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This afternoon, I'd like to speak on a
topic called The Two Voices at Jericho.
The Two Voices at Jericho.
And if you would turn with me to
Joshua Chapter 1, the first book.
The first chapter in the book of Joshua,
Joshua Chapter 1.
I'm glad that we're studying the book of
Joshua in Bible school because I really feel
it's a very timely book for right now
in the life of this church and in
our lives.
Joshua Chapter 1.
I'm going to pray.
Father, I come to you in Jesus' name.
Lord, I ask that you have your way.
Lord, your word has a purpose here today.
That, Lord, you have specifically brought people here
today.
That you may speak.
That you may bring us into a light.
Lord, that we may open our hearts to
you.
And, Lord, that you would change us.
God, we are such a needy people.
Lord, I ask you now to just bring
weight to your word.
I ask you, Lord, to let it be
understood.
Let it be lived.
Let it, O God, be exalted above everything.
For, Lord, there is such deliverance and light.
And, Lord, we learn to love you.
We learn to know your heart.
Lord, I pray it be a living word.
Holy Spirit, come and be our teacher.
We thank you for it in Jesus' name.
Amen and amen.
The book of Joshua talks and tells us
about the defeat of Jericho.
And Jericho is, the scripture tells us, through
Joshua, an accursed city.
Jericho is a city with a curse on
it.
Because it represents a stronghold.
It represents a fortress between the wilderness of
sin and the promised land.
It represents the last barrier, the last place
that the children of Israel must come to.
It bars the way to the promised land.
And because of what it does, that city,
in a spiritual sense, has a lot of
significance for you and I.
And the Bible tells us that if you
look at the history of the children of
Israel and all that it took for them
to get to the place where they had
to face down that city of Jericho, all
that they had to do is very much
their story and their history is our story
and our history in our journey of faith.
The one that God takes us on so
that we can learn to trust Him.
And the battles and the trials that they
had to go through to get to Jericho
are very significant.
It occurred to me that the only way
you get to Jericho is you have to
be led there.
We can't get to the place where we
are confronted with a stronghold in our lives
unless the Lord reveal it to us.
You see, unless the Lord reveals spiritual truth,
unless the Lord Himself, in His light we
see light, Scripture says.
And there are things about us that we
can't know and can't understand.
There are things that are going on in
the kingdom of God.
There are things that are going on in
spiritual realms.
We cannot understand with a natural human mind.
They must be revealed to us by God.
And they must be made real to us
in our spirit.
That's where we start to understand and have
a capacity to know God.
That goes beyond our mind.
It goes beyond.
It's deeper than our mind.
It's our spiritual knower, if you will.
And Jericho represents to the children of Israel,
they were finally, after 40 years wandering in
the wilderness, they were finally getting to a
place where finally they wanted to be led
by God.
Where finally they were willing to trust Him
like they had never done before.
And you would think that now that God
has engaged a people's heart, that He would
just lead them into the promised land.
No, He leads them to a stronghold.
He leads them to a place that epitomizes
unbelief.
It epitomizes a stronghold that bars entry into
the promised land.
But I feel that when you and I
get to actually be led to our Jericho,
we get to be led to a place
that is a stronghold in our lives, that
we only get there.
You see, Joshua was led to Jericho by
the Captain of the Host, the Scripture says.
That the Captain of the Host, that is
the Lord Jesus Christ, in the Old Testament,
appeared to him.
And when Joshua said, whose side are you
on?
The Lord said, I'm not here to take
sides, I'm here to take over.
The Lord said, I'm going to lead this
army, and because I'm going to lead it,
I'm going to lead you to the last
stronghold before you enter in my promised land.
And it's a doomed place, because I'm leading
the army.
But you can't get to Jericho until you've
gone all the other places.
Because once God is leading us to our
stronghold, when the Lord is leading us to
our stronghold, it's a doomed place, it's going
to fall.
And so when we get to our Jericho,
we've had a history with God.
By the time we get to Jericho, there
is something that we know we have not
known before.
Jericho is a fortress that never falls by
human warfare.
And Jericho is a place that, by the
time we get there, we do not have
a perfect track record of faith and trust
and obedience.
We do not.
By the time we get to Jericho, we
have finally, in us, we have this cry
for Him.
There is now a willingness, a willingness and
a thirst above all else, to be led
by God and to obey Him and trust
Him, because His Word is speaking that to
us.
And we're finally saying, Lord, when You speak
to me, that is the greatest power in
heaven and earth.
Your Word, when You speak to me, if
I will hold that Word up and I
will say, God, this is going to be
my reality.
If You speak to me from Your Word
and I say, no matter what I feel
or think, what I'm seeing or experiencing, Lord,
You are greater than it all.
You are Lord of it all.
