Joshua 10:5 tells a story about how Joshua found himself fighting against 5 ungodly kings that had assembled themselves against him at Gibeon.
I want to give you a little insight into the meaning behind the names of these five cities.
- Jerusalem means peace. There is always a war for your peace!
- Hebron means 'to join, or team up.' A company, or a confederation of alliances. It can also mean to bind, and can be used in the sense of binding someone with a spell. Difference variations between the masculine and feminine part of the name indicated 'united, joined and bound together.'
- Jarmuth means 'to be high,' either in literal height, or rank. It can be also construed as the height of pride or arrogance.
- Lachish means 'he who walks or exists of himself.' This speaks of an independent spirit, rebellion. It also means impregnable, fortified, obstinate, hard to capture, and invincible.
- Eglon means 'the bullock.' A place of heifers, which speaks of strength. It also means chief or king, and round, or a circular round motion. Perhaps indicating a rolling about or going in circles.
Old Testament scriptures give us symbolic references to spiritual matters. Joshua's battle shows us a key as to how demons organize and strategize against us. He was in a battle against 5 very strong, stubborn spirits that were high ranking demons. They were full of pride, arrogance, and rebellion. These ungodly kings, (demonic strongmen), will join forces together to make them very difficult to defeat. They will bring in a company of troops that arrogantly boast they cannot be captured, defeated, or evicted. The effect they have on people is to bind them to demonic spirits that cause people to keep going around in circles. These demons will manifest their character traits in those in whom they are inhabiting. Demons join forces in order to present a fortified wall of defense and attempt to resist being cast out of their host.
Joshua was a deliverer to God's people. When the Gibeonites called for Joshua to come help them, they were full of fear. The enemy had presented a very formidable picture of his alliances in order to intimidate the people into believing they were already defeated, but we can see from the biblical account of the story, this isn't true. You see, demons will always TRY to paint a false picture for people hoping they can convince them to give up before the battle is truly won. It's all deception. The art of spiritual warfare is waged against the power of the lie. The truth is, a child of God has more power within them than the enemy does on his side, for it is written, "Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world," 1 John 4:4.
Delivering God's people is not always an easy job. People sometimes get so beat up from the enemy that they may want us to sympathize and take it easy on them. I am all for compassion, grace and mercy, but sometimes the words that God wants us to deliver are not easy words to speak, and they're not easy for others to hear. Sometimes what a person needs is a real shake up, wake up call because they are allowing themselves to be destroyed by the enemy rather than stand up and give it back to the enemy with both barrels. I've been in that place, too, and God never just allowed me to sit there and take it for too long. I would often get a stern rebuke, even when I most wanted sympathy! But that's when you know He's talking to you like your Father. It's because He knows you are mature enough to handle it and He wants you to rise up and overcome. We, too, when we're counseling others and trying to help them get free, cannot afford to sympathize with people to the degree that it ends up encouraging self pity or allows them to see themselves as a victim. We must all confront our own sin and faulty belief systems. If people don't learn to fight, it will be very difficult indeed for them to mature in Christ or develop any sense of stability in life. People must realize that they have been given an opportunity to raise their spiritual sword against the enemy and become the overcomer in Christ that God says we are. Satan is relentless in his plan to kill, steal and destroy. We cannot afford to see ourselves, (or allow others to see themselves) in a light that places them us/them in agreement with the enemy. Because, if that is true, then that person is also in rebellion against God and that is a wide-open door for the enemy to bring in every form of destroying spirit. Rebellion often looks very different that what we might imagine, and that's where we can fail to recognize our own blind spots. When ever we are in agreement with attitudes or beliefs that cause us to feel unworthy, rejected, defeated, angry or accusing towards God, bitter, feel that we can't trust God or we put our trust in ourselves, for example; we have rejected truth and accepted the lies Satan has told us. Thus, he becomes our god and master in those particular areas of our life because we've given away our dominion. Perhaps without even recognizing it, we have made an ungodly peace treaty with the enemy and aligned ourselves with Satan and rebellion. This is why we can't trust our feelings to always tell us the truth.
- Do not make a peace treaty with the enemy.
- Take the enemy by surprise.
- Pursue your enemy until you can put your foot on his neck and force his surrender.
- Forcefully advance the kingdom of God and slay the enemy. Leave no survivors that can re-group and attack again another day.
8 And the Lord said unto Joshua, Fear them not: for I have delivered them into thine hand; there shall not a man of them stand before thee.
