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When life overwhelms and fear creeps in, God often gives one simple instruction: stand. This isn’t about passive waiting but a spiritual strategy rooted in trust, obedience, and discernment. In this episode of the Jaime Luce Podcast, we explore the biblical power of standing in the face of uncertainty, drawing from the stories of Gideon, Joshua, and others who followed God step by step… even when the waters were rising.

What Does It Mean to Stand in Faith?

Biblically, to “stand” means to take your position, present yourself before the Lord, and remain immovable in obedience to His instruction. Whether it’s Gideon standing on the edge of battle or the priests entering the Jordan before the waters parted, standing is an active declaration of trust.

When God’s Strategy Doesn’t Look Like a Solution

Many believers expect God’s plans to be instant. But His strategies are layered, revealed line by line, precept upon precept. Just like a home’s foundation has unseen systems (plumbing, rebar, wiring), God’s miracles often begin behind the scenes. Jaime shares a powerful personal story of marching around a dry, unfinished pool in faith—and watching it become a place of baptism and testimony.

Standing Still Doesn’t Mean God Is Silent

The children of Israel at the Red Sea weren’t told to fight. They were told to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord (Exodus 14). The same applies to us. Whether the pressure is emotional, relational, or financial, sometimes our job is to stand in position and trust that God is already working upstream.

The Jordan Test: Why So Many Walk Away

God told Joshua’s priests to step into the Jordan before the waters parted. In obedience, they got wet. And yet, the miracle had already happened—20 miles upstream. Many believers give up too soon, not realizing that God has already moved but they’re still waiting for the evidence to catch up.

“This is where I lose them,” the Lord whispered to Jaime’s mom while reading Joshua 3.
So many of us give up when we don’t see the breakthrough, not knowing it’s already in motion.

You Can’t Follow the Spirit if You’re Led by Fear

Fear tells you to run. Faith tells you to stay. We often make poor decisions when fear drives us to act outside God’s timing. But standing, especially when it’s uncomfortable, is often exactly what brings the miracle into view.

A Modern Parable: Stay on the Bumper

Jaime shares a story about a pastor who drove a race car for the first time. He was told, “Stay on my bumper. If I go fast, you go fast.” He finished at the speed of a professional—simply because he followed the leader. The same applies to walking with God. If He speeds up, slow down, or leads into a turn… you follow.

The Armor of God and the Call to Stand

Ephesians 6 reminds us that after we’ve done all, we are to stand. Our spiritual armor is designed for that very purpose. Standing in the Spirit means being equipped with truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, and the Word.

God Already Did It

If God is telling you to stand, it’s because He already did what needed to be done. You may not see the dry ground yet, but trust that the miracle is flowing toward you. The cross completed the work, and your job is to stand in His presence, rooted in faith, prepared for what comes next.

Where To Dive In

Full Transcript

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

00:09 – Jaime Luce (Host)
Welcome to the Jaime Luce Podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in today. I am really excited about this message today. I mentioned to you last week that we were talking about the strategies of God and specifically the strategies that we have found in the story of Gideon, in Judges, chapter 6 and 7, 8. And I want to do that today. I’ve been looking forward to this. I hope you’ll get your Bibles out, take some notes. I want to talk to you specifically about the strategy of what it means to stand, the strategy of standing, and I know that this is, um, the word stand. Whenever we think of biblically, the word to stand, I think many times and we’ll go to the scripture later. I think many times we think of when Paul is teaching on the armor of God and he tells us that we are to stand there for. And, like I said, we’ll talk about that later.

01:15
But I had a well, I visited my mom a few weeks back. I want to give her credit for this, because Gideon had already been stirring me up and I was telling her about the things that the Lord had been illuminating and bringing out in the scripture and as I was having that conversation with her, she began to tell me some things that the Lord was speaking into her spirit, and maybe once, uh, one of these days here I’ll have her sit with me in the chair and we’ll talk about this together. But she said something to me that it was. When we talked about it, I realized the Lord was using that very same sentence, that very same statement, and it had pricked something in my heart and it completely fell in line with what I had been, you know, studying and what we’ve been going over here on this podcast about Gideon, and I knew I had to bring it to you, I had to share it with you. So I, like I said, I’m really excited about this today. I hope that this will minister to you and that this will bring strength into your spirit, no matter what you’re facing today. God is in control, he’s on the throne, he has not been displaced, he’s not been removed, he’s not been overthrown, and the only thing that can stop him from acting on our behalf is us dethroning him in our own hearts. We talked about that last week. If you missed that, please go back and listen to that, because this, literally, is kind of the piggyback. On top of that, this has got a big statement of its own.

