In Part 1 of this study, we found that faith, obedience and a willingness to battle the enemy would be requirements for securing the promises of God in our own lives.  In Chapter 2, we find that intentionality and strategy are often needed to enter into everything that God has for us.  The chapter begins, “Then Joshua, son of Nun, secretly sent two spies from Shittim. ‘Go, look over the Land,’ he said, ‘especially Jericho.’”

We need to remember that the last time Israel sent spies into the land, the outcome was less than spectacular. Moses sent twelve spies into Canaan and ten came back convinced that the tribes were too powerful for them to overcome.  These unfaithful reports won the day and caused Israel to wander in the wilderness for forty years due to their unbelief. I am certain that Joshua sent proven men of faith this time and he sent them secretly. The text could mean that the people of Jericho would be unaware of the spies, but it may also mean that the Israelites were unaware that spies had been sent. This secrecy may have been to insure that Joshua would hear the report first so that no seed of unbelief would be sown even unintentionally.

Sometimes the faith we have is fragile and a lack of faith most often insures victory for the enemy.  An essential principle here is that we should be careful to surround ourselves with people of faith when we seek to secure a promise from God.  Cynics, doubters, and unbelievers can undermine our faith and, consequently, rob us of our promise. Someone once suggested that Jesus told some of those he healed to tell no one because the doubt of those they told might undermine the faith of the one who had received healing, so his healing might be lost. I’m confident that Joshua did not send the spies to determine if Jericho could be taken, but rather to determine the best way it could be taken. Sometimes we wonder if God will keep a promise rather than wondering how he will keep it. One perspective questions God’s faithfulness while the other affirms it.  The difference is significant.

An essential principle for all warfare is that a wise person should know the enemy he or she is about to face.  Paul told the church at Corinth, “I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes” (2 Cor. 2:10-11). He tells us in Ephesians that we are to put on the full armor of God so that we can stand against the devils schemes (Eph.6:11). Satan is strategic concerning his attempts to undermine our faith, keep is from being effective, or lead us away from God.  We should be strategic as well in our battles against him.  In other words, we should know how to engage in spiritual warfare because our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual powers in heavenly realms. (Eph. 6:11-12).

Too many of us live our spiritual lives haphazardly.  We tend to react to spiritual challenges rather than being proactive and preparing for what the enemy will certainly send our way sooner or later. We wait for the crisis to come and then try to build our faith in the midst of that crisis rather than having established a foundation of faith for the storms that will inevitably come.  At other times, we quickly repent of all our sins that we have not been dealing with to that point. When we do, we may be going through the motions of repentance in a last ditch effort to win God’s favor without godly sorrow truly being in our hearts.  These are reactive ways to face the enemy rather than strategic ways. These ways are less than effective.

A wise general not only knows the enemy and his strategies but also knows his own strength and weaknesses. Satan is a predator.  He will always attack our weakness rather than our strength. He will always attack the stragglers rather than those firmly in the herd. We should know and acknowledge our vulnerabilities so that we can strengthen our defenses around our weakness through prayer, time in the Word, and accountability with others.  We should steer clear of places where temptation will be amplified.  A man struggling with alcoholism should not attend a party where everyone will be drinking.  A man who struggles with lust should be very careful about what he watches or reads and the beaches or swimming pools he frequents. A wise man builds walls and guard rails around his vulnerable zones.

In order to be strategic, we must take stock of ourselves, our strengths, our weaknesses, our resources, and the known tactics of the enemy before we wake up one morning to find ourselves in his crosshairs.  Many of the promises of God will require an invasion of enemy territory to remove the barriers that the enemy has erected that stand between you and the blessings the Father has for you. Preparation before the battle is essential.

In addition, what the two spies discovered was that those in Jericho were full of fear. They found an unlikely ally whose heart God had prepared for that very moment.  Another principal for securing the promises of God is that we should be open to unexpected vessels that God has placed in our path to help us on our way.  In this case, the prostitute Rehab became a key element inthe victory of Israel because her testimony confirmed that God had already prepared the way for Israel’s victory.

