You’re ready for the word of God. Awesome. Why don’t we stand to our feet?
How phenomenal was Priscilla last night? Oh, good Lord. Amen.
Well, why don’t we just put our hands together and just give her a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful color. Welcome.
Love you, darling. Thank you.
Amen. Good morning.
Y’all so thrilled to be back with you this morning and to open up the word of God with you before you sit down again.
I want to take this opportunity because I think it is so important for us to honor the people that the Lord has put into our lives.
I had an opportunity opportunity to honor M Bobby last night. But now Mr Brian is here.
Pastor Brian is here and listen, I want you to know that we have had the privilege, my husband and I of seeing them.
You know, when no one else is around, when the lights are not on, when they are not on a platform.
And to be able to say that there is as much integrity in their life when everybody is not looking is a rare thing.
They have a strong marriage. They have parented, their Children in the fear of the Lord, there is integrity and not only the power and the anointing of God upon their lives, but they are servants who just long to see the body of Christ come into their full standing as the bride.
And so would you with me?
Thank them for what it is that they are bringing to the body of Christ.
My husband and I are better off having, having met you.
We’re better off. Thank you very much. You may take your seats.
And as you do as you do, I must also just give a quick greeting to our friend, my friend Christine Cain, who really is the reason why I’m here.
I think it was five years ago or so that she and I met in the United States somewhere and she said you need to come to Australia.
And um so she made that connection between myself and the Houston.
And so here I am and my husband and I are privileged to know you Christine and your husband, Nick.
I love the word of God. Let me pray for us as we open it. Lord Jesus.
Thank you so much for your word. Thank you God that you speak to us clearly through your word.
So God, I pray right now that every woman under the sound of my voice from the furthest reaches of the balcony all the way down to the front row will hear you speak personally to their heart.
Lord, we’re praying for more than just a general revelation. Today, we’re praying for a Rama word.
Somebody say Rama, that is God that we want you to speak specifically to our heart about what matters to us in these moments in this particular season of our life.
We are sitting on the edge of our seat, God because we cannot wait to hear what it is that you might say to us all.
God’s people said amen.
It was about two years ago that I was sitting in the United States in Nashville, Tennessee.
I was about to speak to a group of ladies that were gathering in the arena there, my sister and I were in the hotel room getting dressed for the day and as we got ready, we were just flipping channels and we came across CNN headline news.
Now I was captivated by the story because there was a gentleman that was being interviewed and he looked very interesting this man via split screen because the anchor at CNN was on one side of the screen and this gentleman was probably in Los Angeles, I believe on the other side of the screen.
So you could see both of them at the same time.
And the gentleman who was being interviewed was just a strange looking guy.
He had braids that were dyed jet black and they were hanging down all over his head.
He had on a little bit of makeup and you could see um some, some tattoos peering out from underneath his uh tank top that he had on.
I mean, they were everywhere. He was just an interesting looking character. I, I was just captivated.
I wanted to know what this was all about. It turns out this man’s name was Brian Welsh.
His nickname, middle name or nickname was head. His friends all called him.
Head turns out he used to be the lead guitarist for a heavy metal rock band called Corn K O R N.
Now, I don’t know if you can tell by looking at me or not, but I’m not really a heavy metal music listening kind of sister.
I feel sorry for any of you who might meet, but it turns out that Corn seems to be some type of, you know, really incredible band that lots of people are listening to in the States and abroad.
And so lots of folks knew this guy, but he was no longer the lead guitarist of Corn and this news story was to tell us why.
And so the news anchor via split screen says to him, you know, why are you no longer a part of the band?
And, and Brian said, you know, the bottom line is one day I was just, I realized I awakened to the fact that I was killing myself on the lifestyle that went along with that type of job that we would travel from city to city.
And we would indulge in drugs and alcohol and illicit relationships.
And he said one night after a night of all night binging, I don’t even know what city I was in.
He said I stumbled in the wee hours of the morning out of the room in the same sweat and caked on makeup and clothes that I had on during the concert the night before.
