Re: What is Required For Success in Spiritual Warfare

Hi John:

A little bit of trivia. Joshua 6:20 states,

"So the people shouted, and priests blew the trumpets; and it came about, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, that the people shouted with a great shout and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight ahead, and they took the city."

Archaeology has found and confirmed that these walls not only fell, but they fell outward flat on the ground, not inward.

Joshua 6:17-19 states

"And the city shall be under the ban, it and all that is in it belongs to Yehovah; only Rahab the harlot and all who are with her in the house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent. But as for you, only keep yourselves from the things under the ban, lest you covet them and take some of the things under the ban, so you would make the camp of Israel accursed and bring trouble on it. But all the silver and gold and articles of bronze and iron are holy to Yehovah; they shall go into the treasury of Yehovah."

Some times God allowed them to take the spoil but in the case of Jericho, they were not to take anything. That was the command. The former generation were not able to enter the promised land because they did not obey God. Now as this new generation goes forward they are able to enter only so long as they obey God and do it His way.

Joshua 6:26 states,

"Then Joshua made them take an oath at that time, saying, ‘Cursed before Yehovah is the man who rises up and builds this city Jericho; with the loss of his first-born he shall lay its foundation, and with the loss of his youngest son he shall set up its gates.’"

Unfortunately the city of Jericho had been rebuilt later. Later when archaeologists dug up the city they found a child buried in the foundation and a young boy buried in its gates. The prophecy came to pass to the letter. Joshua 21:45 states,

"Not one of the good promises which Yehovah had made to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass."

Moses wrote in Numbers 23:19

"God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent; has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?"

Joshua 7:1 states,

"But the sons of Israel acted unfaithfully in regard to the things under the ban, for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah, took some of the things under the ban, therefore the anger of Yehovah burned against the sons of Israel."

Achan and his sons secretly kept some of the gold of Jericho. Joshua nor any of the other people of Israel knew this. However, when they went up to take over Ai, the men of Ai pursued, chased and killed many of the men of Israel. What was wrong? God was not with them. Why? There was sin in the camp. If you have read the rest of this chapter you know how Joshua went before the Lord to seek Him to find out what was wrong, why they were defeated. God told him,

"Rise up! Why is it that you have fallen on your face? Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them. And they have even taken some of the things under the ban and have both stolen and deceived. Moreover, they have also put them among their own things. Therefore the sons of Israel cannot stand before their enemies; they turn their backs before their enemies, for they have become accursed. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy the things under the ban from your midst. (Joshua 7:10-12)

Proverbs 28:13 states, "He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion." If we have sin in our lives and refuse to confess and repent of them, this verse tells us we will not be able to succeed. But what else is true? If we are living with brethren in a covenant relationship such as Israel was with God, not only will the person who sinned not be able to succeed but neither will anyone else who is joined to them even though they did not commit the sin. The following Proverbs state:

Proverbs 16:33 "The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from Yehovah."

Proverbs 18:18 "The lot puts an end to contentions, and decides between the mighty."

To solve this problem since the guilty party would not come forward, they cast lots first by tribe and then household by household until there was one family left. Then Joshua said "Give glory to God!" So the man stepped forward and acknowledged his sin. Because of His rebellion over 40 men died that day in battle, Israel was no longer under the Lord’s protection and were chased by their enemies rather than defeated their enemies. What more just thing could Joshua and Israel do than give this family a sentence of death. John, we can’t just let a little sin in our lives. However small or insignificant, it will be what defeats and destroys us in the end. We must daily and diligently go before the Lord and ask Him to show us our sin so we can confess it and keep ourselves clean and the door shut tight against the devil. If there is just one sin in our lives, we will not be able to succeed. At the beginning of every prayer meeting, we always start by praying: "Jesus, please show us any sin in our lives and any unforgiveness we need to forgive!" We then wait before the Lord and confess whatever sins He shows us and forgive with our lips whoever we might be holding a grudge against. Matthew 6:14-15 states,

"For if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions."

I suppose what happened last night in my apartment happened for your benefit. The Lord has provided me a case example of this in my own apartment. I rent an apartment with an associate of mine. We work together in my ministry work. Last night was his night to do laundry. When he first gets up he has his quiet time. When he got up last night (he works at night, day sleeper) for some reason he decided to do his laundry first then have his quite time. Before he left he attacked me. While he was gone I came under attack. When he got home he attacked me again. Then the two cats attacked each other. It became obvious to us we were all under attack of Satan. So we got down on our knees and cried out to God to show us what was wrong, what the doorway was that let Satan in among us. We asked this because we anoint the apartment every day and every time we walk outside for any reason and walk back in. We don’t take any chances. Yet here we were fighting each other and the cats fighting each other. We knew something was wrong. so we got on our knees and cried out to Jesus,

"Jesus, we are sinners. If not for your death and shed blood, we are deserving of death and hell. You are Holy, righteous and pure. Please have mercy on us. Save us from Satan and from ourselves. Jesus, what is not right in our hearts, in our lives? What is our sin? What is not yielded and submitted to You? What are we holding back? What is the door we have opened to Satan?"

