FOR WHOM THE HEAVENS OPEN – PART 39 (CASE STUDY OF JOSHUA – PART 26) – “BACK TO SQUARE – PART 2 (BACK TO GOD) – PASTOR E.A ADEBOYE – SPECIAL RCCG ONLINE SUNDAY SERVICE:18TH FEBRUARY 2024
SPECIAL RCCG ONLINE SUNDAY SERVICE
TOPIC: FOR WHOM THE HEAVENS OPEN – PART 39 (CASE STUDY OF JOSHUA – PART 26) – “BACK TO SQUARE – PART 2 (BACK TO GOD).
MINISTERING: PASTOR E.A ADEBOYE
DATE: 18TH FEBRUARY 2024
BIBLE TEXT: JOSHUA 8: 1-2
Let Us Pray!
SONG
Immortal God
Invincible God
Immortal God
How Great thou Art
The King of Kings
The Lord of Lords
Immortal God
How Great thou Art
OPENING PRAYER
Immortal, Invincible, the Only Wise God; the One who lives forever – Our Father, we Worship You.
We want You to know that we are Proud of You – There is no Father like You; You are the Almighty, You are the All Sufficient God, all Power belongs to You.
Father, accept our Worship in Jesus Name.
We are here before You today Lord, Please speak to us again, let us hear Your Voice and do something Mighty in all our lives.
In Jesus Mighty Name we have Prayed – Amen!
Praise the Lord – Hallelujah!
Now, we are going on to Part 39 in our Study of the Life of Joshua as an Example of Someone for whom the Heavens Open and a very Good Example of Divine Repositioning!
The Bible Text that we started looking at Last Series is in Joshua 8: 1-2:
- And the LORD said unto Joshua, Fear not, neither be thou dismayed: take all the People of war with thee, and arise, go up to Ai: see, I have given into thy hand the king of Ai, and his People, and his City, and his Land:
- And thou shalt do to Ai and her King as thou didst unto Jericho and her king: only the spoil thereof, and the cattle thereof, shall ye take for a Prey unto yourselves: lay thee an ambush for the City behind it.
If we read this Passage gently, we will see several beautiful things that God said to Joshua.
For Example, He asked him to:
I. Fear Not – We will come to that in one of the Series.
II. Don’t be dismayed.
III. Take all the People of war with thee and arise and go up to Ai.
III. Then God said: See, I have given to thee the King of Ai.
IV. Then God said: See, I have given into thy hand the King of Ai and his People and this City and his Land – That is a lot of Giving.
V. And then God went on to say that thou shalt do to Ai and her King as thou didst unto Jericho and her Kings – That is a Great Promise.
VI. But God didn’t stop there, He said that you wipe out Ai but the spoil thereof, and the cattle thereof, shall ye take for a Prey for yourselves – That means any Money or Good Thing you find there, I’m not even asking you to bring them to me like you did in Jericho. You can keep it.
VII. And then of course, God said: Lay thee an ambush for the City behind it.
… Quite a lot of beautiful things here!
You know that in the Last Series, we spoke about: “Back To Square One” – We told you about how beautiful “Back To Square One” could mean.
But here for Joshua, it is actually “Back to God” – The Square One here as far as Joshua was concerned was “Back to God”.
Because you see in Joshua Chapter 7; when Joshua suffered that “Humiliating Defeat” and he fell on his face in Agony, afraid, the future completely uncertain.
When God spoke to him, He said that I am not going with you anymore.
I mean what is Life if you have to live it without God?
How terrible can situation be when God used to be your Partner and your Partner now says: I am no longer going with you?
How am I going to face the future?
When I was a Messenger and You choose me and made me Head of State and You Promised me that no Man will be able to Stand before me all the days of my Life; that as You were with Moses, You will be with me.
And now You say: No more!
You can imagine the situation Joshua was in Joshua Chapter 7.
You can imagine the reason why they violently dealth with Achan.
If you used to hear from God and you no longer hear from Him; let me tell you the Plain Truth, it is better to die.
I have told you the Story before but I need to tell you that again today because it is very, very important so that you can learn a Lesson.
