pastor don coffeen... the rescue

8/16/2019 Pastor Don Coffeen... the Rescue

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Te Rescue Copyright © 2010 by Don S. Coffeen. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any way by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise without the priorpermission of the author except as provided by USA copyright law.

Scripture quotations marked (niv ) are taken f rom the Holy Bible, New International Version®,niv ®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. Allrights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com

Scripture quotations marked (nasb ) are taken from the New American Standard Bible®,Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by Te LockmanFoundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked (kjv) are taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version,Cambridge, 1769. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (amp) are taken from the Amplied Bible, Copyright © 1954,1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by Te Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Book design copyright © 2010 by ate Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved.

Te opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily those of ate Publishing, LLC.

Published by ate Publishing & Enterprises, LLC127 E. rade Center errace | Mustang, Oklahoma 73064 USA1.888.361.9473 | www.tatepublishing.com

ate Publishing is committed to excellence in the publishing industry. Te company reects thephilosophy established by the founders, based on Psalm 68:11,“ he Lord gave the word and great was the company of those who published it.”

Book design copyright © 2010 by ate Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved.Cover design by Chris Webb Interior design by Joey Garrett

Published in the United States of America

ISBN: 978-1-61663-607-41. Religion / Christian Life / Spiritual Growth2. Religion / Christian Life / Spiritual Warfare10.06.21


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Dedication

To the memory of my father, Donald H. Coffeen, whose pass-ing came just days before the publishing of this book. Like aproud father, he waited for this project’s completion with joy andexcitement.


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Acknowledgments

To the woman who still takes my breath away, my beautiful wifeDebra, thank you for keeping me on my toes and for all the littlethings you do for me even when I’m asleep. Now I’m glad that Itook the time to blow up one hundred pink and white balloonson the day I proposed to you; I almost passed out, but it was so worth it just to hear you say yes. You mean the world to me, and

I wouldn’t be where I am today had you not stood by my sideencouraging me. I love you and thank you for your patience andloving support while I worked on this project.

To my little girl, Nicole, who has inspired me to do great andbrave things in my life, thank you for the encouragement, thelaughs, the crooked smiles you gave me while you corrected myspelling, and for the joy of our simple times together. There is

no father more proud of his daughter than I am of you; you arethe apple of my eye. This project came during a mournful timein your life, and yet you stayed close to me and pushed throughthe pain to help with this book. You showed me character and aloyalty beyond your years. I love you and can’t wait to see whatGod has in store for you in the years to come.

To Justin Hough, your patience and input were invaluable inthe completion of this project. Your ideas and suggestions, bothbig and small, were like a catalyst for the formation and deliveryof this book. I am sure that God has huge plans for you. I amproud to be your friend.


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To Helen Demby, a fellow Christian warrior took a new andfresh look at this book and added touches inspired by a life of

whole hearted commitment, reverence and dedication to ourGod. Her ideas placed yet another group of precious stones intothese pages. Thank you Helen.

To Pastor Paul Cunningham, as a close friend, pastor, andmentor for nine years, thank you for always saying the rightthings, even when that right thing hurt a little. Thank you forthe random phone calls you made just to check in. You seemed

to hit the right buttons time and time again in our friendship. Your teaching as a pastor and your encouragement as a friend hasbeen like a rock to me. From those extra Mulligans you gave me when we played golf, to the fervent prayers we prayed togetherduring our years of friendship, I can’t thank you enough. I stilltreasure our lunches together where you and I could laugh, burp,and just be guys. Thanks for everything.


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Table of Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

The Taste of Blood and Figs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Joshua: The Spy Who Knew Too Well . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Blood to Hail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Rub a Little Dirt on It . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 The Longest of Days . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Who Can Explain It?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

From Your Knees It Begins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Meeting the Commander. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

With Whom You Fight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131Preparation for the Elite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

The Southern Engagement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Moving to the Front Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

A Christian Soldier’s Prayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Endnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207


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Introduction

One moment I’m merging onto the new bridge trying to makemy 8: 30 doctor’s appointment; the next moment I nd myselfricocheting off an unseen car, off the bridge, and into four lanesof speeding trafc. I hear tires screeching to my left as adrenalineshoots through my veins. I jerk the wheel hard to the right soI don’t y off the thirty foot embankment. I look in the mirror

and see the smoke from tires still in the air. My heart is racing,and my breathing is so fast that I feel my lungs and heart have jumped into my throat. I pull off to the right side of the roadand gather my thoughts. I should have been paying attentionto my surroundings. I was apathetic to the warning signs goingback for almost a mile telling me where, when, and how to enterthis new bridge. They just didn’t seem important when I was y-

ing past them, and now I have a thousand dollar deductible as amonument to my stupidity. And then it hit me that even thoughI wasn’t hurt, I still have my wife to deal with; this is her new carI just wrecked!

Years earlier, I battled a life and death situation while I wasin the hospital with a heart condition. Just so you know, there was no light at the end of a tunnel. I didn’t see any relatives wait-ing for me, and I didn’t see Jesus in a owing robe waving mein. Instead, I was taken back via memories to some of my fail-ures. In a ash, just before I passed out from pain and from notbreathing, I saw what I had done to God and how it affected my


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Old Testament Boot Camp

life and the lives of those around me. I knew better. I had plentyof instructions and warnings, but I chose not to take the older

lessons from my youth to heart. Things like eating better, exer-cising more, and other simple ways of keeping healthy weren’tput into practice because I seemed healthy and t at the time.Being prepared for the future was too much work and seemed tobe an unnecessary sacrice.

My heart condition and the wreck on the bridge are not theonly things I rushed through or paid little attention to. My time

in the word of God, especially the Old Testament, and the ideaof being equipped for spiritual warfare didn’t resonate with me. After all I’ve been a Christian for a long time, I’ve read throughmost of the Bible, I’m pretty sure I have all this Christian stuffdown by now. I have a few dollars in the bank and a church Iattend faithfully. I am as prepared for this life as I’m ever goingto be. Bring it on. Boy was that wretched thinking. What I didn’tknow at the time was an Old Testament type of boot camp wasabout to begin.

This book will transport you back in time so you can dis-cover for yourself what the heroes from the Bible were think-ing and feeling during their struggles and their victories. You will experience and take in the lessons and battles that are lacedthroughout the pages of the Old Testament. These lessons arelike buried treasures and pockets of wisdom. They are true to

life and are lled with unfolding teachings. They must never beforgotten, raced past, or taken for granted. The costs for theselessons were the very lives of those we now learn from.

These are very serious times we live in, and yet, manyChristians treat their Christian walk with very little respect. They will tell themselves elementary Christian things to do, thinkingthat they will get closer to God if those things are accomplished.

For example:“I’ll give a few more bucks in the hat when it goes by … I’llread a psalm or two before I go to bed … I’ll say grace at the


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for a New Testament War

table every day this week … I’ll try to not say cuss words any-more … I’ll nd my Bible and put it on the dash board of my

car … I’ll stop thinking bad thoughts about the pastor … I’ll tryto say amen when everybody else does.”

Most modern day Christians have about ve percent of thecourage and guts they need to get through these dark times. Thisis a real war we are in. The enemy has stepped up his attacks onus and wants to grind us all to powder. Do you really think youare prepared for this level of spiritual warfare by simply tithing

a few extra dollars or by praying over your food? Do you thinkgoing to church every Sunday for an hour and a half is enoughtraining and preparation for the evils you will face out in the world?

Many modern Christians have fallen into the trap of think-ing that the more money they have in the bank, the more securethey are in their place with God and the stronger they are asChristians. Don’t allow nancial security to block your needfor deeper training in spiritual warfare. Money means nothing when fear and terror make the hair on the back of your neckstand up.

Let’s stop kidding ourselves.“For our struggle is not against esh and blood, but against

the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of thisdarkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heav-

enly places” (Ephesians6:12, nasb ). While we’re shooting a squirt gun at the devil, he’s killing our

marriages, kids, ministries, and our futures through his manydeceptions. The devil takes his mission of destroying us veryseriously.

Our journey into this book starts with the rst ve minutesof one of the most amazing battles that has ever been fought.

You will be taken right into the battle, as you see it through theeyes and ears of a young, dedicated foot soldier. You will hear the


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voice of each commander as they lead their men into an enemyforce ve times their size and ve times more brutal.

My prayer and hope is that from each battle lesson and lifelesson we cover, you will be closer to becoming a valiant warriorfor the Kingdom of God.

Each lesson will stand on its own as a springboard to strength-ening your courage, maturity, and faith. We are at war—a lifeand death struggle. We entered this battle the moment we said“yes” to Jesus as our Savior. This battle is for our homes, families,

churches, our Christian walk, and our victory as believers for thekingdom. How do we begin to prepare for this campaign thathas been raging since Adam and Eve? By going into the life ofan ordinary young foot soldier during the campaign to take theland of Canaan. From Joshua chapter10, many commentaries,and many ancient historical writings, I have formed a ctionalsoldier named Joash; I then placed our hero into the hub of ourstory. As an allegory, Joash will touch on many of the same areasof spiritual warfare that we all face.

The objective for this book is to take you to a new level ofskill and classication as a soldier by utilizing the full arsenal ofGod. We, too, are being asked by our King to become valiant warriors for the Lord.

You don’t need to be reminded of what has happened to somany mighty men of God who have had their pictures and fail-

ures splashed on the headlines of our news programs. For somereason, they assumed that because of their high level ministriesand their past closeness with God, that they didn’t need any helpor retraining (a common lie from our enemy). They didn’t stoploving God. They didn’t stop serving God. What they did wasfar worse. They stopped fearing God.

There is a way to get that re and that reverence back into

your heart and soul; it’s part of this boot camp training. Will you be counted among the few, who God calls to be watchmenon the wall, champions for the Kingdom, and valiant warriors?


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The Taste of Bloodand Figs

My name is Joash. I am the son of Joram, from the tribe of Judah.I am a third rank foot soldier in the army of Israel. As a foot sol-dier from the tribe of Judah, my training was focused mainly onstrength and hand-to-hand combat.

My objectives were simple and became the foundation for mypreparation: train hard, be obedient to my superiors, be ready, besharp, and stay alert at all times.

I was born in the wilderness twenty three–years ago, far awayfrom the Promised Land, which we as a new nation have justbegun to conquer. It was a hard life growing up without myfather, who died when I was only seven years old. I needed togrow up quickly. Like my father, I was always tall for my age and very fast. My mother told me how my father would often prayfor a son of stature, honor, and valor. Stature I had; honor and valor I was about to earn.

The greatest and most heroic battle our nation has ever beena part of started on my watch. On that night, as the last of thecamp res stopped ickering, I moved closer to the warm embers


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that were just beginning to dim. It was a cool, calm evening thatnight as I and the rest of the soldiers could nally relax and doze

off. We had no more fallen asleep when the horns blew. Stillfeeling exhausted from my day of training, I sat up.This can’t behappening tonight, I thought to myself. This must be a drill or abad dream.

Then a sound that cracked the very darkness was heard asa triple blast from the trumpeters went forth through the coolbiting air. Suddenly energy shot through the entire camp. I told

myself , “This is not a drill. This is no dream.” It was like a spirithad lled the sounds of the trumpets.Now, sandals on and doubled strapped, still feeling half

asleep, my hands and my mind were not in sync yet. “All right,all right, calm down,” I had to tell myself. I took in a deep breathto relax before I wrapped my leather leg guards tight and tiedmy arm guards on securely. The darkness made me tense as myeyes were still not adjusted to just how dark it was. I needed tonish gearing up before the next set of horns blew. I quickly putmy helmet, belt, sheath, and vest on; then I grabbed hold of mysword and shield. Suddenly, my mind went frantic.What am I forgetting? What am I forgetting?

The pitch blackness of that night was like a blanket over myhead. I kept thinking. Which way to my commander? Where do Iline up?

“Formation, to your formation!” was shouted by the cap-tains and echoed through the ranks of frantic soldiers. I wasstruck with panic. Suddenly, with a push from someone behindme almost knocking me off my feet, I was sent into formation. Another battle had begun.

It was so dark that we marched by sound and touch. With nomoon and no light, you could barely see two men ahead of you.

From the onset of the march, there was a quiet kind of fear. Iheard fear that night for the rst time. It was like the sound ofa hummingbird’s wings beating while hovering in one spot. The


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cold air had caused my jaw to clamp shut as tight as a wild dogon a fresh bone. I felt a sharp pain inside of my mouth as I had

bitten down on my cheek and tongue, which brought the tasteof blood into my mouth and made me want to vomit. Without warning, two double blasts from the trumpeters went forth, andsuddenly we were marching double time and moving uphill.

A rhythm had nally developed in our march. The atmo-sphere within the march created a unity amongst the soldiers, asif we were one person. Even our breathing joined in. I kept ask-

ing myself.Where are we going? What are our plans? What are myorders? These questions were becoming a chant in my head; they were starting to throw my timing and tempo off. My commanderhad led me into many battles before, but this one felt different. There was an exhilaration to it that made us feel obsessed ordriven to get to where we were going.

Was I being propelled forward by the hand of God or thefear of slowing down the other soldiers? I didn’t know. Either way, I kept moving. We ran at a quick pace, as if we were horsestrying to make our way back to the stable, in desperate need offood and water.

I began to re-taste the gs my wife, Delia, had given me beforeI went to sleep that night. The acidy g taste in my mouth andthroat didn’t stop her from coming to my mind. Though it wasonly a few hours ago that I had seen her, her face was becoming

a blurred vision in my mind as I felt my legs and chest burning with the pain of this inhuman kind of running march we werelaunched into. At some point, we should have heard our com-manders telling us to rest from this marching nightmare. Yet allI heard was the sound of fear and the pounding of thousands ofsoldiers headed to who knows where.

My shield, which I strapped on my left forearm, began to take

its toll. Being made with an iron ring, two iron cross-members,a thin veneer of wood, and leather straps pulled tight, it only weighed about nine to ten pounds when I started. It now seemed


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to weigh fty pounds, as there was no easy way of changing it tothe other arm to give myself any relief. My left shoulder socket

was feeling dislocated from the pain of the shield’s position onmy arm and its weight as I ran. I could have made my shieldcompletely out of wood like a lot of the foot soldiers did, it would have been a few pounds lighter, but I liked the additionalprotection of the iron. My leather sheath holding my sword wasrubbing on the outside of my upper right calf and began to wearaway the skin.

On and on the marching went. I asked myself , Has it been twohours or three?I couldn’t tell. I thought of my wife, remember-ing the scent of her skin and her tender touch. I found my minddrifting back to the days before the Battle of Ai when Delia andI had just gotten married. She had a way of relaxing me thatstarted with a tender smile, a gentle kiss on my cheek, and thena long back rub that could last over an hour. Is there a man fromany tribe more blessed than me?

“Delia, a little to the left, lower, lower, that’s it, right there, rightthere.”

“Joash, are you still sore from that training session withPerez?”

“He’s only thirty pounds heavier than me. What do youthink?”

“What do I think?” she said with a smirk. “I think you shouldhave played the trumpet like your little brother does, and then you wouldn’t be sore every single night; but then, rubbing yourback every night is not so bad. I mean—” The gentle look on herface told me what I already knew.

“I know what you mean, Delia. Sometimes I’m not reallysore. I just love your touch and your scent when you are close


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to me. Delia, have I ever told you how thinking of you gets methrough—”

The thoughts of my Delia were interrupted as a soldier behindme yelled, “Joash, Joash! Get your butt moving! You are fallingbehind and slowing us all up. Get moving!”

Dreaming of my wife had taken me out of my rhythm and

put me out of step with the other soldiers. With a thud to theback of my head by someone’s shield, I found my way back intoformation and back into the rhythm of the march.

With every stride I felt my lungs burning against my heart. Ifound myself asking, How much more can we take?It seemed likefour hours of straight running. None of us had ever been pushedlike this before. If there was ever a breaking point for most men, we passed it over an hour ago.

Then with a voice that must have been that of an angel, Iheard ahead of me, “Rest, drink, three minutes.” All I felt was, Thank God.

As I was trained to do, I dropped to one knee, stretched myarms and back, moved my head from left to right a few times,and then took in ve to six deep breaths before I drank. I was toldthat there were men who drank too much too quickly, choked,

and almost died. Then it hit me. “Oh no!” I shouted. “I can’tbelieve it.” I forgot my water skin. I knew I forgot something atcamp.

