a whole lotta GO AGAIN

• Joshua 6:1-5,MSG- GOD spoke to Joshua, “Look sharp now. I’ve already given Jericho to you, along with its king and its crack troops.

• Here’s what you are to do: March around the city, all your soldiers. Circle the city once. Repeat this for six days. Have seven priests carry seven ram’s horn trumpets in front of the Chest.

• On the seventh day march around the city seven times, the priests blowing away on the trumpets.

• And then, a long blast on the ram’s horn—when you hear that, all the people are to shout at the top of their lungs.

• The city wall will collapse at once. All the people are to enter, every man straight on in.

• What if God's trying to show you the next thing He's got for you, but it's on the other side of a whole lotta go again?

• I’m sure most of us would be, come on God, why do we have to do it this way?

• Maybe this is why in v.10, God said, tell them not to speak so much as a whisper.

• So day one, they got up, went and obeyed the Lord, then went back to their camp. Then the next, go again.

• The reason Paul could say, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” is because he had gotten the revelation of, whole lotta go again.

• Philippians 4:12-13,MSG- Actually, I don’t have a sense of needing anything personally. I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I’ve found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty.

• Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am.

• Think about standing in front of this massive structure, I’m sure most of them have never seen anything like it.

• And their leader tells them we’re going to march around the city 6 days, then on the 7th day we’re going to march around it 7 times.

• Sometimes we just need to be reminded to make room in our thinking, in our lives for the Almighty to lead, to speak, to encourage us in our faith.

• The thing is, most of the time we don’t get spiritual realities the first time, still confined to our humanity.

• I Kings 18:41-43 NKJV- Then Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of abundance of rain.”

• So Ahab went up to eat and drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; then he bowed down on the ground, and put his face between his knees,

• and said to his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea.” So he went up and looked, and said, “ There is nothing.” And seven times he said, “Go again.”

• We are the people of God. Jesus meant what He said when He told us all things are possible for him that believes.

• But we actually have to believe Him. Sometimes right in the face of uncertainty, maybe even impossible, but God specializes in impossible.

• Once we make up our mind, it’s time for commitment and determination. And most of the time this means a whole lotta go again.

• Ephesians reminds us that because we’ve heard Him and been taught by Him, we are to put off our former conduct, the old man, and be renewed in the spirit of our mind, so we can put on the new man which was created according to God.

• Isaiah 43, This is what the Lord says,   what I’ve done in the past is nothing compared to what I am going to do. For I am about to do something new.

• See, I have already begun! Don’t you see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.

• Romans 8:11,MSG- It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, He’ll do the same thing in you that He did in Jesus, bringing you alive to Himself?

• When God lives and breathes in you and He does, as surely as He did in Jesus, you are delivered from that dead life. With His Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!

• It’s in times like we’re in right now that we actually believe what God tells us; “Go Again”

• At what point do we honestly believe, actually expect truths like this on Romans. Expect Him to do the same thing in us He did in Jesus.

• Let the Holy Spirit give you a fresh, yes I can attitude.

• Something God has helped me see over the years is successful, overcoming people allow challenges to stretch them, not stop them.

• GO AGAIN

• We are the people of God. Heirs to the Kingdom of Heaven, joint heirs with Christ.

• This is Paul’s point in Philippians, regardless of the situation, we can do all things through Christ.

• This means, if you’re saying, “I’m believing God, but,” it’s time for you to stop the double minded talk.

• God said a double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

• James teaches us that our tongue is the rudder of our ship, of our life. So what we’re saying matters.

• Im convinced this is why God told Joshua to tell the people not to say a word while they were walking around the massive city.

• In light of Paul’s challenging situation, he continues encouraging the church to follow his example.

• This means, refusing to allow our old, carnal, human nature, our past, and yes, our current situation to interfere with what God is saying, right in the face of what most are calling questionable circumstances.

• We are the people of God. Jesus meant what He said when He told us all things are possible for him that believes. But that means we actually have to believe Him.

• Remember Romans 8, When God lives and breathes in you and He does, as surely as He did in Jesus, you are delivered from that dead life. With His Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!

• 2 Timothy 1:7,AMP- For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, of cowardice, craven and cringing and fawning fear, but He has given us a spirit of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control.

• Let the Holy Spirit give you a fresh, yes I can, whole lotta go again, attitude. If God be for us, who can be against us.

• 2 Corinthians 2:14,NKJV- Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.

• Triumph is a victorious, successful outcome.

• This was Paul’s mindset as he continually encouraged the church to not give up, but stay in faith. To go again.

• Triumphant, victorious overcomes are regular people who continue trusting Jesus not matter what.

• Keep in mind, triumph is a successful ending to any conflict.

• Go walk around the massive city walls, go again, go again.

• Go to the sea and look for rain, go again, go again.

• 1 Corinthians 15:57-58,AMP- But thanks be to God, Who gives us the victory, making us conquerors through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be firm, steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord...

• This kind of life is an on purpose life. This is how Paul could continually remind us that we can do all things, we can make it through all thinks.

• We actually have to believe the Lord’s words over whatever situation.

• Even though Jesus has made us His victorious people, we will never rise above our own understanding of who we are in Him. Overcomers or grasshoppers?

• A great example is the 12 leaders God sent to spy out the promised land.

• 10 out of the 12 could only talk about the situation they would have to face instead of what God said.

• The majority focused on everything except what God said.

• At what point does what God say become the standard we use to evaluate our born again lives?

• Here’s the thing, the longer we reason against what God’s word says, the more comfortable we get with that lifestyle.

• We are the people of God. Heirs to the Kingdom of Heaven, joint heirs with Christ.

• One of Paul’s reoccurring themes throughout his letters is that we are can do, victorious, overcomer in Christ. And many times it is on the other side of a whole lotta go again.