How to Grab the Main Topic

When you choose a main topic, it is to capture the message that the author wants to express and deliver to the readers. It must be relevant to the content of the passage, if not, then it is not particularly appropriate. If it is relevant and can bring the whole content of a whole chapter together, then the topic is appropriate. Then you've basically found what the author is trying to say.

In fact, whether we are preaching or writing a book, you will find that we express one idea by laying it out piece by piece around the topic. When we read, we must read in this way; we must know what the author wants to do and why they write this. There are reasons. Everything has an essence behind it. If you can't grasp the main topic, you probably aren't a good learner.

When we read the Bible, please don't think that we are just reading the Bible; we are also mastering a way to understand what the author wants to say. So, finding the main topic is very important. Sometimes when I listen to people on the Internet, one thing that I've noticed is that they don't talk about the main idea; they talk about whatever they want to talk about; they have their own ideas; and then they use the Bible to support their ideas. I don't think that's a proper thing to do; we can't use the Bible to justify our ideas; we have to use the Bible to read what God wants to tell us.

Destiny is the Will of God

If I had to title this chapter, it would be "God is Our Victorious Marshal." We must know one thing, we can have our own ideas, but whether those ideas are in line with God's ideas determines whether we can win in the end. The reason why we want to push everyone into destiny is because entering destiny is what God's original intention was for us.

We have to know that we live in God's plan. Will you accept the LORD as your marshal if we live in our own little plan, and your plan is not God's plan? Definitely not, and definitely not good. So, we must begin to return to God's plan from within a false theological system of individual practice. Returning to God's plan is called destiny. There is no blessing outside of destiny, because destiny is the will of God in us.

Many of our brothers and sisters sometimes ask the pastor to pray for their money, and I asked, "Is it God's will that I pray for your money?" No. There is never a prayer for money in the Bible.

But in the Bible, from Genesis to Joshua, you'll find it centres around one theme called destiny, and that destiny is God's will, God's plan. God's plan was to bring the Israelites into the land of Canaan, the Promised Land, so that they would become a blessed people. God's plan was to bring the Israelites into the Promised Land so that they could fulfil what God had promised to Abraham.

In fact, there is a more important thing in God's plan, namely, why was this promise given to Abraham? because Abraham was a man with destiny. Abraham sought to be a blessing to all the nations, and this was God's original intention. This is called destiny.

Victory in Spiritual Battles All Depends on God

Because the Lord was the commander of Israel, and it was God's will and plan for the Israelites to enter the land of Canaan, God caused the kings of the land of Canaan to hear that God had dried up the waters of the Jordan before Israel, and then their hearts were digested and they had no more courage.

The victory in spiritual battles all depends on God. God is clearly with us because we build His church according to His will and because we honour God as our marshal. In fact, when we fight with God, it is not we who are in front, but our God who is in front. We need to begin to know exactly what the heart of the enemy digests as soon as we begin to fight.

In spiritual battles, the devils cannot stand before God's people or God's army, for the Lord God Himself is the marshal of the Israelites. Therefore, it doesn't matter if a church is big or small, but whether it is following the will of God.

Among the churches, because we are following God's plan and requiring our brothers and sisters to do the same, you will see us winning battle after battle in the spiritual world. The key here is not whether you are a very noble person, a capable person, a smart person, or whether you have a high IQ or not or high emotional intelligence or not. The key is that God is our marshal, and we are fulfilling not our own plans but God's plans.

It is God's plan to raise up a mighty army of God in days to come that can conquer and fight in the spiritual world, free the captives, and release the oppressed. This is God's plan. If you read the Bible, you will know that I am not fooling you. Among our brothers and sisters, not many are honorable, and not many are capable.

My co-worker installed a door and a lock, but broke the door; the lock was not installed; and the hole that should have been drilled was not drilled, but the hole that should not have been drilled was drilled, and I was thinking, according to the man's point of view, how are they going to be able to fight battles? But God uses this group of people, The key is whether we are walking in the will of God.

We do not rely on ourselves. The Lord is our marshal; this is the most fundamental concept. If our brothers and sisters fall into the trap of saying, "My ability is not good," you will be in trouble.

