Battle-Ready

Intro

Text - Joshua 5.13-15; Luke 14.31-33

Joshua 5:13–15 NKJV

13 And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a Man stood opposite him with His sword drawn in His hand. And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, “Are You for us or for our adversaries?” 14 So He said, “No, but as Commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and said to Him, “What does my Lord say to His servant?” 15 Then the Commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, “Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy.” And Joshua did so.

Luke 14:31–33 NKJV

31 Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. 33 So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.

Title - Battle-Ready

Series - Lessons in the Book of Joshua

Background

wartime stories

soldiers who cried like children in the field, or cowered in fear, because, although they were soldiers, but they were not ready for battle.

Battle-Ready means -

trained and equipped for warfare

Our promised land today

38 Now, what is the land promised to the New Testament believer? The promise is the Holy Spirit. “For it shall come to pass in the last days,” Joel 2:28, “that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. And upon My handmaids and My maidservants will I pour out of My Spirit, and they shall prophesy. I’ll show wonders in the heavens above. And in the earth, pillars of fire, and smoke, and vapour.” And Peter said, on the Day of Pentecost, after taking his text and preaching, “Repent, every one of you, and be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission,” to remit, to forgive, to take away all back trespasses.    60-0515E - Adoption #1 Now, we’re going to talk about a journey, how that God brought His people out of Egypt into the promised land, a perfect type of leaving sin, coming into the Spirit land. Now, there’s three stages of this journey; First, Israel in Egypt, Israel in the journey, Israel in Palestine, which is a perfect type of justification by faith, coming out; sanctification as it passed through the Blood, the baptism of the Holy Ghost. It’s perfect, the stages of the Church. That is where the Church is staged now.    53-1115A - Speak To The Rock

The Main Point

God did not bring into Canaan a people that is not ready for warfare. Otherwise, the conquest would not have been possible.

God will not bring us into our inheritance until we are ready to engage the enemy.

inheritance - God’s promises waiting to be claimed

enemies - demonic spirits that do not want to see you enjoying your promised blessings and position

Many Christians are not “battle-ready”

they have yet to leave the wilderness part of the journal

2 types of spiritual warfare

one in which we respond to enemy attacks

Israel in the wilderness - attacked by kings Og and Balak

Israel was not ready for battle, just ‘coasting’

the other one is when we attack the enemy!

Israel under Joshua - intent on possessing the land of Canaan; she was there to dispossess and destroy enemies

Examples of Battle-Ready people

Gideon’s 300 soldiers

not fearful (those afraid were sent home)

drank in a position that is battle-ready

Jonathan and his armorbearer

when they say attack us - we will go!

Young David

Saul: “Goliath was a man of war from his youth”

David: “I have experience of God’s mighty presence and power”

How God prepared Israel for warfare

He taught them obedience

He gave them a true leader

He gave them experience in the supernatural

it was their point of no return

He removed the reproach of Egypt in their lives

He removed the manna from Israel’s camp

God taught Israel obedience by giving them a true leader

Joshua 3:7 NKJV

7 And the Lord said to Joshua, “This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.

Moses’s leadership was so ingrained in the life of Israel

up to Jesus’ time, the Jews claimed: “We have Moses!”

Israel must learn to transfer their allegiance to the new leadership

God must “exalt” Joshua

to be worth following

to gain the same respect and awe from the same people

UNTIL THEY ARE OBEDIENT TO JOSHUA’S LEADERSHIP, THEY ARE NOT READY FOR BATTLE INSIDE CANAAN.

The battle will not be fought one-on-one, but as an army

God needs a people who will not look back to Moses

God needs a people who will help Joshua fulfill his ordained purpose

APPLICATION

Our spiritual journey and success is tied to God’s ordained leader/s

We cannot separate our spiritual success from the leader that God has placed over our lives.

YOU ARE BATTLE-READY IF -

you have learned how to follow instructions

you have the value of true leadership in your life

Hebrews 13:17 NKJV

17 Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.

God gave them experience in the supernatural

Joshua 3:10–17 NKJV

10 And Joshua said, “By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Hivites and the Perizzites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Jebusites: 11 Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over before you into the Jordan. 12 Now therefore, take for yourselves twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man from every tribe. 13 And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off, the waters that come down from upstream, and they shall stand as a heap.” 14 So it was, when the people set out from their camp to cross over the Jordan, with the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people, 15 and as those who bore the ark came to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks during the whole time of harvest), 16 that the waters which came down from upstream stood still, and rose in a heap very far away at Adam, the city that is beside Zaretan. So the waters that went down into the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, failed, and were cut off; and the people crossed over opposite Jericho. 17 Then the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan; and all Israel crossed over on dry ground, until all the people had crossed completely over the Jordan.

This was the first miracle witnessed by this generation of Israelites

the miracles performed in Moses’ time all happen in the early years

manna, while a miracle bread, was ordinary to them

the holding up of the waters of Jordan - that was miracle!