“Watch your water like you would your woman,” we weretold. “Keep it with you at all times. Your water skin is the cordof life on any march.” I had heard it so much that I ignored itafter a while.

“Saul, Saul!” I shouted desperately.“What is it Joash? What happened?” Saul asked with genu-ine worry .


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Saul was my best friend. We grew up together, trainedtogether, and often marched together. I could trust Saul with my

life, but Saul could also be like a thorn in my foot sometimes bytrying to be a tough guy with me. He often forgot that I was thefaster and stronger one between us; so he would use momentslike this to pull a power play on me.

“Saul,” I pleaded. “I can’t believe it, but I forgot my water.Give me a drink!”

“You know the rules, Joash,” he said smugly. “Watch your

water like you watch—” I cut him off so I didn’t have to hear what I already knew.“Saul, I know, I know. Please, one shot, one sip … ”“No, Joash,” he said with nality.“Saul,” I said, standing as tall as I could. “Remember when I

had to chase down your father’s goats last year to keep you fromgetting in trouble? Or the two times I had to sharpen your swordbecause you couldn’t do it right. Do you remember?”

I could have gone on, but Saul’s guilty look told me I had saidenough. So I stared him down until he cracked.

“All right, all right, but listen,” he snapped, trying to pull hisusual power play . “ When this battle is over, you get to carry myshield back to camp. Deal?”

“Deal.” When the water hit my throat, my whole body felt it. Cool

water never tasted or felt so good. I felt it in my face and myneck as it permeated downward throughout my whole torso. Ifound myself panting and breathing so fast that I had to relaxbefore I completely tested my friendship with Saul and snuck inanother drink of water. When I did, he squinted his eyes at me,gave me his tough guy look, and then he snatched his water skinout of my hands.

“Thanks. I owe you,” I told him.“I know you do, and that second drink is going to cost you.”I completely ignored him and changed the subject. “Saul,

where are we?” I asked while looking in several directions.


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“ I don’t know, but I can tell you this,” he said in astonish-ment. “We have been marching for over six hours. Look behind

you!” As I looked around, I saw a little light behind us near the

horizon. The sun had just begun to rise. We had marched allnight. How could that be? I had to ask myself.

I looked back at Saul and told him, “Saul, our God is at workagain.”

The longest any soldier had ever been in a running march

with all their gear on and holding their sword and shield wastwo hours. We should be dead or dying by now.It didn’t take long for the entire army to sense the same thing

Saul and I were sensing; something powerful was about to hap-pen. Even in the dim light from the soon-to-be-rising sun, youcould see it. On every soldier’s face was a look of astonishmentmixed with anticipation. We all knew we were part of a God-created event; there was no other way to describe it.

Suddenly, there was a roar from our commanders. “Shieldsup, bare weapons!” In unison, the entire army snapped to atten-tion, pulled our swords out, and held them chest high, raisedacross our bellies. We waited for the ve short blasts from thetrumpeters ordering us to attack.

Without warning, from both sides of our ranks, the EliteForces of our army, the men who took their dedication and com-

mitment to God and His people to a higher level than most menthought possible, went into a dead run to lead the charge againstour enemies. Enemies we had never seen were just over the ridge. A huge surge of energy shot into every part of my body, and I’msure every other soldier as well. Gone was the thirst, pain, andfear I had during the entire march. Even the taste of blood andgs had disappeared.Behold!I shouted to my soul. The hand of

our God has been placed on us again. The shout of, “Our God, our God, our God!” was heard asa single voice, as it joined in with the pounding rhythm of our


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hearts. Our order to attack came from our commander, Joshua.His words ignited a re in every part of our bodies as it launched

us into the heart of the enemy.“Do not fear them!” Joshua shouted with the authority of God.

“For I have given them into your hands; not one of them shall standbefore you” ( Joshua10: 8, nasb ).

Those were the last words we heard before the trumpeter’sve blasts went into our ears, passed through our hearts, andlled the throne room of our God.

While it looks as if Joash and the army of Israel were only start-ing the battle to rescue the Gibeonites, the battle had actuallyentered its third stage of the campaign. You might think, Whatthird stage? I only see two stages. They marched to the battle: stageone. They entered the battle: stage two. But there is anotherstage to our battles that should take place long before we enterthem: the preparation stage. We, as Christians, usually miss thisstage in our daily walk, which is why we so often fail to nish what God has called on us to do. The preparation stage is whatallowed the nation of Israel, at a moment’s notice, to step rightinto God’s work at the rst call.

As we study and learn more about God’s Word, we will dis-

cover that the Word of God has the ability to unfold beforeour eyes. What looks like a few verses about a battle story is somuch more than the human mind can absorb in one glance. Ihave studied this portion of Scripture many, many times. I cantell you every single time I study it, the Holy Spirit reveals moreand more to me. There are no tricks, codes, or hidden meanings.It is God keeping His Word. It’s a promise our God made to us.

The unfolding of Your Word gives light; it gives understand-ing to the simple.

Psalm 119:130 (nasb )


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We are promised more understanding and wisdom when weseek God through His Word.

Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things from Your Law.

Psalm 119:18 (nasb )

We are promised more understanding and wisdom when weseek God through His Word.

As we move ahead don’t be surprised if you come acrossa verse you’ve read many times and suddenly nd something you’ve never noticed before. It’s as if the Holy Spirit smacks youacross the head, causing you to wonder,How could I have missedthat? It’s not that you were less intelligent before or that youhave now become a theologian; you have just matured enough in your Christian walk to grasp something deeper from His Word. We’re not always ready to understand everything He wants toteach us. Some things take a little more time to grasp. But inHis mercy, patience, and goodness He continues to teach us in agentle, nurturing way.

For example this portion of the story to rescue the Gibeonites,though colorful and visual, only scratches the surface of themany lessons we as believers can learn through a deeper studyof God’s Word. It’s an amazing truth that the ultimate victoryof this military campaign is still bearing fruit to this very day asGod continues to use it to teach us. Like hidden treasures in afaraway land, the more you hunt and dig in the eld of promise,the more precious the treasure becomes.

Unfortunately, the preparation stage is typically the leastfavorite stage of all, and because of that, it is often hurriedthrough, taken for granted, not completed, or avoided alto-

gether. We want to achieve the end result before we even thinkabout how we are going to execute the plan. All of us are quickto ask God for miracles, intervention, and signs from above. But


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how many of us are quick to do what is needed in the area ofpreparation? That is why we, as modern-day Christians, fail so

often and rarely nish what we start.Preparation for the believer, which must be sought after with

determination, both privately (as in your quiet time with God)and corporately (when you fellowship with other believers), hassimple rules to follow. They are so simple that we often givethem less credence than they deserve, and yet these rules carry with them the meat and potatoes of our growth as believers and

are key to the development of our faith. “So faith comes fromhearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ” (Romans 10:17 ,nasb ).

The rst step of preparation is studying God’s Word. By study-ing I mean digging into it even more than ever before, so thatit becomes alive and active in your life. Understand this: the Word of God contains within it inexhaustible measures of His wisdom, truth, guidance, plans for you, and the glorious illumi-nation of who He truly is. The Word of God, which has beenbeat on by critics for centuries, still stands unscathed as the only way to truly grasp how much He loves you. His Word beckonsall who are thirsty, weak, or lost to dive in with both feet andbe enveloped by the living water. His Word is to be food to ourspirit, strength to our soul, and the foundation of our faith inHim.

Ask the Holy Spirit to bless you in a mighty way while youread and study. Call on the Holy Spirit to bring forth fruit from your time in His Word. Amazingly, through your whole-heartedefforts to learn and understand God more through His Word,the Holy Spirit, without you even sensing it, will be preparing you for where God has called you to be.

Secondly, your preparation must include adeeper prayer life.

