Do you want to experience new beginnings and new blessings? Do you want to know how to succeed in your life and ministry? If so, you must learn how to prepare for great conquest.
In the first days of June 1967 Israel faced the prospect of another holocaust. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nassar, leader of the Arab world, mobilised vast armies for war, declaring ‘our basic objective will be to destroy Israel.’ Only 19 years after the state of Israel was established, the Jewish population of less than three million people prepared for the worst. Rabbis across the country cordoned off areas for mass graves. Hotels were cleared in readiness for use as emergency hospitals and schools were converted into bomb shelters. At the same time the Israeli military was also busy preparing.
Early on June 5, 200 low flying Israeli jet fighters launched a surprise attack on the Egyptian air force with such precision and power that it ceased to exist within 3 hours. From that moment, the six-day war was effectively won and Israel, instead of being wiped from the map, more than trebled in size. It captured the Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank of the Jordan River (or the biblical Judea and Samaria) and the strategic Golan Heights. What’s more, after 2000 years, it was back in control of Jerusalem, the Western wall and the Temple Mount.
Just six years later however, in 1973 Israel’s military were nowhere near as prepared for a full-scale enemy attack. Having become overconfident, they were caught off guard when Arab fighter planes and armies attacked Israel on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, when so many Jews were in their synagogues. Israel’s army was outnumbered six to one. 1,400 Syrian tanks made their way down the Golan Heights towards Galilee ready to slice into Israel’s heartland. For five days Israel fought a desperate defensive war before recovering to massively defeat Arab armies in a costly 16-day conflict. In both wars preparation, or lack of preparation, played a crucial role.
Preparation in any area of life is one of the great keys to success, whether in business, finances, sport or education. The best preparation will also bring significant blessing in your personal life, family life and in church life.
As we start a new season of church and school life, we continue our focus on how God told Joshua and the people of God to prepare to conquer the Promised Land, after more than four centuries of slavery in Egypt and 40 years of wandering in the desert. First, God spoke to Joshua saying, ‘Now then YOU get ready’ (Joshua 1:2-3). Last week we looked at how Joshua personally had to step up to a new level of leadership. Moses, to whom he had been such a faithful assistant, was now dead and gone. Now was the time for Joshua to accept the baton of leadership and rise up with vision and faith. This was time for him now to look forwards, not backwards, and to be strong and courageous in his leadership. And today it is also time for each one of us individually to do the same.
But there was something else that God said here. It was not just Joshua who had to prepare for new challenges and conquest. All the people of God had to move to a new level. Joshua 1:2 says: ‘Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites.’ The ways they got ready to inherit the Promised Land shows us how we too as church communities need to prepare for a new move of God and victories that we have not seen before.
1. Get your own house in order (Joshua 1:10-11)
2. Decide to obey God given leadership (Joshua 1:16-18; Hebrews 13:17)
3. Focus on following the presence of God (Joshua 3:2-4; Exodus 13:21-22)
4. Cross over from the old to the new (Joshua 3:16-17)
5. Separate yourself fully to God (Joshua 3:5; Joshua 5:2-7)
6. Receive healing before you minister (Joshua 5:8)
7. Celebrate the conquest of the Cross (Joshua 5:10-12)
Apply
1. Get your own house in order (Joshua 1:10-11). Joshua couldn’t sort out everyone’s supplies; the people themselves had to do that. They had to pay attention to the basics to move on to bigger things (see Admiral William McRaven’s book ‘Make your Bed’). For sure as Christians and churches we need to have an increasing influence in the public world, but first we must put our private world in order. It’s great you want to clean up the world with preaching, teaching and outreach, but first clean up your own home, kitchen and office. Pay attention to getting your finances structured. Deal with your bills. Put things in files that you can easily access. You will be amazed how much this decluttering will also clear your head and free you up to serve the Lord. So get your supplies ready and do it all in three days!
2. Decide to obey God given leadership (Joshua 1:16-18). ‘Just as we fully obeyed Moses’: maybe they were just speaking for their generation because their parents rarely if ever obeyed. Moses faced constant, vicious and unfounded criticism and it was one of the key reasons a whole negative and rebellious generation died out in the desert. But now a new generation decided to change to a culture of faithful support for their spiritual leader. Any church will be blessed where there is a culture of honour and obedience towards God-given faithful leaders (Hebrews 13:17). If you want to see the church of Jesus, locally and globally, stand with authority in the world, be sure to honour authority within the church, whether from the pastors or team of 12. Be positive not negative towards spiritual leaders and pray always for them. If you want to conquer rebellion in society, first conquer it in the church.
3. Focus on following the presence of God (Joshua 3:2-4). The Ark of the Covenant was Israel’s most sacred treasure and a symbol of God’s presence and power. The people of God needed to stay close to God and value His presence. This was a lesson that they had learned through their escape from Egypt (Exodus 13:21-22). Just as the Israelites needed to stay very close to the Ark, so we need to stay close to the Lord and be sensitive to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, especially when ‘you have never been this way before.’
4. Cross over from the old to the new. To get into the Promised Land the Israelites had to cross the Jordan river (Joshua 3:16-17). The people had excellent leadership, but they needed to all take steps of faith to cross the Jordan at a time it was in full flood. And that’s what a whole nation did. As churches we need to cross over from old patterns of unbelief and step into new realms of faith, from limited blessing to believing for limitless blessing, and from survival mode to conquering new land and multitudes of people for Christ.
5. Separate yourself fully to God (Joshua 3:5). To consecrate means to set apart from sin and to give yourself to wholeheartedly following a holy God. Joshua, like Moses, insisted to the Israelites that if they wanted to conquer the land, they had to live in a radically different way from the people of the land who followed other gods and had corrupt moral and sexual standards. Joshua took particular action to literally mark a new generation for God (Joshua 5:2-7). This rite of circumcision marked Israel’s identity as a people wholly committed to God. When God first made a covenant with Abraham, He required that each male be circumcised as a sign of cutting off the old life and beginning a new life. Now Joshua made the decision to circumcise a whole generation who had not previously been marked out as belonging to God. Today, while circumcision is not necessary to becoming a Christian, we must nonetheless separate ourselves from sin and the world, however painful that may be and clearly identify ourselves as belonging to God.
6. Receive healing before you minister (Joshua 5:8). Clearly this mass circumcision was a painful event and people needed time to heal. Today many Christians want to minister to others but first they must receive healing in their hearts and minds and know for sure that all shame and captivity of the past has been rolled off them. This is why it is so important to spend time at encounter weekends that we run. When you have an encounter with God, often deep hurts of the past come to the surface and you can feel very vulnerable. But if you will let the Holy Spirit come close to you, He will comfort you and heal every wound. So you must stay in protective environment of the church with loving leaders to help you, while God is taking you through this process of restoration and reconstruction.
7. Celebrate the conquest of the Cross (Joshua 5:10-12). Passover represented the saving from death and judgement through the blood of lambs that were applied to the doorframes of Israelite homes in Egypt. Today as Christians we celebrate deliverance from sin and death because Jesus, the Lamb of God, took away the sin of the world when He shed His blood at the Cross. And now, because of this we are no longer slaves or desert wanderers. Instead, we have entered God’s new kingdom and can enjoy His blessings every day. These seven keys will get us ready for great conquest, both individually and as the chosen people of God. Those who want to move to a new level of conquest, write down and apply each of these teachings starting with putting your own heart and house in order.