Editor’s Note: This is Part 2 of a two-part article. Read Part 1 at this link.
Declared Deliverance
Notice closely the declarations of deliverance that occurred when the Israelites began to sing and praise God:
The peoples have heard and are afraid; sorrow has taken hold on the inhabitants of Philistia. Then the chiefs of Edom were amazed; the mighty men of Moab, trembling takes hold of them; all the inhabitants of Canaan are melted away. Fear and dread fall upon them; by the greatness of Your arm they are as still as a stone, until Your people pass over, O Lord, until the people whom You have purchased pass over. You shall bring them in, and plant them on the mountain of Your inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which You have made for Your dwelling, in the sanctuary, O Lord, which Your hands have established. The Lord will reign forever and ever (Ex. 15:14-18).
They had barely crossed the Red Sea and seen their opposition annihilated by the Lord. CNN and Fox News or Facebook and Twitter had not quite come into the picture at this point in history. There is absolutely no way that anyone in the promised land they were going to conquer could have known what just occurred. Yet the spirit of prophecy had moved into the worship service, and God was assuring them He would plant them in the mountain of His inheritance. As joint heirs with Christ, their Lord and ours is going to reign forever and ever!
Moses reiterated this to them in Exodus and Deuteronomy a few times:
“I will send My fear before you, and I will throw into panic all the people to whom you shall come. I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you” (Ex. 23:27).
“This day I will begin to put the dread of you and the fear of you on the nations that are under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you, and shall tremble, and be in anguish because of you” (Deut. 2:25).
“No man will be able to resist you, for the Lord your God shall lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land where you shall tread, just as He has spoken to you” (Deut. 11:25).
Changed Perspectives
About 24 months after leaving Egypt, they’ve celebrated their third Passover and arrived at Kadesh-barnea. Moses sent 12 spies to see what the land of Canaan and its inhabitants were like, basically a reconnaissance mission to confirm their earlier prophetic promises.
What was the report of the 10 spies, the ones whose names have vanished from our memory? The land “surely … flows with milk and honey … However, the people are strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are fortified and very great … a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. … in our eyes we were like grasshoppers, and so were we in their eyes” (Num. 13:27‒28, 32‒33). Talk about a delay in prophetic fulfillment! Forty years wandering in a wilderness is quite a postponement for several million impatient travelers like the Israelites.
Finally, approximately 38 years later, God used a prostitute named Rahab to speak to some very different, younger spies that Joshua had sent in to view the land. She essentially reminded them of a time when praise was turned into a prophetic declaration of the conquests they were preparing to experience in Jericho. Listen to her words in Joshua 2 that sound very familiar to Exodus 15:
Before the spies went to sleep, Rahab went up to them on the roof. She said to the men, “I know that the Lord has given you the land, for dread from you has fallen upon us, and all the inhabitants of the land melt in terror before you. For we heard how the Lord dried up the waters of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. Our hearts melted when we heard these things, and no man had any breath in him because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on earth below (Josh. 2:8-11).
The rest is history, as they say. Following seven days of silent marching, they gave a prophetic shout and blew trumpets instead of shaking tambourines, and God made the walls of Jericho crumble!
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is complete” (2 Cor. 10:3-6).
We have a choice. We can focus on the people who appear strong and shy away from ministry opportunities that seem too large and fortified to keep women out. We can listen to the one who seeks to devour the inhabitants of the kingdom of God, rather than keeping our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. We can become distracted by all the people we see and the men who are of great size/position. We can live with a grasshopper mindset in our own sight, or we can “hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm” (Heb. 10:23, NLT). God may be trusted to keep His promises.
“I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy” (Acts 2:17, MEV).
We live in a very different culture than Miriam or Priscilla, Aimee Semple McPherson or Kathryn Kuhlman. Yet, according to a recent Charisma News article, Marilyn Hickey at the age of 81 had reached more than a million Pakistanis with the gospel. God is doing some awesome things through His sons and His daughters as we unite in ministry. Why not begin proclaiming praise for today’s victories? That way, we may move into prophetic declarations about tomorrow’s conquests! {eoa}
Kay Horner formerly served as ministry projects coordinator for the Center for Spiritual Renewal, the spearhead organization for the 2006 Azusa Street Centennial. Currently, she is executive director for the Pentecostal Charismatic Churches of North America, an organization that serves denominational and church networks in Canada, Mexico and the U.S. as they pursue a mission of “demonstrating unity in the power of the Spirit.” Kay is the author of The Christmas Dance and contributing author of Praying with Jesus and Cry Out to the Lord.
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