Conquering The “Ites”

God will not take it away, you must conquer it. 

Last week, I confessed some things to a trusted brother in Christ. Difficult things. Deep things. The kind of things that only God can reach, because they’ve been a part of you for so long. When I confessed to my brother in Christ, I told him that I just wanted God to take it away. And this brother said exactly what I needed to hear, the exact moment I needed to hear it:  “God will not take it away, because He wants you to conquer it.” 

When God brought the Israelites into the Promised Land, He didn’t “take away” the Canaanites, Hittites, Jebusites, and all the other “ites.” He told Israel that He would be with them as they conquered them. God had already delivered the Israelites from bondage to Egypt and carried them to the land they were promised, but it was up to them to take possession of it. They had to keep moving forward and keep pushing on, until the whole land was conquered. It was an outer, physical example of an inner, spiritual reality. 

God didn’t take away the “giants of the land” for the Israelites, and He’s not gonna take them away for us either. He’s going to teach us how to live in faith and conquer, rather than live in fear and cower. Maybe someone needs to hear that today. Maybe someone needs to know that you can love Jesus with all your heart and cling to Him for all you’re worth, and still have things within you that He needs to overcome. And beloved, He surely will. 

O Lord, help us to conquer every Canaanite, Jebusite, Hittite, and every other “ite” within us. O Lord, lead us into battle against the giants of the land, for we shall surely overcome them. 

(Num 13:25-30) When they returned from spying out the land, at the end of forty days… they told [Moses]: “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey… But the people who dwell there are powerful.. the Hittites, Jebusites, and .. Canaanites..” Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will certainly overcome it.”

(Rev 2:7,11,17; 3:5,12,21) To the one who overcomes, I will grant the right to eat from the tree of life in the Paradise of God.. The one who overcomes will not be harmed by the second death.. To the one who overcomes, I will give the hidden manna.. also a new name.. he who overcomes will be dressed in white. And I.. will confess his name before My Father and His angels.. The one who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of My God.. To the one who overcomes, I will grant the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.

(Rom 8:37-39) No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.