You must take your prayer time and fervency for prayer up a fewnotches so that you can learn to hear God’s voice more clearlyand to be a warrior for the Kingdom of God from the position


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of your knees. You will soon learn that a life of devoted prayerand intercession will align you and bring you into harmony with

God’s purpose for your life and for the lives of those God bringsinto your path. Prayer is more than just our fueling station; it’sthe oxygen in the air we breathe and the threshold to the verypresence of our God. Prayer is a privilege granted to those to whom He has called His own; without prayer, true preparation will never be achieved. Can you think of a better way to main-tain and strengthen our place as ambassadors for God than to

stay in constant close contact with Him? The third needed area of your preparation is praise and wor-ship. Praise ushers in the very presence of God as you set asidetime for the sole purpose of telling God just how awesome andgreat He is. Praise has the ability to unlock the power of God tomove mightily in and through your life in a way that is far andabove what you ever thought was possible. The pure power ofpraise comes to life as our focus shifts off of ourselves and ourcircumstances and re-focuses them where they need to be; onour Father, which creates a proper perspective and alignment inour relationship as it magnies Him instead of what’s aroundus. Worship is when praise and recognition of who He is hasdriven you to your knees in reverence and awe to the God of allcreation; it’s when everything you are falls to the ground beforethe throne of God and nothing else matters but surrendering to

Him.Here is something to think about. Your level of faith and

courage will never surpass your heart’s desire to praise and wor-ship God. Your faith, which is a gift from God, ourishes as yourpassion and desire to praise and worship God becomes a deeperand more sought after part of your Christian walk. King Davidunderstood this when he prophetically wrote from Psalm22: 3,

“Yet, You are Holy, O You who are enthroned upon the praisesof Israel” (nasb ). When praise and worship are included as a regular part of


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your day and for preparation in becoming a valiant warrior forour King, God’s Word promises He will inhabit your praises.

You will have the anointing of God resting on you. So whatexactly is the anointing of God? It is the manifested presenceof God visibly active, and at work in your walk, your decisions,and in your reection of Him. You can be sure that incrediblechanges will take place in your life, even in areas that you cannotsee. People will know that you are His.

When these three areas are sought after with passion and for

the purpose of preparation instead of damage control, there isno cap on how God can and will use you. When all three areasare practiced with a whole heart, you will always be ready at amoment’s notice—just like the army of Israel was.

There are additional activities we can and should do as believ-ers to prepare for our calling in order to bring balance to ourChristian walk. These are things such as consistent fellowship,serving in the body, and even tithing, which is sowing the seedsGod has given us so we can plant them back into His king-dom. However, it is the three areas of preparation we detailedpreviously that sit at the core of what our part is in the prepa-ration process. Remember this; wholehearted preparation willgive birth to clear and unwavering discernment in our spiritual warfare.

The fruit of seeking to be prepared through the studying of

God’s Word, the hunger to spend more time in prayer, and a lifeempowered by praise and worship will cause a miracle of con-science to take place. That miracle is a level of discernment andsensitivity to God like never before. You will have at a moment’snotice the most powerful of all weapons at your disposal. Whatis this weapon that has no equal in any battleeld or spiritual warfare? It is your closeness with God.

Think about the three areas of preparation and the discern-ment that comes forth during that time, and then you willunderstand what it means to have a heart after God, like KingDavid.


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The instant the Father calls you, there will be no doubt orhesitation. In our military, today’s Special Forces train very,

very hard to get ready for whatever they are called upon to do,and they train even harder to stay ready. That’s how the armyof Israel, under the leadership of Joshua, was able to take onthe ve kings when the rst trumpets were sounded. They wereready, they were prepared, and they trusted their commander.

Here are the stages of spiritual warfare in their proper order:1. Preparation: The most needed stage of any mission

God gives us. This means that you are in a constantstate of readiness.2. March-to-battle: Knowing that God has called you

and staying focused as He leads you. 3. Engaging the enemy: Putting into practice and

applying what you were trained to do.

I’ll put it this way: if you try to do things you are called byGod to do but aren’t prepared for His calling, then when thetime comes for you to begin, chances are you will not be ableto nish the task. You will do a bad job or just give up alto-gether. You will tell your friends, “I guess God didn’t call me todo this after all.” Inside, you will probably blame God for yourown weak effort. We all want a prominent position, but very feware willing to pay the price it demands. We all ask God for more ways to be used by Him as long as it doesn’t cost us too much.

“The horse is prepared for the day of battle, but the victorybelongs to the Lord” (Proverbs21: 31, nasb ).

So, why is the boot camp theme and its practices so important

to understand? To answer that question, we need to understand what an army must have if it’s to be successful. An army must bet, organized, and courageous. It must have a purpose, discipline,


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and most importantly, it must have leaders who are trusted andrespected. So with all this in mind, there are two questions to be

asked:What is the main purpose for boot camp for us as individuals? Is the boot camp training used in conjunction with our preparation process? The answers to these questions have been the strugglingpoint for many modern day Christians. So what is the correctanswer then?

The main purpose for boot camp is to strip you to the verycore of your being, so you can be reshaped into the soldier God

sees you becoming. How is it used in conjunction with our prep-aration process? Both are important to each other, but requiredifferent lengths of time to accomplish their purpose.

The boot camp training will take place during specic andstrategic seasons of your life and must involve a deeper level ofrening, pruning, and reshaping. This is usually implemented when someone becomes a new believer, when a believer hasbackslidden and needs to be broken in the right places so thatany and all sins can be dealt with during a time of repentance or when a special time of rening is needed for the believer due toGod preparing them for a major change in their life or advance-ment in their calling. They are rarely pleasant times, but the fruitthat boot camp training can bear is priceless to the believer.

In contrast, the preparation process does not have a denitetime period or an ending associated with it; it is a lifestyle and

a discipline you choose out of reverence to God. It is the fulll-ing of the commitment you made when you gave your life toChrist and asked Him to be the Lord of your life. We are told inDeuteronomy 6: 5 and Matthew 23: 37 , “You are to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (nasb ).

Consider the choice to live the preparation process as your

commitment to honor that command, which was rst given tothe nation of Israel by Moses and then taught to us by Jesus.In addition, there are several other objectives that will be


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accomplished during boot camp training. The rst and mostimportant is obedience. Obedience to God is at the forefront of

us being the usable, growing, and fruit-bearing Christians thatour God wants us to be.

Now, let this next part sink into your heart, and don’t everforget it. Every man or woman of God—from the time of Adamand Eve until now—who has said yes to God and wanted to bea valiant warrior for the kingdom, went through a boot camptraining period. They may have even gone through two or three

periods of training during the span of their lives. God’s bootcamp is designed to break you down so He can build you up asHe, your commander, sees t. Being broken by God is a painfulprocess at times; it can be seen as prolonged trials, heavy adver-sity, or even hard times that never seem to go away. It’s part ofour training, part of our calling, and is needed for us to be whatGod wants us to be.

We can no longer live our lives as if being a Christian isoptional. What a slap in the face to God! Aren’t you grievedto the very depths of your being when you hear of a fallen saintthat you know personally? You ask yourself,How could they dothat? Why did they do it? What happened to them?In our Christian walk, we are in constant need of training and preparation. Noneof us are supermen or women.

There is a verse in the Bible that many people read over and

over, and yet, never take it to heart. Not following it answers theWhat happened to them? question you asked earlier. This verse is adirect order from our King. Though put on paper by the ApostlePaul, it is nonetheless a direct order to us by God Himself.

So then my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as inmy presence only, but now much more in my absence, workout your own salvation with fear and trembling; For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His goodpleasure.

Philippians 2:12–13 (nasb )


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Highlight or mark this verse in your Bible or here in thebook, we will be referring to it several times as we continue this

boot camp training course.

Joshua, the commander of Israel, started the training for his call-ing long before the battle to rescue the Gibeonites even began. To get the full measure of understanding, we need to return tothe time just before the battle of Jericho, the time when Joshua was watching the Jordan River ow again.

We are going to watch a man of honor and courage be elevatedto an even higher rank and position before the entire nation ofIsrael. We will use Joshua’s method of training and promotion asour model and example for our boot camp training.

We will see a renewal of heart and a deepening reverencetake place in Joshua, which is available to all of us as well. That’sright, all of us.


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Joshua: The Spy WhoKnew Too Well

The last of the priests, who had led all of our people through the Jordan River, were now on dry ground. From where the feet ofthe priests had once stood in the midst of the riverbed, twelvestones were taken out to be placed as a memorial on the dryground of the Promised Land by the leaders from each of thetribes.

