JOSHUA 10:1-15 WHAT TO EXPECT AS YOU RECEIVE GODS PROMISES2021 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Joshua 10:1-15 What To Expect As You Receive Gods Promises

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2021. So I've titled the message this evening, What to Expect.

As you receive God's promises. What to expect as you receive God's promises. Last week as we looked at Joshua chapter 3, we talked about God leading us into his promises or leading us to receive his promises. And so now the Lord kind of picks up that message part two now. As God is leading us to receive his promises, now we need to have a little bit of understanding of what to expect.

things that need to be in our mind that we should be prepared for so that we're not caught off guard as we look to receive the good things that God wants to do. And of course, we believe that. As Israel is heading into the promised land, it pictures for us all of the fulfilled promises that God has for us, the good things that God has promised to do in our lives, the growth, the accomplishments, the work that He wants to do, the miracles He wants to bring forth.

And so we believe that, we know that, and we see this example. But we also need to understand, as we'll see here in chapter 10, there's battles to face in the promised land. There's challenges and difficulties and things that need to be dealt with and dealt with in a way that is strong, that is bold, that is with faith.

faith. And that's what we see Joshua carry out here. And so we're going to look at four things tonight to help us have our expectations set in order as we look to receive the promises of God. The first thing to consider here in chapter 10 verses 1 through 5 is we should expect organized opposition.

Expect organized opposition. Again, in verse 1 and 2, we see that as word gets out that there is a response by the enemies, by the inhabitants of the land. Verse 1 again says,

It tells us in verse 2,

And so they're beginning to spread the word. The word is getting out. There's a lot of rumors going on and the word is being spread and people are starting to really get freaked out, specifically here in Jerusalem. Now, just to give you a little bit of the geography a little bit so you can understand what's happening here.

As we go back a few chapters, back to Joshua chapter 3 and 4, Israel cross over the Jordan River from the plains of Jericho. They camp at a place called Gilgal, which is right nearby the city of Jericho. And so Jericho is the first city that they attack. And so they attack the city of Gilgal.

And that happens in Joshua chapter 6. They conquer Jericho. That's the first city that they take in the land. So they've crossed over. Now they begin to conquer. Then, of course, there's the events that happen at Ai. There's a couple chapters there because the first attempt is not successful. But then in chapter 8,

the children of Israel conquer Ai, which is just a little bit over from Jericho. And so they have victory there. And then in chapter 9, yesterday's reading, we saw the Gibeonites, so the people from Gibeon, and you can kind of see there, they're just a little bit further west. And so they're hearing about all these exploits, right? And they come up with a quick plan, get some old provisions, and go and make a treaty with Israel, pretending to be from very far away. And three days later, Israel gets to the Gibeonite kingdom.

city, the city of Gibeon, and realizes that they've been tricked. But so they're making their way in, and now this guy from Jerusalem, now Jerusalem is just a little bit south of Gibeon. And so you can understand why Adonai Zedek is a little bit concerned, because he's right there. I mean, they've taken this area, they've taken this territory, and

He's next on the list, right? So he begins to get freaked out. It says that they feared greatly in verse 2. And they feared greatly specifically because verse 2 tells us Gibeon was a great city. And so it's interesting to consider that as you go back to chapter 9 and the negotiations that were there, right? The Gibeonites were not just like a small little people or a small defenseless city, but they were a great city.

And yet they feared and they

to make a deal, it kind of reminds me of the parable. Remember the parable that Jesus told about the shrewd steward who, you know, was going to get fired and so he went to the books and kind of cooked the books and gave a deal to a bunch of the people who owed his master so that he would have friends afterwards. This is like kind of like that. Like the Gibeonites all of a sudden believed in God and knew that God was going to give them, you know, give the territory to Israel. And so they just started taking matters into their own hands and

and made this deal. Well, the king of Jerusalem now sees all of this happen, and

He's thinking, we're shot then, we're dead, we can't compete. And so he says instead, hey guys, let's make an alliance here. In verse 3, it tells us all these different kings that he reaches out to. And the kings are the kings of all these cities here, Jarmuth, Eglon, Hebron, Lachish, we call it Lachish, but remember Shoshanna? Lachish, you know, she had to correct us. That's the right way to say it.

