Joshua 1:9

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Short Summary
The discourse centers on Joshua 1:9, emphasizing that strength and courage come not from ourselves but from God’s presence as we follow Jesus, the greater Joshua. It highlights the significance of consecration as crossing a spiritual boundary—from wilderness to inheritance—and calls believers to hold firmly to faith and stand steadfast together amid life’s challenges. The message encourages calm, orderly obedience and unity within the faith community, drawing inspiration from past mentors and the example of Jesus, culminating in a renewed commitment symbolized by the Lord’s memorial.

Long Summary
Detailed Summary of the Discourse on Joshua 1:9 — “The Mantle of Authority Following the Captain”

Theme and Scripture Focus:
– The discourse centers on Joshua 1:9, where God commands Joshua:
*“Have I not commanded thee? Be strong and of good courage. Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.”*
– The title: *“The Mantle of Authority Following the Captain”* emphasizes following Jesus (the greater Joshua) as the ultimate conqueror.

Key Message: Strength and Courage through God’s Presence
– The promise is a command, not a suggestion or hope. God commands strength and courage because of His presence with us.
– Strength and courage are not based on self but on God’s presence. Courage is sourced from faith in God, not personal bravery.
– This verse is especially for those who *do not feel brave*.

Joshua as a Type of Christ:
– Joshua means “Jehovah’s salvation” and is a type pointing to Jesus, the greater Joshua.
– Joshua led Israel across the Jordan into the promised land; Jesus leads spiritual Israel into salvation and inheritance.
– The camp of Israel represents believers who follow Joshua/Jesus.

The Jordan River as a Spiritual Boundary:
– The Jordan symbolizes the transition from wilderness (testing, discipline, delay) to inheritance (responsibility, warfare, victory).
– Crossing the Jordan is the moment faith becomes practical, not theoretical.
– It marks entering into the promises of God by faith and consecration.

Consecration and Commitment at the Lord’s Memorial:
– The Lord’s Memorial is more than remembrance; it’s a yearly renewal of consecration, a recommissioning to follow Jesus.
– Jesus’ sharing of the bread and cup is an enlistment in service, a call to take up the mantle and follow Him.
– The cup symbolizes commission and grace that conquers where the law failed.

Spiritual Anatomy of Strength and Courage:
– *Strength* (Hebrew: related to arms and grip) implies holding fast, gripping the captain’s hand (Christ’s merit), not self-reliance.
– *Courage* (related to legs) means standing firm, defensive power to resist temptation and compromise.
– Both strength and courage develop desire and faith to overcome the “Hittites” — symbolic of entrenched sinful habits and fleshly lusts.

Role of Desire and Faith:
– Desire for Jesus (the Lamb) fuels strength to resist fleshly temptations.
– Behavior follows desire, not mere instruction.
– Faith is expressed in gripping Christ’s promises and standing firm in them.

The Community and Mutual Support:
– We do not stand alone; brethren provide mutual encouragement — “look to your left and right.”
– The courage of the captain (Jesus) becomes the church’s courage because of unity with Him.

Practical Application to Modern Life:
– The world is full of noise, chaos, and fear, designed to shake faith and cause panic.
– The Christian’s strategy is calmness, order, silence, and harmony—following Jesus in rhythm and obedience, like Israel’s march around Jericho.
– Jesus’ calm example at the Last Supper (washing feet, breaking bread, praying) models strength through tranquility.

“The Pace Setter” Poem (Japanese translation of Psalm 23):
– Emphasizes walking with the Lord’s pace: no rushing, calm intervals, peace, restoration, and balance.
– Encourages believers to avoid frantic worldly race and instead march steadily to Zion.

Legacy of Faithful Mentors (Lieutenants):
– The speaker recalls spiritual mentors who exemplified faithfulness and courage, encouraging the current generation.
– These “lieutenants of the camp” bridge the gap between the captain and current believers.
– Their lives testify to God’s power to overcome “Hittites” and possess the promised land.

Summary of the Spiritual Journey:
– God’s grace is freely given, but believers must actively “put their foot on the promises” and possess them by faith.
– The Word of God is the sword in spiritual warfare.
– The Lord’s Memorial is a spiritual Jordan crossing: a commitment to move from wilderness to promised land.

Final Exhortation:
– See the Memorial table as the Jordan river boundary.
– Visualize stepping into the water of surrender and crossing over by faith.
– Jesus stands on the far bank, waiting to lead and empower us.
– The command to be strong and courageous is for all who follow Jesus into consecration, conflict, inheritance, and rest.
– Cling to faith, stand firm, and march steadily step-by-step towards Zion.

