Twice last week God brought Australia into my path. Once at a gas station as I eavesdropped on a conversation the cashier was having with a co-worker and then at the local paint shop as I picked up some metal work that I had contracted out. “Where did you get those two stuffed koalas?” I asked the woman at the counter. “A friend gave them to me when he visited Sydney recently.” “Ohhh, very interesting” I remarked. Australia follows me around everywhere I go. ‘Sign posts on the way down the intercontinental freeway of missions’, I like to refer to them.

Two weeks ago I was listening to Pastor Hans from Calvary Sequim teach in Joshua six and felt the Spirit really applying the story to our situation. The chapter focuses on the strategy to attack a city (Jericho), a strategy that is illogical and impractical. A plan that no person could ever come up with in order to knock down walls of opposition and to save a harlot and her family. Does this sound vaguely familiar to anyone? There’s a land that God has called us to, a people who’re lost like Rahab and being ripped off by the enemy. There are numerous cities all needing to be filled with hope, purpose, salvation, and godly living. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. How is God going to reach this country for Christ? One city at a time and since every campaign has to start with an opening battle and victory, Sydney is in the cross-hairs.

So, as I meditated on this parallel, I wondered out loud, “Where are we in this process?” Not in the wilderness, I’m pretty certain of that. We launched out with YWAM and spent a year in Townsville. That speaks to me of crossing the Jordan and watching the miraculous works of God in the process. Or, come to think of it, maybe we’re just in the process of spying out the land? Hmm…no, I think we spied out the land when we visited the Gold Coast the first time around…I’ll visit this question later.

Last weekend I had the privilege of leading the service at Calvary Chapel Port Angeles and knew that the Lord was going to have me in Joshua. I spent some time in prayer leading up to the study and in my prep time began surveying through the first six chapters. I summarized each one and felt the Lord speaking to me throughout. Chapters one through three and six I’ve discussed a little already and chapter four and five? Well, one of the brothers from CCPA asked me about the songs that I have written over the years, about how I put them together and how I chose the verses that make them up. I thought for a second trying to find the right words and Joshua four came to my mind. “They’re stones of remembrance” I said in response. I have memories of God’s amazing provision and safety at various precarious points in our experience over the last couple of years and I relate those to the set of stones placed in the middle of the Jordan. But, the stones placed in Gilgal to me, are the verses that God’s given us over the years that have encouraged us, given us direction, and called us into the mission. Many of these are now songs and remain fresh in our memories as a result.

That leaves chapter five, Gilgal. Here are some of the thoughts/points/applications that the Lord gave me.

→So Israel is poised ready to launch out into battle…Our natural tendency when God has called us into a new work or some other opportunity is to jump in with both feet and hit the ground running…

ANALOGY: A Building Project/Planting a Garden: Things need to happen before we can proceed…planning, purchasing, preparing, etc…So too with God’s projects!

I’m going to use the Acronym P.O.P to describe God’s planning for Israel’s calling to enter into the land…

V2-9

→ (P)URIFICATION

»Abraham was given the command to circumcise back in Genesis 17

CIRCUMCISION: A cutting away of the flesh…

»A visible sign of the Abrahamic Covenant…A people set apart from the things of the flesh, a holy people…

»The New Covenant equivalent is Baptism---putting to death the old man with all his ways, and coming up out of the grave in the resurrected life and putting on the new man.

Col. 2: 9-13 “In Him you were also circumcised…”

Rom. 6: 1-6, 11-13 “Old man was crucified with Him…”

»The generation of Israelites that Joshua was now commanding had not all been circumcised, so God commanded it to be done before they moved on.

ANALOGY: Keeping the soil pure and clean…Keeping an orderly jobsite…Keep away from sloppiness.

→Our walk of faith is an on-going battle against the flesh. We start the battle by getting baptized as a public declaration of our faith and commitment to walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh. (Rom. 7, Eph. 4: 22-24)

»God has a plans/projects/opportunities for each of us…God is calling us to deal with our flesh…

»Baptism and then a willful desire to harness our flesh…

QUESTION?: What reproach? The reproach of Egypt…Their past bondage to the world in Egypt…With circumcision comes the new life, the past no longer remembered by God and all things have become new…

2Cor. 5: 17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

1Jn. 1: 9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

»The more we can walk out our faith in purity and victory, the greater the work that God will do, the more fruitful the project.

V10-12

(O)BSERVATION

Passover observed…Keeping Christ & the cross the focus.

Rev. 2: 1-5 The Church of Ephesus; repent and do the 1^st works.

ANALOGY: Keeping the main thing the main thing…Staying focused on the purpose of the project…A Garden? Good veggies, a building project? What need is the building meeting? What is its purpose?

Manna ceases and they partake of the provisions of the land…“The milk of the word”?

V13-15

(P)REPARATION

ANALOGY: Get to know the Designer. Follow the blueprint of the Architect. It’s not our work or their work, it’s His work!

Jesus meets Joshua…THE COMMANDER OF THE LORD’S ARMY

1. Walk in Awareness of God’s Presence

» Like Moses, Joshua is told to take his sandals off because he’s on holy ground. Have a sense of humble awe while at His work.

» Joshua He prostrates himself worships Christ the King, the Captain of our Salvation. Be in an attitude of prayer and worship at His work.

2. Walk in Reliance of God’s Guidance

» Joshua must align himself and Israel with God’s plan…not his own, even when God’s plan seems peculiar and doesn’t match with conventional wisdom.

Is. 55: 8-9 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways.” Says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

►A Final Thought:

→GILGAL: Rolling Away/Rolling of a Wheel (movement)

A place of great Refreshment and New Beginnings, but also it represents Spiritual Stagnation and Resignation:

»The Israelites didn’t keep moving forward in the conquest of the land. In the more difficult areas to fight, they resigned themselves to defeat.

»They became stagnant and settled for less than what God had for them.

»What was to be a launching off place and a resting place…became a place of stale resignation and ultimately a place of idolatry…

A Warning: We need to always be moving forward in our faith…

I believe the N. Olympic Peninsula in WA is Gilgal for us. It is a place of launching out and a place of refreshment, we’re ready to move forward and take the land.

Many Blessings to you!

Jeremy