Joshua Chapter 5

The Amorites and Canaanites were powerful heathen countries which surrounded the land of Israel. They both had many different gods which they must have thought were the source of their strong power.

But when they had heard about how the LORD had dried up the waters of the Jordan River for the Israelites to pass through, they realized that Israel’s God was much more powerful than their own.

The Bible says that “their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them anymore, because of the children of Israel.”

As soon as they had come into the land God had promised them, he told Joshua to circumcise every male. Some of the older men had already been circumcised, but ones who had been born in the wilderness had not been. This was the way God chose for them to be set apart as His own special people, and He expected them to obey.

He told them that He would not help them obtain the victory in this new land unless they obeyed him in circumcision. Because of their disobedience God had brought judgment upon them for a time and they did not operate under His Blessing; therefore, they didn’t carry out many of their Jewish customs and ordinances while they were in the wilderness.

He wanted His Chosen People to be clean from both the inside and outside. That is the only kind of person that God can use in a powerful way.

After they had been obedient to everything God had told them to do, He then “rolled away the reproach of Egypt” from off their lives and made them a people that others looked up to and even feared again. They were no longer the failures and slaves they had been in the past. Now they were a people who were revered and feared because of their God and how powerful He was.

BUT the way they achieved this success was through obedience to what God told them to do, even though they probably didn’t understand at all how this would make them be clean and pure before Him; he just wanted them to obey.

Has God asked you to do something that you don’t understand the significance it could possibly have in making your life better? Maybe He just wants to see if you will walk in complete obedience to His will for your life.

I can truly say that I am just now understanding (but only in part) something that God told me to do two years ago. At the time I thought it would be a huge step backward and really didn’t want to do it.

In fact, I fought with God for about a week telling Him that I didn’t want to do this particular thing. I was extremely disappointed because I knew that if I didn’t do it I would be choosing to rebel against His wishes, so ultimately I knew I had no other choice if I wanted to continue to grow as a Christian.

Once again, as I look back I can’t believe how selfish I was to think I couldn’t trust Him to work everything out for the best; even worse is the fact that I had the nerve to think that He was messing up my well laid plans.

Much of the time I wonder why He bothers to use me at all, but I am so thankful that He can see something in me that He CAN use. I marvel at His grace, mercy, and forgiveness when many times I think that I know so much more than He does.

As I look back I see that God wanted me to be a part of something much bigger than I had ever thought of doing on my own, even with my grand dreams and huge plans. I could only see from a very limited perspective at the start, and never imagined the complexity and depth that God would take me in this endeavor.

I can say with certainty that your life will never be boring if you choose to go through the doors that God opens. As for my life, things get tough at times and Satan tries to bring me down, but I have started to see God in a way that I never have before and I never want to go back to the way I used to be.

It is an awesome feeling to see that God has chosen YOU to do a particular thing for His Kingdom when He could have chosen someone else. Make the choice that you will trust His Ways with your whole heart and not get your heart set on carrying out your own plans.

Living life in this way is sort of like being in a James Bond movie where everything is full of action and suspense the whole movie. You never really know where God will lead or who He will place in your life to minister to, but you can always say that life will be interesting and full of surprises.

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He put a powerful word in my heart that it is very simple to follow God:

First, you learn to hear what God says

Then, you walk in obedience to that word.

He will never lead you wrong and you will always be using your time in the wisest way.

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Many Christians feel that they must be busy doing something that is religious or God won’t be pleased with them.

I know I used to feel that way. The first time the Holy Spirit instructed me not to take part in a major yearly event in the church, I was consumed with guilt. I won’t name it because then some of you might get the idea that it was the specific event that was wrong. The event was not wrong at all, but God had other plans for my life that week, and He revealed Himself to me in a way that I have never forgotten.

Sometimes I think that He just wants to see if we will obey Him – PERIOD, end of story. He also wants to see if we can just “be still and listen” to what He has to say. Sometimes He has to go to drastic measures to get our attention. When the Israelites were in the wilderness, when the Cloud that was over the Tabernacle moved, they were to pack all their belongings and follow it until it stopped. Then they were to set up camp again.