The promise that God had made to us had been completed. We, as a new nation, were now home. Our nation had passedfrom the wilderness into the Promised Land of God. As the lastfoot of the last priest touched the Promised Land, the hand ofGod released His hold on the Jordan River. A sound that onlyCaleb and I have heard before began to build in volume. Thethundering sound of rushing water became louder and louder, just like the Red Sea that trapped us when we ed from thepharaoh and armies of Egypt some forty years ago. The breathof God parted the Red Sea, clearing our way to salvation. ThenGod released the walls of water so that the armies that werecoming to destroy us would be entombed.

The sound of the Jordan River soon became a thundering vibration, which went through our sandals and into the soles ofour feet. As the water rushed by our nation, only Caleb and I


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saw what this truly meant. This rushing water was a rebirth anda cleansing of our people. Our nation needed cleansing from the

very start of its existence. It took God forty years to purify andprepare our nation for this very day. There were so many battles,so many failures, so many times God had shown us His pres-ence, and so many times we forgot Him.

Left behind in the wilderness, on the other side of the JordanRiver, were our fallen people—our mothers and our fathers whonever saw the land that God had promised them. The ones

delivered by God from Egypt and then turned back into dustbecause of their rebellion and disbelief had become only memo-ries to us.

We were led by re. We were taught by stone tablets writtenby the nger of God. We saw the hand of God so often it was asif He was dwelling among us. We learned later that God truly was dwelling with us. We were fed the bread of God to that very day, and there we stood, a people who had been throughforty years of training. We were trained to ght, persevere, trust,depend on God, and nally, to obey. Had it taken forty years oftraining and afiction to prepare us for this day, or had it takenforty years of training to form us into a nation? Both must betrue. For here we stood, leaving behind us on the other side ofthe Jordan River an old nature and old way of life. Before us wasa land lled with milk and honey.

I saw this land before, when I was a young man some forty years ago. I turned to see if Caleb was nearby. I was not sur-prised when I saw him looking at me. We were the remnant ofa mighty people. We were His chosen people. The lessons ourfathers Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses had taught usstill echoed off the hills that surrounded us. They left a legacy ofa trust and obedience to God, which could only have been taught

through years of testing, trials, and brokenness before God. The same question kept lling my mind:How can I ll thesandals of such men, such leaders?


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From the oldest of men to the youngest of children, we allstood perfectly still, frozen in place as the presence of God envel-

oped us like the fog on a fall morning until the Jordan Riversettled into its normal ow. Finally, our bodies began to relax,and we began to breathe normally again. Deep mourning, hardmemories, and past failures had been washed away.

A feeling of awe and complete humbleness was in everybreath we took as we sensed the presence of our God in ourmidst. We will tell our children and their children of this day,

from generation to generation. When they ask what the twelvestones meant, we will tell them that our God had delivered Hispeople as He had promised.

Then a strange feeling came over me. I felt every eye of everyman, woman, and child looking to me. I whispered to myself,“It has begun.” All that I was taught by Moses and all that myGod had spoken to me in the early mornings had prepared mefor this day and for His people. I took a deep breath, looked upto heaven, and knew my God was with me.

We went to Gilgal that night as God commanded me to do. There in Gilgal, God instructed me to circumcise every male thathad been born in the wilderness. I did as God commanded. Allof the men obeyed without hesitation and most without fear.

During the time of healing, a fear was placed in the hearts ofour many enemies that now surrounded us. Our reputation had

gone before us. Our reputation of being led by an all powerfulGod was our protection. For several days, our men lay feverishand weak from their circumcisions. With God as our shield, werested and healed with the peace of God in our hearts. All ourmen were now sealed in Him.

Let’s cover some crucial lessons:

We have gone through an important time in the life of Joshuaand an important time in the life of the nation of Israel.


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Joshua had something given to him that he never had beforeor thought he would ever need. Can you guess what it was? Well,

here are a couple of hints. It left scars, drew tears, and was lled with sorrow; yet, without it, neither he nor the nation of Israel would be standing where they were. The awesome gift was this: Joshua was now in possession of forty years of Old Testamentboot camp training—forty years of preparation, teachings, face-to-face mentoring, molding, rening, planning, and learning todepend on God for everything.

You may wonder how he was able to do it. How was it possibleto endure so long a training period? What were Joshua’s secretsto success? His secrets consisted of his closeness to God, fearand reverence for the Lord, obedience, and whole-hearted lovefor God. Joshua discovered early on that his boot camp odyssey was never far from the sight or hand of God. God’s interventionduring the forty years in the wilderness was the reason Joshua was the commander and strong leader he was.

He would soon need all those forty years of training to leadGod’s people. He was now in the Promised Land and aboutto face kingdoms and battles that would require the utmost instrategies and planning, but mostly faith, to execute. He wasabout to be commanded to do things that most of us would scoffat, and yet, they were perfection in the hands of a man deter-mined to obey his God.

Joshua’s ultimate conrmation of his calling came to him while he was preparing to take the city of Jericho. The rewardfor his years of trust in the Lord was a meeting with the Kingof kings.

From Joshua chapter 5:

Now it came about when Joshua was by Jericho, that helifted up his eyes and looked, and behold a man was stand-ing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us or forour adversaries?” He said, “No; rather I indeed come now as


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Captain of the host of the Lord .” And Joshua fell on his faceto the earth, and bowed down, and said to him, “What has

my Lord to say to his servant?” The Captain of theLord’s host said to Joshua, “Remove your sandals from your feet, forthe place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.

Joshua 5:13–15 (nasb )

The forty years Joshua spent preparing for the leading ofGod’s people must have felt like only a few days to him, as he

was now able to see who it was that was always with him and who it was that his dependency rested upon. The man—thatformidable man holding high His sword as Joshua prepared for Jericho, the rst conquest of the Promise Land, is for us as muchas He was for Joshua.

We, as believers, need to take to heart that we don’t follow anidea or a group of principles to live by or lists of nice sayings thatmake us feel better; we follow the man that met Joshua whilelooking over the city of Jericho, the man who held high Hissword to lead him into battle. We believers follow the man whocalled Joshua to take off his sandals and to worship. He is Jesus,the captain of the Lord’s host, the King of kings, and the Lordof lords. He is our Savior, who we have committed our lives toand who we are to follow. We do not follow the Jesus that mov-ies and paintings have portrayed. We do not have a Savior who

is seen to be frail, weak, and always looking scared. Let’s face it;could any of us really follow someone who we could beat-up?Our Savior and King was, and will continue to be, the front manin our battles. We can engage our battles and obey our God withthe same condence that Joshua had.

And yet even after all of his training, God still had to remind Joshua several times to be strong and courageous and not fear. How

blessed we are to have a God who not only understands our limi-tations and all that we face, but then turns to encourage us in themidst of our struggles! There is no other “god” in any other religion,anytime, anywhere, who does for “its” people what our God does!


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What is the longest period of time you have ever spent in a pro-longed trial? Did you ever wonder why it was so long? Did youthink that God moved on and forgot how hard it was for you?Hey, we have all been there. King David wondered, and so didMoses, Joshua, and the list goes on. Wondering what God isdoing in your life is part of the process; it’s part of the processof learning His voice, understanding His ways, and seeking His

face. We as Christians (American Christians) live out our lives all willy-nilly at times. What do I mean by that? We do not do agreat deal of long-term thinking when we make our decisionsin life. We have a tendency to think a whole week ahead, or if we are really feeling spiritual, a month or two. Have you everpurchased something—a car, boat, RV, stereo, or anything—anda month later, you regretted buying it? Or when the second carnote hits your mail box, you think,Ouch! If you think back, you will remember that you spent thirty minutes justifying the pur-chase and thirty seconds counting the costs.

Joshua and Caleb were once in a situation where counting thecost could have meant the difference between the survival andthe defeat of their entire nation. Their decision was to weigh thecost of possible harm or loss of life from the giants in the landin relation to the faith in their God who had never failed them. Their choice was to step out where they knew God had calledthem and let God do what He alone could do.

