Introduction

Joshua 6 is a wonderful chapter because it was the Israelites' first battle after crossing the Jordan River, and this battle was crucial because the walls of Jericho were extremely high and strong, and if you attacked the city, what method would you want to use to attack the city? And what weapons did the Israelites, led by Joshua, use to attack the city? The priests walked around the city.

We start thinking about why we are victorious: **We are victorious because of God! **The last chapter talked about the LORD being the marshal of Israel's army! In this chapter, you can see that God led the Israelites in battle, and it was God who gave victory to the people of Israel.

God Puts the Enemy in Our Hands

Our God has already put enemies in our hands, so such a topic is very appropriate：

Now the gates of Jericho were securely barred because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in.
Then the LORD said to Joshua, "See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. (Joshua 6:1-2 NIV)

Brothers and sisters, the most important thing to know is that God has given us all enemies, especially in matters of spiritual warfare. I was ministering to a sister one day, and she was talking and breaking down a little, telling me about her son's depression. I communicated a lot with his son, but it was especially difficult because it was always the devil talking.

His son locked himself in his room and didn't respond to any calls. Then we prayed because it's all about the devils, and this sister walked out of her breakdown, and her son came out of his room and communicated with her. Then her son starts to have the sense of fighting and listen to the sharing. He’s no longer in a state of decadence. Then I made her son to have a sense of voluntary victory, because her son is 30 years old and still has achieved nothing.

Brothers and sisters, don't think that we can do nothing after we have believed in God. No matter what kind of people we are, it's unbearable to achieve nothing. People live in the lies of devils and do what they shouldn't do but don't do what they should do, which makes things very bad. Because of interpersonal problems, people become very tangled up and often have to take antidepressants to maintain them.

I just want this sister to know that no matter what the circumstances are, God is still in power, and God has put the enemy in our hands. It is not because of what we had done or not done.

We have to know that no matter how high and strong the walls are, no matter how powerful the warriors in the city are, and no matter how challenging the circumstances are, God has already put the enemy in our hands. One thing we need to begin to understand is that on our way to the Promised Land, no matter how many promises God has made, they are "yes" in Christ.

The way to acquire God's promises is full of challenges, and each challenge is a test of our faith. When we fix our eyes on the various problems, the walls of Jericho are immensely high and very strong, and there were many mighty warriors inside; how can we understand that God will let us win? So, we need to take our eyes off the circumstances and focus on the Word of God instead. During my ministry, I witnessed situations deteriorate and problems remain unresolved, but I know God has given us the victory because it is extremely difficult to cast out demons if they do not manifest.However, when the situation gets bad, don’t be anxious, for God has already put our enemy in our hands.

We are victorious because God has put the enemy in our hands, and it's because we are going into God's plan, God is going to be our marshal, and we are following God to fulfil God's plan, and that's called destiny! If everyone has their own plan and worldly dreams and don’t have destiny, there won’t be blessings because the set of things you have is not the intention of God. This is the most primitive foundation. It wasn't Joshua who was going to accomplish something for himself, Joshua was going to carry out God's plan in the Israelites; it was God who was going to accomplish what He had promised Abraham in the in Israelites.

It's not often that someone will preach this kind of poignant message, but this is what the Bible says, so that's how we read. Today we must know that God wants to fulfil His promises in us and get us into the Promised Land so that we can claim His promises. The key is to get into the will of God.

Rigid and Mechanical Faith in The Lord Will Not Receive Blessings

March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. 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. 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."
 So Joshua son of Nun called the priests and said to them, "Take up the ark of the covenant of the LORD and have seven priests carry trumpets in front of it." And he ordered the army, "Advance! March around the city, with an armed guard going ahead of the ark of the LORD."
 When Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets before the LORD went forward, blowing their trumpets, and the ark of the LORD ’s covenant followed them. 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. 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!" So he had the ark of the LORD carried around the city, circling it once. Then the army returned to camp and spent the night there.
 Joshua got up early the next morning and the priests took up the ark of the LORD. The seven priests carrying the seven trumpets went forward, marching before the ark of the LORD and blowing the trumpets. The armed men went ahead of them and the rear guard followed the ark of the LORD, while the trumpets kept sounding. So on the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. They did this for six days.
 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. The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the army, "Shout! For the LORD has given you the city! The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the LORD . Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent. But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it. All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the LORD and must go into his treasury."
 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. They devoted the city to the LORD and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys. (Joshua 6:3-21 NIV)

There's a very challenging thing here: did the whole march work, or did it work because God put the enemy in our hands? In our past ministry, some of our brothers and sisters saw what I did, and then they inherited and emulated it, but this is a mechanical inheritance and emulation! This is not effective.