03:19
But each of these I don’t know if you’ve been able to tell, but it’s really been that line upon line, precept upon precept where the Lord brings something and then he builds on that that there are. You know, we understand that in the spiritual realm there are levels, and we know that when we first come into salvation and we are as babies in Christ, and as you grow, you learn things, and each new thing that you learn helps build the next thing on top of that. You have to learn to crawl before you learn to walk, and if you skip that step, neurologically that’s actually not good for you. So many times we think, oh look, they didn’t even have to do that, they just were so fast they did this. Well, crawling, oddly enough, has something to do with how your mind understands and later will work mathematics, and so it’s important to learn how to crawl, because I want to be good at mathematics. So we want, we don’t want to skip steps. There are important things at each level.

04:27
When you’re building a home, you have to first lay the foundation. But what’s interesting is when they lay the foundation, there is all this extra stuff that goes into the building of the foundation. It’s not just poured concrete. You’ve got piping and plumbing and things that are preparing for whatever electricity that’s going to go to that home. Things all are thought out and put together along with whatever possible. If there’s wood involved, if there’s rebar and I never say that word, right, I don’t know. If it’s bar barb, I don’t know what it is, but anyway I’m not in construction, whatever that material is and that strong steel that goes into things. I did watch that process when we built a pool many years ago and in that process I won’t go into the whole story, but we needed God to do a real miracle in building that pool and as the pool had everything to that point, the hole was dug and all the steel, the rebar, was all in its place. No concrete had been laid yet and I’d gotten together.

05:52
This is interesting because I’ve already mentioned my mom, but I was telling her about this and that morning when we realized there was a problem with the pool, it was first thing in the morning because a friend had called me. It was very early on a Saturday, I think it was and as soon as I hung up with her, what normally would have been very troublesome in my spirit, a real problem in my spirit. I normally, in my normal flesh reaction, would have thought oh no, what are we going to do? I mean, it could have had very large consequences. And instead my spirit was so strong, I woke up and literally out of my mouth, when I hung up the phone, I said out loud my husband heard me, he knew I’d been on the phone and I said if nobody else’s pool gets finished, our pool is going to get finished. And without telling you all the details, my pool did get finished. And without telling you all the details, my pool did get finished.

07:07
But the miracle thing that we did around that was when I had called and spoke to my mom about the circumstance. She said Jaime, let’s march around the pool. She prayed about it and what the Lord spoke into her spirit was God’s going to turn this water into wine. And we got the family together, all the family, and we literally, out in the dirt, did a Jericho march and marched around that unfinished pool. And it got ourselves dirty and got around and marched around that, marched around that pool, and we felt such victory in our spirits and it was by faith felt such victory in our spirits and it was by faith, because up to that point nothing had been done. We didn’t. There was no good news following the bad news, so to speak. There was nothing yet to this point that spoke to us getting the answer that we needed from the Lord. It was just by faith. We knew it. We knew in our spirits God, you’re doing something and we trust you and you’re going to do this. And the Lord did do it, and I think we were.

08:10
Our pool did get finished, and miraculously, with the exact same crew that’s a whole nother story, but the exact same crew. And we did. Ours was the only pool that was like that. That did get finished. God did do what. He spoke in my spirit that day. And on top of that, that pool was used for baptisms for years for the church, and I truly rejoiced at knowing that our water had turned into wine and God was faithful to his word.

08:40
And so I want to kind of take that little story and help you understand that when we’re building, when we’re understanding God’s processes, it’s not a one and done. We have to walk by faith, we walk according to the leading of the Holy Spirit and there are layers I don’t really know another way to say it. But there are layers, there are things that come together, that make sense and when you have all the pieces and they flow together, it gives you a much better big picture. That’s when you see the finished house, that’s when I saw the finished pool. That those are the when we’re looking at God’s strategies in the word we look at we’re not looking at the magic pill. I know so many times we just wish we could say, okay, if I do it just like this, it’s going to be just like that, but that’s not faith. If I’m just working a system, there’s no faith involved in that.

09:37
The layering and the understanding of how God works to bring about a miracle is that we are following his lead, according to his word, and one time he may be telling us to do one thing and the next day he’s telling us to do something else. And we are following his lead. We’re not doing this on our own. We’re not taking steps of faith by random. We’re bringing our petition before the Lord. We’re letting him speak to us through our prayer time and through his word to bring about instruction so we know what to do.

10:18
And a part of that whole instruction is so many times we’ve seen in scripture what, when God would give the instruction, there was a place where he told them to stand. Um, in fact, I won’t go to this one today, but it just came to me right now that even Samson, there was a place he had to stand in order to finish his calling. It was after he had failed before God and his hair had been cut and the Philistines were making sport of him, and he told the little servant boy go, place my hands in the place, and he would stand between those pillars and push those pillars down. He had to be placed. He had to be standing in the right place, and standing can. Let’s take you. In fact, I’m talking about this in so many ways. Let’s just dive right in. I want to give you the definition of what it is to stand. That word stand literally means, and let me read it to you first. Sorry, I’m jumping ahead of myself. Let’s go to Judges, chapter 7, and I’ll read it to you out of Gideon first, but then I’m going to take you through some other places in scripture where this is the case, and we’re looking at verses 16, and we’re going to read through verse 22.