This was not unfamiliar territory for Joshua and Caleb. Yousee, they had both been here some forty years prior, when Moses(having been commanded by the Lord) sent twelve spies tosearch out the land that God had promised them. Joshua and

Caleb were two of the twelve. After forty days, Joshua, Caleb,and the ten other spies returned to Moses to give their report.Only Joshua and Caleb gave a report that showed their faith and


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trust in the Lord. They indeed saw all that God had promisedthem, but they also saw a race of people that were erce and

renowned for their brutality. However, they declared that therace of giants, called the Nephilim, were nothing compared totheir God. Then Caleb shouted out, “We should by all meansgo up and take possession of it, for we shall surely overcome it”(Numbers 13: 30, nasb ). The other spies gave a bad report anddeclared the giants in the land were too great in size and num-ber. They compared themselves as grasshoppers in the sight of

these brutal people. Their report put the opposite of faith into the heart of thenation; what they did and said planted fear and doubt instead.Once again, they had forgotten the God who had delivered themout of Egypt. Because of their lack of trust in Him, each day thatthe spies were in the Promised Land and did not possess it, a year was added to their wilderness journey of wandering.

For forty years, they went from place to place. Year after yearthey wandered. Year after year the cities and nations in Canaanscoffed at them, mocking them and the God they served. Untiltwo million Israelites—well trained, road hardened, and led byGod—had entered their land. Then the scofng and mockingstopped. They were silent, like a child hiding under the coversbecause they heard a strange noise; they were terried.

One of the lessons we can glean from Joshua’s life is that count-ing the costs of obedience, determined faith and trusting in Hispower and His promises is one of the most important decision-making procedures we can do as a Christian. It can save you yearsof anguish and years of God needing to send you back to bootcamp over and over. Counting the costs can keep you safe; it cangive you peace of mind, and it can be a great witness. After all, who wants his life to be a witness for bad planning or stupid-


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ity? Nobody does. Joshua learned this lesson when the ten spiesgave their bad report. The ten spies fed the nation baby food

laced with fear; the nation swallowed it as fast as they could.Little did anyone know what a bad idea it was to place fear in thehearts of the people. The ten spies, as leaders of their tribes, for-got the God who was their rescuer, deliverer, strength, defender,and Lord. They had forgotten that they, as His people, were theapple of His eye. They broke God’s heart that day. They said noto His Promised Land.

If you are a leader in a ministry in any capacity, Take note!Remember that people are listening and waiting for you to takethe lead. Lead them well.

I mentioned a verse earlier, Philippians2:12–13 (nasb ). Let’s readit again and plant some new seeds of thought deep into yourheart. But, before we read these verses, why not take a momentrst and try something that a lot of people never do. Take sometime right now, and let’s pray and ask God to “unfold before oureyes the wonderful things from His Word” (Psalm119:18, nasb ).

So then my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as inmy presence only, but now much more in my absence, workout your own salvation with fear and trembling; For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His goodpleasure.

Philippians 2:12–13 (nasb )

On the surface, these verses from Philippians2 could appearto be a call to earn your salvation through works. There are non-Christian religions that use these very verses to justify standing


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in front of doughnut shops and handing out magazines. Someuse these verses to explain the need to put on a white shirt, black

tie, helmet, and ride around town on a ten speed. In truth, these verses have nothing to do with you being saved at all. Whenanyone thinks he needs to save his soul by deeds, being beaten with reeds, giving tons of money to charities, or any other worksof the esh, he is insulting God Almighty. The arrogance ofanyone who thinks that God sending His Son to die a horribledeath on the cross at Calvary was not sufcient enough to pay

for his sins is paving his own way to destruction. These versesdo not add or subtract from the fact that you are saved; in fact,they were written under the assumption that you are saved andare clear guidelines as to how we are to live and walk with God.

Philippians 2:12–13 is our call to character, honor, loyalty, rev-erence, perseverance, endurance, and reecting God in all we do,say, and think. If our hearts are longing to be right with God, theScriptures make it very clear: “That out of the abundance of aman’s heart so shall he speak” (Matthew12: 34b, nasb ).

Whether you are seen or unseen, who you are, what you are,and what you believe and think will inevitably come out. It can’tbe helped.

As we look at Joshua’s life and journeys, one thing is clear: he hada long boot camp experience. He was taken to levels of testingand training most of us would cringe at the very thought of. Yethe endured, persevered, revealed his character, and honored God.In the end, his forty year wilderness experience didn’t make hischaracter; it revealed it. Through his closeness and trust in God,his character was rened in such a way that only God could havereceived the glory. His reverence for God was developed by see-ing God’s hand at work in the nation of Israel and in his timealone with God. We call it quiet time.

Think back to the last time you sacriced three, four, or even


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ve mornings in a row for the sole purpose of seeking to becloser to God. If it’s been a while, you are like most Christians in

America. It’s not a nice thing to say, but in truth, it’s a confession we all can hang our hats on. Almost all of us who have dedicatedtime just for God can look back and say a couple of things aboutthat time period:“ Why don’t I do this all the time? I can’t believehow much I felt like reading my Bible. He taught me more thanI asked for. My days seem to ow so much better when I startthe day with Him.” Finally, “I never realized just how much God

loves me.” There will come times when this understanding of who God truly is can’t help but move to your hands and feetas you put this new closeness with God into view by the joy ofserving Him and reecting Him in your walk.

There is a part of Philippians2:12–13 that needs some unfold-ing or enlightening: “Work out your own salvation with fear andtrembling.”

The word salvation in this part of the verse does not mean you being saved from sin. It means your walk as a person whohas been saved. Yoursalvation, or walk, as we have just explained, will have a starting point, (when you rst became a believer) anda nishing point, (when you nally see Him face to face.)

This in-between time is where a lot of modern day believ-ers drop the ball, and they nd themselves walking around as wounded Christians. Once you become a believer, the salva-

tion part of who you are (your identity in Christ) is done. Whatcomes next is the hard part—the part after the starting line, thepart after you said “yes” to Christ.

Get rid of the idea that accepting Jesus into your heart islike taking a get-well pill. I hate to tell you this, but this is notFantasy Island, and Bob Barker is not going to say to you, “Comeon down, you’re onThe Price is Right.” Your walk as a believer,

though seemingly hard at times, is the only way to become morelike Christ. It’s a pilgrimage fraught with more challenges than you could have ever imagined, and yet in the midst of it, a rela-


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tionship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is developed andrened, which grants purpose to all that you are going through,

lifts the yoke of bondage that the world has covertly placed upon your soul, and grants clarity of mind and a true freedom to fol-low our God.

Our God knows where He is leading us. He knows what Hehas planned for us and how to get us there. The ten spies couldn’tsee past the giants. They compared themselves in stature to thegiants in the land and thought of themselves as grasshoppers.

What they should have done instead is compare the giants in theland to their God. They chose to forsake the promises of Godbecause their perspective of God was so far off.

Do we ever do that with our giants? Do we forget what Godhas promised because we let the giants in our life interfere withour proper perspective of God? God never told the nation ofIsrael there were no giants in the land. He knew they were there.God never told us there are no giants to conquer in our Christian walk. We face the same choice the nation of Israel had to face:What do we do about the giants?Do we let the very thought ofthem keep us from what God wants to bless us with? Think ofa couple of giants you are facing right now. Finances, marriage,teens, gossip, lust, anger, bitterness—whatever they are, no mat-ter the size, they are obstacles to entering your Promised Land. They are obstacles to where God wants you to be and keep you

from having a closer walk with Him. So with all this said aboutgiants in the land, what are you going to do? Are you going to wander the rest of your Christian life in the wilderness of luke- warmness? Or are you going to roll up your sleeves, put asidechildlike fear, and join the ranks of valiant warriors? Do youthink God is sitting in heaven chewing His ngernails, hopingfor the best? Or is He calling you to enter the battleground He

has already engaged in?Look at the giants in your life as sparring partners for a boxer. They are there to prepare you for the next battle and the next


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period will take before you obey the Lord? 3. Do you need everything explained in advance before

you move?

The truth is, when we are in the middle of hard times andadversities, these questions don’t just come to our minds. Theyalmost haunt us.

When you are knee deep or even up to your nostrils in adver-sity, you can bet time slows down. You are more sensitive to

everything. Even the smallest fears and insecurities that youused to be able to hide now show their ugly heads, and you thinkit is just not fair. Sound familiar? No, I wasn’t reading your mind.I was remembering how I was feeling when I was there.

