8. BELIEVING GOD TO GET YOU TO YOUR GILGAL

8. BELIEVING GOD TO GET YOU TO YOUR GILGAL

Introduction:

When we cease being teachable, we cease being disciples, in the truest sense of the word. The heart of the disciple is the pupil; we keep learning.

Joshua 4:19 – 5:12 – In 5:6 God had made a solemn promise. He wants to bring much fruit from our lives. It remains the hope of our calling.

Hebrews 3:18-19 – They were disobedient to God. The whole key is faith.

Unbelief: apistia –a- without.

Pistia – belief

Disobedience: apeitheo – acting on our unbelief.

One feeds the other. All disobedience comes from unbelief. We do not have to act on our unbelief. Something can happen between unbelief (Mark 9) and disobedience. If you are filled with fear, obey Him anyway. “O God, come and help my unbelief.” Every major disaster we have ever come into is rooted in some measure, in unbelief. We do not have to act on doubt.

1. Israel had been living with the shame of unbelief all of this time. For you and I to make our step into our land of promise, we are going to have to be very aware that God is bringing about a brand new beginning. Some people need to be characterized all over again; a new reputation.

2. Joshua 4:19 – Gilgal was the first place they set camp in their new Promised Land. The name Gilgal means circle.

3. They set the stones up as standing stones in a circle, and called it Gilgal. None of this is accidental. God is so intentional in His timing, He has even allowed some things in our lives, in very specific timing, that we will not understand until we get to glory.

Exodus 12:3 – First month, 10^th day.

Joshua 5:10 – First month 14^th day, Passover.  This was perfect timing and a day of new life.

God is faithful to let us have do-over’s because we are desperate for them. We cannot go through life with that failure on our back for the rest of our days. God is so good! This time Israel would not repeat history; they would be victorious. Gilgal will come to represent when God gives us a victory in a do-over; when He brings us full circle.

The more we can understand, the more we can get into our cycles of defeat; then we begin to know “This is where it turns.” Right at that place we learn to make a decision.

CYCLE OF DEFEAT

Slavery – Deliverance – Testing (including successes and failures) – Prevailing unbelief – Slavery.

God is not thinking that we are going to pull it all together and live some kind of impossible dream. We are going to blow some of our tests. God is so set on us being victorious; He will keep giving us the same tests over and over again, until we pass it. He is going to get us to the place where we feel victory there; where we know that we are more than overcomers in Him.

It is how we come out of that testing with that failure with that “failure” is the unbelief that we are ever going to be able to get this together. It is how we feed off of what happened in that testing. Prevailing unbelief will lead you right back to unbelief (Hebrews 3). Nobody goes to their place of promise accidently.

CYCLE OF VICTORY

Slavery – Deliverance – Testing (including successes and failures) – Prevailing unbelief – Promised Land.

The victor sets about to learn “Why do I keep doing this?” Prevailing belief comes out of this time of testing. The one thing that stands between the person who is defeated and the person who is victorious is prevailing belief. The cycle of victory is it spirals up. The difference is belief. Israel decided to believe God, so they came full circle, broke the old cycle, and began spiraling up.

4. We have a spiritual circumcision and we are different, because we are in covenant with God. Remaining uncircumcised, Israel is frozen in defeat, walking around like the rest of the world, even though they know they are covenant people. As a people of God there is something in us, when the Holy Spirit takes up residency in us, when we live like the rest of the world “It wasn’t supposed to be like this.” There is a reproach to it. The Holy Spirit will never let us get comfortable with it. It never feels okay.

Herpah – reproach, shame, scorn, contempt; often translated “disgrace” in the Old Testament, stigma, finger-pointing.

Colossians 2:9-11 – Spiritual circumcision is the putting off of the old nature – 2 Corinthians 5:17.

Ephesians 4:22-23 – We are new creations, but until our thinking changes, we still think like the old man of sin, or defeat.

We are going to feel like we think. We wear a reproach that we in our minds think “I cannot go there with this reproach.” Even though He has done the work through the cross we keep wearing that defeat of the old self, in the attitude of our mind. We have characterized ourselves out of the old man. There is a difference of remembering the hurts of our pasts, or are we still wearing it.

D – Divorced                                       POM – Pregnant Outside Marriage

S – Shamed                                         H – Harlot

C – Crazy (temporary Insanity)        DWI – Driving While Intoxicated

B – Bankruptcy                                   U – Unwanted

F – Fired                                               R – Reproach

TP – Terrible Parent

5. Ephesians 4:22-24 – We bear the marks of finally believing God. We need to believe God for a change, and sometimes it does take a wounding.

Joshua 5:8 – “Healed” – haya – to live, exist, enjoy life; to live anew, to recover, be well, to refresh, rebuild.

No matter how old you are, you have a chance to rebuild; to have your life characterized all over again. No more faithless, but faithful, redefined, a new reputation.

Isaiah 53:5 – By His wounds we are healed. Through the wounding Israel was repositioned, bearing the marks of the people of the covenant promise.

6. Joshua 5:9 – Bring it to Him, identify Him, and tell Him exactly what it is to Him. You bring it to me and God says that I am going to roll it away. “If you have the faith to believe I will take you exactly like you are, and I will teach you to think with the mind of Christ, and to put on the righteousness of Christ.”

“Roll away” – galal – to roll, turn, drive away, roll upon oneself. Jesus already rolled every bit of our approach upon Himself; He has already worn it.

“Be rolled (in blood), be dyed red. Jesus takes the old garment of our reproach, rolls it upon Himself, rolls it in blood and takes away our reproach. What we are covered in then is just the red.