Put One Foot in Front of the Other
It’s time! You’ll remember from chapter one “Joshua Introduction” (and I suppose you could find it in the book of Exodus as well) that the nation of Israel, led by Moses, left the slavery of Egypt with the promise from God that He would lead them to a land that would be perfect for them, a land where they would find rest. It’s been quite a few years, and due to their disbelief, the people had gone through a rough forty-year stretch of wandering around in the wilderness.
But now here in Joshua chapter three, it is time to go in and conquer the Land of Promise Egypt and followed Moses to the banks of a water obstacle, the Red Sea . With mountains on each side and a pursuing army behind, their lives were in jeopardy. But then a miracle happened… God showed up, parted the sea, allowed the nation of Israel
In First Corinthians chapter ten, Paul equates this crossing of the sea to a baptism. In chapter one of this book, we also looked at the crossing of this first water obstacle, using Paul’s remarks to the Corinthians as our guide to symbolically link that baptism to our first baptism, the baptism of repentance. Here’s in essence what I wrote in that chapter:
After we leave the world (by reconnecting to God through Jesus) it is important for us to make a statement to the world that we are no longer under its rule. That statement is made through baptism; the Red Sea in this story is a symbol of that first baptism, the baptism of repentance. On that day when the sea collapsed on the Egyptian army, a message was sent to the king who once enslaved the nation of Israel
Now the nation of Israel is standing on the east banks of another water obstacle, the Jordan River . The fact that they are on the east side of the river is significant to me. Look at a map. They left Egypt , which is west of the Promised Land, went south and ran into the Red Sea . After they crossed the Red Sea they traveled east past the Dead Sea, then north, only to end up on the east side of the river that defined the east border of the Promised land… They started west of the Promised Land, went around the south side of the Promised Land, and ended up east of the Promised Land?!
If you wanted to get from your kitchen to your dining room, would you climb out of your kitchen window, walk around the house to your dining room window, and climb in—or would you walk through the door that separates the two rooms? If the nation of Israel had just traveled east/northeast out of Egypt and followed the coastline of the Mediterranean Sea , they would have avoided all the water crossing problems! So why did God lead them that way? Perhaps it was because He wanted to teach us something.
If the crossing of the Red Sea was symbolic of the baptism of repentance, what can the crossing of the Jordan
Unusual Plans
On the morning the crossing of the Jordan was to take place, Joshua led the people to the banks of the Jordan
Joshua gathers his priests and tells them to grab the Ark of the Covenant (which symbolizes the presence of God) and take it to the edge of the water. What’s that? That’s your plan? Joshua, I love ya babe, but I woke up early today excited, thinking we’d start building a bridge or something, or possibly we’d look for a shallow area to cross. But you tell us to take the presence of God to the edge of the river… Can I go back to sleep?
Humanly speaking this was a horrible plan. It made no sense. I could have figured a much more logical solution to the problem. Isn’t that the way with us today? We face an obstacle or a challenge, but instead of looking for a God-made solution, we look for a man-made solution and usually, at least for me, it is a works-based solution. If I just get control over my sin, then I can enter the Spirit-filled life. If I were to just spend more time serving my church, then it will happen. If I give more, witness more, and do more, I will get to where I want to go. I can build a bridge, find a shallow point in the river, or I can wait till the river waters recede. But seek the presence of God, follow His leading, and have faith that He will show up and accomplish the work for me? Come on, are you serious?
I am only guessing here, but I think that in the back of Joshua’s mind he was thinking those types of thoughts that morning because the Lord comes to him and encourages him by saying (3:7): “This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.”
In other words, God says, Joshua, I am going to be with you. Trust Me, I’ll come through.
The Next Scary Step
Then He tells Joshua (vs. 8): “You shall command the priests who bear the Ark of the Covenant, saying, ‘When you have come to the edge of the water of the Jordan , you shall stand in the Jordan
Growing up, the concept of a Spirit who helped you live life was a bit weird and foreign to me. I was taught that by good ol’ fashion discipline and hard work, by staying in the Word and staying away from smoking, drinking, movies, and dancing, I’d stay close to God, live a successful Christian life, and that God would be happy with me. If asked, I would have answered correctly that the Holy Spirit was the third person of the Trinity, but that’s about all I knew about Him.
As I grew older and began to read the Bible a little more, I began to associate the Holy Spirit with speaking in tongues and fire from Heaven. Soon, the discussion of the Holy Spirit began to conjure within me visions of snake handling, rolling in the aisles of church, and old men carrying a sign shouting, “THE END IS NIGH!” It was weird, a bit scary, and I certainly didn’t want to be one of those weirdo “Fundamentalist” Christians.
Then I started to meet some people who “seemed” to be living the life I wanted to live… Don’t get me wrong, in my mind they had to be fake. It can’t be true, life can’t be as good as they make it out to be. But the Lord started to teach me (just as Joshua taught his men) that it was true, there is a better life. He kept saying, “Trust Me and I will show up.”
