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About the episode:

Jaime Luce’ testimony has daunting personal mountains and treacherous financial valleys. She was trapped in day-to-day stress and couldn’t see a way forward. But how she started is not how she finished! And she wants you to know God has a plan for your life too, no matter how tough it seems. Today, Jaime has been married to the love of her life for almost three decades, owns two companies, and has become an author and podcaster. God’s way is always the blessed way!  Learn more.

Related reading:

• How To Heal Through Responsibility and Faith
• How To Use Your Kingdom Authority In Prayer
• Plug Into A Warfare Prayer Source
• Have a Different Spirit
• Be A Good Gardner

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Full Transcript

This transcript is auto-generated and not perfect. We hope it blesses you.

0:00:05 – Jaime Luce

Welcome to the Jamie Luce Podcast. I’m your host, Jamie Luce. Thank you for listening today. All of my blogs, social and YouTube links can be found on my website, jamieloosecom. If you enjoy this podcast, you can support it by liking, subscribing, getting notified and sharing this broadcast. Another way you can help is by rating and reviewing on Apple Podcast. My hope and goal in every episode is to give you tools found in Scripture, either by teaching, discussions, testimonies or interviews that encourage and equip you as you navigate living a real Christian walk in a difficult world. I would love to hear from you Whether you have a comment, question or prayer request. You can email me at mail at jamieloosecom. If you’re watching on YouTube, drop me a comment. I’d love to partner with you on your journey of faith. If you’re listening today on any podcast platform, take a screenshot and tag me and I’ll post it to my Instagram story. And now join me for today’s episode. Welcome to the Jamie Loose Podcast. I’m really happy to have you joining in, tuning in with me today.

I have what I think is a little bit of a surprising in its nature message for you today. On the one hand, we’re going to be talking about victory How to basically go from victory to victory. But in that, intertwined in that, is some requirements from the Lord that I think inside them, built in them, are wonderful life lessons and things to understand how to apply those things to our lives in dealing with all kinds of things, not just battles, not just getting you know victory over major hurdles, but just life, the practicality of life, and sometimes, when we can understand the way that God thinks, it helps us to take those proper thoughts and make some corrections or some alignments or changes, whatever needs to be done, just as we apply them to our daily lives. And really that is my hope today. And so we’re going to read out of one passage of scripture today. I do have another reference for you, but we’re going to be reading out of Joshua, chapter eight, verses 30 to 34. And I want to give you a little bit of a background here before we begin reading.

So the children of Israel have conquered Jericho, their very first supernatural, radical victory. I mean it’s they had received the promise from God, they had gone in. They’ve searched the land, they’re ready, they’ve learned the lesson that their parents did not learn And they’re ready to go take their promise. They heard God, they believed God. If you listened, last week I talked about that, about listening to God and really believing him, receiving strength to receive faith, that seed they had done that. They had grown up wanting to have and lay hold of what God had promised them. And they did, they began taking it.

You know, we sometimes kind of think of our victories as this gigantic thing and it comes to us all in one fail swoop. And yet in Deuteronomy God had told the children of Israel that he would give them their promise little by little, otherwise they’d be overcome, they’d be overtaken, and we need to remember that God does that a lot for us in our lives. We have these giant sort of wish lists, you know, and we’re trying to figure out is this just something I want, or is this what God has for me? Is this desire that’s in my heart, something that God is saying to me? Is he speaking something to me? And if it is the Lord. And when he does begin to unfold, it almost always comes in a very unfolding manner, sort of like the layers of an onion, and you get one part or portion and then there’s another one underneath and another one underneath, and it just. It’s the journey that God takes us on in giving to us what he has for us, as well as teaching us along the way, making it so that this journey forward and the things that we’re doing are they’re things that we’re able to hold on to.

