Why is the Land important?

I have been reading the Old Testament and repeatedly, I've come across references to the LAND. I have been asking the Lord, what does this mean? He even says in Isaiah that He will be married to the land! So..what is the meaning of this?

I felt that He answered me some time ago, saying that the LAND is a picture of your LIFE. So..in other words we were brought out of "Egypt", the land of bondage (to sin and death) to the Promised Land, the land of surrender. (the Exodus is where this happened in the natural)

Let's go back to the beginning, to Genesis, where Adam and Eve walked with God in the Garden of Eden, unashamed, untouched by sin. They had fellowship with the Lord and both they and the Lord enjoyed their companionship together. This is what He desired for our relationship with Him to be..unashamed and free to walk with Him and He with us. Of course, the Fall took us into the bondage of sin and death.

The promised LAND is our life in surrender to the Lord, made possible by the sacrifice of the Cross by our Lord. It is where we dwell in fellowship with God and other people who have also entered the LAND. There are boundaries on the outside of the LAND..blessings for obeying Him (inside the boundaries) and curses for disobeying Him (outside the boundaries) just like the Promised Land in the Old Testament.   

This is where we dwell in UNITY with our brothers and sisters in Christ. And where we dwell TOGETHER with our Lord. In the Spirit, we are in the Promised Land here, no matter where we physically dwell. The word DWELL in Psalms 133 means inhabited, MARRIED to, is the opposite of DESOLATE or FORSAKEN, which means uninhabited and a reproach.

So what is the GARDEN and how does it differ from the LAND?  It isn't separate from the LAND, it is a part of it! The GARDEN is the secret place where we have intimate relationship with our Lord, just me and Him alone. We each have a GARDEN within the LAND. This GARDEN excludes anyone else besides the two of us. And as in the Song of Solomon, we must each tend our GARDEN to make our Lord welcome. To drive out anything or anyone who would intrude upon this most intimate place. 

The Lord wants to be married to our Promised Land, which He gave to us for a place to dwell. Isaiah 62:4 It will no longer be said to you, "Forsaken," Nor to your land will it any longer be said,"Desolate"; But you will be called, "My Delight is in Her," And your land, "Married"; For the Lord delights in you, And to Him your land will be married.

So do you see why our lives (land) must be undefiled? How can the Holy God marry a defiled life (land)? He isn't just married to us as a single person apart from the life we live, but he will marry our whole life in unity with our brethren. This is why our land (life) must be constantly attended to. We MUST not build fences around areas of our lives where we don't invite Him in. Where He never told us to go. We MUST cultivate unity with our brethren in Him so we can live in the land as He intends. And THIS is where the Church as His Bride is called to dwell. 

He is calling us to root Babylon out of us. Babylon mixes devotion with another in the harlotry of idolatry. He cannot marry our land when we give our devotion to another. We are to dwell in that secret place of the Garden, which is in the Promised Land where we dwell in unity in Him with our brethren.

The biggest most horrifying sin for our land is idolatry, which is pictured over and over by prostitution and harlotry. It is giving the precious intimacy of our Garden to another that is not the Lord. It is the thing that is called in the Old Testament an ABOMINATION to the Lord. It is what leaves the land DESOLATE and uninhabited.  It leaves our LIFE without the presence of our Lord. 

And while I have been looking into these things, I have also come to see that REST is part of the promised land. It means to STOP working. To REST, waiting for His direction is very hard, but the only way. If the land (our life) doesn't receive its sabbath rest, it will be worn out and unfruitful. We must not proceed until the land (our life) has rested and waited upon the Lord. Stop, Rest and listen for His voice this day. Meditate upon His Word and Wisdom today. Rest in the Garden within the Promised Land and learn of His heart..know Him deeply and dearly. Then come out and dwell in the Promised Land in unity with the others He has called.
 
 

No One Came

I have been in Babylon for the last several weeks. My chains and bars are so real I can nearly reach out and touch them. Babylon means chaos and confusion..Oh yes that is all around me. The enemy has been very busy during this time. He whispers to me," you are a failure". He points out to me how everyone around me knows this and conspires against me, seeking to trap me. Watching for me to stumble. Laughing at me in my weakness. "I have been a reproach so why should I try", runs through my thoughts..another lie, another planting of doubt by the enemy. So why do I listen? There has been an act of war against me, God's chosen. And I didn't know what to do, so I began to listen to his words. I began to want to die..for real. I forgot who I was.

