Believing You Can Do All Things Through Christ Session 5

1. God is Who He Says He is! 2. God Can Do What He Says He Can Do! 3. I am Who God Says I am ! 4. I Can Do All Things Through Christ! 5. God’s Word is Alive and Active in Me! I Believe God! Joshua 1:1-9 After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' aide: 2 "Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them — to the Israelites. 3 I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. 4 Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates — all the Hittite country — to the Great Sea on the west. 5 No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. 6 "Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. 7 Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." Don’t miss the fact that in your promised land, there are going to be some deserts (vs 4). It doesn’t mean that just because we are going through a desert or wilderness time, that God doesn’t want to greatly use us! Know that sometimes it’s going to start from the desert. If Joshua had not been the least bit afraid, why else would God repeat the command to be strong and very courageous? The mantle of Moses had now fallen to Joshua. 1 Scriptures are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.

Believing You Can Do All Things Through Christ Session 5

Don’t buy the press that those in leadership never go through anything or have it all together. If they did, God wouldn’t be using them. He wants people in process; they have a fresh word going on in their lives. When they have it all together, He will take them home. 1. God is in the process of raising mighty warriors among His people. We are drawing a parallel between the children of Israel on the edge of their promised land and the church on the edge of hers. 2. The common denominator will not be human leadership, denomination, ethnicity, or giftedness. The common denominators will be consistent with those throughout biblical history. Ephesians 6:10-18 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. The common denominators between the Old and New Testament promises of entering into our promised land are:  The shield of faith. Remember from our first lesson, nobody can enter in through unbelief. 2 Scriptures are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.

Believing You Can Do All Things Through Christ Session 5

The children of Israel chose not to believe the promise and their carcasses fell in the wilderness. Hebrews 3:19 So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief. God wanted to use them to accomplish His purposes there but they chose not to believe what He said. The same exact thing can happen to us! We have promises that have been made over our lives. We each have a call of God on your lives. You have a calling on your life, something fitted to your generation! There are works ordained for us before the foundation of the world and fitted into our generation and into our surroundings, even the places we were ordained to live. You do not have to fulfill it but God does have a plan for every detail of our lives. Our unbelief is the number one obstacle to fulfilling that heavenly calling. We have to have the shield of faith.  The Sword of the Spirit God is working according to His plan. There are masses of lay people who are hungering and thirsting after the Word of God! God is working in us according to His plan. He has equipped us with the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. Joshua 6:20-21 When the trumpets sounded, the people shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the people gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so every man charged straight in, and they took the city. 21 They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it — men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys. They overcame and took Jericho with their faith and their swords. We take our Jericho’s with the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. God desires to give us depth before He gives us the breadth. He always did it that way. Jesus came and walked past many people, proclaimed the Good News, pulled out 12 people from among the masses and He discipled them well. He turned the world upside down by a group of 11 plus 1 (the Apostle Paul) of well discipled people. The Apostle Paul went into Ephesus and got a 3 Scriptures are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.

Believing You Can Do All Things Through Christ Session 5

group of people together, took them aside and began to disciple them. That group of disciples spread the Word of God across Asia (Acts 19)! God is looking for people who will raise up their shield of faith and who will draw the Sword of the Spirit. He will use a group of well discipled people to prepare for the evangelism explosion of all times! Oh Lord, give us a little depth and let us be ready for a little breadth.  Communication with the Commander (prayer). If you want to be mighty in Jesus, know that it does not have to do with the human leadership that we are following. It doesn’t have to do with our denomination or with our ethnicity. It has to do with three common denominators. Are we willing to raise the shield of faith? Are we willing to be well discipled in how to use the Sword of the Spirit because we are entering an all out war! Are we going to be people of prayer? Not fancy prayer, just talk and communicate to God! God is at work and He is raising up a mighty army of New Testament warriors! What we all have in common is that we all want to exercise a little faith! We all want to believe God! We all are beginning to have a thirst and a hunger for His Word! 3. The church also has an earthly promised land that precedes her heavenly land of promise. The New Testament tells us that before the end of times, the church will be purified, unified, fortified, and anointed to prophecy (or proclaim truth). We weren’t called to uniformity but we were called to unity. John 17:22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: Fortified comes from learning to draw the Sword of the Spirit! Acts 2:17-18 "'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your 4 Scriptures are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.

Believing You Can Do All Things Through Christ Session 5

old men will dream dreams. 18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. 4. God warned the children of Israel not to fall for two of the biggest obstacles any of us will have about the fulfillment of God’s personal promises: fear and discouragement. Discouragement -Hatat – ‘to be discouraged, shattered; be afraid, be dismayed … The meaning of the term ranges from a literal breaking to military destruction to demoralization.’ Joshua 1:6-7 "Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. 7 Be strong and very courageous..” Do not fear or be discouraged! What are we afraid of? Are we afraid of what people are going to think? Half the people we know are miserable. Do you want to be like them or do you want the joy of the Lord? Demoralization: The enemy is using this effectively against the believers. Demoralization occurs when Satan figures out what you and I fear we are the most and then sets about to confirm it. He cannot read our mind but he sees our behavior and can hear what we say. He seeks out to see what we fear the most. Incompetent? Immoral? Inept? What do you fear you are the most? An unfit mother? That you would never be a fit wife? He figures out what we fear the most (that we might buy into) and then sets about to confirm it over and over again. How is he demoralizing you? You better know that you are loved, blessed, chosen, adopted, accepted, redeemed and forgiven. Know who you are because the enemy is going for who you FEAR you are and then sets about trying to convince you that it’s true. Joshua 1:5 No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you. NASB 5 Scriptures are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.

Believing You Can Do All Things Through Christ Session 5

5. God will never fail us. The word fail in the original Hebrew language is rapah and means “to be slack, be remiss, be idle, be weak .. The basic idea of relaxing the hand.’ Once you are in God, He is holding on to you! He will not relax His grip on you, He will never fail you or let you go, He has you, He is holding you. That’s what it means that He will never fail us. Joshua 1:6-7 "Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. 7 Be strong and very courageous..” 6. Our responsibility is to be strong and courageous. Strong – chazaq- “to be bound fast, be attached, to make firm, .. be valiant, .. to harden.” (It means the grip!) Our success will be holding tight to the One who has us in His grip. God has you in His grip. God will never fail us, be idle in our lives or loosen His grip on us. He will never let us go but we must be strong and grab onto Him with everything we’ve got! Make your hand, spiritually speaking, bound so hard around His arm that nothing can come between you. This is success! He has us in His grip and we are holding on for dear life. This is the prescription for success! Isaiah 41:10,13 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. 13 For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you. Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. KJV From the Amplified Bible: I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses inner strength into me; I am self-sufficient in Christ's sufficiency].

6 Scriptures are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.