How do you overcome focusing on things that are natural and not spiritual?

For the past six weeks we have been looking at the meaning behind the names of the seven nations that the Children of Israel were commanded to destroy before they could enter into the Promised Land:

And Joshua said, “By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Hivites and the Perizzites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Jebusites:

Joshua 3:10 (NKJV)

These seven nations though they were physical nations now represents seven types of evil spirits that we as believers in Jesus Christ must totally destroy and overcome before we can enter into our spiritual inheritance. In order for us to enter into our spiritual inheritance we must overcome fear, pride, carnality, small thinking, living for earthly pleasures, and rejection.

Today, in our final overcoming series we are going to look at how to overcome the spirits that entice us to focus on the things that can be seen and ignoring the things that cannot be seen.

“Girgashite” means, “clay dweller”, which refers to “dwelling on earthliness”. This type of spirit promotes a focus on earthly, temporal things, and produces a dislike for things that are “spiritual” and eternal. Girgashites or people infected with this type of spirit tend to focus on things that are visible. Whereas the Bible tells us to focus on things that are not seen:

While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:18

How do you overcome focusing on things that are natural and not spiritual? 

1. Be born again

When Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews came by night to speak with Jesus, Jesus told him that unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. Nicodemus being puzzled, asked Jesus how a grown up man can be born again. Jesus replied and said that you must be born of water and the Spirit (John 3:1-5). In other words, you must accept Jesus Christ as your Saviour. When you believe in Jesus you are sealed with His Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13). To be born of water is to go through water baptism which Jesus instructed His disciples to do (Matthew 28:19). When you are born again then, your spiritual senses come alive and you are able to discern things in the spiritual realm which cannot be seen with the naked human eye;

2. Ask The Lord to open your spiritual eyes so that you can see

We must pray like the Psalmist prayed and ask The Lord to open our spiritual eyes so that we can see wonderful things from His law (Psalm 119:18). You see, as you have natural eyes so you have spiritual eyes so if you are spiritually blind you need to cry out and ask The Lord to open your eyes so that you can see the things that He wants to show you;

3. Ask The Lord to open your spiritual ears so you may hear

Jesus in His letters to the Seven Churches in Revelation ended his letters by saying “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” In other words, we all have spiritual ears that must come alive if we are to hear things from the Spirit of God. Again if you find that you are spiritually deaf and cannot hear the voice of God, cry out and ask The Lord to awaken your ears so that you can hear as the learned (Isaiah 50:4);

4. Ask The Lord to give you His Spirit of wisdom and revelation

We must pray like Paul did that God will give us His Spirit of wisdom and revelation, Who will let us know truths about God and help us understand them, so that we will know Him better. It is the same Spirit who will open our minds to see His truth so that we will know the hope that He has chosen us to have (Ephesians 1:17-19);

5. Fasting

Fasting is a discipline that sharpens our spiritual senses so that we can tap into the divine power of God. Jesus expected His disciples to fast and He said that “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). When we abstain from food and feed on nothing but the Word of God, the Word nourishes, fuels and strengthens our spirits. In so doing we tend to focus less on the natural things that are visible and look at the eternal things that are invisible.

Prayer

Dear Lord, please help me to focus on the things that are eternal that cannot be seen and let me take my eyes off the things that are natural and temporary in Jesus name, amen.

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For more information about the Girgashite spirit and how to overcome them please visit here.

How do you overcome fear?

All the kings on the west side of the Jordan heard about this, including those in the highlands, the lowlands, and along the entire coast of the Mediterranean Sea toward Lebanon. They were Hittites and Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. They formed an alliance to fight Joshua and Israel.

Joshua 9:1-2 (CEB)

When the kings on the west side of Jordan heard about Israel’s successful defeat of Jericho and Ai, they formed an alliance to fight Joshua and Israel.

The Lord knew that this would happen which is why before they entered into the Promised Land, He instructed the Children of Israel to destroy the seven nations that were before them:

“When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you

Deuteronomy 7:1 (NKJV)

There is something in this that applies to all followers of Jesus Christ. When you surrender your life to Jesus Christ, there are evil spiritual forces that will try to fight against you, and you too must be able to overcome them before you can enter into your spiritual inheritance.

For the next few weeks, we will be looking at each one of these seven spiritual forces to see how we can overcome them.

The Hittites – spirit of fear

The first group of people who Joshua and the Children of Israel encountered and had to defeat as they entered into the Promised Land were the Hittites. The Hittites were descendants of Heth, whose name means “terror” or “fear”.

Whenever God calls you to do something, the first type of emotion that will try to creep in is fear; and fear can manifest itself in many different forms. It could be the fear of the unknown, fear of failure, fear of being ridiculed, fear of people, fear of public speaking, fear of the dark, fear of death etc.

God knew that fear will try to grip you and that if you allow it, it will stop you from entering into your spiritual inheritance which is why God encouraged us many times in the Bible to “fear not”:

Fear not, for I am with you;

Be not dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you,

Yes, I will help you,

I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’

Isaiah 41:10 (NKJV)

Why should you overcome fear?

Overcoming fear is essential because Jesus tells us that the fearful shall not inherit the Kingdom of God (Revelation 21:8).

How do you overcome fear?

