The Commemorative Blessing After Crossing the Jordan (Joshua 4:1-24)
Speaking accurately, if God’s Word doesn’t become the main driving force of my life, we have no choice but to live a life of failure. Nothing in our lives is bound to work out.
The work of salvation given to us in Gen. 3:15 by way of the offspring of the woman crushing the head of the serpent is the only way we can make a way through this.
What do you think is good in God’s eyes? It is for all nations to receive the gospel and come to life. The people who follow after God’s covenant are bound to see God’s works.
The Bible says we must cross the Jordan to enter into the land of Canaan, and the priests holding onto the Ark crossed first, in other words, the Word of the covenant takes the forefront. If we let our experiences take the lead, we cannot cross. The Jordan River is overflowing, the current is so strong, and we cannot cross with our experiences. We come to the conclusion that this will not work out with our own thoughts. That’s why the priests who have God’s covenant must lead the way. Only once they set their foot in the river will God part the river according to His covenant.
You must let go of your experiences and plans. Those are the ways that people without the covenant live, but if people with the covenant live that way, they will fail. We will never be able to cross the Jordan River before us because of our fear. Without a doubt, we must follow the faith in God’s covenant. This is not something we are doing; God is doing the work He has promised. We are simply going forward with the conclusion in God’s covenant.
Then the waters in the Jordan stopped. Then the millions of Israelites crossed the river.
Joshua 4:6-7. God tells the Israelites to build a commemorative monument to show the works of faith. The way you and I are walking is a commemorative way. The covenant God has given to us is enough to commemorate. If you and I follow Jesus Christ, then the problems of our past, present, and future are finished, and now we can follow God’s word. It’s not my thoughts; it is irrelevant to me. We follow God’s Word. What is the direction of the Word we are following? That direction is the land of Canaan, the land where Jesus Christ will come to earth. We must go in the direction of God’s covenant that testifies Jesus Christ, then the Holy Spirit works. That is how the Triune God is working upon us, even today.
Every time we pray, the Holy Spirit works upon us in power, so all problems have been finished. Because the Triune God is not with us just for a year, but for all eternity. This is what you must know well as you live your walk of faith.
You need to let go of your thoughts and find God’s Word. Let go of your own mental strength; you need to receive God’s power. In order to enjoy God’s covenant on earth, you need to enjoy God’s power; once God’s power is upon you, everything is restored. When you begin to receive that spiritual strength, then everything will be restored. You will receive wisdom to save people, you will have the studies that save people, you will run a business that saves people. That’s what God desires. God doesn’t want you to run a good business; God wants you to run a business that saves people.
After you retire, it’s not about living a good and diligent life; it is a life that saves people. Then, when God’s power comes upon you, then you’ll know what to do, even before people ask. After that, you receive physical strength and health. It doesn’t matter what you want to do; you can’t do it if your health and body are decaying, so God restores your body. Yes, you might exercise, but if you exercise without the covenant, your physical body may be good, but your spirit is diseased.
Then after that, we receive financial power to do world evangelization. We need finances to do world evangelization through your business. If you’re not inside of God’s covenant, even if you work hard, things don’t work out well because ever since Gen. 3, the earth was cursed. Then, why do nonbelievers do so well? God uses nonbelievers as well, but they will be destroyed in the end; however, believers cannot do whatever they want. God intercedes in believers so He controls your economy. But for people who hold onto the covenant of world evangelization, finances will follow you. But if you don’t hold onto the covenant then God will only give you the finances to eat and survive.
God will block their finances because if they make it big, they will use their money and go in the direction of Satan. Especially for young adults, if you know money, you know God, and it’s true because God moves finances. For the students who are studying, the work you’re doing will turn into finances so you have to know God’s plan even as you study. After that, God attaches people to you. You’re not able to do this on your own. People who have the covenant must be attached to you for the work to take place.