And I swaggered down the street and I saw a church building. He said, I stumbled into the church building.
There were people there who in spite of the way I look, put their arms around me, sat them beside, uh sat me beside them in the sanctuary.
And that day they basically loved me right into the body of Christ.
He said that very day, the taste for drugs, the taste for alcohol, the taste for the lifestyle I’ve been living supernaturally.
Those tastes just left my mouth. He said I was a different man.
You should have seen the face of the news anchor that day.
He said, who are you saying did this for you?
Oh, he set Brian up. Brian responded and said, I’m telling you, it was Jesus Christ, my Lord.
At that point, at that point, my sister and I started doing the holy dance on the hotel bed.
Does anybody know what I mean? When I say holy dance, we couldn’t believe it.
The gospel of Jesus Christ was basically being presented loud and clear right on prime time television in the States.
We were so excited about that.
A month later, I got a call from a television show that tapes in Dallas.
I know Christine’s been on that show. Um, Life Today with the, with James and Betty Robinson.
And they call me every time, you know, there’s like a real guest who can’t show up.
They call me because I live about 40 minutes down the street and they’ll call and see if I can come over.
And so I came over on that occasion, they told me they wanted to take two programs with me, but they tape four shows in one city.
And so I did not know who the other guest would be until I arrived and sat down for dinner and across the table from me with those same braids and a little bit of that same makeup and those same tattoos was Brian head welsh.
I never thought in my whole life I would be so excited to meet somebody in a heavy metal band.
I was taking pictures and getting autographs. I just was so excited to meet him.
And when it was time for his interview, I sat like a little school girl with my chin in my hands because I wanted to hear everything that he was gonna say.
I loved the interview. But the part that captured me was when he said, what most people don’t know is that when I accepted Jesus Christ as savior.
We were as a group about to sign our fifth record deal. It would have guaranteed me $20 million.
Somebody say $20 million Lord have mercy.
And so he said my signature was the only one missing on the contract, but I just felt compelled.
There was something in me that wasn’t allowing me releasing me to sign that contract.
That’s what the Holy Spirit does.
So he said, I told my boys guys, I just gotta go and think about this for a little while.
What he meant was going home and praying about it. Brand new Christian.
He didn’t even know really how to open the word of God and study it and dive into it.
But he said, he just prayed and said, Lord, would you give me direction?
And he said, he happened upon a verse that said, and they left everything to follow Jesus.
He said, he had a clear word from the Lord and you better have one if you’re going to leave $20 million on the table.
He called up his friends and he said, I’m sorry, but guys, I’m leaving everything to follow Jesus.
And now this man because he was willing to be the unique one, the one to stick out like a sore thumb, the one to turn his back on the way.
He’d always been doing things and follow hard after the new direction that God had laid out in front of him, even though it cost him because he was willing to do that.
He now has a ministry to people that I could never reach, that may never listen to someone who looks or sounds like me, but he can stand before a crowd who’ve been involved in that kind of lifestyle and listen to that kind of music and are involved in all that is involved in that type of industry.
He can stand before them and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.
And they listen and they fill up stadiums to hear what he has to say.
And now throngs of people are coming to know Jesus Christ as Lord because one person was willing to go on a different journey with God and I don’t know about you, but I’ve gotten to a place in my relationship with God that living a mediocre regular old Christian life just ain’t working for me anymore.
I don’t want to just read a verse a day to keep the devil away.
I want to hear God speak through his word. I want his power operating in my life.
I want to hear his voice in my ears.
I wanna experience the abundance, the fullness of everything he has for me.
Anybody want to go with me on that journey.
And so over the past few years, God has allowed me to dig in deep to the journey of the Children of Israel, out of Egypt and into the promised land because listen to this.
There were approximately two million Hebrew people, two million Hebrew people that left Egypt with the opportunity to experience the fullness of God in the promised land.
Two million and of the original two million adult pilgrims that left Egypt.
