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-- © GodSpeak International 2004 --
-- Do not republish without written permission from <copyright@godspeak.org> --

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND CONTRIBUTING RESOURCES
Author: Teresa Seputis ts@godspeak.net http://www.godspeak.net
Editor: Kevin Nolan

Are You Part Of
The Joshua Generation?

Lesson 9
Walking In Victory
Living In God's Presence

By Teresa Seputis

The book of Joshua has amazing stories and lessons in it that we will not cover in this teaching series. However, there is one important theme that runs through the book: God was with Joshua and with the children of Israel.

God did not hand them the promised land, He made them go fight for it. They had to go possess their land, but God was with them in each battle. He empowered them as they fought and He gave them the victory. The key to Israel's success was not that they went to fight -- it was that God went with them into each battle. They prevailed because of the presence and power of God in their midst.

And God wants to work in our lives the same way today. God has given us many promises and He intends to fulfill each of them in our lives, but He involves us in that process. Many times God does not simply hand things to us, He asks us to work with Him and do our part. We don't do it in our own strength or independent from God. Instead we abide in God's presence, living in intimacy with Him. We watch Him and see what He is doing, then we do it with Him. We don't go fight until God chooses the battle and leads us into it. But when He sends us into battle, we go with Him in confidence, knowing that God fights with us as we war.

Most of our battles these days are not against flesh and blood armies, but against the forces of the devil. Most of our battlegrounds are not in human war zones, they are in spiritual war zones. 1 John 3:8 tells us that "The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work." Jesus said in Luke 4:18, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed."

Jesus identified some of the battle grounds in that passage: the spirit of poverty, depression and brokenheartedness, captivity (e.g., addictions to drugs, alcohol, pornography, etc.), physical infirmities and oppression (e.g., injustice). The devil has been trying to move into our lands with these things and establish his kingdom there. The devil has been moving into our political systems, into our schools, into our financial institutions and businesses, into our entertainment industry. And part of what God is asking us to do today is to rise up and take back these things. He wants us to move into them and take them away from the devil and transform them for the kingdom of God. That is the battleground that many in of the army of God find themselves fighting in today -- to take back their territory and once again possess their land for the kingdom of God. We are to once again be the salt and light -- a strong influence for the kingdom of God. And of course, we are to remain the bearers of the good news of the gospel, rescuing people from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God.

Most of our battles today are not against flesh and blood armies. But there are men and women of God in real physical armies today. They fight with real guns and bullets and bombs and artillery. And as these men and women of God commit their lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, they can expect God to be with them in the battle and to fight with them and help them. I talk about spirit battles in this lesson, but the same applies for the real physical battles that Christian soldiers fight in the world today. Just as God was with the Children of Israel in battle to anoint and empower them in battle, so God is with His children today when they enter into a physical battle. So if you are a Christian warrior in this present day war, go into the battle confident that God goes with you and when you fight, He will fight with you.

Personal Encounters With God

The first part of Joshua chapter five is where each member in the army of God personally recommitted their lives to Him by renewing the covenant of circumcision. Look at how God responds to that commitment in Joshua 5:13-15.

13 And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a Man stood opposite him with His sword drawn in His hand. And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, "Are You for us or for our adversaries?" 14So He said, "No, but as Commander of the army of the Lord I have now come."

And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and said to Him, "What does my Lord say to His servant?" 15Then the Commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, "Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy." And Joshua did so.

God responded as His warriors each made personal commitments to Him. God showed up in their midst. We know that the "Man" who identified Himself as the "Commander of the army of the Lord" was not human or an angel. We know this because he received worship from Joshua. Revelation 22:9 tells us that angels are "fellow servants" with us and that they do not receive worship -- they tell us to worship only God. And we know that humans are not allowed to receive worship from Acts 10:25-26 where Peter did not allow someone to worship him. Since Joshua worshipped this "person" and He received the worship, it must have been God Himself.