That's why when You speak a word to
me, this is, if I will cling to
this, You are going to bring me through
to a place of victory.
You are going to bring me through to
where I know I can have confidence in
You.
When I understand Your Word, I understand Your
heart.
There is this greater depth in You.
I love You more.
I have an understanding of how You work.
You see, Jericho is finally a fortress of
unbelief that is now being assaulted by a
people of belief that are being led there
by the Lord Jesus Christ.
When we start to see Jericho on our
horizon, we are confronting a stronghold in our
lives, but we confront it with a decision.
We are now at the point where we
say, Lord, in my life, whatever the trial,
whatever the temptation, whatever the impossibility, I want
to trust You.
Whatever is now looming on my horizon, I
want my reflex to be one of trust.
And Jericho will forever symbolize a triumph for
God.
It will symbolize that God can subdue His
wayward people and bring them into a trust
relationship where He can bring them into the
promised land, where God can finally take us
where He wants us to go.
And it kind of begs the question, what
is the promised land?
And the promised land is simply the promised
land where we finally believe God's Word to
us.
Where everything God has promised to us, they
are ours by faith in Christ.
In the New Testament, Christ is our promised
land.
That everything that this book promises to a
believer is ours in Christ.
And so we enter there by faith.
It's finally this Word to us.
We know it is ours because God has
spoken it to us.
And we are able to take this Word
and set it above our fears and above
our failures.
Where it becomes so precious because it's God
to us.
It is the living Word to us.
So it rules our life.
Where God Himself, this is His Word to
us, and He becomes so real, Jesus becomes
so real to us.
And the process of trust is one that
the children of Israel had to go through.
They had to be led there.
You think if we look at their history
to this point, we realize that God brought
them out of Egypt.
And that's a type, as you know, of
salvation.
Being brought out of Egypt, being delivered from
bondage of sin, from bondage of taskmasters, of
a transfer of our life into God's hands.
And then they are led by Moses.
And if you read the Bible, they are
led out of Egypt right across the wilderness,
right to the border of the Promised Land
in short order.
But beloved, have you ever been to the
border of the Promised Land?
Have you in your spiritual walk?
Have you in your walk with Christ?
Have you ever been brought right to the
border where sitting in a message or something
lights up in your spirit, there's a call
for Him, and all of a sudden it
seems like you're starting to get it.
It's Christ.
And it's His righteousness.
And He promises to deposit His life in
us.
And it's His life He's asking us to
live.
And then He's asking us to live it
by His strength.
And we have no strength in ourselves.
And we say, Lord, if I call on
You, Your life in me is going to
spring up like a well of water.
And when I need it, it's going to
be full of life to me.
And I'm going to draw on Your life.
And I can do this.
And it's like we're standing right at the
edge of a breakthrough.
But the days go by and the weeks
go by, and so little of that reality
seems to be happening.
It's this spiritual reality stuck in our heads.
Have you ever been to the border of
the Promised Land?
Looking in, and it looks so clear.
And the children of Israel were brought to
the border of the Promised Land, right there
inherited everything that they could have in God
if they would enter it by faith, if
they would enter it through trust, if they
would go in dependent on Him.
They were brought right to the border of
it.
And they saw when the spies went in,
and they went in all through the land,
and they were there 40 days.
And they were looking at everything there was
to see, and they came back.
You know the story.
How big there was a land flowing with
milk and honey.
God's promise, the inheritance of a life in
Him, and the land that He was giving
them, was beyond their expectation.
And they came back and said, the grapes
are so big.
This is what this land can produce.
But the enemies are bigger.
It's a land flowing of milk and honey,
but I'm afraid that for us to conquer
it, it's going to flow with our blood
in order to get it.
And you know the story, where God says,
My word to you is I give you
this land.
But when they looked in, and they saw
what was before them, and what would oppose
them, they staggered at the promise.
And unbelief rooted in their heart as a
nation.
That unbelief, it was heavy in their heart,
and the weight of sin, and His word
was not greater than their unbelief.
His word to them was not the reality.
His word to them, I give you this
land, was not what controlled them.
That was not the controlling force in their
life.
Their unbelief was.
And you know the story.
That God after delivering them out of Egypt,
through the Red Sea, led them through a
wilderness, and in that place, they built a
tabernacle, a mobile worship center, and the Bible
says that when it was completed, the glory
of God came down into that tabernacle, so
that nobody could enter it.
Moses, no one could enter it, and offer
sacrifices there.
God said, I am with you.
And the glory was such that they all
fell on their face, and they knew that
the only true God was in their midst.
Their only true God delivered them.
The only true God now had a plan.
He had an inheritance for them.
And they alone of all the people on
the earth were being gathered in His name
and saying, You are mine, I am with
you.
And the cloud by day would cover this
tabernacle.