Key Bible Verses Referenced:
– Joshua 1:9 (central text)
– Romans 12:1-2 (living sacrifice and reasonable service)
– Romans 6:3-4 (baptism into Christ’s death and walking in newness of life)
– Psalm 23 (in Japanese poetic translation)
– 2 Timothy 4:7 (“I have fought the good fight”) and other implied scriptures about standing firm in faith (e.g. “Having done all, stand” from Ephesians 6)

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Summary Keywords and Themes:
Joshua 1:9, strength, courage, God’s presence, faith, consecration, Lord’s Memorial, Joshua as type of Christ, Jordan River, spiritual boundary, practical faith, grip and stance, fighting flesh, desire for Jesus, community support, calmness, order, harmony, mentors, spiritual warfare, sword of the Spirit, crossing over, marching to Zion, living sacrifice, reasonable service, renewal, commission, obedience, steadfastness, peace, tranquility, legacy of faith.

Transcript

Well, brethren, I have the privilege of doing the theme discourse for today it’s on Joshua, chapter one, verse nine. The title of my service is the Mantle of Authority following the Captain. The Mantle of Authority following the Captain. This is what Joshua, chapter one, verse nine says.

This is God speaking to Joshua. He says this, have I not commanded thee? Be strong and of good courage. Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee, whithersoever thou goest. You know, sometimes I don’t feel strong and courageous.

And we come here today not because we are conquerors, but because we follow a captain who is the conqueror, and I think that was Joshua’s secret sauce. There is a difference between a conqueror and a follower of a conqueror. A conqueror can boast. A follower can only say, I stayed with him.

And that’s our challenge, is to stay with the conqueror. Now, Joshua, chapter one, verse nine is not a promise for people who already feel brave.

It is a verse for people who do not feel brave. Here it is again. Have I not commanded thee? Be strong and of good courage. Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee, whithersoever thou goest.

Now notice it doesn’t say, have I not suggested? And it does not say, have I not hoped? It says, have I not commanded thee. But this promise is not merely one of comfort.

This promise is a promise of commission.

You see, we’re not merely soothed by this promise. We are commissioned.

We are enlisted.

Now we are nearing our lord’s memorial. On March 31, we’ll be celebrating it, and our Lord’s memorial is not only a call to remembrance, but it is a renewal of our consecration. It is a yearly moment when the captain looks into the eyes of his soldiers and says, will you march with me another year?

Will you drink again in remembrance of me? Will you stand again with me?

Let’s travel back in time. Let’s be time travelers for a moment and let us leave this room. Let’s travel back 3,000 years to the plains of Moab.

You can feel the oppressive heat. It’s dry, it’s dusty. It’s one of those heat where the dust settles in the back of your throat.

You can smell the scent of goat hair, tents and ancient Earth, and 3 million people are standing there. They are all holding their breath figuratively, and the silence is heavy. Can you see him?

Can you see Joshua? If you quiet your mind, if you tune out the loud noise of the world, if you listen with the ear of Faith. You can hear the silence of the camp because Moses the giant, Moses the Lawgiver, is dead, and the camp is anxious, and that question hangs in the hot air.

Who will lead us now?

Now, at the edge of that camp stands a figure looking across the river. He’s not new to the struggle. He’s been a faithful minister. He has no ego, and he’s been simply waiting.

His name is Joshua. It means Jehovah’s salvation. In the Greek, that name means Jesus. Joshua is the type, but Jesus is the reality, and just as God worked through Joshua to deliver the children of natural Israel to the promised land, God is working through Jesus, our Savior, standing ready to deliver the nation of Israel, the spiritual Israel.

And who are we? Well, we’re the camp. We’re the ones standing behind Joshua. We are watching Joshua set his shoulders. We are waiting for his signal to cross the Jordan.

Now, let’s slow down right here, and let’s consider the weight of this moment. Jordan is not just water. Jordan is a boundary. Think of this. On one side of the Jordan is wilderness, mana, discipline, testing, circling, delay, complaints, lessons learned the hard way.

And on the other side is inheritance, responsibility, warfare, victories, failures, recoveries, growth, possession.

Crossing the Jordan is where faith ceases to be theoretical and starts to be practical.

Jordan is where the promises stop being quoted and start being walked into, and I think that’s the big concept for us. We get to walk into the promises of God.

And what does God say about this boundary? He says, be strong and be of good courage, for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.

