Redeeming the Land

Fall 1998

By Martha Lucia

From our last issue you will remember the Hebrew word shamar, has many meanings - to hedge around something, to keep, to guard, to watch as a Watchman, as a Prophet, to protect, to keep safe, to retain.

As watchmen, one area of our watch is over the land (Gen 1:15).   After the curse was spoken in Genesis 3, that thorns and thistles would grow, the sweat of our brow was required to earn what God had previously provided.   The Hebrew word for "curse," arar, means to bind with a spell, to hem in with obstacles, to render powerless, to resist, to make infertile.  A curse is the favor of God turned away from us and the removal of his promise to uphold all things.  Without God’s supporting hand we are lost and undone.  There is no hope, no future, and no help.  But God has a redemptive plan.

Jesus came to undo the works of Satan, pay the price of redemption, and set in motion God’s redemptive plan (Ephesians 1:7, Revelations 5:9, and 13:8).  God’s original intent was for man to keep the land.  In this issue, we want to return to that principle and join with God in redeeming the land.  God is calling us to buy His fields as He did Jeremiah in chapter 32 where God told Jeremiah to buy Hanameel’s field.  Hanameel represented God’s favor.  Hanameel’s father, Shallum, represented recompense, reward.

We must know and understand this redemptive plan.  Some of the meanings of redemption include to preserve, to release, to deliver, to ransom, to rescue from loss, to loosen something (i.e., a redemption price, atonement), to rouse from sleep, to take up, to buy back, to avenge, to purchase, to be rescued from disease and death.  Under the old covenant, atonement (to ransom by substitution) had to be made by a blood sacrifice.   Disobedience of any part of the Law brought about the curses spoken in Deuteronomy 27 & 28.  But God had a plan.  Jesus came to redeem us from the curse of the law (Romans 5:10&11 and Galatians 3:12&13).  God sent Jesus to be the author and finisher of faith.  Faith is required for man to please God, not the law.

When we fully understand God’s redemptive plan, we begin to see that Jesus bought back the earth, the soul of man, and time, all of which had been sold out to the devil in Genesis 3.  Even though the redemptive price under the law has already been paid, we must realize we are co-laborers with God in the execution of this plan.  I’m sure you have heard it said that the year of the favor of the Lord has come as Jesus proclaimed in Luke 4:18-19.   I believe it is now the day of the vengeance of our God (Isaiah 63:4).  Isaiah 34:8 says "For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance (punishment, retaliation, closely associated with rage and jealousy) and the year of recompenses (meaning reward) for the controversy (judicial cause, contest) of Zion."  God is going to reward us as we press forward and establish His kingdom and execute the vengeance and judgment of God (Psalm 149:6-9)

When God told Joshua, "Go in and possess the land that flows with milk (shepherds) and honey (farmers)," they not only had to possess the land, but also redeem the land.  The act of possessing the land required invading the land with the purpose of settling, becoming farmers and shepherds of the land, expelling the previous tenants, and occupancy.  The redeeming of the land required that the land be rescued from the consequences of the previous tenants’ sin.  The process of possessing and redeeming the land called for altars to be built to God, destruction of all the false gods of the land, pulling down the high places, and learning to farm and shepherd the flocks on the land.  They had to fill the land with the righteousness and justice of God (Jeremiah 4:2, Jeremiah 22:33, and Micah 6:8).  Without a proper judicial system, they would not be able to maintain sovereignty over the land (Deuteronomy 16:20).  Under the old covenant this required justice alone, but under the new covenant the just shall live by faith.

We, in America, have been given a land which flows with milk and honey, but we have lost the concept of redemption.  We must understand our right to redeem the land, our souls, and the time before it is too late.  "When the land has sinned and God stretches out His hand to break its staff of bread and send famine on it and cut off from it man and beast, even if Noah, Daniel and Job were in it, they would save only themselves." (Ezekiel 14:13, Jeremiah 7:16)  When the cup of iniquity is full, it is too late to intercede. Nothing will change God’s mind. God told Jeremiah, don't even pray for those people (Jer. 7:16).

In the last seven years, I have become more and more aware of what is happening to the land of our nation. In the south, farm and cattle lands are being lost to banks or sold to large conglomerates.  In the north, wheat fields and farmlands are being lost to banks.  Now, even large corporations are folding.  With all this land in the hands of the banks.  Now even large corporations are folding.  What are the banks going to do with all this land that has come into their hands?  Whoever owns the land is the "landlord."  I recently read an alarming report stating many of the banks in America are controlled by nations which are primarily Muslim.  This alone should be enough to alert us, having seen the affect the Islamic spirit has on the nations it controls.  In many major cities in America, Islam is the fastest growing religion.  After America bombed Afghanistan and Sudan, Osama Bin Laden, the Islamic leader, proclaimed they would retaliate against Americans and Jews.  These are not idle words and we need to take them seriously.  He also stated they would not turn over a Muslim to an infidel country.  This shows us what they intend to do and how they view us.  Last February, Bin Laden declared, "We, with Allah’s help, call on every Muslim who believes in Allah and wishes to be rewarded to comply with Allah’s order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it."  Only an interceding church can change this.  We have a choice to enter the battle in the spiritual realm or in the natural.  Either way the battle will be fought.

