If you didn’t have the ability to believe God
for something and have it come to pass, He wouldn’t have told you to do so. God
never tells you to do something you can’t do. When we make demands through the
prayer of faith, it’s so vital for us to know what role we’re expected to play.
Often, there’s an act of obedience that God requires of us. Many people are
ignorant of this truth, and so they fail to take the
necessary steps besides praying. In the end, they would have reasons why their
expectations weren’t met. But when you’re in sync with the Spirit of God in
prayer, He’ll show you what your role is, and you ought to be diligent to play
your part. When Christ ministered to certain people through the Word of faith,
there was always something He required.
“And it came to pass, when Joshua was by
Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man
over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him,
and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? And he said, Nay;
but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come. And Joshua fell on his
face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, whatsaith my lord unto
his servant?” (Joshua 5:13-14).
It was the Holy Spirit who referred to
Himself here as the Captain of the Lord’s
Host. He came to tell Joshua what to do as he stood before Jericho,
contemplating how best to take it. Jericho was a part of the Promised Land, and
God said to Joshua, “…see I have given into thine hand
Jericho and the king thereof
and the mighty men of valor” (Joshua
6:2).
Notice He didn’t say, “I will give…,” but “I have
given...” This wasn’t a promise; it was a statement of fact coming from the
mouth of God. It’s quite remarkable that though God had given the Israelites
Jericho, there were still great walls surrounding the city when they got there.
The walls were so huge that the children of Israel couldn’t scale over them. Even if they
did, the armies of Jericho were in position to pick them off like sitting
ducks. It seemed Israel would be unable to go in and possess the land the Lord had
given to them. But the Holy Spirit, the Extraordinary Strategist, was present
to tell Joshua what he needed
to do to conquer Jericho: “And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go
round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days. And seven priests shall
bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams’ horns: and the seventh day ye shall
compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets. And
it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram’s
horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout
with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the
people shall ascend up every man straight before him” (Joshua 6:3-5).
The strategy given to Joshua was obviously strange (but supernatural),
because no human mind would’ve thought of bringing down those walls through the
mere sound of trumpets and the shout of weary men. But the walls miraculously
came down because Joshua and the host of Israel acted on the instruction of the
Holy Spirit.
It’s sad that many Christians have had promises from God
that they never enjoyed, and prophecies that never came to pass, just because
they didn’t know what the Holy Ghost would have them do. When the Lord told
Joshua, “I’ve given you the city; I’ve given you the king and all the men of
valor there. I’ve given all into your hand,” Joshua could have shouted, “Wow,
thank God, Jericho’s mine!” and just gone to sleep. The next day he would have
woken up to see those walls looming as defiantly as ever, and he would have
wondered, But God told me He had given the land
into my hand; why can’t He bring to pass what He promised? That’s just like someone who says, “I thought God said
the job was mine. I went there and they didn’t give me the employment letter;
in fact, they threw me out!” Yours can be a different story. You can
confidently declare God’s Word in faith and get the results you want, as long
as you’re poised to follow the leading of the Spirit on that matter. To
accomplish this, you need to fellowship with the Holy Spirit and find out the
strategies to employ in order to have what you want.
CHAPTER TWO CONTINUED IN THE NEXT PUBLICATION
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