Now, God did not tell Joshua to be strong because you are strong. He said, be strong because I am with you.

And isn’t that the whole doctrine of consecration in one sentence? Be strong because I am with you.

The courage of our new creature does not come from ourself.

It comes from presence. It comes from God’s presence.

Now, when Israel crossed the Red Sea, it pictured deliverance from Egypt, release from condemnation, a separation from the world. But Jordan is different. Crossing the Jordan is not simply coming out. Crossing the Jordan is going in.

And in the gospel age, going in means this. Not merely believing in the ransom, but presenting ourselves. Hands out, full surrender. Saying, not my will, but thine we love. Romans, chapter 12, verses 1 and 2.

Romans, chapter 1 and 2. 12, 1 and 2. The apostle Paul calls it a living sacrifice. That’s an emotional component to our faith, to our consecration. He also calls it our reasonable service.

That’s the logical component to our Faith, and I think the singularity of our faith and our heart is so important as we cross that Jordan in the confidence of God’s presence in our life, in our leader, Jesus. Romans chapter 6, verses 3 through 4 describes it as being baptized into his death that we should all walk in newness of life.

So when Joshua stands at the Jordan, we see it as a picture of our own consecration, stepping into the cold current of surrender, not knowing exactly what lies ahead, but feeling the presence and power of God.

And we know who is with us.

And right there, as we cross the Jordan, before a single wall falls and before a single inheritance is divided, God speaks a command that is also a gift. He says two things. He says, be strong, but he also says, be courageous, and he pulls those two together and he says, because I am with you.

Now let that scene dissolve. Let’s leave Moab and let’s fast forward. The blinding sun of Moab fades. The smell of dust is replaced by the earthy, tart smell of wine and the warm scent of unleavened bread. The vast plains, they shrink into the intimacy of the upper room, a limestone chamber lit by flickering oil lamps.

Jesus, the greater than Joshua, is with us at the table. Now he knows that Moses, the law covenant, is dead. It could not bring us to perfection, and he looks at his disciples. He looks at you and me.

He picks up the bread. He lifts the cup, and you watch closely.

This is not just our Lord’s memorial. This is our enlistment in service. This is our opportunity to be recommissioned. When Jesus passes the cup, he was not resigning his commission. He was sharing it.

He was saying, I’m going first, and where I go, you can follow later.

Now God told Joshua to be strong, and in Hebrew, this strength refers to the arms and shoulders, and it pictures the muscles needed for aggressive warfare. Now Jesus was strong. Who did he fight?

Jesus fought the enemies of sin, and now he hands the cup to you and he says, drink.

Do you see the contrast of strength?

The world thinks strength is for the self reliant.

But in this upper room, this strength is infused within us from Jesus. It’s given to us from Jesus, and God is with us because he gave us that promise, and we are strong only because we are in God’s army. When we take those emblems, we are putting on our armor, we are saying, lord, I am ready to march.

I am ready to fight those enemies in my entrenched flesh, those fallen enemies in my own fallen flesh.

The cup is our commission. The law failed, but grace Conquers. The captain leads, the soldiers follow.

Now, I have a question for you. When you sit with your brethren at our lord’s memorial on March 31st of this year, will you see it as a quiet ritual, or will you see it as Jordan, your boundary line, something that you go into?

Will you feel the hand on your shoulder and a voice saying, have I not commanded thee? Be strong, be of good courage. I am with thee, whithersoever thou goest.

That command is not simply for one heroic leader. It’s for a company that follows him into consecration, into conflict, into inheritance, and into rest.

Let us dig a little deeper into this command. Be strong and of good courage. They kind of sound like synonyms. Strong, good, courage. We think of those as synonyms meaning the same thing, but in the spiritual anatomy of the new creation, these are different.

There’s two different distinct functions of being strong and of good courage. Both are commands that develop desire. Remember we talked about desire?

One of the things that Jesus did by asking a question as he put our desire right on. On the table for us to see, and he could work with us based upon what we wanted.

The first command is the strength of the arms, and that’s in the grip when you grip something.

Now, God told Joshua to be strong, and the Hebrew here for strong also means to fasten upon, to seize, to grip, to hold tight.

For the strength of the Joshua class is not in our muscles. It’s in our grip.

And just as God created the desire in the camp of Israel to defeat the Hittites, God created, will create the desire in you to defeat our fallen flesh.

Now, for all of us, the Hittites in our fallen flesh are mighty. They’re dug deep. They’re entrenched. They have built high walls in our minds.

