Episode 67 - Joshua 8:18 - What's In Your Hand? (Be Utterly...)

Joshua 8:18 - AMP - Then the LORD said  to Joshua, “Reach out with the spear that is in your hand (and point it) toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand.” So Joshua reached out with the spear in his hand (and pointed it) toward the city.

 

It is remarkable to read the LORD speaking to Joshua in this verse. It sort of stops me in my tracks in a way when I see the Lord speaking to anyone! It’s a big deal! And I don’t think Joshua took it lightly - I think the sum total of His life proves that he did not ever take lightly the things of the Lord. Joshua was a listener. He listened well to His God.

 

He may tell us at times to pick something up or to lay something down - He is our God, He is both Lord and Savior, so He has the right of way in every aspect of our lives, right? So yeah He can say pick up this and lay down that and so on. But He also will at times ask you to use what is already in your hand.

 

What is in your hand today?

 

What would you say is a key part, an integral part of who you are? Who you really are, not maybe who you have been told you are or feel like some expectation is on you to be. What is the spear you are already holding, a part of who you are, your God created identity that is intended by Him to be used for His Kingdom purposes? 

Are we taking the things, all the varied and beautiful and amazing things that are in all of our varied and beautiful amazing lives, pointing them at the enemy and then seeing God move there? Like, right there? 

 

Joshua had a call on his life. He had a calling. When it was time to step up, he did. Now I don’t see evidence in the Bible that he was trying to step up before it was time, but every time it was time he was right there, ready and willing.

 

He was always ready because he was always willing to do what God said to do. So pointing the spear in the exact direction the Lord told him to point it was easy peasy lemon squeezy for him because he already had the spear in his hand. The more you do the things God says to do, the easier it is to keep doing the things God says to do. (Can I say that again? It’s so true!)

 

So what is the promise here? 

Let me skip down in chapter 8 of the book of Joshua and read verse 26 - “For Joshua did not withdraw his hand with which he stretched out the spear until he had utterly destroyed the inhabitants of Ai.”

 

Joshua listened for the Lord and then when the Lord spoke he listened to the Lord. He did as the Lord said. And he finished it. With totality. Not with partiality. (sometimes I finish with more partial-ness than total-ness and when I do that, well, I am flat wrong).

 

He just kept holding out that spear that was in his hand, directly toward Ai, the next place they were told by God to conquer, and he did not withdraw his hand until it was done. The word Utterly here is fitting. 

You have anything you need to be done with utterly? Have something you know God wants you to do but you are doing it partially and not totally?

 

Don’t be partial anymore. Be total. Be utterly. 

 

Sometimes we have got to do the thing God wants us to do and then the victory comes. That’s the promise I find here. To not be so afraid anymore. To just do the thing, Jan, and do it utterly. To slay the beast of partiality in my life and just do that thing with some ferocity, with totality. 

 

Don’t put that thing down just yet, my friend. God may have placed it in your hand for this exact season, for such a time as this. Don’t even lower it. Keep your eye on the prize. That which the Lord has called you to point at the enemy, listen, until the enemy and all the inhabitants of the enemy’s domain are utterly destroyed - keep pointing and don’t drop your arm or even lower your arm a little teeny bit. 

 

Make giving up a non-option. And believe that the utterly will come as you do the pointing at the enemy with what’s already in your hand for Kingdom work. That’s a great promise, isn’t it? 

 

Be a Joshua in our generation and see what God might do! 

 

I will see you here for episode #68 next time and I hope you have a wonderful day. Thanks for being here!

 

~ Jan

 

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