To follow God's plan

by Pastor John Lin

Big idea:
The battle belongs to the Lord

Following God's plan can sometimes be challenging. It is natural for us to follow what seems to be logical, but God's plan is not logical, our God functions not in the natural but supernatural.

We need to know our captain, our enemy and what's at stake.

Joshua 5:13-15
Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?” 14 “Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord[a] have for his servant?” 15 The commander of the Lord’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.


We are here for God's plan, we are not the in charge.

Joshua 6:1-5
Now the gates of Jericho were securely barred because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in. 2 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. 3 March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. 4 Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. 5 When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in.”


God is using us as His instruments to demonstrate His power.

#1 Know our Captain
- Battle belongs to the Lord
- When we know who is the Captain, I can trust Him
- He is in charge, the One who directs our steps
- We are the one who participate in His plan
- Is there an area in your life right ow that you need to release control and rely on God's plan and leadership?


God was not bound to our circumstances.

Isaiah 55:8-9
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.


#2 Know our Enemy
- Nephalim were giant offsprings from sons of God
- outright rebellion against Yehwah, derailing and corrupt God's plan and purpose
- holy war between God and His enemy
- enemy is still trying to derail us from God's plan today
- Do you recognize who the real enemy is and his schemes against you?


Joshua 12:1-5
These are the kings of the land whom the Israelites had defeated and whose territory they took over east of the Jordan, from the Arnon Gorge to Mount Hermon, including all the eastern side of the Arabah: 2 Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon. He ruled from Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Gorge—from the middle of the gorge—to the Jabbok River, which is the border of the Ammonites. This included half of Gilead. 3 He also ruled over the eastern Arabah from the Sea of Galilee[a] to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea), to Beth Jeshimoth, and then southward below the slopes of Pisgah. 4 And the territory of Og king of Bashan, one of the last of the Rephaites, who reigned in Ashtaroth and Edrei. 5 He ruled over Mount Hermon, Salekah, all of Bashan to the border of the people of Geshur and Maakah, and half of Gilead to the border of Sihon king of Heshbon.


Joshua 11:21-22
At that time Joshua went and destroyed the Anakites from the hill country: from Hebron, Debir and Anab, from all the hill country of Judah, and from all the hill country of Israel. Joshua totally destroyed them and their towns. 22 No Anakites were left in Israelite territory; only in Gaza, Gath and Ashdod did any survive.


Numbers 13:33
We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”


Ephesians 6:11-12
Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.


#3 Know what's at Stake
- Kherem: devoted to destruction
- why Kherem?
- For they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods
- money, sexual sins, ungodly mind sets, bitterness, unforgiveness
- What is something in your life that's going against God's word?
- What do we need to ruthlessly remove in our lives today in order to become more like Christ?


Joshua 6:21
They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys.


Deuteronomy 7:1-2
When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you— 2 and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally.[a] Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy.