Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Take the whole army with you, and go up and attack Ai. For I have delivered into your hands the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land. So Joshua and the whole army moved out to attack Ai. He chose thirty thousand of his best fighting men and sent them out at night with these orders: “Listen carefully. You are to set an ambush behind the city. Don’t go very far from it. All of you be on the alert. I and all those with me will advance on the city, and when the men come out against us, as they did before, we will flee from them. They will pursue us until we have lured them away from the city, for they will say, ‘They are running away from us as they did before.’ So when we flee from them, Then you shall rise up from the ambush, and seize the city; for the LORD your God will give it into your hand._ (Joshua 8:1, 3-7)
You’ve all heard of the English saying: ‘first things first’. It is always used whenever the conversation is about prioritization.
However, what we have in today’s passage is not about prioritization and we shouldn’t confuse it with that. What we have here is a PROCEDURE for Victory. When we say that GOD FIRST, we do not imply that he should be the priority or actually prior to the various alternatives at your disposal.
What we intend by GOD FIRST is that unless God has ordained something, we do not waste our resources pursuing it or even praying for it. The Bible says that: _Unless the LORD builds a house, the work of the builders is wasted. Unless the LORD protects a city, guarding it with sentries will do no good._ (Psalm 127:1 NLT). Victorious people do or ought to understand this of all things.
What we see in Joshua is that God has already ordained that AI be conquered by Joshua. In God’s mind and authority, God has given AI to the Israelites, and therefore the Israelites are justified to aim at AI. It would be unfortunate for the Israelites to target another city that God has not ordained. We must learn to pursue specific things and those things God has ordained for us. There are things you are TALENTED to do and there are things you CAN do, the former is what God has ordained the latter is ability.
However, even though God had already given AI to the Israelites it was important that they lay a strategy of how to get what God has given them. One of the things we should know about God as the giver is that he never gives poor quality things. He gives qualitative things and unfortunately every qualitative thing is either owned or occupied. When God gives you money and you buy land, the land title of that land has names in it, at least of the dead.
Once you confirm that God has ordained that you take something, the next thing to do is to lay a strategy on how to get what God has rightfully given you. Joshua and the Israelites did not just walk into AI and confess that we own here in Jesus name. Fasting and prayer are good but never a strategy to get what God has given you. Having faith and believing in yourself, visualizing it and all sorts of thinking and dreaming big is nothing without a practical strategy.
The word of God actually asks: _What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?_ (James 2:14). I don’t know what your dreams are or what you are praying for, am here to tell you that God has ordained it. Now is your turn to lay the strategy.
That man or woman you want to marry might marry another person if you don’t position and present yourself right. Actually, they might even have so-called boyfriends/girlfriends, they might even chase you away sometimes…the people of AI chased Joshua and almost killed him, however, he had an ambush already laid. Before you get what is rightfully yours from God, do have an ambush already in place?
Whatever God has given you is occupied and defended. GOLD, SILVER DIAMOND, etc. and FUEL are underground, you cannot command them by word in the mighty name of Jesus to come out. You are free to, but they won’t. God has reminded us that: _faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead._ (James 2:17)
God bless you, I invoke _Truth, Reason and Faith_
Pr WHITE
The Gospel Hawker
*iTiS Well of Worship Ministries (John 4:24)*
iTiS Well of Worship Fellowship (John 4:24) 