The Promised Land of the Soul.

Learning to Yield the Heart

The book of Joshua, John 15, and 1 Corinthians 15 form a stunning thread of divine continuity: God reclaiming territory. Physical in Joshua, spiritual in John, and eternal in 1 Corinthians. I can't help but wonder how this mirrors my own walk with Him. 

In Joshua, Israel enters the Promised Land. A tangible fulfillment of God’s covenant.
But more than geography, it’s a symbol of restoration of relationships.

Each conquest is not just about defeating enemies, but reclaiming what was always meant to be holy.
It mirrors Eden: a return to dwelling with God in peace and abundance.

“The Lord gave them rest on every side… Not one of all the Lord’s good promises failed.” (Joshua 21:44–45)

This rest was conditional upon obedience: staying rooted in His presence.
When Israel compromised, they lost ground.
So the pattern emerges: obedience, inheritance; disobedience, exile

And that is a lot like my own walk with Christ in my first years. There were physical actions I was participating in that did not lead me closer to Him. Have it be my drinking, the way I treated others, activities I engaged in, the list could go on. But one thing remained clear, so long as I fixed my eyes on Him, and positioned myself in such a space that I could see Him better, the fruits of healing and restoration continued. What started as a promise for victory very quickly changed into a promise of love: of wholeness, of simply being with Him. 

In John 15, Jesus isn’t leading armies; He’s conquering the human soul.

The Promised Land becomes the inner landscape of the believer.

“Abide in Me, and I in you… apart from Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:4–5)

Where Joshua took territory externally, Jesus takes territory internally.

The same pattern of conquest unfolds:

• He uproots idols (false attachments, pride, self-sufficiency).
  

• He cuts away dead growth (pruning of unhealthy coping mechanisms).
  

• He inhabits what He restores (abiding in Him through obedience to His Truth).
  

• He gives rest through surrender (fruitfulness through dependence, rest through trust).
  

So instead of fighting for land, we yield land: the landscape of our hearts, to His Lordship.
It’s a spiritual Canaan.

Once I began to remain, I realized the spiritual aspect of it all. Things that once seemed so important to grasp and control felt lighter. Once I knew Him, I knew He had all things. That the fight wasn't just for my physical surroundings, but for my soul. The question changed from “Where can I stand to see You?” to “How could I better position my soul to reflect You?” “ How can I deny the truths I know, and rely on Your truth over mine?”

We all long to be fully seen, on a soul level and called loved. We seek it out in our relationships, a temporary placeholder of the eternal, unfathomable depth of love God has for us. And when He asks us to remove that placeholder, it can feel like death. Death to parts of us that seek to be held right here and right now. But God wants to hold us forever. How impatient are we? 

Each time I surrendered parts of myself over to Him, while painful to release control of, felt like acts of unconditional love. After remaining in a routine of it I began to be excited for each act that brought me closer to Him, each act of surrender as an opportunity to show my love for Him without condition. Each act of surrender is a gesture of “I love you too”.

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul ties it all together. 

“For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” (1 Cor. 15:25–26)

Joshua’s victories foreshadowed this ultimate conquest.
Jesus: the greater Joshua (Yehoshua, “The Lord Saves”) doesn’t just give us land or life,
He gives us resurrection.

Where Joshua brought people into rest,

And John 15 brings us death to parts of our soul that do not reflect Him,
Jesus brings us beyond rest into eternal union.

In John 15, we’re grafted into His life.
In 1 Corinthians 15, we’re resurrected into His immortality.

I'm under the impression that when we accept Jesus as The Way, The Truth, and The Life, the reason it is so powerful is because of the Truth in it. Jesus died on the cross as an act of the greatest Truth of all, the desire God has to have unconditional love, agape, with us. 

It's why the fall had the impact it did. By accepting knowledge for ourselves, we stepped outside of the Truth, that God loves us so much that He would do anything to provide us comfort, love and abundance.But we cannot remain in that abundance without full trust, onto death.  

Without the choice from the fall, how could it ever be unconditional? And now through the death of Jesus we have a way to accept God's love without condition. Because of His death, we witness the ultimate expression of God's desire for unconditional Love with us.

You know when you're met with a circumstance that feels heavy to make a decision in? The weight on your chest of having to decide what is right from what is wrong. It can feel crushing. And that's just one person's weight of knowledge and need for discernment. Now imagine what that weight would feel like for all of humanity. Past, present and future. That is the weight Jesus took on when He went to the cross. When I think of the weight of my own choices, and how unbearable and crushing that feels as just one person, the weight of the cross seems unimaginable. But that's how much God loves each of us. 

Not only did He take on that weight, but He took it on after His flesh was torn from His body, after He was ripped apart by whips, broken and bloody and barely alive. Not only did He take that weight on, broken & bloodied, but also heartbroken. The people He loved so much so that He was willing to take on the full brunt of it all for, were the ones that were hurting Him, breaking Him, killing Him. 

That’s unconditional love, love for us despite every condition. It’s love that reclaims every territory. Not by force, but by grace. Before we ever choose to change, Jesus already chose the cross. Before we ever reach for Him, He is already reaching for us. Through His death and resurrection, He invites us into a new kind of life..one marked by trust, not striving; by surrender, not shame. This is how His love transforms us: not by demanding perfection, but by helping us release what keeps us bound.

He loves us enough to help us let go of the things that harm us.. the habits, fears, and defenses that once felt like safety.
And as we loosen our grip, we discover He never let go of us. This journey of faith isn’t about tearing ourselves down; it’s about letting Him rebuild what was always meant to be whole.

Each step of surrender becomes less about loss and more about love a daily “I love You too” whispered back to the One who first loved us.

Even as we stumble, His grace steadies.
Even as we release what we can’t carry, His hands hold it all.
And little by little, He reclaims every piece of us, until what remains is love itself: unconditional, eternal, and completely free.