Passage: Joshua 1

God told Joshua to conquer the land, but didn’t give him any special weapons (physically) but he did give him the weapon of the Word of God.

To be strong: examine your heart every day. Make sure you are in the right place with God every day. Examine your lifestyle. If God tells you to do something, do it. Move quickly. Don’t delay in obeying God.

1 Peter 5:7-9
7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.

How do you resist Satan? By obedience and the Word of God. If you are slow to obey God, it is basically the same as being disobedient. When God tells you to do something, move on it quickly so that Satan doesn’t come and devour you.

Satan will try everything in his power to delay things and to cause trouble in your life. If we don’t obey God’s commands, we will not conquer ourselves or the land. We will not see the promise of God fulfilled in our lives. Even if you gain everything in this world, if you lose your salvation, what is it worth?

God told Joshua to be strong and be brave. How can we be strong and brave? Take care of your relationship with God. Have faith. Examine your heart: do you walk in obedience? Are you keeping God’s commands? Are you slow to obey or do you obey right away?

If you disobey God and then try to resist the devil, it won’t work. Examine your heart every day and take care of your spiritual condition every day. How? Prayer, reading the Word, walk in faith, walk in obedience. If you aren’t walking in obedience, aren’t praying or studying he Word, you will be destroyed. Why are Christians so weak? They don’t pray or study the Word. They don’t obey God’s commands.

Your spiritual condition is just like everything else in your life. If you don’t invest in it, if you don’t maintain it, if you don’t clean it and take care of it, it will become torn down and eventually destroyed. Your body is the same way. Your spiritual body is the same way. You must clean and maintain and repair it. If you buy a new car or a new house and you never invest in it or repair it, it will look broken down. If you don’t paint or clean or take care of it, it will look run down. If you don’t maintain it, you will run it into the ground.

We must take care of our spiritual condition daily. Just listening is not enough. We must take action.

Blessing comes when we obey God’s Word. We must be real, not just focus on presenting a good image.

Many Christian people focus on gaining recognition from others. They focus on their reputation and how they look to other people. They focus on what other people think. But we need to be real and truthful in the Lord. Forget about recognition. If you honor God, He will honor you.

In Joshua 1, God was not talking to all of Israel. He was talking to Joshua. He had to strengthen the leader first so that the people could follow his example.

Examine your heart: have you been obedient to what the Holy Spirit has said or have you been analyzing and moving slowly?

If you are slow to obey God, He will use someone else. In the meantime, you will lose spiritual strength. When they sacrificed animals in the Old Testament, they didn’t kill them slowly. They killed them quickly. When you obey God, it’s much better to do it quickly.

If you obey God, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. If you obey God, if you walk strong and in good courage, your descendants will be blessed.

Examine your heart: are you doing what God wants you to do? What does God want you to do?
• Be obedient
• Keep God’s commandments

We think differently than God. Our thoughts are not God’s thoughts. Our plans are not His plans. When God tells us to do something, we need to move forward immediately. We need to be obedient right away.

Be strong and be brave. How can we fight with Satan? He’s watching every day, all the time, watching for your weak areas, watching for an open door. To fight him, examine your heart every day. Pray and study every day. Check to make sure you are being obedient to Him every day. Keep His Word every day. Focus on pleasing God and serving Him. Do everything in your power to be truthful and real. Lay your life down to keep God’s commandments.

God bless you,
Pastor Sun East

More in this series:
Part 1: Are you scared? God says, “Be brave, bold, and strong”
Part 2: What causes spiritual weakness?