It bears repeating: “For we wrestle not against esh andblood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rul-ers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness inhigh places” (Ephesians6:12, nasb ).

In spiritual warfare, you must always stay sharp and purefor the battle to be won. In Judges 3:1–2 (nasb ), it says: “Nowthese are the nations which theLord left, to test Israel by them(that is, all who had not experienced any of the wars of Canaan;only in order that the generations of the sons of Israel might betaught war, those who had not experienced it formerly).”

These two verses beg the question;Does God really bring tri-als, adversity, and let adversaries approach our very door steps? TheBible gives us the answer in plain and understandable language:“They were for testing Israel, to nd out if they would obey thecommandments of the Lord , which He had commanded theirfathers through Moses” ( Judges 3:4, nasb ).

Yes, there are times when what we tell ourselves about ourcommitment, faith, and obedience is put to the test. It may hap-

pen to show you that a deeper level of reverence is needed, orit may happen to rene and strengthen what God has already


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developed in you or has started to develop—that is, that you arebeing trained to become a valiant warrior for our King.

Don’t be AWOL when the horn blows. Don’t be dull whenthe enemy is at your door and hunts for your family. Don’t cheator get lazy when your preparation and training for readiness gethard. Remember this: our God truly wants us to succeed and be victorious in our Christian walk. He is with you just as He was with the nation of Israel when they answered the call to rescuethe Gibeonites. He will never leave you or forsake you. You are

inscribed on the palm of His hand.


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Blood to Hail

I realized as we crested the hill to engage our enemies that a bandof liquid gold had formed in the lower sky; it was the sun break-ing on the horizon behind us. With our hearts still poundingand the voices of our commanders still in the air, we charged theunseen enemy at full speed. Our swords were drawn as our EliteForces led us with the sun at our backs. We must have looked like

spirits to them when they turned to see what was coming overthe hill, shouting, “Our God, Our God!”

I was running downhill and looking in all directions whensomething caught my eye; one of their soldiers seemed to belooking right at me. His eyes were deep in his head and blacklike ebony. If ever there was a look of being an enemy, he pos-sessed it. He had strips of red and purple cloth tied to each side

of his bronze vest; they matched the plumes of short feathers inthe top of his helmet. He stood with his sword raised high in hisright hand; he was calling his other soldiers into the battle. He was no doubt an ofcer in the ranks of the enemy.

The other soldiers were not dressed like him or like an armyshould be dressed. They wore different uniforms, different kindsof helmets. They carried different kind of weapons, spears, clubs,and long sticks. They were men collected from many towns and villages that were most likely captured by the empires of the vekings. Whether they were there by force or for mercenary pay-ment didn’t matter; they did not seem organized in their camp


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or stations and took no pride in their appearance or in beingregimented at all.

As I looked back toward the enemy ofcer, I saw that he wasonly one of a handful of soldiers in the enemy’s camp that turnedtoward us to take us on. The bravery of that ofcer with eyes ofebony did him no good in the saving of his life. He did not real-ize one of the soldiers from our Elite Forces was on a dead runand almost on him. With the sun at the back of the soldier, theenemy ofcer never saw him coming.

With a ash of sunlight that reected off the razor sharpsword of our soldier, there came a ringing sound like that of asword being beaten to a sharpened edge as his sword struck theenemy ofcer just below the collar bone, collecting the red stripof cloth on the hilt of the sword. His blade grazed off his bronze vest while our soldier was at a sprinter’s pace.

The enemy ofcer, who was shouting for his fellow soldiersto follow him, was silenced as his right arm, still holding hissword, and his head were severed from his body. As the bodyparts fell some six to eight feet from his torso, his body collapsedinto a quivering mound of esh.

The entire camp of the enemy turned away from the armyof God to ee as fast as they could. They were in a completestate of confusion. You could smell their fear in the air and see itin their ailing arms. They were tripping over each other; they

were trying to get weapons, but they had no time, no direction,no hope, and no leaders in their ranks. All their ofcers werekilled in the rst wave of attacks from our Elite Forces. Thecolored strips of cloth and bronze vests the enemy ofcers wore,beckoned them to their death. Our trained soldiers were likeeagles on the hunt for fresh prey.

I felt a power build inside of me from the rush of the battle.

Within ve seconds, I passed the headless corpse of the enemyofcer. His head was kicked countless times by our now pursu-ing army. Then I saw ten, fteen, thirty dead or dying enemy


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soldiers lying on the ground. I found myself having to jumpover bodies and still stay at triple pace to keep up with the Elite

soldiers. All of a sudden, I saw one of the enemy soldiers who appeared

to have been playing dead, rise up from next to where a deadsoldier was laying. With both his hands, he raised his swordstraight above his head and lunged toward me, preparing for akill strike. In an instant, my training took over.

Without hesitation or thinking, I turned toward him; I

stepped across his body position with my left leg so that I wassquarely in front of him. With my left arm, I raised my shieldto cover my head and lifted my sword over my right shoulder. Iexecuted all three maneuvers at the same time. With my bodymoving forward, I swung my sword downward, turning my bodyas hard and as fast I could from my right to my lower left. Thiscaused the edge of my sword to penetrate full force into theenemy’s armpit. His sword hit my shield at the same time thatmy sword cut halfway through his upper body.

The sound of our collision and his sword coming down onmy shield couldn’t cover his screams, which were then poweredby only one lung. My motion toward my adversary and the shift-ing of my weight caused our bodies to crash together, drivinghim into the ground with my right shoulder. It was like thetime when I was a little boy and the older boys would dare me

to knock the rams over. I would lower my shoulder and chargethem low, fast, and hard.

The rams always got up and ran away. It was not so for theenemy soldier that I had just laid wide open with my sword. I layon top of him, my face within inches of his. I felt his last breathon the right side of my face. I will have a hard time forgettingthe gurgling his breath made when he died. In all my battles, I

had never killed anyone before. I’d trained to kill, but never had.My usual placement as a foot soldier was in the eighth or ninthrow; this time, however, I was moved right up front, a promo-


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tion that guaranteed me to execute what I was trained for or die.I lifted my head and looked right into his eyes, which were still

wide open. My gaze was xed on him for ve or six seconds; I was in kind of a trance. I found my breathing was so fast I almostpassed out.

“Joash, Joash!” shouted a soldier behind me. “Are you goingto stick around and bury that guy? Get up! Get up! What are you doing? Look around you, we have to keep moving. We havethe enemy on the run. Get up!”

I don’t know what happened, but all of a sudden, I foundmyself at a full run with Saul right next to me. As I regained my composure to do what I was trained to do, I

focused on the task of killing more of the enemy. Just as my headstarted to clear, I saw an enemy soldier struggling to his feet. Heappeared wounded. I was running at full speed when I swung mysword. He was almost to his feet, so I aimed for his neck. Withmy speed and a sharp blade, his death never slowed me downa bit. I relied on my instincts, speed, and training in the job ofdestroying the enemy.

The next ten minutes of battle was like a blur to me. Ourmission didn’t change, but the speed in which we performedit did. Our task to separate their esh from their bones, severtendons, and deliver death strikes was done with efciency andpurpose. There were massive amounts of blood and body parts

spread all over the battle eld, which could have distracted mefrom my objective if I wasn’t so focused on the enemy before me;during the mayhem, I had somehow killed or left for dead overtwenty-ve enemy soldiers. Yet, with all of our efforts and dedi-cation to our duty, it didn’t seem to be enough; as far as my eyescould see, the enemy was still in ight. They were uncountable. They were unregimented in their ranks, and they were trapped

by their desire to wipe out the Gibeonites. When I was a young boy, we would drive a stick into an anthill to see how fast they would try to escape and just how many


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that our attacks were engaged while we were on the run, some-times we needed to cripple the eeing enemy by cutting their

leg tendons behind their knees or their ankles; a simple swingof our sword to their legs would drop them in mid-stride. Oncethey dropped, they were nished off within a second or two byone of the soldiers behind us. It was the most efcient and quickmethod of complete annihilation ever put into battle.

The timing and placement of our army had driven the awe-some power of our God like a spike into my heart.

