God has in store great blessings for His people in the Promised Land under the New Covenant. All the promises of God given to His people under the Old Covenant can be inherited by His people under the New Covenant. We, the members of His Body, are the children of promise, the spiritual descendants of Abraham, who was the father of faith. Let us now meditate on the 34^th chapter of Ezekiel. The Lord commanded Prophet Ezekiel to prophesy against the shepherds of Israel because the Levitical priesthood failed to deliver goods to His flock. Instead, the priests suppressed and drove away the flocks under their care. The flocks were finally scattered abroad. God judged the shepherds of Israel through the hands of their enemies. At the same time, God gave promises of restoration and blessings to His people under a new covenant of peace (Vs.25). God is today gathering His people scattered abroad under the new covenant in the one Body of Christ.

His promises of restoration and of blessings in verses 21 to 31 are for us, and not for the people of the physical Israel who rejected Christ and the new covenant of God.

God promised through His prophet in verse 22, “Therefore will I save My flock….”. This promise is being fulfilled in the ministry of Christ Jesus. God is saving His flock from the four corners of the world through the Blood of His Son.

In verses 23 and 24, God referred to “My servant David”. This prophetically refers to the ministry of Christ Jesus, the Seed of David, and not to the earthly rule of King David. These promises of God were not fulfilled during the rule of King David because there were wars, violence, sin, insecurity, judgment of God, etc. prevalent in the physical kingdom of David.

In this background, I am led by the Spirit to give you an insight into the blessings of the Kingdom of Christ.

“Therefore will I save My flock, and they shall no more be a prey: and I will judge between cattle and cattle…..” (Eze.34:22).

If you are saved by the Blood of Christ Jesus, you would join His flock. His flock shall no more be a prey. Under the Old Covenant, the people of Israel became a prey to their enemies as and when they forsook the ways of God. The enemies of the nation of Israel under the Old Covenant were termed as heathens, whereas the enemies under the New Covenant are the Devil and his unseen rulers.

The Lord does not want His people to become a prey to the Devil under the covenant of the Blood of Christ Jesus. People who are ignorant of the truth concerning the Blood of Jesus fall a prey to the Devil.

Under the Old Covenant, God did not have the personal fellowship with every cattle of His flock. Instead, He chose leaders like Moses, David, etc. to rule and judge His flock. Even when these leaders failed to obey God on some occasions, the judgment of God devoured the flocks under them. However, under the New Covenant, God knows each and every cattle of His flock so intimately that He calls them by name. God can thus judge between cattle and cattle.

If you know the truth, the truth will set you free today. Please remember that you are no longer a prey to the Devil or anyone in this world. In Christ Jesus, you are complete. There is no spot in thee. Thou art fair!

Confess through your mouth that you are not a prey to the Devil who has brought this disease to your body. Command the sickness in your body to leave you under the Covenant of the Blood of Jesus Christ. Command the unhappiness in your family to disappear in the Name of Jesus Christ. Command your strained marriage to be restored in the Name of Jesus Christ.

In the Promised Land, you should command all the curses brought on your family through the sins of your forefathers to be removed from your house through the Blood of Jesus.

“And I will set up one Shepherd over them, and He shall feed them, even My servant David: He shall feed them, and He shall be their Shepherd” (Eze.34:23).

God set up one Shepherd over His people the moment Christ died on the Cross and rose from the dead. Through the Cross of the Lord Jesus, God made both the Jews and the Gentiles one by breaking down the middle wall of separation (Eph.2:14-18). There is now one Shepherd over His people, irrespective of whether they are the Jews or the Gentiles. Seeing Christ through his prophetic eyes, King David said in Psalm 23:1, “The Lord is my Shepherd”. All the children of God redeemed by the Blood of Jesus have one Shepherd only, though they belong to different denominational churches, nationalities or races.

If you know the truth that Jesus is your Shepherd, you “shall not want” because He Himself feeds you. God supplies all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Phil.4:19). In the past, you had sought human help for supplying all your need. Confess through your mouth today that Christ Jesus is your Shepherd and that you shall not want.

“And I the Lord will be their God, and My servant David a prince among them: I the Lord have spoken it” (Eze.34:24).