400 people were attached to people doing his work, God attached the people He needed in advance to do the work of God once David became king, these are the things that follow when you restore physical strength within the covenant, so you have to do one thing well for everything to be restored. If you’re not able to do one thing well, nothing will be restored. Now, you and I must let go of all our experiences and work in the world to hold onto God’s promise. Then, everyone will receive the evidence of the Jordan being stopped before us.
The Jordan being stopped is not the ultimate goal; going into Canaan is the ultimate goal, then what does the land of Canaan mean for us today? Jesus Christ was born in the land of Canaan, and the reason they’re going into Canaan in the Old Testament is for Jesus Christ to be born. For us, the land of Canaan doesn’t have much meaning because Jesus was already born, and after Jesus Christ came to the land of Canaan, He told us to make disciples of all nations, so the spiritual meaning of going to all nations for us is to go to all nations.
Hold onto the covenant of one nation. “I will live my entire life to save one nation and leave it as a commemorative monument for the future generations.” As you’re praying, hold onto the one nation God gave you in your heart. Write down the one nation you pray for, gather together to pray, gather offering, and raise up a church as a commemorative monument. We must leave behind evidence of God’s works. The more time passes, the more this covenant will fade away, and at that time, you will not be on this earth. At that time, the people will ask, “What is this?” and you will give this monument to them.
Our walk of faith right now is the walk that will save the future generations. I hope you will designate one nation. As you’re in prayer, hold onto the people whom God has given to you. For that nation, you pray, you run your business, you give your offering, and you raise up the future generations. For this reason, we are also doing the Temple Construction that saves the 237 nations. In order to save all the nations, we need to have a location where they can all receive training and worship, and that will be left behind as the commemorative monument with our decision of faith.
Buildings don’t appear from out of nowhere. God does His work through the collective decisions of faith to save the 237 nations for Temple Construction. We need to save these nations through prayer. For the people who cannot come for the Early Morning service, come on zoom so we can pray for the names who are written every morning. That is the Temple we are talking about, it is the courtyard of prayer, that’s why we pray. Even though they might be far away, God works transcending time and space. We’re not able to go to all 237 nations, but we can pray for Africa here. Without a doubt, God is bound to work, transcending time and space. Then we heal these people and train them as the summit to go and save these people. Then, how valuable is that Temple? That is the reason and the covenant with which we give to God.
God has already hidden and prepared the economy of light, without a doubt, you must restore that and leave that behind as a commemorative monument. It’s impossible with your thoughts. There’s one thing we must do. You need to leave behind the commemorative monument in your region. We know the works God has done for us personally, but we must leave behind the commemorative monument to raise the 70 disciples in the 70 regions God entrusted to me.
Relay this to the future generations. You need to relay this to the kids. They say, “I’ve received salvation so I’m good,” so they’re destroyed as they don’t have God’s plan. We need to leave behind the evidence of going to all nations and heal diseases. That’s the work and evidence God is giving to us, so we will save the 237 nations. It’s not complicated, this is the work He is saying He will do through us. That’s why Jesus Christ says, “I will be with you forever with all power in heaven and on earth.”
Why would He be with us? We cannot fulfill God’s covenant, so God gives us the covenant and the power to fulfill it. When you wake up in the morning, you need to receive power from the heavens. For most people, prayer will be hard, so listen to the Word of God first. As you listen to God’s Word, you will receive grace and the Word that hits your heart will be given to you. As you hold onto that, pray for God to work within you in power. If you don’t pray for that, it means you want to live with your own strength, then what’s going to happen? You will come to the conclusion that life doesn’t take place. Despite that, the people who say they can do it on their own will be pushed into a corner.
Yes, you may be able to accomplish the things you’ve planned, but inside, you cannot control yourself, you cannot control your emotions and the depression within you. You cannot control the thoughts that take place within you. You’ll be seized by mental and spiritual problems. Right now, the physical works taking place is not the issue; you cannot save yourself, and because you cannot save yourself, the work you’re doing cannot be right, either. Those things need to take place inside of God’s covenant because God is with you.