And as long as the cloud stayed over
the tabernacle, the children stayed put.
But when the cloud lifted, they would go
and they would follow the cloud.
And the Scripture says that night, fire came
down in this tabernacle, and it became a
light for them in the darkest night.
They had light.
No one else in the face of the
earth had this kind of light in their
night.
And the Scripture says that these people were
brought with such an evidence that the only
God of the universe was in their midst,
that Jesus had called them by His name
and was among them, and given them great
and precious promises.
But the Scripture says that there were a
segment of them that could not believe God,
that when they went into the inheritance, all
they could see was how it could not
be done.
All they could see was something greater than
their God, greater than His power, greater than
His promises, greater than His Word.
And the Scripture says that the wrath of
God came upon these unbelieving leadership and these
unbelieving warriors.
And the Scripture says that God says, not
one, not one evil, doubting man, 20 years
old and up, shall enter into My promised
land.
God's wrath and God's judgment fell on the
unbelief that was found in Israel, and they
were turned back, and the Scripture says, into
the wilderness of sin.
And beloved, I believe that it's such a
picture of a believer's heart.
I believe that this whole story is a
picture of a believer's heart.
That Israel is a type of a heart
of a believer who has a portion, there
is a deep root of unbelief in the
heart.
They love God, and they are named by
His name on areas in their life.
But there is another area that when God
leads them into a place of impossibility, they
back away.
When God leads them to the inheritance, they
can't see it for what it is, and
they pull back.
And this root of unbelief God must judge.
And the Scripture says that these men, these
leaders, the warriors among them, they were turned
back along with all the people and they
died empty, wasted lives in the desert.
Every one of them, to a man, fell
in the sand and died there.
And it's a type that God, when we
are in our wilderness, beloved, when we are
in our wilderness, it is for a purpose.
The wilderness is that stage in a believer's
life, is a stage in a believer's heart
that is between the captivity that he was
brought out of and the covenant he's being
brought into.
The wilderness is that journey where we're brought
out of captivity and God says there's covenant
promises that you enter by faith, but in
between is that testing time where God says
I'm going after that root of unbelief in
your life and I'm going to do judgment
on it.
And there's a purpose for the wilderness.
And God's saying I haven't left you.
I have not forsaken you.
You have a cloud of glory and you
have light in your night, but we're not
to stay there.
You know, when we're in the wilderness, here's
how we know we're still in the wilderness.
The doubts are always springing up.
God, always the doubt and always the murmuring
about provision.
It's like, God, are You going to provide
for me?
And there can be brave declarations on Sunday,
but when the bills come in or if
I have to take a stand, it could
mean my bread and butter.
God, will You provide for me?
And there's always the fear in the heart.
It's the overriding fear.
God, if I follow You, are You going
to provide for me?
Will this religion suddenly have real feet and
some reality to it?
Because, beloved, we come to God and we
give Him our heart, but God knows where
the deep areas of unbelief still reside.
And the children of Israel are always murmuring
and complaining about provision.
I'm thirsty.
I'm hungry.
God, don't You see me?
Why do I have to ask for water?
God, don't You know we need water?
Why do I have to ask for meat?
Is all You have for us manna?
And there's always the murmuring, and God says,
yes, I am water to you, and out
of a rock is going to flow water.
That's how I'll provide for you in a
way you never thought, in a way you
could never dream, in a way you'd never
know about.
Because the rock itself does not have water
in it.
But it's a symbol of the life in
Christ Jesus.
It's a symbol of what Christ is in
us.
An ever-flowing water supply of living water
that cleanses us and renews us.
And they would cry for meat, and He
would give them quail.
We're in the wilderness when we're still, still
the greatest fear.
And the cry is, God, will You provide
for me?
We are still in the wilderness when doubts
and unbelief in God are causing us to
doubt the direction in our lives.
God, I can't submit every question to You.
I might have to go in a direction
I don't want to go.
I will ask Your direction on this, but
there are certain areas in my heart that
I'm just going to say I'm giving it
to You, but God never gets control of
it.
And the children of Israel were always, where
are You leading us, God?
They were in the wilderness because the doubt
would spring up.
What are we doing here?
Isn't this long enough?
How long do we have to walk in
this sand?
And there were always leaders full of rebellion,
full of their own ways, not knowing the
mind and heart of God, always saying, we
need to go back to Egypt.
We need to go back.
We have to turn back.
There's no life for us here.
This can't be God.
This can't be God taking us to a
wilderness and day after day having us here,
calling us His people and forcing us to
live in this wilderness.
Why?
Always the desert.
We know that we are in our wilderness
when there is idolatry, that something else is
always before our face in our moments of
quiet.
There's a longing.
There's something greater in our minds and in
our hearts that our hearts go to and
center on and focus on and long for
and yearn for.
