Wrap Your Strongholds in Prayer

Maybe it's time you and I, instead of tolerating the strongholds, you know in a pluralistic society we want to just sort of let everybody do their thing and have their thing and it's time you and I refuse to be politically correct.

And we just get tough on the strongholds. Somebody's freedom, somebody's salvation may depend on it. Welcome to Living in the Light with Bible Teacher Anne Graham Lotz. Her message today is from Joshua chapter 7 with the warning that sin is dangerous not only in our life but in the life of others around us. Her challenge to us is to wrap our strongholds, our sin, in prayer.

Here's Anne. I think when it comes to strongholds we acknowledge our dependence upon God as we wrap it and wrap it and wrap it and wrap it and wrap it in prayer. And you notice Joshua didn't do this by himself. He couldn't have walked around this city and taken it by himself.

It involved everybody. And it may be you're going to have to get your whole family together to pray. Maybe ask the whole prayer group at church to pray. Maybe ask your friends to pray. Just maybe one other person but sometimes this requires more than just your prayers for yourself but other prayers for you. The prayers of other people are more powerful sometimes than our prayers for ourselves because the prayers of other people for us are unselfish in motivation. And so sometimes when it comes to a stronghold you need to ask somebody else to march around with you and pray with you about that stronghold.

When have you prayed about the strongholds and prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed and just wrapped it in prayer? Joshua claimed victory over Jericho through his obedience and through his dependence and through his perseverance. And in verse 14 it says on the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp and they did this for six days. And nowhere in this passage, and I've read it carefully, nowhere in this passage does it ever say that Joshua told the people how long they were going to march.

It was like the first day. He said, all right, we're going to go out and we're going to march around the city once. And we're going to have the soldiers go first and the seven priests with the ram's horns and the Ark of the Covenant and everybody else.

Don't say a word. And they all march around and they go home. Next day he says, oh boy, let's do it again, you know.

So they go out and they walk around, same thing, go back to their tents. Third day, come on, let's do it again. And they go, you know by the fifth day when Joshua's saying, come on, we're going to do it again, wouldn't you think somebody would say, Joshua, this really isn't working. We haven't seen a crack. We haven't seen a stone come loose.

You know, nothing has changed. But they just persevered, didn't they? Every day doing exactly as they were told and perseverance is just obedience until the walls come down.

And they just kept on keeping on. And sometimes that's a real struggle in prayer, isn't it? We pray and pray and pray and pray and we don't see any impact of our prayers at all.

And the temptation is just to quit, to write that person off, you know. If God still puts them on your heart, you keep praying. Or whatever the stronghold is in your life, you just keep praying.

You persevere. Strongholds don't come down quickly. Jericho didn't fall in a day. I was reminded of the story of Naaman. Do you remember him in the Old Testament, the Syrian general who developed leprosy? And he had a little Jewish slave girl in his home and she said, I know a prophet in Israel who can cure leprosy. So she told him about Elisha and he took the long journey and he went to Israel and he knocked on Elisha's door and Elisha sent Gehazi, his servant to the door. And the general told him what his problem was and Gehazi gave him Elisha's message.

He says, go dip in the Jordan seven times. And Naaman, the Syrian general, left in a huff. He was offended. He felt totally put out because he was this great Syrian general and the Israelite prophet wouldn't even come to the door, wouldn't even speak to him.

And so he just said he was going to go home. They had better rivers in Syria than the Jordan River, that muddy old thing. And his servant said, Naaman, if Elisha had asked you to do something complicated, something really hard, you would have done it.

So why not do this simple thing? So Naaman said, all right. So they parked beside the Jordan River and he went in it, muddy Jordan River, you dipped down the first time, nothing happened. Second time, nothing happened. Third time, fourth time, fifth time, sixth time.

He came up out of that water the sixth time. He had just as much leprosy as he had ever had. One more time, obedience, dependence. I mean, there's nothing in the Jordan River that's going to wash away leprosy.

And perseverance, just doing it, until he came up the seventh time and his skin was like a baby's and the leprosy was gone. You claim the victory through your obedience, your dependence, your perseverance. Keep on persevering. Listen to me, don't make peace with your stronghold. Don't tolerate it. Don't accommodate it in your life.

You just get tough on that stronghold in your life through your obedience, your dependence, your perseverance, fourthly, your expectance. The seventh day was different. Joshua told everybody they were to march around seven times, total silence. The armed men going first, the priests bearing the ram's horns coming next, the Ark of the Covenant and everybody, all the mothers and the children and the babies and the fathers and marching around seven times, two miles each time. That's a long way.