As we were sprinting through what was left of their encamp-ment, it was obvious our training and dedication to our com-manders were far and away more structured and disciplined thanthat of our enemies. The camp conditions were horrible. There was a thick odor, similar to human waste or rotting animals; itseemed to permeate everything, even to the point of taste. Theyleft everything in their camp just as it was when they went tosleep the night before. Wineskins, uneaten food, and dung werespread throughout the camp. Right then, I knew that our com-manders and ofcers were in line with our God.

From our boot camp basic training and intense drilling, wehad been rened into a powerful ghting force. It was no wonderour enemies were terried at the very thought of us. With Godbefore us, no one could stand against us. I saw that statement inaction as our enemies looked like rabbits chased from a hole.

Like turning over a stone that had thousands of roaches underit, they ed in all directions. If they ran right, our Elite Forces were there. If they ran left, the same results awaited them.

Most of the enemy ran into an area called the assent of Beth-horon. Beth-horon was a plateau area ascending in a slightupward climb going from the northeast toward the southwest. We called it “the House of Caves.” Along both sides of the valley

were thousands of caves; some were small, but many were largeand very deep. It would be hard to nd our enemy if they wentinto hiding. It could take us days to capture them, especiallyconsidering we were exhausted.


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None of us had much energy left to overtake them. Even thereturning taste of Delia’s gs was not enough to propel me to

pursue them much longer. We were running as fast as our achingmuscles and near bleeding lungs would allow. Then in horror, Isaw them drop out of sight as thousands and thousands once visible to us vanished over the crest of the hill. They were goingto escape into any one of a thousand caves or hundreds of valleysbeyond the plateau’s ridge.

With our wind and energy gone, all of us came to an exhausted

stop. We dropped to our resting positions and were trying tocatch what little breath we had left. We didn’t know that it wasthe hand of God placed on us that caused us to stop running.

God had entered the battle.I was desperately trying to catch my breath and wipe the

blood off my hands and face. The blood had begun to hardenand came off in long strips.

Then suddenly, my eyes were lifted over to the horizon wherethe enemy had ed. It looked like a thousand stones of burningembers began to roll down from the heavens. Wave after wavethey fell, like an avalanche of re cascading into the unseen layerof the retreating enemy. We felt a kind of pounding, a vibrationemanating from the ground. It scared us at rst, and it kept usfrozen in place for over ten minutes until several of our EliteForces stood, raising their swords, and shouting the words that

our commander, Joshua, had said as we crested the hill andengaged the enemy. “Do not fear them, for I have given theminto your hands; not one of them shall stand before you” ( Joshua10:8, nasb ).

In unison came a roar from the thousands of God-trainedsoldiers, all shouting, “Our God, our God, our God!” We werequickly on our feet in the pursuit of our enemies again. I was

able to sprint my way past the army regulars and join the EliteForces at the point of attack. One minute later, the six hundredElite soldiers and I hit the top of the plateau at the same time.


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What we saw would be embedded in our minds forever. Most ofthe retreating enemy soldiers were down; they were curled up as

if they were trying to make themselves smaller targets. Most ofthem were dead or about to die.

From heaven, a storm of hail the size of helmets had enteredthe valley that the enemy was running through. It appeared thatmost of the hail had hit its mark. The vibration we felt was theimpact of the hail hitting the enemy soldiers and driving theminto the ground. Their contorted corpses were a testament to the

weight and power of the hail as it struck them. As the rest of our soldiers came to the ridge, we all just stoodthere; we were astonished at the sight. We looked over the eldof bloody carnage in amazement. As far as we could see, thescene was the same.

Then, stillness lled the air; even our breathing was not audible.No one moved. A presence was all around us. But there was no fear,no wondering, and no question as to what had just happened. Eachand every soldier from the Elite Forces to the newest of troops fellto their knees. Each of us felt an internal trembling of awe. Wecouldn’t help but feel that God Himself was in our midst.

Being in the presence of God caused some of the soldiersto cry, some to fall on their faces, others to take their helmetsoff and lift their faces to heaven in reverence to God. I foundmyself on my face in worship. It was like the Passover multiplied

a thousand times. Our God had kept Himself there long enoughfor us to know that it was He, God Almighty, and He alone whoshall defend, shield, and ght for His people. More of the enemy was killed by the hail from God than the enemy who were killedby the sword of His army.

There is a verse in the book of Job that gives you a tremendous visual of God’s desire to enter our battles. Our God has lain in


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place from the beginning of time tools of warfare that are in Hisgrasp and far from our own understanding. Listen as God tells

Job of His secret storehouse. “Have you entered the storehousesof the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail, which Ihave reserved for the time of distress, for the day of war and bat-tle?” Prophetic words spoken by God from Job 38:22–23 (nasb ).

Even before the army of Israel left to engage the battle torescue the Gibeonites, God was opening His storehouse doorsto deliver His weapon of hail upon the armies of the ve kings. I

get the feeling that from the time of His meeting with Job, Godcouldn’t wait for this day to begin, a day when He could roll upHis sleeves and enter the battle. Our God is truly awesome andpowerful!

There is a valuable lesson we could easily miss from this part ofthe battle. In fact, this would be a great time to pray and ask Godto open your eyes and prepare you to receive a lesson that we allneed to learn.

God had put a stop on His attacking army. He put a hold onsomething that was obviously in His will and part of His divineplan. Most of us would ask, “How could this be? God, whathappened? God, I prayed! God, I thought I was in Your will.

Was I operating in the esh? Did I miss something? Did I notrecognize Your voice?”Does any of this ring a bell? Have you ever said this before

or even shouted it up to God? I’ll answer this for you: Yes, manytimes. Did you think maybe God had bigger things to worryabout than your little problem or your little ministry? Did youthink you had somehow lost your way in a situation that you were in and missed a turn? Joash was probably thinking just like you and I were. Hopefully, while we cover this short but impor-tant lesson, God will reveal to you ve or six things from your


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past that may answer the questions you have often shouted orcried out to His very throne.

As we just heard from Joash, at the end of the last battle,nothing had changed with God’s plan. God’s plan was still mov-ing ahead, Joash was still in God’s will, and the victory gloriedthe Lord.

When you are moving in God’s will and can feel Him guid-ing you, why does He sometimes stop you in your tracks? Whydoes it seem like He has stopped using you for a time? We have

all felt that frustration before, and it makes us question ourselvesand sometimes question God. Is it a lack of faith? Was I just inthe esh? Surprisingly, this scenario happens more often than you know. But remember this: God only uses us to reveal howgood He is and how much He loves us. You and I know Goddoesn’t really need us to complete His plan. He does it to blessus and give us a sense of oneness with Him.

Think back when you were a little kid and you asked yourdad to let you drive the car. Do you remember the feeling yougot when he said, “Sure.” You climbed up onto his lap, and youthought you were really driving the car. He even let you put your hands on the wheel and feel the car move as you turned the wheel to the left and then the right. You felt the weight of yourbody moving as you moved the steering wheel each way. Whatpower you had in your hands. You didn’t let the fact that your

dad’s hands were only an inch away from the wheel, or that younever really were touching the foot pedals, bother you.

Do you see where I’m going with this? Our father allows usto share in the driving experience but never takes his hands faraway. So what do you think a good dad will do when you aresitting on his lap driving the car and then he sees that you areheaded into trafc or coming to a turn you could never navigate?

What does he do? He sits you in your seat and does what only hecan do. After all, he is the dad! Did you act frustrated or unloved when he moved you into your seat? Probably not! In fact, you were glad your dad took over.


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There are times when God places us in our car seat to do what only He can do, in His way and in His time. You still made

it to the ballgame, you still ate too many hotdogs, and your team won. You were always where God wanted you. You were alwaysclose to Him, still going in the right direction, and ready to join with Him as He moved.

Stay the course, and don’t be easily moved or pushed from where God has called you. Remember, we are to be valiant war-riors for the King, not just ordinary soldiers.

Back to Joash:

With no regard for proper organization as a trained militarybattalion, we were allowed to stay right there at the ridge forseveral minutes. It was tting that we remained still as a wayof paying homage to God. Our silence and stillness was like aninaudible song of praise. It was as if He inhabi

pastor don coffeen... the rescue

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