HEADS UP #1: RELEASING THE WARRIOR WITHIN YOU!

Hello DEAREST STEEMIANS!

Right now, I feel so nervous to write my first blog. As said in my #introduceyourself post, I’ll be blogging about #spirituality and #life . I’ll be sharing with you the topics I am sharing with my “Lifegroup” – it is a group people connected together to empower each other through God’s word (with all due to respect to all other religions). I am very open for comments and helpful reactions. So please do.

TITLE: RELEASING THE WARRIOR WITHIN YOU!

This time we’ll look into the life of Joshua and the Israelites as they pursue their Promise Land. This blog is entitled ‘Releasing the warrior within’. But before we move on, allow me to ask you some of these questions?

“Are you surrounded with problems and impossibilities lately? Why is it so difficult to obey God especially if His ways seems to make ‘no sense’ to us? How can we be assured of victory over circumstances? What ‘Jericho’s’ are you facing today?”

TEXT: Joshua 6:1-7, 20-21

Here we see that Joshua has just had an awesome encounter with the ‘Commander of Heaven’s armies’, the Lord God Himself. And it was there that God gave him clear instructions as to the battle plan to take so as to win the victory over Jericho. However, what bothers me and I’m almost sure it also bothered Joshua, was that the instructions given was not in accordance to what was on his mind, nor was ever done by any military exploit! But because Joshua chose to obey and believe God, they saw the Lord’s power and victorious hand at work! Allow me to share 3 things that we need to notice in this awesome story.

It’s “3S”.

1.) The STRATEGY (vs. 3-5)

As we have already noticed, God’s instructions seemed ‘foolish’ to the human mind. For the Israelites to have victory, the Lord commanded Joshua to have the entire army march around the city once for 6 days, and seven times on the 7th day, led by the Ark of the Covenant and the Priests blowing seven trumpets. After their ‘valiant march’, they were to return to their camp and do the same thing the next day. As I have already mentioned, this was a very absurd and unusual military strategy neither unheard of nor done by any nation!

This took a lot of faith, obedience and humility on the part of Joshua, and such submission and determination on the whole nation! And as a wise general, Joshua had to command the people to neither shout nor talk (v. 10) as they were carrying out God’s orders. I believe this was to prevent the people from murmuring, complaining, and from becoming negative. I could just imagine how difficult it was for them to just ‘silently march around’ the city walls! But they choose to believe God and their God-given leader, Joshua, knowing that any other more ‘logical way’ would still not be enough to defeat such a fortified city!

2.) The SHOUT

And as they were doing their usual marching, I could just imagine what was going on in the minds of both the armies of Israel and Jericho. We are told that the everyone within the city were all filled with fear because of the Israelites (2:9; 6:1). It must have been such a suspense when Joshua and his men quietly marched around their walls the first time. Then on the second day, the same thing was done. And as the days went by, perhaps the fear the felt has slowly melted away since nothing seems to happen. And slowly their confidence in their mighty walls could have risen again. I just could imagine the people of Jericho standing and looking down from their walls taunting Joshua and his armies!

However on the 7th. Day after their seventh round of marching around the city, after the Priests gave a long trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the people to‘Shout! For the LORD has given you the city (v. 16b)! As I was studying the significance of the ‘shout’ in the life of Israel, I‘ve realized how significant this was. Once in their history, an enemy king named Balak hired a prophet named Balaam to curse the Israelites. And as he was about to this evil thing, blessings came out of his mouth instead of curses (Numbers 23)! And when asked why he can’t curse God’s people, he told Balak that they could not be cursed ‘for the shout of the King is among them’ (v. 21b). In another time in their history, God gave them victory over their enemies as they lifted their battle cry, and 50,000 of their enemies died (2 Chron. 13:15)! The prophet Isaiah also has a prophecy of the coming of the Lord as a warrior who will come with a thundering battle cry and will destroy all of His enemies (Isaiah 42:13)!

Friends, one of the ways we can praise God is to ‘shout’ and to ‘make a joyful noise’ unto the Lord (Psalm 47:1, 5)! And yet one of the things that surprises me until now is how some Christian find it so hard to praise God with a shout and a loud voice! ‘Isn’t it amazingly surprising how we can shout while watching Manny Pacquiao defeat his opponent in the ring? Or shout aloud while watching the NBA finals or the World Cup Soccer tournament? Why do we hear more loud shouts in the derby coliseums and concert halls rather than in Church which is the camp of the Lord’s army?’

I believe because we have a wrong mindset of who God is and how we should worship Him. For many years, we have been influenced by artistic mind of how God could have looked like – wavy hair, blue eyes looking up to Heaven, fair skin, and a very gentle and innocent face! While I appreciate the imagination of these artist, I believe God is not a ‘whimpy and weakling guy’! I believe He is a tough, strong, and a fearless man with strong convictions (Matt. 21:12)! In fact, the Bible tells us that ‘The Lord is a warrior, the Lord is His Name (Numbers 15:3)! In fact, two of in most significant ‘shouts’ of God was just before He breathe His last (Mark 15:37) and the soon-coming mighty shout of the Lord in His glorious return (1 Thess. 4:16)! Both of these mighty shouts of declaring victory! Friends, we can praise God with a mighty shout when we come to Him in praise and worship whether in our services or on our daily time with Him! And as we do, the walls that hinder us from our ‘Promise Land’ will crumble down just as the mighty walls of Jericho did!

3.) The SECRET

In my study, I have learned that ‘whatever enables you to cross over into your Promise Land is also what will bring you victory in possessing it!’ The secret to the victory of Israel was their F.O.C.U.S! Both Joshua and the people had FAITH in God’s promise, OBEDIENCE to God’s command, COURAGE through God’s power, UNWAVERING COMMITMENT to God’s servant, and strived to live a SANCTIFIED LIFE by God’s standard! Because they trusted and obeyed God, they had a mighty victory over Jericho & their mighty walls!

CONCLUSION:

STEEMIT friends, we must never forget that we serve the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords! We belong to His eternal Kingdom and are on the winning side! We serve a victorious God who already won the victory for us! We are warriors of the Most high! We have the shout of the King among us! No weapon formed against us shall succeed! In God, we are more than conquerors! So STEEMIT friends, when the enemy puts up mighty walls to keep us from and possessing our Promise Land, lift up a mighty shout of praise and declare the victory that is already ours in God! Roar and release the warrior with you!

Enjoy reading friends!

God bless!!!