God Delights to Do the Utterly Impossible in and Through His People - Episode 124

Today let's take a look at

the book of Joshua. This book of the Bible is amazing. If you haven’t read it in a while, or possibly ever, well a lot of people don’t read that much of the OT (for a lot of reasons) but I have learned so, so much about who my God truly is in the OT. It’s a really wonderful book of the Bible. 

 

So, Joshua chapter 8 verse 18 - and we are looking at this verse in the AMP today.

 

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. But starting off this verse with those words, Then the LORD said to Joshua, makes it personal. Don’t forget that He is a personal God for you and for me. 

 

Then the Lord tells Joshua to take the spear that was already in his hand and stretch it out toward Ai. (Ai was the city they needed to take in battle, militarily, next). 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? For me, it is often a book or a pen. For most of us, a phone is in our hands a lot. But I am not sure that God’s very best for His dearly loved children is to be mind linked and sucked into a device all of the live long day, ya know? So before you say I know what’s in my hand! My phone! Just hold tight for a second and ask Him if the phone were not in your hand all the time what would be in your hand? I am not knocking anybody here - I am as guilty as the next person and I pretty much always know where my phone is (although sometimes I go out to run errands or take a long drive and I leave it at home on my desk on purpose so I can remind myself that there was a time we lived just fine, thank you very much, with no access to a phone. I was not afraid to drive across the country without a cellular phone. I remember it being referred to like this “answer the phone!” and not “let me check my phone”. The phone vs my phone. In my teen years it would have seemed pretty weird to say my phone rather than the phone. And so now and then I like to go backwards a bit, go old school, the old guard, and leave my phone by the wayside. So, no judgment from me on this - but I do caution you from thinking that the automatic answer to the question What is in your hand? Is “my phone”. Only allow that to be the answer if the Lord makes it really clear that it’s the answer. 

 

Think about what might be in your hand if your phone wasn’t. 

 

Joshua’s answer would have been, obviously because the verse tells us, a spear. 

 

So what is the spear that 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? 

 

Does that sound like - whew, way out there? Or does it kind of get you a little bit excited, like Yeah! Yes, I am here to make a Kingdom difference and so is she and so is he and so is my small group and so is my bff and and and.  Because you are here to make a difference. If you know Jesus personally, then you are here to make a difference. And if any part of you kind of feels like MEH - she is a bit off today in this episode, Jan is reaching here, I don’t think all of us are here to make a difference, that’s a pretty sweeping and broad statement - well, I would point you to the NT book of John, chapters 14 15 16 specifically and just by reading say John 15, I think you would have a hard time not seeing that you and all who are in Christ, are here to make a difference for the Kingdom of our God.

 

It’s not beyond you because Jesus said it is the way it ought to be. 

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. And we have info about Joshua and his life in more than just the book of Joshua - we see him in Exodus and in Deuteronomy and Joshua. 

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!) Say it again 

 

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? That’s okay! What won’t really be just okay is if you hear God’s Word today and then keep on not doing that thing 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! 

 

Lord bless you as you continue to live believing God's promises are true for you - because they really, truly are!

 

Jan L. Burt

Find me here:

Jan is the author of the new book “A 60-Day Prayer Journal for Parents” & “The Power of God’s Will – 40 Days of God’s Promises Devotional” (available on Amazon) & “The Once-A-Year Homeschool Planner” (a multi-grade, multi-subject planning system) – which can be found at JanLBurt.com. She has also been a regular contributor to The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. Find Jan  Instagram: @JanLBurt or at her website JanLBurt.com or at her YouTube channel, “God’s Promises for You with Jan L. Burt”.