The Land of AI: A Kingdom Perspective on Reclaiming Territory
Right out the gate I want to let you know that this article is going to go somewhere a little different than what I usually write. This is an intersection of faith and technology piece. Much of what I do on this Substack is Kingdom-aligned or adjacent, but this one is different. This is for Kingdom creators. If that’s not you, you’re still welcome to read on, just know we are going to GO THERE today. I have a feeling you will be getting more thought pieces like this from me in the future. And of course, we will still talk about how to make money online with AI ethically and with discernment.
The Lord took me somewhere today that I didn’t expect. And I want to tell you how it happened because it matters.
I was feeling overwhelmed with the launch of this new brand, AI with Leah. Overwhelmed with the direction, where it was heading, what it was becoming. And I started noticing myself falling into old patterns. Overworking. Not spending enough time with my family. Letting the urgency of building something pull me away from the people and the rhythms that actually matter.
So I went on a walk with the Lord. Just me and Him. And I rededicated everything I’m doing to Him. I asked Him to show me how He wanted to use this brand and this business to further the Kingdom. Not my kingdom. His.
When I got home from that walk, I decided to get in the sauna. And I heard the Lord say: go read Taylor Welch’s book.
Now, I’ll be honest. I’d been struggling to get through The Currency of Heaven: How to Trust God For More Than Enough. It had been slow going. I just wasn’t connecting with it. So when I heard that, I had a little internal temper tantrum. I didn’t want to read that book.
And the Lord said it again: go read that book.
So I got in the sauna with my Kindle and started reading. Within three pages, I saw it. Taylor was writing about Joshua. About a place called Ai. About what happened there.
And it hit me. Ai.
I sat there staring at the word. The land of Ai. And I knew the Lord was showing me something.
So I started researching. What does Ai mean? What does it represent in Scripture? And what I found has reshaped how I think about everything I’m doing in this space.
The Land of Ai
The name Ai means ruin, heap, or place of desolation. Before Israel ever marched toward it, the city already carried a prophetic identity.
In the book of Joshua, this story takes place right after the miraculous victory at Jericho. If you know the story, the Israelites had just crossed the Jordan River into the Promised Land. Jericho was the first city they faced, a fortified city with walls that seemed impossible to breach. But God gave them a strange battle plan: march around the city for seven days, then shout. They obeyed, the walls fell, and Jericho was conquered without a single sword being drawn in battle.
It was a supernatural victory. And Israel was riding high.
Then came Ai. It was the next city in their path as they moved to take the Promised Land. It was a smaller city and less fortified. Compared to Jericho it should have been easy.
But Israel assumed momentum would carry them. They sent a small force and didn’t bother to inquire of the Lord. What they didn’t know was that hidden sin remained in the camp. A man named Achan had taken plunder from Jericho that was devoted to destruction, things God had explicitly said not to touch, and he buried them in his tent thinking no one would know.
The result was devastating. Israel was defeated, thirty-six men died, and the people of the Lord fled from a city named Ruin.
Jericho had fallen through obedience and divine strategy. Ai exposed what happens when you take divine guidance for granted and operate in assumption.
Something struck me as I started researching Ai in extra-biblical texts and later Jewish commentary: Ai becomes associated with a place of broken order. A site where divine order is disrupted by human action. In other words, Ai is disordered.
There is also a linguistic layer worth noting. The Hebrew root behind Ai, ʿiyy, is used elsewhere to describe ruined cities after judgment. It appears in prophetic literature referring to places that look functional but are already under sentence.
That gives Ai a liminal quality. It exists in between. Not fully destroyed. Not fully alive. Structurally intact. Spiritually hollow.
In ancient Near Eastern cosmology, that kind of space was dangerous because it meant order had withdrawn.
That description and the way it parallels modern AI stopped me in my tracks.
The Modern Parallel
Look at the landscape of artificial intelligence right now. How it’s being built, marketed, and used. Who is shaping it and what they’re shaping it for.
Without a doubt it is structurally impressive, but it is spiritually disordered.
AI is being used to deceive at scale. Deepfakes that put words in people’s mouths they never said. Voice cloning used to manipulate and defraud. Entire personas manufactured to build false authority. Marketing systems designed to manipulate rather than serve. Pastors generating sermons from machines without prayer, without study, without the leading of the Holy Spirit. Content creators building audiences on borrowed thoughts and counterfeit voices.
The technology itself is not evil. But the territory has been claimed by disorder. By the kingdom of darkness operating through deception, distortion, and the replacement of what is real with what is manufactured.