One of the things that happens when God’s laws are transgressed is that the ground ceases to yield its strength (Genesis 4:12).  The following comes from "Redeeming the Land" by Gwen Shaw: "Crops fail through drought, flood, pestilence, hail, storms, until the economy is ruined and the farmers lose their ability to produce and prosper. This slows down or stops the food supply of the nation. The first sign of a curse on the nation is what happens on the farms because they are the source of all the food supply. Few Americans know that every six minutes another farm closes due to bankruptcy. In Europe and Great Britain thousands of cattle and sheep, even the deer of the Laplanders, have had to be destroyed because of the fallout from Chernobyl."

There are many reasons we can cite for these happenings such as idolatry, witchcraft, blood guiltiness, perversion, etc.  I believe God has shown me that the spirit of gambling and chance, fueled by the Jezebel spirit, is a major cause of what is happening in the land.  The Amplified Bible says in Isaiah 55:1-2 "Wait and listen, every one who is thirsty! Come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Yes, come, buy priceless (spiritual) wine and milk without money and without price (simply for the self-surrender that accepts the blessing). Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread? And your earnings for what does not satisfy? Hearken diligently to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness (the profuseness of spiritual joy)."  Verse 10 in the same chapter promises rain that will water the earth and make it bring forth and sprout, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater.  We see from this verse that God provides seed for us to sow, but if we waste or gamble our seed, we won’t have bread to eat.  Gambling has many devastating results, such as bankruptcy, suicide, increased loan sharking, the corruption of youth, divorce, domestic violence, and neglect.  The cost can be overwhelming to our society.  In June of 1998, David Wilkerson spoke in a prophetic word the following: "In the days to come, literally hundreds of thousands of Americans will lose their homes. Why? They’ve leveraged them with equity loans, so they could play the stock market and try to strike it rich!"  Have we put our trust and hope in systems, such as the stock market, insurance companies, lotto, casinos, government welfare programs, etc.?  Have we been speculating with our money and properties with no predictable outcome, trusting in the haphazard course of events?  God is calling us to put our trust and hope in Him once again and return to the basics of understanding how to execute His redemptive plan for the earth.

In the last ten years, we have seen a tremendous rise in the number of gambling casinos and lotteries.  What has our response been?  Have we fallen for the "get rich" scheme, one of the biggest lies around?  Statistically, the odds of winning a lottery are 80 million to one. Thirty-five billion dollars has been poured into this "chance" of winning.  There are an estimated 8 to 13 million compulsive gamblers in our nation. Of these, approximately one fourth are addicted to the lottery. One of the luring statements found on many lottery machines is "because of you many bright students are going to school."  What portion of this lottery money is actually going to the schools? According to a National Geographic article, due to a drought in Maryland the corn crops of the area farmers dried up. The cascading effect of this resulted in a dairy farmer in the area without feed for his cattle, forcing him to sell them at auction.  The herdsman made the remark "might as well go to Las Vegas and gamble your money, s to be a small farmer these days." On August 13, 1998, in an ABC World News tonight feature story "Why are the farmers in America in trouble?" it was stated, "Farmers are the founders of civilization."  Scenes from Minot and Fairmount, North Dakota were shown.  In Minot, the low livestock market prices are pushing them to devastation.  They feel their only choice is to let the dollar make the decision.  By doing this, they are auctioning off their future. With drought, insects, floods, prices down, or no over seas demand, even in a bumper crop year it can be bad.  From Fairmount, President Clinton announced the release of 5.5 billion dollars to help them through the fall harvest.  But what then?  What happened to believing God?  Aren’t His promises yes and amen?

Joshua had to believe and trust God in order to cross the Jordan to possess and redeem the promise land.  God told Joshua to be strong and courageous and not let the law depart from him.  He was to meditate on it day and night, observing and doing all that was written, for then his way would be prosperous and he would have good success.  The step of faith required of the Israelites to reach the promise land would either lead to death or the supernatural. Once they crossed the Jordan, something phenomenal took place. The Angel of the Lord appeared with the sword in his hand. Joshua bowed down in worship, as it was clear this angel was a theophany, for angels did not receive man’s worship. The captain of the Lord of hosts said, "take off your shoes, for you are standing on Holy ground."  According to the custom of the day, which is found in Ruth 4:7, Joshua knew when the shoe was removed, it meant redemption, change and confirmation.  At this point, the Lord of all the earth had come to lay out his plan of redemption for the land, to change the Lordship over the land, and to confirm the way to Joshua.  God would be with him throughout each step.