That when our hearts at rest, our heart
is not going to Christ.
Our heart is being drawn and dominated by
wanting something, of having something, of being something
to the exclusion where God is much less
part of our life.
We know we are in the wilderness when
that murmuring of provision and direction and our
thoughts are being dominated by another God.
But beloved, I believe the Scripture tells us
there came a time where the children of
Israel as a group, where the desert, where
the wilderness had accomplished its purpose, where when
those men died in the wilderness was a
symbol that God said, your heart now, I
have purged it in My ways.
I know what I'm doing.
The purpose of the desert has been accomplished.
The purpose of the wilderness has gone deep
into you.
And there is now produced a cry for
me that's saying, God, lead me.
It doesn't matter, but lead me.
I'm ready now.
No matter what, Your Word to me.
That's what I want to be, my meat
and drink.
Your Word to me.
That's going to be my life.
God, I see where the wilderness takes me.
I see what the wilderness does.
I see that if I cling to my
doubt and unbelief in Your name, I'm going
to die in this place.
But God, I know You're about life.
I know You've not left us and forsaken
us in the wilderness.
And God, I want the ability to trust
You.
I'm going to start knowing that You will
provide.
I'm going to start knowing that You are
directing my life.
That my steps are ordered.
That, God, You have a plan and a
purpose.
I release my life and You lead me
and I'll follow.
That, God, I want above all things to
obey You when this Word You begin to
speak to me.
That, God, You're going to create in me
the desire and the power to obey You.
I'm going to trust You for that.
God, I don't want to live in this
wilderness anymore where I'm setting my...
how I'm going to live my life before
You.
I'll give it to You.
And the wilderness produced a good thing because
there was a people emerging.
A new generation that were longing to be
led into the promised land.
They were longing to be led.
And the Scripture tells us that Joshua now
is the leader of this new group.
Of this people that have been dealt with.
The doubt and the unbelief.
They see the fruit of it.
And they know how deadly it is.
And they're saying, God, now Your Word is
what will lead us.
We want what You want for us.
No matter what.
And so Joshua now, the new spokesman, it
tells us in Joshua 1 that God speaks
to Joshua and it says in verse 3,
God says to Joshua, every place that the
sole of your foot shall tread upon, that
have I given unto you as I said
unto Moses.
See, I've given this Word before and it
was held as a light thing.
You didn't believe it.
But now there's a people saying, no, anything
you say, we want to cling to it
now.
If you say that you've given this land
to us, and wherever our feet trod, that
is our inheritance, God, we believe it.
We're ready now.
We're going to exalt Your Word above our
doubt, above our fear, above the impossibilities.
If that's what you say, I'm out of
the wilderness because I know that You're willing
to lead me out.
And so the Scripture says that in verse
5, that there shall not any man be
able to stand before Thee all the days
of Thy life.
God says, I'm going to put such an
anointing on an obedient God-Spirit led people
that there shall be no one able to
withstand You all the days of Your life.
What an incredible reward to obedience.
What an incredible life is opening up now
to a people who are being willing to
risk it all and say, God, no matter,
there is not one area of my life
You cannot touch, that You cannot lead me
in, that You cannot speak to me about.
And God says, when I have that kind
of heart, there shall not be a man
that will be able to stand before You,
be able to curse You, be able to
direct Your life away from me, to take
You out of my hand.
There shall not be a man, there shall
not be a teacher, there shall be no
one that will be able to rise up
and take You away from my purpose for
You, from an ever-increasing revelation of how
much I love You, of it is my
will to put my glory upon You and
lead You into places of impossibility.
He says, I will be with Thee.
He says, I will not fail Thee.
He says, I will not forsake Thee.
And these became life to Him.
These words became life to Joshua.
And He became a voice to the people
that they would finally listen to.
Moses said the same words.
Moses had the same word from God.
But it was not heard.
It was not esteemed.
It was not clung to as life, more
than bread to them.
But now it was.
Now they were ready.
They had gone through a wilderness and they
saw where they were murmuring.
And the death that it brought and the
rebellion to Him only brought a wilderness.
All the days of their life and they
were ready to leave.
And the Scripture says in verse 6, Be
strong and be of good courage.
The word is, Be strong in the Lord.
Be strong in the Lord and be of
good courage.
Hallelujah.
Once again, we're seeing the land of the
free will always be the home of the
brave.
And be of good courage.
And then He says, only verse 7, Only
be thou strong and very courageous.
And verse 9, Have not I commanded thee?
Have not I commanded thee?
And these words began to have weight.
This was not idle talk.
This was a people so desperate now, so
thirsty, so willing to come out of the
wilderness.
And they could be led.
And Joshua became a voice to them.
Joshua became a voice to them.
