God has set the land before the children of Israel, but now they have to go in and possess that land.
When I read of Joshua destroying kings and their followers, I sometimes translate that action to the way we must deal with destructive thoughts, taking each thought captive and putting to death those thoughts which keep us from moving ahead in this life according to the will of God.
***
The kings destroyed:
* Sihon of the Amorites (on this side of Jordan where these lands would be possessed by the tribes of the Rubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh. These lands were good for cattle and these 3 tribes of Israel had much cattle and asked to remain on these lands instead of crossing over river Jordan.)
On the other side of river Jordan, the following kings and their people were destroyed and these lands were given to the other tribes of the children of Israel.
* the king of Jericho
* the king of Ai
* the king of Jerusalem
* the king of Hebron
* the king of Jarmuth
* the king of Lachish
* the king of Eglon
* the king of Gezer
* the king of Debir
* the king of Geder
* the king of Hormah
* the king of Arad
* the king of Adullam
* the king of Makkedah
* the king of Bethel
* the king of Tappuah
* the king of Hepher
* the king of Aphek
* the king of Lasharon
* the king of Madon
* the king of Hazor
* the king of Shimronmeron
* the king of Achshaph
* the king of Taanach
* the king of Magiddo
* the king of Kedesh
* the king of Jokneam
* the king of Dor
* the king of Tirzah
These were the lands of the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzite, the Hivites, and the Jebusites which were promised to the children of Israel in the days of Moses and were spoken of to him by God.
There were more than a million of the children of Israel to be settled in the promised land so it would require many lands for God's people.
***
An angel goes before Joshua:
Exodus 23:20-24 Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for MY name is in him.
But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries.
For Mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off.
Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images.
***
Joshua 13:1 Now Joshua was old and stricken in years; and the Lord said unto him, Thou art old and stricken in years, and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed.
2-8 This is the land that yet remaineth: all the borders of the Philistines, and all Geshuri, From Sihor, which is before Egypt, even unto the borders of Ekron northward, which is counted to the Canaanite: five lords of the Philistines; the Gazathites, and the Ashdothites, the Eshkalonites, the Gittites, and the Ekronites; also the Avites: From the south, all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah that is beside the Sidonians unto Aphek, to the borders of the Amorites: And the land of the Giblites, and all Lebanon, toward the sunrising, from Baalgad under mount Hermon unto the entering into Hamath. All the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon unto Misrephothmaim, and all the Sidonians, them will I drive out from before the children of Israel: only divide thou it by lot unto the Israelites for an inheritance, as I have commanded thee.
Now therefore divide this land for an inheritance unto the nine tribes, and the half tribe of Manasseh, With whom the Reubenites and the Gadites have received their inheritance, which Moses gave them, beyond Jordan eastward, even as Moses the servant of the Lord gave them;
***
On January 10, 1980, I was asleep in the night when a very loud trumpet-like voice spoke 3 words into my ear: "Hartford, Seattle, KWJS"
I jumped out of bed and wrote KWJS on a note pad. It sounded like call letters to either radio or television. (It was radio.)
I said to God, "Are YOU telling me to go on radio? I wouldn't know how to do that! I'm a writer, not a speaker."
I heard these words immediately: "Call the station manager."
I called that same morning and asked to speak to the radio station manager at KWJS.
I said to him: "God might be showing me to go on radio. How would you do that?"
The station manager told me to make an audition tape, 29 1/2 minutes long, and send it to him and if I fit their broadcasts, they would offer me a contract.
I recorded a tape that morning and put it into the mail to station manager that same day.
Within about 5 days, I was broadcasting exhortations to the church on KWJS.
In approximately 1 year I was on radio from Hartford to Seattle and cities in-between, just exactly like that word that was spoken to me by what I believe to have been an angel carrying a message from God on January 10, 1980.
God can be very detailed with us when HE wants to do so. We must be very careful to fully obey what we believe God has said. This is critical. I've seen church people fail to do this.
A woman from our little church group told me that God had said to her, "Now is the time for you to get a dog." She told me about this around March. She said she heard this in November of the previous year. She was still looking for the "rig ht" dog for her.
What God said to her is: "NOW"
I feel certain had I heard that word, NOW, I would have had a dog by a day or so.
I've been very highly trained by God to do exactly what I have heard from God and to fully follow that word without changing that word.
Saul was removed from being king of Israel because he did not wholly follow the Word given by God.
The men Moses sent in to search out the land were destroyed by God, except for Joshua and Caleb, because they did not fully follow the Word given by God.
These passages of scripture from the Bible teach us these principles. When God speaks something, fully follow that instruction that you believe to be from God.
***
In the case of the children of Israel, God told them they could not live with the people of those lands but they had to dispossess those people and then take over their lands. God told them those people would turn them to their gods so they must not try to coexist with them.
(They will be thorns in your sides and pricks in your eyes to torment you in the land.)
Only unto the tribes of Levi he gave none inheritance; the sacrifices of the Lord God of Israel made by fire are their inheritance, as HE said unto them.
***
Joshua 13:32-33 These are the countries which Moses did distribute for inheritance in the plains of Moab, on the other side Jordan, by Jericho, eastward.
But unto the tribe of Levi Moses gave not any inheritance: the Lord God of Israel was their inheritance, as HE said unto them.
