The Journey of Faith

The generation of Israelites who left Egypt never entered the Promised Land because of their unbelief.  When their final test of faith was given to them they failed miserably and insulted God accusing him of being a liar and deceiver who was setting them up to fail.  Their concept of God was warped and they were not worthy of entering in the Promised Land.  They did not have what it would take to possess the Land.  They were now destined to live out the remainder of their lives, 40 years wandering in the desert until the entire generation except Caleb and Joshua died.  God was still faithful to meet their needs during the entire wilderness experience but they missed out on what God had intended for them.  It as a sad ending of lives that had tremendous potential.  I cannot imagine what it was like for them to live with the regret of their failure for all those years.  Lives wasted because of rebellion and unbelief.  

I think of people today in the same situation.  Living lives of unbelief and never experiencing all the goodness that God has planned for them.  One of my acquaintances in my home town died a week ago.  We were in Boy Scouts together for several years so I knew him a little bit.  His death was sudden and sadly his body lay in his apartment for 3 days before he was found. I read his obituary and like many people there was no mention of his relationship with God, service in the church or any ministry he was involved in.  His pleasures in life were hanging out at the Eagle’s Club, playing darts and watching car races.  I could not help but think of what he missed by not serving God.  He had his physical needs met but the most important part of his life, his relationship with God was not something that was noted by his family in his obituary.  Like the Israelites he never entered into all the goodness that God had planned for him.  Perhaps by choice or ignorance yet the result was the same.

God’s promises to Israel would be fulfilled by a new generation led by Joshua.  They would see the fulfillment of the promises god had made to their ancestors. Faith would be required as well as obedience in order for them to possess the land. 

Only two Spies were sent in to check out the land.  40 years had passed and the population of the inhabitants had increased greatly.  From outward appearance it would seem that conquering the land was going to be even more of a challenge. The cities must have been even more fortified as the people knew about the miraculous deliverance of the Israelites.  The spies found refuge in the house of Rehab the prostitute as their mission had been discovered by the leaders of the city of Jericho.  

 Rehab had a healthy fear of these men and whom they represented.  She told the men:

Jos 2:9  and said to the men, "I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you.

Jos 2:10  For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction.

Jos 2:11  And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.

When the spies returned they gave an inspiring vote of confidence that God was going to give them the land.

Jos 2:24  And they said to Joshua, "Truly the LORD has given all the land into our hands. And also, all the inhabitants of the land melt away because of us."

The doom and gloom report of the previous generation had been upgraded to two thumbs up.  There was a completely different attitude among the people. But there would still be challenges to face and overcome.

They like their fathers faced their first obstacle, crossing over the raging Jordan River. Instead of becoming fearful and complaining this generation responded in faith and obedience. God was going to perform a miracle that would bolster their faith in him and take away the fears they may have had.  When the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant set their feet in the raging river the waters separated as they did at the Red Sea and formed dry ground for the people to pass.  The ark represented his presence and his covenant.  He would go before the people and his covenant promises would not be unfulfilled.  The Israelites knew beyond a shadow of doubt that God was leading them and he would give them victory. 

God is always faithful to keep his covenant promises with us.  He will never fail us, what he promises he will fulfill.  We can move forward with confidence in fulfilling God’s calling on our lives.  He goes before us to prepare the way.  We serve a supernatural God who cannot and will not be stopped from fulfilling his purposes as we respond in obedience to him.  He wants us to believe in him and expect him to do the miraculous in our lives and through our lives.  

As we follow in obedience to him we will inevitably come into circumstances and trials that will require a miracle.  This is the normal Christian life, expecting the miraculous to happen.  God will come through when we call upon him, he will show up and show himself strong on our behalf.  God reveals himself to unbelievers in miraculous ways who call upon him, how much more will he do for those who truly believe in him and call upon him? 

 I was listening to the testimony of Chris Velotten from Bethel church. He did not grow up in a Christian home and his father left the home when he was very young.  His grandfather was his greatest influence in his life and he was an atheist.  Life was hard for the family and in desperation Chris called out to God to prove he was real by healing his mom from the skin condition she had.  He promised that if he did he would serve him the rest of his life.  He then heard the audible voice of Jesus who identified himself and said he would fulfill his desire. The next morning Chris saw the miraculous.  His mother the night before was completely covered with psoriasis from her head to her feet.  When she awoke in the morning she was completely healed and Chris knew that Jesus was real. 