Do you realize that only two of them ever stepped on Caan soil? That’s one in a million.
Here today is the body of Christ.
Millions of us have been freed from Egypt. We have placed faith in Jesus Christ.
We’re on the journey with him.
We all have the opportunity according to John chapter 10, verse 10, to not just have life but have abundant life to have it to the full.
The problem is that there are millions of us who have the opportunity and yet only a handful actually walking on can in soil.
And if there’s only gonna be a few, if there’s only gonna be a handful, why not those people be us?
And so one of the two that made it into can one of the one in the millions I call them is Joshua.
If you have your Bible, turn with me to the book of Joshua.
If you don’t have your Bible, it’s ok because the woman next to you can’t wait for you to look over her shoulder to see what we’re going to learn about Joshua from Joshua chapter three.
We also have these scriptures on the screen for you. So don’t despair.
There are some simple principles that I see in Joshua that I also saw in Brian head, Welsh, these are the principles that seem to map out and seem to be true of people that are going to go all the way with God that are going to take him out of word that don’t want to just go to church every now and then and read the Bible every now and then.
But they want the fullness of all that God has come to offer them and these characteristics that are true of Joshua.
If you and I can stamp them in our hearts and in our lives, they will assist us as well into walking into the abundant life that God has for us, even if it costs us something.
And so you know the story as you turn there, let me just tell you the Children of Israel at this point, they’ve been traveling for 40 years, 38 years of 38 years in one particular section of the wilderness that’s important for you to know that they traveled for 18 months out of Egypt and to the border of Can.
And do you realize that their wondering was on the border of Canaan for 38 years?
They were not in and around the entire wilderness.
They were on the edge of the promised land for 38 years.
And so here finally, Moses dies, Joshua takes the reins of leadership and our boy Josh decided enough is enough.
I’m not wondering anymore in this wilderness, I’ve had enough of all this manner from heaven.
I appreciate it God, but it is boring me to tears.
And so he looks at the people and he says that, that we’ve been given a word from God, we can have this territory, we can experience Him in fullness, his milk and his honey.
And Joshua says, I want it all.
And so there are some characteristics that, that are uh characteristic of Him that you and I need to take note of.
And so God has given him instructions, God has said to Him, you cross over this Jordan and you can enter into the promise land.
Let’s see what Joshua does. Joshua chapter three verse one. Then Joshua rose early in the morning.
Let’s just stop right there. God gives Joshua some instructions.
He gives him a directive. He gives him clear instructions as to what it is. He’s supposed to do.
And we find our boy Joshua rising up early in the morning to act immediately in obedience to God.
The first thing that I want to encourage you to do today, if you and I are gonna have a Joshua spirit, if we’re gonna be the one in a million to go all the way with God, we gotta be serious about acting immediately in obedience to God.
Some of you felt a stirring in your heart yesterday to get on board with one of these projects as we go into all the world and make disciples and, and be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ.
And you felt a stirring and you know, God was telling you commissioning you to get involved.
Listen, would you act immediately in obedience to God?
Maybe for some of you, the call was a little more subtle.
It involves your own life that, that you’re just going back home to the chaos of that, that is in your own four walls of your home.
And God has told you specifically what you are to do in obedience to Him, regardless of what you’re going back to.
Let me just encourage you. Would you act immediately in obedience to God?
Whether it’s you being the one to give the apology to your spouse, whether it’s persisting in that relationship, whether you being the one to start the Bible study, to start the ministry, whether it feels like you’re, you’re timid to do what it is that God has asked you to do, would you?
And I have a Joshua spirit that encourages us to act immediately regardless of the way that we feel. Now.
This was so different than Moses.
Do you remember that when Moses got the call in Exodus chapter three, he had every excuse in the book, God says, you’re gonna leave my people.
Moses says, well, wait a minute, who am I that I should do that?
And God says, it don’t matter who you are, you tell Him, I am. He said.
But what, what, what, what if they don’t believe me? God said, what’s that in your hand?
