What is your Jericho?

Joshua 6

1 Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in.
2 Then the LORD said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. 3 March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. 4 Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. 5 When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have all the people give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the people will go up, every man straight in.”
6 So Joshua son of Nun called the priests and said to them, “Take up the ark of the covenant of the LORD and have seven priests carry trumpets in front of it.” 7 And he ordered the people, “Advance! March around the city, with the armed guard going ahead of the ark of the LORD.”
8 When Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets before the LORD went forward, blowing their trumpets, and the ark of the LORD’s covenant followed them. 9 The armed guard marched ahead of the priests who blew the trumpets, and the rear guard followed the ark. All this time the trumpets were sounding. 10 But Joshua had commanded the people, “Do not give a war cry, do not raise your voices, do not say a word until the day I tell you to shout. Then shout!” 11 So he had the ark of the LORD carried around the city, circling it once. Then the people returned to camp and spent the night there.
12 Joshua got up early the next morning and the priests took up the ark of the LORD. 13 The seven priests carrying the seven trumpets went forward, marching before the ark of the LORD and blowing the trumpets. The armed men went ahead of them and the rear guard followed the ark of the LORD, while the trumpets kept sounding. 14 So on the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. They did this for six days.
15 On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak and marched around the city seven times in the same manner, except that on that day they circled the city seven times. 16 The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the people, “Shout! For the LORD has given you the city! 17 The city and all that is in it are to be devoted [a] to the LORD. Only Rahab the prostitute [b] and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent. 18 But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it. 19 All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the LORD and must go into his treasury.”
20 When the trumpets sounded, the people shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the people gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so every man charged straight in, and they took the city. 21 They devoted the city to the LORD and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys.
22 Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, “Go into the prostitute’s house and bring her out and all who belong to her, in accordance with your oath to her.” 23 So the young men who had done the spying went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her. They brought out her entire family and put them in a place outside the camp of Israel.
24 Then they burned the whole city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the LORD’s house. 25 But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho—and she lives among the Israelites to this day.
26 At that time Joshua pronounced this solemn oath: “Cursed before the LORD is the man who undertakes to rebuild this city, Jericho: “At the cost of his firstborn son will he lay its foundations; at the cost of his youngest will he set up its gates.”
27 So the LORD was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout the land.

So. What is your Jericho?
Sometimes God will allow you to go around and around and around seemingly in confusion about an issue; the thing that stands in the way of your promise. But you will only go around the subject, issue, orproblem as many times as he commands before the walls will come crumbling down and you will be able to conquer that thing and step into Victory.

Don’t give up and don’t get tired. Don’t get frustrated. Don’t go around it half way and then start to believe that God is not going to do what He said in His word that he was going to do.
What if the Hebrew children had only circled Jericho two times or four times. They would have never heard the trumpet blow or the watched their enemy fall to them.

What is your Jericho? What is the thing that stands in the way of your victory. What has the enemy (or you, for that matter) placed in your land that you now have to allow God to conquer on your behalf?

This fight is not like the other fights. The other fights, God allowed you to use your hands, weapons, and might to fight the enemy. He let you use what he’d given you. But you’ve gotten too used to that. You’ve gotten so used to it that you actually made the mistake in thinking that it was YOU who was fighting.

With every battle that you fought, you began to rely on your own might to overcome. So God has now presented a Jericho and Jericho is not like the other fights. Nothing you do seems to work. It never will. A Jericho is one of those battles where the walls are too high and you are too ill-equipped to fight by yourself. You could try but you will be conquered immediately. This time you have to be still and be obediant to the will and word of God. This time you must do exactly what he tells you to do in the way that he tells you to with no deviations.

And its going to feel like you are going in circles (Jesus!) It’s going to feel like it is pointless. You aren’t going to be able to understand why you have to go into circles. But that’s okay…Remember the Hebrew phrase, “Naaseh V’nishma”…Act now, Understand Later.

And remember the first verse of Joshua 6? In spite of what you might think about the size of your Jericho, don’t you realize that your enemy is actually scared of you? That he sees the power of the God that you serve and you and he has built his gates so high not out of power but out of his fear of your light?

When the trumpet blows…Aaaahh, when the trumpet blows…and you know your circling has ended…You must SHOUT! And when you give that shout…when you lift your voice in praise, your enemy, problem, issue will crumble before you…not by your hand…but by the almighty, sovereign hand of God. The only thing you will be able to do is SHOUT, so Shout like never before. Shout like the Hebrew army, Joshua!

Remember when you doubted yourself. Rememeber when you unsure if you could lead like Moses. Remember when, though certain of your gifts, you were uncertain of the magnitude of the task that God laid before you. And now you’re at your Jericho and it is bigger than you could ever have thought before. Well, Shout Joshua! Shout loud and let your enemy know that he has been conquered by you simply walking out the word of God. Did you hear that? By you simply, walking out the word of God, by you being obediant even in the midst of not understanding, God will conquer your enemy on your behalf and without you having to struggle and fight.

Know this. God gives revelation in response to your obediance. Not the other way around. You can’t ask for revelation or understanding before you obey. If Abram had done that…

And remember, the Hebrew Children had to shout first and then the walls fell. So obediance and praise is what will activate the physical manifestation of your obediance. Don’t just obey and don’t just praise. God will honor both but it will be the two together that will give you victory over that which you can call your Jericho.

-TML