Possessing The Promises | Daniel Bentley

Jan 08, 2023

Devotional

Day 1: Remembering God's Faithfulness in the Wilderness

The wilderness is not our final destination, but it is a place where God often meets us most intimately. In the dry and barren seasons, we can become acutely aware of our need for Him, which opens the door for His miraculous provision and protection. It is in these desperate places that we learn to rely not on our own strength, but on His unfailing presence. He leads us through these times to teach us His ways and to draw our hearts closer to His. [24:33]

And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. (Deuteronomy 8:3 ESV)

Reflection: As you look back on a past or current "wilderness" season in your life, what specific ways did God provide for you or reveal His character to you in that dry place?

Day 2: The Danger of Forgetting God in Times of Plenty

A significant spiritual danger arises when life becomes comfortable and our needs are met. It is all too easy to slowly forget the Lord who delivered us, shifting from a posture of dependence to one of self-sufficiency. Prosperity can subtly lead our hearts toward pride, causing us to credit our own hands for the blessings we enjoy. Moses urgently warns us to guard our hearts against this forgetfulness, to consciously remember God's past faithfulness even in our present satisfaction. [10:22]

Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. (Deuteronomy 8:11-14 ESV)

Reflection: In what areas of your current life might comfort or self-sufficiency be tempting you to forget your daily need for God?

Day 3: Moving from Deliverance into Promise

God's purpose is always to bring us into a greater experience of His goodness. He does not only deliver us from something negative, like sin or bondage; He also desires to bring us into something positive—a life of abundance and promise. This journey from "out of" to "into" is a fundamental pattern of God's work in our lives. He upgrades us from glory to glory, intending for us to possess the rich inheritance He has prepared. [28:16]

But he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers. (Deuteronomy 6:23 ESV)

Reflection: What is one specific promise from God—perhaps from Scripture or a personal sense of His leading—that you feel He is inviting you to step into and possess?

Day 4: Activating Promise Through Faith and Obedience

A divine promise is not a magic spell that works automatically; it must be mixed with faith and activated through our obedience. God gives the promise, but we have a role to play in walking it out and making it a reality in our daily experience. Like Joshua, we must put our feet on the land God has said is ours. This process requires active participation, trusting that God goes before us even as we take steps of faith. [30:56]

Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. (Joshua 1:3 ESV)

Reflection: What is one practical, obedient step you can take this week to actively "tread upon" a promise God has given you?

Day 5: Overcoming the Giants of Fear and Unbelief

The obstacles between us and God's promises often appear gigantic and invincible, fueling fear and unbelief. We can easily fall into the trap of asking, "Who can stand against this problem?" when we should be declaring, "Who can stand against our God?" The same power that delivered us is more than sufficient to lead us to victory. With God going before us as a devouring fire, no enemy—whether internal or external—can ultimately prevail. [35:49]

Hear, O Israel: you are to cross over the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than you, cities great and fortified up to heaven, a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the sons of Anak?’ Know therefore today that the Lord your God is he who goes over before you as a devouring fire. He will destroy them and subdue them before you. So you shall drive them out and make them perish quickly, as the Lord has promised you. (Deuteronomy 9:1-3 ESV)

Reflection: What "giant" or "walled city" is currently causing you to hesitate, and how can you shift your focus from its size to the size of your God?

Sermon Summary

The book of Deuteronomy frames a call to possess the promises God intends for his people. Standing on the banks of the Jordan, Moses paints the promised land as rich and overflowing—brooks, olive oil, honey, iron and copper—contrasting it with the barren wilderness the people have just endured. The narrative warns that abundance carries a hidden danger: provision can breed forgetfulness and pride. When sustenance and security arrive, dependence on God tends to loosen and obedience fades, so remembrance of God’s past deliverance becomes vital.

The wilderness receives careful attention as both trial and classroom. Described as a vast, dreadful place, it also becomes the context where God meets his people: providing manna, water from the rock, a cooling cloud by day, and a protective fire by night. Wilderness seasons force desperation that leads to dependence; they cultivate intimacy with God and reveal his provision in ways comfortable seasons rarely do. Yet the wilderness remains transitional. The journey through it intends to move the people toward possession, not keep them wandering indefinitely.