I told you that when I joined The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), and I became a Worker in a hurry; I became the Interpreter – The Translator for my father-in-the-Lord because as at that time, I was the most Educated in the Church. But not now again.
And there were many other Interpreters – Many other People who could translate from Yoruba to English and vice versa.
And because all the Pastors realised that the old Man had chosen me to be his Interpreter, they left me alone to him. And whenever any other Pastor wanted to Preach, they will take another Interpreter.
And unknown to be, I became arrogant – I have become the Big Man, the Interpreter for the General Superintendent
And then one day, one Pastor – I don’t know what got into him; came to me and said: Brother, you are Interpreting for me today.
Ha, I was furious – I didn’t show it but I was. Didn’t he know that I am as it were Set Aside for the General Superintendent?
I interpreted for him because in The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), a Worker doesn’t say no sir to the Pastor – You don’t dare.
But if he knew what was going on in my Mind, he would have asked me to go and sit down and take Somebody else.
We finished the Sermon and I was on my way to my car when God spoke to me and said: Son, so you are now “Too Big” to Interpret for my Servant?
And from that moment onwards, the Heaven Closed.
And one of the Blessings that I have enjoyed as a Young Christian was the ability to hear from God.
Oh, I will be going to Church on Sunday Morning; before I get to Church, God will tell me who will be the Preacher, what he will be Preaching on, the Buble Passages he will use – I knew the Sermon before I get to Church.
That was my Relationship with Him!
But after that day, God kept quiet – I’m telling you that it wasn’t long before the devil realised that I wasn’t hearing from God anymore and he tortured me.
I Prayed, I Fasted, I Cried to God and God was Silent.
Until one day I said in desperation that: Father, begin to speak to me again and if I am going to offend you again tomorrow, take me away today!
God knew that He got me – God knew that I was willing to do to myself what they did to Achan. And He began to speak to me from then.
And He is still speaking to me till today!
I’m Praying for you that if you have been on Speaking Terms with God and you had strayed and He is no longer talking to you; I Pray that the Almighty God will help you to do whatever you need to do so that He can restore you to Speaking Terms with Him in Jesus Name – Amen!
Now, Joshua was back to Square One – He went back to God; the One who called him Originally.
The One who spoke to him in Joshua 1: 1-9 – Hey Joshua, my Servant Moses is dead; now you rise up, you will continue where Moses failed and then gave him many, many Great Promises.
Back to God for Joshua means:
- NO MORE FAILURES
Oh, I am Praying for everyone of you listening to me today or reading now on the Label of DMC that this Day, will mark the end of Failures in your lives – Amen!
Because if you are “Back to God” according to Philippians 4:13 – You can do All things through Christ who will be Strengthening you.
… No More Failures!
Life can be fantastic if you know that for the rest of your Life; you are not going to fail again – Amen!
Failure is not a Pleasant Thing at all:
- You have never seen a Student who will shout Hallelujah because he failed an Examination.
- You will never see a Man of God in the real sense of the word, who will Pray for the Sick and the Sick will die; who will say: Glory be to God!
And in the Name that is above every other name; you will never fail again – Amen!
- But it is more than Failure – It actually means: NO MORE DEFEAT.
It means that any battle that you fight from now on, you will win!
You see, there is a difference between Faith and Defeated!
If you want to find an illustration of this;, you look at the Story of the Man by the Pool of Bethesda – You will find that Story in John 5: 1-14.
It tells us the Story of many People by the Pool of Bethesda, that once a Year, an Angel will come and stir up the Pool and the first fellow to get in; gets an Healing.
And there was this Man who had been there for thirty eight (38) years; and when Jesus Christ got to him and said: Man, will you be made Whole?
Listen to what he said:
He said that I have tried for thirty eight (38) years, I have failed for thirty eight (38) years and the reason I failed was because Somebody got in before me.
… I was defeated for thirty eight (38) years.
When we are talking about Defeat, we are talking about other Forces other than yourself being responsible for your Failure!
“Ordinary Failure” means that you tried on your own and you failed
If the Man had said: I have tried for thirty eight (38) years but before I get to the Pool, I was tired – That would have been Personal Failure.
But Somebody got in there before me means that I have Competitors who caused me to fail.