The “faith boosters” the Lord supplies are also helpful as we move to secure the promises of God.  Sometimes those boosters are progress we are beginning to see after months of prayer. It may be a prophetic word assuring you of God’s involvement or a scripture that the Holy Spirit highlights as you spend time in the Word.  Receive those things as encouragement from the Lord as you press in for your promise. God wants you to secure his promises. Jesus died that you might receive them. Be strategic, intentional, and prepared as you remove the enemy from your path.

I am reading through the Book of Joshua once again and I think it is one of those books that deserves several blogs. Joshua is one of those rare characters in scripture about whom no faults or failures are recorded.  He was the aide-de-camp of Moses from the day they left Egypt to the death of Israel’s great leader and prophet forty years later.   In that position, he had assisted Moses in all of his duties.  In all probability, he became a confidant of Moses and had heard his heart, his hopes, and his frustrations on many occasions. He also heard about Jehovah and personally experienced him many times at the tent of meeting where Joshua personally spent a great amount of time.  He and his brother Caleb were the only two spies out of twelve who had initially been sent to survey Canaan. Joshua and Caleb brought back a good report and a recommendation to take the Promised Land immediately. The other ten spies confirmed God’s description of the land as rich and fertile but had no faith that they could defeat the tribes they saw living there.   Because of their faithless report, Israel wandered in the wilderness for forty years.  The Book of Joshua describes the days when God’s people finally entered Canaan to claim the land their parents had never entered because of unbelief.

The Book of Joshua is a blueprint for claiming the promises of God. The land of Canaan contained the future and the promises that God had made this little nation going back to the patriarch Abraham. The promises, like most in scripture, were conditional. Three things would be required to obtain the promises – faith, obedience, and warfare. The land had everything they needed to prosper as a nation, but it was also filled with pagan tribes who had no intention of giving up their claims to the land.  Some of these tribes were formidable with the likes of Goliath roaming the countryside.

I do find it remarkable that a generation of faith grew up out of a generation of fear.  The parents of the men and women who were now prepared to cross the Jordan River had fallen into fear, grumbling, and idolatry at every turn. Yet, out of that unpromising seedbed, God had raised up a generation of belief.  The faithful voice of Joshua had to be part of that.

The first chapter of Joshua reveals keys for claiming our promises in Christ.  I know that many of us have been taught that all things come to us by grace and as a gift of God so that our efforts have nothing to do with what we receive. That is absolutely true regarding our salvation.  Eternal life has come to us through the blood of Christ and his sacrifice and rests on no works or righteousness of our own.  However, our reward in heaven, beyond salvation, depends to a great extent on our efforts.  We are to lay up treasure in heaven.  It is not laid up for us as if we are trust fund babies.  We must seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness before “all these things” will be given to us. We must run the race to win and we must put on the armor of God if we are to have victories, and so forth.

Israel had been given the land and the assurance of victory in their battles, but they had to cross the Jordan at flood stage and still fight to obtain the promises. In doing so they would grow in character and faith and would build a relationship with God through the process. I believe we must do the same to experience many of the benefits and promises that are ours today in Christ.

At the outset, God told Joshua, “Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites. I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses” (Josh. 1:2-3). The phrase, “set your foot,” means to “march.”  It is not a promise that God would give them every place they visited or went sightseeing. It is a promise that God would give them victory everywhere they engaged the enemy. It has the flavor of intentional warfare engaged in to take territory.  Jesus echoed this thought when he said, “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it” (Mt.11:12). To gain the promises of God, we will have to be intentional and forceful in the face of the enemy.

In chapter one alone, God tells Joshua to be strong and courageous three times.  He does so on the basis that God would go with them.  He tells Joshua, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Josh.1:5). If God is with us and we are operating in his will, who can stand against us?  Because Israel had waivered in the past, God emphasizes that they must be strong and courageous…not because they are amazing warriors, but because they believe by faith that God will fight with them and for them.  To the degree we believe that God is with is and for us, we can face the enemy and every crisis with courage.

God goes on to instruct Joshua in the need for obedience.  He says, “ Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go” (Josh 1:7). This is about alignment.  God is with us, when we are with him.  If we stay aligned with the Father, then he is free to bless us and give us success.  If we are misaligned with the Father in parts of our life, to bless us would reward and reinforce the sin in our lives, which would then increase and lead to disaster. God is a good father who will always point us toward life and blessing, not a permissive father who lets us go our own way.

At the end of chapter one, Israel prepares to cross the Jordon and engage the enemy. Joshua prepares his leaders by remind them of God’s promises and their part in obtaining the promises.  The last words of his leaders were, “Only be strong and courageous.”  So, four times in once chapter we are admonished to be strong and courageous when we face the enemy because God is with us and will be faithful to give us victory if we are marching with him.  Too many of us today still doubt the love and provision of God when life or the enemy rises up against us.  Too many of us have pockets of our lives misaligned with God’s will and then count him faithless when life doesn’t go our way.  Obtaining the promises we have for peace, provision, success, healing and so forth require something from us today just as it was required of Israel in the days of Joshua  – faith, obedience and warfare.  More in my next blog.

When you read early Christian writings there is always a great deal of emphasis on Christ’s admonition to take up our cross daily in order to follow him. The theology of the cross is that God uses hardship to conform us to Jesus and to teach us to make him our source of strength and supply.  In America, where comfort and plenty have defined many lives, the idea of taking up our cross is rarely proclaimed and is even a bit offensive if we are honest. In some corners of the kingdom, a prosperity gospel has been preached which suggests that material abundance and ease are God’s will for his people on earth and proof of his favor. Preachers of that gospel tend to live on lavish estates and raise money for twenty-six passenger jets to fly around the globe preaching to the poor.

I’m not opposed to believers making a great living. It is believers with means whom God can use to fund the kingdom here on earth and actually care for the poor. What I question, even in my own life, is how much I have bought into the notion that sacrificial living is no longer an essential element in pleasing God and drawing close to him.  In fact, American believers tend to see hardship in our lives as proof that somehow God is displeased with us.  If that were the case, then Jesus and those who first followed him must have been very displeasing to God. I am reminded of David’s words when he said, “I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offering that cost me nothing” (2 Sam.24:24).

Taking up our cross daily is not necessarily a call to poverty or persecution.  It is, however, a call to setting our personal agenda aside each day while we genuinely seek God’s agenda for us.  It is saying “No” to the natural man who demands to have his way, demands to be treated with respect, demands his rights, demands to be first, demands to be given the seat of honor, refuses to submit to anyone, and who is always self-focused and concerned about his comfort, his success, and his well-being.

The truth is that most of our pain and discomfort in life comes from our self-focus. It is that focus that measures every interaction to see if we were given due deference.  It notices every ache and pain in our body and keeps score in every relationship.  It takes offense, issues judgments, justifies our own shortcomings and rings the “victim” alarm every time we feel that life hasn’t been fair. Our self-focus keeps pulling the scab off of our own wounds as we constantly rehearse the scenes where those wounds were inflicted and keeps Jesus at bay because we feel such a need to protect ourselves by being in control.

Taking up our cross daily puts the focus on Jesus and others, rather than ourselves.  It actually reduces our pain even though we believe our pain would increase. It is something, I believe, that only the Holy Spirit can do in us, but won’t due without our constant permission. We all want to be filled with the Spirit but if we are filled with self, there is little room for the Spirit to move and work.

In a culture that promotes self-love, attending to our needs first, and entitlement it is difficult to take up our cross.  We would rather pay someone else to carry our cross for us. Unfortunately, that task cannot be outsourced.  The paradox, of course, is that the key to abundant living is dying to our own demands. The key to freedom is surrendering to Jesus…not just the parts we don’t care about but everything. I believe it is also a key to greater anointing and power because when we carry our cross, we will steward those things as Jesus would, rather than for our own affirmation. I need to consider this reality in my own life today.  You might need to as well.

Most mainline churches in America today still seem to fear an over-emphasis on the Holy Spirit. They certainly believe in the Holy Spirit as that part of God or that part of the Trinity that resides in God’s children, gives life to the spirit of man, and who shapes our character as Christians (fruit of the Spirit). However, the idea of power, revelation, prophetic words, words of knowledge, gifts of healing, visions, dreams, etc. are not on the menu in these churches. They seem to believe that if Christians pursue these supernatural manifestations of the Spirit, they will be led astray by the enemy into all kinds of deception and a faith focused on miracles rather than Jesus.