Not to Copy the Methods, But to Copy the Destiny

God commanded Joshua and the Israelites to march around the city once a day for seven days. How should the battles be fought, and why do they have to do this? People like to find a formula or a method, but in fact, the method is not the key. We must learn to be flexible in our ministering, and our spirit must be obedient to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and not rely on our own methods.

The same is true in the New Testament. Brothers and sisters should not rely on one method. The Bible says seven priests blow the trumpet. Is it a ram's horn or an ox's horn? How to blow This is useless; those who needed healing and deliverance were not healed, so I wondered what they were doing by waving flags and blowing trumpets.

Some of the brothers and sisters here used to follow some pastors who held a microphone on the stage and blew a breath when they prayed, and people offstage all fell down on the floor. Everyone was happy when everyone fell down, but when those people got up, they were still the same. It's useless.

I was once invited to be a speaker at a conference, but I was a nonentity at that time. The people were all doing those things like waving flags and blowing trumpets. Blow a breath, and people fall down. When it was my turn to go up and share, I liked to solve problems. So I got on stage and asked, "Does anyone have any cervical, lumbar, or joint pain?" I thought there would only be 2-3 of them, but those who had just fallen down stood up again, and more than 80% of them raised their hands. I said, "Grab the shoulder of the person in front of you and line up and pray with me!" As soon as I prayed, more than half of the people's lumbar and cervical spines were healed. I think people take the fall to the floor too seriously because they see others do it, so they follow.

It is difficult to summarise a mode for what God did in Jericho, carrying the ark of the covenant around the city. Sometimes the ark of the covenant goes in the front, and sometimes the ark of the covenant is placed in the back, so is it important to put it in the front or in the back? In fact, neither the front nor the back are crucial. Don't play with methods when it comes to believing in God, because if you do, it will be awful.

Praying in tongues, for example, is good, but if it becomes a method, it's a problem. Praying in tongues is only one aspect of the Bible, and some people like to find a method, and then exaggerate it!

When we study the Bible carefully, you will find that when the Israelites crossed the Red Sea, it was Moses who raised his hand over the sea, so according to the mode, shouldn't Joshua raise his hand over the Jordan River? No. God told Moses to carry the ark of the covenant and stand in the Jordan River. If you say, "There was no ark of the covenant in Moses' time, so he had to raise his hand over the sea." But the problem is that when Jesus came to the world, sometimes he used spittle and some mud and put it on the tongue; sometimes he used spittle and some mud and put it on the eyes; sometimes he went to some river to wash a few times, and he was not copying a mode.

I summarized a pattern, never copy the method, if you want to copy something, copy the destiny. If we enter into God's plan, if we enter into God's will, then God's Spirit will definitely guide us in the right direction. In other words, don't build our faith on the method, or we'll be in trouble!

We are to build our faith on the promises of God, on God Himself, on the fact that God is our marshal, and that God will lead us in the battle! God has put the enemy into our hands, and that's where our confidence lies. I want to release you from this superficiality, from the pursuit of superficial methods, which are not the truth.

Sometimes it really depends on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. One time I prayed for a sister who suffers from leg pain, and I said this is easy to solve, but an hour passed without any progress, and two hours passed without any progress. Then I asked, "God, what is this?" This time the Holy Spirit gave me a revelation, use your finger to poke her Zusanli, an acupoint below the knee. I press on the acupoint, and in the name of Jesus Christ, I command the spirits of death and the spirit of pain out! It took 10 seconds to heal; it was amazing!

Later, I slowly learned that when God created man, there were many tricks, and when he created man, he gave him acupuncture points, which are the key points where the qi and blood run through the body. So, many of our co-workers like to find a method and use that method constantly, and that is a terrible thing to do. It is not a matter of method, but a matter of faith in God.

Abandon The Spirit of Rigid

There are some brothers and sisters who are torn. For example, there is a sister whose child is in distress, and that mother saw her son in distress, can she not be in distress? But I said to this sister, "Sister, God has put the enemy in our hands; just go ahead and just do it!" This mother said, "Will my child suicides?" I said, "Don't worry, God is in charge of the life and death of people! That was really powerful, and as a result, our sisters began to gather up their faith to deal with the devil, and that was a real battle. Thanks to the Lord! By the end of the day's battle, the devil is at his last gasp.

The Israelite soldiers marched around the city of Jericho seven times, once a day, for seven days, because God commanded Joshua to do so; it's not copying a method. The most important thing is what the Holy Spirit reveals. The Holy Spirit is a Spirit of revelation; our faith is the faith of revelation; and God is a God who reveals to us. We can have some basic speculation and understanding of the spiritual realm and make judgments on our spiritual environment, but this is not the key. The key is when the Holy Spirit leads you and how you follow the Holy Spirit, so don't be rigid, rigidity makes it impossible to win the battle.