But so all of these kings, so he's like the farthest north. He says to all the guys south, look, Israel's coming this way. And so let's all join up. It's in all of our best interests to join together and try to mount a defense against Israel. And first, their decision is to take back the city of Gibeon. He says in verse four, come up to me and help me that we may attack Gibeon, for it has made peace with Joshua and with the children of Israel.

And so what the king is seeking to do here is saying, look, Gibeon is a strategic place. It's a strategic stronghold. It's the far north of all of us. We need to retake that stronghold, hold that ground, and not allow them to continue to push further down as they're trying to take over the land. And the logic is sound. The strategy is good.

Gibeon is a strategic position. We must retake it. No problem. Like that makes sense strategically, logically. And so he has a good plan here. And also he's thinking, look, if we keep to ourselves, they're just going to go from Gibeon to Jerusalem to Jarmuth. Like they're just going to knock us off one at a time. But we have a better chance of being victorious in this if we all join together and stick together in this alliance.

And so the kings agreed. They all said, yeah, you know what? That's a really good idea. Verse 5, the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon gathered together and went up. They and all their armies camped before Gibeon and made war against it.

They got organized. They assembled together. They came up with a good strategy, a strong plan, and they started to execute that plan, and they come against Gibeon and fight against it because of the rumors that they were hearing, because of the word that had gone out, because they knew they were next, and God was working mightily on their behalf.

They responded in an organized way. They came up with a good plan and fought against Gibeon. Pastor David Guzik says, There's different responses to fear.

Sometimes in the face of fear, there's running, there's hiding, there's different responses, right? But when the enemy is fearing, Guzik is pointing out, what the enemy does is not just run away, but he kind of reinforces his position and fights back.

And so this is what we're seeing happening here. It's an attempt of desperation to fight back, to hold the ground, and to keep Israel from advancing. And as we consider these things for ourselves, it's something to expect. Again, receiving God's promises is a good thing, and we want what God wants for us because God knows what's best. He has our best interests in mind, and we want to experience His will, and we want to receive His promises.

But we also need to be careful that we don't kind of enter into it with a naive approach and not really understanding and preparing ourselves that when there is the moving forward in the will of God and in the plan of God, we need to be prepared for and understand there's going to be opposition because we do have an enemy.

And the enemy is not going to just say, you know what, okay, I'll just surrender to you and just give up and, you know, I'm going to,

Let God have that victory in your life and, you know, no longer try to resist the work of God and the plan of God. No, the enemy comes back many times as God is working our lives. We're all familiar with this, that he'll come back and there will be an organized opposition. There will be an alliance of sorts. And so, you know, you're moving forward in obedience to what God has put upon your heart. And then

then your fridge dies, but it's not just that your fridge dies, then you also get a flat tire, and then you also have this family drama, and then you also have this workplace issue, and there's this organized attack, right? And maybe that's a little bit too silly, but hopefully it helps us understand and think about that there is this opposition that the enemy will bring against us

Because he fears, because he knows what God wants to do or that God wants to work in our lives. And there is a real battle that takes place. Paul alludes to this kind of idea in Ephesians chapter 6, that famous verse, verse 12, we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places. All of these

Things that Paul uses to describe the enemy speak of war, speak of military, speak of ranks and various ranks and organized approaches and attacks. And Paul is saying this is the real battle that we face, not against the people, not against the flesh and blood, but against these spiritual hosts of wickedness, against these ranks of the evil one. Now, not in a way that we need to be freaked out because, well, greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world, but

But at the same time, we need to be well-informed and have our expectations aligned

You know, sometimes we have the word of the Lord. It's like God says, I want you to go forward. Here's the step of faith that I want you to take. And maybe the thing that, you know, you've been wanting for and praying for for a long time. And now it's time. Now advance. Go take the promised land. And we need to be careful not to enter in with the idea that it's just going to be easy, that there's going to always be no problems. No, you'll be blessed and you're going to grow and God's going to be with you.