And it was life to them.
And they understood that God was not speaking
idly to them.
That what He said He would do, this
is exactly what their life would be as
they followed Him.
And a people were made willing to trust
and believe Him.
And then they were led to Jericho.
That's when they stood before that city of
Jericho.
That's when they were ready to see things
they needed to see and understand some things
they needed.
They could never be brought to Jericho in
their deep unbelief in their heart.
It never would have come down.
And Joshua's voice to them.
Joshua's voice to them.
This is how He led them with these
kind of words.
And this is what He was speaking to
them.
And people were hearing it.
And Joshua's voice became like the word of
Christ.
Joshua's word to them, a living word was
like the word to us today.
Joshua's word was like a godly life being
lived out before them.
And the power that's in it.
And their heart burned.
And they wanted this.
And there was direction and light and life
and glory in it.
And it's like their spirit was turning in
them.
The water in them was moving.
And they were recognizing this was God once
again so willing to lead them.
And the Scripture says that under Joshua's leadership
that they arose from the desert.
And the Scripture says they crossed over the
river Jordan carrying the Ark of the Covenant.
And when they stepped in the waters, the
waters parted one more time.
And they walked across dry land one more
time.
And when they got there, then God said,
now we're going to have a circumcision.
Because all the children that had been born
in the wilderness had not followed the commands
of God.
And the Bible says that God gave Joshua
the command that all the males were to
be circumcised.
And the Scripture says that the reproach of
Egypt was rolled off them.
The reproach of living in their flesh and
leaning on their own understanding and crying out
for their flesh and always murmuring about them
and never understanding, never looking higher than their
own flesh and their own needs, never looking
up and seeing it's a God who knows
all that, but has something so much higher
and better for them.
And the reproach of Egypt and living only
with such a narrow focus in the world
and living outside the vision of God was
being cut away from them.
Flesh was being cut away from them.
And a walk in the Spirit now.
God, You lead us by Your Spirit.
Beloved, I don't understand all what it is
to walk in the Spirit, but I know
that when you do that, the deeds of
the flesh get put down, can't manifest, can't
break through.
That we say, God, You've given us a
Holy Spirit and You're taking the reproach of
Egypt off me because Your Holy Spirit dwells
in me and there is a power now
that I draw from Your life in me.
This is a walk in the Spirit.
And Lord, I thank You that You give
me power to recognize when it's flesh and
when it's spirit if I ask You.
You will show me these kind of things.
And now these people circumcised.
That's when the Captain of the Host shows
up.
He says, now you're a people I can
lead.
And I'm going to lead you to victory.
And Joshua's voice was life to them.
But beloved, there's another voice.
And that other voice, you have to hear
me now, is from a woman who lives
on the wall of Jericho.
And her name is Rahab.
And Rahab, the Bible tells us, was a
woman who when Joshua also, when he was
going just before he entered the land to
conquer it, he sent spies.
He sent two spies.
And the Bible tells us their story that
these two spies entered the city of Jericho.
And this harlot Rahab that lives on the
wall of Jericho recognizes them.
And the Scripture tells us that she brings
them into her house.
And the Bible tells us in Joshua 2,
verse 9, she says to these spies, I
know that the Lord has given you the
land and that your terror is fallen upon
us and that all the inhabitants of the
land faint because of you.
We have heard how the Lord dried up
the water of the Red Sea for you.
And the Scripture goes on and she says,
we hear how kings and great, great rulers
were destroyed because your God was with you.
And verse 11, as soon as we heard
these things, our hearts did melt.
And neither did there remain any more courage
in any man because of you.
For the Lord your God, He is God
in heaven above and earth beneath.
And she says this to the spies.
And the Scripture tells us, they went back
to Joshua and they said, you're not going
to believe what they're saying.
You are not going to believe.
When we move as an army to enter
the promised land and we stand before that
one fortress, that one citadel that blocks us
from our inheritance, the promised land, you would
not believe what the inhabitants of that place
are saying.
They tremble before us.
They are so afraid of us.
The terror of us has fallen on them.
And they're probably looking at each other.
Us?
The terror of us has fallen on us.
But beloved, it's so amazing to me though
that there's a woman somehow that God reached
down into that stronghold.
A harlot.
And began to reveal His heart and His
mind to her.
And the Scripture, she alone in her house
is saved.
There was one person God could talk to
in that fortress, in that city of unbelief.
A woman named Rahab.
And I see that she is living here
in this place on the wall.
And she is a voice, beloved, that is
now...
I want you to get a picture of
this now.
As you and I rise up under the
voice of Joshua, under the voice of Jesus
Christ, under the voice of His Word, and
we are hearing, march forward.
I'm leading you.
I'm taking you to your inheritance.