11:49
And he divided the 300 men into three companies. Now this is the strategy that God gave to Gideon and put trumpets into their hands of all of them and empty jars with torches inside the jars. If you missed that episode about what that represents, you need to go back and listen to that. And he said to them look at me and do likewise when I come to the outskirts of the camp. Do as I do. Now, that’s what I’ve been talking about. We’re following God’s lead. There is a pattern of following the leading of the leader, but for us this would be following the leading of the Holy Spirit. When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me then blow the trumpets also on every side of all the camp and shout for the Lord and for Gideon. Okay, verse 19.

12:47
So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just set the watch, and they blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands. Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars. They held in their left hands the torches and in their right hands the trumpets to blow and they cried out a sword for the Lord and for Gideon, every man stood in his place around the camp. Okay, I’m going to read that verse again, verse 21. Every man stood in his place around the camp and all the army ran. They cried out and fled. Okay, now there’s more to the story of Gideon and who he all chased down.

13:50
We’re not going to talk about that today, but this is literally the weight of all of the strategies Up to this point, and we talked about this last week. You had the tools of what were necessary and we talked about God’s strategy, of how he deals with us and how he prepares us. And again, go back and listen to those. But today, the final strategy, the final stance, the final thing to do when you’ve done all you know to do Again, we’ll go to that later.

14:29
But you stand, you stand, okay, what does it mean to stand? The words stand in this particular passage and in the ones that I’m going to be reading to you, they all mean this. Okay, the meaning is the same, it’s the same word. To stand means to take one’s stand. Okay, I know, we know what that means.

14:55
Sometimes you have to take a stand, to take one’s stand, to present yourself, to present yourself, present yourself. This makes me think of Esther. She, in order to bring deliverance, had to go present herself to the king and by doing so, she brought her life into her own hands, or into the hands of the hands of the king, because she could have died. This was life or death to do this, but she took a stand for her people, she presented herself. Okay, it means to station yourself and it means in the sense of having a place. This was Samson having a place or position. This encompasses so much. If you are on the job and you’ve done everything you know to do and the only thing you can do is left is to stay in your position. Stay in your place. Let God do what you can’t do.

16:10
Faith is sometimes literally keeping on, continuing, trusting that God will show up, trusting that God has a good plan for your life. Trusting Trust is not only necessary, but trust in its fullest form is faith. I put my trust in you that, no matter what I’m facing, no matter what I’m walking through, you see me, you love me, you have saved me, you have a plan for me and you will see to it that that plan comes to pass. Now I humble myself. The actions I take are I submit to him. I submit to the Lord, I submit to the instructions that he’s giving me. We talked last week about the strategy of letting God um, letting God form the strategy, how he gave Noah the blueprints for the ark right, how he gave Moses the blueprints for the tabernacle and for building the ark of the covenant. For the tabernacle and for building the Ark of the Covenant, there are always plans that need to come forth from the Spirit of God and faith says that, no matter what I see, no matter what I face, no matter the opposition, no matter what I don’t know, my trust is that Lord. If you say Trust, is that Lord if you say, if you say, do this, do that, say this, say that, don’t do this, whatever God’s instructions are, then I can trust and continue to move forward in faith because he will see to it, he will perfect that which concerns me. That’s his word. We stand on that promise. We stand on that promise Standing. We take our stand, we present ourself, we station ourself.

18:17
You know, if you’re having to be someone who needs discernment, discernment, a great picture for discernment is someone like, militarily, they would, they had the. You have someone who is the lookout, somebody who is looking for maybe a messenger. They’re up on the wall, they are watchmen. They are watchmen and sometimes you need God’s discernment to know what’s coming. Friend or foe, is this good? Is this not good, understanding circumstances, knowing if you should be with certain people or not be with certain people? And you need discernment. You may have decisions to make and you have to discern what is the right path to take. Discern what is the right path to take. That discernment is me being in the right position, that I hear from God and that enables me to make the right decision. Okay, so that’s part of standing.

19:17
Let’s first look. I want us to go to Exodus 14. Exodus 14. I’m going to turn there with you. I wrote down the references, but I didn’t print out each of these scriptures on their own, so I will be turning there with you. Okay, exodus 14. I wish I had time. I won’t take the time to read all of chapter 14, but I can tell you it is worth your time. Always, the word is always worth your time, but it’s worth the time spent to read and personalize chapter 14 for your own life. Whatever you’re facing right now, this scripture will, this whole chapter will just speak life into you. I guarantee you that. But let’s start at, let’s start at verse 10. When Pharaoh drew near. Okay, let me give you background. The children of Israel have finally been released by Pharaoh. They have left, they’ve spoiled the Egyptians, they have all their stuff. They are walking to go serve God. Okay, their reason and their answer for leaving that God told Moses to say was Let my people go, that they may serve me, that they may serve me.