I’ll use what’s in your hand? Moses couldn’t stop there.
He said, don’t you know God that I can’t speak well, God said, oh, Mo, I got that cover too.
Excuse after excuse.
But Joshua, when he got the commission from God to lead two million people across the Jordan, he didn’t waste time with excuses.
He just got busy acting immediately in obedience to God.
Scriptures are replete with the marvelous activity of God in the morning. Do you remember that?
It was early in the morning that Abraham rose up with his son Isaac to go to Mount Mariah and, and uh sacrifice his son to the Lord.
It was early in the morning that Joshua’s predecessor was commanded to stand before Pharaoh and say, let my people go.
It was early in the morning that young David left for the battlefield the day he defeated the Philistine giant named Goliath.
And it was early in the morning that the women went to the tomb of Jesus and found that he had been risen from the dead.
There are some miraculous things that happen when you and I get on board early, not just in the day but early in your decision making process early in figuring out what your priorities will be just getting on board with what God has asked you to do first a lot of folks often email or ask me about the balance of our life because we have three small Children.
And obviously we travel, some, my husband and I are in ministry together and they ask how we prioritize and balance all of those things.
And let me tell you that is a juggling act that Jerry and I are still trying to figure out prayerfully.
However, one thing that an older woman in the face faith told me, I’ll never forget it.
Her name is Jill Briscoe, an incredible minister of God’s Word.
And I sat down at her feet one day, we were in a hotel room and any time I’m with uh someone who is uh more mature than I who’s been married longer than I who’s been mothering longer than I, that sort of thing in ministry longer than I listen.
If you ever find yourself in a situation like that, my friends, you camp yourself out at their feet and listen to what it is that they might share with you and I’ll never forget what she said to me.
She said, Priscilla, most people think that a balanced life is if, for instance, you have 10 boxes that characterize the 10 things that are a part of your life.
And most people think a balanced life is if all of them are equally full.
She said, that’s not a balanced life, that’s chaos.
She said a balanced life is when you prayerfully consider which of these 10 are most important to God in this season of my life.
Right now, you pull those to the front, push everything to the back and then you allow those two or three to be full while the rest of them have just a small amount in them.
She said that’s a balanced life balance is when you determine what is God’s priority for you in this season and then you get busy acting immediately and pouring into those boxes.
And so you and I have to determine what it is that God has asked us to do right now and act immediately in obedience to God.
The second thing that we find out that Joshua did, it says at the end of verse one that he and all the sons of Israel set out from Sham and came to the Jordan.
That was about a seven mile walk, they lodge there before they crossed.
So they’re on the edge of the Jordan and they’re lodging there.
Verse two tells us how long it came about at the end of three days. Let’s just stop right there.
Joshua, two million people, his army officers, they are all seated there at the edge of the Jordan.
They were probably there for three days for several reasons.
One of the reasons was probably that they needed to organize the way they were going to cross this body of water.
But their three days lodged at the edge of the Jordan allowed them the opportunity to see something.
You see this body of water.
The Jordan, if you visit it now, in Israel, it is a very calm placid body of water because it has been dammed up now.
However, when these people were crossing 3500 years ago, at this particular time, it was April, which means it was harvest season.
That means that a mountain that was to the north of the Jordan, it was called Mount Herman.
It was melting all of its winter snow.
And so all of the runoff from that melting was running into the Jordan river.
That means that the Jordan river was like the Colorado River at flood flood stage.
At this particular point, it was 50 times wider than it would have normally been.
It was a violent rushing body of water.
And for three days, they sat on the edge of the water looking at this seemingly impossible, impassable dilemma that was in front of them and they had the opportunity to gather up fear and doubt that they would be able to cross this body of water.
But Joshua, he was the leader now and he decided nothing is going to keep me out of the promised land.
I’m going in with or without you. So Joshua gathered up his people and inspired them to move.
So we find that Joshua not only acted immediately in obedience to God, but he acted fearlessly in the face of insurmountable odds.