But the Bible says in Romans 8:31 – If God be for us, who can be against us?
I Pray for all of you listening to me today or reading now on the Label of DMC – No more Defeat in Jesus Name (Amen).
- It means to Joshua: NO MORE LOSSES
Because the Defeat that he suffered in Joshua Chapter 7, led to losses – Not Ordinary Losses but Loss of Lives.
- Several families lost their Breadwinners because of the sin of Achan.
- Several wives became Widows because of the sin of Achan.
- Several children became Orphans (They lost their fathers) because of the sin of Achan.
- Joshua lost his Joy, lost his Confidence, lost his Past Victories because the Victory in Jericho became Nothing because of the defeat in Ai.
And God is now saying to him – I will restore unto you Victory. Just like You did to Jericho, I am going to allow you to do the same thing to Ai and you are not going to lose anymore.
You know when you read Malachi 3: 8-12; you will see that regardless of what anybody might want to say against your Payment of Tithes; that you suffered a lot if you failed to do so.
Because not only did God says that you will be under a Curse;
I. He says that if you do what I asked you to do, you won’t suffer any more losses – That is one of the things He said.
II. He said that everything that you have lost, He says that I will restore unto you.
III. He said that I will rebuke all those Cankerworms, and all those Pests that has been draining your Resources.
IV. He said that I will bless you so much that even the world will begin to look at you and wonder.
You know – You don’t know what you have until you have lost it!
I Pray for you today that you will never suffer a loss again – Amen!
And one of the Problems with losses is that some of the losses cannot even be regained.
I mean for Example, all those People who died at the first attack on Ai; even now that Achan is dead, they didn’t come back to Life – They were dead and dead.
There are some losses that once you loss it, you can’t get it back again!
Oh I Pray in the Mighty Name of Jesus Christ, no more losses for you – No more losses Physical, Material, Marital and Spiritual (Amen).
And I Prayed like Someone who has suffered a loss can Pray – In the Mighty Name of Jesus Christ, none of you will ever loss your child (Amen).
- And so, God was saying to Joshua: NO MORE SORROW
I wasn’t there but you can be sure that Joshua wasn’t smiling that Day during the first attack – He wasn’t Laughing or Praising God.
Even though the details were not given to us, when he fell on his face down there; only God knows how much tears that he shed.
And God made a Promise in Isaiah 25:8 – He said that God will wipe away all tears from your eyes.
And He added something – He said that you will suffer no more disgrace.
Do you know that God was saying to Joshua – No More Disgrace?
The Elders has a saying that on some Special occasions, it is better to die than to be disgraced because disgrace brings Shame!
- And some Shame can be very terrible.
- There are some Shames that you can’t hide.
- And then He was saying: NO MORE FALLING ON YOUR FACE IN AGONY
Fantastic results of Restitution is that you don’t have to fall down on your face in Agony!
You know that in Deuteronomy 33:27; the Bible tells us that underneath are the Everlasting Arms.
If you are restored back to God, then you don’t have to fall on your face again.
Because even if anything tried to trip you, the Everlasting Arms will be there to Support you.
If you are back to Speaking Terms with the Almighty God, His Arms will be there to make sure that you won’t fall.
- It is another way of saying: ENEMIES DON’T REJOICE OVER ME – IF I FALL, I WILL RISE AGAIN
One should spend some Quality Time, thinking of all the Joy of Restitution.
It Nothing at all, it brings you back to Joy – It gives you several Glorious Things that you have Lost!
- And what God was saying in essence is that: A NEW RIVER NOW WILL BEGIN TO FLOW.
Isaiah 43:19; the Almighty God says: Hey, don’t worry about the Past Things, now I will do a New Thing, I will bring forth Rivers in the Desert.
A New Thing – Rivers will now begin to flow where there was Desert before!
And you know what that means?
New Rivers beginning to flow means: “New Hope”.
He said to Joshua: Don’t be dismayed, don’t lose Hope – Hope is rising now!
You know that the Bible says in Ecclesiastes 9:4 – It says that you are still Breathing. There is Hope for you because a Living Dog is better than a Dead Lion.
