Obtaining the Promises and Walking in Victory-Part 1
God’s desire is for us to walk in the fullness of His power and to enjoy the richness of His promises. When faced with what seems to be impossible odds He will always make a way where there seems to be no way. He will also give us the guidance we need to defeat the enemies of our soul, the world, the flesh, and the devil. Over the next few weeks, we will look at the story of Joshua as he leads the people of God into Canaan and the defeat of Jericho. We will discover how we too can gain victory over those obstacles that keep us from possessing what God has promised.
I. Preparation for the living God who is among us to do wonders
Joshua 3:3-5(NIV) giving orders to the people: "When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests, who are Levites, carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it. 4 Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before. But keep a distance of about a thousand yards between you and the ark; do not go near it." (V5 Amp.) And Joshua said to the people, Sanctify yourselves [that is, separate yourselves for a special holy purpose], for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.
"So when we set about any work of more than ordinary importance, be it sacred of be it secular, we are bond to prepare ourselves by prayer, by meditation, by reception of the Holy Communion, by a special study of God’s Word, by a cessation, as far as possible, of ordinary cares and engagements, for the task that awaits us.” —The Pulpit Commentary
Joshua 3:9-11 Joshua said to the Israelites, “Come here and listen to the words of the LORD your God. 10 This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites. 11 See, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you.
Joshua 3:15-17 Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, 16 the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea ) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. 17 The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.
Joshua 4:23-24 For the LORD your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The LORD your God did to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. 24 He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the LORD your God.”
God’s deliverance of us now demands a deeper response from us, if we are to move and possess the promises of God.
For the complete study of part one click the link below:
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