The whole reason he didn’t want to give them all the promised land all at once, all in one fail swoop, was he said you wouldn’t be able to do it, it’ll overtake you. And we forget that sometimes We kind of get a prideful mindset and just think we can handle anything, and you know, people like to think that everybody should be a millionaire, because, but all you have to do is look at the people who have won the lottery and almost all of them are broke within a very short period of time because they didn’t have a mindset, nor the capacity, nor the planning or the wisdom to handle a new influx of such funds, to know what it what it means to manage something and to know what it is to take care of it. And so we often say, okay, lord, give it to me. We want it all. And he says, oh, i can’t give it all to you right now, because if I give you everything right now, you’ll squander it away. It reminds me I may have mentioned this before, but it reminds me of a conversation I had with someone years ago And at the time there was great, a great move of God kind of happening all over And people were seeing real signs and wonders happening.

And there were people who were supernaturally losing weight. And the woman standing next to me, we happened to be in choir, and she says to me Well, i wish the Lord would do that for me. He just melt my weight right off. And I kind of chuckled And I said, well, the reason I don’t think he does is because many of us would receive what God has for us And we would never change our habits And we would turn right around and put that weight right back on and lose that victory. It would be a victory lost something you had and then something you lost.

And we need to remember that God cares that you maintain and hold on to what he gives you. What he gives you is valuable, what he gives you is for purpose. What he has for you has great meaning and value for your life And he wants you to have it. But he wants you to keep it. He wants you to be able to sustain your victory. So I guess that really is the heart of what we’re discussing today.

You know, god powerfully comes and meets Joshua, and Joshua has this exchange with this angel who basically corrects Joshua’s thinking. It’s like No, we’re not on your side, i’m not on an enemy side And I’m not on your side. You have to determine if you’re on God’s side, and if you’re on God’s side, he’s got a job for you to do. And so Joshua leads the people up against Jericho And they win this wonderful battle. Jericho is annihilated, the enemy is totally defeated And it raises the faith of all of those in Israel. I mean they realize God is with them And they completely just the walls fall down. I mean it’s not like they just win a battle. God displays his power And when they see this power, it promotes a great faith. So what happens when you win a great victory? And it’s super natural? Well then you just you’re ready for the next one. What does faith do? Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God right. So God says go do it. They win the battle. All of a sudden, their faith is increased. So they’re ready for the next battle And, without realizing it, joshua and some of the heads of the, the different people, of the heads of them not coming up with the right word here but of the of the family’s heads, that the patriarchal heads.

They come together And, without realizing it, they put a battle plan together to go up against AI, which is the next one that’s on the list that God has for them to defeat. But they did not Now hear me on this, because this is a, this is a problem that so many get into. We are fired up, and we should be, and we’re excited and we should be, and we’re full of faith and we should be if we’ve just come out of, you know, a battle and and won it in great victory. The problem is sometimes, then, we continue to charge forward without coming back to the Lord and saying, okay, what’s the next step? Each step of the way, lord, what’s the next step? How should I go forward?

And without realizing it, they neglect to ask God instructions about this and they go, in their own zeal, in their own strength, on from that last victory, you know, riding on the high of that last victory, head to AI and they are defeated. They are grossly defeated, actually, and the problem was that they had a hidden problem they were not aware of, and this is why it’s so important that we go to the Lord and ask what are the instructions for going forward? What do you have to say about this? And somebody among them did not handle the victory the way God had instructed them to handle the victory, and that, i know, sounds really odd. It was surprising to me to think about this. We normally don’t handle defeat well and we need some instruction on how to handle defeat. And instead the problem was they did not handle their victory properly, and you know we often worry about how to deal with defeat. We can get caught up in our emotions and in our confusion and wondering what’s just happened and why did this not go the way I thought it should go? And, lord, i thought you were with me, i thought you said to go do this, and all those things may be true.

