Moving

This past week I had an email from my provider evplaining that from some point in this month, I will no longer be able to access google+ services using my email account. As a result, Although this blog is not updated on a regular basis, I intend to continue it when I can and feel lead. So the result is moving the blog. You will be able to continue following the ramblings of my mind at http://croniclesofwap.wordpress.com/

Christ In You, The Hope of Glory

I am unashamedly reblogging this post from a great friend and brother of mine, you can check out his blog directly Here

But having neglected my own blog for ages, I had also missed this post from him back in feb 2013, and having read it today, I wanted to share. So here it is: -

Somewhere along the path I lost my way


Well. I’m back here after nearly a year and why? I’m a smart guy, I understand a lot of things in very sophisticated ways. I’m a talented musician and song writer. I can argue anything and have a damn good chance at winning the argument. But my life is, relatively speaking, a train wreck of disjointed relationships and loneliness. I can justify any action, any deed, any choice, I can take responsibility or everything or I can admit the truth that I am utterly powerless in the face of the crap life throws at me. I’m lying in bed, really not feeling great, I been sick all day. I’ve been through two marriages, two family homes, jobs I’ve hated and persevered with cause it was the right thing to do, I tried waiting on God to answer my prayers and fix the pain and the disasters, both those I have inflicted and those I have suffered from. When really he’s been waiting on me. My gift is knowing and understanding the truth of the bible, and I know that sounds arrogant. I’ve been waiting for some crazy intervention, looking for it so hard that I refused to see it when it slapped me in the face.


It’s been months since I wrote my last blog, I’ve not been reading or deciding what to say, I knew what I had to say, what I was meant to say but I really didn’t want to hear it. So here I am sick, in bed, writing what I should have written months ago because, and bless him, my beloved brother and dearest friend slammed me with a rock. Well a Rocky, a Rocky Balboa. I just didn’t want to listen because I knew the answers… Apparently. The teaching I am about to throw, somewhat heavy handedly I image, is the teaching that I was meant to receive and poetically, give, and the gift was in me to give it to myself, but there are consequences, and I was not ready to face them, I may not be now, but I’m going to see what happens.



Normally I would have my concordance, my bible, my dictionaries and my books to hide behind, but I’m not at my house right now, I have none of those things. So all you’ll get here is me in tears and a truth that was burned into my heart years ago. And it is scarier and asks more of us than many of us, including myself, may never be prepared to face. But that doesn’t stop it being true.



So lets get rid of clever words, and not using “and” at the start of sentences. Lets talk about life and truth with a passion from the core of being, not from the mind.



“Being great is not about how hard you can hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep mocking forward.” Ok. Thank you mr Stallone. Time to move forward.



“Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 5:1 Came across this years ago. What on earth does it mean. Well, Christ – easy one this – God’s chosen one, the anointed. In you. Again, easy that mean in me.



The hope. Ah, now we start using words we don’t understand. Hope. I hope to go to the moon. I hope to play a rock gig at a stadium. I hope that I am forgiven for all the rubbish I have done. Our western, comfy culture understands hope as whimsy, wishful thinking, airy dreams.



You read hope in the bible it means something totally different. ” Now faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you do not see.” Hebrews 11. Faith is certainty built on hope. If hope is whimsy, then why do “these three remain, faith, hope and love” take away everything else . It is certainty, it is concrete. It is perseverance. If you have faith in something then you have a hope, and hope leads to enduring all things.



Lets revise our initial quote.



“Christ in you, the Perseverance of glory.” Even that sounds more challenging, more of a punch to keep moving forward from. But we have one more word that is wishy washy and not part of our biblical vocabulary. Glory.