The Israelites experienced the realness of God when they saw the miraculous happen before their eyes.  God will do what is necessary to bring us to a point of faith and trust in him.  We will need to have this faith in him for the entire journey of our life.  God had much more in store for his people and they had to walk by faith and obedience to receive everything he had promised.

The miraculous crossing of the Jordan confirmed to the people God’s presence and power to fulfill his promise.  But now there needed to be the consecration of the people to the Lord and this was done immediately after crossing the Jordan.

The Israelites had to confirm their allegiance to God by going through the rite of circumcision.  This was the outward sign of their identification and dedication to the Lord, it set them apart as God’s chosen people.  God had made a covenant with them and they had to confirm the covenant with him as well.  Before they began the conquest of the Promised Land there was a need for the covenant to be confirmed for the sake of the people.  It was a way of showing their commitment to God to fulfill the covenant he had made with them.  They had to be “all in”.  We are called and set apart to serve the Lord.  Our hearts need to be circumcised, set apart from the world and the flesh to serve God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength. When we make the commitment to follow the Lord there can be no turning back.  God keeps his covenant with us and expects the same from us.

It is a grievous thing to see people who once followed the Lord who now live as though he did not exist.  They have turned away from him, forsaking the covenant made with him to follow after other gods.  How the heart of God must be broken over the broken covenants people have made with him.  He remains faithful and will welcome them back because his love never ends.  Yet the travesty is the life that has been wasted pursing the things that will not bring happiness and are things that are destructive to their personal lives as well as their relationship with God.  

After the circumcision was completed the next event that prepared them for the conquest was the celebration of the Passover.  This was a reminder of the miraculous deliverance of the people from Egypt.  They were never to forget where they had been and what they had been delivered from after 400 years of captivity.  God had brought them out to bring them in to the Promised Land.  There was no turning back, no more thought of going back to Egypt like their fathers had requested.  The Passover was another event that God used to bolster their faith and remind them of what he had done for them so they would believe that he would continue to lead them.

It was a new day for the Israelites.  There was no need to eat manna as they had for all the years in the desert.  The Manna Diet was over!!! They could now enjoy the food of the Promised Land.  They began to enjoy the goodness of the Lord and his provision for them.  As we journey in faith God provides what we need but also gives us the desires of our heart.  He is not a stingy God who wants to keep us poor and humble.  He wants us to enjoy the good things he provides for us. 

Jos 5:11  And the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain.

Jos 5:12  And the manna ceased the day after they ate of the produce of the land. And there was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year. 

They were now experiencing the abundance God wanted them to enjoy and there was more to come!  It had to have been a great encouragement to the people to be able to enjoy what they had been missing for all those years in the desert.  I think this had a tremendous effect on the people and motivated them to continue with moving forward with the Lord to possess the land.

All of these preliminary events were God’s way of preparing the people to take possession of the land.  He encouraged the people by the report of the two spies that the inhabitants feared what God would do based on what he had done.  He miraculously made a way across the raging Jordan demonstrating that his presence would go before them and he would fulfill his covenant promise.  The covenant was confirmed by the circumcision of the men, a sign to all that they belonged to God, they were his special chosen people.  The Passover celebration was another faith building experience as a reminder of what God had done for them to bring them out of Egypt and into the Promised Land.  The people began to enjoy the goodness of the Lord by eating the food of the new land.  All of these things were done to prepare them for the first battle of Jericho.

Joshua, the appointed leader also needed to be prepared for possessing the land.  Prior to the battle, he  had an encounter with the captain of the Lord of Hosts army.  He was required to take off his sandals as an act of acknowledging that the ground he was on was holy, it belonged to the Lord.  It was a similar experience that Moses had when he met God at the burning bush.  The Promised Land belonged to God, it was his special land where his people would dwell and he would live among them.  It was a reminder to Joshua to keep him aware of the holiness of God and that the land and the people were dedicated to him.