In order to be able to overcome fear, you have to realise that fear is a spirit, this is why the Bible says God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love and of a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). The Bible also tells us that the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. Below is a list of some of those weapons we can use to overcome fear:

1. Call on the name of Jesus

The Bible says that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved or delivered (Joel 2:32, Romans 10:13). We know that Jesus is the name of the Lord because we are told that there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved but the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth (Acts 4:10-12). Therefore if you are afraid please call on Jesus to deliver you from the spirit of fear;

2. Stand on the truth of God’s Word

You can stand on the truth of God’s word and command the spirit of fear to leave you in Jesus name because the Bible says that God has not given you the spirit of fear. Then ask the Lord to give you His Spirit of power, of love and of a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7);

3. By the blood of Jesus

Revelation 12:11 assures us that as believers we can overcome Satan by the blood of the Lamb and we know the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all unrighteousness, therefore ask the Lord to cleanse you from the spirit of fear with the blood of Jesus Christ;

4. By the anointing of the Holy Spirit

The spirit of fear will not go away by your own power or by your might but by the Spirit of The Lord (Zechariah 4:6). Therefore ask The Lord to fill you with His Holy Spirit and remove the burden and break the yoke of fear from your life by the anointing of the Holy Spirit (Isaiah 10:27);

5. Be filled with the love of God

John tells us that there is no fear in love; but perfect love drives out fear: because fear has torment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love (1 John 4:18). Pray and ask The Lord to make you perfect in His love and that the love of Christ should dwell in your heart;

6. Fasting

Jesus said that certain kinds of spirits can only come out through prayer and fasting (Mark 9:29, Matthew 17:21). In situations where fear has become entrenched and a stronghold in your life, sometimes commanding it to go alone will not do, you will need to fast as well. The kind of fasting that God wants is one that lets the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people such as fear (Isaiah 58:6);

7. Obedience to God

When King Saul disobeyed God and His Holy Spirit departed from him, an evil spirit entered into him to torment him (1 Samuel 16:14). It is very important as Children of God that we follow and obey Him at all times because obedience is better than sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:22). However if we do fall, we should quickly confess our sins, because God is faithful to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

Prayer:

Dear Father, Your Word says that perfect love drives out fear. Please drive away the spirit of fear from me and fill me with the love of Christ in Jesus name, amen.

For more information about the Hittite spirit and how to overcome them, please visit http://shamah-elim.info/hittite.htm

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God Will Roll Away Your Reproach

Then the Lord said to Joshua, “This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” Therefore the name of the place is called Gilgal to this day.

Joshua 5:9 (NKJV)

 The Lord will roll away your reproach.

A reproach is a condition of shame and disgrace. It can be in several forms; sexual (2 Samuel 13:13; Isaiah 47:3; Ezekiel 16:57; Proverbs 6:33); barrenness of womb (Genesis 30:23, Isaiah 4:1, Luke 1:25); widowhood (Isaiah 54:4); hunger (Ezekiel 36:30); disease (Job 19:5), ritual/uncircumcision (Genesis 34:14, Joshua 5:9); or injuries from enemies (Lamentations 3:30; Lamentations 5:1; Nehemiah 1:3; Job 16:10; Daniel 11:18).

When the Children of Israel were about to enter the Promised Land, God told Joshua to circumcise all the males who were born in the wilderness. All the people who came out of Egypt had been circumcised, but the people born in the wilderness, on the way as they came out of Egypt, had not been circumcised.

When they had finished circumcising all the people, The Lord told Joshua that from “This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” Before God took away their reproach, the Children of Israel had wondered in the wilderness for 40 years until all the people who were men of war, who came out of Egypt died, because they did not obey the voice of the Lord.

Before Jesus Christ began His public ministry, He too was tempted by the devil in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights (Matthew 4:1-11). The servant is not greater than his master therefore as followers of Jesus Christ, we too must go through our wilderness experience.

The wilderness is a terrible place where there are “fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water” (Deuteronomy 8:15). The wilderness is a painful experience to go through however it is necessary because it is the place where the Lord humbles us and allows us to suffer hunger to make us to know that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of The Lord (Deuteronomy 8:3).

However just like God removed the reproach from the Children of Israel and allowed them to enter the Promised Land after 40 years of wandering in the wilderness; and just like Jesus returned from the wilderness in the power of the Spirit and began His public ministry after fasting for 40 days and 40 nights, God will also remove our reproach after we have gone through our wilderness experience. We also will enter our Promised Land, which is the New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven (Revelation 21:2).

When going through the wilderness experience and it seems like God has abandoned you, please remember that you are never alone because God said He will never leave you nor forsake you (Deuteronomy 31:6). Secondly please remember to keep your heart right with God because the circumcision that God is looking for is a circumcision of the heart (Romans 2:29). True circumcision is when our heart is right with God which is produced by God’s Spirit living in our hearts.

Today, if you are facing any situation of shame and disgrace, do not despair. You may be presently going through your wilderness experience. Remember that the purpose of the wilderness is to humble you. What God is looking for is to develop your character for you to have a right heart towards Him. After you have passed the test God will take away the reproach you inherited when you were out in the world before you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour.

Prayer:

Dear Lord, I thank You for Your Word today. Please help me to be patient in my wilderness and to remember that You allow me to suffer reproach to humble me and for me to develop my dependency on You. Please help me to keep a good attitude towards You and to trust You even when I do not understand. From today, please roll away the reproach from the world from me and release me to fulfil Your destiny for my life, in Jesus name, Amen.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7xkysPdIOs&list=PLCLJI-sErTh2cA2pfU2tc3aSC6Mh0PPG6

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Healing Prayer / You Are The One

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God bless,

Blessing