Thanks chiefly to Solomon and the temple we hear glory, and we see images of heavily flame, radiant light, choruses of angels, and a thousand other things. And it is because of this that the church today misses out, I have missed out, we all have missed out. If “Christ in me is the hope of some supernatural fire blanketing the earth” then boy are we in for a long wait. The longest wait, cause that is not, has not, and never will be what glory means. The presence of The Lord filled the temple and in that his glory, but it was not bright lights and fuzzy feelings it was the tangible presence of God. By the time it was translated into English, or by the time our ears heard it for the first time the meaning of the word glory was lost.



We’re going to go Greek for a bit. The word glory comes from the Greek word DOXA from which we get the word Doxology. (Philippians 2: 5-11 is the most famous one of these and we’ll come back to that.) but DOXA is not the root of the word. Words evolve over time, they change and you can go on for a lifetime exploring where the words we use to day come from, interesting, but a tangent right now. The Greek language was the same, words came out of other words. DOXA came out of the word DYKUNEO, which means “to reveal in its true nature.” So when Paul says “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” What he actually says is:



“CHRIST IN YOU, THE PERSEVERANCE OF REVEALING TRUE NATURE.” Whose true nature? Christ’s true nature. Which means that Christ dwelling in you, me, every Christian you know is who God is certain will be the ones who reveal his true nature.



Pause a moment, think on this, how well does this fit with the great commission? How well does this fit with that blog on grace I wrote ages ago. Our gift is salvation through Christ. Our response is to show his nature in the world we live it. Imagine the nations of the world being covered in holy fire, now imagine the nations of the world being filled with people revealing the true nature of God. It’s already summarised what that looks like. You don’t have to figure it out, or carve through a forest of ambiguity with your trusty sword of the Spirit. Just go to Philippians.



“Your attitude should be the same of that of Christ. (The one who is in you) who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. But made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a slave made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man he humbled himself, and became obedient to God, to the point of death on a cross.”



That’s the Christ who lives inside you.



“Therefore God exalted him to the highest place, and gave him the name above every name. That at the name of Jesus, every knee, in heaven, on earth and under the earth, should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. To THE GLORY OF GOD THE FATHER.”



To the revelation of the true nature of God the Father. The same Jesus dwelling in you is God’s certainty of the world seeing his true nature.



This is why I have avoided writing this blog for so long. The gift has been given to me to show Gods nature to the world, and I have failed, abysmally. I have not done this. More often than not I have done totally the opposite. Because I was trying to say “Me, with all my gifts is the hope of glory. Use my gifts god! So that I can be exalted to the highest place.”



Go back to grace, God gave us a gift he knew we could never repay.



So he gets his Son living inside us to do it.



The great evangelist DL Moody was once challenged. A preacher said “the world has yet to see what God can do with a totally consecrated man”



To which Moody replied “God willing I will be that man.”



Gods hope of being revealed in this world is Christ dwelling in you. And me. The question is what do we do with that? Right this second I don’t know what I can answer because I am broken and hurting. What’s your excuse?



It’s not how hard you hit, it’s how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.

Christ and His Ministry

(having had a few issues with getting this blog published, the links for the scripture on this blog are unactive, so you will need you bible- will try to fix this soon)

At our church over the past month, we have been looking at Christ and His Ministry, a subject that is so vast really that the decision has been made to continue into January.


What follows is the message that I was led to give to our fellowship at the beginning of December.


So if you are anything like me, when I mentioned Christ and His Ministry, your first thought was about the Gospels. The time Jesus walked upon the earth, His public ministry between getting baptised by John in Matthew 3:13, right through to the Crucifixion, Resurrection and Ascension - All before the book of Acts begins.


As I began to study, something hit me like a freight train. Jesus' ministry was and is far more than the 3 years He spent walking the earth.

Let us begin with something a little different: -

During biblical times, Jewish boys would attend the local synagogue on a daily basis. From the age of about 6 years old, they would learn the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Scripture - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy from the local Rabbi, who would teach them verbatim. By the age of just 10, the boys would have the Torah memorised.

At this stage, the best students would continue with their studies - and for the next four years, they would learn the rest of the Hebrew scripture, all 39 books from Genesis right up to Malachi. The result was that by the age of 14, these students would know the whole of the Hebrew scripture by heart.

They would also have learnt the art of questions. For the Jewish student, when a question was asked, they would be taught not to answer in the conventional way that you and I are taught in school. But rather the answer would come in the form of a question.

Although I simplify this system a great deal an example would be - what is 4+4? the answer would come something like what is 16 divided by 2?

Jesus grew up in this environment - and although the bible doesn't tell us a great deal about His childhood, we can use a little creative assumption based on what we do know.

Luke 2:46 ESV

From this scripture, its easy to piece together that Jesus was familiar with this aspect of Jewish life.

Now at the age of 14, the Jewish boys, now considered men, who were the best of the best would seek out a Rabbi, in order to become a disciple.

In the culture, Rabbi's were considered one of the highest honours in society, every boy wanted to be one, it was the equivalent of when I was a kid and wanted to become a fighter pilot of a fireman, or like kids today wanting to become football players.

Now a Rabbi knew the law, and taught the law, and each Rabbi would have their own interpretation on how a person would live by the law. This teaching was known as the Rabbi's yoke. And when looking for a disciple, the Rabbi would look for someone that he could teach his view on how to live, so that they could continue his teaching spreading the Rabbi's yoke.

So when the student approached a Rabbi, the teacher would question the prospective disciple, firstly to be sure that they were in fact the best of the best, and secondly to be sure that the student could in fact take on the Rabbi's yoke and continue his teaching. Only once he was satisfied would the tell the student - 'Come follow me'

The new disciple would leave everything behind to take up life as a disciple, to follow the Rabbi everywhere we went. Giving up their entire lives to become just like the Rabbi.

Maybe you can see where I am going with this, but first, what happens to the students that don't make the cut, the ones that do not measure up?

For these young men, the Rabbi would say 'My Son, you know the Torah and your know it well, but you are not able to be my disciple - my student. Go home to your village, make babies and pray that they become Rabbi's - Go home and learn the family business'

We are not told where in this set up Jesus fit in. The bible is quiet on the subject. But it is often assumed that Jesus learnt the family business.

Mark 6:3 ESV

This scripture seems to suggest that Jesus learnt from Joseph and so the people saw Jesus as the carpenter. It was after all the fathers duty to teach the son his trade.

In her fictional work - 'A Lineage of Grace' - Francine Rivers tells her imagined the story of Mary - during the story, Mary is frustrated with Jesus and the fact that he does not reveal himself. Jesus replies simply 'It is not my time'

Now although its just a made up story of what could have been the case, I quiet like that as a possible explanation as to where Jesus fit in with the culture of his day.

Since we know the Jesus was the best of the best.

So why have we looked at all this? what is the relevance of all this to the Ministry of Jesus?

Lets take a look at Matthew 4:18-22:-

18 While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 19 And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”[a] 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 21 And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. 22 Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John - All Jewish men who were now fisherman - why?

At some point in their past, they had not made the cut - at some point a Rabbi had perhaps turned to them and told them to go home and learn the family business.

Jesus comes along and calls them ' Come follow me' and that's exactly what they do. They drop everything and go. Now you might have noticed, particularly with James and John, that they leave their father to it. Yet Zebedee doesn't complain that he is left alone to do all the work.

See Jesus used the Rabbi's words, words that these men had longed to hear, and so they respond.

Jesus chose the everyday man to follow Him, to be His disciples and take on His ministry.

But what is that Ministry?

Jesus began preaching 'The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand' in Matthew 4 immediately follow His return from the wilderness.

This should tell us something about the ministry of Christ.

His 3 years on earth are dominated with miracles and parables with the express purpose of teaching

To make the mystery of God open, in simple terms so that people could understand.

Matthew 11:28-30 ESV

There is a second element to the purpose of Christ's time on earth. Everything Jesus did was to give glory to His father in Heaven.

