Join us at the Synergize 3! Pastors Conference on January 17–19, 2012 in Orlando, Florida, to network with key Christian leaders from every world region. Learn more at www.synergize.tv.
________________
INTRODUCTION
For forty years the Israelites lived in despair and defeat in the wilderness. They were faithless, fruitless, and failed to realize God’s plan for their lives. Nevertheless, in one day’s time they were transformed from wandering in the wilderness to walking through the water and winning wars for God. He took them from being wilderness wanderers to being Canaan conquerors. Significant and mighty things happened to the nation of Israel. Likewise, some of us have been living on a desert diet and have been deprived. We have not come to that place of full victory in the Lord Jesus Christ. Just as the people of Israel changed and were able to cross the Jordan, conquer Jericho, and live victoriously in the land of Canaan, it can happen in our lives as well.
In Joshua 3, we see the river of miracles and experience the waves of God’s truths. Now is the time to exchange wilderness wanderings for walking in spiritual victory. The first wave of truth we should comprehend is the requirements for miracles.
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR MIRACLES
1. There must be a positioning of Christ.
3“And they commanded the people saying, ‘When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God with the Levitical priests carrying it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it.’”
For forty years the nation of Israel had possession of the Ark of the Covenant. In Joshua 3, the Ark of the Covenant is mentioned ten times. What is different now? The nation of Israel had gone from simply possessing the Ark to positioning the Ark. For forty years everywhere they went, the Ark of the Covenant followed the nation of Israel. Now they are going to follow the Ark. Before they had possession of it, but now they have positioned it.
If we want the miraculous power of God to be manifested in our lives, we must make Him the Master of every area of our lives. Many times we treat the Lord like a hitchhiker. We pick Him up and put Him in the passenger’s seat, but Jesus wants to be the driver. Whenever we make Him the Master of our lives and let Him drive, we will want to go wherever He goes. The Ark of the Covenant is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. It contained:
a. Manna—which represented the provision of Christ for He is the bread of life.
b. Aaron’s rod that budded—which represented the resurrection power of Christ.
c. The Decalogue—which represented the perfection of Christ because Jesus never once sinned.
d. The mercy seat—which represented the pardon of Christ.
Through Joshua, God taught the nation of Israel the significance of going with God—not going before Him but with Him. It is imperative we go where God goes and learn to follow, listen, and fulfill His plan and His will. Wherever Jesus goes, we are to follow.
God had a design, a direction, and a day for the children to move across the Jordan and into the land of Canaan. God also has a direction, a design, and a day for His people to move into the land of victory, abundance, and revival.
We need to get into Canaan and experience the miraculous power of God in our lives. We need to go wherever God goes. We need to come to the place in life where we follow Jesus and quit trying to make Jesus follow us. We must always love God more than our gold and the Savior more than our silver. We must love Jesus more than our jobs and Christ more than our cash. We must love the Lord more than our lands.
2. There must also be a purifying of Christians.
5“Then Joshua said to the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves.’”
A time existed when Christians seemed more conscious of fleeing the things of the world. It now appears we want to please man and appease God. We do not want to be too fanatical, too excited, or too different. Yet Joshua said to the people, “Consecrate yourselves.”
We too need to consecrate or sanctify ourselves—our hearts, our minds, our homes, and every area of our lives in the sight of God Almighty. Too many times we treat Jesus like a spare tire, calling on Him only in times of problems and difficulties. Later, we put Him back in the trunk and think we will call when we need Him again. We should not presume upon the goodness, grace, and greatness of God. We are to live daily a life that is pleasing to Christ. Daily we are to sanctify our hearts and lives before God.
Before we are ever going to be powerful for God, we must first be pleasing to God. We must come to a place where we purify our lives in the sight of God and let Him take us through the river of miracles and place us in the land of abundance, blessings, and victorious Christian living. There must be a positioning of Christ and a purifying of our hearts.
In 1874 in Swan Quarter, North Carolina, a group of worshipers decided it was time to establish a permanent church building and abandon the temporary place where they had been holding services. Because the owner of the land of their choice continually turned them down, they accepted a gift of a different lot from a donor and in a short time began building operations.
