One Verse Treasures – Joshua 1:9 Part 2

Have I not commanded you?
Be strong and of good courage;
do not be afraid, nor be dismayed,
for the Lord your God is with you
wherever you go.

We learned last time that in the question, “Have I not commanded you?” God was asking:

Have I not given you instructions for righteousness that connect you with Me? Those instructions will give you revelation and grace to walk out what is revealed.

God was commanding Joshua to address the impossible take down of Jericho with ‘illogical’ instructions.  Strength and courage were needed to grab hold of God’s grace and carry out the commands.

Let’s take a look at these next key words:

Here is the treasure hidden in the command:

God was telling Joshua, “This is a new beginning for you. I will separate and protect you if you will pick up and live by the sword of My Spirit, My word. You are chosen by Me and set apart to be holy.”

The Bible is filled with courageous, trusting, obedient heroes of the faith. How about Noah?:

Genesis 6:9-14 Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God…11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.  13 And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 14 Make yourself an ark of gopherwood…

Dropping down to verse 17…

Genesis 6:17-19  And behold, I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die. 18 But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall go into the ark — you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.

The earth had never seen rain, and it took 100 years to build the boat. Can you just imagine the verbal attacks and the loss of reputation Noah experienced to follow God’s command?

Genesis 6 ends with this:  Genesis 6:22

Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did.

We know the rest of the story…God was faithful to His word as promised, because Noah took courage, trusted in God’s word and obeyed.

Now let’s look at the key word for this year: Courage

This really gets down to the nitty gritty of our identity. 

Courage comes from realizing that God, the most important, most powerful One in the universe lives inside you and is establishing a hidden relationship with you.  If you believe this, humble yourself and follow His righteousness, you will reap a harvest.

Let’s look at David. David was a shepherd boy, the youngest son of Jesse, but he knew who lived inside him.

Dutch Sheets preached earlier this month called “Full Circle, Higher Level.”  In it he talked about David and his confrontation with Goliath.

Here is part of what he shared.  When David volunteered to face Goliath, Goliath was standing on land allotted to the tribe of Judah by God.  David was from in the tribe of Judah.  David believed in the covenant of God and knew that no matter how big Goliath was or how strong, God was on David’s side and this giant was coming down.

One of the other things that Dutch noted was that David never called Goliath by name.  Instead he called him the uncircumcised Philistine.

Why this term?  Because circumcision was a sign of covenant and this giant was not in covenant with God, so regardless of what it looked  like, he did not have the back-up team of heaven’s armies on his side.

David knew God would protect him.  He had done it many times before as he fought off a lion and bear from his sheep.  It was a done deal.  So he ran toward Goliath in complete confidence.

Of course we know the outcome…God was faithful to His promise.

When we look in the mirror in the morning, do we really see who we are? I love this picture:

Stop and ask Abba to give you fresh revelation of who He is in you and start grabbing hold of strength and courage.  It’s ever present and available for your use.

Shalom until next time.