Stand your ground
Favor
noun: normalcy
1. the condition of being normal; the state of being usual, typical, or expected.
What we have witnessed this past year has been anything but normal. We have been under relentless attack from the accuser and all things demonic.
Death destruction and Mayham have been the mainstream. What we are witnessing is nothing new, this is the same death and destruction attack the accuser has been pursuing for 1,000’s of years.
However instead of being an isolated incidents, because of the digital age we live in, this has become an awareness of a global impact moment.
In the beginning of this pandemic, many scriptures were posted such as;
2 Chronicles 7:14 KJ
14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
Christians all over the world began to quote scripture and cry out to Jesus for protection and healing for humanity and our country. But then, normalcy tried to creep in and set up house in everyone’s life and far to many let the idea of normalcy dictate terms for living.
For years far too many have lived with the idea of, “if it’s not affecting me or my street it’ll be okay!” That’s exactly a mindset, the accuser loves for one of Gods children to have.
Age is said to bring wisdom and one thing Christians should be keenly aware of by now is, “even if the attack of darkness is not directly affecting you, it’s affecting someone you know
and even without feeling the direct effects of the attack you are affected and little by little, infected without even being aware of it!”
All this coupled with the worst election cycle and the most vicious politics many have ever witnessed, no matter what your affiliation is.
What we have witnessed has been a battle of the heavenly’s and of spiritual matters, being played out in real time, right in front of our very eyes for the prize of humanity!
Businesses were and are shut down and schools have been closed. You can go to a casino, you can go to a protest, you can go to the store but we were told you can’t go to Church and now were told to have no thanksgiving.
All this is nothing new I’m telling you you haven’t already heard, except now we have a new man supposedly coming on the scene and normalcy is now to be believed is on the horizon.
Many think the battle is over, I can tell you the battle is far from over and God will not stand for the mockery we see of Him on the news and in the streets!
What we are witnessing and have witnessed is a precursor of the things that are to come! Only the things to come have never been closer!
Joshua witnessed something similar to what we have all been a part of and witnessed back in his day.
For Moses had led God’s people out of slavery and bondage and told them God had better plans for them. Plans to prosper them and a better way of life and place for them to live.
God had plans to make Israel great nation. But on the way to what should’ve been a sure climax to victory. A 2 to 3 week journey turned into 40 years of continual left hand turns, as the people began to endlessly complain about what they didn’t have and thought they were entitled to.
*They said they were thirsty, God quenched their thirst with all the water they could drink!
*They said they were hungry and God satisfied their hunger with all the manna they could eat.
*They said they wanted to meat to go with their bread, so God provided quail in unlimited quantities.
*They begged for healing after being bit by fiery snakes and God provided a bronze servant they could look at and be healed.
Miracle after miracle God delivered them each and every time what they ask for!
But they continued to moan, groan and complain about the way things were and how bad they had it and how they had had things better when they were in slavery.
Can you imagine thinking slavery was better than freedom? “even if the attack of darkness is not directly affecting you, it’s affecting someone you know and even without feeling the direct effects of the attack you are affected and little by little, infected without even being aware of it!”
Moses died before he ever reach the promised land as did all of the complainers, naysayers and the ones who felt like they were entitled to everything they didn’t have.
Joshua and Caleb were the ones who stepped up and spoke up, when the spies were finally sent to go and scout out the promised land.
For you see 10 returned saying the task was too great and impossible! Only Joshua and Caleb said they could go and take the land filled with milk and honey. Realizing the potential and ability, to inhabit and enjoy what God had always intended for them.
A word from God will give you the courage to stand up and the strength to say we can overcome even when others say we can’t overcome.
One word from God is all you will ever need, as long as you are willing to hang onto that word and never let go!
Naysayers, are nothing new to the plans God has for whosoever is willing to be a part of His plans for them and believe God can do what He says He will do!
When finally presented with the opportunity to actually go and take the land God had promised the children of Israel. Caleb‘s voice even though some 45 years later at the age of 85, was still as loud or even louder than it was when he originally said we can go and take the land!
You would’ve thought by that point all the opposition would’ve been tired of saying we can’t overcome!
The only way the opposition of we can’t overcome can be conquered, is by someone drawing a line in the sand, taking a stand saying and believing; “we can overcome and we are overcomer’s, with God all things are possible!”
When Joshua led the children of Israel into the battle of Jericho, God assured them they would be victorious if they would simply do what He said.
Joshua 6:1-5 NIV
1. Now the gates of Jericho were securely barred because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in.
2 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. 3 March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. 4 Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. 5 When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in.”
The directions were very implicit, do this and victory is assured. I want to remind everyone Jericho was a heavily fortified city, many thought Jericho to be indefensible.
But Gods instructions were simple and to the point, do as your told and victory is assured for all!
9 The armed guard marched ahead of the priests who blew the trumpets, and the rear guard followed the ark. All this time the trumpets were sounding. 10 But Joshua had commanded the army, “Do not give a war cry, do not raise your voices, do not say a word until the day I tell you to shout. Then shout!”
Now this went on for six days. Day after day the same thing. Do you suppose anyone marching around Jericho had any doubt? Do you suppose anyone ever looked up at the heavily fortified walls made of stone and for a moment thought there is no way, this is impossible?
Some might say well no...God gave them a word they were going to win!
Has God ever given you a word you were going to come out on top of an impossible situation and win? And was there ever any doubt along the way to the Victory?
Of course there was, doubt is like air it’s everywhere. Sometimes it’s clear air, sometimes it’s more visible like a heavy fog completely blocking our vision taking our focus off of God’s Promises for our lives!
Doubt is only allowed where faith doesn’t exist! (Repeat)
They were human, we’re all human aren’t we? God created us, God knows us better than any one!
That’s why God both prepared and gave us all a measure of faith! Because God knew there would be times it would even be hard to come up with and use the amount of faith He gave us let alone any of our own faith, we could add on our own!
15 On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak and marched around the city seven times in the same manner, except that on that day they circled the city seven times. 16 The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the army, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city!
I believe as they begin to shout and cry out, their faith was strengthened collectively by the voice of unity. Doubt and unbelief was eliminated by the collective voice of the faith “I BELIEVE!”
20 When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city.
Up until that point, human nature wants to tell me there were probably still naysayers. But when the walls came crumbling down the only thing left standing were believers, with their faith locked in step with the God of everything possible!
At that point they were all willing to jump on and ride on the bandwagon of we can do it!
Is there doubt in a believers life? Yes. That’s why God gave us faith to overcome the doubt! Doubt has to bow to every moment of faith, even if it’s only for a brief moment!
One moment of faith is equal to a mustard size seed amount! And that’s enough faith TBS for a tree to be uprooted and to move mountains!
We believe and are witnessing a moral decay and a falling away from the things of God in the world we now live in. We think how could things get any worse.
But yet on a moment by moment basis we witness the reality and effects of the continual onslaught and attack of the accuser!
While, (and this is going to hurt, but it is the truth for far too many) we stand idly by, doing nothing about the way things are! We need to forever get out of the mindset of I am only one person what can I do!
With our faith and our God-given ability to believe United with Gods endless abilities and willingness! We are the devils worst nightmare, we are a majority and a force to be respected and reckoned with!
The Bible tells us Elijah, witnessed and felt the very same things, we feel today!
King Ahab and his wife Jezebel are noted in history as being some of the most rotten and wicked monarchs ever recorded.
Elijah had had enough! Elijah may have thought I am only one, but I still am one! Elijah showed the entire world forever what one associated with the power of the Almighty God is capable of!
The story goes it seems as in Elijah’s time there was a question as to who is the one true God was. Not as unlike to the time we live in today.
