Clear Out the Land

Judges 2:3 "So now I declare that I will no longer drive out the people living in your land. They will be thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a constant temptation to you"

Full submission and obedience to the Lord carries the results of a less tempted, painful life. It's true. God promised a fruitful land 'if' we would follow his instructions to remove all evidence of the previous residence.  In reading this portion of scripture, it can be just a story about the children of Israel and their establishment, a pretty interesting story at that, or we can read this with our spiritual awareness and see that this land refers to our lives.

You see our lives were once full of Canannite residency, paganism, false gods, and a life of really just full self indulgence.  But God had other plans for this land, your life. He wanted his holy people, his name, to be established in this land. And so upon the acceptance of our Lord Jesus Christ a new spirit came into this land; a land that was promised a good future. But did we drive out the people living in our lands?

As you read in the book of Judges, many of the tribes of Israel did not drive out the people from their lands.  Some scriptures say, they lived among them and allowed them to govern the area. They let them stay, but later made them slaves using them when they wanted them. Some kept them hidden in the outskirts of the land, but they were still there. And even some couldn't drive them out! They kept getting pushed back so they just stopped trying.

God promised us this land and he promised it to be a fruitful land! Jesus says you'll know they are my disciples by their fruit (John 15:8). The reason why we as believers are feeling pain and temptation is because we never drove out the sinfulness of our past lives! Many use an excuse "this is who I am", "I've always been like this".  Do you not know you are a NEW creation bought with a price and defeated a life of sin? Stop making excuses and drive out the past residence. 

We need to stop allowing ourselves to live in pain and temptation, Take a look at your land. Do you see evidence of previous residencies?

The time for fruitfulness is now! Let's clear out the land!