I've been reading Wayne Cordeiro's book, the Divine Mentor, in which the lead role is played by the Holy Spirit himself. The book lays out how important it is to seek the wisdom of the various men and women in the Bible, so that we don't make the same mistakes that they made, and that we can follow them when they were successful as well.
Today, I was reading the first two chapters of Joshua. As the story goes, Moses dies and his servants go and tell Joshua that he is "up". He's the one that God has chosen to lead the people (who have been wandering for 40 years across a desert that is only 120 miles wide....) to the Promised Land.
He listens to them. God's words, spoken through them, are peppered with "be strong and courageous" several times, which leads me to believe that what he is about to do is not a slam dunk.
Then, as he takes them across the Jordan to Jericho, he uses a harlot to keep the scouts safe. God rarely makes the obvious choice - the one that the religious people would make. He uses the weak to confound the strong.
After she set up a ruse to confuse the leadership of Jericho, the scouts go back to Joshua to report. They didn't say "We think we can beat them". In Chapter 2, verse 24, they said "Surely the Lord has given all the land into our hands and all the inhabitants of the land, moreover, have melted away before us". I like the confidence, which only comes from knowing the one who sent them.
From time to time, we all have Jerichos before us and deserts behind us. I have been wandering, not for 40 years, but for 2 years in what has seemed at times like a desert. Now, I face my own Jericho, and like Joshua and his men, I know that the Lord has surely given it all into my hands and that what seems to be like a wall before me will melt away before me. Thank you Lord!
What's your Jericho? Who will he use to show you the solution?
Chicke Fitzgerald
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