I saw myself in a dream, laying in a ditch beside a house. It is the desolate house of the Lord, the abandoned house that rests on the Stone. The Desolate Sanctuary of Daniel 9. I see the Stone there and the paint is still peeling, the green roof has holes and the porch still sags. I had been resting there, waiting for the others to come. I had gotten off the stone, discouraged at the seemingly endless wait and at the chaos and confusion all around. Giving up, I laid down in the ditch nearby, covering my head with my arms. I saw billowing beautiful white satin, like the satin of a wedding dress, a most lovely delicate fabric all around me..it was covering me all around. I could see myself like a bride in the ditch covered like a corpse with the lovely satin fabric of the wedding dress. Then I saw the winds began to blow gently and the sands of time began to cover over the satin with the bride underneath. There was no one to rescue me in my discouragement, I died there allowing the sands to cover me, unmoving and unwilling even to rescue myself. 

I looked around the ditch as if I were somewhere above the scene. There was a lovely piece of land that the abandoned house sat on. This land was full of tangled weeds and overgrowth all over. But its former beauty was still on display when I looked closely. There were fruit trees in desperate need of pruning and grapevines that had grown wild all over the place. Among the weeds peeked beautiful wildflowers and birds still sang there. I asked the Lord, " what is this land here for..nobody seems to care about it. Is it an important part of the abandoned house? He said the abandoned house is My Bride, the true Church and the land is to be married to Me. 

Isaiah 62:4 It will no longer be said to you, "Forsaken," Nor to your land will it any longer be said,"Desolate"; But you will be called, "My delight is in her," and your land, "Married"; for the Lord delights in you, and to Him your land will be married.

So this is why He is so tender towards the land that never got its rest until he drove out all His people who would not obey Him and give the land its sabbath rest. This is why He had to force the rest for the land to which He is to be married. The promised land was more than just a good place to live.. it was His heart..so much so that He cannot be separated from this promised land. He wants us living in the land He is to be married to because it is the place He prepared for His Bride..to reject or not care for the land is to reject and not care for the Lord, our Bridegroom.

 I see the face of My Lord, My Bridegroom, with tears in His lovely eyes, saying," I asked them to come; I asked them many times, ravishing their hearts with My love, but they swatted my words of love away like a fly. They didn't believe I could ever come to them with love in My eyes especially for them. They did not believe they were worthy..they did not believe that I could be talking to them. They thought they were not working hard enough. They thought they were not organized enough. They thought wrong. They made up a lot of rules and regulations, schedules and pictures of what they thought I wanted their lives to look like..but they were wrong. They thought that simply resting on the Stone was silly, a waste of time, so instead, they fill every spare moment with busyness. I have been, in every quiet moment, in the night in their dreams, in passing thoughts, I have been wooing them. But they disregard Me as just a passing wishful thought. So My Bride, my true Bride is slowly and quietly being buried, discouraged and alone". 

Today as His Spirit woos you with His love, pay attention. Know that it really IS Him. Know that He really DOES have His eyes on you. You are made worthy by the cross. The cross WAS enough..you cannot do anything to make Him love you more. Come to Him in your weakness and allow Him to court you. He wants YOU for His Bride. She needs YOU to be a part..She is getting discouraged because YOU are needed to make her complete. She is NOT complete without YOU..yes He wants YOU to make His precious Bride complete.

So help me up..I am His Bride..representing her in all her weakness. I need Him to send more to make me whole. He is looking for a Bride without spot or wrinkle. If we don't have all of us, we are not complete. So come..draw us, Lord..and we will listen for Your voice. We will tune out all the chaos (Babylon) around us, run to the secret place and enjoy you..that is what we didn't realize was ok. that we CAN enjoy you and revel in Your Love. We need each other. We can't be a bride for Him if we are alone. Pick up your brothers and sisters out of the ditch and tell them..tell them He needs every one of us to make us complete. That weakness does not ever disqualify us..we were never qualified in the first place by anything we did or didn't do. Only the sacrifice of the cross qualified us..He alone makes us spotless and wrinkle-free.