Get Up!

One of my favorite places to pray is at the top of a hill where I can see for miles. The view is just majestic and the field is filled with delicate cupped flowers. This year has been particularly beautiful because the leaves are still on the trees and the colors are still holding their brilliance. I love gazing up into the sky, just talking with God...but...oh that ominous "but!" But gazing up to heaven in sweet holy communion with God will not allow me to overcome the strongholds of sin in my life. We are at war...a war that is unseen...we fight not against flesh and blood. But, that is exactly where the enemy would like to keep us...at a fleshly level. If he can keep us in bondage at the lowest levels of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, then we will never experience the great conquests and victories of snatching others out of the fire. And for those who are "strong", the closer to the front lines of the battle, the weaker and more dependant we must become--for when we are weak, He is strong.

Right after the miraculous Jericho victory in Joshua 6, it says, "But the people of Israel broke faith...and the anger of the Lord burned against the people..." Joshua 7:5b states, "And the hearts of the people melted and became as water." It doesn't take long to go from the mountain of victory to the valley of defeat. That is why we must stay on our face, even when we are on the mountain...but we must not stay on our face too long. I said that i love to talk with God on that mountain. I am rebuked when i read Joshua 7:10 "The Lord said to Joshua, 'Get up! Why have you fallen on your face? Israel has sinned." There is a time when prayer will not be enough. Action is the only course. And it must be all or nothing. I think I understand what Jesus was trying to communicate when he said "if your eye offends you, pluck it out"...sin must be attacked aggressively...fanatically.

Allen Redpath wrote, "apart from the grace of God and the blood of Jesus, the smallest temptations will be too powerful for us. The victory you won yesterday will not bring you power today...as Paul stated, 'in my flesh dwelleth no good thing,' that 'when i am weak, then am i strong;' for the greatest cause of failure in Christian living is just this: imagining that the victory God has given us has imparted strength to us to win every battle, when it has done nothing of the kind.”

Prayer is essential...we cannot go into battle without the preparation of prayer. It is "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man that avails much." But we must also know when prayer is not enough...we must know when it is time for action...and in the life of Joshua, it was time to remove the sin out of the camp...completely, and quickly. As we read in Joshua 7, there were some who were holding on to the sins of the past. They held them in secret and kept them within the confines of their tents. Those sins that we hide in our hearts and partake of in the privacy of our homes, weaken the entire body of Christ, as it did for the entire nation of Israel. In Joshua 7:13 Joshua declares, "You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the forbidden thing from among you." We are in a holy war...may our resolve and God grace, grant us victory over the fleshly desires of our heart that so easily beset us, so that we may join in that great battle for souls. "Get up! Why have you fallen on your face?" Joshua 7:10