The Bible gives us a very important principle: to be in obedience to the Holy Spirit and to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit. When we enter the destiny, when we want to fulfil God's heart and will in this generation, God will surely guide us and reveal himself to us. We are just vessels in His hands. It doesn't matter whether we do this or do that, the most important thing is God.

There was a period of time when I liked to talk about stress management, but managing stress is not good because some stress is related to the spiritual world. The stress management I talk about is just a method, and what is the use of these methods if the foundation is destroyed? If we obey the guidance of the Holy Spirit and then solve the problem of stress, you will find that it works well. For we do not trust in the methods, but in our God! So don't be rigid, rigidity is a very evil thing.

Abandon the Spirit of Gossip

The Israelites were very interesting. Joshua commanded them not to give a war cry and not to raise their voices, and they were so obedient that they did not utter a word. This is the unity of an army, and it's a great state! Why didn't Joshua let the people speak? Because if the people spoke, they would speak nonsense and release corruption and confusion, and they wouldn't be able to fight this battle.

This is a powerful spirit called the spirit of gossip. I have fought many spiritual battles with the spirit, and I have found that people love to gossip. I was deeply affected by gossiping. When people came to the Sunday sermons, I prepared a lot of things, and I used all my effort, but after I finished, people hung out in groups and threw my sermon to the back of their heads.

I became the topic of their gossip. I served with earnest and well-meaning advice. Just a gossip, a person is corrupted. I worked so hard to serve him, but he ended up taking the side of whoever was against me, and the side he was on had no grace for him.

Brothers and sisters, you know that gossiping will corrupt you, and the other side will also be corrupted, because gossip is a very powerful evil spirit. There was a person who had been a believer among us for many years and was already a senior member, and she tapped the newcomer on the shoulder and said, "Come on, let's go eat." The newcomer asked the senior member, "What do you think of the pastor's sermon today?" The senior member said, "Don't listen to him; that's not necessarily true." In a few words, it wiped out everything I did.

If you have the habit of gossiping, you must be especially careful, and you must know clearly that it is an evil spirit. So, to fight the spiritual battle, you must deal with the evil spirit of gossiping. Joshua's method was to command 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!" and this is unity.

So, brothers and sisters, if you have the evil habit of gossiping in you, you should be especially careful, and you should know clearly that it is an evil spirit. So, to fight the spiritual battle, you must deal with the evil spirit of gossiping. Joshua's way was that the people of Israel should not utter a word or cry out, and all words should not come out of your mouth until you cry out, then you can cry out, and this is unity.

Victory in Spiritual Battles All Depends on God

Brothers and sisters need to have a very clear understanding of spiritual things. As a result, when the Israelites cried out on the seventh day, the walls of the city all fell down, and we needed to know that it was God who led us to battle. Nothing was needed to prepare for the strong and tall walls; only seven priests were prepared to carry the ark of the covenant and blow the trumpets around the walls, which was amazing. God wants us to understand that we are victorious not because of anything else but because God fights for us, and God has given us the enemy.

I had preached a sermon called "All are healed." God has put the enemy in our hands, so how can we not be victorious? It is not difficult for you to be healed and released among us. If you come to us and you are still in torment, it's okay; you need to know one thing for sure, that we have something to deal with! Our God is always faithful.

My mom said she saw demons again, sharp-tongued, hawk-nosed ones, and they came and grabbed her hand, and a shepherd among us grabbed her other hand, and it turned out that these demons can't do anything to my mom, because this sister has destiny. Brothers and sisters should know that it's not my mother who is powerful, it's because my mother has a destiny; my mother is in God's plan! God has put the enemy in our hands, and this is very crucial.

All brothers and sisters need to know one thing for sure, God's will is for you to be healed. If you are not healed, we don't need anything else but one thing, and that is to start longing for victory in the battle for the Promised Land! One of the most important things I must tell you is that you may be healed, but that doesn't mean you have a destiny! But if you are not healed, then begin to long for destiny, begin to long to know what you are living for! You must know that the reason so many of us are healed is because we are the ones with destiny!

Get Rid of The Devoted Things

Some people think, "How can God curse people?" In fact, whenever we disobey God's word, we will be cursed. Our sickness is a typical curse. We cannot have the devoted things despite God's promise to deliver the enemy into our hands!

It was Israel's first battle, and all the loot belongs to God. The firstborn belonged to God, and all the gold, silver, brass, and iron vessels in the city were to be sanctified to the LORD and then incorporated into the LORD's treasury. The Israelites were not to have a part, for this was the first battle; what came after was Israel's.

We have to start thinking about whether we are taking what belongs to God. I often serve some people, and as soon as I serve, a revelation comes from God that he is a thief or something. I then asked, "Are you a tithing person?" He said, "I am a tithing person. I said, "Be honest, tell the truth." He said, "I give my tithe to the poor."