I’m sure they couldn’t always see the logic in where they stopped, but God was trying to teach them to have an ultimate obedience in Him.

Don’t get the idea that you should just not participate in an event because you don’t want to and say that God told you not to do it. I found out that some things happened that week that were not pleasing at all to God, and I think He may have wanted to spare me some stress and extra pain. He knew beforehand that all those things would happen.

Through the years I have found that if I walk each day with the three things above in mind, my days will definitely go much smoother. Then when I lay down to go to sleep, I have the definite assurance that what I have done has really counted for the Kingdom of God.

Try it and see what God does in your life!

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Being a Christian for most of my life, I knew that God expected me to read the Bible and obey what its words told me to do. At first I used the excuse that it was just too hard to change, but God didn’t let me get away with that for very long. If He could send His totally Sinless Son to die for sins that He had not commited, how could I possibly tell God that I wouldn’t be obedient to what His Word told me to do.

God expects obedience from His children, and He expects us to obey whether others understand or not. His way of doing things is much different than the way man thinks they should be done. He can see the big picture and has an awesome plan for each child of God. The only problem is that many times since we can’t see things through God’s eyes, we think that what He tells us to do doesn’t make much sense.

I Corinthians 3: 19

For this world’s wisdom is foolishness (absurdity and stupidity) with God, for it is written, He lays hold of the wise in their [own] craftiness. And again, the Lord knows the thoughts and reasonings of the [humanly] wise and recognizes how futile they are. AMP

I Corinthians 1: 27 – 29

For God selected (deliberately chose) what in the world is foolish to put the wise to shame, and what the world calls weak to put the strong to shame.

And God also selected (deliberately chose) what in the world is lowborn and insignificant and branded and treated with contempt, even the things that are nothing, that He might depose and bring to nothing the things that are,

So that no mortal man should [have pretense for glorying and] boast in the presence of God. AMP

So according to the above verses, even the smartest people on earth don’t have a clue how God thinks. He has everything totally under control, but many times it doesn’t look that way from where we are standing.

Here are two examples from the Bible where God promised victory, but in a way that no human would ever think about.

JOSHUA AND JERICHO

When God told Joshua that He would help Him win the victory over Jericho, I’m sure it never entered into his mind about the way it would actually happen.

In verse 2 He told Joshua that He had already given Jericho to them along with its king and troops. Now all he had to do was follow the instructions God gave.

Here are his instructions from God in verses 3 – 5 from The Message Bible:

March around the city, all your soldiers.

Circle the city once and repeat this for 6 days.

Have 7 priests carry 7 ram’s horn trumpets in front of the Chest. (The Chest was the Ark of the Covenant.)

On the 7^th day march around the city 7 times with the priests blowing away on the trumpets.

And then, a long blast on the ram’s horn – when you hear that, all the people are to shout at the top of their lungs. The city wall will collapse at once;

Then all the people are to enter, every man straight on in.

Who would think God would actually choose to fight a battle with the singers going first and just walking around a city? It certainly never would have entered my mind.

MOSES AND THE RED SEA

The Israelites had left Egypt and had started their trek into the wilderness when they came upon the Red Sea. How would so many people and animals be able to cross it? So God came to Moses with a plan.

The path they had taken hadn’t caught God by surprise at all. In fact, He had led the Israelites there in order to reveal to them His Glory and show them that He would always take care of them if they would just follow Him and put Him first in their lives.

Exodus 14: 1 – 4

God spoke to Moses: Tell the Israelites to turn around and make camp at Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. Camp on the shore of the sea opposite Baal Zephon.

Pharaoh will think, ‘The Israelites are lost; they’re confused. The wilderness has closed in on them.’

Then I’ll make Pharaoh’s heart stubborn again and he’ll chase after them. And I’ll use Pharaoh and his army to put my Glory on display. Then the Egyptians will realize that I am God.

…..

So… God had already thought out this plan and wanted to also show the Egyptians that He was the ONE AND ONLY TRUE GOD. I guess sometimes it is hard for us to see that we are not the only ones God wants to deal with. He died for every person in the world and wants them to see who He is.

In order to do that, we have to ask God to let us see things through His eyes, not just look at things from our own perspective.

