Message Title: WE ARE MOVING
Preacher: Pastor George
TEX: JOSHUA 3:1-7 (NKJV)
3 Then Joshua rose early in the morning; and they set out from [a]Acacia Grove and came to the Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they crossed over. 2 So it was, after three days, that the officers went through the camp; 3 and they commanded the people, saying, “When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests, the Levites, [b]bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it. 4 Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way before.”
5 And Joshua said to the people, “Sanctify[c] yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.” 6Then Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, “Take up the ark of the covenant and cross over before the people.”
So they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people. 7 And the Lord said to Joshua, “This day I will begin to exalt[d] you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.
BACKGROUND:
Having been delivered from captivity in Egypt, the Israelite nation, though on their way to the promise land, wondered in the desert for 40years until the death of Moses. Now after the death of Moses, God comes to Joshua and instructs him to arise and lead the nation of Israel across the Jordan river into Canaan; the promised land. In turn, Joshua gave the people specific instructions on how to prepare for the move.
POINTS:
1. Pay Attention …Verse 3
To fully experience God, an absolute focus is required, we’ve got to pay attention….
– To The Presence of God
– To The Move of God (The Moves…Our pulse, our heartbeat, on the mulberry tree, the dry bones, the Holy Spirit at creation …)
– To The Direction of God
2. Come Out of;
There’s a great need for you to step out and away from…
– Your shame
– Your Pain
– Your Failures
– Your Past Hurts
– Your Comfort zones
– All forms of holdbacks.
– Refuse to settle.
3. Go After It.
You cannot be all that God wants you to be unless you are prepared to God after it.
– Don’t sense, see and Discern the presence and the move of God without experiencing it.
– To experience, you’ve got to want and desire it
– And beyond wanting and desiring it; you’ve got to PURSUE IT and get yourself into His presence.
– Refuse to just be a Spectator of His presence but rather, become a participator in and a beneficiary of His presence .
– If you want it, you just have to go after it.
4. Maintain Space ….Verse 4.
Here God required them to maintain some distance. He says;
– Not too close; so close that you get comfortable, familiar, and lose reverence for His presence
– And not too far either. So far that you become complacent, develop spiritual apathy and become disconnected from His move.
However, you must be close enough to experience His presence. Stay in-step with the Lord.
5. Sanctify Yourselves ….Verse 5
Sanctification or to sanctify, literally means “to set apart for special use or purpose”, that is, to make holy or sacred. It means to consecrate oneself.
– Prepare yourselves
– Remove any and every form of hindrances and distractions.
– cleanse yourselves of things and disconnect yourselves from things that are capable of robbing you of His blessings and glory
5. This Day ….Verse 7
God promises to exalt and elevate His people ‘This Day’. He also promises to be with us just as He was with Moses.
– Our God is an ever-present God.
– His deeds and acts are always in the present
– He is a God of the ‘NOW’
– He is capable and able to repeat again and again that which he may have done in time past even in our ‘NOW’; OUR PRESENT STATE OR SITUATION.
In the context of this passage and this message, the phrase ‘THIS DAY’ could mean four things:
1. Literally ‘Today’
2. A season, an era, a time frame (period) within which something takes place or God is set to do something.
3. Having satisfied or met the condition highlighted above for the ‘MOVE’
4. ‘THIS DAY’ is a function of the revelatory knowledge and understanding of who God is and what He is doing in our lives in this season.
NOTE:
• The concept of Night and Day is different to us from what it is to God.
• Our “Day and Night” does not mean the breaking of dawn and the falling of night to God.
• In God’s agenda, Night is the absence of Revelation which, is Light.
FOR FURTHER STUDIES
⁃ ISAIAH 43:18-19
⁃ EPHESIANS 4:18
⁃ EPHESIANS 1:16-18
CONCLUSION:
We are on the ‘Move’!
God is set to move us from one level to another, from glory to glory. God is set to move us into ‘our promised land’ which, is the fulfillment of His promises for our lives however, we have got to be fully ready for it and take the necessary steps towards its actualization if we really want to experience that ‘MOVE’ of God. And when we do, we will see and experience God at work in our lives like never before. For ‘THIS DAY’ will the Lord exalt us in the sight of ALL…