Again yesterday, we got some very startling realities as to what is happening in the world around us.
And if we sit on the edge of that long enough and look at it long enough, there is no doubt, some doubt and some fear that’s going to begin to creep its way into our hearts and minds.
If we allow it to, we’ll be scared stiff to, we are paralyzed and not willing to do anything.
Maybe it’s what you’re facing in your life as you look at it in front of you, it feels like you’ll never be able to get through or across the dilemma that is in front of you.
Can I just encourage you with the Joshua spirit to not only act immediately in obedience to God, but to act fearlessly and what you just think about how the priests must have felt because the priests are going to have to be the ones who stand with the ark and take that very first step into the body of water.
They’re the ones who are gonna have to get their feet wet.
They’re the ones who are gonna have to trail a blaze the trail for the rest of the people behind them and listen, the priest had heard the story about the Red Sea and I wonder if they were thinking to themselves, God, you divided it first, last time, last time you performed a little bit of a miracle before we actually had to get into this thing.
But this time God, you’re telling us to move forward with the fearless faith, even though the circumstances look like they’re gonna be a big problem.
This is what God is calling us to do.
He is calling us before he divides the Red Sea to step our feet into it.
He is calling you to go back home to the dilemma that you are facing to go right into that body of water that is scaring you to death and to get your feet wet to step into that body of water and believe that he will perform the miracle before you’ve actually seen anything happen.
And you and I are called to be women of fearless faith to believe that he can accomplish incredible things.
Do you know that fear is created when the enemy perverts the most sensitive area of your life?
He takes the tender place and he seeks to attach a spirit of fear to it because this is what he knows.
He knows that your area of sensitivity, my area of sensitivity and tenderness is probably the area where God wants us to experience the most victory.
It is probably the area in our life where our deepest and best ministry is gonna come from.
So if he can attach a spirit of fear to it and get us to steer clear of it, we never get around to live to our full calling and potential as, as daughters of the most high king.
So I gotta tell you, I went through years uh of being paralyzed by fear to speak in front of a group.
I mean, paralyzed. There are still some butterflies when I have to do this.
At least they’re flying in formation now, but they are still there.
But let me just tell you and my husband can attest to this.
I went through a season of life where I was mortified to stand on the platform.
I would stand in the back, my palms would be sweating.
I would be in and out of the restroom because I just could not uh get it together.
I would try to make phone calls.
You remember this, Jerry try to make phone calls to see if somebody could replace me.
Um because I was not feeling well, I mean, I was mortified. I could not sleep.
I could not eat. It was the enemy.
Now I see because an older person helped me with this as I called them to get clarity on what was happening.
They said, Priscilla, don’t you dare back down because this is the enemy trying to attach a spirit of fear to that, which is what God has called you to do.
And would you know that one of the ways, one of the ways I’m able to determine God’s calling in my life for, for um just his word and direction as we move on this journey.
One of the ways is when I have two options.
And the only reason I’m not going to choose one of them is because I’m afraid that’s probably the option that God would have for me.
Probably it because the enemy is going to attach fear to the one he’s trying to keep me away from the enemy is, do you understand?
This is not a playground that this is a battlefield that he’s after your soul, that he’s working overtime.
Listen, if you’ve already received Jesus Christ as savior, he knows that he cannot destroy you, but he is going to spend the rest of your life and his trying to distract you trying to keep you from living to your full potential as a daughter of the most high king, he’s gonna work his hardest.
And so if you’ve got some options in front of you, and the only reason you’re steering clear of what I’m talking about, the only reason when you boil it down is that you are terrified and you just don’t know if you can handle it and you feel ill equipped and unworthy and you just don’t know if you can go that far.
That’s exactly where God wants you.
The enemy doesn’t want you in a place where you actually have to depend on God.
He doesn’t want you praying more and exhibiting more faith. That’s not what He’s after.
But God puts us in a place where if we don’t depend on Him we won’t be able to get the job done.