I'm going to bring you to a place
where your reflex is going to be to
trust me first and think about everything else
second.
I'm going to bring you to a place
where my Word to you is going to
be meat and drink.
And we sit under this kind of preaching
and it's reaching our hearts and our hearts
are burning.
I want you to know at the same
time there is going to be another voice
going on in our heart.
And it's going to be the voice of
Rahab, one who lives on the wall.
Because when these spies came to her and
she began to tell them what God was
telling them to her, her voice is so
much like the reason and will that speaks
in our hearts at night.
When you and I make this determination, God,
I want to follow you with all my
heart, there is going to be another voice.
And it's going to sound like Rahab's voice.
And it's going to say, God, I know
all these things are true.
But I live on the wall that you
are committed to destroying.
You see, when she received the spies, she
received these messengers, she received their message.
And she was agreeing with the God of
Israel that the wall that Jericho had to
be demolished, that it had to come down.
She was receiving them so she could send
them out another way so that the king
of Jericho would not see them.
And when they would leave, they would come
back to her, but as a destroying army.
The next time she saw them, she would
be looking down from her house on the
wall knowing that they were committing to destroying
everything she understood, everything that was her security,
everything that she knew about.
And yet, she was agreeing with them.
Beloved, there is two voices going on in
our heart if we want to walk with
God.
There will be the voice of Joshua.
There will be the voice of Christ.
It will be this word.
But there will be the voice of Rahab
that will say, God, yes, it's all true.
But God, I have to agree with you
and you are committed to destroying strongholds in
me, everything I've built my life on, everything
I've built my security on, and I've got
to agree with you.
Can you hear the two voices?
Have you heard the two voices?
And say, God, with all my heart I
want this.
But God, if I follow You with all
my heart, something's going to be destroyed and
You're asking me to agree with it.
God, You know the strongholds in our hearts.
You know what has to come down.
And I can't see it except You reveal
it to me.
And when You reveal it to me, then
You want me to stretch out my hand
and say, Thy will be done.
Bring down the wall I live on.
Bring down my security.
You know, it's one thing for Joshua and
that army to come in against us.
Another thing for Rahab to be in agreement
when she lives on the wall.
But the Scripture says that she sends the
spies out knowing that the next time she
says, by doing that I release you to
do whatever you have to do.
There would be times, beloved, of an unbelievable
pressure and confusion in this woman's life.
The Bible says in Joshua 6, you don't
have to turn there, but it says that
Jericho was straightly shut up because of the
children of Israel.
None went out.
And none came in.
Six days.
And you can feel what it must have
lived to be.
Live on a wall and a place.
And everybody in that place, it's a doomed
city.
And everybody in their hearts knows it's a
city of destruction.
And yet, she's the only one God can
speak to, so it tells me that these
people are so busy reassuring one another this
is not really a city of destruction.
This is not really a place that God's
judgment and wrath are going to come upon.
There's got to be a place of living
in denial that we're not going to be
judged.
But beloved, you've got to know in that
place there's got to be such terror and
pain and confusion, and she was called to
live in the middle of it.
And there had to have been times of
such a cry, God, have I done the
right thing?
Have I done the right thing?
Am I doing the right thing?
God, I give you everything that's closest and
dear to me.
Touch it.
Touch whatever you have to have.
But there will be a Rahab moment that
it's going to mean the destruction of all
I know.
Where I live.
What my security is.
And there has got to come a time,
beloved, for us to enter the promised land
that we say, God, my steps are ordered
by you.
And the enemy will come with everything he
has and say, you've taken matters into your
own hands.
You're the one making the decision.
You're not being led in this.
And we have to keep coming back because,
beloved, this is when the word becomes meat
and drink to us.
When we have to say, God, whatever you
have to destroy in me for that stronghold
to come down, for me to start seeing
things that I must see in order to
enter the promised land.
Every barrier to the promised land, you're in
your great mercy.
You say that you will bring it down.
And, beloved, we've got to get to the
point.
That's the best news we have.
Not what's being destroyed.
Not what we're giving up.
But, God, You are so far me and
when this comes down, I get to move
in with that mighty army into the promised
land.
And so this city is shut up and
no one in and no one out.
And she's been shown that she lives in
a stronghold that God has committed to destroying.
And I can feel the panic.
And I can feel the confusion in her.
But when this word, when these people, when
she sent those spies out, she said, when
you leave, when I send you out to
do what you have to do, remember me.
Remember my family.
Remember my father.
Remember my sisters.
Remember all those closest to me.
Remember all those I have an influence in.
Remember me.
And she said, deal kindly with me.
And they said, we will.
They said, our life for yours.
And we will deal kindly and truly with
you.
And you gather everyone to your house.
We will not be responsible for anybody else
found outside your walls.