Fear emerges as the primary barrier between promise and possession. The report of giants and walled cities stirs unbelief and causes delay; what should have been an eleven-day passage becomes forty years because the generation refused to trust. Promises in scripture do not function as automatic grants. They await activation: faith must mix with the promise, and obedience must realize it. God declares the land given, but possession requires stepping in and taking ground—the sole of the foot must touch the territory for it to be experienced.

Theological conviction anchors the call to action: God goes before his people like a devouring fire, and if God is for his people, no opposing force finally prevails. The Word exhorts moving from survival in the wilderness to thriving in the promised inheritance through faith-infused obedience. The present moment becomes the decisive day to cross the Jordan, confront fear, and claim the fullness of life Jesus describes—joy, peace, victory, and flourishing that overflow from God’s faithfulness.

Key Takeaways

1. Remember God in prosperity When abundance arrives, the heart quickly shifts toward self-sufficiency and forgetfulness. Intentional recollection of past deliverance and daily dependence preserves humility and keeps obedience alive. Remembrance functions as a spiritual tether that prevents prosperity from severing reliance on God. [10:22]
2. Wilderness forms, not final Desert seasons cultivate desperation that draws the soul to God and reveal his sustaining presence in tangible ways. These trials operate as preparation—teaching trust, shaping character, and exposing dependency—so the believer can step into fullness. The wilderness serves a purpose but never the ultimate plan. [24:33]
3. Promise requires faith and obedience Scriptural promises call for human response: faith gives belief weight and obedience activates the claim. Standing on a promise without walking into it produces stagnation; movement translates divine declaration into lived reality. Spiritual inheritance transfers through the synergy of trust and action. [30:11]
4. God goes before; fear falls God’s advance defeats enemies that appear invincible; the real question flips from “Who can stand against them?” to “Who can stand against God?” Confidence in God’s preeminent power reframes fear and compels forward motion. Crossing into promised territory becomes an act of trust against apparent odds. [35:49]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[00:31] - Greetings and outdoor venue
[01:30] - Growth Track & upcoming events
[03:03] - Opening prayer
[04:25] - Possessing the promises (title)
[07:30] - Israelites poised at the Jordan
[08:25] - Description of the promised land
[10:22] - Warning: don’t forget the Lord
[14:32] - Remembering the wilderness experience
[24:33] - Wilderness: preparation, not permanence
[30:56] - Promise, faith, and obedience
[35:49] - God goes before; confront fear
[38:28] - Call to cross over and possess

Bible Study Guide

Bible reading
Deuteronomy 8:7–18 (ESV)
For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. Beware lest you say in your heart, “My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.” You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.

Observation questions

What specific blessings does God promise in the land He is giving to the Israelites?
What warning does Moses give about the potential danger of prosperity?
How does God provide for His people in the wilderness, and what purpose does Moses say it served? [14:32]
What is the role of remembrance in maintaining dependence on God according to this passage?

Interpretation questions

Why does abundance and comfort often lead to spiritual forgetfulness and pride?
How can difficult seasons, like the wilderness, actually cultivate deeper intimacy with God? [24:33]
In what ways does fear prevent people from stepping into the promises God has given them? [25:35]
What does it mean that God’s promises require both faith and obedience to be activated? [30:11]

Application questions

In what areas of your life are you currently experiencing abundance? How can you intentionally remember God’s faithfulness in those areas to avoid self-sufficiency? [10:22]
Describe a wilderness season you’ve experienced. How did God meet you in that place, and what did you learn about His character?
What promise from Scripture have you been hesitant to fully step into because of fear or doubt? What would it look like to take one step of obedience toward that promise this week? [35:49]
Are there areas where you’ve been “wandering” instead of moving forward in faith? What would it look like to stop drifting and start pursuing God’s promises with intention? [27:16]
How can you remind yourself daily that God goes before you like a devouring fire, especially when facing challenges that seem overwhelming?
What practical step can you take this week to “mix faith with obedience” in a specific area where God has spoken to you? [30:56]
Who can you share your God-given promises with to help encourage and hold you accountable to step into them?