20:52
We have to understand that if God is bringing forth strategies and plans in our life, gosh, so many times we just look at battles in the flesh, we just look at what we’re dealing with from a completely fleshly point of view and we just think about the inconvenience in our life and how troubling those things are to us, but we don’t look with spiritual eyes to see Lord, how is this issue bringing a breach between me and what you have called me to in this life? What is the issue? What is the blockade? What is the problem that this thing I’m dealing with is attempting to do? What’s the purpose of this problem, and is this problem something that hinders my purpose? Is this something that hinders my relationship with the Lord? Is this something that hinders my growth in God. You know, sometimes we can deal with something and it’s and that problem might be there to actually teach us something. We need to know.

22:11
Not every problem is a bad problem. Not every problem is from the devil. There are things that we will run up against in life and God uses those things to either teach us something. He’ll use it to bring about revelation about something, to bring about course correction. He will use things that at first, when you look at them, they’re troublesome, but when you get on the other side and you realize what God did and how he used it because he uses everything for his glory if we submit it to him. But sometimes we aren’t willing to look at the problem from God’s perspective for our life. If you take a step back and don’t just look at it about how this makes you hurt or how this makes you uncomfortable, or how this problem troubles you and hinders you, how it affects you emotionally, how it affects you mentally, how it affects you financially, relationally, all of those things truly may be in effected, but if we can see what is God after, how is this a problem in the purpose that God has for my life, god’s purpose for the children of Israel in this portion of scripture was for them to quit living as slaves, serving other gods. He wanted them to be set free from bondage to serve him. So there were two issues they were serving somebody they shouldn’t be serving and the worship that they were worshiping was not proper. So he wanted to deliver them from the slavery and he wanted them to worship him and him alone. And he specifically had Moses tell that to Pharaoh. So Pharaoh finally lets them go.

24:07
And I should read you this one scripture. Okay, here it is, verse five when the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people. Remember when I told you it was either last week or the week before that when you change how you see God, then God changes how people see you. It says, and Pharaoh and his servants, their minds were changed toward the people and they said this is really important. What is this that we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us, from serving us. The enemy didn’t want them to be loosed from their bondage, right, he wanted them to continue to serve him. And God wants to bring about complete deliverance, complete deliverance. So let’s go back down to verse 10.

25:17
When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us here to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? And faith can feel this way, you can start to get free from something, but the fear of the unknown and the fear that that thing could be chasing you or that you still don’t feel free. You still see remnants of that thing following you, chasing after you, and the fear is real. And the question is what have you done bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt? Listen to this Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians. They were so accustomed and comfortable and used to serving as slaves. This was their normal.

26:34
Some of you need to get broken out of a slave mentality. You need the Lord to show you what you have been serving, what you have been made a slave to. It can be very surprising what we have made ourselves slaves to. It can be very surprising what we have made ourselves slaves to. We can be slaves to all kinds of things. You can be slaves to other people, their agendas, their plan for your life. You can be a slave to somebody else’s dream. You can be a slave to memories from being a child. You can serve and be slave to not just addictions but the thoughts that drove you into addiction.

27:19
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28:11
They wanted to stay there, leave us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians. Now here’s why they wanted that, for they thought that it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness. They honestly thought that the, the um, what would the word be? The journey or the process to freedom, that the way to freedom would kill them. And they thought it’s better for me to be a slave over here at least I’m alive than to go this way and to die. And that is a lie from the enemy, that’s a trick of the enemy and it brings about real fear. It really does bring fear. So I want you to look at what Moses said, verse 13. And I’m saying this to you today If you, in your spirit, can lay hold of this, if this rings true for you by faith, if this rings true for you, I want you to lay hold of it.

29:27
Take this, write it down, stand on this Fear not Stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord which he will work for you today. This is key For the Egyptians who you see today you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you and you have only to be silent. You have only to be silent. And then, of course, the Lord did a great miracle and he parted the waters and they went through on dry ground. Okay, that’s, that’s a miracle, that’s a complete miracle. Like I said, go back and read the whole chapter and how God did that. Biblical. Like I said, go back and read the whole chapter and how God did that.