***
God gave these lands, but they had to go into these lands and destroy the people who lived in these lands.
God has given us in the New Testament church victories over such things as destructive thoughts but we have to drive these thoughts out by turning to God and hearing that which God would tells us about each thought and using that Word of God to slay the thought. It will not work to try to reason the thought away. When we kill the destructive thought with that word from God or with that concept that God gives us, that thought is dead.
Hebrews 4:12-13 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in HIS sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of HIM with whom we have to do.
***
6-15 Then the children of Judah came unto Joshua in Gilgal: and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite said unto him, Thou knowest the thing that the Lord said unto Moses the man of God concerning me and thee in Kadeshbarnea.
Forty years old was I when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadeshbarnea to espy out the land; and I brought him word again as it was in mine heart.
Nevertheless my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt: but I wholly followed the Lord my God.
And Moses sware on that day, saying, Surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance, and thy children's for ever, because thou hast wholly followed the Lord my God. And now, behold, the Lord hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years, even since the Lord spake this word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness: and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old. (85-years-old)
As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in.
Now therefore give me this mountain, whereof the Lord spake in that day; for thou heardest in that day how the Anakims were there, and that the cities were great and fenced: if so be the Lord will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the Lord said.
And Joshua blessed him, and gave unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh Hebron for an inheritance.
Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite unto this day, because that he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel.
And the name of Hebron before was Kirjatharba; which Arba was a great man among the Anakims.
And the land had rest from war.
***
Joshua 15:63 As for the Jebusites the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out; but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem unto this day.
(thorns in your sides)
Joshua 16:10 And they drave not out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer: but the Canaanites dwell among the Ephraimites unto this day, and serve under tribute.
Joshua 17:12-13 Yet the children of Manasseh could not drive out the inhabitants of those cities; but the Canaanites would dwell in that land. Yet it came to pass, when the children of Israel were waxen strong, that they put the Canaanites to tribute, but did not utterly drive them out.
Numbers 33:55 But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell.
There have been times I have let individuals into our church group who became thorns to me.
Each time they would speak they were off a little. I was consumed by trying to correct their ways. It didn't take many corrections before some would leave me. But one woman stayed 39 years, troubling me continually with her decisions. Finally she left. I was in the rehabilitation hospital and she came to me and said she no longer cared about anyone or anything, and she snuck out of my room.
It is amazing but shortly after surgery, after an accident, this same woman appeared at the foot of my hospital bed. She was wearing a bright red shirt. She just stared at me, saying nothing. Then she turned her back on me, and walked through the wall, disappearing. I thought I was having an hallucination from the pain medicine they had been giving me. But when she did this a few weeks later, I realized God had given me a vision of that which this woman would do.
It was a great relief for her to be gone from me for she had been as a thorn to me for many years.
At the time I am writing this, I live in the home of Pam Padgett, who took me into her house after the surgery from this accident in 2018.
I've been at Pam's house since that time, for 10-months, and we have never had a problem. There have been times when a disagreement would arise but we both prayed and God turned one of us to the better way to go in the matter. Pam prays and follows God by His Spirit, as do I, and it is a great joy to be with another believer, and with her 2 dogs and 2 cats!
But if you try to be around a church person who cannot follow God, having not the Spirit, that will be a very bad situation for you, and there are many church people like that.
I have also seen church people who are reprobate, and that is terrible. They followed another spirit, which suited their fleshly desires and ended up being turned over by God to a reprobate mind.
Romans 1:28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
***
Joshua 17:14-18 And the children of Joseph spake unto Joshua, saying, Why hast thou given me but one lot and one portion to inherit, seeing I am a great people, forasmuch as the Lord hath blessed me hitherto?
And Joshua answered them, If thou be a great people, then get thee up to the wood country, and cut down for thyself there in the land of the Perizzites and of the giants, if mount Ephraim be too narrow for thee.
And the children of Joseph said, The hill is not enough for us: and all the Canaanites that dwell in the land of the valley have chariots of iron, both they who are of Bethshean and her towns, and they who are of the valley of Jezreel.
And Joshua spake unto the house of Joseph, even to Ephraim and to Manasseh, saying, Thou art a great people, and hast great power: thou shalt not have one lot only:
But the mountain shall be thine; for it is a wood, and thou shalt cut it down: and the outgoings of it shall be thine: for thou shalt drive out the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots, and though they be strong.
***
How can anything be too strong for us when God has given us a land?
At one point, I went on radio in both Oklahoma City and Houston. I invited a woman who sings, to go with me and minister to the radio audience in Oklahoma City. We had previously worked in church groups throughout France, Switzerland, Germany, and Belgium. She said, "Let's wait until a man can go with us."
I just went on to Oklahoma City by myself.
After that, I traveled to each city where I was on radio, and I went alone, where I spoke to radio audience: New York City, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Minnepolis-St. Paul, Dallas, Oklahoma City, Houston, Denver, Seattle, Eugene Oregon, Bakersfield California, Los Angeles, Phoenix.
There was never any problem travelling alone.
If our assignment is from God we move forward as given opportunity to do so, doing that assignment.
We can't sit around imagining problems when God has assigned us the work!
*****