On September 17, 1876, a violent storm struck that area of the country. In a powerful moment of pelting rain, raging wind, and a roaring tide, the storm lifted that church building and moved it to the exact spot on the property of their original desire. After the passing of the storm, everyone marveled at what had happened. Seeing the mighty work of Providence and realizing there was a mightier power than man ruling the universe, the owner set about to secure the title for the land, and the people then changed the name of their church from Methodist Episcopal Church South to Providence United Methodist Church.
I pray God will move His Church today into the Promised Land of abundance, blessing, and victorious living. There is no physical power, no political power, no social power, and no spiritual power that can stop the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ from possessing its possessions in Jesus Christ.
THE REALITIES OF MIRACLES
5“Tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.”
You will not have any problems in dealing with miracles if you believe in God. Some say God is a prisoner to the laws of nature; however, they are not the laws of nature—they are the laws of God, and God is not in a prison to the laws of nature. God can do whatever He wants, when He wants, and however He wants. Nothing can hinder Him. Nothing. Still, others ask how we can explain miracles. If we could explain miracles, then they would not be miracles. The only way we can understand them is to realize they are from God. The only way we can explain them is to explain God. If we could do that, then our God would not be a very big God. Our finite minds cannot fully comprehend the infinite abilities of Almighty God. God has a design and a will. He wants to show the world He is still alive among His people.
Many believe Albert Einstein was the smartest and most intelligent man who ever lived, yet Einstein said not long before he died that he hoped one day to understand electricity. Although we do not fully understand electricity, we do not need to sit in the dark until we do understand it. We do not leave the lights off or say God cannot perform miracles just because we do not understand.
Still others question how Jonah could be kept inside a fish. We need to quit limiting God and experience His miraculous power in our lives. God performs miracles among His people.
Joshua said to his people, 5“Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.” I do not know how weak you may be, but I know how wonderful God is. I do not know how many problems you may face, but I know how powerful He is. He has more solutions than we have problems. We need to understand that God’s power is being manifested in our hearts and lives and we can live victoriously in this world.
Some years ago the young wife of Joe English, a famous rock-and-roll drummer for Paul McCartney and Wings, went to a Pentecostal prayer meeting in a wheelchair. English was in the recording studio while his wife was in the church service. The young woman was lost, but something miraculous happened to her that night. Not only was she saved, but God also reached down and healed her legs. She returned home pushing the wheelchair. When Joe English returned, his wife was walking.
He asked what happened. She told how she had gone to the house of God and accepted Jesus Christ into her life and He touched her body and healed her legs. For several days the dumbfounded husband reasoned there must be a God, a savior, and a healer. He, too, accepted Christ into his heart and was wonderfully saved and filled with the Holy Spirit. One of the first people he told was Paul McCartney, the former Beatle. The life of Joe English was so turned around that he left the world of drugs and his sinful way of living to begin traveling throughout America as a preacher of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
God desires to break in and break through to show this world His power and His glory one more time. God wants to meet our needs. Joshua said to his people, 5“Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.” We do not have to worry about our tomorrows or our difficulties because God is going to perform miracles. He sees the end from the beginning; He knows it all; and He understands it all; He wants to perform miracles in our lives and bring glory to His holy name.
The Bible tells us about the requirements for miracles and the reality of miracles, but the third wave of truth is the reasons for miracles.
THE REASONS FOR MIRACLES
1. He will direct through uncharted paths.
4“That you may know the way by which you shall go, for you have not passed this way before.”
Joshua is saying we need to follow the Ark because we have never been this way before. We need to follow the Ark if we are going to go through the Jordan and into Canaan. We must keep our eyes on Jesus, not on the water of worry but on the Ark of the Almighty. We are not to be river-watchers but Ark-watchers. We must get our eyes off our problems, tests, and trials and on God who will direct us through uncharted paths in order to reach the land of victory.
Miracles preceded most every Old Testament and New Testament time when the Lord did something new among His people. In Joshua 3, something new was about to happen for the children of Israel, and something new is about to happen for us. We, too, are about to see tremendous supernatural accounts of God’s work in our lives. He is going to direct us through uncharted paths.
2. He will discern an unusual problem.
7“Now the LORD said to Joshua, ‘This day will I begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you.’”
God simply said to Joshua that He was going to confirm His Word and Joshua’s leadership.
