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Christ is our good land, and God wants us to gain Christ, but there is a layer of devilish, 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 (Col. 1:12-13; 2:15; Eph. 3:18; 6:11-12).
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We need to be today's Joshua and Caleb, fighting against and defeating the satanic forces so that we can gain more of Christ for the building up of the Body of Christ, for the fulfillment of God's eternal purpose (4:16).
Ⅲ
Without the book of Joshua we cannot fully understand the spiritual warfare in Ephesians 6:10-20:
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Israel's fighting against the inhabitants of the land portrays the invisible spiritual warfare that is taking place behind the visible scene on earth (Dan. 10:10-21; Eph. 6:10-20).
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That there is a spiritual warfare in the invisible scene behind the visible scene means that in addition to war on the earth, there is a war between God and Satan in the air (v. 12).
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Ephesians 2 indicates that in the heavenlies there are different layers:
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Christ is in the highest layer, the third heaven, to be our everything as our good land (1:3; Deut. 8:7-10).
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There is a lower layer of the heavenlies—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 the Canaanites, who were frustrating Israel from entering into the good land (Eph. 2:2).
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If we would take possession of Christ for our enjoyment, 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 (3:8; 4:16; 2:21-22).
Morning Nourishment
Eph. 6:11-12 Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the stratagems of the devil, for our wrestling is not against blood and flesh but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenlies.Without [the book of] Joshua we cannot fully understand the spiritual warfare in Ephesians 6. There is spiritual warfare in the invisible scene behind the visible scene. This means that in addition to war on the earth, there is a war between God and Satan in the air. The heavenlies are full of Satan's forces. Christ is our good land, and God wants us to gain Christ, but there is a layer of devilish, demonic forces between us and the good land. If we would take possession of the good land for our enjoyment, we have to defeat these satanic forces. (Life-study of Joshua, p. 60)
Today's Reading
Joshua conquered many nations and killed many kings, but he conquered only a narrow strip of land. According to Joshua 1, the land stretched from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates. The good land was wide and spacious; however, Israel's territory never spread to the Euphrates. Since there was much fighting and rebellion after the time of Joshua, there was not the opportunity for God's people to build a temple. When David gained more land and there was a time of peace, Solomon, David's son, was able to build the temple of God to set up God's kingdom on earth.In principle, our situation is the same in the Lord's recovery today....We are God's Israel, and we have our Captain, but the Lord's recovery is still involved in a struggle. Every day we need to engage in spiritual warfare.
It is hard to get an increase....Our enemies are not humans on the earth but evil forces in the air, who hinder people from believing into the name of the Lord Jesus and who frustrate the saved ones from pursuing Christ to the uttermost.
We all need to know what the recovery is, where the recovery is, and what kind of persons can take the recovery on. We all need to see that in the Lord's recovery today we are on a battlefield. We should be today's Joshua and Caleb, fighting against Satan's aerial forces so that we can gain more of Christ for the building up of the Body of Christ, setting up and spreading the kingdom of God so that Christ can come back to inherit the earth. It is not adequate for us simply to be spiritual and holy. We need to learn of Joshua and Caleb to represent God's interest in this age to fight down the enemies that Christ can be gained by people and that Christ can be increased by His pursuers.
In Ephesians 1, which is typified by Joshua 1, we can see that everything has been finished and completed and that every blessing in Christ is there in the heavenlies, waiting for God's chosen, redeemed, and perfected people to take and enjoy as their inheritance. According to Ephesians 1 we have been chosen by God to partake of His holy nature and we have been predestinated by God to have His life in order to become His sons (vv. 4-5). Furthermore, Christ's redemption has brought us into Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God to be the realm in which and the element by which we can be made God's inheritance (vv. 7, 11). Having been redeemed and having been put into Christ as the realm and the element, we are daily being reconstituted and transformed by this element to be a treasure for God's inheritance. As we take Christ and enjoy Him as our inheritance, we become God's inheritance.
Ephesians 2 indicates that in the heavenlies there are different layers. Christ is in the highest layer, the third heaven, to be our everything as our good land. But there is a lower layer of the heavenlies—the air, where Satan as the ruler of the authority of the air is frustrating the people on earth from contacting God and from receiving Christ (v. 2). This is typified by the Canaanites, who were frustrating Israel from entering into the good land. (Life-study of Joshua, pp. 60-61, 14)
Further Reading: The All-inclusive Christ, chs. 12-13