Joshua
never had to face the kind of fearsome threats that challenge believers
today. When he led Israel into the promised land, he didn’t have to
worry about the likes of Saddam Hussein, chemical weapons or suicide
bombers. On the home front, he didn’t have to concern himself with job
layoffs, rising gas prices, a shaky stock market or the loss of his
retirement portfolio.
But Joshua did have to face his own set of giants. Just across the
Jordan River were real threats that had many of his fellow Israelites
shaking in their boots.
How
did he approach these giants and ultimately defeat them? By pressing
into the Lord to gain a fresh strategy for each new battle.
In the perilous times in which we live, many people are filled with fear. There are giants in the land.
As Christians we need to follow Joshua’s example. By seeking God each
day for fresh words of divine strategy for ourselves, our families and
our nation, we can defeat the giants.
DON’T BELIEVE THE BAD REPORT
Before the Israelites crossed the Jordan into the promised land, Moses
sent a team of 12 men to spy out the territory. When the spies returned,
10 of them gave a fear-filled report.
They had seen giants in the land. Next to these giants, they had seemed
like mere grasshoppers. Israel could never go up against them and win.
But two spies—Joshua and Caleb—came to a different conclusion. Yes,
the giants were big and strong, they said; but they could take the land
because the God of Israel was more powerful than any giant.
Unfortunately, the people of Israel chose to believe the report of fear.
Never mind that they’d witnessed God’s powerful signs and wonders
during the course of their escape from Egypt.
Their “grasshopper mentality” resulted in their refusal to battle the
giants and take the land God wanted to give them. Instead they wandered
aimlessly in the wilderness for 40 years. Joshua ended up leading an
entirely new generation into the promised land.
When we look at the dangers facing us in the world today, do they appear
to be giants, while we seem like grasshoppers? Or do we, like Joshua,
have faith that our omnipotent God is greater than any enemy we might
encounter?
JOSHUA’S SECRET: THE SECRET PLACE
Joshua spent 40 years in the wilderness with the rest of the nation of
Israel. His time was not wasted, however. He spent his days in the
“secret place” of God’s presence, getting to know the Lord in an
intimate way.
Whenever Moses went into the Tent of Meeting to meet with the Lord,
Joshua would linger nearby (see Ex. 33:11). Joshua loved being near the
presence and the glory of God.
God used this wilderness period in Joshua’s life to prepare him for the
monumental battles that lay ahead. By the time he was chosen to be
Israel’s new leader, he was known as “a man in whom is the spirit” (Num.
27:18).
To overthrow the giants, Joshua would need to draw on the intimate
relationship with God that he’d developed in the desert. He would need
to seek fresh revelation on a daily basis.
GOD’S WAYS ARE NOT OUR WAYS
On their way into the promised land, the Israelites faced many
challenges. Yet with each new challenge, God gave Joshua a unique
strategy for success.
Many of the strategies didn’t make sense from a military perspective.
But as Joshua and the people followed God’s ways and not their own,
they experienced victory.
The first challenge came before Israel even crossed the Jordan. Under
God’s divine guidance, Joshua sent two men to spy out Jericho, the first
city that Israel would have to conquer.
Once inside the city walls, the two spies were directed by the Lord to a
very unlikely hiding place: the home of Rahab the prostitute. It was
probably the last place the men expected God to send them. But the Lord
knew that Rahab was the one person in Jericho who would take them in.
Because the spies followed God’s unusual strategy, they were kept safe.
In the process, Rahab came to faith in God and was saved from Jericho’s
destruction.
When the spies returned to Joshua, they were flush with victory. They
immediately filed this faith-filled report: “Truly the Lord has
delivered all the land into our hands, for indeed all the inhabitants of
the country are faint-hearted because of us” (Josh. 2:24, NKJV).
With that first challenge successfully behind him, Joshua moved on to
the next one: how to get the entire population of Israel across the
Jordan. The timing could not have been worse. It was flood season, and
the river was overflowing its banks.
Joshua could have said, “Lord, can’t we just wait a little longer, until
the waters recede?” Instead he listened for God’s divine strategy.
The Lord’s instructions were specific. First, the priests who were
carrying the Ark of the Covenant would step into the river. As their
feet touched the water, the current would be held back supernaturally,
and the rest of Israel would cross on dry land.
The priests would remain in the riverbed until Joshua appointed one man
from each tribe to pick up a stone from the spot where the priests were
standing. Then the stones would be used to build an altar to God so
that, as Joshua declared, “all the peoples of the earth may know the
hand of the Lord, that it is mighty” (Josh. 4:24).
Israel’s supernatural crossing of the Jordan made a powerful impression
on their enemies. According to Joshua 5:1, “their heart melted; and
there was no spirit in them any longer because of the children of
Israel.”