But if you will gather all those that
you are petitioning us for and you gather
them in your house, then we will deal
kindly with you truly.
And they will not be destroyed.
And beloved, that's when this pressure, when all
of a sudden everybody are in that fortress
where she's alone and she's feeling so alone.
Where she's got to go back to the
word that was spoken to them and it's
saying, God, the lies of the enemy just
tell me this is of my own making
or telling me I'm going to be destroyed.
Or telling me...
You know, beloved, think about it.
The Bible tells us that the king of
Jericho, they find out she has dealings with
these spies.
And you can tell that the whole community
would know something's up when the scripture says
she drops a red cord down her window.
That's the sign.
I live here.
Save all those in here.
They've got to know something's up.
But the Lord protected her.
In that hostile place, in that hostile environment
where she finally put a cord out and
said, I'm identifying with them out there.
And you could tell everybody in their panic
and in their fear would want to destroy
her, but God kept her.
God protected her.
She was taking everything she had on the
word given her that we will deal kindly
with you and your family will be delivered.
But beloved, the greatest battle in her had
to have been when she realized, though, that
she was a harlot asking for all this.
A harlot asking mercy from this God.
And beloved, I think about us.
You know, a harlot represents those that have
attached herself to other loves.
A harlot represents when the hands of the
world have been all over her and she
feels anything but holy.
Anything but chosen.
Anything but special.
But somehow the word came to her.
God chose her to speak to her.
And God brought light into her soul.
And she was a woman of understanding.
It didn't matter what the world called her,
but she had a word.
And she understood her times.
And she was able to put the cord
out and say, I'm identifying with the people
of God.
And beloved, I believe when they, you know,
the taunt, you are a harlot, you think
you're going to be saved?
You're a harlot, you think that this holy
God is going to save you and yours?
Why should he listen to you?
But I thank God in these desperate times,
when we live in a hostile environment, when
all around us people just want to live
in denial and they don't want to deal
with the times, even though God is sending
sign after sign and messenger after messenger of
the times we live in.
We are a people that in spite of
all our failures, in spite of our other
loves, in spite of being shaped by the
world, we have received a word from God.
And we are saying, God, let them call
me a harlot.
Let them say it, but they're going to
say it one too many times.
Because I believe what happened to her is
the realization, yes, I am a harlot, which
means that there is nothing of life for
me in this city of destruction.
It hardened her and her purpose is separate
from them.
They called her that one too many times.
And she realized this stronghold of unbelief has
turned me into a woman I don't want
to be anymore.
The strongholds that are in our lives have
turned us into people we don't want to
be anymore.
And the God, the Most High, hears that
cry.
And He honors it.
And He brings a word.
And He says, now you put your life
on it.
You wrap your life around it.
I will deal kindly with you.
I will see you through.
Hallelujah.
And that's what she did.
She saw that city, Jericho, for what it
was.
And yes, there was, beloved, in this place,
when God takes us to our Jericho, where
God says there are going to be some
things I have to destroy.
Things that go so dear to you and
I.
Things that we've not wanted Him to touch
before.
Places we didn't want to be led before.
We felt that if God would take us
anywhere, touch anything but this thing, we didn't
know who we are without it.
We don't know where we would be led
if we gave it up.
We know everything in our flesh would fight
against us, and yet there is a greater
voice, the voice of Christ and His Word,
like Joshua calling to us.
And yet God will give us the same
heart as Rahab, that says in the dark
hours, when we're alone, we will be like
she is.
And we will be given strength to say,
come God, against it.
Come against my strongholds.
I'm fearful, I'm afraid.
But God, all I've got now left is
your word to me.
You will deal kindly with me.
And you will save my house.
And beloved, it's enough.
That God bring us to a place where
we're stripped right down.
Where we say, go after the strongholds of
unbelief.
Go after the strongholds of what I grip,
good or bad.
But it's preventing me from entering into your
promised land for me.
Take it down.
And when Rahab did that, the Bible says
in Joshua, you know the story.
But we should turn there in Joshua 6.
Joshua and the army, on the seventh day,
marched seven times around the city of Jericho.
And then the scripture says, and it came
to pass at the seventh time, when the
priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said unto
the people, shout, for the Lord has given
you the city.
And the city shall be accursed, even it,
and all that are therein to the Lord.
Only Rahab the harlot shall live.
She and all that are with her in
her house.
Because she hid the messengers that we sent.
Beloved, have we hid the messengers, the message
of God in our hearts.
Have we hid it?
And that's what's going to hold us.
Have we hid it in our hearts?
That God can strip everything away from us.
And then it is enough.
And then God breaks us through.
Because He demolishes the strongholds.
He demolishes the wall.
He demolishes everything that is against Him and
against us.
We don't even know it.
It comes down.
And then, beloved, you know the story.
