A TIME TO PURSUE

  By Jim Hodges

 


Summary: Change is coming to the church of as God calls us from passivity to pursuit.

In the wake of the events of last September 11, our President committed to pursue terrorists and bring them to justice. The “hunt” is on and will evidently continue for a while. I believe the time has come for the Church to come out of spiritual passivity and into a mentality of pursuit, as well. It is time we started hunting! We can never advance the Kingdom of God in the earth without having a pursuit mentality.

In Joshua 3:1-7, we find the people of God being positioned and prepared for pursuit. This generation, born in the desert and led by Joshua, had never been trained for pursuit. They had simply been survivors not pursuers! The Lord repositions them from Shittim to the banks of the Jordan River where they lodged three days. Here they receive instructions and strategies for pursuing their future.

Before we look at this more closely, let me remind us that the Church needs two elementary revelations in order to relentlessly and radically pursue its future: (1) We must pursue both God’s purposes for the earth and our future in those purposes; and (2) Our pursuit will be released out of proper positioning. We cannot get what we need in God by staying in the same place spiritually—even a place that God blessed in a past season! We need to change our address; we must move from Shittim to the place where the Jordan is flowing (the river of the Spirit). There we will be instructed and energized to move forward and pursue.

By the way, what ought the Church be pursuing?
The following:

1. Individual and corporate destiny.

Many saints today are more concerned about eternal destination than their destiny in this life. Their goal is the glorification of the physical body at Christ’s return; God’s goal is to release His glory to us as we represent His agenda here on the earth. According to the New Testament, glory precedes glorification! (Hebrews 2:10)

2. Inheritance promised us in Christ.

The land of Canaan represents our inheritance in the manifestation of the Kingdom of God on earth. Psalm 24:1 declares: “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof…” The entire earth belongs to God and thus belongs to us His children.

3. Comprehensive Covenant fulfillment.

The full effect of what Christ did at the Cross must be released in history in a time-space world. This fulfillment is called transformation. For example, Joel 2:3 prophesies that Canaan will become like the Garden of Eden. The Gospel can transform the most devastated and demonized places in earth!

4. Kingdom purpose.

The Gospel will have dominion in all the earth and in every sphere of personal and corporate life: family, church, and civil government. (See Genesis 1:28, Psalm 2:12, and Matthew 28:18-20).

5. Enemies of the Gospel.

In the Exodus, the enemies of God and Israel pursued them as they moved toward the Red Sea. After the Jordan crossing, forty years later, led by Joshua, the people (army) of God are pursuing their enemies!

Let’s get back to the text and to the Jordan River and discover the mentality and strategy needed for God-directed pursuit.

I. A REVELATION OF SONSHIP (verse 1: “sons of Israel”):

This generation born in the desert that now camped at the Jordan had been brought forth by the Exodus Generation, which never got completely delivered from a slave mentality. Their repeated efforts to return to Egypt documented their bondage. They had left Egypt, but Egypt had not left them! Some of their bondage passed to their children.

This Joshua generation had difficulty seeing themselves as sons because they had not seen much spiritual fatherhood. Their parents had rebelled against God and Moses. The Exodus Generation through rebellion and disobedience had essentially rejected their son-ship and this prevented them from coming into fatherhood. In that sense, the Joshua Generation was fatherless and thus cursed (see Malachi 4:6).

However, some revelation began to break forth when this generation born in the desert saw the transfer of leadership from Moses to Joshua. He had been mentored by Moses and selected by God to lead Israel.

At the Jordan they were called, “sons of Israel.” This understanding was necessary for them to go forward. Slaves do not inherit, sons do! The Son of God, the Lord Jesus, inherits all the nations (Psalm 2:8,9). In Romans 8:17, we are called sons and thus heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ.

II. A RISING UP ATTITUDE (verse 2: “after three days..”):

The Church cannot pursue if it does not rise up! Three days speaks of resurrection. Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and nights; Jesus arose on the third day!

In Ephesians 5:14, Paul exhorted: “awake, sleeper, and rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you.” The Church must awaken—He won’t wake us, we must wake ourselves and then Christ will shine on and through us.