These Israelites that Joshua led were still a rabble, but one thing that changed is that they accepted God as their marshal. Do you think God needed the Israelites to accept? Yes, God needs us, and God made us victorious not because of anything else but because we honoured Him as our Lord.

If you don't believe it, you can try it. You may have just been converted, and when you fight demons, you may think you are not very good or capable, but when you fight demons and release those captive souls, it definitely works. Don't rely on yourself in spiritual battles, but rely on God, for He is our marshal.

Before the battle is fought, the opponent's heart is digested. Can you not win? In the last paragraph of Joshua chapter 5:

Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, "Are you for us or for our enemies?" (Joshua 5:13 NIV)

No matter how spiritual Joshua was, when he saw such a sight, he felt that he was fighting with the Canaanites.

In fact, this is a remarkable thing; just like Joshua became the leader of the Israelites, are you helping ours or theirs? In fact, it is not God helping them or helping us; God will be the marshal of the army of the LORD.

God came to see that the Israelites, who had been trained in the desert for 40 years, reading God's word every day, finally accepted God as their marshal. By this time, the Israelites had developed the habit of doing what God said.

The Canaanites all lost their courage, and in fact, they are dumb. From a human point of view, the Israelites crossed the Jordan River and were circumcised there, which is an operation on the body, and they could not fight for at least 3 days, and it was very hard to bear the wounds, and it might take weeks to recover, and it hurts even to move with the wounds, let alone fight.

Wouldn't it be simple for the Canaanites to come out and kill them at this point? Wouldn't it be better to circumcise before crossing the Jordan, and then cross the Jordan after the wounds have healed? That's how we look at it, but you forget one thing: that the LORD God is the marshal of Israel.

But that's what God did! If we can think of this, surely the Israelites can think of it too, so Joshua was bold enough, I tell you, spiritual people must be A spiritual man must be adventurous. As a result, the enemy didn't come. After the Israelites were circumcised, God and God's army camped around them; of course, it is not written in the Bible. These are my own words. The Canaanites sent a few spies to look, and they saw God's angelic army, as many as the sand on the seashore, surround the Israelites in three layers on the left and three layers on the right; it was impossible to kill them. But the Israelites didn't see it, and Joshua saw only one angel; there were many more they couldn't see.

No One Can Resist God to help Us

When our church was fighting on the spiritual battlefield and the church was not so victorious, I was very bold. There was a sumo wrestler studying at the school where I worked. The sumo wrestler was at least a provincial athlete, with very big hands and fingers as thick as carrots, and he weighed over 300 pounds, which was very scary.

One day when I was working in my office, he rushed in and said, "Quick! Quick! "Help me, help me!" I asked, "What's wrong?" He said, "I can't control myself, i want to hit someone." If sumo wrestlers get into a fight, they can easily knock one out with just one hand. He couldn't control himself, but he knew he didn't want to hit anyone, so he came to me.

So, I prayed for him to cast out demons. Then he reached out his hands, about 20 centimetres from my neck, and wanted to strangle me. He was going to strangle me, but he started to shake and suddenly fell to the ground. After a few minutes, he woke up and said he was OK now. I asked, "What did you just do?" and he said, "Just now the demons inside me were trying to strangle you." I said, "I was right in front of you, and your big hands came right up to grab my neck." He said, "To grab your neck?" I can't; that was an invisible force." I thought, "My God is so powerful."

Also, there was a Singaporean man a couple years ago, about 1.9 metres tall and weighing more than 100 kg. He is a martial arts coach, a taekwondo master, and he said his leg is injured. He sat there, and I began to pray. The man then started practising Kung Fu.

He was practising Kung Fu while I was praying.He suddenly came over to me with his fist, and just as he was about to punch me, he fell to the ground. He wants to hit me, and the devil inside him hates me so much, but he ended up falling and being knocked out. If you ask me if I saw God? No, I didn't.

What does such an experience prove? As long as we walk in the will of God, no one can do anything to you. After experiencing these miracles. I know that God is our marshal, and no one can harm us. Even if the Israelites were circumcised, the people around them were not stupid. They wanted to go and kill them, but they saw the army of God, a sea of people, a well-equipped army.

Brothers and sisters, you go out to fight not because of how great you are, but because you are a soldier in the army of God. God is our marshal, and if God will help us, who can resist us? This is faith.