I mean God did tell them that the next place they were going to take was AI, and this was the beginning. I mean they knew we’re going to be conquering all these nations, that God has told us this land is ours And he wanted us to dispossess them and he wanted us to take over. He was giving us houses we didn’t build and lands that were not ours and vineyards we didn’t plant. I mean, he was giving this to them as a gift, as an inheritance, and it was promised to them. However, in doing what God asked them to do, god gave them instructions about how to handle that victory And he very specifically told them you are not to touch any of the spoils on this first victory. Those are mine, those are holy, they belong to me And somebody in the camp. There was an aching in the camp. Somebody didn’t follow those instructions and somebody took what belonged to God. Somebody touched something they weren’t supposed to touch And if we’re not careful, our victory could lead to our next defeat. And that’s exactly what happened for Israel. They’re not being careful about the victory And sometimes we aren’t because we think God’s doing it And we want to kind of take our hands off and say it’s all God, it’s all God. Oh, god did this. You want to give God all the credit, but he’s expecting us to do something and he’s expecting us to do that something in a very specific way. He has very, very specific instructions that are intrinsic to how he wants this to play out.

And it was after that defeat and that humiliation and that confusion that it brought, that Joshua asked the Lord why did this happen? Because he didn’t know why it happened. They’re defeated. They’ve had all these victories. Why is this happening? And God explains the sin that has taken place.

It was a total disregard for the Word of God. And, folks, we can do that today. God may have spoken something to them verbally through Moses, through commandments, through instructions to Joshua, but we have the Word of God. We have the Word of God And we can live life and do things and make decisions that are completely contrary to the Word of God. This is why we say that no matter what prophetic words you receive, or whatever you think you’re hearing from the Lord, it will never contradict His Word.

If you are married and you get a word that you’re not supposed to be married to that person and God told you that other person’s wife or husband is supposed to be yours, i’m sorry, you did not hear from God, you heard from the devil. That’s not God. He doesn’t ever, ever cross his own boundaries. He doesn’t ever. You’re not that special. I’m sorry, i know that’s blunt, but God didn’t make special rules just for you and nobody else, That everybody else has to follow these rules, but your circumstance is different. We don’t have to do what the Word of God says for you. You’re special. That’s not the way it works. We are not individually specialized and kept from God’s commandments. We all must live according to His instructions, according to His design.

So God instructs Joshua, after this mess up, how to deal with it. He also teaches Joshua a lesson through this, and this is a lesson that he will not make again, but that you didn’t consult me. If you would have consulted me, i would have told you ahead of time This was an unnecessary defeat. This was not necessary that you went through this. So we have to learn from our victories and our defeats. If you have been defeated, we need to know why. Don’t settle with the self-pity mentality and the world is against me and I don’t know why God doesn’t help me and woe is mean. It’s always like this and I can never seem to get ahead and I can never seem to do. No, you need to ask the Lord why, why, lord, why is this happening? And almost always, there’s something He’s expecting of us that we’re not doing, or there’s a course correction we need to make, or there’s wisdom that we’re not laying hold of God’s not against you His wisdom that he wants you to pick up is not against you. It’s for you. Me telling you this is not God’s being mean to you.

I’m trying to give you the answer so that you can actually have victory and have what you’re asking for. You have to be those who are willing to know truth Again. Go back and listen to last week if you missed last week, because it’s really important. It’s truth that makes you free. If you want to have victory, you need to know what’s true about your situation. You need to know what’s true about the way you think and the actions you’re taking. You need to know what truth is, because it’s that truth that makes free, so that you are able to do what you need to do. Joshua needed to know why.

Why was I defeated? I shouldn’t have been defeated. I know, in essence, i should never have been defeated. God’s on my side. He’s not defeatable. So why was I defeated? There’s a reason, but we need to look at what the reason why is. I want to point out again it was because they didn’t handle the last victory properly.

