The forested hill country . . . will be yours

The forested hill country . . . will be yours

The forested hill country . . . will be yours. (Joshua 17:18)

There is always room higher in the hills. When the valleys are full of Canaanites, whose mighty iron chariots are slowing your progress, go up to the hills and occupy the higher land. If you find you can no longer do work for God, pray for those who can. You may not be able to move things on earth with your words, but you may move heaven. If it seems that your continued growth is impossible on the lower slopes due to limited areas of service, the constraints of maintaining the day-to-day necessities, or other hindrances, allow your life to burst forth, reaching toward the unseen, the eternal, and the heavenly.

Your faith can level forests. Even if the tribes of Israel had realized what treasures awaited them in the hills above, they would never have dreamed it would be possible to actually harvest the thick forests. But as God instructed them to clear the forests, He also reminded them of the sufficient power they possessed. The sight of seemingly impossible tasks, like leveling this forest covered hills, are not sent to discourage us. They come to motivate us to attempt spiritual feats that would be impossible except for the great strength God has placed within us through His indwelling Holy Spirit.

Difficulties are sent in order to reveal what God can do in answer to faith that prays and works. Are you being squeezed from all sides in the valley? Then “ride on the heights of the land” and be “nourished . . . with honey from the rock” (Deut. 32:13). Gain wealth from the terraced slopes that are now hidden by the forests.

Got any rivers they say are uncrossable,

Got any mountains they say “can’t tunnel through”?

God specialize in the wholly impossible,

Doing the things they say you can’t do.

Culled from streams in the desert Devotional.