Memorial Day Conference Msg 5

The Formation of a Corporate Joshua to Possess the Good Land by Defeating the Satanic Forces

• When we talk about the spiritual warfare, we are fighting this warfare for God's interest- for the interest of the good land. For God to gain His expression and dominion on this earth.
• The good land, the land of Canaan, is a type of the all-inclusive Christ, the Christ who is all and in all and who is everything to us. There is a wonderful type of the good land. this is the ultimate type of Christ. This good land is to be everything to us. 
• "The allotted portion of the saints"; portion is the all-inclusive Christ for our enjoyment. We apply this all inclusive Christ to the experience of the saints. For us to possess and gain. 
• We need to walk in this good land-we are rooted in Him. Being built up in Him. Christ is likened to the soil. We are rooted in Him. In which we have been placed. We are built up in this land, rooted in this land. 
• Christ, the reality of the type of the good land, is everything to us. 
• Christ is not only to be our savior, Lord, master, but everything to us. 
• Their whole existence is related to the land. They were eating, drinking- the land was everything to God's people. God uses his land to typify this Christ should be everything to us. We live by Him, we drink Him, we breathe Him, we live by Him. Everything we do, are involved in is about this Christ.
• God's goal is for us to gain the all-inclusive Christ. That this Christ will become everything to us. 
• In this one new man, it is about the one new man. There is only one person in our midst: Christ who is all and in all. If we do not have this reality of experiencing this Christ to be our everything and our all in all, we are still short of what the one new man is. 
• In our daily life, is Christ our food, our drinking, conduct, ? Can we say that this Christ is everything for us? This burden of the one new man- He needs to gain this burden in us. Do we allow him to grow up into Him in all things, for Christ to become our everything? 
• If we would possess the good land, we must engage in warfare to defeat the satanic forces. God charged them to grow up and fight against. The land that God promised us is a land flowing with milk and honey, but it is a land also filled with enemies. In order to possess we need to fight our way into it. 
• Even the day we were saved, we have been engaged in a spiritual warfare. We should not think that spiritual warfare only happens outwardly. These enemies are not outside enemies, but inward adversaries. Always trying to defeat us, and defraud us going forward from gaining Christ. 
• If we have this view, we have a different perspective of fighting the warfare. We need to engage in this warfare to defeat the satanic forces. 
• The spiritual warfare is in our daily life. Satan is doing his utmost to hinder us from enjoying Christ as the all-inclusive one. He will do whatever he can to keep us from enjoying Christ as the all inclusive One. Our fighting is here. Right in your thoughts and concept are these things to frustrate you and distract you from enjoying Christ from the all-inclusive one. 
• 1st tactic used by the enemy: The enemy blinding us from seeing the all inclusive Christ, but not to see Christ in his all inclusiveness. The God of this age has blinded the thoughts of the unbelievers. 
• God will give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation that we may see- our eyes being enlightened. To open their eyes, turn them from darkness to light, from the authority of Satan to God. A lot of the battle takes place in our mind. This enemy is not that far from us. Many of the thoughts we take in. For the bringing forth of  the new man, we need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. 
• The warfare seems so unnoticeable, quiet but there is a struggle going on. The enemy veiled us with these 4 layers veils. 
• 1st layer: Our natural life: we were born in our natural life-our ethnicity. We were raised in our culture- causing us to behave and think in a certain way. We were educated in certain philosophies. We were saved in religion.
• Christ is our good land, and God wants us to gain Christ, but there is a layer of devilsh, demonic forces between us and the good land. If we would take possession of the good land for our enjoyment, we must defeat these satanic forces.  God has given this man to us, this is our inheritance. We need to be rooted, allowing this Christ to make his home in our hearts-be rooted in Him as this good land. 
• Everyday by receiving our roots into this land, absorbing all his riches, we are strengthened- may be full of strength to apprehend all the dimensions of Christ. We need to be strengthened.
• We cannot be wishy washy, we need to be strong.  Lord, I want to gain more of you. It's not good enough to be tranquil, resting, having Christ increase in us to be our all and our everything? 
• Anti-Christ is not just against Christ, but it's also things which may take the place of Christ- instead of Christ. Not only to be against Christ, but to substitute Christ. 
• We need to be strengthened to be today's Joshua and Caleb. To reject not only the things which are opposing Christ, but substituting to Christ.
• Without Joshua book, we cannot understand the spiritual warfare in Eph 6:10-20: 
• God brought them through many things- From Genesis to Deut. God has gained a group of people separated from the world, who will gain this purpose of inheriting the good land. In Joshua, everything is ready, just like Eph 1. 
• Josh 1 presents this situation
• God needs to gain a proper person for the bringing forth of Christ: Rahab. Rahab by faith she became one of the enjoyers of the good land. 
• We have now become the proper person for Christ to be brought forth to enter into the good land. 
• The enemy hates this conference- especially when the msg touches the defeating of God's enemy- Satan hates this. There are things going on in the spiritual realm that are invisible. There seems to be a delay in the answering, but there seems to be a delay in the battle of the scene. There is a spiritual warfare taking place in the invisible realm. 