It’s not just sometimes that we’re doing something wrong and it’s just this thing. You might have perpetual sin that you need to deal with in your life, but you may not. It may just be something that happened, but you don’t recognize that you had a victory. That’s really frustrating to have a great victory and think, okay, i’m on my way and all of a sudden another setback. Then we get up and we start to do it again. We get a victory and bam, we get knocked back down. There’s something going on there and we need to find out what it is, because God’s way is to take us higher and further in him. It is to win the battle over whatever we face. We’re overcomers, we overcome, and so if I’m not overcoming, i need to know why And I don’t like that we blame God.

You know it’s not God’s fault. He’s perfect. Everything he does works. So the problem is always going to be me, not God. So I’ve got to get something right. I have to recognize if I honestly think it’s God, then I’ve got a lot of pride to think that I’m right and God’s wrong. We have to get our minds right. We have to get our thought process right. But it was after this exchange, when God explains Joshua deals with it that God was merciful and gave them a second chance to go and win this victory again. So it wasn’t a total. It’s not going to be a total loss and you’re not going to continue to have the promise that I gave you. I’m going to give you another opportunity here and we’re going to win this battle, but here is where I want to focus today on and where I want to draw our attention to. So all of that was really a setup for what we’re going to read, okay, and this is really where it gets practical, and so I want you to get out your Bibles, if you haven’t already, and we’re going to go to Joshua 8 and we’re going to read verses 30 to 34. I’m reading out of the New Living Translation.

Then, joshua built an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal. He followed the commands that Moses, the Lord’s servant, had written in the book of instruction Make me an altar from stones that are uncut and have not been shaped with iron tools. Then, on the altar, they presented burnt offerings and peace offerings to the Lord, and as the Israelites watched, joshua copied onto the stones of the altar the instructions Moses had given them. I’m going to stop there for right now. We’ll finish reading in a little bit, but this is really, if you’ve got a highlighter or something to mark with, i want you to highlight the words make me an altar.

And there is significance, the significance of God’s instructions, in this. So they have. There was sin, there was victory. There was sin, then there was more victory, and God says it’s time that you build an altar. I need you to come close to me, i need you to hear me. We’re going to. There’s a lot more to conquer, there’s a lot more to do, and I need you to hear my instructions. Okay, so how do we? I like to look at the altar now, in, in modern day, as our prayers and our, the way we offer our life. Paul tells us that we are to be living a living sacrifice, and so we are always dealing with an altar in our life And we need to build an altar. Make me an altar.

But not only was it necessary for they, they needed this next consultation. Joshua had learned the lesson God speaks. We need to ask him each time we do this Lord, how do we, how do you want us to do this? What are your instructions? We saw that pattern all through David’s life, king David. When he would go up to battle, he’d say Lord, should I go up? You always inquired of the Lord And there would be times that God would say go up. And other times he’d say don’t go up, wait. Or he’d tell them this is the strategy. You need to put armies over here and armies over behind them and armies over there, and and you need to come together and rescue one another when necessary. I mean there were all kinds of different, different instructions. God knows specifically what your circumstance needs And and all of our circumstances are very different. So we need to hear the instruction of the Lord. But not only was it necessary to consult the Lord about how to fight their battles, it was equally necessary to build an altar to God’s specific instructions. So here’s where I’m making the shift. This is where I’m turning the corner here.

How you build an altar matters. This is not something that we just read over and and you’ll miss it. I mean you’ll completely miss it. God doesn’t just say build me an altar. He says build an altar, and you have to do it according to very specific instructions. So this wasn’t just get instructions for the next battle. This was. I want you to follow my instructions on how to approach me on build your altar with very specific instructions. I’m going to read that to you again, Verse 31,. He followed the commands that Moses, the Lord’s servant, had written in the book of instruction Make and this is in quotes make me an altar from stones that are uncut and have not been shaped with iron tools. Then on the altar, they presented burnt offerings and peace offerings to the Lord. As the Israelites watched, joshua copied onto the stones of the altar the instructions Moses had given them. Now we know that these instructions that Moses wrote down were not Moses’s idea. He went up onto the mountaintop and God gave him these very specific instructions. So these are God’s instructions. They have been written down so that they are not forgotten and that they are followed. And so we. There’s so much here, and if you will stick with me, you’re gonna find wonderful lessons here that will help you in every circumstance in your life. I promise you that.

