Alone with the Lord

 

I'm just filled with so much gratitude for all the Godly people who have (and are pouring) into me throughout my life. Community is incredibly necessary and powerful. However, nothing beats the personal experiences we have when we are alone with the Lord. 

When we were stationed in Vegas I went through a lot of personal struggles. I was severely hurt by a church, hurt in deep ways by other Christians who claimed to be friends but turned out to not be, was having some heart wrenching, depression inducing family issues, and on top of that was witnessing things I've never seen before while counseling. My mind, emotions and body were under attack. 

But God! You see, up to that point (moving to Vegas) I would always seek other Christians further on their walk for guidance. I lovingly referred to them as spiritual mamas, as through them God healed so many childhood injuries and gave me motherly counsel. (I can’t express enough the importance of Godly counsel in your life and being involved in Christian fellowship) Then, there I was on a different coast and unable to recreate the awesome church community I had in VA. I felt utterly alone and abandoned spiritually. 

Initially, I drifted a little from reading my bible, praying and worship but over time I grew closer and closer. Let's be real, I was desperate and in agonizing emotional pain. I ended up spending hours upon hours by myself with the Lord. Wow did he start talking to me, showing me so many things in his word and clearing my eyes from the deceptions of the world. He was healing me, he was giving me new love for life, people and more importantly love for him and his word. 

I was in Joshua 5:1-6:27 this morning and before reading I typically ask the Lord to give me passion for his word, help me see and hear Him in it. Help it jump off the page and hear what he's telling me through it. This passage is what prompted this post. I'm reminded that we are to first seek him and his guidance. It won't always make sense but boy is it powerful and God will show up in so many ways. Stand firm in our obedience and nothing is too big for the Lord. 

Joshua 5:13-6:27 NIV

The Fall of Jericho

13 Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”

14 “Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord[a] have for his servant?”

15 The commander of the Lord’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.

6 Now the gates of Jericho were securely barred because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in.

2 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. 3 March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. 4 Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. 5 When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in.”

6 So Joshua son of Nun called the priests and said to them, “Take up the ark of the covenant of the Lord and have seven priests carry trumpets in front of it.” 7 And he ordered the army, “Advance! March around the city, with an armed guard going ahead of the ark of the Lord.”

8 When Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets before the Lord went forward, blowing their trumpets, and the ark of the Lord’s covenant followed them. 9 The armed guard marched ahead of the priests who blew the trumpets, and the rear guard followed the ark. All this time the trumpets were sounding. 10 But Joshua had commanded the army, “Do not give a war cry, do not raise your voices, do not say a word until the day I tell you to shout. Then shout!” 11 So he had the ark of the Lord carried around the city, circling it once. Then the army returned to camp and spent the night there.

12 Joshua got up early the next morning and the priests took up the ark of the Lord. 13 The seven priests carrying the seven trumpets went forward, marching before the ark of the Lord and blowing the trumpets. The armed men went ahead of them and the rear guard followed the ark of the Lord, while the trumpets kept sounding. 14 So on the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. They did this for six days.

15 On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak and marched around the city seven times in the same manner, except that on that day they circled the city seven times. 16 The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the army, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city! 17 The city and all that is in it are to be devoted[b] to the Lord. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent. 18 But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it. 19 All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the Lord and must go into his treasury.”

20 When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone 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.

22 Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, “Go into the prostitute’s house and bring her out and all who belong to her, in accordance with your oath to her.” 23 So the young men who had done the spying went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother, her brothers and sisters and all who belonged to her. They brought out her entire family and put them in a place outside the camp of Israel.

24 Then they burned the whole city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the Lord’s house. 25 But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho—and she lives among the Israelites to this day.

26 At that time Joshua pronounced this solemn oath: “Cursed before the Lord is the one who undertakes to rebuild this city, Jericho:

“At the cost of his firstborn son

    he will lay its foundations;

at the cost of his youngest

    he will set up its gates.”

27 So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout the land.