing you to your destination. He runs where you will run, walks where you will walk, confronts the enemies you will confront. He goes before you and guards you, but you must run, walk, and confront My enemies. He isn’t your angel; he is My angel. He doesn’t represent your interests to My enemies; he represents My interests and guards you because you are My people.
Note: the word “guard” here is significant. We don’t do the guarding, but our following the angelic announcements and authentication keeps us in places of safety. We can be bold when we are following God’s path His angel walks before us. The word “guard” is “shamar,” for “watch and watchman,” “keep” in the sense of “observe,” and tells us the function of the angel. It is following what he observes and hearing and seeing what he sees and hears that gives us the fullness of his function.
However, the angel isn’t present to be our errand boy. He makes this abundantly clear when he apprears to Joshua. Joshua encounters the angel while taking a midnight stroll, so to speak, and challenges him: “Are you for us or for our enemies?” To which the angel answers, “Neither. I’m not for you or for your enemies. I am here as captain of Yahweh’s armies. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here.”
God isn’t sending angels to help us do what we want to do or accomplish what we want to accomplish. God’s angels are the tooth fairy, Santa Claus, or the Easter bunny. Disneyisms aside, we don’t get to “wish upon a star” or call upon our heavenly tinkerbell or fairy godmothers to reach our personal potentials!
God is the One with purpose, strategy, destiny, and rights of possession. He gives us assignments and sends His armies to lead us into the fullness of fulfillment, to get God what He wants. The angel is God’s angel, not ours.
If we had our way about it, we would hang out at the oasis, send in the angels, and cross over the Jordan after they give us the “all clear.” If we had our way about it, the angels can mow down the “ites,” knock down the walls, then build us a four-star resort for our religous country club, making the enemies of God into our servants to cook the food, do the wash, and take out the trash. “Serves’em right for opposing us, the chosen!”
Sorry! This way of God includes fighting, hurting, healing, confronting, and life-long hard work assignments. Lots of surprises coming for the narcissistic modern American church when we get into eternal kingdom. The beautiful isle of somewhere where Jesus went away to build the heavenly Ritz resort…well, it ain’t gonna be what you might have dreamed!
God’s angel arrives to do God’s business and see after God’s interests. We are God’s interest because we are more important than the land, but we are God’s interests because we are His kingdom people who will inhabit and possess the land. Anything else, from a kingdom perspective, would be uncivilized.
It is possible to rebel against this angel because the angel is sent by God and rebelling against his directions puts us in rebellion with God’s strategy. This is a place of danger and exposure when we are sent against God’s enemies. We are in danger of God’s enemies unless we maintain the course set by this messenger.
Here is where a misplaced volunteerism can catch up off-guard. We tend to assume that because leadership relationship functions voluntarily that God is asking us to be volunteers, that we have options within the scope of our obedience to God’s directives. We tend to think that we can simply opt-out of battle since there is no draft, in other words. We tend to think God is so in love with us that He will be happy to help us do anything. We tend to assume angels are sent to help us realize personal potential.
We tend to assume that Father is there to give us what we want because we are His people, the apples of His eye. While that is completely true, Father is there to transform us so we can inherit what He has prepared for us. We tend to think Father is there to help us get what we prepare for Him, so He can get us what we’ve prepared for ourselves. God is our “get me my stuff source and resource.”
But if you are chosen to inherit, you must be the one who fights for your inheritance. Even if you do not intend to settle in the land, you are still required to fight! The tribes that chose to inherit on the other side of the Jordan River were required to cross over and fight for the whole kingdom inheritance during the times of siege. This is all about you getting your stuff! Actually, you are inheriting God’s stuff and the blessing comes to you when you inherit because the blessing is already upon God’s inheritance.
Note the wording of verse 20, “the place I have prepared.” It is for you if you can possess it, if you can cause the land to produce and fulfill purpose, you are a good inheritor, a good son or daughter!
“Listen carefully to what He says.” So this long-term assignment comes with a new angelic assignment, and we are learning to observe and hear revelation available through Holy Spirit that reveals what this angel is doing and saying. It is Holy Spirit who makes this revelation clear and available to us because we live SpiritFirst. The angel’s assignment to lead doesn’t displace Holy Spirit, but Holy Spirit in us makes the revelation of what God is doing in our region available to us. That is, we can see and hear because of Holy Spirit what God is doing in our region with His warring angels. We need to synchronize our watches and movements with the timing and directions of God so we will be in synch with God’s angel.
When you see angels they tell what God is doing. When the angel speaks, we hear what God is saying. See this as a messenger from God’s war room. Understand this angel is sent to lead us into battle!
Recently, while at a Prophetic Roundtable in Alabama, we had a visitation. I saw the angel the Lord put into place for this conquest, and what I saw caused me to better understand what God is doing. The enemy of this region will be shocked about this angel’s presence. The enemy will not be ready to face down this enemy, but we have been prepared to follow God’s strategy to take the land.
The angel will not forgive rebellion. He won’t change God’s plans, say something else or do something else. He won’t make any moves to join us in rebellion. He will do what God is doing and say what God is saying. We either get it or we don’t, but he isn’t authorized to pardon us, make room for our rebellion, or change course to make us feel better about things. He isn’t here to pamper us or train us. He is here to guard us in our obedience.