Whether this is a pretext or whatever, in any case, he did not return to God what belongs to Him. There was a time when one of our sisters, a Taiwanese, had all the bad luck following her. People who live above her were doing renovations, and they moved their washroom above this sister's master bedroom, and all they heard was the sound of the flushing toilet when they were lying in bed. She sued them but lost.

This sister told us about her tragic experiences, and I sympathised with her, and then I prayed with her. As soon as we prayed, the Spirit of God revealed that she was a thief. I said, "Sister, are you a tithing person? She said it had been twenty years since she had done any tithing. I said to her, "You are under a curse, you have to be a consecrated Christian!" As a result, the sister got angry with me! But what's the use of getting angry with me? That doesn't solve your problem. She came to me several times afterwards, but I just couldn't serve her.

Brothers and sisters, you need to know one thing, all of man's problems are because they are under the curse of God! Some say, "Isn't our Jesus love?" Yes, our Jesus is love, but Jesus wants to set us free from the curse. The Bible says that God curses people! So, is there any deduction of God's offering among us? If there is, I encourage you to think carefully, is 10% a lot? The brothers and sisters among us should not take what belongs to God, for to take what belongs to God is to be cursed.

The first ripe fruit belongs to God, the firstborn also belongs to God, the loot of the first battle also belongs to God; and God will let us share the later ones. So, the gold, the silver, the brass, and the iron, and the vessels in them, shall be holy to the LORD. If it is holy to the LORD, and you take what belongs to God in your own hand, it becomes a devoted thing.

We will see in the Bible that God commanded Joshua to take over the city and kill all the men, women, children, and all the livestock in the city. Why did our God do this? Brothers and sisters should never identify good and evil with God. Many people read the Old Testament and say, "The God of the Old Testament is not the God of the New Testament!" In fact, the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament are one God. Moreover, brothers and sisters should know that in the destroyed city, Rahab, the prostitute, and all her family were saved, but all the others in Jericho were enemies of God, and if you are an enemy of God, then it is death.

Curses are very strong. There are no good results from being an enemy of God. The question is, did the people of Jericho have a choice? Yes, they had a choice, because they knew that the Israelites crossed the Red Sea, they knew that the Israelites were in the desert, they knew the name of the Lord God, but they did not worship Him as God, and then they wanted to resist God's people. As a result, they were cursed, and the curse was because they resisted God.

Please do not think that the New Testament does not speak of curses. The New Testament speaks of curses in the same way:

To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For God does not show favoritism. (Romans 2:7-11 NIV)

So many people are letting their hardened and unrepentant hearts build up God's wrath for themselves. May God remember you and your family for your sake, just as God remembered Rahab. God is rich in grace and mercy! If you turn back to Him.

So don't think God is some Santa Claus, our God rules this world with an iron scepter! So do not take God's tribute and become a thief and get cursed. If you resist God and God's people, then you become the enemy of God. The people in Jericho resisted God, and so the people of the city of Jericho were cursed by God. Joshua declared a curse right there:

At that time Joshua pronounced this solemn oath: "Cursed before the LORD is the one who undertakes to rebuild this city, Jericho:

 >"At the cost of his firstborn son
 he will lay its foundations;
 at the cost of his youngest
 he will set up its gates." (Joshua 6:26 NIV)

As a result, this happened in the Old Testament during Ahab's time. There was Hillel the Berthelian who rebuilt the city of Jericho, and when the foundation was set up, he lost his firstborn son, and when he put the gate up, his youngest son also died, and they remembered what Joshua said. No matter where it is, it is in the hands of God. Because that place worships idols and evil spirits, and God curses that place.

So brothers and sisters, when you travel, don't go to places that are cursed, such as prisons, places where people are killed, places with severe disasters, or places like the Holocaust Memorial Museum, which are all closely related to the curse. We need to begin to understand that any disaster is a manifestation of God's wrath! Brothers and sisters must begin to understand these things and have a deep understanding of spiritual things.

Conclusion

As a result, Rahab and his family were saved in this place. No matter what our status is, or what our moral standards are in the world, if we seek God, God will save us too! Our God is a God beyond morality, our God is seen according to the faith of man! Some may say, "What if some of those killed in Jericho were good people?" But God does not see people according to good and bad; God sees whether they seek Him or not, and if we are a person who trusts God, we will be saved! So let us know with certainty that our God has put the enemy in our hands, and we trust in God alone! And we will see that God has made us victorious!

But the question is, if this is the first battle, the loot after God has made us victorious belongs to God, and if not, we give God a tenth of what we have, and we begin to know that both blessings and curses come from God, and that God sends disasters and blessings. We will live by all the words that come from the mouth of God, and we will do what God says, we will live according to the word of God, live in the plan of God, and live under the blessing of God, and God will deliver the enemy into our hands! We will release those who are under the dominion of the devil from their oppression and fulfil the destiny of God in us!

May the LORD bless you!