I don't know how God saved her.
I don't know how they got it.
She lived on the wall.
Whether they went down the rope first or
the wall came in and they found them
and brought them all out.
All I know is that the scripture tells
us that the accursed city, the place of
deep unbelief, the place of a stronghold was
demolished and the promised land lay before them.
The children of God.
And the scripture says that harlot, that unbeliever,
that woman that dwelt on a wall was
taken into the conquering armies of Israel as
they flowed into the promised land.
She became one of them.
And she did not just become one of
them.
She was given a position of honor.
The Bible says she married into a very
prominent family.
And she became of the lineage of David,
which became of the lineage of Jesus Christ.
That this harlot, this harlot, this unbeliever, the
way the world would judge, God should not
talk to you and you should not be
believing Him.
This harlot, this kind of woman, grabbed and
entwined her life around a word when she
had nothing else.
She found that it was more than enough
because the scripture says that she is now
in the Hebrews 11 hall of fame.
That when they mention the great ones, the
Abrahams and the Davids, they also mention Rahab
the harlot.
Hallelujah.
So my beloved, when we, you know, in
this journey, you may be in the wilderness
and still the questions of provision and direction
and all that still may be the issue
with you.
Do not despair because God is with you.
But God may be taking you now and
He leads you to your Jericho, to your
stronghold.
And the only thing that gets us through
is when we take His word and put
it above everything else.
Let it become life to us.
Will you stand with me?
The altar call today is just this one
line.
This altar is open for anyone that would
honestly say, I will not deal lightly with
the response of my heart to want to
draw back.
I will not deal lightly with a heart
that wants to draw back.
Jericho is real.
We truly live on the walls of our
strongholds more than we know.
God in His mercy, God in His mercy
takes His avenging army to that place so
it may fall.
That we truly may have a trust in
Him that every promise He says to us
by faith in Christ, we receive it.
And we exalt it higher than our circumstance.
It becomes life to us.
And you're right on the verge of this
word truly becoming life to you greater than
any other reality you know.
But beloved, our life on the wall, something
is going to have to be destroyed.
And we need a willingness.
And for some, there's a drawing back from
that.
Because you have enough of God to know
that He will do that.
And today, those that are saying, God, I
want You to deal with the drawing back
of my heart.
I want You to deal with it.
I won't take it lightly.
Those are saying, Lord, I've dealt so lightly
with Your word.
So lightly.
Not understanding the consequences when I do that.
God, I want grace that I could truly
say this word is my life.
If you're here today and you feel like
you're approaching your Jericho, you're approaching one of
the hardest things in your life.
It may be surrendering a relationship.
It's giving Him something that you know has
been blocking you.
It may not even be sin.
It's just something that you felt that you
wanted.
It's become the idol to you.
It's become the struggle to you.
And yet you know that God so many
times has led you to this place.
And you backed away because you're like I
am.
In your strength we're failures.
We cannot.
But know today, beloved, that we are being
led to this place.
Only the captain of the host takes us
to Jericho.
Because Jericho is a doomed city.
Jericho is a doomed city.
When we are made willing, when we are
a willing people, everything falls before the power
of God.
So we've come today.
If you've come willing to give Him that
stronghold, I tell you something, now we've come
to rejoice.
Because it's a doomed city.
We have to be led there.
We could not go there in our flesh.
We won't go there in our flesh.
But if we're offering something, the Lord of
hosts come, He leads us and thanks be
to God who always leads us in His
triumph.
That's Jesus Christ.
So we've come today.
This morning the altar call was put all
the sins, everything that keeps you from God,
put in a basket and give it to
Him.
And we can do that this afternoon.
Everything that we know, we put in a
basket, we're offering, we're saying, God take it
and burn it.
I give it to you.
But beloved, we've got to do it with
a thanksgiving because we have to know like
we know that the captain of the host
leads us to this stronghold to come down.
He never loses a battle.
Never not once.
And so we come rejoicing today.
If we are being made willing, we come
rejoicing.
It's coming down.
That's our God.
And He has not forsaken us in the
wilderness.
He's just made us sick of sand.
So we've come to offer a prayer of
thanksgiving.
God receives it.
And God destroys it.
So would you raise your hands with me
when you pray with me.
Lord Jesus, I give you my stronghold.
And I thank you that you demolish it.
Thank you.
The promised land is before me.
And you're going to lead me into that.
Help me to take your word and to
make it meet to me and drink to
me.
Let it be my life.
Let it rule my mind.
Let it grip my heart.
Let it direct my feet.
Shape my life by your word.
By your word.
Thank you, Jesus.
You are the victorious captain.
And my stronghold is demolished because your word
says it and I believe it.
In Jesus' name.
Amen and amen.
Hallelujah.
This is the conclusion of the message.