And when we’re in that place, when we have that kind of experience, we can know that we can follow confidently, God’s leading in that place.
Because when our power runs out, when we are weak, that is exactly when he is strong.
That’s when his power kicks in.
And so you and I can do what Joshua did and not only act immediately in obedience to God, we can act fearlessly in obedience to God.
Look at the woman next to you and say, stop being afraid, girl. Yes.
All right. Let’s see what it is that Joshua does next. I love this.
It says it came about verse two.
At the end of three days, the officers went through the midst of the camp, verse three, they commanded the people saying when you see the arc of the covenant of the Lord, your God with the levitical priest carrying it then and only then you shall set out from your place and go after this.
I love this. Joshua basically says, y’all, we’ve been walking around this wilderness for a long time.
He says, the only way we’re going to be able to get where we’re trying to go is if we wait till we see the ark of the covenant, the ark of the covenant was the representation of God’s presence with the people.
He said, when you see the ark of the covenant and only when you see the presence of God moving.
That’s when I want you to move. Here’s what I love about the spirit of Joshua.
Joshua did not say I’m the leader. Follow me. Joshua said, God’s the leader.
We better all be following him and, and he gives us a clear reason why they are to follow God.
It’s at the end of verse four.
He says, here’s the reason why we’re gonna follow the ark of the covenant for.
We have not passed this way before. We, we, we haven’t been here before.
We don’t know how to navigate these roads.
There’s no way we can get across this impossible, seemingly impassable circumstance unless we follow the God who’s already gone before us.
Uh, my husband Jerry, he is a, um, a, a technological guy.
He likes all these little gadget thingies. I don’t really know. I’m not really into all that stuff.
Um, he and, and Joel have been walking around just comparing gadgets.
They just compare things, you know, you got this. I got this. Well, what do you have on that?
Well, what’s on that? I don’t know what’s on that. Take me to get that. I’ll go get that.
So he’s got this little navigational system thing. I think it’s a garment or something.
I don’t know what it is but this navigational system in the car with us.
So he, we can figure out where we’re going. Right. But oftentimes this is what he does.
He not only has the navigational system that he travels with, but then when we get a rental car, they come with a navigational system if you ask for it.
So he’ll ask for the navigational system that the car comes with. So now he has two navigational systems.
You think we’d be able to discover where it is that we’re supposed to be going.
So one day we’re in Mississippi USA, we fly into the airport, we have an hour and a half drive to where it is that we’re supposed to go.
We get into the rental car and he starts programming his garment and the navigational system that’s in the car just because he likes to compare notes to see if this one’s going to take him the way that this one is going to take.
I wonder if any wife other than me has ever just had to stare out of the passenger side window.
I mean, it’s just the restraining power of the Holy ghost that keeps you from committing murder because I’m a simple girl.
I’m thinking to myself, you know, you know, Jerry, there are some people who live where we’re going, they have been from the airport to where we’re going before.
You know, if it were me, baby, if it were me, I would just call them and ask them how to get there.
But, you know, you try to be, you know, let them do their thing, you know, let them have their little moment.
The ride was supposed to be an hour and a half, three hours later, I am working hard to keep my mouth quiet.
But eventually the flash went out and I said, honey, why don’t we give him a call?
You know, in that little voice where it’s kind of like a question. Why don’t we give him a call?
You know, you have to make them think. It’s their idea.
Donna, you have to make them think so.
He, he finally picks up the cell phone and he starts to call, um, the folks there and they said, because the volume was turned up loud so I could hear her.
She said to my husband, oh, I wish that you had called us so long ago.
Yeah. She said, I wish that you would have called us long ago because we live so far in the back woods of Mississippi that there are some new roads back here that have been paved.
The electronic gazer tree has not caught up with the new roads that have been paved.
It pays to know somebody who has been that way before and you need to know my friend that where you’re going, what will, what will encompass the next 12 months of our lives until you gather again at this meeting.
He’s already been there. He’s in your tomorrow waiting on you to show up.