Israel was now prepared as was Joshua.  Jericho was the first city they would conquer and God was going to demonstrate his power to both the Israelites and people of Jericho. The battle strategy was not like any other strategy used before.  The people of Jericho knew that their end was coming.  For six days the priests and the armed guards blew the trumpets constantly as they marched around the city.  You have to wonder what was going through the minds of the people in the city.  I imagine their anxiety level increased each day and the talk of the town was centered on what was going to happen.  They must have been unable to sleep constantly thinking about when the invasion would happen.  On the seventh day they marched 7 times around the city blowing the trumpets and when given the command they all shouted and the walls of the city that were high and thick fell into the ground giving the Israelites direct access to the city.  God gave the enemy into their hands and they were defeated.  The people had to be pretty tired after 7 trips around the city but God gave them the strength to overcome and when the battle.  

Israel was learning to follow God’s instruction in spite of what they may have thought was a very strange way to go to battle.  Their faith was being built up to prepare them for the many battles that were yet to be fought.

In our journey of faith with the Lord we will go through a similar process that the Israelites experienced.  

God has a special call on each one of our lives, he has saved us and delivered us from many different forms of captivity in our lives.  Through Christ we have been forgiven and rescued from the power of evil.

God has so much more for us to experience with him.  We are saved to serve him and fulfill his purposes for our lives. The Israelites had a divine purpose that involved possessing the Promised Land. It would become the place of the birth of the Messiah God had promised to the entire world.  Their calling was to conquer the land and possess it.  It was a holy land because God had greater plans that culminated in the birth, death and resurrection of the Savior of the world in the Promised Land. 

Possessing the land was accomplished through a process that involved the miraculous crossing of the Jordan River.  God’s calling on our lives will always require faith to follow him and trust in his promises and the covenant he has made with us.

The next step was the consecration to the covenant God had made with them.  The circumcision of the men was their mark of separation and identification as the people of God.  In our walk of faith we too will have a time of identifying ourselves with the covenant God has made with us and will be called upon to make a commitment to be forever linked to him.

The next step of the journey was a time of remembrance by celebrating the Passover. Remembering where they had been as a nation and what God had done to bring them to the place he had destined for them. The Passover was symbolic of the death of Christ and the power of his blood to forgive us and spare us from eternal separation from God.  In our walk of faith we must always remember the work of the cross that brought our forgiveness and has made possible eternal life. 

The final step of faith was facing the enemy and following God’s plan for victory.  It was a unique and strange battle plan but it was designed to test their faith in God’s wisdom and guidance to lead them to victory.  It was a miraculous victory and the fulfillment of his promise to the people.  The supernatural life was going to be their lifestyle because they had to depend upon God’s intervention, his guidance, his wisdom and power to overcome all the enemies they would face as they possessed the Promised Land. This first battle was just the beginning of what God was going to do through them to conquer the land.  

It is the same in our lives.  God has to be the one leading us, guiding us, providing the wisdom we need and the strategies to defeat the enemy.  He wants to lead us supernaturally to accomplish the work he has given us.  It requires faith on our part and obedience to what he instructs us to do.  He will be faithful and will do the miraculous to bring us to victory.

We need to have a faith that expects the miraculous, expects God to lead us supernaturally by his Holy Spirit to instruct us and empower us to do what he has called us to do.  His expectation of us is that we will hear his voice, obey what he has asked us to do, expect him to guide us, empower us and intervene to make the impossible possible as we place our faith in him. 

Are we living a supernaturally lifestyle of faith, obedience and expectation of God’s intervention in our daily lives?  Or are we living with a subsistence or substandard level of faith, just getting by, just getting through the day and not seeing or expecting anything miraculous to happen?  I believe God has so much more than we currently are experiencing. 

 He performed the miraculous for the Israelites,

He demonstrated in the life of Jesus his awesome love for people and power over all the works of the devil by healing sickness, disease, casting out demons and demonstrating power over the forces of nature. 

The early church walked in the miraculous because the gospel message was confirmed through signs, wonders and miracles.  The power of the Holy Spirit saturated their lives and flowed out of them to bring healing and deliverance to the people in need. 

This was not a special dispensation of the Spirit for a limited time.  It was and is for us today. God wants us to live in his realm of the supernatural.  He wants to use us to carry out his work through the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit.  

John Lake was a man whom God used in miraculous ways.  His life story is one of God’s supernatural intervention and guidance.  He saw incredible demonstrations of the power of God in his life.  He gave three keys to living the supernatural life.