Supernaturals are markers of God’s presence and activities

God instructed Joshua to mark the place where they crossed jordan on dry ground

MIRACLES HELP US BECOME BATTLE-READY.

Mark 16:16–18 NKJV

16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; 18 they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

“signs and wonders” means -

your God is supernatural

your faith is supernatural

your life now is supernatural

This miracle also brought them to their point of no return!

“Lord, to whom shall we go?”

This miracle also sealed the fate of the Amorites

Joshua 5:1 NKJV

1 So it was, when all the kings of the Amorites who were on the west side of the Jordan, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan from before the children of Israel until we had crossed over, that their heart melted; and there was no spirit in them any longer because of the children of Israel.

APPLICATON

Intellectual faith VS. experiential faith

intellectual - theoretical

experiential - learning by experience

Experience in the supernatural helps establish the reality of the living God

Peter - we were eyewitnesses of his majesty

David’s experiences with the lion and the bear

YOU ARE BATTLE-READY IF -

you know your God by experience, noot only by intellect

you understand the reality of the realm of spirits

Ephesians 6:12 NKJV

12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

2 Corinthians 10:3 NKJV

3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.

God removed from them the “reproach of Egypt”

Joshua 5:2–9 NKJV

2 At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make flint knives for yourself, and circumcise the sons of Israel again the second time.” 3 So Joshua made flint knives for himself, and circumcised the sons of Israel at the hill of the foreskins. 4 And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: All the people who came out of Egypt who were males, all the men of war, had died in the wilderness on the way, after they had come out of Egypt. 5 For all the people who came out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness, on the way as they came out of Egypt, had not been circumcised. 6 For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people who were men of war, who came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they did not obey the voice of the Lord—to whom the Lord swore that He would not show them the land which the Lord had sworn to their fathers that He would give us, “a land flowing with milk and honey.” 7 Then Joshua circumcised their sons whom He raised up in their place; for they were uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised on the way. 8 So it was, when they had finished circumcising all the people, that they stayed in their places in the camp till they were healed. 9 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” Therefore the name of the place is called Gilgal to this day.

What is the reproach of Egypt?

God “reinstated” the sign of circumcision

during their stay in Egypt, the Israelites were not circumcised according to God’s covenant with Abraham

probably, their circumcision was in line with Egyptian practice

the men who were born in the wilderness were now to be circumcised as God would have it

thus the reproach of Egypt was removed from God’s people!

APPLICATION

Circumcision signifies the removal of sin in the believer’s life

Deuteronomy 30:6 NKJV

6 And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.

Circumcision in the gospel

Colossians 2:11–12 NKJV

11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.

Philippians 3:3 NKJV

3 For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh,

APPLICATION

Circumcision signifies “total separation” from the old sinful life.

Israel’s separation from Egypt was complete

they are a brand new people - all the rebels and unbelieving are dead

they are twice removed from Egypt - geographically signified by the Red Sea and Jordan river

God marked them with the sign of his covenant with Abraham

our total separation from the old life is also marked by two baoptismal experiences -

water baptism

baptism in the Spirit

John 3:5 NKJV

5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

YOU ARE BATTLE-READY IF -

you are totally separated from the old life

you life today is set on conquering and experiencing life in the Spirit

God removed the manna from Israel’s camp

Joshua 5:10–12 NKJV

10 Now the children of Israel camped in Gilgal, and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight on the plains of Jericho. 11 And they ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover, unleavened bread and parched grain, on the very same day. 12 Then the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the produce of the land; and the children of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate the food of the land of Canaan that year.

Israel ate manna all those 40 years in the wilderness!

They survived by God’s daily provision

But manna was not intended to be their perpetual sustenance

Canaan’s produce was - the land of milk and honey

it was temporary

God stopped the supply of manna so that -

Israel may focus on enjoying the produce of the land they are conquering

Israel may focus on conquering the land, otherwise they will not eat

APPLICATION

YOU ARE BATTLE-READY IF -

you have no experience that will draw you into the land of the Spirit

Conclusion

Be diligent to enter the land of rest -

Hebrews 4:11 NKJV

11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.

diligent - to be eager; “masikap”

Our preparedness for warfare determines how we behave in the battlefield.

If we are NOT battle-ready -

we will find excuse from engaging in spiritual warfare

we will not take action unless the enemy comes first

If we are battle-ready -

we will take action first before the enemy makes his move

BE READY FOR BATTLE!

RECOGNIZE YOUR PLACE

LISTEN TO YOUR GOD-APPOINTED LEADERSHIP

GET SUPERNATURAL EXPERIENCE FROM YOUR GOD

BE TOTALLY SEPARATED FROM THE WORLD

GET A TASTE OF THE PRODUCE OF THE LAND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

GOD DETERMINES WHEN YOU ARE BATTLE-READY.

Joshua received a visitation from the Commander of the Lord’s army!

Song - We’ve Been Made More Than Conquerors