You might as well go ahead and talk to him. Tune in.
To him and say, Lord, I’m gonna follow you.
And so when you see the presence of God moving, will you drop everything you’ve gotten comfortable with on the borders of the Jordan river in the wilderness journey of your life?
Will you drop that which has been comfortable and just decide I’m going all the way with God.
Even if it means I’m gonna have to get my feet wet to do it.
You know what I love about Jesus while he was here on earth.
Not only that Jesus did the father’s will. Jesus did the father’s will. It’s a good thing.
But here’s the thing. It’s that Jesus did the father’s will and nothing else. See, that’s the kicker.
The kicker is that there were so many great opportunities presented to Jesus.
But oftentimes you see him saying that’s good, but my time has not yet come. That’s good.
But my father has called me over here at one point in Mark chapter two, the disciples are saying to him, don’t, you know, there are people waiting on you.
Everybody’s waiting on you to heal Jesus. Everybody’s waiting.
You’ve got a whole audience out there today can be the day that we show them. You’re the messiah.
And Jesus says, you know what?
Mark chapter two, verse 35 I have gone out early in the morning to spend time with the father.
And since I have, he’s given me clear direction that it doesn’t matter how many people are over here applauding me.
I’m off to, to do the Father’s will.
What I love about Jesus is that he not only did the Father’s will, he only did the Father’s will and nothing else.
And so many of us get so depleted, doing all the good stuff.
We have no energy left for the God stuff.
Would you just look for the presence of God and follow hard after him?
And God often acts in a way God often acts in a way that is different and unique from what we are used to.
We have to be sitting on the edge of our seat to see what God’s activity might be, even if it is unique to what we have experienced in our denomination at our church and our own experience with God.
God is so much bigger than your experience.
Yes, there are truths that we stick to that we stand on.
There is a foundation of truth about the character of God that we can bank our bottom dollar on.
But when our experience becomes the fullness of God that we’re missing out on everything that he wants to be in our lives.
And so each and every one of us has, for example, a box that we carry around, not a literal one but a hypothetical box that we carry around and in it, we have placed our own experiences with God, what we’ve learned to be true about God and our charge or our denomination, what others, their testimonies, what they’ve experienced about God.
We hear that and we put that all in our box about God.
And this is the filter through which we determine what we will and what we will not pray for, what we will expect God to do and not do and listen, there’s nothing wrong with your box.
Hopefully, there’s good stuff in your box. I’m not gonna tell you to throw your box away.
The problem is that you and I have the nerve to put a lid on our boxes.
We have the nerve to say that all that I’ve experienced and known to be true about God.
That must be it. And so when God starts working over here, we just assume that can’t be God because that’s not in my box.
Do you know what boxes do? Boxes do not limit God? They limit our awareness of God’s activity.
So our eyes are closed to see what it is that God is doing in and around us just because it’s a little bit different than what you’re used to.
Joshua said, would you just people acknowledge God’s presence?
Just look for where his spirit is moving and where he’s acting and the direction he’s going and then don’t turn to the left or the right.
You just follow hard after him.
So you and I all have a box and I’m gonna encourage you to hang on to that box.
But allow the Lord to use the foundation of your experience with him up until this point, allow him to use that now as the the building block upon he can upon which he can uh build a structure of new experiences with him, where he can now build a monument of relationship with himself that is outside of your original box, but equally valid and important if you and I are going to be all that we can be in relationship with him.
And so Joshua says, the Joshua Spirit says, not only am I going to act immediately?
Not only am I gonna act fearlessly, but I’m going where God’s going, I’m going to acknowledge the presence of God.
My five year old little boy um at the time he was three, it was Christmas time, Jackson, my oldest was five little Jerry Junior was three.
It was Christmas. We’re sitting around the uh Christmas tree and um Jerry tries to have a little spiritual moment with the boys before they dive into their gifts, right?
So they’re all excited about their gifts and you need to know at our house, we buy them like two or three little gifts from the dollar store because they’re too young to know that it ain’t worth nothing.