30:30
But I want you to see that this is God’s way, faith’s way is that you can see the enemy or the, and the enemy doesn’t have to be the devil. The enemy can be your lack of knowledge, could be your lack of who you know, connections. You know. It could be time, it could be illness in the body. You can have a doctor’s report. It doesn’t have to be the devil. You know you could be signing up for classes and hear that the classes are full or they’ve dropped that class and you can’t have that class anymore, and you’d think how am I going to get to the next thing? Because this is a prerequisite. I mean, there’s so many things that we could come up with. You could be running late for an appointment and you’ve, you know, you got a flat tire on the way. Not everything is the devil. Some stuff is just life.

31:33
But the truth is, no matter what it is that’s pursuing us, faith says that, no matter what I see, I’ve been, I’ve been trying to pound this into your, into your hearts it doesn’t matter what we see, because those who walk by faith do not walk by sight. We walk by faith and not by sight. You get afraid. I get afraid when I look, not by faith, but by sight. I get afraid when I see an enemy pursuing me. I get afraid when the checking account says there isn’t enough to pay the bills. I get afraid when I think I’m not going to be able to do the thing that God’s called me to do because I don’t have what it takes or something didn’t happen the way it was supposed to happen, or any myriad of things. We get afraid. I get afraid if the doctor calls. I get afraid and don’t want to call the doctor, because what if the doctor says we let all the what ifs?

32:42
We have more faith in the possibilities of what could go wrong than what could go right with God, and we’ve got to learn to walk by faith. This is something that we have to shake ourselves a little bit. We have to recognize. Okay, how am I walking? What am I looking at? What am I choosing to put my gaze on? What am I focusing on? What am I allowing to be the lead? We follow the leading of the spirit. What am I allowing to lead me? Am I being led by the enemy’s taunts? Am I being led by what I think is going to happen? That’s wrong or bad or not what God said? Am I allowing the voices of naysayers and the past years of mistakes or when things didn’t happen before, and disappointments? Am I focusing and allowing those things to lead, or am I allowing the spirit of God to lead?

33:44
The spirit led the children of Israel by blowing all night and separating and parting the waters. Their job was to stand there with an enemy running behind, chasing them from behind and a wind and water in front of them all night long. They had to stand in their ready position. They had to take the position God had told Moses stretch out your rod over this water and part this water. He told him you part the water. So he did, and the people had to watch. They had to wait. You know, we that’s so hard for us. We do not have patience. When we want God to do something, we want it now. We are the Burger King generation. We want it our way and we want it fast food, microwave drive-thru we want it fast. We want all the suddenlies of the Bible and I’m not against wanting a suddenly I’d love a suddenly but we have to understand that when we are following the leader, it’s following the leader. It’s following the leader that will get us to the destination on time and intact. You need to follow the one who knows.

34:55
I heard this great illustration yesterday. Maybe I’ll share it with you. It was about a pastor who loved racing cars. He loved watching the races and NASCAR and all of that, and his church, as a gift to him, one year, bought the package where he could go and actually get into the race car on the racetrack and drive the course and to actually drive the race car. And so, of course, they take him through all the training and all the stuff about the course and about the car and what he needs to do, but what they do in order to ensure his safety is they don’t just set him free on the course and about the car and what he needs to do. But what they do in order to ensure his safety is they don’t just set him free on the course and say now go, do your thing. There is a car in front of him, the leader car. They put a leader car in front of him and that leader car driver comes and has a talk with the pastor and he says now listen. A talk with the pastor. And he says now listen, I do this for a living.

35:53
I know this track better than anybody knows this track. I understand when to speed up and when to slow down. I know when to go high on the track and when to go low. Your job is to trust me that I know better than you do, because there will be times when I speed up that you’ll think that’s too fast, and if I slow down, you’ll think no, not yet. Or if I go high, you’ll think no, don’t go high yet. And you’ll think you know better. But you have to trust that I know better than you know, no matter what your instincts tell you, no matter what you feel, no matter what you think you know. You have to trust me that I know this, this racetrack, better than anybody knows this racetrack, and I’m a professional and I know exactly how fast to go and how, how much I need to go high or low or slow down. And you, your only job is to be able to follow me. Stay on my bumper. Stay on my bumper and trust me, if I’m going fast and I’m going up, you don’t slow down. You stay right on my bumper. If I can go that fast and make it through that turn, so can you. All you have to do is trust me, stay right with me. And do you know?

37:18
That pastor got behind that car and he stayed on his bumper the entire time. If he went up, he went up with him. If he sped up, he sped up with him, he stayed right on his tail. And when that race was done, they came to that pastor and they told him we can’t believe it. You are the. You finished this race at the pace of a professional race car driver. No novice has ever come in here and done what you’ve done before.