The Lord of the Heaven and the earth has become our personal God under the New Covenant. And His Son Jesus has become our Prince in His Kingdom. What a privileged people we are today! The God of the Old Covenant, Whom the people of Israel were frightened of, has become our personal God. The God Who judged His people instantly when they rebelled against Him has now become a forgiving God. The Word became flesh and dwells among us, and we behold His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (John 1:14-17). Whenever we backslide in our spiritual life, His grace upholds and restores us. He does not condemn us but chastens us out of His fatherly love (Heb.12:7-11).

If you know the truth that you have a personal God and that Christ is your Prince in the Father’s Kingdom, no power on this earth can overcome you.

“And I will make them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land; and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods.” (Eze.34:25).

God made a covenant of peace with the people through the Blood of Jesus Christ and caused the evil beasts to cease from the Promised Land. The Promised Land under the New Covenant is not a physical land or a physical kingdom. It is a spiritual life intertwined with the life of Christ and with the lives of the other members of His Body, the Church. It is a spiritual place where we find the Tabernacle of God in our midst. On the Cross of Calvary, the works of Satan were destroyed completely so that he could no longer put the people of God in bondage to sin and sicknesses. The evil beasts symbolical of the satanic powers were stripped of their powers on the Cross itself so that the people of God could live a life of victory in the Promised Land safely, even in the wilderness. The Antichrist and the False Prophet who are described as beasts in the 13^th Chapter of the Book of Revelation have no power or authority over you if you have entered the Promised Land under the New Covenant.

There is indeed a wilderness in the Promised Land. Often in our spiritual life, we are driven to a wilderness where we suffer loneliness or fear or insecurity. However, in this wilderness, the Devil cannot overcome us because Christ our behalf not only overcame the evil one in the wilderness after his 40 days’ fast on our behalf but also finally triumphed over him and stripped him of all his power through the blood of the Cross. Whenever we face the wilderness experience in our life, we should not get disheartened but remember that the Devil had lost all his power over us when Christ died for our sin and rose from the dead.

Since many of us are ignorant of this truth, we tend to give a place to the Devil and thus allow him to tempt and oppress us in the wilderness. If you know the truth, the truth will deliver you.

We can dwell safely in the wilderness and also can sleep in the woods. Normally, nobody would like to stay in a jungle surrounded by wild beasts. Since the Devil has been stripped of his power in the Promised Land, we can sleep in the spiritual jungle of the Land. All of us do sleep in our spiritual life at one time or the other. But the Devil has absolutely no power over us. He cannot annihilate us spiritually during our spiritual slumber in the comforts of our life.

At times, we rest from our labors in the Vineyards of God. A weary minister may go on a short vacation along with his family. A minister may not be spending much time in his prayer at times due to his bodily fatigue or due to some other reasons. But the grace of God surrounds him. The powerless Devil cannot attack him during this period unless he gives a place to the former.

The preachers often quote the instance of Peter’s slumber in the garden of Gethsemane as the reason for his denying Jesus. According to them, if Peter had prayed for an hour, he would not have fallen into the temptation. Peter denied Christ not because he could not pray but because the prophecy of Jesus at the time of the Last Supper had to be fulfilled. Jesus had prophesied that Peter would deny Him thrice that night before the rooster crew much before they entered the garden of Gethsemane.

By imploring Peter to pray for at least one hour so that he should not enter into temptation, Jesus revealed to Peter the secret of prayer that in order to overcome temptation, he needed the spiritual strength from God so that he might not enter into such temptation in his life. Jesus did not mean the temptation of Peter to deny Him at that particular time but the temptation Peter would face in his entire life towards the lust of the flesh and the lust of the world, especially after the ascension of his Master into the heaven. Prayer prepares us in our spiritual life so that we may not enter into temptation at all. These days, we do not pray before entering into temptation but pray only after entering into temptation.

No doubt, one should spend more time in prayer for his spiritual growth and for his effective ministry. But at the same time, let us bear in mind that even we cannot pray for some reason, the Devil has no power to attack or oppress us because the Blood of Jesus around us had stripped the Devil of all his power. In other words, the covenant of peace through the Blood of Jesus had destroyed his power.

“And I will make them and the places round about My hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing” (Eze.34:26).

Under the New Covenant, God has made us and the places all round His will (Zion) a blessing. He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (Eph.1:3). His very presence i.e. His Tabernacle is in the midst of us, the members of the Body of Christ. Every spiritual blessing means all blessings and does not exclude “physical blessing”. God’s blessing touches our spirit first and then percolates down to our body. When we get saved in our spirit by the Blood of Jesus, the curses of sin in our body also disappear. Some preachers wrongly say that spiritual blessing does not include divine healing or financial prosperity.