There are many more instances in the Bible where God told people to do things that made absolutely no sense to them at the time, but when they obeyed they saw the wondrous Glory of God give them victory before their eyes. They could excitedly talk of these things to their children and granchildren.

Joshua and Moses were ordinary people just like you and me. The defining moments in both of their lives were when they decided to take God at His Word even though His plan of action didn’t make complete sense to their physical mind. They had both gotten to the point that they had seen enough of the Character of God that they could trust His plan to bring forth victory in spite of them not understanding how it would work.

They had problems and struggles just as we do today, but somehow they got past their own SELF and the fleshly needs that went with it and consecrated their life to God to live and walk in obedience.

Don’t try to make things work out your way any more. Give your problems, trials, struggles, and everyday life to God and let Him work it out according to His plan. Who knows what He will tell you to do, but I can pretty much assure you that you won’t be able to guess which way God will handle things.

Life certainly won’t be dull if you will set your heart and mind to walk in obedience to God!

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You only have to listen to the first sentence of the news each morning or night to hear bad news, at least most of the time. As a Christian, instead of concentrating on everything wrong around you, concentrate on what God wants you to do to change it. Then let Him work through you to accomplish the impossible.

It is easy to look back in history and think of great Christian reformers such as Martin Luther, John Wesley, Dwight L Moody and Charles Spurgeon as being unique people who did not have everyday lives as we do. We think of them as being larger than life, and never having a bad thought or never doing anything that would be considered as being wrong.

I have even thought of them as sitting in their study all day either reading their Bible or on their knees in prayer. I never thought of them as having a “real life” being the head of a family with all the responsibilities that came with it. Many of them were also pastors, so they definitely had to deal with people in all sorts of situations. I know they gave great importance to prayer and Bible study, but being locked up in their office all day praying or reading the Bible was out of the question.

When you read the story of their lives, you also find that they had faults and flaws just like everyone else on the planet. They were definitely not perfect or worthy of being put up on a pedestal as a person who never messed up, because many of them made huge mistakes.

If you feel God leading you to do something you feel is impossible or larger than life, don’t say NO just because you look at yourself and see all your imperfections and flaws.

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Isn’t God big enough to use you in spite of flaws and imperfections?

And will you trust Him to lead you in the right direction even if you don’t have a clue where you are headed, at least at the start of the journey?

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Every Christian must live in the world but should never conform to the values of it. If we conform, God can’t use us to change what is around us.

Romans 12: 2

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

God works through us supernaturally when we are determined to walk in obedience to Him, and will we always be astounded to see what He does and the way He does it.

If Luther, Wesley, Moody, and Spurgeon had conformed to people around them instead of walking in obedience to God, He could never have used them to impact the world the way He was able to do.

Make the decision to submit your life to God and let Him use you to do whatever He chooses. There is no greater feeling when you wake up each morning than knowing ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY FOR SURE that you are in the center of His Will. It might seem that things are falling apart around you, but in the center of His Will is where you will find a peace and joy that you cannot understand any way other than knowing it is a supernatural thing from God Himself.

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In Ephesians 5: 2, Paul describes the crucifixion of Christ as an offering and sacrifice that was a “sweet smelling savour” to God.

If anyone comes into a room wearing perfume, it is immediately picked up by the nostrils. From that point, the nose decides if it is a wonderful, delicious smell or one that is loud, irritating to the eyes, and obnoxious. Either way, the smell of the perfume quickly permeates the room and for a few seconds your thoughts are completely absorbed with it.

God gave to Moses rules the Israelites must follow when they brought the sacrifice for their sin before God. If they did not follow these rules, the sacrifice would not be pleasing to Him and things would not bode well for that person who presented it. God meant business when it came to the Israelites walking in obedience to Him because He had miraculously brought them out of Egypt and fed and cared for them each day for many years.

I Samuel 15: 22

Samuel said, “Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams.

Even the smartest person has a very small mind when compared to the All-Powerful God who created the universe and everything in it. No human has the potential to see the “whole scope of things” and how everything will fit together to bring about the plans of God.

He has an awesome and unique plan for your life that will make it a “sweet smelling savour” to God’s nostrils.