That is why you must wake up early in the morning to listen to God’s Word in His covenant. Just try it, deep inside of you, in your subconscious, you make strange decisions and actions. It’s not foolishness but it’s the activation of the hidden things in your spirit and subconscious. The spiritual state of the mother was relayed, you can’t remember anything from before 2 years old; I can’t even remember when I was six years old. I can remember when I was 7, but all these little children are in a state receiving influence from their parents.
Let’s say for example, the parents do drugs, then the kids are impacted by that. Even if the mother smokes cigarettes, it’s harmful to the child. The emotional state of the mother gets relayed to the child in the womb, but the kid doesn’t know that, but later on, it comes out in the kid without them realizing it. How can we control that? That is why God must reign over our thoughts, heart, and emotions.
Especially for our young adults and remnants, you must do this because the road ahead of you is long and hard. In the future, there will be more mental illnesses. You cannot solve that with your great education. You cannot solve that with money, either because money cannot solve your heart or problems. This is spiritual. It can only be changed with the power of God’s Word.
I’ve done this every morning for decades, and it was the same when I was in Korea and America. A person doesn’t change all of a sudden because they do this; they change little by little. You need to enjoy the strength and blessings in the morning, because you will live the rest of your life. Every day when we wake up, we have our time and the work we have to do. In the daytime, you’re receiving so much influence from the world, but you need something inside of you that isn’t influenced. That’s prayer.
All your thoughts, everything you see, you make your decisions based on that? That’s Gen. 3. “I make my decisions based on my emotions,” then you lose your blessings, but we have no choice but to make our decisions based on experiences. Then I’m ensnared and seized, Satan ensnares you with, “me,” but change that to God, then God will give you many thoughts. You will also be able to discern people. But you’re living a life, losing hold of the blessings, so that’s why it’s so hard.
If you want to do this well in the daytime, you absolutely need the spiritual strength in the morning. When we started doing this, there’s a Chinese student, Brice, who started joining. There’s a 3-hour difference, so either way, he came in, maybe the message went into him. I hope you will make that into your highest priority in the day. Anything else doesn’t matter, it can’t save you. How can you save others with that? it’s just barely living, but all of your thoughts are eating and surviving, simply put, it’s physical. Then how can your spirit be revived? You’re spiritually dying so you have mental problems too.
You have problems in your family line, and the spiritual problems of your parents will directly influence you. In the field of America where you’re living, or the place where you’re working, you will receive influence there, too. The gospel has solved all problems of the past, present, and future, but you end your life without enjoying that. So, only do this.
That’s why we say, “only.” If this doesn’t go into you as “only,” and it’s only optional, you will not save. You save yourself with only the gospel of Christ. You need to determine your life with only missions and evangelism. The way this takes place is only possible through prayer.
This doesn’t take place all at once, but little by little, you will conquer. For example, even if someone treats me badly at work, I feel bad; sometimes bad things happen, but you cannot overcome. You feel it is hard and you struggle. Already, the fact that you feel that these person’s words are hurtful, you’re already hurt, so you cannot change your hurt emotions into feeling good. You need to realize, that’s your level and you need to surrender. Surrendering means you need the gospel, you need to have God judge.
It’s not how you feel but why is God allowing this to happen? That’s what it means to enjoy the gospel. You have the gospel but you’re not enjoying the gospel. Because people are so self-centered, they either feel good or bad. Young kids in America say, “I can’t go to Bible study today because I feel bad,” and if you cannot do it because you feel bad, Satan easily plays with you. If Satan gives you bad emotions in a critical moment, you’ll fall. You shouldn’t fall over because of your feelings, but have the mystery to overcome that. That is the Word and strength God gives you.
Either way, reject yourself. Whatever is good for you is not really what’s good. In Gen. 3, they made the judgment of eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was good for them. It was pleasing to the eye and good for food and desirable for gaining wisdom, but God’s Word said not to, so let God’s Word take the forefront.
You have no idea how good it is for Satan to play with us. He will be very quiet, and in the field, He will give you words that hurt your pride. Is there anyone who can overcome that? There isn’t, because he hurts your pride and everyone falls. You can only overcome that when you stand before God. You need to stand before God and ask, “Why are you allowing me to hear words that hurt my pride?” that’s our walk of faith.