The Israelites were obedient, and they were thinking, "If God wants us to circumcise, we'll circumcise, and we'll do what God says, we are not going to be like the previous generation. But this group of people became forceful after hard work and numerous revisions in the desert.

Remove the Nature of Slave

When I was in elementary school, in those days, when people talked about going totheire countryside, the city kids were scared. But it's good to go to the countryside for a while and suffer a little. In fact, I gradually began to understand that there is no unbearable suffering, only unbearable blessings, and I found that people need a difficult environment to traithey were's faith. Those who trained in the desert are God's elite soldiers. After such training, they accepted God's words, and they know that God is their marshal, so they circumcised.

Circumcision is an operation on the human genitals. A child who drew circumcision also drew a knife and a gift. He thought circumcision was a gift, and circumcision is indeed a gift, but not in the sense of cutting away the gift, but in the sense of cutting away the most obvious place of carnal lust, which is the human genitals.

In fact, God gave the circumcision to Abraham, who was circumcised at the age of 100, and God asked him to do this operation, so he did. As a result, the Israelites were circumcised from generation to generation. Circumcision is the cutting off of the evil lusts of the flesh. If people do not accept God as our marshal, then they are carnal, and the most obvious thing about carnal men is that they survive by their own hands and by their own ability. Isn't it painful to survive on your own ability and at the same time, feel that you are not capable, and then get irritated? But isn't it good to have God? We can rely on God, and it doesn't matter whether we are capable or not.

As long as we have God, nothing is a problem. After the Israelites finished circumcision, God said to Joshua, "Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you." This means that they used to carry the vices of the flesh. **A man who carries the vices of the flesh is a slave in a worldly environment; a man of the flesh is one who is enslaved to this world, and they will have a rough life.

These Israelites were circumcised by faith, and then God said that the reproach of Egypt was rolled away from them, which is the slave nature in man. If you don't whip him, he won't work, and this is the nature of a slave. If a man has the image of the Son of God, he does not need an overseer behind him with a whip to work.

The process of curing man's carnal vices is actually the process of removing his slave nature. If a person does not have faith and does not know that God is our marshal, they will live in fear, which is one of the most obvious characteristics of the slave nature, so that the timid will not enter the Promised Land and the timid will be thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, because timidity is actually a concrete manifestation of the carnal nature of man.

You will find that no matter how much money you have or how high your position is, there is still fear inside. However, once a person truly accepts God as their marshal, they no longer care about anything and are no longer afraid of anything because God is in charge.So God rolled away the reproach of Egypt from them.

Before we enter the Promised Land, we must remove the reproach of Egypt from us; otherwise, we cannot inherit the Promised Land. Abraham had two wives, Hagar and Sarah, and the children of Sarah inherit the promise, but the children of Hagar are not able to bear the inheritance. It was in the place of Gilgal (Gilgal means to roll away) that the Israelites removed their slave nature. Why was circumcision used as a symbol of the removal of the reproach of Egypt? Because circumcision is the cutting of the carnal lusts, which is a risk that must only be taken after we accept God as our marshal.

Seek the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness Alone

Next, they celebrated Passover, and this is actually a risky action. They are not permitted to fight during Passover; that is, if the enemy approaches, they are not permitted to fight back.Why is fighting not allowed during Passover? Because God is our marshal, we don't need to protect ourselves. In fact, we can't protect ourselves. I once read an article about the 1967 Six Day War, which occurred on the Israelites' Sabbath, and they do not fight on Sabbath.If you attack the Israelites on the Sabbath, you will be God’s enemy.

We must know that our weakness is God’s strength, so if we trust God in our weakness, God will be our ally. But the problem is whether we are living in the will of God. If we accept God as our Lord, then we belong to Him, and we are fulfilling God's plan in us, not our own plan for ourselves, because our plan for ourselves is fruitless.

Again, I warn, exhort, or remind these people who receive their grand plans on their own that, although you have a lot of faith to accomplish your plans, your faith is not of much use, because faith must be based on trusting God. Someone who says I have a worldly dream about how much money I want to make should please pray for my money or something, this is not God's plan. If someone comes to you to pray for his business, you don't need to pray for him; you just need to ask for the kingdom of God the righteousness of God, and all this God is going to add to you.

