Power Walk Ministries

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us for today's installment of Power Walk. Pastor Cannings brings us the final message in our series, Victorious. Throughout Scripture, we see the many unconventional ways in which God worked on behalf of His people. We see Jesus in the New Testament using a variety of different ways to heal and draw people to Himself. One of these examples that Pastor Cannings has been unraveling for us is the story of Joshua and how the walls came down at Jericho.

Friends, we can be consumed with doubt, or we can walk by faith each day. Encouraging us in this matter, here's Pastor Paul Cannings with the message, Looking Forward.

Dr. Paul Cannings: There was a soldier in the Vietnam War that was in a heat of battle when a bomb went off, and all the scrap metal came and damaged him terribly. He lost a limb. He lost a hand. It damaged one of his eyes. 33 surgeries before he was released back to his family. He says for years I've been putting off this call God has on my life. I need to respond to that call. With the one limb and the one arm and the one eye, the soldier decided to get himself prepared for ministry. And that soldier traveled and served God faithfully until the end of his life.

He could have looked at all that went wrong. He could have looked at the fact that I'm in constantly need help from different people to do different things and I don't want to be a burden to anybody, especially after 33 surgeries. But no, he looked at what God gave him, the call, and that was important to him. Many times we look at what we don't have, look at the inabilities that we may have, look at what went wrong in the past, in that we did not walk with the Lord, maybe we did not serve the Lord the way we should, and may think, "Who's going to want to be around me in the church of God?"

Maybe you are single, and maybe those children came from different men, never married. All these different things cause people to look at whether or not they could serve God. But there's so many people in the Bible that did not let that happen. You got Mary Magdalene. She came with seven demons, but yet she so passionately loved God, so passionately desired for God. She ended up being the one to take the message to the disciples to tell the disciples, who should never have run from God, that Jesus rose from the dead, a message He preached to them so often that even the enemies knew He gave that message.

You got Paul, who was a murderer, and then he became the person who wrote half the New Testament. So there's a lot of people in the Bible that could give you the same excuses that we could find today as we face whatever we are dealing with in this life. God is saying to us, "That's not the way we go because we don't fight our battles." He is the one that fights the battles. What we need to do is learn to surrender to Him, to walk with Him so that we can be in the battle that is already won.

He doesn't fight battles like we think He would when we choose to trust Him. That's where we are in the book of Joshua when Joshua came to the understanding that it's the Lord of Hosts who's going to do this thing. Joshua, listen to me. This is not your battle. I want you to trust me. And He comes here, and the people have watched their family members die. They've walked over their graves. If you watch the map and how they wandered, they literally wandering was wandering. There's no place to go.

How many people that are probably 21 years and up, and you take two million people coming out of Egypt most likely, and then you divide that up, and then you think of 40 years and how many funerals they had. It's incredible. Moses ended up sending his wife back home. God had to say, "No, she's coming back to you." He had so much responsibility every day. They've watched this thing take place out of disobedience. People are walking on the graves of everybody. So these people are now coming to deal with this scenario, under 20 and below, didn't need a doctor, hospital, nothing. He took care of them.

But the issue in front of them is incredible. But He doesn't need them to fight. So this is how God fights our battles when we choose to trust Him. We end this week with this key thing. Jesus Christ, whatever we've said, He doesn't make our sense. That's why He says do not lean like a crutch to your own understanding because our wisdom is foolishness to Him. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, we've dealt with all of this. Joshua's understanding. This is the boss.

In verse 5, He tells us how we're going to fight. Verse 4, He says you cannot fight until you first learn to worship me. That is the center of it all. It is where everything starts. You come out of Egypt, worship me. Here's a tabernacle, build it. Keep me high. Don't bring me down low. Where is God today? I'm struggling. I don't know how I'm going to get gas to get to work and where is God? I prayed, I've given to the church, I serve. Look at where God is. Don't bring Him down. Keep Him high. All good and perfect gifts come from above.

So the first thing He's teaching us here is that it begins with worship. Now look what He says in verse 5: "And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when they hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him." Wow. Watch what He's saying in the second half of this verse. He's saying the people shall shout.

In other words, we have a worship service. Some of you can't sing. This is what He tells us: "Make a joyful noise." He doesn't care when it comes to musicians, Asaph and all these different people. Yes, the music must be organized, set, and respectful, worshipping the King of kings, the Lord of lords. But when it comes to a congregation, He says just shout. Make a joyful noise. Whatever you got to do, show me that you're willing to bring yourself under my authority, to keep me high, to worship me.

But watch what He says in this verse that we could miss. He says the walls will come down. Sometimes I think God has a really funny sense of humor. Why am I saying that? He didn't say the gates came down. He said the walls came down. In other words, they shut the gates to keep the Israelites out because they're thinking from their human perspective that the only way they could come into the city is through the gates. Normally, they shut the gates anyway to make sure nobody comes in.

But these people have such confidence and a sense of security in the walls. They built their houses on the walls. That's where Rahab had her house on the wall. Number two, they have such confidence in themselves. God is saying, "Listen, you locked up the gates. I don't need the conventional way to come fight you. I come fight you the way I choose to come fight you. I could tear these walls down when I want to." God went through the walls, not the gates, because God does not use conventional methods to solve the issues that we face.