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I think we miss this too often too, because we don’t get to choose how or what we offer God. You know, god’s the one who instituted the sacrifice and he’s the one who said what it should be and what it was for, and he’s actually telling them and how you should bring it, how you should offer it, how it should be. In fact, the Jewish people today still do things kosher. That’s a very you have to follow very specific instructions on how to prepare what it is that God is asking you to partake of God’s specific instruction was to build the altar with uncut stones, and that they had not been shaped with iron tools. Why? Why Do you ever do that? Do you ever read what God says and you just kind of stop and think now, why did he do that? Why did he say that? I love those why’s because they’re usually a really good place to learn something very valuable instead of just skipping over it to unearth the answer to the why.

What is the difference between them building an altar with just stones and shaping them so that it would make the job easier for them? You know, if something’s not fitting, cut it and make it right so you can have what you need when you need it. Why? Why was there a significance to this? Why did they need to do it different? And there, why is there a distinction? Why does God make a distinction that the stones have to be uncut and a tool cannot touch them?

Well, i spent some time studying the thoughts of some Jewish rabbis about this, and Rabbi Daniel Lappin explained this in one of his teachings, and he does such a beautiful job. It gave me the best understanding about this, and so I’d like to share that with you what the significance was. But basically, an uncut stone is automatically. You know it’s made by God. Man did not form that stone, man didn’t create that, god did. God made it versus man. So it is untainted and unchanged by man’s ideas for it.

Okay, because what do we? what’s the issue? What can be a problem? We go to do what God has called us to do and then all of a sudden, without realizing we’re doing it, we begin to get our own ideas about it, we begin to put our handprint on it, we begin to change it. We think, oh, i think it’ll be better like this, or oh, i like it like that. Or or God speaks, a call on your life, and all of a sudden you begin to take it and weave it and change it, and or you find yourself completely off course.

This is really important. There’s great significance here. It takes it because once you cut it, once you change it, it takes it from God’s idea, from God’s design, to man’s idea. Man’s design, using an iron tool, is to shape it with man’s ingenuity, with your own human reasoning, not the way that God had intended. God is the author of the offering and the sacrifice, not man.

The second thing that it shows us is that uncut means that more thought and more planning are necessary to fit them together. If you’re building an altar and you start with a stone, well then I need a stone that fits this part here and this part here, and so that takes closer examination for me to determine what stone that God made that actually fits there. So it begins from God’s idea and it is formed by God’s design. It forces us to be more thoughtful about how to build. It forces us to be more careful in preparing. If I have to make preparation, i have to have enough of what I need, because I have to have exactly what God is asking me to do. I’m not going to make shift and pick different stuff and change it. It just forces close examination.

And when we come to the altar for prayer, i think it’s so important that we are those who come ready to make close examination, whether that’s prayer, about the thing that you might be struggling with or the circumstance you’re dealing with, or whether it’s simply relational in your home with. It could be parent to child relationship, it could be husband, wife, it could be siblings, it could be friends, it could be coworkers, it could be a boss and authority. When I come to a circumstance, if I come to it, the way that I come to the altar, the way that I come to the Lord looking for instruction, the way I come to find out how I should be moving forward. It close examination means how does my part fit to this other part? Now, what am I meaning by that? Because I’m getting ahead of myself.