God did not create the spirit and the body of Adam separately. God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul (Gen.2:7). God first made the body of man and then gave him the breath of His life. The breath of life given by God to Adam became a living soul. When Adam committed sin, his living soul became dead. The dead soul of man was restored to the life in God through Christ Jesus. Those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior become living souls, having been quickened together with Christ Jesus (Eph.2:5). When a man is saved by the Blood of Jesus, his whole man is blessed by God. This is the truth. If you know the truth, the truth will deliver you.

God has caused showers of blessing to come down in their season. Why do not we receive “showers of blessing” as promised by God? God’s promise is always true.

The heaven-sent revival or the latter rain would have broken out long ago. But it tarries. The showers have been withdrawn and there has been no latter rain (Jer.3: 3). Who is blameworthy for this?

As far as God is concerned, He is not to blame because He has appointed for us seasons for the former and latter rains and seasons for the harvests (Jer.5: 24). Alas, no harvest is in the offing and the appointed harvesting seasons are almost past. Heed to the prophetic message from God by His prophet Jeremiah who bewailed, “your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withheld good things from you” (Jer.5: 25). God’s eyes are upon all your ways; they are not hid from His face, neither is your iniquity hid from His eyes (Jer.16: 17).

Why does revival tarry? Why our prayers for revival have not yet been answered? Is God to blame for this? Is the Lord’s hand shortened, that He cannot save our nations from peril and disaster? Is His ear heavy, that He cannot hear our prayer for revival? No! Then, who is to blame if your nation is lost? It is your iniquities – the iniquities of the chosen people of God –, which have separated you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear (Is.59: 1-2).

Unless we repent and turn to God with a humble heart, we cannot receive the showers of blessing that God intends to send us.

Many of us in our churches sing at the top of our voices, “showers of blessing we need”. But we do not repent of our trespasses and backslidings. If God wants a nation to be blessed, the national leaders of that nation should repent and turn to God. If they have killed their enemies or destroyed their nations through their might, they should repent in sackcloth. God will not bless their nation if they simply pray, “God bless our nation”.

For a revival of the Church, individual members of the Church, the Body of Christ should humble themselves, and pray, and seek His face and turn from their wicked ways; they should repent and return to God (2 Chr. 7:14, Hosea 6:1-3 and Rev.2:5).

“And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the Lord, when I have broken the bands of their yoke, and delivered them out of the hand of those that served themselves of them “ (Eze.34:27).

In our mission fields, though our evangelists work to bring a few people to the saving knowledge of Christ, yet their trees do not yield their fruit in the absence of showers of blessing. Under the New Covenant of peace, through the showers, the Lord is prepared to pour out His Spirit on our mission fields. Let us beseech the Lord to fulfill His promise of showers in place of a few drops here and there. I believe that the Lord will fulfill His promise of blessings because He has already broken the bands of our yoke, and delivered us out of the hand of the Devil and his forces through the Covenant of the Blood of Jesus Christ.

When God fulfills His promise of showers of blessing, there would be such an abundance of divine blessings, both material and spiritual, especially in the lives of the children of God that, on seeing their prosperity, the other people would glorify God. This world is to be blessed by God only through you and me, the members of the Body of Christ. The whole earth will yield the increase when the world-revival breaks out.

Let us believe that God will send “showers of blessing” in the Promised Land.

“And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the beast of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid”.

“And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more”.

“Thus shall they know that I the Lord their God am with them and that they, even the house of Israel, are My people, saith the Lord God”.

“And ye My flock, the flock of My pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord God” (Eze.34:28-31).

In the Promised Land, there is a plant of renown. This is the five-fold ministry of the Body of Christ which was born on the day of Pentecost. This plant was planted by Christ on the day of Pentecost. The five types of ministers as ordained by God under the New Covenant are the servants to the other members of the Body. They serve and feed the people of God in their spiritual life in the Land so the latter need not suffer hunger any longer. Through this wonderful ministry of these five types of ministers, the people of God would receive abundance of blessings and would not bear the shame of the heathen any more. The people of this world cannot suppress the people of God in the Promised Land. In the Promised Land, they are well protected by the Blood of Jesus Christ and are fed by the plant of renown.

We thus know that the Lord our God is with us in the Promised Land and that we are His people of the New Covenant. We are the flock of His pasture. Amen.