Life's Strongholds

Day one hundred seventy-eight

My prayer this morning was filled with gratitude for all the blessings that I have in my life.  After four days on the trek it was great to come home to my family.  I loved the hugs and kisses and listening to everything that went on while I was gone.  I really missed them.  Then last night my family came over and we had a great time visiting and BBQing.  My testimony of family has been greatly increased in the last few days and I wanted to express that to my Father in Heaven.  I want Him to know that I get it, I know that His hand is in the lives of my family.  I see the divine blessings from the organization of my family and I love that my Father in Heaven has a place in my home!

Joshua 5:13-6:5; 20-21

The ancient city of Jericho was a great walled city. History tells us that it was surrounded by 2 massive stone walls. The outer wall was 6 feet thick and 20 feet high. The inner wall was 12 feet thick and 30 feet high. There was a 15 foot guarded walkway between these two walls. From a military standpoint, it was practically impenetrable. This great walled city stood as an obstacle between the people of Israel and them claiming all that God had for them. Before they could go deeper into the land of Canaan, Jericho had to fall first.

For us, this ancient city could represent those things that are entrenched and rooted in our lives that prevent us from growing closer to God. We all have them, things embedded in our lives that hinder our walk with God. It may be some besetting sin or a root of bitterness and unwillingness to forgive that stands between us and God's blessings. It may be some old, bad attitude that is holding us back. It could be something from our past that we continue to struggle with to this day. Whatever it is, it is a stronghold in our life and it stands between us and God's blessings. Before we will ever receive all God has for us, that stronghold must be torn down!

In this page from Israel's history, we uncover some truths that help us as we fight the battle against our own strongholds in our day.

Part One - CONFRONTATION (vv 13-15)

With God
As Joshua surveys the city of Jericho, he has a strange encounter. This individual that Joshua meets outside the walls of Jericho identifies Himself as "The Captain of the host of the Lord." Based on the account and the similarity in language with the "burning bush" that Moses saw (Ex 3:2-6) there is cause to believe that this individual may actually have been Jehovah whom Joshua saw.

We may never have a face-to-face encounter with Jesus, but we do need to ask ourselves: Have I had a personal confrontation with the Lord?  Has there ever been a specific moment in your life when you knew that you were headed in the wrong direction and that only Jesus could save you? Do you remember the time when you were saved by the power and grace of God? If it has happened to you, you will know it! When someone the size of God gets in your heart, you will be aware of it!

With His Position
The Lord tells Joshua that He is the Captain of the Lord's host. That is, He is the one who is always victorious. He is the one who is walking in victory even before the battle is fought. In other words, He is the one who is in control of all situations. He is merely reminding Joshua who is really fighting the battle!

For us, this speaks of our coming to a place where we recognize that if there will ever be any victories over the stronghold's in our life, they will come about because of His power and not our own. We must understand that as we yield to His power in every area of our life that we are learning to trust Him to secure the victory for us in every battle we fight. In other words, we come to a place where we dedicate our lives to Him and trust Him to bring us into victory. The real question for us is: Have we come to terms with who is really in control? Until we do, we can forget about sustained victory and get used to defeat.

With God's Power
This is just a thought but notice that Joshua's encounter with the Lord caused him to bow in worship (v. 14). Remember that Joshua is a warrior. When he got down before the Lord, he placed himself in a vulnerable position. He exposed his neck. He placed himself in a position where he could not use his own sword. He placed himself in a position of extreme weakness. He was totally yielded to the Lord!  He had recognized that God, not himself, is the power behind the victory that will come. What a great lesson for all of us! When will we ever learn that our success and our victory are not a matter of our power or ability, but of God's?

Joshua had come to a place where he could admit his own weakness and inability to gain the victory. He had surrendered to the Lord. We need to learn the truth that when we can't, He can! We need to learn to surrender and let the walls come down and to say "I can't Lord, but You can!"

This is a great lesson for me, I struggle with the surrender. I tend to wait until I have exhausted all my efforts before I turn to the Lord.  It seems like the backwards, difficult way to do things as I learn the lessons of this story.  Maybe you are like me and struggle with this too.  The great thing is that the Lord will keep reminding us and give us chances to work on it each day.  With it fresh in our minds, maybe we will recognize the moments we need Him sooner and we can take the opportunity to remove at least one stone from our walls today!