God showed up tangibly in their midst. He met them in the context that He had called them. God called the children of Israel as soldiers, then He showed up as the commander of the army. God met them and came as their leader. And He will do that with us today. As we commit our lives to Him and actively obey Him, He comes to us in a tangible way. God wants each of us to have personal encounters with Him. He will meet us just the way that He met Joshua, as Lord and master and boss. He is not willing to be just a friend -- He must be the one in charge, the one who we are committed to obey without question. He is our Lord and commander.

God allows us to experience His presence today, just as He allowed Joshua to experience His presence. In fact, one of the strong prophetic themes of today is that God expects us to come into His presence. It is not enough to just to hear from God and obey Him, we are to develop personal intimacy with Him through worship and prayer. We are expected to come into His presence and even to become carriers of His presence. If we want to be effective soldiers in God's army today, we need to learn to abide in His presence.

Holiness

Notice an interesting parallel between Joseph's encounter with God and the one Moses had at the burning bush. Do you remember one of the first things God said to Moses through the angel? He said, "Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground" (Ex 3:5). Joshua is told the same thing in verse 15.

Think about it, why was the ground holy? It was because of the very presence of God at that location. In the Bible, anything that God touches is considered holy -- it becomes set aside for God's purposes and His use. When God came down on Mt. Sinai to enter into covenant with Moses and the children of Israel (Exodus 19), the mountain where He descended became Holy and no one was allowed to touch it. The instruments in the temple were set aside for performing the God-ordered sacrifices. They were not allowed to be used for any other purpose but God's purpose -- they were considered holy. This ground was not holy because there was anything special about it -- it was holy because God stood on it. And this holiness was an indication of the presence of God.

In fact, there is a direct correlation between God's presence and holiness. If we want God's presence in our midst, we are held accountable to a higher degree of personal and corporate holiness. God is light and where there is light, darkness is not able to remain. God is holy and where there is holiness, sin is not allowed to remain. So if we want to abide in His presence, we need to clean up our lives and stop sinning. The more we enter into His presence, the less He will tolerate sin or willful disobedience from us.

This principle is illustrated in the battle with Ai, told in Joshua chapters 7 and 8. God gave specific instructions about the battle of Jericho in Joshua 6:18-19. "18And you, by all means abstain from the accursed things, lest you become accursed when you take of the accursed things, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it. 19But all the silver and gold, and vessels of bronze and iron, are consecrated to the Lord; they shall come into the treasury of the Lord."

In short, no one was to take any of the treasures of Jericho for their own use. And someone named Achan disobeyed this instruction. He took some spoils from Jericho that were supposed to be dedicated to the Lord, and hid them in his tent. It was just a little thing in his eyes, and no one else knew about it. But it was a great offense to God because it was willful disobedience. And God held everyone in the army accountable for the sin of this one person.

Ai was a tiny adversary and they sent a little contingent of soldiers to go fight. To their astonishment, their soldiers were sorely defeated by Ai and thirty-six Israeli soldiers died in the battle. None of the thirty-six soldiers who died had sinned against God, but they were part of the same army as Achan. And Achan's sin effected them. The people sought the Lord to find out what had gone wrong and God told them who had sinned. They executed Achan and then they went back to the battle again. This time God gave them a great military victory over Ai.

That story illustrates the principle that the stronger God's presence is in your midst, the less He will tolerate sin and disobedience. We should desire to live in God's presence and draw close to Him. But we must understand that the deeper we enter into God's presence, the higher degree of holiness and obedience He demands from us.

Joshua 8:30-35 adds an important footnote to the story of Achan and Ai. First sin had led to defeat. Then the sin was dealt with and it resulted in great victory as God once again came to fight with them. But the story does not end there. Joshua built an altar to God and has each soldier in the army individually renew their covenant with God and make a personal recommitment to His Lordship. This shows us that it is not enough to simply stop sinning; we have to purpose in our hearts to obey God and to recommit to His lordship. God expects us to walk in holiness before Him and we must wholeheartedly commit to do that. Otherwise, we will not be able to abide in His presence and see His great victory in our lives.


-- © GodSpeak International 2004 --
-- Do not republish without written permission from <copyright@godspeak.org> --

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