The Walls of Jericho

The Holy Spirit led me to meditate on Joshua chapter 6 after an intense discussion with unsaved family about matters of faith. We cannot bring down "vain imaginings and high arguments" until we have taken time to be still in the presence of the Lord and hear His voice above the clamours of the everyday world. I had not spent enough time in the "listening room", meditating on what God is doing in my life, in my family and in my environment at this time and tried to overcome arguments in my own strength. After the discussion, feeling exhausted and guilty for not having been a better witness, I asked the Lord what I could ahve done differently. It was then that I remembered the extraordinary message that David had sent me just that morning. Inspired to complete the writing of his book after his personal coach offered him the use of a large holiday home in Los Angeles, he sent me both an extract from the book and some musings from the writer Paulo Coehlo that he had come across while trying to get the creative juices flowing. To be so blessed by this generous gesture should have prompted me to work on my own book, but I was at a crossroads: do I really want to present this book to an evangelical Christian audience as originally intended or do I want to modify it for a larger audience and reach a few lost souls struggling with the same issues the protagonists in my book faced and overcame?
When we come to this kind of crossraods, we may think that we operating from a place of love and compassion to reach the unsaved, when in fact we are allowing our own desires and pride to tempt us into disobedience. If the Lord had wanted me to teach a wide audience, including non-believers, about principalities and powers, he would have told me so from the start and shown me how to do it. The argument I had with my unsaved family was about the reality of these very powers and principalties I write about in the book. I suddenly realised that I come up against the walls of Jericho and that this was one battle I could not possibly win. As I repented and re-committed to editing the book to conform to its original purpose, I felt the Holy Spirit planting the instructions from Joshua chapter 6 in my heart and mind: walk around the city for six days, only blowing the trumpet once but otherwise remaining silent. On the seventh day, when the trumpet is sounded, give praise and worship in spirit and in truth and then you will see the walls come tumbling down.
My prayer journey since I arrived in Lesotho has taken many strange twists and turns and was not making much sense to me as I could not discern any clear pattern and could not see where the Holy Spirit was leading me. When i read the Bible Study note for Joshusa chapter 6, this journey began to take on such a deep meaning that revelation knowledge came flooding in. When something in our daily walk with God does not make sense, we have to simply take the time to attune ourselves to His voice and follow it with complete trust and assurance that He is in control and has a plan that we could never even conceive of. The instructions given to Joshua about preparing to invade Jericho must have seemed bizarre to the priests. Nevertheless, they obeyed and fed the understanding that God was preparing to do something amazing- something along the lines of parting the Red Sea or bringing water out of a rock. It was this obedience, understanding and complete faith in God's power to accomplish anything He wills that gave so much force to the sound of the final trumpet blast that it brought down the walls of Jericho.
In David's message this morning, he also reminded me that evry act of praise and worship draws angels to our side and they lend us the power from God necessary to overcome every "vain imagining and high argument". Indeed, just before Joshua received the instruction from the Lord in chapter 6, an angel of the Lord appeared to him and told him he would not need to fight in the battle to take over the city, that this was the Lord's battle and victory was already assured. It was that visitation that enabled Joshua to confidently proclaim to the priests that the instructions he had received would bring victory. Had I perceived David's message as coming from God, I would have been much better prepard for the argument that ensued with my unsaved family. Nevertheless, God has a plan and I now just have to tune in to the daily trumpet sound. It seems that as many evangelical churches decided to participate inc elebrating Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur this year as a gesture of solidarity with friends and missions in Israel and in the Messianic Body amongst Jews, the Holy Spirit saw fit to spread the sounding of the "shofar" (trumpet or ram's horn that is blown during the 10 days leading up to the Jewish New Year) further than ever before- in my case, right up to the walls of Jericho! The more we tune in to this move of the Spirit over all nations at this time, the more we will be empowered to advance the gospel and the kingdom. For me the best part about any spiritual battle is the fulla ssurance we receive at the outset that the victory is already won!