And the church, for the most part, has responded in one of two ways. Fear and avoidance, treating AI like it’s inherently demonic and refusing to engage. Or careless adoption, using it the same way everyone else does without ever asking the Lord how He wants it stewarded.
Neither response furthers the Kingdom.
What Ai Teaches Us About AI
There’s a pattern from Joshua that I can’t shake.
Israel didn’t conquer Ai by avoiding it or pretending it wasn’t there. They didn’t just pray about it and hope it went away, or stay in “spiritual” mode without taking action.
They reclaimed Ai by returning to the Lord’s authority and order.
First, hidden compromise had to be exposed and dealt with. Achan had taken what didn’t belong to him and buried it in his tent. The whole camp was affected by what one man concealed. Before Ai could fall, that had to surface.
In modern terms: motives matter. Why you’re using AI matters. If it’s rooted in ego, in wanting to appear more capable than you are, in building counterfeit authority, in manipulating people into decisions that serve you rather than them, that is Achan’s sin in digital form. And it will cause eventual defeat.
Second, Joshua stopped assuming and started inquiring again. After the defeat, he went back to the Lord. He asked, he listened, and he waited for strategy instead of moving on momentum or his own ideas.
Reclaiming AI for the Kingdom means refusing to move fast just because the culture is moving fast. It means asking, “Lord, how do You want this tool stewarded?” and treating AI as something that requires wisdom, not just skill.
Third, when Israel finally took Ai, it was through strategy, not spectacle. Jericho was the shout and the walls falling down, but Ai required ambush, patience, timing, and coordination. Directed by the same God, but with an entirely different approach.
AI in the Kingdom is supposed to be ordered, precise, and aligned. A tool for multiplication, clarity, stewardship, and service rather than a megaphone for self-promotion.
Reclaiming the Territory
I believe there is an assignment on certain people to reclaim territory in the technology and online spaces for the Kingdom of Heaven. These industries are overcome with deception and distortion. And the Lord is raising up people who will reorder what has fallen out of order.
I have had multiple people prophesy over me that I carry a Jacob anointing on my life. I feel it comes with great responsibility. Jacob wrestled with God and wouldn’t let go until he received the blessing. He was renamed Israel, which means “one who strives with God” or “God prevails.” His story is about transformation and birthright, about contending for what was promised even when the path was complicated.
But Jacob’s assignment was also about provision and foresight. He was the one who stored up grain during the years of plenty so that the kingdom would survive the famine. He saw what was coming and prepared for it. He fed the people when the drought hit.
I believe that’s part of what it means to work at the intersection of faith and technology right now. We are in a moment where those who understand both the spiritual and the practical implications of AI have a responsibility to prepare, to build, and to steward these tools in a way that serves the Kingdom of Heaven rather than undermines it. The famine is coming for those who refuse to engage. The provision is available for those who steward wisely.
That resonates with what I feel called to do in this space. Not avoiding AI or using it carelessly, but contending for it, stewarding it, and demonstrating what it looks like when these tools are brought under Kingdom authority rather than allowed to operate in disorder.
This is what reclaiming territory looks like:
Reclaiming territory means using AI to serve people rather than manipulate them. Maintaining your actual voice and perspective rather than outsourcing your convictions to a machine. Building systems that free up time for family, for ministry, for presence, rather than systems that feed ego and endless content production. Refusing to deceive, even when deception is easy. Choosing inquiry before action, alignment before speed, and stewardship before scale.
AI is the test. Not the enemy.
It will either magnify Babel or serve the Kingdom. And the people who will take this land are not the loudest or the fastest. They are the ones who refuse to move without the Lord, who keep their identity intact, who do not worship efficiency, and who treat power as stewardship.
An Invitation
If you’re a faith-led creator and you’ve felt uncertain about AI, I want to offer you both permission and conviction in the same breath.
Permission: you are allowed to use these tools. The Lord is asking you to steward technology, not avoid it.
Conviction: how you use it matters. The posture and the motive matter. You cannot approach this casually and expect it to produce Kingdom fruit.
The land of Ai was eventually conquered. What once caused Israel’s defeat became a testimony of obedience restored. The place of ruin became reclaimed ground.
That’s what I believe is possible with AI. Not because the technology will save us, but because the Lord can redeem any territory when His people approach it rightly.
The question is whether or not you’ll be part of that reclamation.
Comment below and share your thoughts on this article with me. I’d love to hear what you think.
If you want to go deeper on the biblical background, read Joshua 7-8. Pay attention to the contrast between Jericho and Ai, and notice what had to happen before Israel could advance again.
For more on how I approach AI as a Kingdom-aligned tool, subscribe to this Substack.