The third thing it does is many times God used stones to represent people. Even Jesus himself was called the chief cornerstone. Because we are uncut, we are God’s design. If you leave me uncut, then I will go in the purpose I was cut for. So in scripture this story was kind of made manifest in the Tower of Babel. They’re going to build a tower up to the heavens. They’re going to take the place of God. It gives you the picture that whatever they’re building, they’re building with their idea, not God’s idea. In fact, they thought that they could be smarter than God. Scripture tells us that nothing would have stopped them, that God intervened Because they did understand a principle, but they were going about it the wrong way. And God will stop your progress when you’re building, but you’re building by your design. He wants you to succeed. He wants you to understand the concepts, but you have to do it according to his design.

So let me give you this picture. If you picture a stone that’s uncut, you know it’s going to have whatever kind of shape it has. And then let’s think about what is completely manmade. What do we build with that is completely manmade? Well, let’s think of bricks, and bricks are a mold, and that mold is what I design it to be, even its color. I can design what I want it to be, and I just simply make as many of them as I need to build that thing. And there is no difference in its shape, there’s no difference in its size, there’s no difference in its color. Bricks are just a mold and everything then becomes repeatable. It’s just the same thing over and over and over. There’s no individuality, there’s no value in its design other than it’s repeatable. It’s repeatable. So if I need a stone, let’s look at the difference. If I need a stone, a particular size or shape, it is literally that size and shape that give it its unique value. So when I find just the right piece people who make mosaics would understand this or things where they put things together and they’re all these different shapes and there’s beauty in each piece, just the way they are, and you fit them together. What gives it its value, what gives it its significance, is its actual shape. So if I make an exchange, if I’ve got a stone here and I try to put a brick in there, what man made or I cut it to fit, i’ve now changed and altered its original potential, its original design. And a cut stone or a brick means that I remove its created value for something far less and having no uniqueness or singular purpose Intrinsic in its design, is its purpose.

You as an individual, intrinsic in your design, is your purpose. What God has put together in you, the scripture says he knit us together. He formed us. He was very specific and very intentional about what he has given you And folks. He’s done that for each of us. So when we’re dealing with one another, we have to remember that God is an exception. It’s not okay for me to expect someone else to do everything exactly the way I do it. I have my own design. Not all of us are called to the same thing. Not all of us are called to build the same thing. We’re not all called to do it the same way. It shouldn’t look the same. And then, if we understand that intrinsic value and that purpose, we understand then our calling. We understand the value and the importance of being so close to the Lord to hear his instruction, to know what to do next.

The minute that it’s manmade or it’s altered by man, it is no longer being used for God’s purpose. You have changed the purpose from God’s purpose to your purpose. It takes it from the spiritual and the power of the spirit to the carnal, the fleshly. Instead of an altar, we build a repeatable, nonauthentic and programmable system. That is not the purpose for an altar. The altar is a platform for the sacrifice. No genuine altar, no genuine sacrifice. One predicates the other. You can’t have one without the other. That’s why a church service can be so dry. If you’ve ever been in a church service that’s dry, you know what I’m talking about. No results are produced from a dry church service. But why is it dry? Because it’s been altered. It’s been cut and made for man’s purpose. It alters its design and its purpose, its value.

When I make it all about man drawing men to my church, drawing men to my ministry drawing When I make it about men and not about what God is asking, it loses its value, it won’t be able to produce what you’re wanting it to produce. And whatever you build, you build. Then Look at the difference between a cathedral built of stone versus a building made from bricks. Not only is the beauty and the longevity and the strength and the message it produces Portraits vastly different. But one will be able to stand, one will be able to survive And it will continue in its survival to show forth its beauty and its purpose. But if you look at just an old brick building, it may not survive. It’s definitely not going to have the same length of time that it actually physically survives And over time you won’t see its beauty, it will fade, it will lose. There is no comparison is what I’m trying to say. If you’ve seen either one, you’ll know there’s no comparison.

