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Kenneth Copeland
“But thou, O man of God... fight the good fight of faith.” - 1 Timothy 6:11-12
When you're up
against the wall, don't start begging God to break through it for you. That's
not the way He works.
He'll give you
the plan. He'll give you the power. And He'll guarantee the victory.
But your hand,
not His own, is the instrument He's going to use to get the job done.
You're going to
have to stretch forth your hand by speaking and acting on the Word, even when
circumstances are against you.
God gave me a
striking revelation of that over 20 years ago through a vision He gave me in
Beaumont, Texas.
I was preparing
to minister in a service there, spending some time in prayer, when suddenly I
saw myself standing in the pulpit of the church.
Looking up, I
saw a dragon — a horrible, ugly thing — poke his head through the front door of
the church.
As he came into
the church, his body expanded like a balloon, filling the whole room. He was
snorting fire and smoke.
When, in the
vision, he turned it on me, he almost burned my clothes!
As I fell back
onto the floor, I saw Jesus standing nearby with a sword in His hand.
Why doesn't He
do something about this? I thought. Can't He see I'm hurting?
But He didn't
move. He just stood by with a frown on His face. I could tell He was really put
out with me.
The Bible says
God was not pleased with those who were overthrown in the wilderness (1
Corinthians 10:5).
And He wasn't
pleased with me either as I lay there on my back in defeat.
Then Jesus held
out the sword to me and pointed at the dragon. The look on His face said, Get
up!
I reached up to
catch hold of the sword, and an instant before I touched it, Jesus turned it
loose.
The sword
stayed in midair of its own accord. I grabbed it and began to pull myself up.
Not only did it hold firm, but it began to lift me!
I stood and
touched the dragon's chin with my sword and it split him from one end to the
other. It laid him open right before my eyes.
In amazement, I looked down at the sword. Why haven't I
used this before? I thought.
Don't wait for
God to slay the dragon in your life.
You have the
sword of the Spirit, the all-powerful Word of the living God, at your
fingertips. Pick it up and use it today!
Scripture
Reading: Joshua 11:5-23
Kenneth
Copeland Ministries'
mission is to minister the Word of Faith, by teaching believers who they are in
Christ Jesus; taking them from the milk of the Word to the meat, and from
religion to reality.
Joshua 11:5-23 English Standard
Version (ESV)
5 And all
these kings joined their forces and came and encamped together at the waters of
Merom to fight against Israel.
6 And
the Lord said to
Joshua, “Do not be afraid of them, for tomorrow at this time I will give
over all of them, slain, to Israel. You shall hamstring their horses and
burn their chariots with fire.” 7 So Joshua
and all his warriors came suddenly against them by the waters of Merom and
fell upon them.
8 And
the Lord gave them into
the hand of Israel, who struck them and chased them as far as Great Sidon
and Misrephoth-maim, and eastward as far as the Valley of Mizpeh. And
they struck them until he left none remaining.
9 And
Joshua did to them just as the Lord said
to him: he hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots with fire.
10 And
Joshua turned back at that time and captured Hazor and struck its king
with the sword, for Hazor formerly was the head of all those kingdoms.
11 And they
struck with the sword all who were in it, devoting them to destruction; [a] there was none left
that breathed. And he burned Hazor with fire.
12 And all
the cities of those kings, and all their kings, Joshua captured, and struck them
with the edge of the sword, devoting them to destruction, just as Moses
the servant of the Lord had
commanded.
13 But none
of the cities that stood on mounds did Israel burn, except Hazor alone; that
Joshua burned.
14 And all
the spoil of these cities and the livestock, the people of Israel took for
their plunder. But every person they struck with the edge of the sword until
they had destroyed them, and they did not leave any who breathed.
15 Just as
the Lord had commanded
Moses his servant, so Moses commanded Joshua, and so Joshua did. He
left nothing undone of all that the Lord had
commanded Moses.
16 So Joshua
took all that land, the hill country and all the Negeb and all the
land of Goshen and the lowland and the Arabah and the hill
country of Israel and its lowland 17 from
Mount Halak, which rises toward Seir, as far as Baal-gad in the Valley of
Lebanon below Mount Hermon. And he captured all their kings and
struck them and put them to death.
18 Joshua
made war a long time with all those kings. 19 There was
not a city that made peace with the people of Israel except the Hivites,
the inhabitants of Gibeon. They took them all in battle.
20 For it
was the Lord's doing to
harden their hearts that they should come against Israel in battle, in order
that they should be devoted to destruction and should receive no mercy but be
destroyed, just as the Lord commanded
Moses.
21 And
Joshua came at that time and cut off the Anakim from the hill country,
from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the hill country of Judah, and
from all the hill country of Israel. Joshua devoted them to destruction with
their cities.
22 There was
none of the Anakim left in the land of the people of Israel. Only in
Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod did some remain.
23 So Joshua
took the whole land, according to all that the Lord had spoken to Moses. And
Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal
allotments. And the land had rest from war.
Footnotes:
a.
Joshua 11:11 That is, setting apart
(devoting) as an offering to the Lord (for destruction); also verses 12, 20, 21
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