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BlogJoshua Generation

Cities of Refuge, Part 3

By August 29, 2018January 2nd, 2019No Comments

In yesterdays post, I pointed out that the Lord instructed Joshua to build six unique cities to be called cities of refuge. These six cities were all built high on hillsides and could be seen for miles around. They were dispersed throughout the Promised Land so they could be reached from any place. The purpose of these six cities of refuge was to be a shelter of protection for those who had innocently shed blood (accidental deaths). Here are the next two cities God told Joshua to build:

5. Ramoth: “High, Exalted Place”

The fifth city of refuge was called Ramoth. Ramoth means “high, exalted place” and is a picture of our exalted place in Christ. Ephesians 2:6-7 tells us that God “raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

We are seated in “heavenly places” through Jesus Christ. We have freely been given a place of honor and exaltation right next to Jesus Christ in heaven! Not only that, but we have been given all that heaven has through Jesus.

This not only speaks of our ruling and reigning with Christ after He comes back for us, but it also speaks of our position and inheritance in this life. The Word of God is our legal inheritance from God. To know and believe the precious promises of God’s Word is to live in our exalted place in Christ. God’s Word is filled with literally thousands of precious promises that God has given us as our inheritance in Him. All these promises are for us. We read about this in 2 Corinthians 1:20: “For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.”

God longs for us to know and believe in what He has done for us. “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power.” (Ephesians 1:17-19)

The Holy Spirit will show us:

Who we are in Christ

What we have in Christ

What we can do through Christ

We are literally “more than conquerors” right now in Jesus Christ. When you believe that and then live it, you will begin to experience the life and power God has made available to you.

6. Bashan: “Fruitfulness, Fertile Soil”

The sixth city of refuge was in Bashan. Bashan means “fruitfulness, fertile soil.” The church is to be a place where we produce the fruit and evidence of God’s Word. God’s Word will always change lives when it is received properly.

This place of fruitfulness is spoken of in Ephesians as being the children of God. God “predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.” (Ephesians 1:5) “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.” (Ephesians 2:19) We are the children of God in the earth. As the children of a loving Father, we’ve been given a glorious inheritance revealed to us in God’s Word.

According to Ephesians 1:11: “In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.” And in Ephesians 1:18-19, God wants us to “know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.”

As the children of God, our lives are “fertile soil” for our Father’s Word to produce life. We desire to emulate and imitate our Heavenly Father just as natural children do. “Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.” (Ephesians 5:1, 2)

When we “walk in love,” we produce the fruit of the Spirit and reveal God’s nature in us. Fruitfulness, for the believer, begins by knowing and believing God’s great love for you and sharing that love with others.

God’s purpose is for the world to see His love in us. By walking in this love, we clothe ourselves in love. Dear believer, God is love, and when you begin to know and experience His love for you, your whole life will change. Why? Because loved people love people! The basis for all Christian victory and success is in the knowing and the experiencing of God’s love.

We read in Ephesians 3:16-20 that Paul prayed God would “grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height — to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.”

We can be filled with the “fullness of God” by believing in and receiving the love of God. After we know and believe in this love, we are able to love each other. This love is a light to a dark world. “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.” (Ephesians 5:8) Let us walk in love (and thus walk in the light) and release God’s glory and life to our hurting world. is a place of refuge for a hurting world.

The church must not be hidden and isolated, but instead be “on a hill” to be seen of all men. We have what the world needs: JESUS! His life, Spirit and Word will save, heal and deliver any and all that receive Him.

Does your city know about you and your church? Are we seeking God’s supernatural solutions to the needs and problems of our cities? In these last days, God wants to establish “churches (cities) of refuge” in every city of the world. He wants to establish a place where His life and love flow out to the needs of humanity, a place where solutions and answers and miracles are given to searching lives.

Let us pray and work to build the Kingdom of God where we live for in the rule and reign of Christ shall the needs and answers of a dying world be met.

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