I have never seen so many people enter into their greater life’s work, or their version of their promised land, as I have in the past few years. Christianity is maturing all over the world, and people are getting commissioned to do what they were created for. This has great significance to the world around us.
Cherie and I can see the line we crossed just a few years ago, when we were working toward entering into what God had promised us and spoken to us about. When we did cross over, we had another whole series of learning processes—that I want to share—from this wonderful but very intense season. I remember reading an article years ago, “Lessons from the Battlefield,” and thinking what about giving us lessons from those inheriting what was warred for? In this season, Cherie and I, and many of you, are learning about what comes after the battle. What comes when you begin to occupy God’s promises? Here are five lessons we learned about starting to live in the promised land:
1. You have to look at everything as if it’s new.
When you enter into your greater destiny, you have to recognize that everything is new. Sometimes you can have an expectation that when you start to do the things you were made for, you will know exactly what to expect because you have been there before in some way, but no. You have been prepared, but you have not “been there, done that, or worn that T-shirt.” I love what God says to the Israelites, who felt as though they knew every way God worked or as though they could anticipate the new season they were entering into: “See, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not be aware of it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert” (Is. 43:19).
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When you come into the promises of God, you have to set your heart like a child—as if you don’t know anything. You have to be in dependence on God, or you could miss the joy of the connection and learning that comes with the new. Sometimes we can sacrifice this joy by trying to keep our know-it-all attitude.
2. Entering into your promises is an answer to your prayer and your heart’s deepest cry, and God has made it happen.
Jabez prayed this radical prayer for the people of Israel (not for himself): “Bless me, O bless me! Give me land, large tracts of land. And provide your personal protection—don’t let evil hurt me” (1 Chronicles 4:10b, MSG). God gave him what he asked for.
That, in itself, was a sign to Jabez: His intimacy with God produced the fruit of greatness. The fruit of intimacy gave Jabez the depth of prayer he needed to pray into his promises. These prayers were not self-absorbed but were for his people, and when God fulfilled them, Jabez and everyone around him knew that God was with them and was pleased.
When God does the things you are believing for, you will know you couldn’t have accomplished it on your own! You don’t even always know how to pray for it to happen; you just walk with God and stand in awe of how he delivers his will.
3. Entering into promise causes us to fully form or develop.
“Now He who supplies seed to the sower and supplies bread for your food will also multiply your seed sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness” (2 Cor. 9:10).
Part of developing your promises with God is that you become very whole and connected to yourself and the world around you. Your intrinsic value causes you to prosper through this valuable God who lives inside you. You connect to others as a contributor, not as a needy soul. You become a mentor, father (mother), a teacher—and it’s not because you set out to do it, your life just manifests a development of your intimacy with God that people want to be around or learn from.
4. When we enter into our promises, God enlarges our territory.
“Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your habitations; spare not, lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes. for you shall spread out to the right hand and to the left, and your descendants shall inherit the nations and make the desolate cities to be inhabited” (Is. 54:2-3). [“Desolate cities”—see Isaiah 49:19.]
We are expanded so we can carry more—more favor, more influence and the resources required to fulfill the destiny God has given us.
5. It requires rest to sustain our life in the promised land.
God himself rested on the seventh day. In that day, he occupied, enjoyed and encountered all that he had created. He stopped to be present with it. When we live a lifestyle in which rest is a priority, it causes us to stop on the gerbil wheel and actually dwell on the goodness of what God is doing—both in our lives and in the world around us. Rest is a reset for faith and hope. It is a restorer of vision.
“But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your livestock, nor the foreigner that is within your gates, so that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you” (Deut. 5:14). “But when you cross the Jordan, and dwell in the land which the Lord your God has given you to inherit, and when He gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety” (Deut. 12:10); “But now the Lord my God has given me peace on every side, so that there is no adversary nor misfortune” (1 King. 5:4).
When we enter into the greater promises on our lives, we also begin to walk in an atmosphere of rest from warfare and from drama. The more mature we get, the more capacity we have to carry graciousness and wisdom. Relational conflict, politics and drama just don’t slow us down or cost us time. Also, we learn how to let God fight our battles so that we can stay focused on the joy of intimacy with him and partnering with his purposes.
Whether you are in the midst of growing pains, a battle or occupying God’s promises, we pray that God meets you in his extravagant love this month. May his presence surround you and resource you! {eoa}
Shawn Bolz is director of Bolz Ministries as well as an author, TV host, spiritual adviser, producer and minister. He is also founding pastor of Expression58 Christian Ministries, a ministry focused on the entertainment industry and the poor in Los Angeles, California, where he lives with his wife, Cherie, and their two daughters.
This article originally appeared on bolzministries.com.
Curt Landry 
Michael L. Brown 
Rabbi Eric Tokajer 
