Possessing Our Possessions

Summary

Summary prepared by Acts 2:38 Life from the YouTube recording's caption track, read through the transcript panel — published in summary form; watch the full sermon at the source.

Because of the Times 1995 · The Pentecostals of Alexandria, Alexandria, LA Topics: Faith · Holiness · Grace

Jeff Arnold — welcomed by the host as one of the greatest preachers of the times (the welcome and its applause seamed out of the span, packet.md) — preaches a night message to a movement he believes has reached the end of its wandering: Israel has come to the Jordan, and the only thing between the church and its promised possessions is a river it cannot cross in its own strength. He locates Joshua chapter 3, reads the opening of it aloud himself, and builds the whole message on one word from the reading: before the crossing, God parked his people on the bank for three days — the key to possessing our possessions is the pause.

The pause before possession.

Arnold reads how Joshua rose early, how Israel lodged at the Jordan before passing over, how the officers commanded the people to follow the ark at a distance — "for ye have not passed this way heretofore" — and how Joshua told the people, "Sanctify yourselves: for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you." Then he turns it on the house: anybody besides me frustrated, because it ain't happening? God, he says, brought Israel to the riverbank for one reason — to bring them to an end of themselves. The frustration is not from the devil; the devil is not that smart. God sets his people down to stare at what they cannot fix for seventy-two hours, to remember how good he has been and to realise they can do beans about what they are facing. Our resolutions, our legislation, our best sermons will do nothing about the river; it is not by might, nor by power, but by his Spirit (the Zechariah wording is quoted without a locator and is priced, not indexed, packet.md).

Scriptures: Joshua 3:1-5

Held hostage.

Three things keep the church on the wrong bank: the fear of failure, the protection of our image, and the opinions of our peers. A failure is only a failure if he accepts failure as final; if you fall down, get up and try again — there is blood that speaks better things than that of Abel (the fragment is priced, not indexed, packet.md). Arnold confesses his own case: the year before, on this same platform, the Lord beat his brains out — he said things he had not planned to say, that salvation is an act of grace answered by faith and that no child of God is lost by what he does, and the response made him question whether people thought him a hypocrite. He went back to his motel room devastated and cried all night over what God had done to his image and his popularity — and God told him he had intended to, because a man protecting his image will never challenge the river.

Scriptures: (none new in this movement)

The Bible study on the plane.

Flying home, Arnold recounts, God gave him a two-hour Bible study on the thing he had blurted out. No child of mine, God told him, will ever be lost because of what they do or fail to do: when my child sins I bring conviction, and if he confesses, he is forgiven and we walk on. If conviction does not work, I bring chastisement — that is Hebrews 12, that he might make them partakers of his holiness; it was God who made David sick in the Psalms while David played the hypocrite, and God who sent Nathan to rebuke David openly before his whole court, not in a back bedroom, and the moment David bled and said "I'm guilty," God put away his iniquity. Then open rebuke through prophets; then, for 2 Chronicles 36 shows it, judgment — messengers sent rising early, no remedy, captivity — and even then, repentance brought them back. Only the one who resists every overture of grace and mercy, down to the word Arnold saw flashed before his eyes on that plane — reprobation — is beyond reach. (The whole movement is Arnold's recounting of a private study, God as the reported speaker; its scripture-shaped members are priced severally in packet.md and none is indexed here.)

Scriptures: (none new in this movement)

Emptied at the river.

The river of impossibility is God's school for every vessel he uses publicly. Abraham camped more than twenty years at it, waiting for a son it was biologically impossible for him and Sarah to have, and only when he was drained of all resource did God say, let's go across. David was anointed for a throne and spent almost twenty years chased like a rat through caves before God set him on it. Mary and Martha lived four days at the river while Jesus made sure nothing could help Lazarus but his coming. And Elijah — Arnold preaches him at length — was hidden at the brook Cherith and fed by a dirty bird, not to spare him from Ahab but to spare him from Elijah; sent on to Zarephath, which Arnold renders "smelting place," to be fed by a Gentile widow and emptied of self-promotion, until God could trust him publicly on Carmel against eight hundred and fifty false prophets. Moses took forty years of sheep and a burning bush to be emptied of the Egypt in him before the greatest jailbreak ever recorded. We are too strong for him to use us as he wants; the process is the point.

Scriptures: (none new in this movement)

Claim what was promised.

Canaan was Israel's by divine deed — God's gracious gift — but it must be claimed: cities were there by deed but they must be captured, houses were heaven's reward but they must be inhabited. That, Arnold says, is why Ephesians 1:3 says God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places — a nice scripture to quote, but it lies on the other side of the river, and it can only be appropriated by people dead to themselves; Jordan is symbolic of death, and flesh can't handle death. He has tried to cross for twenty years — fasting, prayer, bridges, boats, a tunnel — and the river just laughs. The key was the three-day delay, the pause that produced the power: seventy-two hours to drain self-reliance out of a people. And God timed it at the worst moment — in verse 15, he points out, Jordan overflowed all its banks in the time of harvest. Society is overflowing its banks the same way, and God has custom-made this hour to bring his church to the swollen Jordan to show that society cannot stop what he has desired. Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the wonders start.

Scriptures: Ephesians 1:3; Joshua 3:15

Cleanse yourselves, and name your Jordan.

Arnold turns hard on those who crossed by throwing things away — who dropped modesty, morality, and holy living and call it liberty, yet can tell nothing of a new prayer life or new revelations on their mountain of transfiguration; you are not going to cross the river by prostituting truth, because Joshua never said get rid of everything you believed — the ark is going into the water, and your works were never going to take you across. In the same little chapter, he notes, are the two and a half tribes who wanted the spiritual adventure but had no heart for that side of Jordan, worldly believers happy to live as close to the world as they can and still not be called worldly. Holiness is two-sided like a battery: God has done his side — imparted his nature — and now, in the words of what the captions render "2 Chronicles Corinthians 7:1" (the verse is 2 Corinthians 7:1, and it ships on the wording's locator, packet.md), cleanse yourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Then the close: name your Jordan. Identify the river between you and your possession — a persecuting loved one, an unbridled passion, the tyranny of a habit, a hurt never healed, a dream dashed and God not forgiven for it. The priests had to get their feet wet while their congregation wanted wonders with dry feet; the miracle started nineteen miles north at the city of Adam while they stood and waited, and the waters built up into a heap. And if what you lost went down in that river — your desire, your dreams, your cutting edge — he ends with Elisha's borrowed axe head and the God of the resurrection: the iron did swim (the wording fragment is priced, not indexed, packet.md). You're going to have to get wet.

Summary scripture index (the exact union of the sections above): Joshua 3:1-5 · Ephesians 1:3 · Joshua 3:15 · 2 Corinthians 7:1

Scriptures: 2 Corinthians 7:1