Camp, don’t live…. You’re about to move to a new spiritual dwelling. God is calling us higher, and deeper in intimacy with Him.
In the old testament after a battle (or a location that had become a camp) trumpets would sound. This meant it was time to move. We are not to get comfortable at any camp ground. Camping is temporary, we do not live there.
The LORD our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount: Turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and unto all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates. Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them. Deuteronomy 1:6
When it’s time to move, it’s time to “let go and let God.” When He strips you and prepares you to make a significant difference, you may have to let go of some things and some people. God usually wants what you are trying to hold on to. So if we try to decide what we want to give Him, it just may be a waste of time.
God does not have to give us “two weeks notice.” Sometimes God will bust a move right in the middle of your week and instruct you to move from this place. Whether that’s a geographical place or a spiritual dwelling, when God says its time to move, you better move.
Everyone is not called to walk with you in every season of your life. Some God brings in for a season and then moves someone else in. You may meet again in another season but for new purposes and assignments. Don’t be discouraged, thank God for a change of season.
I was excited when I was leaving the Prison Camp years ago. Although I had made strong bonds with many other Christian brothers, my time had come. God knew all along I would only be there for a little more than half of the time. Which is amazing because only in the State prison system do inmates sometime get released after 50% of their sentence is completed. In the Federal System where I was, you are required to do all of your time minus a month for every year served. God is not bound by man’s protocol. Let Him do a work in your life!
And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding: Daniel 2:21
In moving to another place of in the Spirit: there are four things to consider.
1. Faith comes by hearing. This verse does not mean “having heard” as in a past tense meaning. Rather, continuing to hear what the Lord is saying. What He is instructing you to do now, not then. “ So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Romans 10:17
2. Praying for closed doors. Many times we pray for open doors of opportunity. However, I firmly believe in the authority of Kingdom citizens and believers. God has already given unto us all things. According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: II Peter 1:3
We need not pray for open doors of prosperity. But rather that the door of poverty is shut. The same applies in healings and everything else we have been seeking of the Lord. I believe we need to shut some doors of access from the flesh, the world and the enemy.
3. Everything has a season. To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: Ecclesiastes 3:1 We don’t usually mind a “season change” when it involves something we no longer want to deal with. However, even the good things in our lives have a season. There are good people who you cannot embrace in every season. We have been so determined to hold on to people, things and visions that have been so successful assuming they would have to turn bad for the “season to be up.” Notwithstanding, I witnessed some beautiful flowers that were late blooming at the end of a summer. The very next week they quickly began to die with everything else. Not because there was anything wrong with the flower, only the season, although short, had ended. Are we ready for the new season in everything according to the scripture?
The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. Jeremiah 8:20
4. Focus on the grapes. Pastor Ray Lankford preached an inspirational message at our church one service. He illustrated how big and tasty the grapes were when the spies went out to see Canaan. And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs. Numbers 13:23 The fruit was so big it took two to carry it. Our focus can no longer be on the giants that are before us, but rather the fruit that we have tasted from the land we are going to. “Oh what a fore taste of glory divine.” They were sent from the wilderness of Paran. There is fruit that can come out of every wilderness experience. We must always “focus on the grapes.”
The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoices; and with my song will I praise him. Psalms 28:7
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Current Teaching by Dr. R. E. Smith
"Camp, don't live" 2010