Whenever the apostles preached, God confirmed His Word. That principle is clearly taught in 1 Corinthians 12. Whenever the Word of God is proclaimed uncompromisingly, we can expect God to confirm His Word. Why? Because He wants to show both believers and unbelievers that His Word is not outdated but updated. His Word is valid and still changes lives today. This world needs to be shown the fact that the Word of God is real, relevant, and resourceful. God will help and strengthen and save and heal all who trust His Word. He will confirm the preaching of His Word. He will discern for us an unusual problem.
3. He will demonstrate an unstoppable power.
10“Joshua said, “By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will assuredly dispossess from before you the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Hivite, the Perizzite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, and the Jebusite.’”
Without fail, God will drive out everything that is in the land. God will drive out the Canaanites of carnality, the Hittites of hurt, the Hivites of hate,the Perizzites of pain, the Girgashites of guilt, the Amorites of anxiety, and the Jebusites of jealousy. God will drive it all out so we can live victoriously in the Lord Jesus Christ. His is an unstoppable power. He promised to clear the way for His people to enter Canaan, and He wants us to have victory in every area of our lives. This will be done through the miraculous power of God.
Two hundred years ago as Napoleon was preparing to march toward Moscow, his goal was to take Moscow and then conquer the whole world. One of his soldiers asked if he should not talk to God about that, to which Napoleon laughed and said, “God is on the side of the heaviest battalions.” Half a million troops began a march that soon encountered a few snowflakes. As they marched on, the snowfall became heavier. In the end, Napoleon’s army lay frozen on the road to Moscow.
Napoleon was right about one thing—God is on the side of the heaviest battalion, and the heaviest battalions are not earthly but spiritual. The heaviest battalions are the angels of glory. God is on the side of His people. He is on the side of those who endeavor to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no power that can stop the power of God.
THE REWARDS OF MIRACLES
13“And it shall come about when the soles of the feet of the priests who carry the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan will be cut off, and the waters which are flowing down from above shall stand in one heap.” 14So when the people set out from their tents to cross the Jordan with the priests carrying the ark of the covenant before the people, 15and when those who carried the ark came into the Jordan, and the feet of the priests carrying the ark were dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks all the days of the harvest)…”
When the priests, the Levites, stepped into the Jordan River, the waters stood up in a heap. The waters were stopped even past the city of Adam. The priests went into the middle of the mighty Jordan River. Then every man, woman, boy, and girl passed through the divided river. As they all passed through the river, where did they find the Ark? In the deepest part of the river.
In the deepest, darkest times when we feel all alone, the Lord Jesus can be more real to us than ever before. He will be with us in the middle of our problems, pains, and difficulties. There we will find the Ark. There we will find Jesus because He will be real to His people; he will be there to give us victory. God will be just as real to us then as when we worship Him in church.
God specializes in taking His people through. Every person must pass through the river on the way to Canaan. If we want to enter the land of abundance, if we want to conquer our Jericho, we must cross our Jordan. Jesus will be there rewarding us with His miraculous power and presence. God delivered the Israelites through an unconquered problem. As they went through the river, they found the Ark. He will not only deliver us through unconquered problems, but miracles will also be the door for unclaimed promises.
Forty years the people of Israel wandered in the wilderness, but on this day through the miraculous power of God, they were able to claim God’s promise and go into the Promised Land. Through God’s miraculous power, we are able to reach out by faith and claim the promises of His Word. The river became the door to the Promised Land. Just as God took them through the river by His miraculous power, so He will also take us into the Promised Land of the victorious Christian life.
CONCLUSION
It has been said:
God is like Ford—He has a better idea.
God is like Coke—He is the real thing.
God is like Pepsi—He loves this new generation.
God is like Standard Oil—you expect more from Him and you get it.
God is like Dial soap—aren’t you glad you know Him.
God is like Bayer Aspirin—He takes the pain away.
God is like Hallmark—He cared enough to send the very best.
God is like Tide—He gets out the stains that others leave behind.
God is like VO5 hairspray—He holds in all kinds of weather.
God is like General Electric—He always brings good things to life.
God is like Ivory soap—He is one hundred percent pure.
God is like Wal-Mart—He has everything.
God is like Frosted Flakes—He is great.
The same miraculous power of God that took the people of Israel through the flooded Jordan River is available to us today. When we pass through the Jordan, we will find Jesus more real than ever before in our lives. Remember the requirements, the realities, the reasons, and the rewards of the miraculous power of God at work in our lives today.