But also you need to expect organized opposition. There's going to be attacks and defenses, and the enemy is going to want to defeat the work that God wants to do in your life. Well, moving on to verse 6 and 7, we find the next thing that we need to expect as we receive God's promises, and that is we need to expect to honor the commitments that we've made. Expect to honor the commitments that you've made. Verse 6 says, And the men of Gibeon sent to Joshua at the camp

So Gibeon, now the city is under attack. And the Gibeonites, the people living inside the city, well, they reach out to Joshua. Because in the previous chapter, they had come to an agreement that they would be allies. And they were going to be allies.

And so not only would the children of Israel not attack them, but they would defend them. They would be allies in any battles that would take place. And so the Gibeonites called Joshua now to make good on that deal. You committed to us, Joshua, that you would be our ally. And so here we are now under attack. The kings of the Amorites have gathered together, and now we need your help.

Now, it's really interesting to think about this because, as we saw in chapter 9, the vow that they made, the commitment that they made, was based on the deception of the Gibeonites. They tricked Israel to making this agreement, making them think that they were from far away when really they were just the next town over. And so they were deceived to make this commitment. They were deceived to make this vow. But what's really interesting here is that in making the vow,

God holds them to the vow. And God doesn't say, that was a trick, never mind, you don't have to be faithful to the thing that you committed to. But we see as we look through the context, as we walk through chapter 9 and 10, that we see that God said, okay, you made this deal. It wasn't the right deal. You were tricked into it, but you didn't seek me. You didn't give me an opportunity to show you that it was deception. And so now you're bound to that decision.

Even though you know now after the fact that it was a bad decision. Go back a few verses to Joshua chapter 9 verse 18. It says that the children of Israel did not attack them when they got to the city and realized who it was because the rulers of the congregation had sworn to them by the Lord God of Israel and all the congregation complained against the rulers. Everybody knew that

that this was a bad move that the rulers had made, that they hadn't sought the Lord, they hadn't heard from him, they made this deal without really understanding everything. And so it was like a frustration to the whole nation that they were in this position. But it was the commitment that they made. And so they're going to be faithful to that commitment. Verse 7, it says, Joshua ascended from Gilgal, he and all the people of war with him, and all the mighty men of valor.

Joshua says, we got to go to their aid. We committed to it, and so we must do so. Now, I could imagine Joshua, I don't know if he was tempted by this, but I could imagine being in Joshua's shoes, being a little bit tempted, like, okay, well, if I let the Amorites kill the Gibeonites, then I'm

I'm off the hook. I made the bad deal. It wasn't the best thing to do. Maybe that fixes my mistake. And kind of thinking that this is my way out. I can kind of get away with it, in a sense, by just allowing them to conquer the Gibeonites.

But that's not what the Lord wanted. And so Joshua here, he's making good on his commitment. He's making good on his vow. And I think this is really important for us to consider. That we, throughout the scriptures, you can find this. That God says, look, you're not required to make a vow specifically to the Lord. But if you do make a vow, now God says that was a serious vow that you made.

And when we make commitments to one another, when we make commitments and agreements with people around us, it's the same thing. It's not sin to not make a commitment, but it is sin, once you've made the commitment, to then break that commitment, to break that promise or that agreement that was made. And that's something that we find throughout the scriptures. And so here, it's not the best thing, you know, in Joshua's mind, in the people's mind,

but they are bound to it. And so they're going to be held here to honor this commitment that was made. Now, as we head in to receive the promises of God, I would suggest there's going to be those kinds of things for us as well. There's things perhaps that we've agreed to, and we didn't really pray about it. We didn't have the word of the Lord on it, and it kind of goes against some of the things that we want to see God do in our life and be fulfilled in our life. But

at the same time, there needs to be an honoring of the agreements and the commitments that we've made. Now, there is an exception to that, of course. That is that if the commitment is directly against the things of God or a direct disobedience to God or breaking of the commandments of God, then those are commitments that we should not and must not honor. But generally speaking, the commitments that we've made

God would say, you know, you need to hold fast to that, even if it's challenging or difficult or not your favorite thing in the world. And it reminded me of this psalm, Psalm 15. Who may dwell in your tabernacle or abide in your tabernacle? Who may dwell in your holy hill? He who walks uprightly, works righteousness, and the psalmist goes through all these things that are characteristics of someone who dwells with God and has access to the presence of God.