But God’s command to Joshua and to us is being strong does not mean that we defeat them alone.

It means that we take the sword of the spirit and we grip the captain’s hand.

We don’t negotiate with our fallen nature.

We hold on to the merit of Christ and we do not let go.

Knowledge is our foundation. But our desire helps us hold on to the merit of Christ and not let go.

Now, I have found, as I get older and I’m not sure, is it because I’m older or I’m more mature in the faith that my desire for God that you remember the bitter herbs include the desire for the lamb. That’s one of my most precious, beautiful thoughts of the memorial, that the lamb, the bitter herbs are actually for a reason, and they make us desire the Lamb, and this desire for Jesus, this desire for deliverance by Jesus gives us really super energy, and I think it helps us pinch off the lust of our flesh.

This desire for Jesus, this. No negotiating with our flesh. It pinches off the lust of our flesh. It mutes the lust of our eyes and it silences the pride of life.

Our desire for the Lamb is our strength.

Remember, behavior follows desire, not instruction. The grip is not self control. The grip is clinging to our faith.

How about courage? Be of strong. Be. Be strong, and of good courage.

What is the courage? Well, it’s. The courage is of the legs. It’s our stance. When God says be of good courage, the world comes from the.

The word comes from lower limbs, and it implies defensive power, the power to stand, and sometimes the hardest part of the battle is not attacking, but it’s simply not moving.

Let God do the work.

When the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life push us to compromise, we use our legs to stand.

When the giants of our weaknesses loom over us, we use our legs to stand. What does the apostle Paul say? He says, having done, all stand.

And here’s the secret. We do not stand alone, even in this room. Look to your left, look to your right.

You see your brethren and you realize that God is with them. Wasn’t that a beautiful testimony we had today? Beautiful testimony meeting.

And because God is with them, your brethren, he’s with you.

And this promise of strength and courage to Joshua is actually a balancing of our faith.

Faith in our grip, clinging to faith, holding on to the master’s hand.

Faith in our stance, standing in the power of God, in the power of God’s courage. Now here is another encouraging thought that I really like, and that is that Joshua did not cross the Jordan alone.

Joshua did not march around Jericho alone. Joshua did not take the inheritance alone.

Joshua did not bring rest alone.

The people followed, the people fought, the people possessed and the people rested.

And in this picture, the captain’s courage becomes the church’s courage. Not because we’re naturally brave, because we are united with the one who is brave.

How comes the practical question, the how? How do we maintain the grip in this stance in a world spinning out of control? I was rather amused by the loud noise of the wedding party over here, and it was kind of fun thinking about. I forget, was that the testimony meeting?

But you know, we’re competing. It’s kind of. It was a great little metaphor, wasn’t it? It was a party and we are sanctified in this sanctuary, this space, this holy space, and that’s kind of a metaphor for how the world is trying to drown out the noise of our life, the noise of our faith.

It’s trying to loosen our grip on clinging to faith. It’s trying to make us moved from when the apostle Paul says to stand in your faith. But what is the practical way that we do this? How do we do it? How do we maintain this grip and this stance in a world spinning out of control?

You know, the noise and the chaos is. Is deafening. I don’t watch the news anymore. I try not to read it either. But the news cycle is really a constant barrage of fear.

It’s actually designed to make you panic. If it bleeds, it leads. It’s designed to make you run, and it’s designed to make us uncertain.

But what is our captain’s strategy? What’s the strategy of our captain? Well, let’s go back and consider Joshua at Jericho.

When Joshua stood before Jericho, he did not order the people to charge Jericho. He ordered them to walk, and he said this. He said, ye shall not shout nor make any noise until the day that I bid you shout.

That’s kind of fun, isn’t it? All we have to do is follow instructions. How hard is that?

The people walked together in the grip and the stance of God. That’s what they did at Jericho. They walked together in faith, and they stood in the stance of being in God’s presence, under his protection.

They stood in silence. They walked in silence. They walked in rhythm. They walked in order. They walked in harmony.

And that’s how we should be following Jesus. Silence, rhythm, order and harmony, and this is our obedience to God. It is our righteous calling from God. It is our reasonable service.

It is our living sacrifice.

Now consider our Lord Jesus, the greater Joshua in the upper room.

Consider what he was going through. You know, we’re going to participate in the memorial. But what was he going through? What was Jesus going through? He kind of looked very calm, I’m sure, to the disciples, but I think he.

It was the night that he was betrayed. It was probably one of the more stressful nights in his whole life.

