Words of Encouragement

Now then, choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the LORD -the Lord of all the earth—set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap." So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant went ahead of them. – Joshua 3:12-14

Walking over on dry ground. Set the instruction to actions. In the 12th verse of Joshua it reads, "Now then, chose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe." Here Joshua gives the people instructions. First they listened, now they have to set in order those things that need to be in place. When we are going through something, we have to listen and then follow what the Lord tells us, even when we don't understand the reason why. We also have to follow Him exactly as He tells us to. We are not to change the instruction at all.

The people could not wait for God to do first and then move, they were instructed to set out and when they did, then God would move. This setting the instructions of the Lord into action is a call to living faith. We speak about having faith in God, but how often do we make it a living faith? How often do we say we believe God’s word to be true and act as if we do?

When the people were ready to move and follow what God had told them to do, they broke camp and the ark went before them first. Some of us have gotten too comfortable in our “camps” and we are not ready to break the relationship or attachments with those “camps”. Those camps are places where we have gotten comfortable and all our creature comforts are being meet. Yet, the instruction from the Lord is calling us to come from those creature comforts, to break out of those strongholds and move in the way he is instructing us.

When we move forward from those places, God promises to go before us. He promises us that he will walk before us so that we will know what way to go. I pray for us today that we would set out against that which is holding us stationary and follow the instructions of the Lord. When we do, we set out to find our victory.