One of the things that's listed there, though, in verse 4 is, he who swears to his own hurt and does not change. And the idea there is that you swear, that is, you make a commitment, you make an agreement, you make a promise, and the keeping of that promise hurts. It's costly, it's challenging, it's difficult, but you hold fast to your word, and you don't change just because it's hard. And God includes that here. It's taught throughout the scriptures as well, but it's one of the characteristics of being...

A godly person, a man or a woman of God. It's an example of God because God doesn't

give up on his promises, even when it's to his own hurt, even when it's costly, right? He is faithful to his word, and so he calls us to demonstrate that same thing to the world around us by being faithful to the commitments that we've made, even when they were not such a great thing. And I like this quote from Warren Wiersbe on that. He says, the mistakes that we make embarrass us, especially those mistakes that are caused by our running ahead of the Lord and not seeking his will, and

But we need to remember that no mistake is final for the dedicated Christian. God can use even our blunders to accomplish his purposes.

And so even when the thing that we need to do is not our favorite thing, even though it's embarrassing, the agreement that we made or the thing that we've done, we need to remember God's with us and he's not finished. You know, he will bring something good out of even the mistakes that we make as we walk with him and seek to honor him.

Well, moving on to verses 8 through 11, the third expectation that we can have as we receive the promises of God, expect God to join you in the fight. One of the things that we can take great comfort in and great joy in is that as we now engage in these battles, these oppositions that we expect because we know the enemy doesn't want God to work in our lives, we can also expect we're not going to be alone, but God is going to join us in

In the fight that is before us. Verse 8 says, And the Lord said to Joshua, Do not fear them, for I have delivered them into your hand. Not a man of them shall stand before you. Joshua therefore came upon them suddenly, having marched all night from Gilgal.

Verse 11. Verse 12.

At the beginning of this whole thing, God speaks to Joshua and says, Joshua, don't fear. I have delivered them into your hand. We talked a little bit about this Sunday, how God so often speaks of future events in the past tense. I have delivered them into your hand. The victory is assured. The victory is yours. Not a man of them shall stand before you.

I've given you the victory, now go fight the battle. And that's where we get the idea here, that we don't fight for victory as believers, but we fight from victory. This is the reality. God has given us promises. God has promised us victory in Him and great things for us as we walk with Him.

but there's still that joining in the fight. It doesn't mean Joshua just sit there and I'm going to go take care of it and I'll come back and let you know when the work is done. He says, I'm with you. Now go and

and fight this battle. And so Joshua does so. In verse 9, he marches all night with his guys, and they come upon Gilgal as a surprise attack. They wouldn't have been expecting the response to happen so fastly. So he comes back. They've marched all night. They're tired. They're exhausted. But they have this promise from God.

God says, I'm with you. I've delivered them into your hand. And so they're pressing on in this fight even after marching all night. Pastor David Guzik says, no, not that guy. F.B. Meyer, different commentator, says, before he started, he was assured of victory, but this did not make him slothful. It was by his faith, courage, and obedience that his and other victories were won. And we need to remember that

There is a battle. There is a fight. God will join us in the fight, but he also calls us to the fight.

And it's by trusting God and stepping out in obedience. And God joins with us. I often like to use the illustration of a power tool, right? Like using a power tool is way better than not having power. But using a power tool also doesn't mean that you don't have to do any work. Like it's actually hard work to use a power tool. But with the power tool and the efforts that you put forth, then great things are accomplished and you can get a lot of work done. And in a similar way, God joins in with the fight. Right?