37:47
And do you know why he was able to do that? Because he was the only one who did what that leader car told him to do Stay right with me If I go up, go up If I speed up, speed up, follow my lead and don’t shrink back. And I thought about that. You know if I, if I’m, especially when it comes to speed, I actually really enjoy going really fast, driving fast. I like cars and my dad loves race cars and I think it’s just kind of in the blood and but there’s a tendency if I’m doing something that I’m not sure of, my tendency would have been to back off, to slow down. And yet that that professional leader card he told him now don’t you back off, don’t you get scared. If I can make it, you can make it and this is the way we need to follow God. What made that pastor successful was because he knew how to follow. Of all things, christians should know how to follow Jesus Christ. We should know how. That is the best plan possible to follow him. We need to do that. We need to follow him. We need to do what he does, say what he says.

38:59
I read you when we started in Gideon, that his instruction to the 300 men he broke them into three different troops of 100. Men, he broke them into three different troops of a hundred. And he said what I do, you do. If I do it, you do it. If I smash the jar, you smash the jar. If I blow the trumpet, you blow the trumpet. When I yell for the Lord and for Gideon, you yell for the Lord and for Gideon. You follow the leader and for us I cannot emphasize this enough it’s following the leading of the Holy Spirit. No matter how scary it looks, no matter if he tells you to speed up into the turn and you’re thinking I can’t do that. You have to follow his lead, and the scariest kind of leading is to stand. It’s to stand. Let’s look at that. I want you to go to 2 Chronicles 20.17. 2 Chronicles 20.17. Almost there, almost there.

40:17
This is when the children of Israel were facing a battle. They weren’t sure what to do, and Jehoshaphat was king at the time, and they have asked the Lord how they’re supposed to win this battle. What are we going to do, god? We need your help. They cried out to God about this and the Lord said to them in verse 16, tomorrow, go down against them. What he meant was go down and set up. What was he telling them? Go get in position, go take your place. Go, get yourself standing in your station, right Station for battle, to go down against them. Oh, I just lost my place. Sorry, okay, sorry. Verse 16 tomorrow go down against them. Behold, they will come up by the ascent of ziz, so he’s telling them the direction they’re coming. You will find them at the end of the valley, east of you will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your position and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf. We just read that in Exodus.

41:50
Can you imagine I know it’s hard to stand, because I can visualize this and I’m sure you can too when you can visualize an army chasing you and you just stand there and you don’t run and you don’t turn and fight to defend yourself, you just stand there. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard this when you were a kid, but people who have had dogs friendly dogs now I’m not talking about attack dogs, friendly dogs who come running to a person and they’ll say don’t run, they think that you want them to chase you, stop, stand still and they’ll they’ll calm down, and I’ve had that happen before and the dog does stop and they might be jumping and happy, but they were literally running because they thought I wanted them to follow me and to chase them. So my fear was I couldn’t stand there. I thought this dog’s going to attack me. I have to run away from this dog. But the truth was I just needed to stop running and stand still. And that’s the case.

42:52
God is telling them. I know it looks scary. This enemy is going to be coming from every direction around you. They’re coming from this way, they’re coming from that way. Just stand there, take your stand, take your position, but you are not going to have to fight in this battle. The Lord is going to fight this battle for you. The Lord is going to do this for you.

43:17
Now, I know there’s times when God asks us to do things. I’m not saying that every battle looks that way, but I am saying that to stand. What does it mean to stand? It means that I’m walking by faith and not by sight, that I am not making a flesh decision. I’m not hurrying up to go do something when God hasn’t told me to do that. I don’t leave my position because I’m scared to stand in that position. I don’t just make a decision because I hear the enemy roaring and I think I have to make a decision.

43:50
I know you felt that. I have felt that, where the enemy is just, you just feel the pressure. You better hurry up. You better hurry up. You better make a decision. You better hurry up and do something. You can’t just stand here. You got to do something and you feel that pressure.

44:03
But I’ve always heard this great instruction. My mother’s shared this with me and I’ve even heard this since then. But the devil doesn’t lead, he intimidates. So that constant intimidation. You hear that he’s a roaring lion. He goes about like a roaring lion. He’s just trying to scare you. That’s why the children of Israel had to be told fear not. So you hear that temptation. I’ve got to do something. What do we do? And it’s it’s put you into a frenetic panic and anxiety and it it the minute that happens, literally you can no longer in the natural form. When you allow yourself to go into that place, you now naturally cannot think properly. We talked about this a few weeks back. You aren’t able to work from a proper position in your mind and you will make terrible decisions like that.

45:00
We walk by faith, not by sight. So, regardless, it’s like when the prophet was surrounded by the enemy and his servant Gehazi said to him we’re surrounded, he’s terrified, what do we do? And the prophet said there’s more with us than what is with them. And he didn’t understand. And he said, father, open his eyes. And so the Lord opened the servant’s eyes so he could see that God’s heavenly hosts were surrounding their enemy, and they had no chance of coming to get them. In fact, the Lord then struck them blind through the prophet and they came to the prophet when are we at? What should we be doing? And he literally led them away and into captivity. So God was working and all he had, even though he was surrounded, he had to just stand there and let God bring about the answer. Let God bring about the solution.