Sermon Clips

42s

#FaithActivatedPromise

“And so they said, it's broken. It doesn't work. I took the pill, but I didn't get the peace. And what they failed to understand is that that promise, it must be mixed with faith, and then it gets activated through your obedience. Does that make sense? Every promise must be mixed with faith and activated by obedience. So here's the way that played out for the Israelites. God says to Joshua, I have given you every place the sole of your foot touches. Think about that. It's already yours, but it will only be realized as you walk it out. Joshua had to put feet to his face.”

42s

#IfGodIsForUs

“And what if, just like the Israelites, we're asking the wrong question. The question that they were playing on repeat in their mind was who can stand up against the Anakites, when perhaps what they should have been asking is who can stand up against our God? I love the way the apostle Paul puts it in Romans eight thirty one. He says, and let's read this together, what shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, then who can be against us? And by the way, when you read that little word if, don't think like, if if. No. No. No. In light of all these things,”

35s

#RememberWhatMatters

“And at the same time, I'm really good at remembering and rehearsing and replaying all of my past faults and shortcomings and failures, and those things I have a detailed remembrance of. But I forget all the stuff God tells me to hold on to, even as I hold on to the things he tells me to let go of. You see, I'm like the Israelites. And my guess is, so are you. We have this proclivity for forgetting. And in particular, this seems to happen when life gets easy.”

48s

#PossessYourPromise

“Today is the day that I cross over. Yeah, there might be some walls, but I have a word. Yeah, there might be some giants, but I got Jesus. And Jesus can take down every giant. Your giant must fall. The walls must crumble. The chains must break. The the the shackles must fall. The prison doors must swing open because when God is for you, who can be against you? You see, we've wandered many of us for far too long. It's time. It's time. It's time to cross over and to take possession, to mix faith and obedience with the promise, and to enter the land.”

39s

#BeautifulDesperation

“Notice, my flesh faints for you. I'm in this dry place, and he's speaking there emotionally, internally. His heart was dry and it caused him to seek God and to cry out to the Lord. There's a beautiful thing about desperation. You know, we don't usually combine those two terms. Oh, I'm so beautifully desperate. No. No. No. And yet, there is something beautiful about desperation. Why? Because it opens the door for God to provide for us. When we're desperate, we cry out to God, which which opens the door for him to show up.”

22s

#AskForHisPromise

“And as you pray for that, ask him, Lord, what is your promise for me? I received a personal promise from the Lord this last week in our prayer gathering on Tuesday morning. I said, Lord, what do you wanna say to me? What's your promise? And he gave me a promise for my own life. He also spoke a promise to my son, and I believe he has one for you as well. Well,”

35s

#LifeOverflowing

“Because it's not just a promise specifically, but there is a whole life of promise that he wants you to walk in and experience. It's what Jesus talked about in John chapter 10 when he's described this life of abundance, the abundant life. It's life overflowing, life bubbling up, life spilling out. It is life filled with joy, peace, victory, and love. That is your divine inheritance. It's what God wants for you. And yet,”

36s

#BeyondTheJordan

“I found that for many Christians, that life that I've just described seems to elude them, and it seems to always lie just beyond their graph grasp. You know, for many Christians, their experience is not unlike what the Israelites went through as they wandered through the wilderness. For them, it was like the life they wanted lied just beyond the Jordan, and they could see it with their eyes, but they could never quite reach it. It was like they were stuck on the wrong side of their promise.”

41s

#RehearseAndRemember

“You can hear the emotion dripping from his voice as he implores them here. When you get there and life is good and you have everything you need, don't forget the Lord. And he puts them in remembrance, and it's a good word. Remembering is a dominant theme. It's a chord that gets struck over and over again throughout the book of Deuteronomy. In fact, the word Deuteronomy means repetition or second telling. And throughout the book, Moses is rehearsing all of the familiar stories to the people about what God had done for them.”

31s

#RememberHisFaithfulness

“And and that's true in a spiritual sense too. There are things that God tries to put me in remembrance of, but I forget those things. I forget his promises. I forget how he's delivered me time and time again. I forget his faithfulness to me. I forget that he's removed my sins as far as the East is from the West. I I forget that he's promised his abiding presence, and that his mercies are new morning by morning.”

