Taking Possession Little By Little, Part 1
“And the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you little by little; you will be unable to destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field become too numerous for you.” (Deut 7:22)
Is there something in your life that you have been believing for that has never seemed to come to pass completely? The hard thing is to continue believing, to continually move forward toward that goal, even though it seems so far away. There are times that we have to accept that the answer and result we desire may not come as quickly as we might have hoped. Can Jesus meet your need in an instant? Certainly. Does that mean that this will always be the result? Certainly not, but we can’t allow that to dissuade us from being resolute in our faith. Often when the victory comes easily, we give it up easily when the devil comes to wrestle it from us. As much as Jesus wants you to walk in His victories, the devil wants to steal them away from you.
Sometimes answered prayers from the Lord do not come quickly because of spiritual warfare that is taking place. Witness the example of Daniel. The angel told him that at the moment he prayed his request was granted but it took three weeks of spiritual warfare until the results made their way from the spiritual realm to the physical realm. So, spiritual warfare could be the reason for the time delay in receiving the evidence of the Word’s promises. But there may be another reason for the delay in your awaited answer.
There are times when the Lord simply knows us better than we know ourselves. He wants us to be able not just to receive His deliverance, but maintain it, not yielding it to the adversary of our souls. It may take a period of time of standing on the Word and standing in faith until you get the results because God is preparing us to be strong enough to hold onto His blessing. The above verse is an example of this.
In Deuteronomy, as the people were preparing to move into the Promised Land the Lord had established for them, God directs them to drive out the inhabitants of the lands a little at a time. He knew that they were not yet strong enough to overcome all the inhabitants and maintain possession and productivity of the land, so His instructions to them were to take possession of the land little by little. They were probably very much like us in wanting everything that the Lord has promised to us, as quickly as possible, we don’t expect to have to wait on anything, whether we are prepared to receive and maintain the Promised Land results or not.
Had the Israelites received all the land at once they would have been unable to hold onto it. When we believe God for something from His Word we are often not yet strong enough spiritually to retain it. If the devil comes against us, we easily surrender what was given. As the Israelites took possession of the land little by little, their faith, confidence, and power in Him increased, allowing them to maintain the possession of the Promised Land. They became stronger day by day. As you walk through your trial, struggling to receive the full victory of Jesus Christ, you will become stronger in faith with each daily victory. You will possess the victory and be strong in Him to maintain it against the assaults of the enemy.
J Todd Hostetler