I need to want to build according to God’s plan or I won’t get God’s results. And this is in everything in your life. If I’m doing it my way, without consulting the Lord, i’m changing and devaluing the outcome. The principle also conveys that. Even the differences in our needs, because we don’t all need the same answers and we don’t all go through the same circumstance Each of our circumstances is different. My needs need to be met by my Creator, who knows how He made me. He’s going to look at my situation with careful thought and He has designed an answer that is very specific for me. Because He knows me, because He formed me in my mother’s womb, then He knows exactly the plan He has for me. He tells me that it’s a good plan and that He knows what He wants the outcome to look like, and the same goes for you.

We are individuals and we come to the Lord individually. I cannot expect. This is why we differ from our brothers and sisters in the Catholic faith, because I come to the Lord individually, myself. I come to Him and I’m not going through a mediator. Jesus was my mediator And He says I’m the way, i’m the door, and so I come to Him. I come through Jesus to the Father and I make my requests known. But that’s my responsibility. I don’t get to go to somebody else and make their responsibility to hear God for me and to plan things out for me, to give me my instructions. I am the one responsible for my life before God. I have to do that. I can’t let someone else take my place, and neither can you. That’s why Paul said that we must offer our bodies as a living sacrifice that is holy and acceptable to Him. It is our reasonable service. God determines what is acceptable. That made me think, even as I was studying for this and reading these passages of Scripture. I then thought of how we had Cain and Abel, and Cain did not bring what was acceptable Abel did. Abel brought an acceptable offering, cain did not, And Cain was disciplined for it And it led to his destruction and his demise.

It’s sad what it will rob you of and what it will take from you, but the opposite is true. When I say, lord, what are you saying? He says I’ll answer that I’ll let you know what I want for your life. I’m not playing hide and seek with what I want for your life. I want you blessed. I want you to be able to have what I have designed for you. I have an inheritance for you to walk in. I have things for you to accomplish and do on this earth. I have ways that I want you to show forth my glory in this earth and you are uniquely designed to do just that. I don’t get to determine how I bring or what I bring as an offering and sacrifice to the Lord, he determines that.

So let’s look what did verse 32 say? And as the Israelites watched, joshua copied onto the stones of the altar The instructions Moses had given them. So as the Israelites watched, joshua is literally rewriting for them, for everyone to see. He’s saying it’s not just important for me, joshua, to know this and to know how to do this. You all need to know, you all need to do this. This is the way we’re all going to operate. This is the way it works for all of us. Now let’s continue reading the rest of the passage, verses 33 and 34.

Then all the Israelites, foreigners and native born alike, along with the elders, officers and judges, were divided into two groups. One group stood in front of Mount Garazim, the other in front of Mount Ebal. Each group faced the other and between them stood the Levitical priests carrying the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant. This was all done according to the commands that Moses, the servant of the Lord, had previously given for blessing the people of Israel. So there’s a blessing that they’re wanting to receive. Joshua, then read to them all the blessings and curses Moses had written in the book of instruction. Every word of every command that Moses has ever given was read to the entire assembly of Israel, including the women and children and the foreigners who lived among them. This blessing was for all of them. It was also a reminder that if we don’t do it God’s way, we can’t be surprised by the defeat that will come. We can’t be surprised when things don’t go the way we were hoping they would go.

There is a very specific thing God is wanting for your life. Each of us was designed uniquely for great purpose in God’s kingdom, and I do not only myself a disservice, of course, the Lord a disservice, but we do one another a disservice when we try to mold it with man’s hands, to cut and change and alter what God’s design was for us. I mean, even look at what’s happening in our society right now, with the gender confusion going on, trying to teach children that they don’t know what they are and they get to determine it goes completely contrary to what the Bible teaches. God says you don’t cut that stone with man’s hands. I’m the one who determined that shape. I’m the one who determines who you are, what you’re here for, how you should go about doing that very thing. That’s God’s design. We are not to touch it. We are not to alter it and cut it with tools, these doctors who are going around doing this. It’s evil. It’s evil that we are trying to take man’s tools and change what God has designed for us. We are made in the image that God has designed us to be made in, and even more so than these cut stones as an analogy, We have the truth of God’s word when he said that he made man in his image. We don’t change God’s design. God determines. We simply follow his determination so that our purpose.