Then as we waited on the Lord, we worshiped Him, exalted Him. As we did the Lord immediately spoke to my brother and he said,

"Jesus, is speaking to me telling me the problem is my disobedience to Him, not putting Him first, acknowledging him in my day and use of time and what He wants me to do with my time today and then obeying him in it."

"Cursed is he who does Yehovah’s work negligently [carlessly, inattentively], and cursed is he who restrains his sword from blood." (Jeremiah 48:10)

He repented, confessed his sins to Jesus, thanked Him for His forgiveness according to 1 John 1:9 and then asked Him to refill him with His Holy Spirit and retake control of his life and continue to lead him into His will and plan for his life. Then he promised the Lord to always start his day off with seeking Him first and His will in his use of time and then to only obey Him in his use of time. We then again anointed the apartment. Everything went back to normal and we had peace with each other, and the animals were back at peace with each other though Whiskers avoided Spice the rest of the night. Whiskers then only came out of hiding after I got in bed. He crawled on my belly and just kept looking around to see if his brother was anywhere in sight. He wasn’t taking any chances, lol.

We think when we sin or secretly sin we only effect ourselves. We can only keep the devil out when we all together fight to walk in obedience to God.

"Submit therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you." (James 4:7)

As you can see from this example of Israel in the book of Joshua, not only was this true, but the one family’s sin led to the death of more than forty of their brethren. This is why the Bible states in 2 Corinthians 6:14 "Do not be bound together with unbelievers, for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?".

Now even though your parents have not surrendered to Jesus, you are under the protection of angels. It is God’s will that You submit to your parents. He put you there so He will protect you from them and their rebellion against him.

"The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of Yehovah; He turns it wherever He wishes." (Proverbs 21:1)

"The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and rescues them." (Psalm 37:7)

But if you were living with others who were not believers, you would not be able to protect yourself from Satan’s attacks because they would be letting him in. If you were living with brothers and one of them did not obey the Lord you would come under the attack of Satan. John, the only way you can have victory in the Lord in your life is to be completely in submission to Him and have no sin in your life and to immediately confess sin when you do sin (as we will daily do, though not intentionally). Just one act of rebellion whether by us or the brethren we live with or are in covenant relationship with will result in the protection being removed and our coming under attack until the root cause of the attack, that brother or brother’s sin is confessed and repented of and made right. In some cases you may find yourself having to find another place to live.

This is what the book of Joshua is all about, what is required in order for us to succeed in the Lord and what happens spiritually if we do not. The first generation all died in the wilderness, including Moses, without entering the promised land because of their rebellion. At one point when Israel needed water God told Moses to speak to a bolder and water would come out. Moses was upset and angry with the people’s unbelief and so he did not follow the Lord’s instruction, but instead hit the rock with his staff. Water came out anyway despite Moses disobedience because of God’s compassion for Israel, but because Moses did not follow this one instruction of God down to the letter, God forbid Moses to enter the promised land. As a result he died with the rest of that generation in the wilderness. Only their descendants were able to enter and then only as they obeyed the Lord.

In Joshua 5:13 Joshua saw a man with a sword drawn standing off to the side that was not part of their camp. This man was Jesus. Joshua asked him,

"‘Are you for us or for our adversaries?’ And he said, ‘No, rather I indeed come now as captain of the host of Yehovah.’"

What was God telling Joshua? He was telling him that he was neither for Israel or Israel’s enemies but only for those who were of God’s army. Who is of God’s army? Only those who are yielded and submitted to Him. As long as Israel was submitted to God and obeyed Him, they had victory over their enemies and the invisible army of God fought with them. However, when they rebelled, the captain of the host of Yehovah was not on their side either and was now battling against them with the invisible army of God. If we want the Lord’s favor, the only way we can have it is when we are walking in obedience to Him and submitting to His will and plan for our lives. We can’t even allow one thing of the world in or we will find ourselves fighting the Lord. My brother wasn’t sinning in the sense that we think of sin like reading pornography or swearing or attacking the Lord. What was he doing? He wasn’t acknowledging God in his life and then submitting to His will for him. Sin is not something we do, it is anything we do without God’s initiative first period!

"‘Woe to the rebellious children,’ declares Yehovah, ‘who execute a plan, but not Mine, and make an alliance, but not of My Spirit, in order to add sin to sin.’" (Isaiah 30:1)

"But He who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin." (Romans 14:23)

We are walking in faith when what we are doing is the result of our seeking God’s will first in all matters and then only obeying him and walking in obedience to Him in each of the matters. Then and only then are we walking in faith.

"And to whom did He swear that they should not enter His rest, but to those who did-not-obey? And so we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief." (Hebrews 3:19-18)

"Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall through following the same example of disobedience." (Hebrews 4:11)

John, feel free to share this letter with your friends. We all need to hear this lesson of God’s word in the Book of Joshua