Taking the Limits Off God, Lesson 4: Preparing to Take Your Land

Last Sunday, just after church, at 12:39 p.m., my mom took her final breath and woke up in the arms of Jesus! The day before, was her birthday, she turned 89 years old. On Saturday, the Doctors had called the family and told us she could pass that day… But it was just like Mom to wait until church was over last Sunday to go home to heaven. I am glad that Deanie Todd was prepared for eternity! She loved Jesus Christ with all of her heart and she endeavored to do His Will. When I was 15 yrs. old, my dad entered full time ministry as a traveling evangelist. For periods of time, my mom was both mom and dad to my sister and me. Many times I heard my parents in their bedroom praying: “Lord, we consecrate our lives to You! We want to be in your will more than we want anything in this world. We will go where you want us to go. We will be what you want us to be. We will say what you want us to say and we will and we will do what you want us to do." God loves it when we prepare to do His will! Preparation is very important in life. Preparation is often the difference between success and failure. Someone said, “Good fortune is where Preparation meets Opportunity!” The Florida State Football team lost a game last season to the University of North Carolina – a game they should have won. Some of the players admitted they didn’t prepare for the game, as they should have. Joshua chapter five tells us that God wanted to do some preparatory work inside the Children of Israel before they went to war with the Seven Heathen Nations that occupied the Promised Land. 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. Joshua 5:1 Note verse 1: The people of the land are extremely intimidated by the presence of Israel. The Scripture says: - Their hearts melted - There was not more spirit in them to face Israel – they lost their Courage, and lost their Backbone! Note verse 2: At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make flint knives for yourself, and circumcise the sons of Israel again the second time.” Joshua 5:2 God says, before you conquer the Land, I want you to do something. I want every male to be operated on – I want every soldier to first have surgery. “I want the flesh of every soldier’s private area to be cut away." Circumcision was introduced in Genesis chapter 17. God told Abraham, I am giving you a sign – a symbol of our Covenant Relationship – the sign is going to require surgery - the cutting away of the foreskin of your private area. In my mind, I can see Abraham saying, “God, did I hear you right?” “You want to do surgery where?” “That is kind of a delicate area Lord, how about doing surgery on my arm?” “That would be more comfortable.” I imagine Joshua was thinking, “Lord, can’t we do this after we fight the battles and take the land?” “Our entire army is going to need time to recuperate and heal.” “Right now, all the nations are afraid of us, can’t we go to war and strike while the iron is hot?” But no doubt, Joshua remembers the charge God gave him in Chapter One. God told Joshua that OBEDIENCE to Him Was the key to success! 8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Joshua 1:8 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. Joshua 5:3-7 God didn’t want men in His army who didn’t bear the mark of circumcision. Because in the O.T. Circumcision speaks of COVENANT COMMITMENT! It was a mark of commitment to God and a mark of personal purity before the Lord. But what God really wanted wasn’t just the circumcision of the flesh. He wanted a circumcision of their heart! 16 Therefore circumcise the for