This has not changed today Hebrews 13 tells us that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, Today and forever.

Giving Glory to God, and opening up the mystery of the gospel to the world is still the dominant purpose of our lives today.

For me this is why Jesus said in Matthew 28:18-20

'All authority in Heaven and on the earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age'

That command is also recorded in Luke 24:44-49 and some versions of Mark 16

Jesus work on the cross and His resurrection have open the way for us.

2 Corinthians 5:14 1 Peter 3:18

Now like Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John as well as the other disciples - we can and do receive the call

'COME FOLLOW ME'

Are you ready to do just that?

And Jesus' ministry finished upon his Ascension into heaven? Or did it. I for one don't believe that it did.

Firstly because Romans 8 tells us a different story. Jesus now stands at the right hand of the father interceding on our behalf. That's a continuation for Jesus' personal ministry.

At the very same time, as we have already discussed, a Rabbi takes on a disciple to carry, continue and spread the yoke. To continue the Rabbi's teaching and demonstration of how to live.

There is just one reference to Jesus as being s carpenter, but there are 14 references in the bible that call Jesus Rabbi.

We are therefore His disciples. We as Christians have received His call to follow.

Colossians 1:27

Because of the cross, we have the hope of Heaven, the sure hope of Salvation and the hope of all the promises of God.

What is the Hope of Glory?

Its the hope of displaying the nature and character of God - if glory being bestowed on God and who He is - revealed to the nations.

That responsibility rests on each of us.

You maybe the only bible a person ever gets to read. The only way someone might encounter the nature and character of Christ - God.

2 Corinthians 5:20 ESV tells us that we are Ambassadors for Christ.

You are an official envoy - you carry the full authority and power of the one who sends you. You are seen not as yourselves, but as the one your represent.

This is why when people know that you are a Christian, they watch you closely for the moment you slip up, so that they can say 'you call yourself a christian'

Are you ready and prepared for that responsibility?

The Hope of Christ receiving Glory is in you.

Christ’s trust, His confidence is that YOU will bring Glory to Him and therefore the father. Not the person next to you in church, not the neighbours that go to chapel every week without fail.

But YOU.

Superhero

Sitting at home ill today, with a broken boiler, just waiting for a plumber to ring me back about trying to get it fixed, and thinking about how I am going to afford that cost just before Christmas, I got to thinking I should update one of the messages on my blog, before I get cracking on the next one. 

When I originally began preparing this message, I started to watch a Bruce Willis film on DVD at home. Before the film started, there were the usual trailers, and on this set was one for Superman Returns.

During the trailer, there is a voice over, a quote from Superman's real father - Jor-El
'They can be a great people...they wish to be. They only lack the light to show them the way. For this reason, above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you...my only son.

That caught my attention. I started thinking about how significant that was and is to our faith.

A Great People...A Capacity For Good

Our original design by God is not what we are today, Genesis tells us the story of Adam and Eve, and how they were created in the image of God.

Genesis 1:26

Adam was created perfect, he could have lived forever in the garden for all eternity. Immortal. Made for relationship with God the Father. Our original design.

There were no errors, no flaws, no sin and no reason or need for anything to be settled or paid for.

Genesis 2 shows that Adam and Eve lived in paradise, Eden was it, everything they could want or need. But that's not how it was going to stay for us humans.

Genesis 3:1-3

Adam disobeyed God, as a result sin entered earth, Adam's authority as the holder of dominion over earth allowed sin to enter the world.

The original design corrupted, warped and destroyed to the point that nothing we can do, can ever bring us back to that place.

Beyond self-repair. We became evil in God's' sight.
Genesis 6:5 - 

So where does this leave us?

God is perfect - He's Holy - And Holy is something we've lost grasp upon in our everyday understanding.

For Jesus, its signifies 'Seperateness' or to be set apart.

It means whole or complete.

Because of this - Anything that is not Holy/Complete/Whole/Set apart - can not survive in God's presence.

