Giant Killers 3

Giant Killers in Egypt have forgotten who they are. Giant killers in the Wilderness are learning what’s inside. Giant killers entering the Promise are awakened to the deeper realities of God. 

I'm realizing this movement from the grace of Moses (who parted the waters on behalf of the people while they watched) to the grace of Joshua (who mobilized the people to cross the waters in their own faith and trust in God) is extremely significant in this hour of the church as we learn to live in light of eternity. 

This is uniquely different from when they passed through the waters (Red Sea) under the leadership of Moses. This movement from the grace of Moses (who parted the waters on behalf of the people while they watched) to the grace of Joshua (who mobilized the people to cross the waters in their own faith and trust in God) is extremely significant in this hour of the church as we learn to live in light of eternity.

When temporal pursuits drive our perspectives, it’s very easy to produce simple sermons offering easy explanations and shallow solutions. When we oversell and underdeliver it contributes to the overstimulated, underdeveloped church that finds waiting on the Lord to be boring.

We’ve tried to tame Christianity into a self-serving religion that focuses on the sacrifice of Christ and neglects the sacrificial lifestyle to which we all are called.

The devil always stands in the way of sacrifice offering shortcuts instead. Some treasures you’ll never know if don’t mature in a sacrificial pursuit of the eternal perspective of God.

Here are a few journal entries from Frank Luabach. He didn’t live in a monastery where prayer was a lifestyle of isolation with nothing else to do. He was a well-known education professional worked many hours a week in his career, in addition he traveled and spoke extensively. 

JANUARY 26, 1930: I am feeling God in each movement, by an act of will- willing that He shall direct (my every move) - that He shall pour through my steps as I walk.


APRIL 18 1930: I have tasted a thrill in fellowship with God which has made anything discordant with God disgusting. This afternoon the possession of God has caught me up with such sheer joy – I have never known anything like it. God was so close and so amazingly lovely that I felt like melting all over with a strange blissful contentment. Having had this experience, which comes to me now several times a week, the thrill of filth repels me, for I know its power to drag me away from God. And after an hour of close friendship with God my soul feels clean, as new fallen snow.


MAY 14, 1930: Oh, this thing of keeping in constant touch with God, of making Him the object of my thought and the companion of my conversations, is the most amazing thing I (have ever known). I cannot do it even half of a day- not yet, but I believe I (will someday grow to know to experience it) for the entire day. It is a matter of acquiring a new habit of thought.

Take your eyes off the prize of the things of this world! Theology that endorses the pursuit of worldly accomplishments deepens carnality in the thinking of the priesthood of God’s holy people. Where is the “I just couldn’t leave his presence because I was overwhelmed with his glory” language in the church. Psalm 42 - the psalmist was so thirsty he was about to die but this only deepened awareness of thirst for God. Psalm 84 - better is one day in the presence of the Lord than a thousand elsewhere.

We don’t hear this kind of consumed-with-Jesus language very much in the church. We hear a lot of, “That was an amazing worship service” or “ that was an amazing message”. Jesus didn’t commission the disciples to put on a worship service and invite people to come. We are supposed to gather as the church but it all gets confused when we think in terms of coming to church. You can’t go to church. You are the church so we want to gather as the church specifically to receive the impartation God desires for us to possess and grow deeper in our intimacy with him as the #1 goal of our existence!

Again the sacrifice of Christ isn’t the only sacrifice we should focus on. Is it too much for you to get up early and sacrifice a little sleep to get into the Word, spend time growing and maturing in a prayer life? You’ll never know the personal awakening God desires for you to know in this life if you don’t devote yourself sacrificially to passionately pursuing the heart of Jesus.

The nature of grace is to teach us. We are going to learn this more and more as grace will begin teaching us to pay attention to relationships that God is blessing and wanting to cause to flourish. Humility attracts heaven and when you sense grace in a relationship humble yourself to make that connection, sacrifice to step into that moment further to see what God is doing. The same thing will take place in your relationship with God‘s word as you watch for grace as you read. Pay attention when you sense God’s grace and step into that moment to explore what He’s inviting you into.

Lord, you are taking the church into a new season as You did when Moses died and Joshua was raised up. You have brought us out of bondage and taken us through the wilderness. Now it is time for the body of Christ to come into a place of greater promise.

We are discovering the strength and courage that comes from rehearsing your Word as we speak your truth throughout the day keeping your Law always in our mouths. Teach us to meditate on your Word in such a way that we are awakened to the voice of God in our lives day and night. It is in this place of constant conversation with God that we discover true prosperity, success, strength and courage from the eternal perspective of God. Discouragement has lost its grip on me as God is with me everywhere I go!

As we grow and mature in our knowledge of God we will experience the conclusion of seasons and the awakening of what is next. Help us not to live with a focus on what God used to do. But may we learn to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in every season of life being led by the spirit and keeping in step with the spirit (Galatians 5:16).