Heaven Dropped Down

The following comes from the small book, Perfect, Yet Pressing by Rev. John Thompson and Rev. E.I.D. Pepper:

"Days of heaven upon the earth." Deut. 11:21.

The eleventh chapter of Deuteronomy is a wonderful chapter. In it we find these striking and gracious words: "Your days may be...as the days of heaven upon the earth," -- as glorious, as multiplied, as enduring.

That was the Scriptural language in which life in the Canaan of the Old Testament was described. And what language, then, shall be used to depict life in the New Testament Canaan of Perfect Love?

And, in entering and occupying the Holy Land -- either or both of them -- the people of God were promised signal divine help and victory, if faithful to God and to His covenant: "For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, and to cleave unto Him, then will the Lord drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves. Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours." "There shall no man be able to stand before you; for the Lord your God shall lay the fear of you and the dread of you upon all the land that ye shall tread upon, as He hath said unto you." The Bible says that "the meek shall inherit the earth." We sometimes think and talk as if it were the fighting people who are to get everything. I have often wondered why it was that the strong opposers of holiness do not do us more harm than they do. Do you know the reason? It is because there is a God in heaven. "The Lord your God shall lay the fear of you and the dread of you upon all the land that ye shall tread upon." There is something beautiful yet awful in holiness. I do not care how bad people are, there is a kind of dread upon them in the presence of holiness. People are afraid of the "evil eye" and the "curse," but they are much more afraid of the prayers of God's people and of the "single eye." "Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse."

Do you remember how this chapter started? It begins with, "Know ye this day: for I speak not with your children which have not known, and which have not seen the chastisement of the Lord your God, His greatness, His mighty hand," etc., etc. I do not talk to your children, who do not know how I have watched over you, and guided you, and cared for you, and delivered you from your enemies, and have saved you from all sorts of troubles and brought you here. I am not talking to your children, who do not know about, and have not seen any of these things; I am talking, to you! You who know about your wanderings in The Wilderness, and your crossing of the Red Sea and the Jordan, I am talking to you!

God wants us to be as faithful to Him as He has been to us. He wants us to remember all these things as we go in to take possession of the land, all the land promised to us. Every place upon which the soles of our feet shall tread, is ours. "Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse." Which shall it be? Your will must decide. We may accept all the blessings offered in perfect love, or realize the curse accompanying the rejection of such experience.

Are you putting your feet down rapidly? Are you getting quickly over this holy ground? Do not stop to get out any measuring instrument. Be a fleet-footed surveyor. Run just as fast as you can get your feet down.

"Every place upon which the soles of your feet shall tread." Oh, if people believed that, how quicklyhow quickly they would get into Canaan and get around in Canaan! What surveyors they would be! It would be a more rapid move than in Oklahoma and in the Indian Territory. You know how they did? They just got themselves and their horses and vehicles in, moved as fast as possible, and claimed possession. That is exactly the way God wants it should be with us in our Canaan of Perfect Love.