9 Joshua therefore came unto them suddenly, and went up from Gilgal all night.
10 And the Lord discomfited them before Israel, and slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them along the way that goeth up to Bethhoron, and smote them to Azekah, and unto Makkedah.”
The word 'discomfited' in this portion of scripture means to unfasten, break up or disintegrate. By definition, the word means to cause uneasiness or embarrassment, to put someone off their game. It means to confuse, agitate, fluster, upset, disorient, disturb or unsettle. In other words, it means that if you're going to displace the enemy, you're going to have to rattle his cage a bit and put that devil on the spot. You're going to have to pin him down so he has no more wiggle room to escape. Because once his tactics are identified, the person can make a conscious choice to exercise their will over the enemy. The process can be uncomfortable for everyone, BUT - it becomes the moment of freedom for those that have been oppressed by the enemy. This is what it means to put your foot down on the enemy's neck, just like Joshua did to those five ungodly kings.
We have to tell demonic spirits to unlink, or unfasten themselves from one another and come out from where they've been hiding. We have to command them all to go back to the abyss and ask God's angels to lock them up until the day of their judgment. Joshua knew how to route the enemy to where he could defeat them. He went to locate the five kings that were hiding out in a cave in Makkedah, trying to escape certain death. Their plan failed. Joshua brought out the ungodly kings and had them slain, then he hung up their bodies as a warning to Israel's other enemies. Every enemy must be destroyed if we are to have peace and good success. Demons will always try to hide from you, which is why God allows things to come shake you up a bit. He's trying to shake those demons out of the cave where they're hiding in your belief system.
Scripture defines Satan as liar and the father of all lies. He screams and lashes out when he's in pain, and truth causes him an incredible amount of pain and anguish. If deception has been a false father to you, then let him die! The war within is to get you to make a decision on what is truth. If you make your emotions the measuring rod to determine what you feel is truth, then you will always be unstable in your thoughts and actions. This is caused by a spirit of double-mindedness and unbelief.
The remedy? Disregard your emotions. Emotions and feelings come and go, they are constantly in motion and are not a true barometer to establish truth. Scripture says the heart is deceitfully wicked, who can know it? Our hearts are fickle. One day it will tell you one thing and the next day it will tell you something else. Instead, recognize the plumb line that God has provided in His word. The Spirit of Truth will make you free WHEN YOU CHOOSE TO LINE UP WITH TRUTH. The illusion is that the enemy is stronger than you are and you can't get free. This is not true. The spell of the enemy's deception can be broken once a person settles it in their heart what they believe. You will be able to walk free because the truth has made you free; it's all a matter of choice. You can't waiver between two opinions because that is what causes the chains to remain. You really do have to decide who you are going to serve. Either you will be bound to worldliness and Satan will be your master, or you can be free, healed, delivered and blessed if you make a choice to serve the Lord. BUT, you will never defeat or overcome the enemy that you are in agreement with. You must renounce the lies. Renounce the agreement you made unknowingly when you took the lies into your belief system and started acting as though the lies were a basis for creating your reality. They are not. The enemy will only listen to you when you exercise the spiritual authority God gave you, and that is through declaring the real truth, the word of God. Every time Satan came to tempt Jesus, He responded with, "Get away, Satan. It is written..." and He would quote scripture. This is how you overcome.
When you break the agreements you've had with the wrong things, you can come back into right alignment with God. God will not put a blessing on disobedience, sin and our faulty beliefs no matter how much we pray, cry or beg. He teaches us to grow up in Christ by partnering with Him in our own self deliverance and wage war using our spiritual sword and shield, (the Word of God). When God shakes you, He's trying to get YOU to shake off the old man. Shake off the old belief system. Shake off the father of lies. Shake off the agreements you've made unknowingly with deception and the enemy. Let the spirit of the Lord STAND UP on the inside of you and declare, "Away with you, Satan. Get out! I make up my mind this day that you are a liar and Jesus Christ is Faithful and True. I break every agreement I've made with unbelief, double-mindedness, lying spirits, familiar spirits, rebellion, discouragement, depression and witchcraft spirits. I CHOOSE truth, and I choose to believe what God has said. This matter is finished, now go to the abyss that was created for you and never return! In the name and authority of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray, amen."
Our Kingdom Cannot Be Shaken!
Hebrews 12:26, 27 - And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, "YET ONCE MORE I WILL SHAKE NOT ONLY THE EARTH, BUT ALSO THE HEAVEN." This expression, "Yet once more," denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe;…