1.      Feeding on the Word of God.  There must be a hunger in our soul for the Word of God.  It is our lifeline with God.  When we neglect the study of the Word our walk with the Lord loses its intimacy.  It builds our faith, instructs us in God’s ways, it is spirit and life to us.  Derek Prince who walked with God for many years stated that we can measure our love for God by our love for the Word of God and the amount of time we spend in the Word of God.  Many spend hours each day in Facebook but we need to spend more time with our face in the Book, God’s word. Joshua was instructed by the Lord to remember the laws, keep them constantly on his mind so that he would walk in obedience to them. 

                                                                                         

Jos 1:8  This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

After the disaster of the first battle against Ai, it was discovered that Aachen violated the instructions to not take anything from the city of Jericho.  God dealt severely with him and the second attack on the city of Ai was successful.  After this victory, Joshua made a point of reading the entire law to the people to remind them of what was expected of them and what the positive and negative consequences would be if they obeyed or disobeyed. 

Jos 8:34  And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the Book of the Law.

Jos 8:35  There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the sojourners who lived among them.

We have to be people of the Book if we want to walk in obedience and experience the supernatural work of God in our lives and ministries.  Ministers who fall away from their calling or lack power in their ministries can be traced to their neglect of the Word of God. 

2.     Constantly confessing publicly of what you are and what Jesus is to you.  Confession of your faith in Christ, of what Christ is to you, of his completeness, and his redemption.   Confessing what God has done through Christ in your life.  We have to know who we are in Christ, all that Christ has made possible for us.  The life he lived is the model for our lives.  He has made possible the same supernatural life he lived.  He said we would do even greater things than he did.  Our confession has to be public, God wants us to share what he has done for us to those who have not heard or those who are struggling with the challenges of life.  We are his messengers that he has chosen to work through.  The reality of what God has done for us establishes our faith and confirms our faith in him.  This is why it is so important to share your testimony, share the gospel, and share the Word of God with others on a regular basis.  Soul Patrol is one avenue to intentionally put yourself in a place to share what God has done for you and who you are in Christ with those who do not know him or have a wrong concept of him.  Don’t shrink back from sharing what God has done in your life, take advantage of every opportunity you are given to testify of the goodness of God.  Last Saturday night on Soul Patrol a young lady was sitting and listening intently to the gospel presentation but she did not go forward at the invitation.  I sat down by her and engaged her in a conversation and shared with her how God was real to me and what he has done for me.  She believed in God but was not actively living for him. It was an opportunity that I did not want to pass on and I believe God spoke to her heart as a result.

The first word of the great commission is “GO” which means a change of location which can be a simple as walking across the room or sitting beside someone to engage them in a conversation about the Lord and his love for them.

I encourage you to be intentional in reaching out to people.  The easiest thing is to do nothing but the most rewarding thing is to share your testimony and the gospel message with someone.

3.     Communion with God.  Being connected to God throughout the day.  Seeking him, speaking to him, listening to his voice, enjoying his presence, setting aside time to be saturated and filled with the Holy Spirit.  We have to have NOW experiences with God.  We cannot live on the experiences of yesterday or of others, God wants to give each of us personal experiences daily with him that we can share with others. We cannot allow anything to break our communion with God.  When our connection with him is broken his power cannot get through to us and we are ineffective in our ministry. Our flesh has to be put to death every day so we can walk in the Spirit. Paul stated that many have a form of godliness but have now power.  They look like Christians and call themselves Christian but they really are not connected with God or are walking in communion with him.  We can become passive in our relationship with God or we can choose to be passionate in our pursuit of him each day and our communion with him.  Those who walk in communion are open and available to let God pour his power through them to see the miraculous in their lives.

If we are doing these three things we are in a state of preparation and readiness for the Holy Spirit to move powerfully through us.  We can live each day with the expectation and anticipation of the supernatural life of God flowing to us and through us.

God has called each one of us to a special ministry and he wants us to continue to move forward to possess all that he has for us.  He has prepared the way to bring us where he wants us and he desires to move supernaturally in our lives to possess all that is ours in Christ.  We can become passive or passionate in our walk with him.  We can feed on his Word and continue to grow in our faith and obedience or we can neglect the Word and watch our spiritual lives become powerless. We can be sharing what he has and is doing in our lives with others or we can remain silent. 

Your destiny with God has everything to do with how you live out your life of faith.  You can move forward with God with his supernatural power working through you to possess all he has for you or settle for a stagnant life that has lost its connection with Him.  What will you choose for your life?