“ … I’ve already given Jericho to you…” Joshua 6:2 (MSG)
As we examine stewardship, it got me me thinking that we often focus more on resources and less on the atmosphere required to succeed. We must be alert that a spiritual atmosphere has the power to confuse or inspire, to restrict or empower, to make sad or happy.
In Joshua 6:20 (NKJV), it is recorded: “So the people shouted when the priests blew the trumpets. And it happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat…Then the people went up…and they took the city.”
Yes! Jericho’s walls fell in an atmosphere of worship to God. But almost forty years before this, Israelite spies surveyed the land of Canaan and were afraid of the cities’ large, fortified walls (Numbers 13:28). You see, your breakthrough may have been waiting forty years, forty days, or may seem long overdue. But today, God is saying, “I’ve already given Jericho to you,” so rise up and worship your God who brings down walls and throws open windows in Heaven to bless you!
I recall going on my knees in a hotel room in Zimbabwe when I got confused and could not deliver on a project – Excel formulas did not work, and the budget was not balancing. But sixty minutes of worship turned six hours of frustration into an almost immediate solution.
In another time of testing, we sat through one of our sons going for two emergency surgeries in one week at a state-of-the-art hospital. Yet, our breakthrough only came after two weeks of praying, fasting, and believing God for a miracle. I also felt during that period that we were brought to a testing ground so that prayers would saturate the entire atmosphere of the hospital and bring healing to other families who may have lost hope.
Friends, we may feel powerless to change negative atmospheres and start thinking, “That’s just the way things are!” But that’s simply not true. Storms can be calmed instantly (Mathew 8:23-27). We have authority in prayer!
Read: 2 Chronicles 16:8, Isaiah 26:3
Bible Reading Guide: Proverbs 25:11-20; 1 Timothy 4; Jeremiah 40:7-16; Jeremiah 41; Jeremiah 42