What did Jesus do? Did he pace the floor back and forth, looking at his watch, wondering what was going to happen?

He did not scream. He did not organize a militia.

He washed feet. He broke bread.

He prayed. He sang a hymn. Jesus’s strength with it was in his calm. It was in his grip. It was in his grip on the promises of the heavenly Father, it was in his stance.

It was in his stance, in the surety of his mission.

And so it is with us.

The strength of the church is not in our frantic activity, it’s in our tranquility.

We cannot listen to the captain if we are screaming. We cannot listen to the captain if we are charging.

You know, I have a like to offer a strategy for the final leg of the march with you.

And it comes from a Japanese translation of the 23rd Psalm by somebody named Toki Miyashina. Sister Marilyn and I have been over to Japan, I’m thinking, I don’t know, seven or eight times, and wow, what a beautiful, beautiful people in a beautiful culture. We’ve had the opportunity to be with the brethren over there, and they have an understanding of nature. They actually thank God for their food, but they also thank the food for their food, and I think that’s a big concept.

They’re thankful for not speaking to their food as a sentient being, but actually being thankful for their food and being aware of what that means to nourish their bodies. So I’d like to offer a Japanese translation of the 23rd Psalm by Toki Miyashina.

Now imagine the voice of the greater Joshua speaking to you about how to survive the end of the gospel age.

It’s not going to be by screaming, it’s not going to be by shouting, it’s not going to be by charging. It’s going to be by calm, being calm and resting in the courage and the strength of our Heavenly Father, with the grip of our faith, with the standing on the sure promises of God, that sure foundation that we have. It’s going to be in our dedication of our heart and our mind through a living sacrifice and a reasonable service. It’s going to happen because we’re being baptized along with Christ as we renew our consecrations in about six weeks. The title of this poem is the Pace Setter.

The Pace Setter.

The Lord is my pace setter. I shall not rush.

He makes me stop and rest in quiet intervals.

He provides me with the images of stillness which restore my serenity. He leads me in ways of efficiency, through calmness of mind, and his guidance is peace.

Even though I have a great many things to accomplish each day, I will not fret, for his presence is here. His timelessness, his all importance will keep me in balance.

He prepares refreshment and renewal in the midst of my activity. By anointing my mind with his oils of tranquility. My cup of joyous energy overflows surely Harmony and effectiveness shall be the fruits of my hours. For I shall walk in the pace of my Lord and dwell in his house forever.

The Lord is my pacesetter. Isn’t that beautiful? I’m going to share that with our brethren during our memorial service. Now, we are not called to run this world’s frantic race.

Why? Because we are marching to Zion. We’re headed to the celestial city. Remember, silence, rhythm, order and harmony. By the way, that’s how I appreciate art.

Rhythm, order, harmony and balance. Whenever I go to a museum, I always look for that in paintings. I look for that balance, that rhythm, that order and that harmony. We have actually several original paintings in our home. Marilyn’s uncle was very prolific in painting our children.

And so beautiful. As we consider the art and the masterwork of God, and we can look back on Joshua, chapter one, verse nine, and see the courage and the strength that God gave Joshua as he led the. The children of Israel across the Jordan, and we get to participate in that as those who follow the greater than Joshua, our Lord.

With balance, rhythm, order and harmony. It’s kind of a rhythmic beat of the faithful. Balance, rhythm, order and harmony. We can be silent. We can cling to faith.

We can stand on the promises of God.

We are strong because we are steady.

Silence is our fortress. At the end of the age. Calmness is our courage.

And our desire grows in our confidence in this promise from our heavenly Father.

Have I not. Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of good courage. Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed. For the Lord thy God is with thee.

Whithersoever thou goest.

This promise becomes overwhelming. It kind of builds up to a crescendo of faith as we battle the Hittites of our flesh at the end of the gospel age.

As we try to forego the fear that, and not participate in the fear that the world has. Now, as we march behind our captain, we realize that we are not in the front row. Because ahead of us, between the captain and us, are the ranks of those who marched before us. We call them the lieutenants of the camp.

Let’s just do that for now. The lieutenants of the camp, and when God told Joshua, have I not commanded you? I believe Joshua heard an echo. Because that’s exactly what he heard from Moses.

He heard this. He shared thousands of encouragements from Moses. Moses said the same thing. So when God said it, it was just a repeat of what Moses had already told him, and so it is with us.

We have mentors that walked before us in the Faith we can face 2026 because we saw those mentors, those lieutenants, those examples of our mentors between us and the captain, our salvation. We saw their lives, we saw their faces. We saw how they faced the challenges of their day.