Of course, in a much greater way than a simple power tool. But the idea here is that we're involved. He involves us in the battle, in the fight, and it's by our faith and trust in God that we have the victory. And so it tells us in verse 10, the Lord routed them before Israel. So fulfillment, right? God tells Joshua, go, I've given you victory. And they enter into the battle, the clash happens, and the Lord routed them before Israel. There

They're on the run and they're running away because God has led the enemy into this panic, into this defeat. And so there's this great slaughter that happens at Gibeon and they start to chase them down to the south. And so we see an immediate defeat.

a bit of victory as God joins the battle and they start to run away. But God wants to do a much greater victory. And so verse 11 talks about these hailstones that the Lord casts down.

And so there's this miraculous storm that happens or miraculous cataclysmic event that happens where it's a lot of different kinds of speculation. Is it literally a hell stone like a storm? Or is it more like meteorite activity? There's even some speculation by scientists that perhaps this corresponded with

the planet Venus entering into our solar system at that time and all of the debris that would have surrounded it. And, you know, who knows? I'm not smart enough to figure all that out. But so there's these hailstones or rocks, meteorites, whatever you want to call them. But the Lord is casting them down. But the miracle here too is that the enemy is hit with the hailstones. But

but the children of Israel aren't impacted. So all of the enemy, they're just getting taken out. They're getting pounded by the Lord. And it tells us that more were killed by the hailstones than were by the sword, which is interesting because go back to verse 10, there was a great slaughter at Gibeon, right? There was a strong battle, a big defeat at Gibeon. And then as they run away,

God takes out those who are retreating and as Israel is chasing them, he is protecting Israel, but also dealing with the enemy in a strong and powerful way that they're not able to escape from. And so, Pastor Warren Wiersbe says, when God's people are obeying God's will, everything in the universe works for them. When we disobey God's will, everything works against us.

There's no stronger position to be. There's no safer place to be than in the center of God's will. I mean, let's just say, let's imagine for a moment, this is the result of Venus entering into the solar system. And so as a result, there's all this debris in the atmosphere, piercing through the atmosphere, like crumbling.

Like God arranged all of that and worked all of that out to accomplish his purposes there with the children of Israel. And we can have this kind of expectation when we're lined up with the will of God. Everything in the universe, even if it involves, you know, bringing in a planet or taking out a planet, changing the orbit, you know, changing the

direction of the galaxy, you know, there is no limit to what God can do, will do for us as we are in line with his will. He's going to join us in the fight. He's going to be part of the battle and we can trust in him.

for that. Well, it gets even stronger as we head into verses 12 through 15 now. For point number four, what can we expect as we receive his promises? You can expect God to answer your prayers. Expect God to answer your prayers. Let's read verses 12 through 15. Then Joshua spoke to the Lord in that day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel. And he said in the sight of Israel, son, stand over Gibeon and moon in the valley of Ijaloc.

So the sun stood still and the moon stopped till the people had revenge upon their enemies. Is this not written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day. And there has been no day like that before it or after it, that the Lord heeded the voice of a man for the Lord fought for Israel. Then Joshua returned and all Israel with him to camp at Gilgal.

So miracle after miracle is happening. First of all, there's just the slaughter that happens. They have a first victory there at Gibeon. Then as the people retreat, then all of these hailstones start to come and to take out the enemy. But now they're continuing to press on. They're continuing to chase down those who are retreating and fight this battle.

but it's starting to get dark. The day's starting to go on and they're in danger of heading into the night. And so Joshua makes this prayer request. Lord, would you cause the sun to stand still? Would you cause the moon to stop? We understand, thinking about these things as we read through this today, that what we're talking about here is a ceasing of the rotation of the earth that really Joshua is asking for.

that the sun would stay in its place because the earth is not continuing to spin. And so it's quite an interesting thing to consider. Pastor David Guzik says, seeing God's miraculous hand in action gave Joshua the boldness to ask for an even more stupendous miracle to keep the day going, to keep the sun from setting so that Israel had time to accomplish a complete victory before darkness fell.

