Greetings Mike in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

It’s been a long time since I emailed, but I am back now.

Can you please explain the spiritual significance of Deuteronomy chapters 12 and 13. Exactly what is God trying to say to me? I know some time ago in my time of prayer I sensed that the Lord was saying it is my season of territory expansion. But I know that He has to expand my spiritual territory first before my physical territory, so that I can be able to handle the weight of the physical territory

And now, The Lord led me to this scripture in my time of prayer recently. Hope to hear from you soon.

Regards,

N____

Hi N____,

It is good to hear from you again.

It is especially good to be able to answer this question for you.

You ask:

Can you please explain the spiritual significance of Deuteronomy chapters 12 and 13. Exactly what is God trying to say to me?

What the Lord is telling us in Deuteronomy 12-13 is to “possess the land”, and in doing so we are to make no alliances with the inhabitants of the land, but rather “destroy everything that breaths” within the land.

Deu 20:16 But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:
Num 33:53 And ye shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land, and dwell therein: for I have given you the land to possess it.
Deu 1:8 Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them.
Deu 1:21 Behold, the LORD thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged.
Deu 2:24 Rise ye up, take your journey, and pass over the river Arnon: behold, I have given into thine hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land: begin to possess it, and contend with him in battle.

“Contend with him in battle” because “I have given [ him] into thy hand”.

“The land” is nothing physical, the things that “breath” are not physical things, and the battle in which we are contending is “not against flesh and blood” as it was in the types and shadows of Deu 12-13 and 20.

Deu 12:1 These are the statutes and judgments, which ye shall observe to do in the land, which the LORD God of thy fathers giveth thee to possess it, all the days that ye live upon the earth.
Deu 12:2 Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree:
Deu 12:3 And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place.
Deu 12:4 Ye shall not do so unto the LORD your God.

“You shall not do so unto the Lord your God”, means that we are to “learn not the way of the heathen”, and we are not to follow after the ways of the heathen among whom we live, because we are now contending with “spiritual wickedness in the heavens” of our hearts and minds, even though what is in our heart is always manifested in our way of life.

So we are told:

Jer 10:2 Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.

Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

The word ‘places’ is not in the Greek in Eph 6:12, and the word ‘high’ is translated from the Greek word ‘epouranios’, which appears often, but in this verse translated simply as ‘heaven’, ‘heavenly’ or ‘celestial’. This word appears 20 times in the New Testament Greek. This one verse is the only time it is translated as ‘high places’, and it should simply read ‘in the heavens’ of our hearts and minds.

A very great part of “the rulers of darkness of this world” are the very “ways of the heathen” which we have “learned” and have adopted as our own in all of the holidays of the western societies. We tell our children lies in the name of Christ during Christmas and Easter, and we dress them up as little devils at halloween, and tell ourselves that we are not “learning the ways of the heathen”, and we are not doing so “unto the Lord [ our] God”.

One of the main reasons given in scripture for our Lord’s condemnation by the church of His day is the fact that He “esteemed every day alike”, and in the process of establishing His New Covenant, His New Testament, He rejected the very days He Himself had given to Israel in the form of the weekly Sabbath and the annual holy days of the Jews.

Mat 12:1 At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat.
Mat 12:2 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day.
Mat 12:3 But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him;
Mat 12:4 How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests?
Mat 12:5 Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless?
Mat 12:6 But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple.
Mat 12:7 But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.
Mat 12:8 For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.
Joh 5:18 Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

The “esteem[ ing] of one day above another” (Rom 14:9), is called “bondage [ to] weak and beggarly elements” in these verses:

Gal 4:9 But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
Gal 4:10 Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
Gal 4:11 I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.
Col 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after [ the example of] Christ.

To this day, anyone who attempts to follow in Christ’s steps will be ostracized and cast out of the synagogues of this world, for the ‘sin’ of “esteeming every day alike”, in a society which is in bondage to the observance of pagan “days, months, times and years”.

Job 23:11 My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined.
Psa 37:31 The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide.
Psa 85:13 Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in the way of his steps.
1Pe 2:21 For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:

Observing the customs of the heathen around them was Israel’s most addictive sin which constantly came between them and their God, just as it does to this very day.

1Kg 12:32 And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made.

This is “the sins of Jereboam the son of Nebat” which are so often referenced in the Old Testament.

1Ki 16:26 For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to sin, to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger with their vanities.
1Ki 16:31 And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him.
1Ki 21:22 And will make thine house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, for the provocation wherewith thou hast provoked me to anger, and made Israel to sin.
1Ki 22:52 And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the way of his father, and in the way of his mother, and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin:

This is what Israel wanted, and that is what God’s people want to this very day, but God says it is an abomination to Him. Do we really believe we can do the exact same thing and not “make Israel to sin, [ and] provoke the Lord to anger”?

Deu 12:29 When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land;
Deu 12:30 Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.
Deu 12:31 Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.

“You shall not do so unto the Lord your God”, and yet that is exactly what orthodox Christianity has done and is doing to this very day. They have adopted the “ways of the heathen” and claim they are “doing so unto the Lord [ their] God”.

Chapter 13 continues that same theme but adding to that theme the revelation that God Himself will given false prophets the power to deceive us if we do not have a love of His word which supersedes our love of “the ways of the heathen”. God Himself will give false prophets the ability to foretell the future, but then also tell us not to walk in the customs of the heathen for no other reason than to show us just how weak we are:

Deu 13:1 If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder,
Deu 13:2 And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them;
Deu 13:3 Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
Deu 13:4 Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him.
Deu 13:5 And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the LORD thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee.

In Christ we are to “love our enemies [ and] turn to him the other cheek also”. Nevertheless this is how we are now to deal with such false prophets who would have us to forsake our own Lord in exchange for avoiding persecution in a heathen society which still uses the name ‘Christian’:

Mat 18:15 Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.
Mat 18:16 But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.
Mat 18:17 And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.

Paul reiterates this same process:

Tit 3:10 A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject;
Tit 3:11 Knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself.

“We who are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak” who “eats herbs, [and] esteems one day above another”. We all are in the process of living our lives after the traditions of men when we first hear about the True Shepherd. The Lord received us “while we were yet sinners”, but He commands us to “come out of her my people, that you partake not of her sins” (Rev 18:4), and we are told to “receive… them that are weak in the faith”, but in the very same verse we are told that “We that are strong” are not to permit “them that are weak in the faith” to ‘argue about discernments’. The King James says “not to doubtful disputations”, but that is not what the Greek says.

Rom 14:1 Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations [ not to arguing about discernments].

So we let those who are still observing days continue to do so, as long as they are not attempting to argue that following the traditions of men is ‘the strong meat of the Word’. If that were so, then Christ most certainly would not have left us the pattern of breaking the weekly sabbath (Mat 12:1-8 and Joh 5:18).

1Pe 2:21 For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:

I hope that I have given you a better understanding of how we are called to “possess the land which the Lord has given [ us].” We do so by following His example and walking in His footsteps.

Your brother in Christ,

Mike