The Evidence Of The Existence Of God Is The Actions Of Godly Men And Women.

Submitting to God or the way of Jesus is a key requirement in our development into the men and women of God. Submitting to God cultivates our oneness with God. Once we submit to the will of God by first loving God mentally, physically, and spiritually, God will empower us to do His will. From Joshua 5, we discover Joshua and the men of Israel’s submission to God’s circumcision at Gilgal. Their submission submersed them into an oneness with God where they became God’s sons and daughters. As God prepared Joshua and the nation of Israel to conquer Jericho, the tactics or battle plans of God were considerably different from those used previously by Moses and by Jericho. According to the words of God delivered to Joshua by the messenger of God, the instructions were for the men of Israel to show up, march once around the city for six days, and then go home.

As we examine the actions of Joshua and the nation of Israel throughout the sixth chapter of the book of Joshua, God further reveals His divine strategy for the success of those chosen by Him. Previously, in Joshua 1: 7-9, God instructed Joshua, ‘Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land, I swore to their forefathers to give them. Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you to be strong and courageous? Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go’

According to Joshua 6, the words of God shouted by the chosen of God destroyed the walls constructed to save Jericho from their fate despite the actions of the people of Jericho. In these volatile times, we must remember as Paul teaches in 2 Timothy 1:7, ‘For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.’ As the men and women of God, we must believe what Psalm 119:105 tell us, 'Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path.’ Jesus said in Matthew 6:33, 'Seek first God's kingdom and God's righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.’ Therefore, one must conclude that if we want to get our names written in the Lamb's Book of Life, we must make sure that all that we do in our doing what God told us to do is done according to and by the words of God.

The most convincing evidence of the irrefutable existence of a powerful God is the actions of the men and women chosen by that God. Therefore, for the people of Moab, the citizens of Jericho, the atheist as well as all others to deny God is to deny oneself. To say God does not exist calls into question our existence. Romans 1:20 proclaims to us, ‘For since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities, his eternal power, and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood from what has been made so that men are without excuse.’

By the actions of the people of Jericho in Joshua 6:1, someway somehow, somebody got something twisted. Just as man's wisdom cannot understand God, the walls of Jericho could not withstand the power enumerating from the spoken words of God. Paul declared in Acts 17:24, ‘The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands, and he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.’ Therefore, in our modern day society, where church buildings overcrowd our world, we must realize that our manmade buildings cannot house God because Jericho’s manmade enclosures could not keep God out.

When the spirit of fear possessed the people of Jericho, their wisdom convinced them that their actions could save them. Although Jericho’s resistance to God’s plan was futile, they continued to place their trust in their proven battle tactic. They passed a harsh immigration policy by closing the city according to Joshua 6:1. The people of Jericho hid behind the safety of their walls as the news of what the men of God had done to others reached their streets. It is interesting to know that Acts 4:13-14 reads, ‘When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished, and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say.’