What happens when this doesn’t take place? Everywhere you go, your pride is hurt, but the devil knows so well. You need to have the mystery to do world evangelization. When you get married, they will say things that hurt your pride. Then are you going to explode every time that happens? Then you have to explode your entire life. It’s the same in the world. Does that not happen in the church? For example, people hear things centered on themselves and their pride is hurt, “Why does the pastor keep saying this?”
Let’s say for example, any example cannot cover the gamut from successful to unsuccessful but people listen from their standard. You can only hear God’s voice when you stand before God and ask, “Why is God allowing me to hear these words?” Especially for me, I express things very extremely, and for people who don’t understand the culture, they may feel tested. The reason I use these words is to explain quickly, but they may feel shocked. I’m not able to explain the middle ground, I explain the extremes, so one day, if someone is hurt and asks me about it, I explain the middle ground. Then they understand.
We cannot please everybody’s tastes but why do I say this? In your field and job and home, they won’t explain things that sit well with you. They speak from personal experience. How can you argue all of that? Stand before God, you need to hold onto the message and receive God’s word. And the mystery to not be overcome by your environment during the day is prayer.
At night, a lot of kids go on the internet and fall asleep on the internet. What is the content on the internet? The circumstances that come from Gen. 3, or fear of your future, or the things you enjoy watching, then you fall asleep. We fall asleep as if it’s nothing, then what will happen to my spiritual state? Because the Word of God isn’t coming in, my spiritual state is on the floor. If you’re watching whatever you want to watch, it may momentarily please your senses, but your spiritual state is on the floor.
Before you go to sleep, it’s very important because the state in which you fall asleep will determine your rest and the state in which you wake up, so without a doubt, confirm everything that happened during the day with God’s Word. Hold onto the answer from the pulpit message within the circumstances of the day. Do this while you’re studying or working, but the works will naturally take place. But it might be difficult because that’s not our nature. If you don’t do it because it’s difficult, you’ll have to follow your family line. Especially the older you get, the nature you’ve always had will come back, so the older you get, the more deeply you must live your walk of faith. Otherwise, all the things you’ve had while you were young, when you lived a religious life, will seize and use you. We need to set the number one priority and live for that.
As you do that, answers will come and that’s the five powers that follow. Then, the works of re-creation that save people will take place, then you can leave behind evidence for the future generations. The closest to you are young children, they experienced the world. Kids can be like this as they grow up, but that’s not everything. You need to continuously tell them about God’s plan, God is with you and guiding you, working upon you. Whether they do something good or bad? That cannot save them.
If you say, “Why did you do this?” They may understand but it won’t help them at all. You have to say, “You have no choice but to do this, but God is with you; you need to receive strength through God’s Word.” The person who says those words may just say them, but the person who receives them is different. When those people receive that word, then the spirit within will come to life. If you argue, they will die. Yes, those words are correct and you shouldn’t do that, you cannot live like that, but those are words without God. The person listens to correct words but their spirit is dying even as they appear to be impressed.
Especially for people who teach new believers or children, they say correct words and oppress the spirit. Same for us, we are children of God, it doesn’t matter that I’m weak because God’s power is with me. My life will be used for world evangelization. Continuously hear this covenant for your spirit to come to life, but we keep talking to ourselves with the thoughts we already have. You need to tell yourself, “I’m a child of God,” if you’re a child of God, it means you have God’s blessings. Yes, we may fall because we are weak; if we were strong, we would not fall, but God is leading us, guiding us. I am too weak to save the 70 regions and 70 disciples, but I pray for it and receive the answer, then I can save them.
It’s so simple but what happens if you spend your entire life saying, “It’s working,” or “It’s not working” as you’re in front of the Jordan River? May you receive strength within yourself with the words of God’s covenant and give strength to the people around you. That’s how you do world evangelization. May you enjoy this blessing. Let us pray holding onto the word we have received, to yourself and to the people in your life.