Like there's one part of us perhaps that would say, you know, they're retreating. Like we had a great slaughter. More were killed by the hailstones than even that great slaughter. Let's call it a day. It's nighttime now. It's evening now. Like, hey, we did good enough. I mean, there was a lot that was accomplished. And so that's good enough.

But Joshua here has this great boldness to say, you know what? If we had more daylight, we could really finish this off. We can really fulfill this battle and bring it to completion. And so he makes this bold, crazy prayer request. Like, had anybody prayed?

prayed this before or asked this of God before? Maybe. I'm sure that all of us have experienced that, right? You get kind of to the end of a day or a time and it's like, man, if only I had like four more hours in the day, like I could finish this. So much could be resolved if there was just a little bit more time.

But here Joshua, right in the center of God's will and God's purposes, doing the work of God, believing God and trusting in God, he says, you know what, God, I think you want to do this. I think you want to. And of course, we know, obviously, like God had to put this in Joshua's heart because it's too crazy to ask for without. But God had this in Joshua's heart and he says, son, stand still.

Lord, you want to give us more daylight so that we can have a full and complete victory, not a partial, you know, most victory or partial, you know, mostly accomplished victory, but you want to give us the whole thing. You want to complete the work that you began in us. And so he prays for the sun to stand still and the sun stood still. It says in verse 14, there's been no day like that before it or after it.

The Lord heeded the voice of a man, for the Lord fought for Israel. God was fighting for Israel. He was heeding the request of Joshua to accomplish the plans of God in his life and for the children of Israel. Now, looking at this, of course, there's an obvious discussion. How did this happen?

Did the earth really stop to rotate? And so the sun and the moon stood still in the sky in that way. Many have suggested, well, you know, it didn't actually stop rotating. It was just like an atmospheric effect. And so there was more daylight. It was reflected better. And so it seemed like it was day, even though, you know, things continued as normal in the rotation of the earth and the orbits and everything. Yeah.

It's interesting to consider because the earth spins. If you think about the equator, the speed of it, they estimate, is about 1,000 miles per hour.

So if you think about, like, I don't know if you've ever done this, but you know back in the old days where they had the merry-go-rounds at the playground and you spin it, spin it, spin it, spin it, and then you try to stop it real fast, right? Like, the force that would happen if the earth spinning at a thousand miles an hour stopped suddenly, everybody would fall over and fly off. You know, gravity wouldn't be able to hold us to the ground at that kind of rate. And so that's probably not what happened. An immediate stop, right? But

But perhaps there was a gradual, maybe even before Joshua prayed this prayer, because God knew what he was doing, right? Like there was like a slow stop or a slow down, and then it just continued on after that and sped up again. Like God could do this however he wanted to, and we could speculate and think about and wrestle with. And again, some of the scientists in this correlate this with the

the entering of Venus into the solar system, and so the impact of that, you know, perhaps caused this slowdown of the spin or the stopping. All kinds of theories and things abound, but none of it really makes a huge impact. It's just kind of fun to consider, but the bottom line is God spoke it into existence and

He can spin it up. He can slow it down. He can juggle it around. You know, he can do whatever he wants if he wants to. But as we look at this from the perspective of living on this earth and seeing the sun rise and set, we understand like this is not anything that man could do. This is not anything that we could accomplish with any kind of strategy or wisdom or joining together or strength. This is something that only God can do. And sometimes we

Because it's so far out there, we don't ask God for things that maybe he wants to do. You know, James tells us that sometimes we don't have because we just don't ask. And he goes on to say, sometimes we don't have because we ask and our heart's in the wrong place. We're just, you know, trying to fulfill our own desires. But the key here, I think, is understanding that Joshua is right where God wants him to be. I always like this verse in 1 John 5, it says,

John tells us this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of him. And so here's Joshua in the center of God's will. He says, God, you told us that you wanted to give us victory. And I don't think that you just wanted to give us a half victory. We're running out of time. So we're going to ask you to give us a half victory.

Lord, would you give us more time that we could have the whole victory that you promised to us? I think that's your will for us, God. And so he asked for more time in the way that he knows how, like sun stands still. And the Lord answered that because it was right in line with what God was wanting to do in his life and for the nation of Israel.