Quara dot com estimates suggest that there are at least 100,000 different gods worshiped on earth today and there have been more than that worshipped throughout history.
Elijah drew a line in the sand and said I will show you who the one true living God is. With that, Elijah challenged King Ahab and Jezebel’s prophets to a contest.
Whoever could pray down or summons their God to bring fire from the sky would be declared the winner.
The prophets of the so called god bahl went first and began to move around, to dance and to cut themselves and to do anything and everything they could possibly do, to bring fire down from heaven.
The hours pass by and still the same result of nothing filled the sky. TBS. Elijah even mocked them saying maybe your God is asleep and doesn’t hear you! How many of us would have no courage and faith to do that?
Now keep in mind there were over 450 prophets of bahl and only one Elijah. I’m sure it was no easy task to get the prophets of bahl to step down and to sit down.
It never is an easy task to get the devil or his helpers to sit down and be quiet!
But let me remind you and reiterate when God gives you a word, that’s all you need. One word from God is enough no matter what the opposition may be or what it looks like they may bring to the table!
1 Kings 18:30-39 NIV
30 Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come here to me.” They came to him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord, which had been torn down. 31 Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, “Your name shall be Israel.” 32 With the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and he dug a trench around it large enough to hold two seahs[a] of seed. 33 He arranged the wood, cut the bull into pieces and laid it on the wood. Then he said to them, “Fill four large jars with water and pour it on the offering and on the wood.”
34 “Do it again,” he said, and they did it again.
“Do it a third time,” he ordered, and they did it the third time. 35 The water ran down around the altar and even filled the trench.
36 At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. 37 Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.”
38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.
39 When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord—he is God! The Lord—he is God!”
Now while it seems as though Elijah never wavered in his faith, those who helped him repair the alter aren’t mentioned as to having great faith!
What Elijah did have was a measure of God given overcoming Faith, that was enough faith when United with Gods ability did the impossible!
Whatever you’re facing today God would have me tell you nothing is impossible when you put your faith and trust in Him!
Jesus came so you could experience and have all the promises and miracles God wants to give you in your life and the abundant life God has prepared for you to live!
Do you know what overcoming faith is?
Do you know what mountain moving faith is?
Do you know what healing faith is?
Do you know what prosperous Faith is?
It is the ability to use the God-given faith you already possess in that one moment needed believing for the miracle hand of God to move in your situation!
One moment at a time, one hour at a time, one day at a time, each and everyday!
That’s why when Joshua said as for me and my house we will serve the lord, he meant it! It was a line in the sand he drew and promised to never waiver from!
It was a commitment to not give up, or give in to the way things seemed or appeared to be! It was a commitment to stay humbled and to continually call on God to do the impossible and heal his land!
And what did God do? God gave Joshua and everyone who believed God could deliver the Promised Land!
The good news for us today is that God is still willing and wants to do this very same thing for us!
Are you willing to draw a line in the sand and say as for me in my house, no matter what we are going to serve the Lord!
What we’re facing as a nation today and what you are facing in your own personal life, contrary to popular opinion is not over! Things are never over until the great God Almighty says they are over!
God would have me tell you to stay steadfast, to keep on trusting him to deliver what you are believing for! The impossible is getting ready to become possible and the best is still yet to come!
God is still on the throne and has never left the throne and will never leave the throne!
Unite your God given faith in the unlimited Ability of the One True Living God and become the overcomer you were always meant to be!
When you do history will write your name along side of Elijah’s and Joshua’s for future generations to come!
Amen?
Fellow Contributors,
If you have found this teaching helpful, I invite you to check other resources and books I have authored available at all online bookstores! Or you can follow me on Facebook at my Charlie Roberts Author page.
Available now:
I AM, I CAN, I WILL “all about exploring God’s Grace”
MY SCANDALOUS RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD “all about exposing God’s Grace”
PARKING LOT FAITH “the realization you already have enough faith to move your Mountains”