Because evil entered the world in our sins, we became cut off from God, we can't have the original relationship because a punishment is required, needed.

Proverbs 10:16 ESV                                                  Romans 6:23 ESV

Something has to die in order to pay the debt that is owed as a result of Sin.

In the Old Testament, sacrifices were used. The spilling of blood, the only way to cover the debt.
Although it would not fully satisfy the debt, it was a temporary measure.

God's people would select a new born from their flock, it had to be perfect, no blemish, no spot. no fault, marks or other wise deviations - Only a perfect lamb would fit the requirements for the sacrifice.

THEY ONLY LACK THE LIGHT TO SHOW THE WAY

The situation is the same today.- The debt still exists, and nothing we can do could or would ever satisfy the payment that is due.

We are incapable of paying it ourselves.

'The heart is deceitful above all things''

We need something outside of ourselves - Something or someone to step into the gap




Thankfully, there is some good new - we do not need to fix the problem ourselves. In fact as I already said we cant. There is no way through the barrier of Sin alone.

That's where God's plan comes into play.

It began with a Baby. - A crazy plan by the worlds standards - sending a helpless child into the world of evil - evil such as the world witnessed this passed week in the Newtown CT USA.(please spare a moment in prayer for the family of that tragedy)

God could have wiped out Sin in the blink of an eye or send a legion of angels to overthrow earth from the grasp of the enemy.

However I believe that these actions would not have solved the issue. 

We all desire sin - Sin although ultimately kills us, is something that we enjoy, it has an appeal, otherwise we wouldn't fall into it. So God stepping in in such a way would not solve the issue that our inherent nature leans towards sin and sinful living.

Instead we needed someone to show the way. To show us how we could live. - Show us the Light.

we need someone to stand in our place, like the sacrificial lamb,
to come perfect, blameless without spot or blemish. Someone capable to living on earth and keep God's law.

I HAVE SENT THEM TO YOU...MY ONLY SON

John 3:16 ESV

Jesus lived as one of us. God in the flesh. He faced every temptation that we could ever face, and showed us the way to live out God's law on the earth.

For His teachings and His actions the religious people of the day crucified Him. And Jesus became the sacrificial lamb for us.

Human sacrifice, paid the price, covered the debt owed by mankind - but not just any human - He was perfect, and as a result of His overcoming death on a cross, Jesus broke the curse of sin in our lives. And satisfied the Holy nature of God.

Jesus alone, rebuilt the bridge between mankind and God, allowing a way back to the father and back to the original design for our lives: - 

Direct Relationship with God the father.



A Saviour was required. A Saviour provided and all we need to do is to accept that gift, given freely.

The bible tells us in acts 16:31 ESV '..Believe on the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved'

John 6:40                         Romans 10:9

During the film 'Superman Returns', there is a scene in which Superman is talking to Lois Lane on top of the Daily Planet building. The background is that Lois had won a Pulitzer Price for an article she wrote called ' Why the World Doesn't Need Superman'
Superman says to Lois ' You wrote that the world doesn't need a saviour, but everyday I hear them crying out for one'

That's true in my town today, its true in your town today. With people turning to psychics/mediums/occult/worldly religions.

Evil is in our towns, our cities, you only have to open your eyes, to read a news paper to see that the world is crying out for a Saviour.

We have found Him. Or Rather He has found us. All we needed to do was accept Him. 

The bible tells us that we are to go into the world and make disciples of all nations.

You have become the light for the world to see the Saviour.

I mentioned recently about a visiting speaker who really impacted a number of us that heard His testimony. One thing that he said really hit home for me.

'Have you ever had something happen to you that you just can not go a single day without telling someone?'

Jesus is that one thing that has happened to me, and I have been too worried about telling people in the past, but I realise now that you cant hid your light under a bushel. A city on a hill can not hide, and who am I to try to HIDE HIS LIGHT.