God’s Enemies are Ours, Our Enemies are God’s
In this way, God becomes the enemy of our enemies. This is different from what you think! Notice that the enemies we are facing are God’s enemies, not ours. As we face God’s enemies, God will take action against our enemies because God knows our enemies will become allies with His enemies when we confront His enemies.
So, you can expect God to do something about the attacks against your lives and destinies as you obey this course of action. You should move from praying for your own needs to prophesying and declaring God’s purposes, confronting God’s enemies, and marching behind God’s angel; then, God will start a war with the enemies you face at home, work, and in life!! When your enemies step up the attacks to distract you from following God’s angel and fulfilling this assignment, do not be distracted by your enemies because God will take up that battle when you take up His battle!
Obedience to God’s assignments will heighten our need to have victory over reoccurring spiritual conflicts, even chronic physical, financial, and family issues. We should expect that our focus upon establishing God’s kingdom will result in God’s focus upon establishing our destinies!
Of course, the land is God’s but right now God says it is the land of the -ites because they are in control and hold false claims to the land. Do not become arrogant about this and say of these enemeis, “You don’t have any power.” They do. You can’t say, “You don’t have any authority.” They do. They have the power of darkness. They have the authority that belongs to the ecclesia that we have surrendered. During the siege of the land, we will gradually get that authority back; we have increases of God’s power to reclaim and establish more of God’s authority.
God is bringing us directly into confrontation with His enemies to give us our inheritance. He will “cut them off.” This word is “kachad” and in this verb tense (Niphal) it means destruction, cut off, with the sense of the end. Period. They are now. They are cut off. They are not anymore. This refers to spiritual conditions created by spiritual rulers of darkness who will not be able to continue functioning in this region.
Worship
We are going to be destroying their worship. We are going to establish kingdom by restoring the worship of God.
[The first Sunday morning of November, we started facing down this new enemy who has come to frustrate our worship. The attack will be against anything to do with worship, dance, PA, worshipping, including sound, music, action, and revelation about worship. You will begin to face down this new enemy in your personal worship. The attack started a month ago, and I have been fighting it, getting new strategy, and establishing new worship for every part of the ministry.
Worship will release our provision! His blessings will match our worship! I am ready to worship a lot and get blessed a lot. I am motivated by deeper worship passion. I am also motivated by God’s passion to my worship passion to release more worship passion. Get your passion burning for worship and you will be blessed!
The promise is that we are blessed following God’s strategy. The angel is leading us into direct confrontation with God’s enemies so we will regain our inheritance. The strategy begins now and we will flourish naturally as we confront spiritually. [This includes several specific blessings listed.]
A special sense of money, wealth, health, increased unity, and long life is available as we walk this strategic path. This is above the promise that God will take care of these covenant provisions like the wilderness blessings of manna and river in the Rock, because we are going to get a special God-against-our-enemies response for obeying God. We are going to live off our inheritance the moment we cross over.
Note: we don’t have a choice about this assignment. We either follow the angel or we get hammered. We don’t get to un-volunteer, go to another ministry, toss in the towel and go back to Egypt. This is why I have spoken so specifically and bluntly about assignment. If you are assigned here, get into place because this is really serious. You don’t have the option of opting out of your assignment and inheriting in some other way! Your only safety and blessing now lies in the path of your obedience. [Please read this again and let it sink in!]
Panic and Terror
“I will send my Terror before you.” The word is special, “eymah,” and usually denotes a spiritual condition of dread and terror. An atmosphere of dread settles upon God’s enemeis. God’s enemies develop symptoms of irrational fear, knees knocking together and lost control over basic bodily fluids, as well as imagined attacks. The confusion that is coming to God’s enemies will be obvious. God’s enemies will begin to attack one another, hellish alliances will fall apart, enemies will be isolated and suddenly appear weak so that we will say, Why did I think they were so strong?
The generation that failed to conquer were intimidated by the walled cities and the size of the warring champions of these nations. They saw themselves as grasshoppers and the enemies as giants. They responded in panic. Yet, panic was what their enemies were experiencing! Do not give in to any attack of spiritual terrorism, any sense that your family, finances, and physical body are gonna pay the price for your obedience. You are going to come out strong, successful, and blessed no matter how bad it is or looks!
How do you Kill Hornets with a Sword and Spear?
“I will send the hornet.” This word is used several times in Scripture to speak of how God motivates His enemies with terror, striking individuals, swarming them in ways they cannot use their weapons to resist, and causing them give up their claims just as Egypt gave up their gold. The hornets represent the motivation of God’s enemies to surrender to us at some point.
This is a siege of the land. Little by little we will gain ground until “you are strong enough” to possess the land. The wealth of the wicked stays with the wicked until the righteous are strong enough to possess it; God does not wipe out everything and start over like He did in the Flood because He is preserving the stuff of the land for His purposes and people.
When we win a victory, we are not taking slaves or survivors of God’s enemies. We are not making a deal with demons or rulers in the season of their terror, torment and termination. They will be motivated by the hornets to give up, then we must clean the land out of every ruler of darkness by cleaning out their places of spiritual attachment and break their claim to God’s inheritance. Whatever they have used to gain control or authority, we must destroy. We cannot use their attachments to exercise God’s authority! We establish a new basis for authority, the kingdom of God, the ecclesia called together to govern the atmosphere of our region. We will have a spiritual reign in the midst of God’s enemies. (See Psalm 110)
Beginning September 30, we are in a new assignment. Beginning November 1, we are in this new strategy. Beginning January 1, we will begin to function with this priority in every area of our ministry!