That's about 14 miles. That would take all day. And it was hot. And think of their sandal feet walking on those stones and the stones getting in their sandals. I expect some of them had bloody feet and the sun that was baking those walls and the heat radiating back from those clay walls. And it was hard, dusty, dirty work.

And they did it until the end of the seventh round. Verse 16, the seventh time around when the priest sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the people, Shout, for the Lord has given you the city. Now I want you to know, nothing has changed. The circumstances are the same.

The city is still standing there as strong as it's ever been. But Joshua says we have been obedient, we've been dependent, we've been perseverant. Now we can be expectant.

You just shout. God's going to give it to us because He said He would. And from two million parched throats come this war. You know, you've heard the rebel yell and the civil war. It used to make the Yankees just scared to death and that was nothing compared to this war that goes up from these Israelites. And as they're shouting, I don't know what they said, praise the Lord or just a yell, suddenly a timber cracked and a stone fell. And then the walls just collapsed in this mushroom cloud of dust. And the Israelites rushed in and they took the city. And Joshua had claimed the victory over Jericho through obedience and dependence and perseverance and expectance.

And I don't know how you reach that point of expectance when you know you can shout. But I just think God let you know in your heart that you've prayed enough, you've been obedient enough, you've persevered enough and now you can just begin to praise Him. It's like Paul and Silas in the Philippian jail. I was reading that and they went into the jail. And what could be worse hindering you from experiencing everything God had for you than a jail and a jailer and guards and chains?

And I mean, they were bound. And at midnight, Paul and Silas just began to praise the Lord and they began to sing. And as they praised the Lord, there was an earthquake and the chains fell off and the doors flew open.

And the jailer himself came in and was converted and the walls came down. When we first got married, we'd been married several years and we really wanted a family. And for whatever reason, we couldn't conceive a child and we couldn't have a family. And I felt that was a stronghold in our lives because I felt it was keeping us from experiencing everything God would have for us. And so my mother took me aside and she said, Ann, if there were more mothers who prayed for their children like Hannah prayed for her son, we might have more Samuels. And so I began praying. Every week I set aside one day to pray and fast. And then I did a study of all the women in the Bible who were barren.

And it's remarkable, by the way, if you're struggling with that, you might study the lives of the women who were barren. And then the children that God gave them, every single one almost without exception was a mighty leader for the Lord. But anyway, I prayed and fasted one day a week for over a year.

And then I can remember where I was. I was sitting in my little home and it was like the Lord just let me know, Ann, you don't have to pray anymore, you don't have to fast anymore, you can just begin to shout. And that day I just began praising the Lord and it was the next month that I conceived a baby and knew it would be a son. I felt like the Lord had let me know, Ann, you're going to have a son. And all through the pregnancy I decorated the nursery and little boy things. And my friends were saying, Ann, don't you know now, be careful because it could be a girl. And anyway, when I gave birth to my first child, the doctor held the baby up and he said, Mrs. Lotz, look what you have, you have a son. And I said, so what else is new, you know?

No, I didn't, I was thrilled. But I just share that with you because it's time, and I could give you other times also, but when I prayed and prayed and prayed, and then the Lord just let me know, Ann, you don't have to pray anymore. I've heard your prayer and the stronghold is going to come down.

So however he does that for you, you just know in your heart you can praise him. Joshua told the people to shout and the walls fell down. You get tough with strongholds, acknowledging his authority and claiming his victory. And I didn't know exactly how to label this next part maybe just liberating those who are in captivity because Rahab didn't have a stronghold in her life, she lived inside the stronghold. And I was thinking in particular of those of you who have unsaved friends and unsaved family members and it's not the stronghold in their life, they live in the stronghold of the enemy. They're held captive by the enemy.

And Rahab is inside of Jericho. I wonder what she thought when she looked out her window and she saw those Israelites beginning to march around her city. Maybe she could hear her neighbors making fun of them, you know, and catcalling and throwing things down at them.

And I think maybe they did that at the beginning. And then after about three days, I bet you they got psyched out. Maybe that's why God had them do it for seven days just so that Jericho would be so terrified when the walls came down the Israelites could take them or whatever the reason. I just wonder what she thought as she saw them marching around silently.