We must learn to be good stewards of the land.  One of the best examples is Isaac (Genesis 26). While there was a famine in the land, God appeared to Isaac and said "Do not go down into Egypt, stay in this land and I will bless you."  Isaac had a choice: he could sow in the land where there was a famine and be obedient to God, or he could move to Egypt where outwardly it appeared he would find food for his family.  Obedience to God is always the best answer, regardless of the outward appearance of things.  Isaac chose to obey and as a result, the Lord gave him 100 times the grain he had sown!  Isaac grew and became great, but he had to dig the wells his father Abraham had once dug which had been stopped up by the enemy.  He said in Genesis 26:22 "For now the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land." The same call to fruitfulness is for us today. "Well" in Hebrew figuratively means to make plain, to declare, to explain.  As we  unstop some wells on our land, we need to make plain and declare God’s Word to the enemy and dig out the stones the enemy has used to cause desolation.  The word is our shovel and the word of our testimony is the force to unstop what the enemy has used to stop the blessings of the Lord from flowing.  We need to be like Shammah in 2 Samuel 23:11 & 12 saying, "devil this is my field and you are not taking it."  In Jeremiah 29:7, God says seek the peace of the city where you are, pray for that city and in that you will have peace. Wherever God has placed you, pray and seek Him for that city or territory. Don’t be looking for a way out, give God a way in through prayer.

In 2 Kings 2:19-22, Elisha did not look for a way out when the men of the city came to him saying the water was bad and of inferior quality and the ground was barren.  Through entering into a salt covenant with God, he opened the way for God to bring healing to the waters and break the curse of barrenness off the land.  Again in 2 Kings 3, as the kings of Israel, Judah and Edom joined together against the Moabites, they found no water for their men or cattle.  Outwardly, the king of Israel felt the Lord was going to deliver them into the hands of their enemy, the Moabites.  But God had a plan. Elisha, was called upon to inquire of the Lord.  Jehoshaphat knew the word of the Lord was within Elisha and the Lord directed through Elisha ditches be dug in the valleys.  The Lord went on to say "you will not see wind, nor rain, yet the valley shall be full of water for man and cattle to drink."  Not only did the water quench their thirst, but it was the means by which they won the battle against the Moabites.  As the Moabites prepared to war against the kings, the sun shone upon the water causing the Moabites to see the water as red as blood.  Thinking the kings had turned on themselves and a great spoil awaited their arrival, they walked into the trap the Lord had set. Although Israel did not complete the job (2 Kings 3:27), God had a redemptive plan.  God help us to finish the job of bringing your redemption, change and confirmation to the land.

People in authority either give spirits the right to rule over a land or they can rid the land of their evil dominion.  Some of the ways satan attacks people include: damaging reputations, bringing reproach and confusion, stirring up jealousies, competition and greed, sending the spirit of rebellion against leadership, causing sickness and death, speaking lying and slanderous statements, encouraging compromise, immoral conduct, false doctrine and idolatry, and gaining control.  All of these are characteristics of  the Jezebel spirit.  Jezebel’s desire is to gain control over the land.  If this spirit has unlimited control of the land, then it can control the people and ultimately decide what is in their best interest (1 Kings 21). God has prepared for us three anointings we need to step into this year: the anointing to destroy the yoke, the anointing to spoil, and the anointing to bring down the high places.  When we do not bring down the high places, we give the ruling spirits a legal right to return because their "root" or their "base of operation" is still in the land (I Kings 15:8-14).

Isaiah 35 says, "The desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose, strengthen the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees, say to the fearful, fear not: behold your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he will come and save you.  Then the lame man will leap and the tongue of the dumb sing and the ears of the deaf hear."  Could it be that the redemption of the land is tied to the restoration of the apostle (2 Cor. 12:12)?  Waters will break out in the wilderness and stream in the desert!  God is waiting on a people who will step into the supernatural with Him and redeem what was stolen.  "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect (wholeheartedly) toward Him." (2 Chon.16:9)  

Isaiah 61:4-7, "and they shall build the old waste places, they shall raise up the former desolation and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations for your share you shall have a twofold recompense; instead of dishonor and reproach, your people shall rejoice in their portion; therefore, in their land they shall possess double what they had forfeited, everlasting joy shall be theirs."

May God raise up some Josephs and Daniels for the preservation of what has already gone into the hands of the Babylonian system and some intercessors  to see that what is left does not fall to that system. (Jer. 27:18)

It is time for us to recognize the devastating activities of these spirits which have targeted our land. We must join God in the process of redeeming the land, changing the Lordship over the land, and listening for God’s confirmation along the way.  As we join together and go forth to do warfare in our areas, we will see victory for God’s word says, "The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein forever." (Psalm 37:29).  The Lord will again bless our land and it will yield its strength (Psalm 85:12).  For He has given us our land for heritage (Psalm 136:21) and the nations of the world for our inheritance (Psalm 2:8).  For the scepter of the wicked shall not rule over the land allotted to the righteous (Psalm 125:3).