Week # 6 – Cohabitating With Trouble

On the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho the LORD said to Moses, "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: `When you cross the Jordan into Canaan, drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you. Destroy all their carved images and their cast idols, and demolish all their high places. Take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given you the land to possess. Distribute the land by lot, according to your clans. To a larger group give a larger inheritance, and to a smaller group a smaller one. Whatever falls to them by lot will be theirs. Distribute it according to your ancestral tribes.

" `But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will give you trouble in the land where you will live. And then I will do to you what I plan to do to them.' " – Numbers 33:50-56

Prayer Focus: 

Those who inhabited the land the Israelites were inheriting were enemies of God, and therefore enemies of His people.  They were not interested in the things of God, and certainly did not appreciate the people of God settling in the land they had inhabited for so long.  This is a portrait of what is taking place when a person (or a people) comes to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  We now inherit the land of our lives that was formerly inhabited by attitudes, principles, priorities, values and belief systems that were enemies of God.  The Lord’s instructions to Moses were to “drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you.”  That meant “break down every idol, cast out every foe…”  Anything/Anyone not in submission and harmony with God must be eliminated.

We know from history that Israel failed to heed this important counsel.  They allowed certain of the former land dwellers to cohabitate the land with them.  It wasn’t long before they fulfilled God’s warning, and they became a problem.  They became a problem and caused the Israelites trouble.  They had trouble keeping their covenant with God and their system of government and authority in order.  It became clouded with the attitudes, priorities, values and belief systems of the people they had allowed to dwell with them.  This brought God’s judgment upon themselves – the same judgment God had planned for all those who were His foes and adversaries.  God’s people fell under His judgment because they cohabited with trouble!

How about you?  Has God given you Eagle’s wings and you’re still hanging with Turkeys?  Have you driven out all the attitudes, principles, priorities, values and behaviors that oppose God?  If not, they will give you trouble and you will fall under God’s judgment and discipline.  Some of these demons have moved in and settled in our lives with such deep roots that they can only be driven out with prayer and fasting.  They are stubborn and persistent and require stubborn and persistent prayer that “drives” them out and does not allow them to remain.

Thursday:        

• Praise God for giving us an inheritance – the return of the land of our lives.
• Join our 6:00pm Thursday night prayer team (in prayer if not in person).         

Friday:             

• Invite God to search your heart and point out anything that may be any spiritual enemy of God that may be cohabitating your life.
• Pray for the Good News families of the week: Laura Mohr (Ashley), Aaron Montanaro, Jarrett Northan (Sarah Logan – fiancee)

Saturday:       

• Reestablish that you belong to God and that no attitudes, principles, priorities, values or faith systems that oppose Him are welcome to inhabit your life.

Sunday:          

• Invite God to teach, train and empower you to drive out every foe and cast out every idol.
• Join in with our Sunday prayer services to pray for God’s presence and blessing.

 Monday:         

• Pray that others will see the evidence of God’s attention to your prayers and that they will hunger for the same influence with God.
• Attend “In Touch” Prayer meeting at GNCC at 10:30am or join in prayer at that time.

 Tuesday:       

• Pray that our church will be a fellowship that drives out the things that oppose godliness and guards our community of faith as a land sanctified to the glory of God.

Wednesday:   

• Pray that we all will keep our prayer lives up to date and rid our lives of anything that will cause a problem in our relationship with Christ.