Yes, you have suffered a defeat; yes you are disgraced, yes you have suffered losses, yes you have been defeated but Joshua, you are still alive and a Living Dog is better than a Dead Lion.
Yes what happened was bad, but it didn’t take your Life.
And so, I am saying to Somebody who Probably like Joshua – You have suffered losses, you have failed, you have been defeated, you have been disgraced and now, you are in Sorrow; hey Cheer Up, you are still Breathing.
Remember that the Almighty God said that: Let all things that has Breadth Praise the Lord!
As long as you have Restituted your ways, don’t be dismayed; your Tomorrow will be alright – Amen!
- When there is a New River flowing, then as they will say among the Elders: A NEW RIVER WILL MEAN A NEW FISH It means that Emptiness will be replaced with Fullness!
It means that everything will now begin to Increase – That your Multiplication will begin!
Because you will see what God said here – He said: Hey, this time around, when you go to Ai, I’m not even going to create a Problem for you; there will be no need for anybody to steal because whatever you get there you can keep.
I allowed you to keep all the Wealth, all the Garment, all the animals.
… I’m telling you – That a New River is flowing and the River will not be Empty!
- But of course, He is saying to Joshua: THERE IS A NEW BEGINNING BECAUSE I’M SURE YOU WILL NO LONGER FORGET WHO IS IN-CHARGE
Because you went to Ai without Consulting me.
When you are going to deal with Jericho, remember that you were Surveying Jericho and I came and you fell down before me and I gave you Instructions,
You win and now you thought that you are the one who can do all these things – That’s why you went to Ai without coming back to me to say: Lord, what next.
I hope you have learnt your Lessons:
I. I hope that you have learnt that without me, you can do Nothing.
And I hope all those of you who are listening to me or reading now on the Label of DMC are Paying attention to that.
Because in John 15:5; the Lord made it clear – Without me, you can do Nothing,
II. I hope that you will know that I am the Only One Supplying you the Strength.
III. I hope that you will know that it is only those who wait upon the Lord that will renew their Strength – According to Isaiah 40: 28-31.
So my Beloveth Children – My Beloveth Brothers and Sisters, when you Restitute your Ways and the Lord restores you to Himself; Great Things will follow but Please never forget the Great Lesson – “WITHOUT GOD, YOU AND I ARE NOTHING”.
Never again, do anything; never again undertake any Project without Consulting God because He is the Source of our Strength, He is the Source of our Success and He is the Source of our Glory!
ALTAR CALL
As for those of you who has not given your Life to Jesus Christ – You think that you can live your Life on your own?
You might be heading for very serious trouble.
I appealed to you today – Run to Jesus Christ, Surrender your Life to Him, make Him Your Senior Partner and then you will never know Failure again, and you will never know defeat again and you will never know losses again.
So, if you want to give your Life to Jesus Christ, Please bow your Head wherever you are and I will Pray with you so that the Almighty God can begin to hold you by the Right Hand and begin to lead you on. And your Future can become Bright.
Shall we Pray?
PRAYER FOR SALVATION AND CLOSING PRAYER
Almighty God, the owner of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow – I Thank You once again for Your Words.
I give You all Glory and Honour for all those who has made up their Minds to Surrender their lives to You Today.
Father, Please receive them, have Mercy on them, let Your Blood wash away all their sins and give them a Brand New Beginning.
Receive them into the Family of God and from now on, whenever they cry unto You; answer them by Fire.
Father, I’m Praying for all Your Children Today all over the world; Please Lord, let there be “No More Losses” in our lives; “No More Failures” “No More Defeats”; “No More Disgrace”; “No More Shame” and “No More Attempting anything again without Consulting You”.
Thank You Father.
In Jesus Mighty Name we have Prayed – Amen!
Praise the Lord – Hallelujah!
Well again, I’m rejoicing with those of you who has given your Life to Jesus Christ – I Promise you that by the Special Grace of God, I will be Praying for you from now on.
So, if you will Please Consult the Pastor of the nearest The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) to you; he will tell you what to do next.
And you Contact me and I Promise you that I will be Praying for you.
It will be well with you in Jesus Name – Amen
Praise the Lord – Hallelujah!!!
Thank you so much for staying all through to read.
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