This Common Mistake Thwarts Your God-Given Promise

When you have heard a clear word from God, you must not compromise.

I remember just a few months ago when I was ministering at Joan Hunter’s church. Now, no one knew it in the room, but during worship I was talking to and hearing from the Lord about our future land. I was reminding God of His promise for us, and He was speaking back to me.

In the middle of me being lost in this transaction with the Lord, someone from the stage started saying something about compromise. Startled in my thoughts and conversation with God, I remember clearly the statement being released: “Do not settle! I repeat, do not settle!” The fire of God hit me, and I knew the Lord was trumpeting that message.

The Lord gave a wonderful promise to Moses and the people of Israel—the Promised Land, the land flowing with milk and honey. When they were to cross over the Jordan, though, there was a very specific instruction from the Lord.

Then the Lord spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan opposite Jericho, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from you, and destroy all their idolatrous sculptures, destroy all their cast metal images, and eliminate all their high places; and you shall take possession of the land and live in it, for I have given the land to you to possess it’” (Numbers 33:50-53).

So there was the command—drive out all of the inhabitants in the land. God also gave them a warning if they did not do this.

But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from you, then it will come about that those whom you let remain of them will be like thorns in your eyes and like pricks in your sides, and they will trouble you in the land in which you live. And just as I plan to do to them, I will do to you (Numbers 33:55-56).

It’s a pretty clear warning. If you do not drive out all the people in the land, when you go in and conquer it, it will bring you trouble in the end.

Now if you fast-forward in the Bible to the book of Joshua, something very interesting happened with the Gibeonites and the Israelites that’s worth reading and thinking over.

When Joshua and the Israelites began conquering land, the Gibeonites got very crafty or sneaky and disguised themselves as poor outsiders just traveling through. They asked Joshua and the Israelites to make a covenant oath with them. And guess what happened?

It came about at the end of three days after they had made a covenant with them, that they heard that they were neighbors and that they were living within their land (Joshua 9:16).

Joshua and the Israelites compromised the instructions they were told. Instead of conquering the Gibeonites, they allowed them to stay living there in their promised land. Yes, the Israelites were deceived and lied to, but they did not follow through with what God had told them to do. They compromised.

And guess what happened? Later five kings came to attack the people of Gibeon, and Joshua and the Israelites had to fight on their behalf because of that oath. Bottom line—Joshua and the Israelites had to go to war against something they were never meant to (see Josh. 10).

Hello! Did you read that?

When you and I compromise and settle for less than what God has promised, we can end up having more troubles in the end than if we had just trusted God to begin with. We end up drawing unnecessary battles to ourselves.

So do not settle. In the process of waiting for that promise to come, as you contend in faith and stand on what God has spoken, do not settle for less.

It’s important, in this moment, for us to take a moment and revisit the original word the Lord spoke to you and me about our promises. What are the prophetic words that have been spoken to you by the Lord or by others?

As a parabolic prophet (one who often lives out the message God is speaking to the church), I’m declaring this very message over myself now! Do not settle or compromise!

Sometimes in that process of waiting—or if our promise from God seems so far-fetched or, dare I say the “I” word (impossible)—the temptation arises to settle for something that may be similar to the promise but a little less than God’s best. Also, a misguided word from an outsider may come along to pull you off target while you’re waiting. Although it sounds similar to what God shared with you, it isn’t quite 100 percent the word; it’s not what God said. Someone just got a revelation while reading that! Hallelujah!

Let’s believe God today for His very best. Let’s believe that the word He gave us hasn’t changed and isn’t less than what He said. Let’s dare to just believe God for His word.