God wants your complete obedience  - NOT a religious act, doing the same old same old humdrum stuff, doing things in the same way and knowing it doesn’t work but doing it anyway because you don’t know anything else to do.

He wants you to walk with Him each day and be prepared to do what He says. Believe me, just doing this will make your life ENORMOUSLY more productive in doing things that really count for the Kingdom of God.

He will continually amaze you at the things He is able to accomplish through you if you let Him. After you get a taste of doing things His Way, your old way of doing things won’t seem so appealing any more.

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After Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden, we were separated from God and had no way to reach Him on a personal level until Jesus died on the cross. He bridged that great gap and made it possible for us to have a personal relationship with the Living God once more.

The photo above gives a wonderful word picture of what Jesus did. He reached down and grabbed mankind with one hand and reached up to grab the Hand of God with the other. He became our intercessor and bridge to God when there was no other way to reach Him.

We can now come to our Heavenly Father without being afraid or ashamed, because Jesus is always interceding on our behalf and always has our best interest at heart. It is truly an amazing love that He had for mankind to endure the torture and suffering of the cross.

Don’t throw away what Jesus did for you on the cross. Run to Him, tell Him all your problems, and let Him intercede to the Father on your behalf. If you have asked Jesus to come into your heart, the Spirit of the Living God (Holy Spirit) lives inside you and is patiently waiting for you to ask Him to give you guidance in everyday situations.

Learn to hear Him when He speaks to you and be obedient. You will find that you never want to do things your own way again. There is so much peace and comfort in knowing that God only wants to give you His Very Best. That will be something different for each person, but it will always be exactly what you need at just the right time.

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Over the years I have had some great pastors, and some that all they seemed to do was manipulate and control circumstances and people like they were puppets without any mind of their own.

There have been numerous times when I wanted to leave and go to another church that I felt might be better. After all, who wants to stay in a church where there are numerous problems and you have a lot of people acting in the flesh trying to accomplish their own agendas?

This was several years ago, but at one point the only thing that did keep me from leaving was God spoke to me and said these words: “You are not to leave, but you are to stay and pray and fast for this church.”

I can truly say that these were words I didn’t want to hear. I was not in a church where error was being taught outright, but there sure was a lot of stuff going on that had nothing to do with God. I really don’t think He was included very much at all in plans that were made even though it was said they were done in His Name. Anyway, things were a real mess and I wanted no part of it.

I couldn’t understand why God would want me to stay in a situation like this, but I had no choice if I wanted to be obedient to Him, so I reluctantly told God that I would stay.

It would have been much easier (at least I thought at the time)  to have left and gone to a church that had it all together and where I could just sit back and receive the wonderful word from the pastor, without me ever having to dive into the Word deeply for myself. That is what I thought I wanted, but God knew so much better. I really was seeking His Will for my life, but I didn’t want that Will to take me out of my comfort zone.

Because of the situation I was placed in, I had to dig into the Word for myself and find out what it said. God was working in my life and placing in me a desire to truly know Him. What I thought was such a terrible time turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to me. When I started to study the Bible, God met me right where I was and started to show me things I had never seen before. I started to get excited about God and everyday He showed me more and more.

It was still hard to go to church because of all the mess, but I knew that I was doing the will of God. If I had gone my own way and left the church, I would have missed so much from God. In fact, I would have been out of the Will of God since He had told me to stay.

You might be reading this and find yourself in the same situation I was in or something similar. Maybe you can’t see that things will ever get better and you just want to leave and go to another church.

I encourage you to not make a decision based on the way you feel, but to ask the Holy Spirit to show you the heart of God on the matter. Don’t ever make such a crucial decision without consulting God, because you will end up making a decision based on feelings alone.

Looking back through history, there are many people that God used greatly even though they had to minister in terrible circumstances. If they had looked at things around them and made a decision based on that, their name would not be known today as someone who was sold out to God enough to let Him use them in such a mighty way. After all, they certainly couldn’t see the BIG PICTURE of what would happen in the years ahead. In some areas of the world, God was able to use just ONE PERSON who was completely sold out to Him to impact that whole area, and sometimes that impact was felt worldwide.

