Power Walk Ministries

Guest (Male): Welcome to the Power Walk Ministries broadcast. Thanks for joining us today. Our series this week is titled "Victorious" and is based on Joshua and his victory at the Battle of Jericho. As a military strategy, it sounds impossible that the walls of a city would fall down by the blowing of horns and trumpets and loud shouting. Yet we see that Joshua was victorious as he did all that God required of him. So what are the takeaways from this passage? Let's go now to Pastor Cannings for the answer. In this message, "Making Sense of God's Word."

Dr. Paul Cannings: Many times, God just doesn't make any sense. Let me give you a for instance. A person is in a marriage where things may not be going well. It may not be going well—not physically abusive, not emotionally abusive, not unfaithfulness—they're just in a marriage situation that is very difficult. God doesn't change the rules. He would still say, "Love this wife unconditionally."

He defines love as an act of obedience to Him. In other words, it is not the person I'm loving first; it's God that I'm loving first. Love Me with all your heart, soul, and mind; love your neighbor as yourself. A neighbor is anybody in our proximity, so a wife would be our neighbor. God is not changing the rules because of difficult circumstances; He is reinforcing them.

Let me give you another for instance. The economy's this way and that way right now. The prices of food are going up. These types of things are taking place, but God still hasn't changed how we give to Him. It's not like you go down to the gas station and say, "Hey folks, I'm a Christian. I believe in Jesus and I love the Lord. Since you could understand that, gas is free." No, they don't do it that way.

You still have all of these requirements that are there. You still have to go feed the family. Those things are in the Bible—feed the family—in spite of the increases in the food prices, and make sure that there's nourishment for the family. The Bible is saying these different things, and yet He doesn't change any of these things when these circumstances around us sometimes become complex. God doesn't always make sense.

We look at our feelings, our emotions, and what they're telling us to feel—our insecurities, our fears, our anxieties—and He doesn't change any of it. He still tells us that when we obey Him, that's when the Spirit of God grows in our lives. That's when the Spirit of God matures and develops in our lives so that we can understand Him even better.

We can find more empowerment since He who is in us, the Holy Spirit, gets stronger and stronger inside of us. We can find strength from the fruit of the Spirit to have peace when there's no peace outside, to have joy when everything is stealing our joy on the outside. God can get us going, but it's through obedience.

It's through a commitment to work on the movement of the Holy Spirit inside of us, not letting the circumstances outside drive us to the flesh. The Scriptures put us in these scenarios because God wants to teach us how to walk from the inside out. That's what we find here as we continue in the Book of Joshua, chapter six today.

This is what we've done so far, beginning in verse one. It says, "Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in. And the Lord said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valor. And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days."

Tell me how much sense does that make? God, we need some ladders to climb up here on the walls. We could really right now use some cannonballs. Can you imagine this conversation if it was many of us today? Like Moses: "I want you to raise up this staff and put it over the Red Sea." God, right now a cruise ship wouldn't hurt. That's the kind of conversation you expect somebody to have.

Okay, God, if you're not going to bring a nice big ship, you could at least bring some places where we could just get on some tubes and paddle our way across because You made it high stage in that Red Sea. No, get the staff that I have given to you and put it over the water. God just doesn't always make sense.

That's what you see here with Joshua. God had 400 years to make these folks in the Promised Land short people, scared, don't like war, peaceful—coming outside the wall like the Gibeonites saying, "Hey, could we make peace?" No, these are men He's saying they are valiant warriors. And they're not just valiant warriors, they're tall and they're strapping, and they love war.

He has set them up as that city is set up to where they have to go through that city to get to the rest of the Promised Land. God perfectly set that up. Now He's driving Joshua to come into this land, and He's telling him that the city gates are shut. Okay God, you could kind of open them. You don't even give me any equipment here to climb these walls. Then You're going to let them shut the gates?

You could have let them not know we were coming so that we could just make our way through the gates, just like the spies made their way into the land and figured it out. No, they're shut. Watch this carefully. God, when He doesn't make sense, is driving us to find His sense that is not common sense.

So what is God's sense in here so that we would learn to walk by faith and not by sight? Here's the first thing we would learn. He says to them in verse two: the Lord said unto Joshua, "See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valor." In other words, I have given it to you. Whatever God is saying to us, He's already finished it.

The reason why He's telling us to keep going is to learn to trust Him. That's why God would say, "Run the race that is set before you." In other words, whatever I'm saying to you is done. I just got to get you to do it to experience what I've already done so that you would learn to trust Me even more.

So when the circumstances become even more difficult, no matter how overwhelming they may be, you'll walk with Me and trust Me. That's the first thing we must learn. God is saying to him, "I have already given you this land." That's why we find in here that Joshua, who met the Lord of Hosts, who is impressed by this mighty man of war that he would kneel down and call Him Lord and worship Him—Joshua is not about to argue anymore because he has that picture in his head.

Second thing we must learn: Jesus Christ faced everything we're going to face. There's not a temptation that He did not go through on earth that Jesus Christ has walked right through it, showing us the power of God. We haven't taken a beating like Jesus and still did the will of God. We have not taken the kind of rejection and still did the will of God, but He still accomplished everything that God told him to accomplish.