41s

#SeasonOfInBetween

“And so they knew where they came from, and they knew where they were headed. And the thing in between, that was the wilderness. And so for us in this life, the wilderness is representative of all those in between places, in between seasons. And maybe you know what I'm talking about because some of you are in just such a place right now in your life. You are in between jobs, or you're in between relationships, or or maybe you find yourself stuck or caught in between a rock and a hard place, and it's dry, and you're barren, and you're not where you want to be.”

37s

#BetweenTwoRealities

“And even if that doesn't describe your current situation, as Christians, I think there's a sense in which all of us in our hearts know what it feels like to be caught in between two realities. Because just like they had been delivered from Egypt, we've been delivered from bondage and sin and and a life of of slavery, and we're headed to heaven. That's our future home. That's our destination. That's where we're going. And so we know where we've come from, and we know where we're headed. But in the meantime, in the in between, we find ourselves here.”

41s

#DesperationBuildsDependence

“You're not set free totally, not yet anyways. And and you're blessed, but you're also barren. You're full of faith on certain days, but on other days, you cower in fear. You have love, but you also struggle with lust. You're in a spiritual wilderness. And for any and all to whom that description might apply, I have some good news for you today. And it's this, God wants to meet you in your wilderness. Somebody say amen. You see, over and over again in the Bible, we find God meeting his people in the wilderness.”

32s

#ProvisionFromTheRock

“All of these things took place in the wilderness. And so another question, why does God bring us, lead us into wilderness seasons? If it's part of his design. And here's the answer. He does it because the wilderness is the one place in this world where we get downright desperate. When times are good, we're much more prone to forget God. We already talked about this. Moses says, when you're in the land and and you have eaten and you're satisfied, then you're gonna forget the Lord.”

42s

#BroughtOutToBringIn

“And what happened to them often happens to us. Right? We get saved, and then some long somewhere along the way, we get stuck, and we end up wandering. I've met so many Christians over the years who are just kind of wandering. They've spent their entire Christian existence just kind of barely squeaking by. And yeah, they're believers, and yeah, they're going to heaven, but they're not really thriving. Instead, they're just enduring. They've never entered into the life of victory and blessing and abundance that Jesus promised. And what I came here to tell somebody today is God has more for you.”

33s

#GoInAndTakeIt

“There is more that he wants you to experience, more victory that he wants you to step into, more abundance, more blessings, more promises. There is more that he has for you. Listen to Deuteronomy chapter six verse 23. This is such a wonderful verse. In fact, let's read it together out loud. It says, but he brought us out from there to bring us in and give us the land he promised on oath to our ancestors. Notice those two phrases. He brought us out from there. That's a reference to Egypt.”

43s

#GodGoesBeforeYou

“And that again is like so many of us, we settle for less than God's best. And the question, why? Why do we settle for less? And and there's an answer that's provided for us here in our text. It's the same thing that kept them from possessing it for so long, and it's fear. You see, there's always gonna be some big scary obstacle taunting you, tormenting you, and keeping you from possessing or experiencing your promise. For the Israelites, the things standing between them were walled cities and giants named the Anakites. Moses references them in verse two. He says, you've heard about the Anakites.”

46s

“And it's almost like defeat gets so ingrained in our subconscious that we lose before we even step onto the battlefield because we think that victory isn't a possibility for us, which is why we need this word from Moses just as much as Israel needed it. And here it is in verse three. Be assured that today everybody say today. Today. Today, the Lord your God is the one who goes across ahead of you just like a devouring fire. He's gonna destroy them, and he's gonna do it because you have a promise. Yes. Your enemies might be bigger and stronger than you, but those same enemies are no match for your God.”

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Possessing The Promises | Daniel Bentley

Devotional

Day 1: Remembering God's Faithfulness in the Wilderness

Day 2: The Danger of Forgetting God in Times of Plenty

Day 3: Moving from Deliverance into Promise

Day 4: Activating Promise Through Faith and Obedience

Day 5: Overcoming the Giants of Fear and Unbelief

Sermon Summary

Key Takeaways

Youtube Chapters

Bible Study Guide

Sermon Clips

Possessing The Promises | Daniel Bentley

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