Tuesday, November 25th, 2025
Nehemiah 9 is all about the Israelites confessing their sins. It starts by saying they read from the Book of the Law for one-quarter of the day and then they confessed their sins and worshiped the Lord for another quarter of the day. That’s 6 hours of reading and 6 hours confessing and worshiping. Imagine what that did in the spirit realm!!
Towards the end of chapter 9 are two incredible verses that feel a little bit like a sobering reality. Here is Nehemiah 9:36-37:
36 “Here we are, servants today!
And the land that You gave to our fathers,
To eat its fruit and its bounty,
Here we are, servants in it!
37 And it yields much increase to the kings
You have set over us,
Because of our sins;
Also they have dominion over our bodies and our cattle
At their pleasure;
And we are in great distress.
Ouch! What an incredible revelation and confession on the part of the Levites and other Israelites that were participating in this ceremony. They recognized that they were right where God had wanted them, but they were not able to fully enjoy the fruit that their promised land produced. Instead of benefitting from all the blessings of the land, they worked as servants and had to give the fruitfulness of it to others. How many times in our lives have we been right where we were supposed to be, but we missed the blessing and the outpouring because we didn’t take the correct posture in our promised land?
You see our promised land isn’t just a physical place, it’s a physical place and a spiritual reigning in that place. If we try to reign spiritually in a place we are not assigned to, we will not prevail against the darkness in that place. If we try to establish our authority in our assigned physical place without using the appropriate spiritual authority we will be slaves to whatever darkness already has dominion in that place. In order to fully receive our promised land we must do the work to get to the physical place and we must do the work in the spirit to maintain our authority in that place.
The enemy will not willing give our promised land to us. We must be attentive and discerning to any and all tactics he may use to enslave us, even in the midst of our promised land. If he can trip us up with pride, presumptuous sins, fear, manipulation and control, or whatever else distracts us from serving and worshiping God alone, then our promised land is more like the land that Adam and Eve first stepped onto after they were exiled from the Garden of Eden.
Final Thoughts…
I know for myself and many others I interact with we feel the heaviness of being in our promised land, but recognizing that we are not fully benefiting from the fruit of it. Lord, show us what our responsibility is for getting to our promised land, complete with full spiritual authority. Are there things we need to confess? Is there a part of the “if” statement we haven’t yet completed in order to receive the “then” part? Personally, I feel like we are in the season of heavenly tornadoes. God is stirring things up, exposing the places of weak construction, and destroying the things that do not yield treasure in heaven. If a season of disruption and destruction results in pure hearts, humble spirits, and full surrender isn’t this worth the unavoidable discomfort?