And then on the seventh day they marched and they marched and they marched seven times. And then what did she think when she heard that roar go up? It must have sent a chill up response. I wonder if she ran to the window to check her scarlet cord and then to hear the crack of the timbers and the rocks that were falling. And it must have been like living through an earthquake and the whole thing trembling and rocking and that cord jerking violently and then hanging dusty and limp outside of her window. And when she looked outside of the window, as far as she could see, everything was gone. The walls had fallen down.

The only section standing was her little section. And then she heard the rush of the soldiers' feet coming into the city and the cries of people as they were being put to death. And she could hear the feet rushing up her steps and somebody banging on her door. There must have been a moment of stark terror.

She opened the door and there were the spies. Rahab, you are saved. You've passed from darkness to light and from judgment to salvation. Your faith is saved.

You and your household come out, Rahab, into God's salvation. And the woman who had been a harlot in Canaan became an honored mother in Israel. Did I tell you she's the great-great-grandmother of King David? Did I tell you she's in the ancestry of our Lord Jesus Christ?

Did I tell you she's in Hebrews chapter 11, that hall of faith, in there by name? A captive who set free because the Israelites decided to get tough on the strongholds. Maybe it's time you and I, instead of tolerating the strongholds, you know, in a pluralistic society we want to just sort of let everybody do their thing and have their thing and it's time you and I refuse to be politically correct and we just get tough on the strongholds. Somebody's freedom, somebody's salvation may depend on it and maybe it's our own. Just setting us free to go forward, setting us free to grow in our Christian faith, setting us free to experience everything that God has for us. It's time we got tough on the strongholds and it's time we got tough on the sin.

We move into chapter 7 and you know it's interesting, right after this tremendous victory at Jericho, they suffer a setback in the little town of Ai. Isn't it amazing the little things that trip us up? And often the defeat comes after a victory.

Have you noticed that in your life? Because the enemy's just lurking there. Sometimes we get a little cocky and we feel strong and safe and secure and the devil will just blindside us.

Very often defeat follows a victory. And after the victory at Jericho, Joshua and the Israelites suffered a defeat at Ai because of sin that was concealed in the camp. Let's go back to chapter 6 verse 18. When God was giving them instructions after they took Jericho, he says, but keep away from the devoted things so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring disaster on it.

Now God had been just as clear as could be. He had told them they were not to touch the plunder. They were not to take it for themselves. Everybody in Israel knew that. And so chapter 7 verse 1, the Israelites acted unfaithfully in regard to the devoted things. Achan took some of them and so the Lord's anger burned against Israel. And Achan's sin was a deliberate act of disobedience. He thought about it and he did it. This wasn't just falling into sin.

This wasn't just a moment where he got blindsided. This was just a deliberate act of his will to defy and disobey God. Has there been disobedience in your life, deliberate disobedience, willful disobedience? And have you hidden it from everybody? Nobody in your family knows. Nobody in your church knows.

None of your friends know. A striking thing of course in chapter 7 verse 1 is that God's anger burned against all of Israel because of the sin of one man. And we applied that somewhat nationally and I believe it's a very serious application and something we need to take seriously and we need to really take to God in prayer because the sin of one man as he tries to hide it and conceal it and rationalize it and get by with it can bring disaster on an entire nation.

Well let's apply it even more personally. The sin that's hidden in your life, the disobedience that nobody knows about, whatever it is, whether it's an unforgiving spirit, whether it's a deliberate act of disobedience, something you've done, it's a habit, maybe you're addicted to pornography on the internet. I've run into that all over the place and it's just hidden. Maybe it's something else that you're involved in. Maybe it's an affair of some kind, a literal affair.

Maybe it's books or magazines or something and it's just hidden in your life. You watch out. You can bring disaster on your family. You can bring disaster on your church because of that one sin that's hidden. There was a sin of disobedience that was hidden.

There was a sin also that I saw in verse 2 of Independence. Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai which is near Beth Avon to the east of Bethel and told them, go up and spy out the region. Joshua, don't you think you need to pray about it? Joshua, don't you remember the man outside of Jericho with a drawn sword? Joshua, don't you think you need to acknowledge God's authority over this and refocus your perspective?

Don't concentrate on Ai. Let's concentrate on the Lord. And what does God have to say?

You fall on your face before him, reassess your plan, get his strategy. Joshua, you're so independent all of a sudden. That's what prayerlessness is, isn't it? Independence of God, pride, thinking we can do something without God. I mean it's just a little city. It's just a little thing, just a little decision, no big deal.

