Today's Passage - Joshua 8:18-23

River of Life Christian Church ︳www.rolcc.net/english Joshua 8:18-23    Then the Lord said to Joshua, "Hold out toward Ai the javelin that is in your hand, for into your hand I will deliver the city." So Joshua held out toward the city the javelin that was in his hand. As soon as he did this, the men in the ambush rose quickly from their position and rushed forward. They entered the city and captured it and quickly set it on fire. The men of Ai looked back and saw the smoke of the city rising up into the sky, but they had no chance to escape in any direction; the Israelites who had been fleeing toward the wilderness had turned back against their pursuers. For when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city and that smoke was going up from it, they turned around and attacked the men of Ai. Those in the ambush also came out of the city against them, so that they were caught in the middle, with Israelites on both sides. Israel cut them down, leaving them neither survivors nor fugitives. But they took the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.   This is a picture of spiritual warfare. Did you know that our God has an ambushing force? In 2 Chronicles chapter 20, when Moabites and Ammonites attached the kingdom of Judah, God asked Jehoshaphat to confront the enemy, but with the choir at the frontline to praise God before the army. The Bible says that when people were singing and praising, God set ambushes against the enemy of the Jews. When we are in hardship, or when we are surrounded by the enemy, we just need to praise God and proclaim victory by faith, and God's ambush will fight on our behalf, Halleluiah!   What does the ambushing force of God do? They enter into the strongholds that the enemy has built inside us and tear them down. No matter what have hindered us and bound us before, whether they are idols, bad habits or authority of family, God's Spirit will move inside our hearts to break all the strongholds. The devil can work on the believers because we have sin inside, and we allow the enemy to set up strongholds in our lives. As long as these strongholds are there, the enemy can freely enter into our lives to do damages to us. When we proclaim the redemption by His precious blood and the authority of healing, the enemy's strongholds start to collapse. God's ambushing force will enter into the strongholds and destroy them because of our praise and proclamation. When the enemy turns back, the strongholds are already torn down and it cannot enter into our lives again, so it must flee. The power of the enemy actually comes from the strongholds that we built for it! When the strongholds are destroyed, it no longer has power. Is there still any stronghold from the enemy in your life? May the Lord help us to proclaim by faith today that our strongholds will be broken and destroyed by God's Spirit!   Pray with Pastor Tong       Lord, as we cry out to you by faith, you will set ambush to enter into the enemy's strongholds, and you will destroy them so that the enemy won't be able to return! May the Lord listen to our cry! I thank you and I pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!