“Da Mystery of Chessboxin’ “

Today’s lesson came a little harder than the others, I really had to let it sit and allow God to reveal what He wanted me to get out of this chapter in His time. In the chapter, a LARGE number of occupying enemies join forces to oppose the Israelites [this is almost like a last stand to stop the Israelites in their tracks]. Now after so many victories in battle, most would assume that the Israelites should’ve won the war by now, and if they hadn’t they should at least know their victory was guaranteed. Yet God still encourages Joshua to not be afraid of them! Now I could go on & talk about strategy [again], and I could talk about how they finally took spoils of war after they defeated the enemy, but the thing that God highlighted to me today is what to do after He reveals the enemy, the opposition, the “giant” in front of you: Prepare yourself spiritually & mentally for the fight!

There’s no easy way around it, the fight IS coming..and even with the right strategy if you don’t first believe you have the victory none of that will matter. It would’ve made too much sense for Joshua to see the size of the army and automatically begin to doubt and plan a way to avoid the impending attack or to turn back to the areas they had already conquered. But as we talked about a few days ago, that’s too much like settling, and GOD didn’t call on us to represent Him only to settle. Truth is, the closer we get to obtaining that which He’s promised, the bigger the fight will seem. It could feel like Murphy’s Law is in full effect: relationships out of whack, finances low, help and things that seemed guaranteed now seem like they’re slipping away or taking longer than expected. That’s all enemy tactics, agents used to get us to lose faith in what GOD has spoken!

So how do we respond?

With the antidote: go before GOD in prayer! Give thanks, repent, break off any covenants that aren’t of GOD..then you wait for your strategy of attack. After Joshua got the word from GOD he didn’t wait for the armies to come to him, he took his troops and again took the fight to THEM! [A lot of reoccurring lessons, must mean GOD is about to move 🙌🏾] I’m sure there’s more Word left on the table, but [again], when you get your marching orders from God that means you go in His strength and execute, and I’m about to do just that!