“Glory to the Precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ”

Ephesians 4: 11- 13 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 

for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 

till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen

Hallelujah 

We, the bride, the church attaining spiritual growth.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in the portion of the Bible that we meditated upon in the past days, we meditated what the reason for our, the bride, the church’s spiritual life to fall down was by using Israel, the church and God is showing us that as a pattern. That is, if we keep anything that is accursed then we are accursed and as an example for that God closed the gates of the city of Jericho so that no one can go inside or come outside and only if its walls are broken we can enter into it and continue our journey towards Canaan and he is explaining this and showing it to us.

How it broke and fell down is that when the priests blew the trumpet, in the seven days: for the first six days once and on the seventh day seven times the priests blew the trumpet and when the people shouted to the Lord with a loud voice the walls fell down flat. In this manner, God is breaking the traditional curses by the sound of praise. But what he said is that be careful that no one should take any accursed thing from there and become accursed. 

But the person Achan took some of the accursed things and they found this when Israel, the church went to capture the city of Ai but in front of the Amorites they showed their back, so Joshua asked the reason for that to God and God said that the Israelites had sinned. They broke the covenant that I had put for them. For they have even taken some of the accursed things and have both stolen and deceived; and they have also put it among their own stuff. Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, said the Lord. 

What that shows as a pattern is that the children of Israel should remove from their bodies the accursed things such as gold, silver, bronze and iron and such kind of traditional decorations and the things that have been removed in this manner, in any situation others should not take them and if they take in this manner, wherever they may hide them, we cannot hide them before the eyes of the Lord and we must understand that. If we do in this manner, it means that our inner man is not sanctified, and we must realize that and we must change them.

That is why, God is telling Joshua that sanctify yourselves for tomorrow. There is an accursed thing in your midst. You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you says the Lord. Also, God is telling that you should come according to your tribes. And it shall be that the tribe which the Lord takes shall come according to families; and the family which the Lord takes shall come by households; and the household which the Lord takes shall come man by man says the Lord and Joshua did in the same manner.

In this manner when he had done according to what God had told Achan was taken. But in Joshua 7: 19 – 24 Now Joshua said to Achan, “My son, I beg you, give glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession to Him, and tell me now what you have done; do not hide it from me.”

And Achan answered Joshua and said, “Indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and this is what I have done: 

When I saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. And there they are, hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent, with the silver under it.”

So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent; and there it was, hidden in his tent, with the silver under it. 

And they took them from the midst of the tent, brought them to Joshua and to all the children of Israel, and laid them out before the Lord. 

Then Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, the silver, the garment, the wedge of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and all that he had, and they brought them to the Valley of Achor.

When we meditate upon the above-mentioned verses, they took Achan and all his family and everything that belonged to him according to what God had said they brought them to the Valley of Achor to be burned. Then Joshua said, “Why have you troubled us? The Lord will trouble you this day.” So all Israel stoned him with stones; and they burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones. Then they raised over him a great heap of stones, still there to this day. So the Lord turned from the fierceness of His anger. Therefore the name of that place has been called the Valley of Achor to this day.

My dear people, if the Lord has to turn from the anger that he has against us, then all our inner traditional deeds should be burned with the fire of the Lord and when we are cleansed, then he will change his anger from us. Then we can grow in our spiritual growth without falling and we can stand against the enemies. The Lord will stand by our side and will overcome the war. We will grow in the spirit of God. Let us submit ourselves to grow in this manner.

Let us pray. May the Lord bless you all abundantly. 

- To be continued