At the same time, there is a frustration in these churches, or at least among some of the people and leaders, that what we have in our faith is insufficient to truly meet the needs and challenges of the day. What do you do when your members suffer for years with depression, anxiety, fear, suicidal thoughts, addictions, doubts, gender confusion, or vaguely diagnosed illnesses and your prayers and Bible study only seem to give them temporary relief but no real victory?

Typically, churches that do not operate in the “supernatural” gifts of the Spirit, either conclude that these people have insufficient faith to be set free or send them out to secular doctors and psychologist for treatment. Even if they go to Christian counselors or therapists, most of them have been trained in secular approaches to treatment…so our people only get what the world offers with the simple addition of a prayer and a scripture. A theology then arises from our inability to help our people that declares that it is God’s will for his people to suffer in this fallen world, just as those who have no faith but the promised healing and freedom will come as we enter the presence of Jesus in heaven.

At the same time, we have the presence of Jesus within us already here on earth. Why shouldn’t that presence (the Holy Spirit) provide healing and freedom here as well as in heaven? In addition, Paul declares in 2 Corinthians 10, that we are not to wage war as the world wages war, but are to use divine weapons to pull down strongholds. He states this need for divine weapons because he also declares that our real struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual powers in heavenly realms. What doesn’t touch the spiritual realm will not set us free, if there is a spiritual component to our physical illness or emotional torment. And Paul suggests that most of the time, there is a spiritual component. Churches who don’t want to “over-emphasize” the Holy Spirit leave their people in the grasp of dark spiritual forces because secular treatment doesn’t touch the spiritual realm.

Of course, all churches pray for the healing of physical illnesses and emotional torment. Typically, however, the prayer is more of a wish than an expectation because if God doesn’t operate supernaturally in his church any more, then we can’t really expect more than secular doctors, science, and therapy can deliver. More than that, if God has provided solutions for infirmity and emotional distress through supernatural gifts of the Spirit, then he expects us to exercise those gifts as his primary source of healing and freedom and not just keep calling on him to do what he has equipped his church to do.

Sometimes we act like a policeman who has graduated from the academy and has been given authority and power to go make arrests and bring criminals to justice, but every time he sees a crime in progress, he calls the chief of police to come and do something. The chief will say, “ You have authority and power. You make the arrest. That is your job. If you can’t, then resign from the force.” If we keep calling on God to do what he has anointed and appointed us to do, then much will go undone. A heavy and healthy emphasis on the Holy Spirit in the church that stays consistent with biblical guidelines is the answer.

Before you push back, think about what an emphasis the first century church placed on the Holy Spirit beginning with Jesus himself. Jesus declared that the Holy Spirit would live in us, counsel us, teach us, lead us into all truth, reveal the heart and mind of God to us, heal us, free us, shape us, and give us power for ministry…to do what he had been doing. He didn’t tell the disciples to wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit shaped their character or delivered sound doctrine so they could be effective witnesses. He commanded them to wait for power, which immediately manifested in tongues, revelation, and boldness. Can “supernatural” spiritual gifts be abused? Sure. They were widely abused in Corinth. Paul, however, did not tell them to quit exercising the gifts but to exercise them with love and a sense of order. When the church was looking for qualified leaders, they did not search for seminary graduates or successful businessmen, but looked for those who were full of the Spirit…which also manifested in miraculous works. The church was ordered to be filled with the Spirit at all times and to pray in the Spirit at all times. They were to earnestly desire spiritual gifts and to bear the fruit of the Spirit in their lives. When Ananias and Sapphira were disciplined unto death in Acts 5, it was because they had lied to the Holy Spirit. That suggests the prominence the Holy Spirit held in the church.

We could go on, but it would be heard to emphasize the Spirit more than the early church did or the New Testament does. I believe there is more danger in under-emphasizing the Spirit rather than over-emphasizing him. The truth is that the church needs much more of the Spirit rather than less if we are to fulfill our mandate of discipling nations and bringing heaven to earth.