Pastor Mike Impact Ministries

34 And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings and the cursings, according to all that is written in the Book of the Law. 35 There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, with the women, the little ones, and the strangers who were living among them.   In these last six verses of Joshua 8 the people celebrated the...

In Joshua 8 the people of Israel were given a new opportunity to once again experience victory after their initial humiliating defeat at Ai. They had a new beginning after they sought the face of God and dealt with the sin in the camp. They were given a new strategy to attack Ai, which was totally different than their battle at Jericho. They experienced a new victory and totally destroyed the enem...

32 And there, in the presence of the children of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written. The book of Joshua is teaching us that we overcome the obstacles in our Christian walk by faith and obedience. We learn that there will be victories but there will also be defeats and failures. I have often thought that whenever I felt like I took three steps forward, t...

For some reason today I could not help but remember Psalm 136 as I was looking at Joshua 8. Every verse in Psalm 136 ends with, “His mercy endures forever”, or as in some translations, “His steadfast love endures forever”. I am so thankful that after all our failures, like the defeat at Ai (Joshua 7), the Lord because of His love, His mercy, and His forgiveness, He gives us the opportunity of a ne...

18 Then the LORD said to Joshua, "Stretch out the spear that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand." And Joshua stretched out the spear that was in his hand toward the city. 26 For Joshua did not draw back his hand, with which he stretched out the spear, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai. 27 Only the livestock and the spoil of that city Israe...

In Joshua 8, the Lord not only gave Israel an opportunity for a new beginning with His word of encouragement, His word of instruction, and His word of promise, He also gave them a new strategy to conquer the city of Ai. God is not only the God of new beginnings, but He's also the God of infinite variety. God changes His leaders, like He did with Moses and Joshua, lest we start trusting flesh a...

In Joshua 8 after the defeat at Ai, Joshua needs and receives a word of encouragement from the Lord. I am so thankful that we have a Bible that is full of promises of God that should encourage us even after we feel that we have failed. I’m thinking of Elijah after the great victory on Mt. Carmel where he prayed down fire from heaven and had the prophets of Baal put to death, and the wicked queen J...

In Joshua 8 Israel has the opportunity for a new beginning after a humiliating defeat at Ai. But even after sin has been confessed and dealt with, we still might feel defeated in our spirit because of our failure. Joshua personally must have felt like, as a leader, the defeat was his fault, and the voice of failure was loud in his ears. He might have sensed the glares and stares of the people, and...

In Joshua 6, Israel had experienced a great victory over the city of Jericho. But in Joshua 7, they suffered a humiliating defeat in their battle with the little city of Ai because of unconfessed sin in their camp. They made the mistake of becoming proud and thinking they could enjoy victory in the battles of life without praying or seeking the Lord’s instructions first. Paul said it this way; “Le...

We live in a day and in a culture that appears to think, “Good God, good devil, good everybody”. Everyone is a victim and deserves a pass. There is no accountability or consequences for our selfish and criminal behavior. We have forgotten that God is not only a God of mercy and grace, but that He is also a Holy God of justice and must execute punishment on sin. These last few verses of Joshua 7 ar...

Yesterday we discussed how the underlying cause of the humiliating defeat and failure of Israel at Ai was pride. Pride which led to carelessness, that led to prayerlessness, that led to presumptuousness. Israel thought they could defeat little Ai without getting specific instructions from the Lord! It seems we can conquer the mountains, but we stumble over the molehills! We can’t afford to take a...

The people had experienced a great victory by faith over Jericho. It was a victory that really only God could be given credit for. Joshua sought the LORD, and the LORD gave him the instructions, and as strange as they were, Joshua and the people obeyed them. God miraculously made the great walls fall flat and all the people had to do was claim what God had promised as they marched forward into the...

20 And Achan answered Joshua and said, "Indeed I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel, and this is what I have done: 21 "When I saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. And there they are, hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent, with the silver under it." 2...

12 Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they have become doomed to destruction. Neither will I be with you anymore, unless you destroy the accursed from among you. 13 Get up, sanctify the people, and say, 'Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, because thus says the LORD God of Israel: "There is an accursed...

The is nothing that breeds failure like success! That’s the story line in Joshua 7! In Joshua 1, we meet God’s man for the hour, Joshua. He is a prepared man to take the place of Moses to lead the people of Israel into the Promise Land! He is a servant, a soldier, and a man of faith. In these first chapters of the book, leads the people miraculously across the Jordan River and conquers a tremendou...

The book of Joshua is teaching us that we conquer by faith. All of us are on a faith journey. Everyone puts their faith in something or someone every day. As believers we should place our faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word, the Bible. Others place their faith in a person or in a religion. Some put their faith in themselves. But the only faith that never fails to bring joy, conte...

Before the walls of Jericho can come down Joshua had to meet with the Captain of the LORD’s Host. He fell down at His feet, he worshipped, and he asked, “What does my Lord say to His servant?” Before we can become a conqueror we must first be conquered! If we want to see the Lord do the impossible things in our lives we must recognize and submit to His Lordship in our lives.   I love what Paul wro...

Joshua 6 is a exciting chapter about the walls of Jericho coming down by faith! That is what it says in Hebrews 11:30, “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days.” That is how we have victory in our Christian life! We are to live by faith not by our feelings, not by our emotions, not by our circumstances or situation, not by looking at the problem or the obst...

Joshua 6 is a very exciting chapter where the walls of Jericho fall! This is a chapter that teaches us that we conquer by faith! It is by faith alone that we connect with the resources of God, the resources of heaven to face the enemies in our life, to face the challenges, the obstacles, the giants. Only by faith can we overcome! “And this is the victory that overcomes the world” (1 John 5:4). In...

Today is a very special day! First, it’s Sunday, the LORD’s day! We celebrate the event of the greatest impossibility in human history! The resurrection of Jesus Christ! On Friday, He had been crucified and was buried. But on the first day of the week, He arose from the grave victorious over sin, death, hell and the grave, never to die again. He ever lives to save us and make intercession for us!!...

Today we are going to finish our study on Joshua 5. Joshua is facing his first major battle after crossing the Jordan River and he is standing outside the giant city walls of Jericho and is no doubt thinking how in the world will they conquer this city that stands between them and the Promise Land. It was there, in the darkness of the night and while he was alone, that he had an encounter with the...

It seems no sooner than we determined to live for the Lord and be obedient to His will that the devil places a Jericho in our path. Here in Joshua 5, Joshua is out to look over Jericho, because Jericho is a very formidable city, a great citadel fortress that stood before the children of Israel and the land of promise. It was a great city, great in antiquity, one of the oldest known inhabited citie...

Joshua 5:13-15 13 And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a Man stood opposite him with His sword drawn in His hand. And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, "Are You for us or for our adversaries?" 14 So He said, "No, but as Commander of the army of the LORD I have now come." And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and w...

Before we look at these last three verses of Joshua 5, we need to review what the Lord is doing to prepare His people Israel to be victorious in conquering the Jericho’s and fighting the giants in the land of Canaan. The first thing He required was that the men be circumcised that had been born in the wilderness over the past forty years. God commanded that they submit to this painful surgery in o...

It is interesting how the first twelve verses of Joshua 5 are so often overlooked in our Sunday school lessons and morning messages. They don’t appear to be very exciting verses and we are more interested in the walls of Jericho miraculously coming down and the giants being conquered. These verses might not jump out at us as exciting, but they are very crucial for us to remember that before there...