WHEN WE’RE WEAK, HE’S STRONG
The Israelites must have been thrilled with their success and eager to
hear God’s next miracle strategy. But the divine instruction that
followed was probably not a welcome one.
That generation had been born in the wilderness, and the men had never
been circumcised. Now God said each man would need to be identified as a
child of Abraham, qualified for covenant blessing, through the act of
circumcision.
Here they were, about to go into battle to take the city of Jericho, and
the Lord was commanding them to do something painful, something that
would make them vulnerable and weak! How could they defeat Jericho if
they could barely walk?
But God’s strategy was perfect. He would show Himself strong in their weakness.
Circumcision was only the first step. Through a special visitation from
heaven, Joshua was given more divine instructions that must have stumped
Israel’s military minds.
Can you imagine this scene? Joshua, Israel’s fearless leader, steps up to the platform. A cheer goes up.
He clears his throat. “The good news is, the Commander of the Lord’s army has just appeared to me,” he says.
The people whoop and yell, waving their shields and jabbing the air with their swords.
Then he continues: “The bad news is, He gave me the battle plan.”
Kicking the sand with his toe, he mumbles, “Uh, priests march, trumpets
blow, everyone shouts, walls fall down.”
The confused soldiers scratch their heads. No commander on Earth would plan for a battle like that!
True. The strategies that God gave Joshua for overcoming obstacles and
defeating giants were, to say the least, unusual and creative.
Yet the Lord knew the timing and strategy necessary for each victory.
When Joshua and the people trusted the Lord’s wisdom above their own and
obeyed His direction, God moved with supernatural power to bring them
to victory.
SLAYING OUR OWN GIANTS Like Joshua, you and I are
challenged by many giants. New and potent dangers are all around us,
both in the world and in our personal lives.
But we don’t have to shrink in fear. Just as God guided Israel
supernaturally, He will also guide us if we learn to be like Joshua and
seek Him on a daily basis.
We can have fresh revelation and know God’s divine strategy for each new
battle—no matter how big or how powerful the enemy might be. How do we
do this? Here are eight keys:
1. Return to your first love. Spend intimate time
alone with God—not attending church, not serving in ministry, not
reading the current Christian best seller. Be together, just the two of
you.
Cut fluff from your schedule. Lop off any areas of your life that don’t
correspond with God-given assignments. Spend long hours waiting in His
presence.
2. Intercede. Through prayer, fasting and worship, go
into the heavenly war room and get fresh strategies and weapons for
each day’s new battles. Take comfort knowing that Jesus “always lives to
make intercession” for you (Heb. 7:25).
3. Lay aside differences. Do a personal inventory of
your relationships with family and friends. Where necessary, relinquish
your rights, forgive and love one another as an act of worship to God.
4. Trust Jesus. Identify your fears. Do you see yourself as more than a conqueror, or are you a grasshopper hiding in the giant’s shadow?
The issue is your trust in Christ’s eternal character. Ask the Lord to
show you the strongholds of fear in your life and how, by the power of
the Holy Spirit, you can bring them down.
5. Have an ear to hear. Hearing the voice of God is a
survival mechanism for us all. The Lord promises that His sheep will
hear His voice and follow Him (see John 10:3-4). Press in to hear the
voice of God, confident that He wants to speak words of deliverance to
you.
6. Rest in Him. Did you know that rest is a form of
spiritual warfare? Isaiah 30:15 says, “In returning and rest you shall
be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength.” God wants
to give you rest and peace in the midst of turbulent times. “Come to
Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,”
Jesus promised (Matt.11:28).
7. Ask for the lost. Ask God how to knock down the
fortified walls in your heart and in your world. And while you’re at it,
ask Him to show you the Rahabs in your workplace, school or community
that He wants to pluck from the rubble. Don’t be surprised if He uses
them to communicate divine strategies that will save your life as well
as theirs.
8. Feed your spirit on the goodness of God. Meditate
on Psalm 91 and keep a journal of God’s faithfulness in your life.
Remember His faithfulness as you approach each new battle.
Declare that by grace and faith in the finished work of Jesus, you are
an overcomer. God will crush the enemy under your feet! He has done it
before; He will do it again.
Before Joshua led the Israelites into the promised land, the Lord told
him: “Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have
given you…Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be
dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” (Josh.
1:3,9).
You and I have that same promise today. Don’t be afraid! Our giants are
nothing more than grasshoppers in the eyes of our omnipotent God.
The late Jill Austin, founder of Master Potter Ministries, traveled internationally as a conference speaker for more than 25 years. She was a veteran leader within the prophetic movement, ministering the
presence and power of the Holy Spirit worldwide for nearly three
decades, both in person and through books such as Dancing With Destiny and Master Potter.
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