If you want satisfaction in your life, if you want to feel like, oh, i feel good about this, you want to feel accomplished, you want to do something for God, you need to know what he wants you to do. It’s not just running out and doing stuff. God, what do you want me to do? I don’t want to waste my time or my energy doing a bunch of stuff he doesn’t call me to. I don’t want to do the thing he’s called me to do. I will feel the most gratified, the most satisfied, the most fulfilled when I am doing what God has designed for me to do.

Don’t settle folks with regret If we do it our own. What was the regret of Israel? The regret was that they lost a battle and people died because they didn’t consult the Lord and because they rushed forward without looking to see Lord. What do you say about this? And in doing so, it costs them, and you don’t want to be someone who is on the backside looking back with your 2020 vision and having regret.

If you have suffered defeat, just repent. Just repent If you know you didn’t ask the Lord. Repent. He’s merciful, he’s just. The Bible tells us that he is going to forgive you of your sin. He is a just God.

It’s time for us folks to build an altar. It’s time to examine closely and build according to God’s specific specifications and not man’s. And when we do, we can be sure of every blessing and every inheritance and every promised land that God has promised to us, and we can avoid the possible curses and defeat. So don’t settle with regret. Build an altar and begin again, but this time do it according to God’s great plan. It really is that simple. So I want to say to you today take the time, build an altar. Build it like God has instructed, with uncut stones.

Don’t just say God, this is what I’m bringing and this is what I’m giving to you, and don’t come to him and say this is all I am, This is how you made me. Instead, you rejoice in that Your purpose is found in the way he made you. Don’t despise how God made you Be encouraged. You were made with very specific purpose and design and God will bring that out. He will bring out your beauty and he will bring out your purpose. If you will allow him to do it his way, without your molding, without your changing, without your cutting, let God determine for you what he has for you and go about it his way. Victory will be yours. You will find that if you will do it according to God’s design, you will see victory after victory after victory. You will go from glory to glory and the evidence and the proof of what God has done. You will shine forth like the magnificent cathedrals that still stand, and your story will continue to get told. God is a faithful God. Turn to him today and watch what happens, watch what changes.

Thank you so much for joining me today. I do hope this has ministered to you, encouraged you, maybe brought some correction or some instruction, and if you know that this is blessed you and it will bless somebody else, do me a favor, get the word out. Press that little like and subscribe button. If you’ll do that, you help me spread the gospel and get this message out to as many as we can. Folks, the world needs this message. They need to know that they’re exactly how God designed them and it’s beautiful. And their design is meant on purpose by God for very specific purposes. They are not a mistake. This world And we can live free from this constant defeat in our life.

Oh gosh, there’s so many things running through my head right now, but I need to let you go. If you want more on this, i encourage you to read the story of Cain and Abel for yourself. I want you to go and I want you to read the story from all the way through, from Joshua at Jericho and all the way through this. I want you to see this with your own eyes And then, of course, remember that Jesus is our chief cornerstone. He holds it all together. He is what makes this life worth living, and if you don’t know him today, invite him to be the one to change your life. Turn away from your yesterdays, turn away from the way that you did it, the way that man did it, and do it his way and watch the difference that it makes. Thank you so much for joining me today. We’ll see you next time. Bye-bye.

0:51:50 – Jaime Luce

Thank you for listening to the Jamie Luce Podcast. If you enjoyed today’s episode, please rate and review the show on Apple or Spotify and subscribe wherever you listen. For more, visit jamielucecom. That’s J-A-I-M-E-L-U-C-Ecom. You’ll find a free chapter of her new book. You Don’t Need Money, you Just Need God and a fresh word from Jamie on the blog, youtube. See you next week.