45:57
Don’t let that fear and that intimidating voice drive you, because the Lord leads, we follow him. He’s not behind us going, he’s in front of us, saying stay on my bumper, follow me. If I go up, you go up. If I speed up, speed up. If I slow down, you slow down. Follow me. If I get low, you get low. We have to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. Okay, I’m hoping that this is forming your understanding of what it means to stand Standing. Is you taking your position on God’s instruction, not being able to be moved because of fear. Whatever position God puts you in, that’s where you stand On God’s instruction. You stand on God’s instruction.

46:54
Okay, now let’s go to Joshua, chapter three. Then Joshua rose early in the morning and they set out from Shittim and they came to the Jordan, he and all the people of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over. At the end of three days, the officers went through the camp and commanded the people as soon as you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord, your God, being carried by the Levitical priests, then you shall set out from your place and follow it. Yet there shall be a distance between you and it, about two, 2000 cubits in length. Do not come near it, in order that you may know the way you should go. So he’s saying make sure that you’re in a position that you can follow, that you can see it and you can follow it. He says why? Because you don’t want to get too near, you don’t want to overtake it. Why you don’t want to go at your own pace? Why Follow? Because in order that you may know the way you shall go, for you have not passed this way before. So God says I know what’s coming up. You don’t know what’s happening, you don’t know how I’m going to do it. You don’t know what this looks like. You’ve never done this before, so you have to follow the instructions I’m giving you.

48:18
Then Joshua said to the people consecrate yourselves for tomorrow. The Lord will do wonders among you. It sounds familiar. We read this before. He’ll do wonders among you. And Joshua said to the priest take up the ark of the covenant and pass on before the. To the priest take up the Ark of the Covenant and pass on before the people. So they took up the Ark of the Covenant and went before the people. The Lord said to Joshua today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel. That they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with you when you follow God. This is that same picture of with Gideon. When you do what God tells you to do, when you change how you see God, he will change how people see you. And as for you, command the priest to bear the ark of the covenant when you come to the brink of the waters. Here we go. When you come to the brink of the waters of the Jordan. When you come to the brink of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.

49:24
Okay, now, before I continue reading, I want to go back to the conversation that I started with the conversation I had with my mom, she said that as she was reading this passage one day and she read that that they had to stand in the Jordan. The Lord spoke in her spirit and she heard him say this this is where I lose them, this is where I lose them, this is where I lose them. That statement I understood immediately what she meant and what the Spirit meant when he said that to her. This is why I was hounding the scripture of what it means to stand when the enemy is chasing you, when you hear the enemy’s voice forcefully trying to push and frighten you and bring anxiety to you and make you think you’re out of time. You have to do something, when God is instructing you to stand. I want you to think about this.

50:38
I’m going to continue to read this passage, but the Lord has told them you’re going to cross the Jordan, which overflows its banks this time of year, which we’ll read, and the instruction to the priests carrying the ark was to stand in the Jordan. This is a little different than what we read. With Moses, they all got to cross on dry ground. Now they had an enemy chasing them. Their circumstance looked a little bit different, their situation looked a little bit different. Now they are marching to go take the enemy out. They are now on the offensive, they are not on the defensive.

51:28
And God is saying to them this is going, you’re going to have to cross these waters, but this is going to look different this time. You’ve not passed this way before. I’m not going to do it the way I did it last time. So many times we get stuck on thinking this is what God did last time, this is what he’s going to do again. He may, he may not. You need to see what God says. You need to follow his instructions.

51:51
What turn is he taking? Is he going up or is he going down? Is he speeding up or is he slowing down? We’ve just let him lead and he’s telling us that we have to stand in the water. Now that means I’m getting wet. That means it’s going to look like and feel like, because it is that this circumstance is affecting me. Feel like because it is that this circumstance is affecting me. It is actually affecting me. I am being affected by this problem. The problem hasn’t gone away. It’s actually touching me. I’m getting wet. This is a problem. Okay, let’s look at verse nine.

52:24
And Joshua said to the people of Israel come here and listen to the words of the Lord, your God. And Joshua said here is how you shall know that the living God is among you and that he will, without fail, drive out from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites and the Jebusites. Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is passing over before you into the Jordan. He’s saying I’m going in there with you, I’m going in first, I’m the leader, this is where I’m going Now. Therefore, take 12 men from the tribes of Israel, from each tribe a man.

53:09
And when the souls of the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off from flowing and the waters coming down from their tents to pass over the Jordan, with the priests bearing the Ark of the Covenant before the people. And as soon as those bearing the Ark had come as far as the Jordan and the feet of the priests bearing the Ark were dipped in the brink of the water. Now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest. The waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a heap very far away At Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, and those flowing down toward the sea of the Arabah. The salt sea were completely cut off and the people passed over opposite Jericho. Now the people bearing, or the priests bearing, the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord stood firmly on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan and all Israel was passing over on dry ground until at all, until all the nation finished passing over the Jordan.