So we’re milking that for as long as we possibly can.
And the other reason we do that is because my kids have grandparents.
Are there any grand mamas in the house?
Any grandmama’s here we want you to know we love you because around noon on Christmas day, we take my kids to nanny and Poppy’s house.
That’s my parents nanny and Poppy’s house and that’s where my kids get the goods. Yes, Lord.
So here we are with their little two or three trinkets in front of them.
They can’t wait to dive in. And Jerry says, hang on guys, hang on, hang on.
Whose birthday is it really today? He just wants him to get a little perspective.
Whose birthday is this today? The five year old Jackson says it’s jesus’ birthday.
The three year old hears it’s jesus’ birthday sees the gifts in front of him and says, am I Jesus?
I hope you’ll pray for my Children.
The truth is that out of the mouths of babes sometimes you know, the truth comes because we think we’re God too.
If we didn’t, we wouldn’t try to control circumstances the way we do if we didn’t think we were.
I mean, if we really thought there was someone seated on the throne who could handle our lives, we wouldn’t be stressed out and frustrated and trying to follow our own decisions and opinions and ideas in our life, we would follow hard after him knowing that he is God and I am not.
I want you to very carefully look at the person that is sitting next to you, don’t say anything, just look at him.
Now, I want you to say to them, you are not God.
And I mean, just look at them.
Aren’t you glad they aren’t God, your opinions, your ideas.
They might be good my friend. But I would encourage you not to follow your own whims.
Would you follow hard after God? He’s been this way before.
The final thing we see about Joshua is not only did he act immediately and act fearlessly and acknowledge the presence of God.
But then verse five says, Joshua said to all the people consecrate yourselves for tomorrow.
The Lord will do wonders among you.
The final thing that Joshua did that this encompasses the Joshua spirit is that He anticipated the miracles of God.
He says, listen, before God has even done anything.
Would you all start acting like He is who He says He is and will accomplish what He says that He will accomplish.
Would you consecrate yourself that is set yourself apart, purify yourself, sanctify yourself, consecrate yourself.
Would you start acting right now like God is gonna change your marriage like God is gonna bring that Wayward Son back like God is gonna reverse the doctor’s report.
Would you act act like God can rescue the orphan, that he can free the slave, that he can bring that Wayward person back home.
Would you today act like He is a great big God who can accomplish great big things.
The Joshua spirit anticipates God’s miracles in the face of adversity. When your life is caving and all around you.
The Joshua spirit says, I still know who I belong to and he’s still seated on the throne.
Would you anticipate God miracles?
And then two million people tired of wondering, tired of feasting on the manner that God had graciously provided.
But after 38 years, they were 40 years, they were ready for something new under the leadership of someone who acted immediately, who acted fearlessly, who acknowledged God’s presence and who anticipated God’s miracles.
These millions stepped foot into the Jordan and finally won and all they cross from a life of wondering into a life of fullness and abundance and freedom and my friends this afternoon when we disperse later on tonight, when we disperse would, you know that God has called you to be the one in a million.
He has called you not only for your own sake to be the one in a million, but because when you go back home to your church, to your family, to your neighborhood, to your workplace, you’re the one that has been commissioned in that dark place to be the light of God that calls people to follow you once and for all across the Jordan and into the promised land.
And I don’t know about you.
But if there’s only gonna be a handful going, I wanna be one of them. Lord Jesus.
Thank you for your people. Thank you God that you’ve given us the opportunity to experience the best of what you have to offer.
Lord, I commission each and every one of us in this room today under the sound of my voice.
And I ask Lord that today would be the day we stop wondering and that we step foot into the Jordan with confidence, knowing you will carry us all the way over to the other side.
And when we get to that place, Lord, we’ll be faithful to turn around to those who might be looking in our direction and say it wasn’t us.
It wasn’t our ability. It was because of our great big God who was seated on the throne in jesus’ name, all God’s people said.