“And the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.” Joshua 6:20
In a thunderous noise, the walls Jericho crumbled before the Spirit of God and Israel broke through to invade the city; the time and place of our equally stunning BREAKTHROUGH will be our 2013 Ohio District Camp Meeting! I am convinced that anyone who is tired of wandering in the wilderness, anyone who is willing to set aside conventional wisdom, and anyone who truly believes that trusting and obeying the voice of God will yield victory can break through to a huge victory in this summer. I’m calling on every church that is tired of a perennial denial of revival to come to camp expecting a breakthrough!
If no walls existed, who would need a breakthrough? The reality is that, in this world, walls are everywhere. Walls of fear keep potential soulwinners from reaching out to the lost. Walls of past defeat stop Christians from victorious living. Walls of carnality derail aspirations for spirituality. Walls of failure prevent churches from the fires of revival. Walls of false security keep a district from a Holy Ghost revolution. Every pastor, every minister, every church leader—all of us encounter walls that restrict, slow down or stop us altogether from realizing the will of God in our lives.
The lament of many churches is a litany of familiar refrains:
- “We have a burnt-over field.”
- “The culture is too far gone.”
- “No one wants God anymore.”
- “We don’t have enough money.”
- “We don’t have the right people.”
- “All we can hope for is to hold on ‘til Jesus comes.”
Walls will not go away on their own; they will not meekly fade away. They were not built for leisure or pleasure; they were built for the very purpose of repelling invaders. In fact, left alone, walls will only grow stronger, more stubborn and more formidable. We need to understand that the walls we face are not mere accidents or inevitabilities of life. They were put in our way on purpose! Our enemy seeks to thwart the plan of God to build His church so that the gates of hell will not prevail against it. The challenge that lies before us then, is whether or not we will do something about the walls. They need to be identified, confronted, attacked and conquered!
The walls of Jericho stood in the way of Israel’s conquest of the Promised Land. General Joshua did not play mind games with the people by pretending the walls didn’t exist. They were real. Archeologist Bryant Wood says, “The mound, or ‘tell’ of Jericho was surrounded by a great earthen rampart, or embankment, with a stone retaining wall at its base. The retaining wall was twelve to fifteen feet high. On top of that was a mudbrick wall six feet thick and about twenty to twenty-six feet high. At the crest of the embankment was a similar mudbrick wall whose base was roughly forty-six feet above the ground level outside the retaining wall. This is what loomed high above the Israelites as they marched around the city each day for seven days. Humanly speaking, it was impossible for the Israelites to penetrate the impregnable bastion of Jericho.”
Undoubtedly, those walls had repelled many invaders. They gloated in silent derision at every flimsy attempt to climb and conquer them. The Israelites must have felt their scornful mockery even as they marched around their base. “Give it up! You’ll never get through us, over us or under us!” Joshua’s army of priests and praisers had no battering rams to beat down the walls nor ladders to scale them. They had no bombs or guns. But they didn’t languish in the shadows of wishful thinking, waiting and hoping for some benevolent army to come and dismantle the walls for them so they could enter the city! Neither does the church’s breakthrough power come from superior weaponry. “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 (NIV)
Breakthrough revivals do not happen in the best of times; they happen when things can get no worse. Breakthrough revivals are dependent upon a dedicated band of disciples saying “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us!” Ephesians 3:20. (KJV) The detonator is not hidden in secret location far away. It is within our grasp, but it can only be seen when the light of faith and obedience is turned on.
Ohio, we can break through to victory! Our battle plans come from God and His Word; our strategy is plotted in the prayer room; our trusted weapon is obedience; our banner is the Name of Jesus and our battle cry is praise and worship. “Joshua fit the battle of Jericho—and the walls came a-tumblin’ down!”