Recognizing God – Joshua 3-4

 “ ⁹ Joshua said to the Israelites, “Come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God. ¹⁰ This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites.¹¹ See, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you. ¹² Now then, choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe.¹³ 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.” …..  ¹⁵ Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, ¹⁶ the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away… ¹⁷ The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stopped in the middle of the Jordan and stood on dry ground, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.

4 When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua ² “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, ³ and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan… ⁶ to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ ⁷ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.” … ¹⁰ Now the priests who carried the ark remained standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything the Lord had commanded Joshua was done by the people, just as Moses had directed Joshua. The people hurried over, ¹¹ and as soon as all of them had crossed, the ark of the Lord and the priests came to the other side while the people watched…. ¹⁸ And the priests came up out of the river carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord. No sooner had they set their feet on the dry ground than the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and ran at flood stage as before.”

Two things Joshua told the Israelites for them to realize and prove that God, the Living God was among them:

1.       Come and Listen to what the Lord your God says

2.       Keep your eyes in HIS Word

As they did, the results were amazing, take a look!!!

1.       The water flow was cut off upstream

2.       The river stood up like a wall

3.       The water below the riverbed flowed on to the dead sea

4.       People were able to cross over the Jordan River on dry ground.

5.       Twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan were collected to build a memorial of this event.

6.       After everyone crossed the river on dried ground, the waters of the Jordan return and overflow its banks again

As you can see the number of amazing things that happened was far greater that the number of things they had to do just to prove God was alive and working on their behalf.

Today, things are not much different; gathering to listen God’s Word and keep our eyes fix on HIS Word constantly will prove us over and over, who HE is, and how much HE love us; it will also guide us in what to do, when to do, and how to do things. Try for yourself!  You’ll be amazed!!!

I pray you give yourself a chance and determine that you will come to the house of God, will listen to His Word and will keep your eyes fixed on HIM.   But before you do that, you need to declutter your heart of the things that might prevent you from understanding what HE is trying to tell you; and for this you a simple prayer will fix that, just say:

“Father we both know I’m a sinner, and I need you to forgive me; I accept the gift You gave me of sending Jesus to the cross for me, and I thank YOU. Please help me to live for You, I want You to be my Savior & Master of my life, so help me God. AMEN!”

From now an on, is important that you start going regularly to a church where you study God’s Word every time you come.  Join a Bible class or cell groups too, it will help you understand and study the Word, here you can ask questions about it and how to apply it to your life; most of the time this class meets weekdays outside the regular church service.  Sunday school service is a great opportunity as well. As you do this you’re doing what Joshua did, and therefore you can experience the same glorious presence of God as it was on his.

This will be a great week to start, since we’re celebrating on Friday the day HE walked to Calvary to be crucified for our sins, and on Sunday, the day HE rose for our Salvation.  I pray you start this same week, in Jesus name, AMEN!!!