I think of that brother right.

I think of that brother right there. I think of that brother back there. I think that sister right there. I think of that sister right there. These are lieutenants that walked before us, between us and our greater than Joshua.

I think of brother Tim Thomason, a trusted guide. I got the opportunity to work with brother Tim Thomason. He was a trusted guide. When brother Tim Thomason spoke, I felt the weight of truth, and I felt him wrestle with the deep things of God.

And he brought them before us as pure feud. I pure food. I got to work with him on the Herald magazine. I think of brother Robert Seclemian. I can still hear his booming voice.

We attended the San Francisco, San Francisco Ecclesia quite often, probably once a month. He was poetic and he was precise, and he refused to give God anything except his best work. That’s what I remember about Bob Seclemian, and he showed me that meditating day and night was a way of life.

How about his wife, Ruth Seclemian? She’s a lieutenant in this army before us, between us and the captain of our salvation. I remember I was a kid and every time I showed up at the meeting, she gave me a quarter in my pocket, and that was the first thing that gave me a clue that there was richness in the word of God and coming to meeting, and guess what sister Marilyn and I did with our two grandkids.

We gave them a quarter for every question that they answered in the Bible storybook, and what a precious moment when they said, grandma and grandpa, you don’t have to pay us anymore.

But that was a small act by Ruth Seclemian that echoed a large heart. Now, Bob and Ruth Seclemian lived right in the middle of Haight ashbury during the 60s and 70s, and I had no clue what was going on. I just enjoyed their home and enjoyed their. Their presence.

But that was a wild time. My brother Tim told me that my father let him and, and my sister off about three blocks from the home and said, go ahead and walk that way, and they saw some amazing things. I think of brother Michael Nikora and the stability of his lower limbs.

Brother Michael Nicora, I don’t know if you know this brother David, but brother Michael Nicora is the one that kind of brought me into the Pastoral Bible Institute. Brother Michael Nicora? He had the stability of lower limbs. That’s defensive courage, and he was a steady rock in rough waters.

How about Brother Gilbert and Sister Marjorie Rice? They. They pictured the heart of the camp.

Their washing of feet was a warm meal and an open door.

It was a sword strike of hospitality against the cold world.

I remember visiting your home, brother David, and seeing that beautiful personality and hospitality up front, and personally, I feel the echo of my parents, Bob and Rachel Alexander. They were my first view of the captain. I watched them sacrificed, I watched them forgive. I watched them claim the precious promises.

Because the command be strong is echoing through them to us, and their lives are a testimony in our living memory of God’s power to lead us to the promised land. Those echoes we are hearing, they’re saying to us, we fought the Hittites and you can too. We crossed the waters and you can too. We crossed the boundary line and you can too.

We kept the faith and you can too.

You know, the land of Israel was Israel’s by deed of gift. But Israel still had to go up to possess it. I’d like you to consider that as a. An example, a template. Because God’s grace is ours.

But we claim it by putting the foot of our faith on God’s promises, and we stand on them.

And though Hittites, our old evil habits revolt if we meet them in the power of the Holy Spirit, they must yield.

God is with us is a prerequisite for all believers.

But note that God’s word is the weapon of successful conflict. The word of God is our sword. So, brethren, in conclusion, soon we will be returning to our homoclesias. The sun will set, the table will be spread, and I want to leave you with a vision for your participation that evening.

The Jordan River. Treat it as your boundary line. On this side of the Jordan river is the wilderness, the noise, the fear, the Hittites. On the other side is the land of promise, the divine nature, the fellowship with the Father, and when the emblems pass to you this year, see the table afresh as your Jordan river.

And when you reach out your hand to take the bread, visualize your feet stepping into the water and feel that cold current against your ankles.

But then feel that water stop. Feel the ground appear, the dry ground appear, and you are saying, I am crossing over. I am following the pacesetter. The greater than Joshua has already crossed.

He is standing on the far bank. He is looking back at us, his army, his body. He does not see our weakness. He sees his own strength in our grip. He does not see our fear.

He sees our own courage in our stance. Your captain is waiting. Not in the earthquake. Not in the wind. Your captain is waiting in the stillness of your consecrated art.

Heart.

Have I not commanded you yet? Yes, Lord. You’ve commanded us. Be strong and good. Courage be.

Be strong and courageous. Yes, Lord. We will grip the sword. We will stand our ground, and with that promise, we walk step by step all the way to Zion.

God bless you.

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