Safe Harbor Outreach

Recognizing God In The Battle

Joshua 5:13-15 (GW)
13 When Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you one of us or one of our enemies?”
14 He answered, “Neither one! I am here as the commander of the Lord’s army.” Immediately, Joshua bowed with his face touching the ground and worshiped. He asked, “Sir, what do you want to tell me?”
15 The commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals because this place where you are standing is holy.” So Joshua did as he was told.

The first thing that you’ve got to recognize is that you are not in your battle by yourself God is there with you in the midst of the battle.
You don’t have to handle your circumstance by yourself.
You don’t have to go up against the enemy of your soul in your own strength.
Let me say it like this: “just calm yourself down” God’s got you.

Joshua was a warrior, he had been in many battles he had a warrior spirit about him, he was a great leader.
But now he is faced with one of the biggest challenges of his life, Jericho.
This challenge would be the challenge that would prove to Israel that he was fit to be a leader.

In life you are continually facing new things, new challenges, new things that will test your faith, things that are bigger than you are, things that without the help of God you want make it.

Notice: If you are not continually facing new things, you are not growing, you are repeating.
Every day that you wake up you are in a new dimension, you are in a new arena facing new things.

Now if you’re not careful you’ll take on the mentality that you don’t have to do anything, “Give it to God, He’ll fight your battle, you just rest in the Lord and He’ll work it all out, if the Lord meant for me to have it He’ll give it to me, if the Lord wants me to have it there will be dew in the hood of my truck and the ground will be dry.”
Notice: We put out all of these crazy fleeces and crazy concepts to relieve ourselves from human responsibility of the human engagement.

Notice: Now most of the time God will train you through frustrating situations and then critics your response on how you should have handled your situation.

We have a problem with becoming so practical that we don’t recognize God in the middle of our situation.
Not recognizing God in the process of life’s experiences is a crippling mistake that we make so many times.

Have you recognized God in your situation?
But we have become so practical we are always trying to fix our situations instead of finding God in the middle of our situation and depending on Him for guidance and help.

It takes more than just praying about your situation. You just don’t pray and expect God to fix all of your problems.
You have to get engaged in the battle in order to win.

James 2:26 “…faith without works is dead…”

Now when you start doing new things, God starts showing up in new forms.
· New challenges are a sign of progress.
· New challenges are a sign of going into new dimensions.
So don’t expect your old ideas about God to show up in your new situations.
There was only one David that killed a giant
There was only one Daniel in a lion’s den
There was only one Peter who walked on water
There was only one Jesus who was raised from the dead

God’s Word is filled with many different situations and God handled them all differently.

Isaiah 43:18-19
18 The Lord says, “Forget what happened before, and do not think about the past.
19 Look at the new thing I am going to do.(You have to see it before He does it) It is already happening. Don’t you see it? I will make a road in the desert and rivers in the dry land.

You’ve got to be able to recognize God’s voice when He shows up in new forms.
Stop using God, recognize His voice, and let God use you.
God will not let you be god over your battle, the battle belongs to Him and He’ll tell you what you’ll need to do.

Notice: To have a breakthrough, you never run up against your enemy until you have had encounter with God.
When you become spiritually tired is a sign that you need to spend more time with God and quit telling everybody else what to do.
Spending time with God will put you in a position of strength instead of a position of strain.
A strain on you
A strain on your family
A strain on your husband
A strain on your wife
A strain on your finances
A strain on the vision of the church
A strain on the work of God
It’s much easier to accomplish the work of God with His strength than it is to work under the strain of your flesh.

You will never win the battle through your own skill set alone.
Battles teach you to pray.
Battles teach you to trust God.

· If you are fighting your battle alone you are saying there is no room for God.
· To go against your Jericho you must have an encounter with God.
· You will never see your Jericho come down until you spend time with God. (healing, financial breakthrough, crisis, family problems)
Notice: Your spirit needs an encounter with God not your flesh.
People say they trust God but never have an encounter with Him
People who are in the light of God see things much more clear than those who are in the flesh.

Joshua 5:14-15 (GW)
14 … I am here as the commander of the Lord’s army.” Immediately, Joshua bowed with his face touching the ground and worshiped. He asked, “Sir, what do you want to tell me?”
15 The commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals because this place where you are standing is holy.” So Joshua did as he was told.

Seeing Holy Ground in a crisis is what separates greatness from mediocrity.
See your battle as an opportunity for God to reveal Himself.

Illustration
A couple of weeks ago I was going through one of the most intense battles of spiritual warfare and it was intense. I was crying out to God for help and He spoke to my spirit as plane as I speaking to you and said, “I’m taking your Battle Ground and turn it in to Holy Ground.”

Notice: Why don’t you find God in the middle of your battle and see your Battle Ground as Holy Ground and take off your shoes and worship God and fight the battle together.



Notice: Get ready you are about to have a fresh experience with God right in the middle of your battle, because your Battle Ground has just turned into Holy Ground because God just showed up.

· You’ll learn things about God on this ground
· You’ll learn things about yourself on this ground
· You’ll learn things about life on this ground
· You’ll learn something about your faith on this ground
· Your greatest moments about worship will be on this ground

Look at your situation as a sanctuary, take off your shoes!
Notice: God will take your storm and like a hurricane blow you into a new dimension, fresh opportunities, and new levels of greatness.

Your storm is blowing you to a change, a new start in God.

When you see your situation as a sanctuary you’ll do like Joshua did, you’ll fall down and start worshipping God in the middle of your situation.
· Worshipping God in the middle of your grief
· Worshipping God in the middle of your heartache
· Worshipping God when you’ve lost your job
· Worshipping God when your children are all messed up

Job 13:15
“Though he slay me, yet will I trust him…”