My Redeemer Lives

Its been some times since I posted anything in this blog, and I plan to return to regular posting, so I wanted to begin with something that has impacted me this week.

 On Saturday evening, our church put on an evangelistic event where we invited Tony Anthony along to share his story, Tony is an International Evangelist, who has an amazing story, you can find that in his book Taming the Tiger.

 During the event He showed this video. Its one I have seen before and it really impacted me on both occasions. I dont mind sharing that I cried like a baby the first time, and was much the same saturday night.

Jesus said in John 15:13 - Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

 I have often used the example of a soldier throwing himself on a grenade to save his squad as seen in the Film 'Act of Valor'

 But this video shows a great example of what it means to lay down your life daily

Hope4Faith

I would usually keep this blog for my thoughts and musings on things God has been telling me, and I guess this is not really any different, what follows is the website of the daughter of a friend of mine.

This is Faith, and her story is heart wrenching, and I wanted to put it out there for people to read her story and grab hold of this cause.

Please check out the website, and if you feel drawn to help, please do - I would be very interested to hear about your fund raising ideas.





We have several things in planning right now, including a sponsored walk over Pen Y Fan in Brecon Beacons Wales, 

selling of handmade items such as paracord bracelets/wristbands 

and other things will follow when we can arrange them.

http://www.hope4faith.co.uk/hope4faith/

Jericho

I have been revisiting some of the messages I have given over the past few years, and have been meaning to up them up in the blog. Some of these messages have been delivered some are still waiting for the time God says go.

So over the next few weeks I will be putting these messages on this blog, there are a few reasons for this, primarily my prayer is that someone reading the blog needs to hear the message of God in them.

I want to start by looking at the Old Testament, I love it personally, I know some struggle with the content, and how its relevant to us under the new covenant, but I love it. God uses it to teach me a lot. 

Recently I have been looking at the Old Testament Heroes, spending some time reading through their stories and looking at the lessons that God has for us through them.

The story of Moses, is very well known. He had led God's people out of Egypt, across the Red Sea and away from slavery. During this time the Israelites had partaken in many miracles of God. Crossing of Red Sea, the 10 Commandments, 40 years in the desert to name but a few.

When Moses was about 120 years old, He chose a successor to lead the Israelite people when Moses died. Joshua was to be that man.

Joshua came from the tribe of Ephraim, part of the House of Joseph, which had commanded the most authority at the time. Joshua had been born in Egypt, and had experienced life as a slave. He had also took part in the Exodus and therefore the miracles that God had displayed.

As a younger man Joshua had been Moses personal assistant, an apprentice of sorts, sharing in the wanderings of the desert. He would have learnt a great deal from his master in that role. Some experts believe that He would have been with Moses at least some of the way up Mount Sinai when God gave the tablets containing the commandments (Exodus 19). Joshua would also have guarded the meeting tent of the Lord Exodus 33:11.


Most importantly, God had called Joshua to lead His people. When Joshua was 80 years old, Moses died and the leadership of God's chosen people was passed on by Moses Deuteronomy 34.

Joshua was tasked with leading the Israelites into the promised land, into God's promise for the people. This begins with the crossing of the Jordan. What a lot of people don't realise, is that what happened at the Red Sea also happened here at the this time at the Jordan. The waters were parted and the Israelites crossed over on dry land.

Joshua 1:1-6

God had already told Joshua that the land was given to the Israelites. But it did not come to them without battles that they had to face.

The campaign of the Israelites entering into the promised land was lead by Joshua and opened with the siege of Jericho.

The city of Jericho itself, had been built to guard the Eastern approach to the hills, A city that trusted so much in the strength of its walls, as a defence.

Like Moses 40 years before him, Joshua sent spies into Jericho, before going to look at the fortifications for himself.

The King of Jericho and the people of the city had heard that the Israelites were coming, they had been warned if Joshua's spies, and they were afraid.

Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof  and said to them, “I know that the Lord has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you.  We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.Joshua 2:8-11

For this reason Jericho had been locked down. Its was prepared for the invasion. And it was quite some fortification. Archaeologists suggest that its walls were some 30 feet high, with an inner and an outer wall separated by 12-15 feet. The outer wall would have been a minimum of 6 feet thick. 

The defences were so sturdy it had not been possible to move the walls to expand the city, instead houses were built between the walls.

It was for this reason that Joshua had wanted to see the defences for himself. He was a veteran commander and had already defeated Sihon and Og in battle. Yet at this time Joshua is met by an armed man

Joshua 5:13-15 

I had read this passage several times before I reached for the commentary to understand what was going on here.

Joshua had come face to face with the commander of the Lord's Army. Some claim it was an angel, in which case it was likely Michael, Others believe that this armed man was the Son of God Himself. Jesus standing before Joshua, either way it was a distinct message to Joshua. A reminder that He was not the highest ranking officer in God's Army. That he was not the true commander of Israel, but the servant of God.

We see shades of Jesus teaching in this - the first shall be last and the greatest among you must become a servant. It also highlights the New Testament teaching of Philippians 2:5-8

And only then does God give Joshua the battle plans.

March around the city walls with all the armed men - Repeat for the six days.

Take 7 priests to carry trumpets of rams horns. On the 7th day - march round the walls 7 times with the priest blaring trumpets. When you hear the long blast raise a shout and the walls will fall.

Notice the significance of the numbers here. 7 Priests. 7 Trumpets. 7 Days. 7 times round the wall.

7 is the number of completion, of perfection.

The Israelites also carried the Ark at this time. The Ark symbolised the presence of God among the people. And would serve as a reminder that it was God that sacked the city of Jericho, and not the people themselves.

joshua 6:20-21

The interesting fact to note is that the walls of the city fell outward. A physical impossibility. Only by having the walls attacked from the inside would the walls have fallen outward, But the walls of Jericho fell towards the Israelite people. 

Yet another reminder for us and for the Israelite's that the city was delivered by God alone.

It also important to know that God had called for Jericho to be His. Unlike the future cities that the Israelites would sack, Jericho was not to be looted and plundered. In essences it was to be Israel's tithe to God, the first fruits of the Harvest. And the results of not keeping this 'first fruits' are clearly shown in Joshua 7 and make a whole different teaching that I will get to another time.

The church today is in much the same plight as the Israelites. We have experienced strong moves of God and moved into the wilderness. God has appointed His people and laid out His plans, just as He did with Joshua, and it is so vital that we follow those plans to the letter.

Only through Obedience and Unity, doing exactly what God tells us to do, can we overcome. There is nothing that God's people can not defeat, if and hen we stand together doing just what God tells us to do.

And its not just unity within the walls of our building, it must to be a unity with the people of God.

Our towns in the UK have become strongholds. My town is. It has become a fortress of sorts. And we WILL never see breakthrough without us all coming together under our leaders, supporting them as one. Keeping to the letter of God's plan.

As a church we need to understand that God calls our leaders, and He anoints them to lead just as Moses did with Joshua.Hebrews 13-17. We need to be praying for our leaders.

Our leaders in turn, need to understand that they are servants of God and of the people. Understanding like Joshua that they are not the ranking officer in the army of God. Knowing who the true commander of the Army is.

We need to be coming together as one.

Jericho would never have fallen had the priest's decided they wanted to play harps instead of horns. Or if they warriors had attempted to scare the Canaanites inside Jericho with their War Cries during the first 6 days.

Jericho fell because each person had a part to play, each person knew the importance of their part and followed the plan exactly. Each knew that Hod was present among them. And each worked together as one.

To labour the point I am making here, I will finish with Jesus prayer in john 17:20-23

 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,  that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one —  I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

This MUST be our prayer also. That we might be One.

Together, working as one, with God in our Midst, we can defeat anything and we don't even have to fight sometimes