And that's the third sin I see which is self-reliance in verse 3. When they returned to Joshua they said, not all the people will have to go up against Ai. Send two or three thousand men to take it. Don't worry everybody, only a few men are there. And it's almost as though they're thinking they took Jericho. And so, you know, now they're military experts. And they've checked it out and, you know, you don't need very many men.

There's just a few men there and just, you know, we can take this with one hand tied behind us. Self-reliance, somehow thinking that they had brought down Jericho and they could take Ai. So there was more sin than disobedience concealed in that camp.

Independent self-reliance. There's sin in this camp that's been concealed. God sees it. And God saw Achan's sin and the sin that was concealed crippled Israel in their quest to experience everything God had for them as they sought to advance and progress and claim the promised land. They were crippled in that because of sin that was concealed in the camp.

They were defeated by it. Verse 4, three thousand men went up but they were routed by the men of Ai who killed about thirty-six of them, totally defeated. And I started to label that depressed because so many Christians today are depressed. And we go to counselors and we read books and we take Prozac and do all of these things and it may be it's sin that's in the camp that's been concealed.

And it may be so long ago, it may be so deeply buried, you just need to get on your face before God and say, God, would you reveal to me what this sin is in my life? Sin will cripple you. It's defeating.

It's depressing. Achan's sin cost the lives of thirty-six innocent men. Verse 6, at this the hearts of the people melted. They became like water because now they felt totally vulnerable to the enemy. And Joshua tore his clothes. He fell down on the ground before the ark and he remained there till evening.

The elders did the same. They sprinkled dust on their heads and Joshua said, Oh sovereign Lord, why did you ever bring this people across the Jordan and deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us if only we had been content to stay on the other side of the Jordan? And Joshua's just totally demoralized.

He's not complaining. He's confused. He's been defeated. And he thought God would give him the victory after victory after victory and suddenly he's been defeated and now he's made vulnerable to the enemy and all of the enemy and all of Canaan who were scared to death of him after Jericho are now saying, Man, they're no problem. We can take the Israelites if I can do it.

We can do it. And Joshua's terrified. And he's demoralized. You feel demoralized, confused. You just don't know which way is up. You just don't know which way to go.

You don't know what's wrong with you. Joshua didn't know what was wrong until God told him. And that's why we need to go to God in prayer. And I know counselors can be wonderful, but God is the one who knows what's down in your heart. He knows what the root cause of something is. The best counselors are ones who will get you into the Scripture and help apply it to your life and help you open up your life and your heart to God's word that God might reveal to you what's down there. And God revealed to Joshua in verse 10, the Lord said to Joshua, Stand up.

What are you doing on your face? You know that sometimes prayer is inappropriate. And we can pray and pray and pray and pray. And sometimes we just need to get up and do something about it. We need to stop confessing our sin and repent of it.

Stop talking about it and stop doing it. Stop crying over it and crucify it. And so God said, Joshua, what are you doing on your face? Israel has sinned.

That's what the problem is. There's sin in the camp. And then note those plural pronouns. They have violated my covenant. They have taken some of the devoted things. They have stolen. They have lied.

They have put them with their own possessions. He was holding all of Israel accountable for the sin of one man. Who is suffering because of your sin? Who is experiencing God's displeasure and His wrath because of the sin that you're harboring in your heart and in your life? Sin is dangerous. God says in verse 12, I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction.

Now here's Ann with this final word. Sin is very serious. How seriously do you take it? Are you serious enough about it to bring it to the cross? Confess it by name for what it is in God's eyes. Then crucify it.

Put it to death. Put it out of your life once and for all. Several years ago, God convicted me of sin that I hadn't been aware of was in my life. Every time I opened my Bible, a verse seemed to leap up off the page, convicting me of another sin. For seven days, I fasted, prayed, wept, confessed. And then I had to repent, stop toying with the sin, tolerating it. I had to turn away from it.

Habits, attitudes, thought patterns. As a result, God cleansed me, scrubbed me clean on the inside. Then he filled me with a sense of overwhelming peace and joy.

I went almost overnight from feeling defeated and frustrated to experiencing amazing victory and triumph personally as well as in ministry. So whatever the sin is that even now is coming to your mind, bring it to the cross. Confess it in humble, sincere prayer. Then repent, put it to death, turn away from it. You'll be glad you did.

I know. You've been listening to Living in the Light. And when you go to anngramlots.org, there are free resources to help you in your study of God's Word. Anne's desire is that you embrace a God-filled life, step by step, choice by choice, living in the light.