JOSHUA

DATE:  12 May 2002
SPEAKER:  Minister Michael Olawore
TITLE:  Breaking into Jericho
TEXT:  Joshua 6: 1-5

You have been through the wilderness. You have survived dangerous challenges of life. You have endured things that you don't even want to discuss with anybody. If you fail to reach your predestined destination, all that you have endured will amount to nothing. Somewhere between you and your destination is place called Jericho.
A little background information will help enhance this story.
•The nation of Israel, mentioned in this passage first started as a family.
•For over 400 years, they were in captivity or slavery.
•They cried out to God for deliverance.
•Moses was sent by God to deliver them.
•Moses brought them out of Egypt by the hand of the Lord.
•God delivered them miraculously through the red sea into the wilderness.
Exodus 13:17 "…God choose to lead them not in the way of Philistine because He knew that the people can go back to Egypt when war breaks out"
God therefore, took them through the wilderness to build up in them a "warfare mentality". The bible says the children of Israel wandered for 40 years.
Your wilderness experience is purposely to build strength in you and to prepare you for future challenges. It's okay to go through the wilderness but it's not okay to wander in the wilderness.
In the church of today, you find people who have been redeemed but are still wandering in the wilderness, though they know God's promises but the experiences they have been through are still controlling them.
They have been delivered from slavery but slavery has not been delivered from them.
WANDERING:•When a man or woman moves away from his or her predestined location.
•When a man is driven by negative experiences they have been through, they end up wandering.
•When the memory of the past is stronger than the desire for the future, one would move towards the past. Such memory dictates where you should go, whom you should move with, the type of job you should apply for, the type of husband/wife you should have. Eventually, such memory rules ones life.
The danger is that you can wander and still receive blessings. Like the children of Israel, they still got Manna, you could still buy houses or buy nice cars.
You will never come into God's divine purpose for your life because houses and cars will never bring fulfilment, they are just material things
The destination for the children of Israel was Jerusalem but before they could get into Jerusalem, there was Jericho. What happens at Jericho determines the rest of your journey. Jericho was not a big city but it's a stronghold.
The warfare that the children of Israel fought in the natural was a shadow of what the church has to deal with in the spiritual. If you understand how they overcame Jericho you will be better prepared and arm yourself so that you can get the promises of God for your life.
Somewhere in your life there is a Jericho. You need to know and settle that. Ephesians 6:12
2 Corinthians 10:4 - "For the weapons of our warfare, are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds".
If our weapons are not carnal, if our warfare is not carnal then our Jericho is not carnal. Jericho is the first battle you have to fight before you can start possessing the things that God has for you.
Jericho in today's context is your mind. If you don't win the battle over your mind you will never win or possess the land that God promises you. The enemy knows that the mind is a stronghold and if you don't get the victory in your mind, you cannot get victory at all.
It does not matter what position you occupy, it does not matter what your age is. It does not matter who you are. You have got to fight the battle in between those two ears of yours. Consider the thoughts you have to fight against everyday - immorality, suicidal tendencies etc.
Some of us fight while we are awake and still fight while we are asleep also. We go to bed tired and still wake up tired.
BATTLE FOR YOUR MINDIn these last days, one of the greatest battles you have to fight is the battle for your mind. Down through the generations, the devil has developed a strategy to weaken believers in that area. In the past, the devil used lust, pride and greed. In these last days, the devil is going for one of the most powerful tools that God has given you - your mind.
The devil cannot kill you but if he can get you to agree with him that you deserve to die then he has the power to kill you. Your mind is the gateway to your soul. Your mind is constantly fed information through the five senses. Your mind receives thoughts and ideas information from environment.
Your mind then accumulates analyses and store information for future use. Your mind is like a gate. You cannot determine what you allow into your life by what you choose to allow in. You have the power to change your thought.
Proverb 23:7 "As a man thinks in his heart so is he"
If my thinking is not right, I cannot be healed, I cannot be delivered, I cannot be rich. The bible says, "do not conform to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind". When your thinking changes, you change.
It would surprise you how many people come to church faithfully but still go about with negative thinking, attitude, suicidal tendencies, immoralities, despair, anger etc.
If the mind is a type of Jericho, Joshua 6:1 becomes highly significant - "now Jericho was securely shut up". Jericho was walled on every side and completely shut up - completely closed.
How then is Jericho a type of your mind?•The walls that we build around the mind are made of the things we have been through.
•The walls are built out of the incidents and accidents of life that you have been through.
•Your walls are what you build to protect yourself from future pain.
•Walls are what you built when your heart has been broken and you are determined never to allow anybody break it again.
•Walls are the things that are built around you out of low self-esteem, intimidation etc.
Why do you build walls?•Past Hurts
•Abuse
•Rejection
•Upbringing
•Unforgiveness
•Bitterness
•Background
Walls are what you build to keep people from getting in only to find out that the wall you build to protect you has imprisoned you. No one gets in and you also cannot get out.
People buy homes; they have walls. They get married but they have walls, even though they have sex but there's no intimacy because of the wall. The husband is trying to get close enough but there's a wall. So they get frustrated that they are not appreciated then the next thing is divorce
Those who are singles too have walls. Whenever someone approaches you, and remotely looks like your former boyfriend, you lift up the wall.
When God wants to bless you, He really cannot bless you the way He desires because you have built wall around yourself. Genesis 15:2; Jeremiah 1:5 -6; Numbers 13:33
Have you ever considered who you could be if you get out of your walls. Rahab the prostitute, when she came out of the wall became the great, great, great, great grand mother of Jesus Christ.
If a prostitute can become glorified, how much more you! Have you ever considered who you could be if you get rid of your wall? How much better will your life be if you get rid of your wall? Have you ever realised that you are wasting your life living in the prison unable to touch anybody or anybody touches you?
The Bible said the Israelites marched around the wall once everyday for six days. Six represents the number of efforts of man. As long as you continue to break the wall by your strength, it will not break.
On the seventh day, they marched seven times, the wall came crumbling down. Seven represents the number of God, completion. When God comes down what has been impossible becomes possible. For with God, nothing shall be impossible.

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