ORGANIZED, AGGRESSIVE, AND STRANGE

Joshua 6 Recap

There isn’t a stronghold in your life, a vile spiritual enemy, a rut of pain, a stream of disappointment - a Jericho, that God doesn’t have a plan to defeat. He goes before you with a sword and a plan. The book of Joshua reminds us that we are co-laborers with God. He has the plan and the power and we have the obedience and the trust. Joshua met Jesus at the foot of Jericho. A few verses later, Joshua had been given some strange marching orders.

It will help us greatly as believers to get comfortable with the fact that God is strange. Or more accurately, we are strange compared to him. When we pass from this world to the next, meeting beings with ‘eyes in their wings and wheels’ will be a new normal for all of us. Talking to God face to face, colors we have never seen before, and all of God’s strange wonders will become our new world.

So when God asks ‘strange’ things of us we can be sure it is a better way because it comes from heaven; his ways are above our ways. The God of heaven is an organized planner and a ferocious warrior. He fights with us so he can give back what we forfeit to the devil long ago: authority, inheritance, and rest. These, however, were regained by Jesus at the cross and now the territory of our inheritance lies before us, but like Joshua we must fight for it. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, but it is not for free.

This is why dominion is so important. There is a war on planet earth between light and darkness. Conquest is an unavoidable reality for our lives. Either we will be conquered by darkness or we will tear down the gates of hell! There is no middle ground in which to hide.

So look Jericho directly in the eyes and get ready. There is no wall high enough and no destruction of your life so great that God cannot redeem it. To hope is to war. God saved a harlot from Jericho and made her the great-grandmother of David and a great-grandmother in the line of Jesus. From Jericho God extracted precious articles of worship and a powerful testimony. Never underestimate a God who can tear down the walls of your strongholds and come out with gold, silver, and honor for generations to come.