It is not our sense. It is not our common sense. It's not what our abilities and education tells us what to do. We feel we are such at a high level of intelligence, it's stupid to go worship this God who's telling us to do things that make no sense. God runs the universe. God says, "Where were you, Job, when I was taking care of this? When I was taking care of that? Where were you? Help me, Job, where were you?" God is saying to them right now the walls will come down. I didn't need the gates to start with.

Here is the next thing we see here. "And Joshua the son of Nun," verse 6, "called the priests and said unto them, 'Take up the ark of the covenant, and let the seven priests bear seven trumpets and the ram's horns before the ark of the Lord.' And he said unto the people, 'Pass on, and compass the city; and let him that is armed pass on before the ark.'" The people are involved. The priests are involved. The mighty men of war are involved. But they're doing nothing to get into the city. Nothing.

Sometimes we feel in our lives that we are circling the airport. When are we going to land and get this marriage to work? When are we going to land to not have to deal with depression? When are we going to land and make our way through this financial stressful time? That's why the Bible is saying when we're going to serve God, we must wait upon the Lord. It is He who shall renew our strength. We shall mount up like an eagle and soar. Think about it in Isaiah chapter 40, verse 27 on. He's teaching us this.

We must learn to wait when He is telling us what to do because when we can't learn to wait, we end up getting ahead of Him because He's taking too long. One day's like a thousand years to God in 2 Peter, it says. Also, when we're learning to wait, please remember Galatians chapter 6, verse 9 through 11. Do not grow weary. Don't faint while we are walking around these walls while we're seeking to learn how to submit with an unsaved husband. How do you deal with children who are missing their dad, but the dad is making promises and not fulfilling them?

You have to carry that. We have to work through that. You have to deal with the pain of that. How do you do when God is saying, "Here's how you do this," and it looks like you just circling the airport, it's not going anywhere? The Bible is saying don't faint. Don't faint. Just keep walking like I tell you. Keep blowing the trumpets like I tell you. Keep your leader ahead of you. Keep your priests in front of you. Make sure that the people who are elders in the church, who are deacons in the church, who provide ministry leadership, make sure that the church you're in, they will be obedient to me, submit to me, trust me, walk in me, and that's your security.

Your security is not in how many times you walk. The security is in how many times you trust me. That is the issue. And that's why He says this: "And it came to pass when Joshua had spoken unto the people, that the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets and the ram's horns passed on before the Lord and blew the trumpets; and the ark of the covenant of the Lord followed them." Passed on before the Lord. Wait a minute. What's going on here?

The Lord of Hosts who we saw in chapter 5, verse 13 through verse 15, is still there. He's just watching them do this. The Lord is the head of the church. The Lord is the head of our lives. The word of God reigns. It does not return void. He is still there, but He's checking to see will we obey Him when it doesn't make any sense. Will we keep doing what He says, waiting on Him? Will we worship Him when He is calling us to worship rather than to fight back? Calling us to worship rather than to go back and take things in our own hands and take care of what we need to take care of because it's taking too long. Will we just worship Him and keep worshipping Him and keep worshipping Him when our situation remains the same?

The Lord is still there. He promises to never leave us nor forsake us. He could work it out. He could so transform our lives that we could do all things through Christ who strengthens us. The Bible is saying you are a conqueror through Jesus Christ. So when Jesus Christ rose from the dead, Satan, he doesn't have any more power to defeat us. Christ is saying, "Trust me to be your power. I am among you. I live inside of you. Your body is my temple. I bought you with a price. I own you. So now I live inside of you. Become a slave to righteousness." So we tune up to the God that is always with us, sealed us for the day of redemption, and we walk with Him. We walk in the spirit and not in the flesh.

This is our victory. It's when we respect the Lord who lives inside of us, to learn about Him, to be tuned to His will, to surrender to His call, and be faithful to serve Him, no matter how bad our life may look. We still will walk by faith and not by sight because He is our victory. Stay focused.

Guest (Male): Amen, Pastor Cannings. The people could have reasoned with Joshua and sown seeds of doubt when they heard the strategy. But no, they surrendered in obedience and took steps of faith. So let's learn from this lesson and do likewise.

Friend, we'd love to stay connected with you beyond this broadcast. So call or write us. Our phone number is 281-260-7402. That's 281-260-7402. Or visit us online at powerwalkministries.org.

Dr. Paul Cannings: One of the hardest things in ministry is not actually doing ministry when God has blessed you to be this equipped. But it's to get the resources to get it done. Oh folks, that's the hardest because it costs to do what we are doing. We've stepped out in faith because we believe that. In other words, it must be a step of faith from us first, not from you first. And that's what we've done in developing this ministry.

But we pray that God would touch your heart to partnership with us. And you could do that simply by going to our website. It’s a secure website, and pressing the donate button, and on that button, you will be able to become a partner with us and we will seek to bless you for being a blessing to us. I pray that God will move on your heart to be our partner. God bless you.

Guest (Male): You can also write us at PO Box 920517 Houston, Texas 77092. And as we leave you, remember, as believers we have the Holy Spirit of God living inside of us. And He wants to lead us and guide us in every situation. So let’s trust God to be our strength and our power.