This, I think, reminds us and speaks to us the importance of the main thing is to know that we are in God's will. It's so important for us. You need to know what God wants to do in your life. You need to know that you're pursuing God's will because there's this great confidence that when we ask God, when we pray in alignment with his will, we know, John says, he hears us,

And if we know he hears us, then we know that we have the petitions that we've asked of him. We don't always know all the details, of course. We don't always know everything that God wants to do. But we can have these things where God told Joshua, I want to give you victory.

And so, Lord, I know you want to give me victory, and so I'm going to pray. Crazy prayers, bold prayers, I'm going to, I know I'm in line with your will in this. And so, Lord, I'm going to ask you to work miraculously and answer these prayers. Now, again, we can't take it too far and start demanding things from God. You know, of course, there's always things that we don't know and we don't understand, but at the same time, there's so many times where

But we just don't ask. It's like it's too hard for God. It's too big of a thing. Listen, God could stop the earth for you. If it fits in line with his will, he will stop the earth for you. And again, sometimes we just don't have those things because we don't ask, James tells us. Think about, you know, Jesus talked about the faith of a mustard seed, right? If you have the faith of a mustard seed, you can tell this mountain to cast itself into the sea. Faith as big as a mustard seed. Here's another way to think about that.

Just a little bit alignment with God and His will goes such a long way. Gives us access to the work of God in our lives in a powerful way. If we just align ourselves. Again, I always define faith as obedience to God at His word. So if we have faith as a mustard seed, if we align ourselves obeying God at His word, seeking to accomplish His purposes and living for His glory, there is an opportunity for us to pray. And we can expect God to answer us.

as we seek to accomplish his will and his purposes in our lives. And so here's some things to expect as you receive God's promises. Expect organized opposition. There's going to be attacks. There's going to be battles. And you're going to have to honor some commitments, perhaps, that you've made. Honor those agreements. And there's going to be challenges. It might be costly. It might be the last thing that you want to do. And maybe there's some easy excuses to get out of it. But hold fast to those commitments. Hold fast to those things that you've agreed to.

And as you face those battles, you can expect God to join with you. He's not just going to leave you on your own, but he's going to join with you in the fight. He's going to accomplish victory on your behalf. Sometimes we see it immediately, like Joshua did, you know, right there. There was a great slaughter right at Gibeon. Sometimes we don't see it immediately, and the victory is later on further out that it's visible and seen. But

We can expect God to join us in that as we step forward in response to his word and look to receive his promises.

And then we can expect God to answer his prayers. We need to know. We need to be seeking the will of God. And as we do, as we bring ourselves in alignment to what he wants, we can understand he's going to, you know, hear. And as John said, if he hears us, we know we have the things that we ask for. And so let's bring our hearts in alignment to what God wants and ask in faith for those things that God's put upon our heart. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you.

For your word and Lord, the encouragement today, even though it's in the context of facing battles and challenges and difficulties, Lord, we know the end result here and the connection here is the promised land. Lord, the fulfillment of so many things that you want to do for the good of your people.

And Lord, as your people, Lord, we want to receive your promises. We want to have you complete the work that you began in us. We want to see the victories that you desire to bring forth. And Lord, we want to walk in faith in those things. And so God, I pray that you would help us. Lord, would you lead us to receive your promises, lead us into the paths that you have for us, help us to trust you enough.

Lord, to cross over the Jordan, to enter in, to take those risks and to do the things that you call us to. And as we do, Lord, help us to be prepared mentally, to be prepared in advance, knowing and understanding. It's not that everything is going to be smooth and easy and perfect, but Lord, there's going to be opposition.

Lord, help us to be ready for that, prepared for that, not freaked out and running away from you at the first sign of difficulty, but Lord, entering in, knowing that as we see that opposition, Lord, that we're not alone, that you're still with us, that you promise us victory in that. And so, Lord, help us to trust you and to call out to you for the needs that we have, Lord, that you would accomplish your victories in our life. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.