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Hey guys,
I wanted to post an excerpt from my teaching last Sunday (I'm a pastor at Calvary Chapel in Little Rock). As I was studying the battle of Jericho I was intrigued by a principle I'd not thought of before. You all know the story - "Walk around the walls once for 6 days, walk around it 7x on the seventh days and the walls come down."
I won't go into all the archaeological evidence for this being an actual historical event, but I gained some insight from the 6 days of circling the wall that I think applies to those of us with HCM. If you'll indulge me: (This is based on Joshua 5:13 - 6:5
"God wanted them to walk around and around the wall until they understood how impossible the task was. Was their walking around really doing anything to the wall? Of course not. Was God thinking “Now I can take down that wall, but I’m going to need them to soften it up a bit for me first…”? It was having absolutely no effect on the wall (except making it taller by trampling down the earth around it). What was God really working on during those six days? Them!!! He was instilling in them their absolute inability to do anything that would bring down that wall.
God is always trying to work in our lives -trying to conform us into the image of His Son. He's taking you around and around and around that problem. You've looked at it from every angle; you've studied it and lost sleep over it. You've talked to professionals and gotten counseling for it- but no matter what you do you just can't figure out how to bring down that wall. It's too impossible, it's too tall, it's too big of a problem.
Great - now you’re starting to get the picture. God is going to have to deal with this - you can't. Zechariah 4:6 says it's not by might, not by power, but by His Spirit that the walls in your life will come down. He’s trying to get you on the same page and bring you in tune with his Spirit. For some of us that takes about 6 times around the wall. For others it takes 10. Some of us have been circling for so long we're practically in orbit.
In the end, the wall may not be the big deal. Can God solve that problem right now? Does He have to wait on anything or anyone? Does he have to go before a committe or get paperwork signed before He can deal with it properly? Doesn't He have the power to just solve the whole thing and work it out now? We know that God can do whatever He wants - it's one of the perks of being God!
Consider this: God could have brought down the walls of Jericho at any moment. Why did he wait until the 7th day? It had nothing to do with Israel conquering the wall, and everything to do with God conquering Israel.
Can I suggest that the problem that keeps you up at night, that you dwell on continually, is not the issue? Maybe the issue is what God wants to do with or through you in this situation. What is He teaching you? What is He trying to break you from? Or maybe He's just trying to break you period. Sometimes that's what it takes to realize how much we need Him.
If we don't get this concept in our heads and hearts, we're going to spend alot of time flinging ourselves at our walls - our problems. We're going to totally miss what God is trying to do in US until, like Joshua, we submit to Him and say, "What does my Lord say to His servant? What do YOU want to do Lord? What do you want to do in me?”
I wanted to post an excerpt from my teaching last Sunday (I'm a pastor at Calvary Chapel in Little Rock). As I was studying the battle of Jericho I was intrigued by a principle I'd not thought of before. You all know the story - "Walk around the walls once for 6 days, walk around it 7x on the seventh days and the walls come down."
I won't go into all the archaeological evidence for this being an actual historical event, but I gained some insight from the 6 days of circling the wall that I think applies to those of us with HCM. If you'll indulge me: (This is based on Joshua 5:13 - 6:5
"God wanted them to walk around and around the wall until they understood how impossible the task was. Was their walking around really doing anything to the wall? Of course not. Was God thinking “Now I can take down that wall, but I’m going to need them to soften it up a bit for me first…”? It was having absolutely no effect on the wall (except making it taller by trampling down the earth around it). What was God really working on during those six days? Them!!! He was instilling in them their absolute inability to do anything that would bring down that wall.
God is always trying to work in our lives -trying to conform us into the image of His Son. He's taking you around and around and around that problem. You've looked at it from every angle; you've studied it and lost sleep over it. You've talked to professionals and gotten counseling for it- but no matter what you do you just can't figure out how to bring down that wall. It's too impossible, it's too tall, it's too big of a problem.
Great - now you’re starting to get the picture. God is going to have to deal with this - you can't. Zechariah 4:6 says it's not by might, not by power, but by His Spirit that the walls in your life will come down. He’s trying to get you on the same page and bring you in tune with his Spirit. For some of us that takes about 6 times around the wall. For others it takes 10. Some of us have been circling for so long we're practically in orbit.
In the end, the wall may not be the big deal. Can God solve that problem right now? Does He have to wait on anything or anyone? Does he have to go before a committe or get paperwork signed before He can deal with it properly? Doesn't He have the power to just solve the whole thing and work it out now? We know that God can do whatever He wants - it's one of the perks of being God!
Consider this: God could have brought down the walls of Jericho at any moment. Why did he wait until the 7th day? It had nothing to do with Israel conquering the wall, and everything to do with God conquering Israel.
Can I suggest that the problem that keeps you up at night, that you dwell on continually, is not the issue? Maybe the issue is what God wants to do with or through you in this situation. What is He teaching you? What is He trying to break you from? Or maybe He's just trying to break you period. Sometimes that's what it takes to realize how much we need Him.
If we don't get this concept in our heads and hearts, we're going to spend alot of time flinging ourselves at our walls - our problems. We're going to totally miss what God is trying to do in US until, like Joshua, we submit to Him and say, "What does my Lord say to His servant? What do YOU want to do Lord? What do you want to do in me?”
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