Again, I warn, exhort, and remind these people who have a lot of faith to accomplish your plans, your faith is not very useful, because faith must be based on trusting God. Some people say they have a dream in this world to earn this much money, and please pray for their money, but this is not God's plan. You don't need to pray for this. If you ask for the kingdom of God and the righteousness of God, all this God is going to add to you.

We never pray for these things that are not part of God's plan, but only ask for the kingdom of God and the righteousness of God. In the New Testament, you won't find Paul praying for anyone to get a job, have children, or get a date. Paul only did one thing, and that was to ask for the kingdom of God and the righteousness of God and become a man of destiny. As a result, an amazing thing happened, all our problems, things for which we had desperately prayed, were easily solved. Then we found out that for those who are blessed, nothing is a problem. So how good is it to walk in God's plan? But many people today don't know that.

Some people say that it is written in the Bible to tell God what you need, but what is it that you really want? If you want these things, you probably are not a man of God yet. When we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord, we have given our own sovereignty to Jesus Christ, and we live for God. This is the only to live our life well because you have God camping around you.

If we are soldiers in the army of God, we do not seek our own good, but we seek to please God. There are so many needs of people in this generation, that you can't satisfy them all with your hands, but people who seeks the LORD lacks nothing. We must not think that if we believe in the Lord as much as we do, we cannot live our lives. Many people believe, but it also seems that they also do not believe, just like the Israelites who died in the desert, which was the reproach of Egypt, and we must not continue to live in the reproach of Egypt.

Strive to Enter into the Plan of God

The Israelites were doing a risky thing by celebrating the Passover there, but because they had God as their marshal, they had no fear. In fact, once a person accepts God as our marshal, it doesn't matter so much if you do well or if you don't do well.

Some of us often live in all kinds of myths, if we want to be Christians, let's be outstanding Christians! Let's be a Christian like Jehovah God is our marshal! Then we will see God encamped around us, and everywhere you go the glory of God will be manifested, and no devilish enemy will be able to stand in front of you in the days of your flat life.

When I was casting out the demons, the devil said, "You are famous in the spiritual world; we all know you!" Later, when we cast out more demons, the demon also said to them, "You are also famous; you are all from heaven!" So, once we become soldiers in God's army, we give our sovereignty to God, and then we have no fear.

There is a ministry called Manna in the Desert, and I think it's a bad name, but if they want to take it, they can take it. I think it's good to take the produce of the Promised Land, the milk, and the honey. In other words, the manna stopped, and they started to live a wonderful life. The life in the desert is quite boring, but if people don't train in the desert, they can't get rid of slavery and the reproach of Egypt. but if we accept God as our marshal, we would have gone into the Promised Land 38 years ago.

They ate manna for 38 more years, but that's not God's plan, that's God's plan B. Plan A was to go into the Promised Land, but the Israelites were not to go in, because they didn't know that God was their marshal. All the people of that generation died out.

God said that all the people of that generation, even the soldiers who came out of Egypt, perished because they did not obey the word of God, who had sworn to them that they would not see the land that the LORD had sworn to their ancestors and promised to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey. Then they were succeeded by their children, raised up by God, and then, from that generation on, they began to eat the fruit of the promised land in abundance.

We must know that Christians should live an exciting life, should be a very creative group of people, should be victorious, and should be able to live in the glorious image of God in every aspect of their lives!

Completely Surrender to God

After eating the product of the land, Joshua saw a messenger, and then this sentence appeared: a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Why a sword in hand? because for being ready to protect the people of God, no one can come forward. Not only to protect God's people, but these messengers of God went ahead of the people of Israel into the Promised Land in advance and began the spiritual battles; that is, those spirits behind the Canaanites had been completely defeated.

So the hearts of the Canaanites were digested, and the feeling of this heart was a very spiritual feeling. It was very easy for God to deal with the local people, and how wonderful it would be for you to be God's people. As a result of this, the word came to Joshua, and he asked him, "Are you helping us, or are you helping our enemies?" He answered, "No, I have come to be the marshal of the army of God." Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence. To fall facedown to the ground in reverence is to surrender.