Jesus Christ has shown us: what is it that you will face that I have not faced and overcome? Therefore, I'm saying to walk in Me. That is why when Joshua is told this, he fixes his eyes on Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God. Many people believe the Lord of Hosts is Jesus the Christ showing up. He was going to be the Yahweh, meaning also could mean Adonai, the fighter, already ready to fight for Joshua.

We must understand that we don't fight our battles. What we need to do is the third thing: walk by faith and not by sight. Watch the words carefully in this text in verse three: "And ye shall compass the city." The word "shall" means what you're about to do is already set up; it's already done.

All I want you to do is to walk into this process that's already taken place for you, and it's never going to stop taking place. Whatever I'm doing for you, Joshua, it's done, and it's going to continue to be done, and nothing will ever stop it from being done. That's what He's saying. So Joshua is recognizing that he's not the one fighting; he's the one who needs to obey.

When circumstances come in our lives, we come to this fourth issue. We must just learn that the focus that we need to have is: Lord, will I trust You and obey? It's not whether or not You will get it done. We don't control results. The one thing we control is our will. Will we trust God to do what He says or will we not?

Once we get past that, then God says, "I got the results in My hands." It doesn't mean He wouldn't test us to see if we're going to continue to develop our lives because He says, "I will discipline those whom I love." I'll keep driving them to be careful to do what I say despite the circumstances. Because that's what Christ would say: "If you lose your life for Me, you will gain life because God is life." That's why Paul would say, "I no longer live; it is Christ that lives in me."

The next principle we learn from this is that this is not something that is easy to deal with. God is saying, "These are mighty men of valor, but go take them." So He has set up this fighter to go against these valiant men. If He is saying to him, "Joshua, these men are valiant warriors," Joshua would know what that means.

But He is convincing Joshua ahead of time by letting Joshua meet the Lord of Hosts in chapter five, verses 13 through verse 15, who is a warrior. Joshua would learn that the warrior that he needs to trust is not his ability; it is the ability of the warrior he just met that he bowed down to and said, "Lord, what shall I do? Whose side are You on?"

I don't pick your side or their side. You either choose to be on My side and win this war, or you be on your side and lose it. That's what happened for 40 years: the people who chose not to trust the Lord of Hosts, they died in the wilderness. God does not want us to look at our ability no matter how great it is.

We can be the best architect there is; we can make all kinds of money; we can be the smartest lawyer; we can be the best teacher, the best principal, the best financial heir that ever existed on earth in how we manage our money. We could be the best person when it comes to teaching the text, walking with Scriptures the way we think it is, and the Bible says it doesn't matter how we evaluate ourselves.

We don't match up to the issues we face and we don't match up to the ability of God. So the best thing to do is to not look at our ability; we focus on His ability so we trust in Him and His words. Many times, we decide whether or not we can do something based on our ability, and God is saying it has nothing to do with your ability.

It has to do with His capability. That's why it's a walk of faith that has everything to do with trusting Him and surrendering to Him. Joshua's ability was irrelevant. When we come to situations that we would face and the difficulties that we would face, we need to stop evaluating how we will address the issue in our ability because He's telling us it is not our ability, it's His ability.

We must learn to trust Him, to surrender to Him, to believe in Him, so that when His nonsense doesn't make any sense, He teaches us how His nonsense is everything that makes sense for His glory, His honor, and for our blessing. That's why in 1 Corinthians, chapter two, man's wisdom is foolishness to Him.

The only way it makes sense is when we choose to trust Him, and God has a way of exposing all that He is, like He's done for many characters in the Bible, so that they learn in the end that my Lord is able to do exceedingly abundantly all I could ever ask or think. Stay focused.

Guest (Male): Amen, Pastor Cannings. We do not fight our battles. If we will only allow the Lord to be in charge of everything that concerns us, He will fight for us. Visit us online at powerwalkministries.org. That's powerwalkministries.org. Our phone number is 281-260-7402.

Dr. Paul Cannings: We do need you to partner with us, folks. You could do that in several ways. Yes, please pray for us. We travel, we train pastors and their wives, and do much in ministry. Pray for us that God keeps our health and strength and continue to bless this ministry by providing us His wisdom and knowledge and opportunities to serve Him.

Pray for us, but we also can become involved in the ministry by participating on our website by buying books. It's a secure place, don't have to worry about anything being stolen from you, and I pray that you would participate that way. Another way you could just become one of our partners, our supporters, and join with others who partner with us to see this ministry be what God wants it to be and desires it to be and has blessed it to be in the few years that God has allowed us to serve you. So I pray you would become our partner and be active in what God is doing in Power Walk Ministries.

Guest (Male): Once again, our web address is powerwalkministries.org. Our mailing address is PO Box 920517, Houston, Texas 77092. And now remember, God gave His word to Joshua that He will defeat the enemy. So let's personalize God's many promises to us and reflect that victorious lifestyle as a testament to others.