Whatever impossible you are facing, God could overcome it all in an instant, but he often doesn’t. Why is that? Why doesn’t he call down the angel armies to fix this? Why doesn’t he display his extraordinary power and intervene in a way that not a single soul could deny him?

If I were God, that’s what I would do. But God’s thoughts and God’s ways are infinitely higher and better than my own.

Instead, God often invites you and I into partnership with him and gives us marching orders to be part of his miraculous victory. He empowers us to walk in faith, but it’s always our choice whether we walk or whether we cower in fear. Whether we show up for the battle, or whether we give up in the fight.

God wants to know … are you going to be his partner in the impossible? While his power is not dependent on your participation, his invitation has included you and maybe he’s just been waiting for you to lock arms with him in this and not look back.

Joshua 6 tells the story of the Battle of Jericho. It’s a nearly unbelievable story of impossible walls crumbling with the shout of God’s people. A shout that was both a battle cry and a praise to God, and everything that stood in their way fell to the ground and they walked right in.

I don’t know about you, but I need some walls to fall! There are some things in the way that are causing problems and heartache I never saw coming. I fully recognize I don’t have the power to tear these walls down myself. I don’t have the ability to climb over them. (But boy do I want to!) My God holds the power to make them fall, and he’s invited me to a divine partnership in the battle. My role is to depend on God, march forward in faith, and prepare my praise.

And my sister, I believe you’re listening today because that is your role in the impossible you’re facing too. You’re being called to depend on God, march forward in faith, and prepare your praise.

Joshua is the leader of the Israelites after Moses died. The Israelites have spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness after their lack of faith and overwhelming fear that held them back from stepping into God’s good plans. And now, they’re ready. The next generation is ready to trust God in the impossible and move out of their wilderness. And God says, go to Jericho … I am giving you Jericho.

Jericho is a 6 acre fortress. The entire city is protected by a massive wall, the walls of Jericho. These walls were first 13 feet of stones, then on top of the stone was over 20 feet of brick walls. You couldn’t climb these walls, and you certainly couldn’t break through these walls. Jericho was considered to be the best defended city of Canaan and no doubt the most difficult to conquer. Jericho knew the Israelites were camped nearby so they were on high alert.

But our God is not detoured by the impossible! Defeating Jericho was impossible, but Jesus said in Matthew 19:26, “With God, all things are possible.”

Joshua 6, beginning with verse 1. “Now the gates of Jericho were tightly shut because the people were afraid of the Israelites. no one was allowed to go out or in. But the Lord said to Joshua, ‘I have given you Jericho, its king, and all its strong warriors. You and your fighting men should march around the town once a day for six days. Seven priests will walk ahead of the Ark, each carrying a rams’ horn. On the seventh day you are to march around the town seven times, with the priests blowing the horns. When you hear the priests give one long blast on the rams’ horns, have all the people shout as loud as they can. Then the walls of the town will collapse, and the people can charge straight into the town.”

Now lets be honest, this sounds absolutely ridiculous. March in circles, do it for 6 days. Just keep circling. Around and around. Day after day. Then on the 7th day, march around 7 times, then after the priests blow the horns, everyone shout really loud. Then those impossible walls are going to just fall down.

Notice what happens next. Verse 6, So Joshua called together the priests and said do it. Then he gave orders to the people. He said do it. No further explanation. Just start marching.

Joshua depended on God (because this was one terrible battle plan without God), he marched forward in faith, and he prepared his praise. There was going to be some shouting after all this marching, because those walls were going to come down.

Now, get this visual … there were an estimated 600,000 soldiers in the Israelite army. Imagine Joshua telling 600,000 trained soldiers they were going to march in circles for days in silence, then they were going to shout. That’s all. And imagine 600,000 soldiers start lining up to begin marching.

Would you? Would you line up? WILL YOU LINE UP?

Will you depend on God? Will you march forward in faith? Will you prepare your praise absolutely believing God is going to do the impossible here?

The marching begins and they go in circles. Circles for days. Circles in silence. Circles with absolutely nothing happening. Circles that honestly made them quite vulnerable to the attack of their enemies on the other side of the wall. Yet they showed up for their partnership in God’s battle plan.

And on the 7th day, after their 7th circle and the final long blast of the rams’ horn, they all shouted. It was both a battle cry and an enthusiastic praise to God. Verse 20, “Suddenly, the walls of Jericho collapsed, and the Israelietes charged straight into the town and captured it.”

I’m on marching orders. Marching orders that tell me to move forward in faith and don’t complain about it along the way. Marching orders that tell me to prepare my praise because God is doing something I cannot see.

This weekend, in my frustration and anger over a situation I cannot control, a personal situation that absolutely guts me and scares me at the same time, I clearly heard God speak to me. I grabbed a sticky note and wrote what he said and put it in the pages of my Bible. He said, “Pamela, my girl, I’m asking you to not speak in anger against the souls involved in this. Direct your anger only towards the works of the devil behind this. Do not give him ammunition with your accusing words and retold stories.”

Those are marching orders. Just like the Israelites, they were told to move forward and not speak about it. They marched in circles in silence until the time came to shout in praise. THEN and only then did those walls crumble.

Yesterday, I was out on a prayer and praise walk. I had prayed all I knew to pray over my situation, then I turned on my praise music. Just then, a sweet soul I get to mentor text me and said, “Pamela, listen to these songs.” One of the songs was Brandon Lake’s ‘Hard Fought Hallelujah’. I listened to that song on repeat. That’s where I am. I have a hard fought hallelujah to bring while I’m still in the battle. My eyes of faith are not oblivious to the reality of the situation, but my eyes of faith also know my marching orders. My praise must be prepared!

The song says:

I’ll bring my hard-fought, heartfelt
Been-through-hell hallelujah
And I’ll bring my storm-tossed, torn-sail
Story-to-tell hallelujah

I prefer the miraculous, immediate, wow that was easy hallelujah. I really like the life is good, it’s all beautiful, I’m so happy hallelujah. But the truth is, that hallelujah is cheap compared to the hard fought one. That hard fought hallelujah with marching orders that don’t make sense is of great value. That’s the one God has asked me for. I wonder if he’s asked you for the same.

God tells us to PREPARE OUR PRAISE. That is faith. I don’t have to wait until the walls crumble to praise, I know it’s going to happen. I don’t have to close my eyes and ignore the problems either. The eyes of faith see the difficulty, they survey it all in it’s hard reality, then they say, “WITH GOD, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE.”

I’m marching, Sis. I’m trying my darndest not to complain, not to talk bad, and not to give the enemy an ounce of ammunition in this battle as I march. Want to join me? There are some walls that MUST come down!

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