From Occupation to Expansion
by Bill Johnson
One of the warriors of old made this statement: "The purpose of war is
victory, and the purpose of victory is occupation." In the Kingdom, we add
one more step to the process: The purpose of occupation is expansion.
The Lord would not give the Promised Land to Israel all at once because they
did not have the ability to occupy all of the territory. By only giving them
the amount of land they could occupy, He positioned them for expansion.
Expansion is vital to advancing the Kingdom of Heaven. The man who was given
the one talent and buried it simply occupied and protected that
accomplishment but suffered tremendously because he did not take what he had
and position it for increase (Matthew 25:15-28).
It's important that we view life with the perspective of expansion and
forward motion. When we think this way, we are positioning ourselves for
increase and promotion. It's not healthy to simply find a place you want to
stay in and occupy. The moment you have found a leveling-off place is the
moment you begin backsliding.
When your passion begins to decline, you already start to die. You were born
to burn. Elisha came to the king and said, "Please strike the ground with
these arrows." And he struck the ground three times. The prophet became
furious at the king and said, "If only you had struck the ground five or six
times you would have annihilated the enemy, but now you're only going to
have three temporary victories." Because the king did not live out of
passion, he couldn't carry the anointing that God wanted to give him, and it
cost the nation. When leaders don't have passion, it costs everyone who
follows.
Passion and the anointing run in parallel courses. A person with passion
will take risks. Everything you want in the realm of the Kingdom is found
through this veil of difficulty by stepping into the realm of inconvenience.
You don't get it by coasting on yesterday's breakthrough. You were born for
expansion.