The Church in the book of Acts walked in the power of Christ’s resurrection. Jesus arose and so did His church!

The day of passive Christianity is over. Spiritual passivity won’t cut it. That dog won’t hunt!

III. PROPER RESPONSE TO GOD APPOINTED LEADERSHIP (verse 2: “officers”):

These officers distributed to the people in the entire camp the word God had given to Joshua. In the past few decades the Lord has been “officializing” five fold team leadership in His Church.

Leaders must be established in the Church first (Ephesians 2:20). They are not better or superior to others, they are simply called and appointed by God to lead. Each believer as a sheep of God can hear the voice of God. However, it takes God appointed leadership to release corporate strategy and corporate pursuit. Part of our challenge in the modern church is that there are many believers who can hear God individually, but they do not respond to the word of their leadership and thus do not advance as the corporate army of God!

I remind us that the word of the Lord to the churches in Revelation (chapters 2 and 3) was directed through each church’s star-angel, i.e., its leadership. The saints in these churches could hear the Lord, but it was their leadership that received the word for corporate correction and for the corporate strategy needed in each city where they were located.

The officers of Joshua went throughout the camp and communicated with everyone! Without that action, the people of Israel would have been singing: “On Jordan’s stormy banks we stand, what do we do next?” Believer, you can hear the voice of the Lord for yourself. But to move forward as the corporate Body of Christ, we must embrace the leadership the Lord appointed and established!

IV. STAYING FOCUSED ON HIS PRESENCE (verses 3 and 4: “go after it”)”

We must pursue His presence before we pursue His purpose! As holy and royal priests, our first calling is to minister to Him in worship, praise, and prayer.

We must keep our eyes on the Ark and go after it. The Ark, the worship, will lead the Church into a new way. Since we have not passed this way before, we dare not miss its course!

Furthermore, these Levitical priests bearing the Ark with the poles on their shoulders, were not only providing direction for the sons of Israel, they were bringing divine worship into the land of Canannite idolatry. It had been four hundred years since the land had seen expressions of true worship. Back then father Abraham had built altars to the Lord and had tithed to Melchizedek, the king-priest of Jerusalem. This is a prophetic picture of the Church bringing true worship to the entire earth and replacing false worship and idolatry!

Evangelism is seeing the nations converted; discipleship is seeing the nations worshipping Creator-Redeemer Father God! (See Revelation 7:9).

V. FAITH TO EMBRACE A BETTER TOMORROW (verse 5: “tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.”)

This generation born in the desert had certainly seen wonders at the hand of the Lord. But at the Jordan, they received the promise of greater wonders!

This became quickly evident when they crossed the Jordan. This was similar to their fathers crossing the Red Sea. However, the Jordan crossing superseded the Red Sea crossing. At the Exodus, Moses had lifted a rod and the waters parted. Psalm 106 informs us that children of Israel rebelled at the Red Sea. It was Moses’ faith and obedience that parted the Sea. Once the waters were parted, it did not take faith on the people’s part to cross over. It would have been stupid to not cross over especially when Pharaoh’s army was breathing down their back side! But at the Jordan forty years later, Joshua does not raise up a rod. Instead he sends the priests with the ark and twelve men to step into the river, which is at flood tide. When they stepped in the waters they parted!

The ministry of supernatural wonders coming to and through the Church will supersede anything history has recorded!

Let us consecrate ourselves today for what will happen tomorrow. Today is a down payment on tomorrow.

In Joshua 4:19 we are told that they crossed the Jordan on the 10th day of the first month, the beginning of the Passover. Forty years before the blood of the Passover Lamb had delivered their parents. Now this new generation would passover into their destiny!

Church, it is time to pass over, cross over, and pursue our future in Him!


JIM HODGES is founder and director of Federation of Ministers and Churches, which is a network of pastors, apostolic teams and local churches across the nation. He is a graduate of Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois, and Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Kansas. Jim travels extensively and has ministered in over 40 nations. He is currently writing a book about the future of today's Church. Jim and his wife Jean reside in the Dallas area.