As this all started to happen, I labeled and numbered some verses in my Bible (the book of John) that were words from the mouth of Jesus. These words began to change my mind about the Holy Spirit:
1. John 14:15-16
"If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever...”
2. John 14:25-26
"These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”
3. John 16:7-11
“Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.”
4. John 16:13
"However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.”
First, I learned that Jesus would send the Holy Spirit when I started to obey His commandments. You see there in number one: “… keep My commandments. And I will…” OK, makes sense… obey His commandments. When you begin to do that, that’s when He will send the Spirit to help you. In number two, I discovered that the Holy Spirit will teach me things, and then bring to my remembrance what I’ve learned. Wait a second! I’ve already experienced that! There were times when I remembered Bible verses that I didn’t even think I knew… Was that… could that have been… the Holy Spirit?
In number three, I found that it is the Holy Spirit who convicts the world of its sin of unbelief, spurs us on to righteousness, and comforts us when everything around us is uncomfortable. I’ve felt that conviction, that encouragement and comfort… before I was fully walking with the Lord, something told me that I needed to believe. After I was saved, something encouraged me to do good, and then when I was getting beaten down by the ruler of this world, something comforted me and told me that he’ll get his comeuppance someday. That was the Holy Spirit?
In number four, I learned that the Holy Spirit will “guide me into all truth” and I realized that He had been guiding me. As a matter of fact, He was guiding me to truth that very second! This Holy Spirit wasn’t as weird as I thought He was, and I was beginning to believe that I needed Him in my life.
But, though I had experienced small doses of the Holy Spirit’s power in my life, I wasn’t fully living life in His power. I would read, for example in Romans chapter eight about living life in the Spirit, but I didn’t know how to live that life. I would read in Acts chapter one about the power that would come upon believers when the Holy Spirit comes upon them, but there wasn’t any of that power in my life. Why not?
My first thought was that it was because I wasn’t fully obeying God’s commandments like John 14:15 tells us. But the more I tried to obey all of the law, the more I felt the need for the Holy Spirit. I was stuck in a catch-22; I needed the Holy Spirit to give me power to obey, but I thought that the power of the Holy Spirit wouldn’t come until I fully obeyed… and that drove me nuts! Then I read Luke 11:9-13
"So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!"
What must we do to receive the Holy Spirit? ASK!
Here’s What’s Gonna’ Happen
The Baptism of the Holy Spirit is for some a scary proposition. You are stepping into the unknown; you don’t know what is going to happen. Are you going to be carried away by the water into weirdness? Will you now be forced to jump around church speaking gibberish?
Then Jesus comes to you, like Joshua went to his priests, and tells you exactly what is going to happen. He tells you that you will receive power to live life, you’ll find rest for your soul, and your God-given gifts will be revealed. As He is telling you this, you begin to believe. That belief then causes you to act and you take a step of faith into the roaring river. But what is that step? What commandment must we obey for Jesus to ask the Father to send the Helper (John 14:15)? For the priests carrying the Ark
For those who are asking but aren’t receiving, please learn from my experience. As is the case with all things spiritual, you won’t receive until you believe and you won’t believe until you hear. So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17). Open the Word and search the Scripture for what it has to say about the Holy Spirit. Just as Joshua told the men holding the presence of God exactly what was about to happen, so too will you hear within your spirit (where the presence of God dwells in you) exactly what is going to happen when you take that step of faith and ask for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.
When the priests in Joshua chapter three took that step into the water, exactly what Joshua told them would happen, happened. The water stopped and the people crossed over into the Promised Land. But the story doesn’t end there. They were now in the land, but it was not yet conquered; there were battles still to be fought. But God promised that He would be there to lead them in the battles and give them victory.
When you receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, exactly what Jesus teaches you will happen, will happen. You will receive power, you will begin to understand and hear His leading, and He will help you navigate life. But understand this as well, the battles are just beginning. He will never give you more than you can handle, but God will lead you into battle and you will be victorious over your enemies.
And remember our study from chapter three: The Purpose of Battle—it is in the battle where you find your purpose!
Below is the text from Joshua chapter three:
Then Joshua rose early in the morning; and they set out from Acacia Grove and came to the Jordan, he and all the children of Israel
And Joshua said to the people, "Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you." Then Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, "Take up the ark of the covenant and cross over before the people." So they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people. And the LORD said to Joshua, "This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel Jordan , you shall stand in the Jordan Israel
"Now therefore, take for yourselves twelve men from the tribes of Israel
So it was, when the people set out from their camp to cross over the Jordan, with the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people, and as those who bore the ark came to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks during the whole time of harvest), that the waters which came down from upstream stood still, and rose in a heap very far away at Adam, the city that is beside Zaretan. So the waters that went down into the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea , failed, and were cut off; and the people crossed over opposite Jericho Jordan ; and all Israel crossed over on dry ground, until all the people had crossed completely over the Jordan