The commander of the LORD ’s army replied, "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy." And Joshua did so. (Joshua5:15 NIV)

This sentence sounds slightly strange—why is the place where he stands holy? A place with God's presence is called a "holy place." In the book of Exodus, he who returns to the Lord is holy, and once we return to God, we are holy. Once that place has the presence of God, that place is holy. Why did he take off his shoes when the place where he was standing was holy? because his feet do not need to touch God's holy through his shoes. The places that are sanctified should be touched a little more, and those who touch the altar will become holy.

We have to do our best to approach God, not by our own protection to ourselves because we do not need to protect ourselves, and we don't even need our shoes. Why do people need shoes on their feet? because it is good to protect our feet. What if we take off our shoes and stab our feet? If that place is holy, if it is a place that God calls holy, that place won't stab your feet because that place has God's protection. You don't need to protect yourself, you just need God to protect you.

Once we have surrendered to God, we are victorious in struggling with both God and man. Joshua did not wrestle with God's messengers because he proactively surrendered, he had ruled over his carnal slave nature, so he came to God; he did not need to struggle, he struggled with both men and God and won. Why is surrender before God called victory? We have won the preservation and blessing of God.

Once we have surrendered to God, we are victorious in our struggle with both God and man. Joshua did not wrestle with God's messengers because he proactively surrendered; he had ruled over his carnal slave nature, so he came to God; he did not need to struggle, he struggled with both men and God and won. Why is surrender before God called victory? because we have won the watch over and blessing of God.

With God, nothing is a problem. Surrender our own plans, dreams, and thoughts to God, and then begin to walk in the will and plan of God.

Did Joshua gain an inheritance after he entered the land of Canaan? Yes, and he received a double portion. So don't ever think that it is impossible to live on trust in God. Brothers and sisters, please don't think that trusting God means doing nothing. This is a myth.

Are there anyone among us who do nothing at home and only participate in church gatherings? That's not what God wants; that's religious people. What we want is for us to surrender our entire lives to God for the fulfilment of God's good plan for us. How can we do that if we don't do any housework or anything and our house is in a mess? Depressed people are like that; their homes are dirty as hell.

Once God became the marshal of Israel, the next step was to follow up a victory with hot pursuit. No matter how thick the walls are, there is no way to stop the will of God. Whenever the Israelites surrender to God, and whenever they fight, they win. God is their marshal. We need to start preparing ourselves, and if you have not experienced what it is like to be God's people in the past, then start trying to be God's people.

A sister called me; she came home from abroad to see her mother, and her mother started to have vertigo about 10 days before, and she was in the hospital for 14 days, but didn't get any effective help. Then, we prayed with her mother for more than 4 hours in a row and checked on her during the prayer. Later, she fell asleep. When she woke up, she was much better, and we prayed with her again, and soon she was healed.

When we take God as our marshal, you will find that God is working. So, start to know that God is working in your family, and God has given you your family to take possession of. Start to believe that God will certainly accomplish what we desire in our hearts.

In fact, God really cares about the kinship between people. For example, in the Bible, because of Abraham, God remembered Abraham, and during the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, God saved Lot, because Abraham had a relationship with Lot. Our God is a very compassionate God. If you are Abraham, God will remember your loved ones because of you, so our brothers and sisters, you are people with destiny; you are in God's plan, or you are walking in the middle of God's plan, you will find God fighting for you right in front of you, and then you will find that wonderful things will happen, totally beyond our imagination. We must know how good it is to have God, but the problem is that many people do not believe.

Why do people not trust in God? They have no idea that if you trust in God, you will have nothing to worry about. It took 40 years from the Exodus to the land of Canaan. When this day finally came, the Israelites were very excited, and Joshua was very excited. After waiting for so long, this day had finally come, and they couldn't lose this opportunity and go back to the desert for another 40 years.

Therefore, all Christians in the desert must begin to come out, begin to be prepared, completely surrender, cure the Egyptian slave nature, and be completely cured of the mentality of being a slave in this world. Some people say, "How can we live without work?" How can there be a problem with work when God is with us?

Begin to deal with the slave nature in us, remove the reproach of our slave nature, and then begin to prepare ourselves to surrender completely, Begin to prepare for a new chapter on the road of life, which is to enter the Promised Land, and see how God fights for you before you, and gives you all that He wants to give you! All that God has promised will be fulfilled, and we will all be holy to the LORD!