I’m sure if you could go back in time and talk to some of those mighty warriors for the Kingdom of God, they would tell you that sometimes things got so tough they wanted to give up and take an easier way out. They couldn’t, though, if they wanted to be stay the Will of God.

Sometimes God just wants you to stay where you are and pray until things start to change. You might be one of the few people who sees the truth about the situation, and God might be planning to do an “impossible” work that you wouldn’t have thought of in a million years.

Instead of complaining the next time you feel you have been placed in such a position, feel honored that God sees something in you that would make Him want to use you to carry forth His Work. You never know how God can use just ONE PERSON who will be completely surrendered to Him.

Right now make the decision that YOU will be that person who is fully surrendered and waiting to walk in total obedience to His Word – even if it doesn’t always make perfect sense to you.

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What does it really mean to surrender every dream and every single part of your whole life to God?

For much of my life, I thought this kind of surrender meant that God would tell me to do something I didn’t want to do; then I would be stuck in a miserable existence, forcing myself to be obedient to Him day after day but wishing I had chosen another path.

My perception of God was so wrong. How could I have ever believed that my loving Father who created me would ever want anything less than His best for my life? My only answer is that I felt I was smart enough to do things on my own. It’s funny how we always try to make ourselves believe that we are in complete control of all situations when, in actuality, there are very few things we have any control over at all.

It is a scary thing to make the decision to turn your life over completely to God if you don’t already know something about His Character. His dreams for you are much better than any you have ever had, but you will never understand Him with head knowledge only. You must read the Bible and let its words soak into your heart to change your way of thinking.

If you have come to the conclusion that you don’t have everything under control and can’t make things right no matter how hard you try, give up your own way of doing things and give God the steering wheel. He will meet you exactly where you are at this moment and start to direct your ways.

Once you start to see His Character, you will find that you can fully surrender every area of your life to Him and know that He is leading you in the right direction.

Total surrender is just being obedient to the leadership of the Holy Spirit (God living inside the Christian.) You don’t need to have all the answers when God already knows them.

John 16: 13-14

Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall  he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

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It would be so wonderful if every Christian could grasp the concept of this picture.

Jesus died on the cross for our sin and returned to the Father so He could be our intercessor.  Then the Holy Spirit was sent to inhabit the life of every Christian so that He could lead and guide us in the right direction.

God has given us all gifts that He wants us to use for His Glory, but it is up to each one to walk in obedience to Him. We all have different strengths and weaknesses, and God intended it that way. He never wants us to think that our spiritual gift pales in comparison to the one of someone else.

Together we as Christians make up the Body of Christ, and we are the ones God has chosen to carry forth His Work.

You are very important to God, and no other person can fill your shoes. Someone else might can do the job you have been called to do, but they will never be able to do it exactly like you. God is counting on you to be obedient and do your part in carrying forth His Work.

Be a true part of the Body of Christ by letting God use you in whatever way He chooses. It is much better to do a small thing that is completely in His Will than to accomplish a huge thing that He never told you to do, even if you feel you are a success in the eyes of man.

Choose instead to be a success in the eyes of God.

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Genesis 12: 1-5

Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee.

And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing.

And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.

And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.

God had chosen Abram for an awesome job, but he had to make a huge choice when God told him the words in the verses above. As of this time he did not even have an heir who could be a blessing like this to future generations. He just had to take God for His Word and rely on that word for the future.

Imagine God telling you not only to leave the home you have known for years, but to leave without even knowing your destination. Wouldn’t that be earth shattering news to break to your family?

God had given Abram a direct order and he now had to make the choice of whether he would be obedient. God knew the route perfectly and already knew how he would provide for their every need as they followed His command.

God wants you to get to the point that you start to see and know His Character. When you do that, you won’t have a problem with obedience even when you can’t see the end result. You know He would never lead you to do something that would be a huge mistake or take you down the wrong road.

Very few of us will ever be called to do what Abram had to do, but if you walk in faith, God WILL, not maybe, but WILL ask you to do some things you don’t understand.

Don’t be afraid to trust Him with your life. He might ask you to do something you have never thought of, but you will have tremendous peace and joy knowing that you are in the center of His Will and life will never be boring and mundane again.

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