• There is a spiritual warfare in the invisible scene BEHIND the visible scene means that in addn to war on the earth, there is a war between God and Satan.
• Eph 2: in the heavenlies there are different layers 
• Christ is in the highest layer, the 3rd heaven, to be our everything as ourr good land
• Lower layer: the air where Satan as the ruler of the authority of the air is frustrating the people on earth from contacting God and receiving Christ, this is typified by teh Canaanites, who were frustrating Israel from entering the good land. 
• Behind our natural life are the forces of evil to frustrate us from taking possession of the good land. Our natural life is the SOURCE of our sins. Those who live according to the natural life are sinning continually-whether it is good or evil. We must hate it, and be willing to drive it out. 
• We must fight against and defeat the satanic forces in order to gain more of Christ for the building up of the Body of Christ. We want to defeat the enemy to gain Christ. The gaining of Christ is God's purpose for us. 
• In order to possess the good land and defeat the satanic forces, we need to be formed into a corporate Joshua. This fighting is not against flesh and blood, but against these spiritual forces, especially these enemies within us. 
• They must partake of the passover, leave Egypt (the world), have the tabernacle established in your living (having the testimony of God in our life- a practical church life with the testimony), experience Christ as the reality of all the offerings, experience Christ as our High Priest, participating as the priesthood. --> how to be 
• 5 Qualifications to be Part of the Army:
• You must have a lineage in God's family- Not anyone can just drop in. 
• You must be 20 years of age - you need to have growth in life. 
• Everyone must be under his own standard. -You don't have any choices in what tribe you are, aka what church locality you are in. 
• We must be put into a proper order. This implies submission. For the formation of this army, there needs to be the exercise of the Lord's arrangement.
• We need to be fresh and young. The old has to be buried. 
• Christ is ready to be taken and possessed by His believers. He is ready, but are we ready??
• The Lord has a goal to reach: a people that will enter into the good land to build the temple and city for his kingdom. 
• Why are we still here? 
• Equipping, perfecting our mixed generation for the readying for the entering of the good land .
• We have to exercise the initiative to stand one with God's word to take the land. This requires us to deny ourselves, our passivity, and all the things that try to hold us back, and render the Lord our cooperation. To take the land- we are told that as God's people enter into the land to defeat all those tribes, God told them he will not drive out all the tribes all at once. Even though we have to defeat all the satanic forces, the natural life, and the self, God will wipe out these enemies little by little. If all the tribes are wiped out, we aren't ready to fill the land. We will not defeat the natural life all by ourselves.
• The more we grow in the Lord, the more extent the defeat of the enemy will be. It requires our cooperation to be active passive.
• Joshua is the Hebrew word for Jesus. He is the one who would lead us into the good land.  
• After being formed, constituted, disciplined, trained, and qualified, God's people had come to the plains of Moab, where they were waiting to enter into the good land, to take it and possess it. 
• The Lord is preparing us to be a corporate Joshua. All together we are being equipped, and we are being ready to become a corporate Joshua for the taking of the land.
• The formation of the children of Israel into an army to fight for God typifies the New testament believers' being built up into the organic Body of Christ to fight for the carrying out of His economy.
• God's army, a corporate Joshua, was prepared and ready to take the good land under the blessing of God in Hi Divine Trinity and also under the blessing of Moses, the man of God.We are under the blessing of the Triune God. We enjoy God as the Father as the source of all the blessing, Christ the Son as the embodiment, and enjoy the Life-giving spirit to flow out to reach us. We are under the blessing of the Triune God to encourage us to go forward, to possess the land. 
• Deut 33: God will still enable his chosen people to enter into the rich Christ. This is God's success, and the boast and glory belong to no one but Him. God is able to bring His people into the good land.  It is NOTHING of us. He is the one to take us in.
• We rise up to cooperate with Him. We say Yes Lord, we will be one w/ you for the entering of the good land.
• The Lord's recovery is uniquely for the bringing forth of Christ so that this Christ will be everything for God's people. We are just a group of people to enter into the good land, to possess this land, for this all inclusive Christ to be everything to us. We are not here to be today's Christian movement. We are just here to be purely for God's interest. For the defeat of Satan for God can be all and in all for us. 
• We only have one person: Christ who is all and in all. He is readying us into this corporate Joshua. This is a corporate built up body. We cannot go on into the good land as individuals. 
• We need to be those who have another spirit like Joshua and Caleb. We should not be afraid of the difficulties of the enemies.
• We must be those that follow faithfully God's word (Josh 1:8). We need to be faithful to God's word.
• We must be those who are one w/ our God, and God one w/ us. Wherever you go, I shall be with you. 
• God is still with us. The sense is corporate, we are not many separate individuals. We are faithful in continuing in his word, and enjoy his presence, and his being one w/ us all the time. 
• 4 fold responsibilities: 
• Preach the gospel to sinners
• Concerning Satan, there is a spiritual warfare.
• Concerning the church, we need to hold fast to what we see today.
• Concerning Christ, we exalt Christ that He be all and in all.