55:00
So the priests walk into the water and it specifically says they start walking in the water. Those waters have not been cut off yet, and the conversation that my mom and I had was this. This is why, when God spoke in her spirit, this is where I lose them Because they expected the water right there within their eyesight, within their vision, to stop the way that it was for Moses, a wall of water, for them, dry ground. But instead it says God did cut the waters off. But he cut the waters off in Adam, the city that was very far north of them. I looked this up. So when the people broke camp and the priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant went ahead of them I looked this up. So when the people broke camp and the priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant went ahead of them and stood still in the water, not until the priests had put their faith to work and got in the water and stood in the water in the Jordan, that God then stopped the water upstream in the town of Adam get this, which was 15 to 20 miles upstream.

56:19
Now there’s no way the children of Israel with their eyesight could have seen 15 to 20 miles up the road in another town that the waters had cut off, in another town that the waters had cut off, god had told them and promised them that he would cut the waters off and they would cross over on dry ground. He promised him that, and at the moment that the priest stepped into the water, then all of a sudden the water stops and the priests have to stand there, and the water is stopped enough that the ground. All of a sudden the water stops and the priests have to stand there and the water is stopped enough that the ground all of a sudden is miraculously dry. How is that possible? How is it possible? It’s not possible. But for the water to stop it’s flowing. They step into the water and then all of a sudden, the water stops and the ground is dry and they can all go across on dry ground. That in itself is a miracle. But here’s the miracle when God is telling you to stand still, that he’s fighting for you, that he’s going to stop these waters and you’re not going to drown in this mess. That he’s promised you. You’re going to make it through. That he’s promised you, you’re going to make it through.

57:31
What you don’t understand is that 14, 15, 20 miles up the road, god already did it. He already did it. Do you know how long it takes for water to stop? Once it stopped, the water that’s flowing is still flowing. It’s still flowing. When the children of Israel step into that water, they have to trust that God is going to miraculously not drown them as they’re walking to stand in the midst of the Jordan. But God had already done it. Up in a city 20 miles away, he had already stopped the water. And because the children of Israel saw the water. They saw the water, they got wet. They had to put their feet in it.

58:29
This is the spot where people break faith, where they stop trusting God, where they take matters into their own hands. It’s the reason why they don’t have miracle stories to tell and testimonies to declare, because they won’t stand. They won’t stand, they won’t walk by faith, it’s only by sight. And we’ve all done it. We’ve all done it. I’m not accusing you. I have failed. We have all failed. But I have done it enough times and I have seen God do the miraculous when I had to do that very thing Walk out into the water, walk out into the water. Walk out into the water. Follow the leading of the spirit. Go when he says go. Stop when he says stop, go fast when he says go fast. And I’m trusting that he knows this place better than I do. He knew that Jordan and where they were at better than they did, and he knew where to go to stop that water. He knew the path they’d need to take. He knew which enemy would be first. He knew what instructions they needed to hear. He knew what they needed to be prepared for and he told them. Don’t be afraid. You get out there and you stand. You trust me. You stand Now.

59:56
Whether you’re having to take a stand about something today, take a stand. If it’s taking a stand for Jesus, take a stand. If it’s taking a stand for righteousness, if it’s taking a stand for you know righteousness when it comes in the form of politics, whatever that means in your life. If it’s taking a stand about what you know you’re supposed to do. If God has given you instructions, follow those instructions. Take your stand. Don’t worry about the people around you who say it’s not possible. Don’t let the fear of other voices, whether it’s natural voices or the enemy, don’t allow your past experience or other people’s failures to hinder you. We have to be like Joshua and let the Lord speak to us and say as I was with Moses, I will be with you. What was the key to Moses’ success? He did what I told him to do. Follow my instructions. If you will follow his instructions, have faith in the God who spoke the word, and if we will stand on that word, we are guaranteed success. Let him speak to you the word of instruction so that you can have the success that you need in whatever you are facing today.

01:01:23
Faith is not passive. We like to say that faith has feet and in this actual passage we just read, that’s literally true. Because they had to walk into the water, their faith had feet. They had to ignore that they still saw water flooding their path. The priests who carried the presence of God and all of those who would follow had to be filled with faith to be able to do what they did. They had to be able to um, to stand still when it, because when you think of water, water has current. Water pushes. Water is pressure, and sometimes you have to stand against the current, sometimes you have to stand against the pressure. Stand, take your stand. Stand, therefore. That is faith, and the reason so many lose it here is because they only see with their natural eyes and not eyes of faith. That is the beauty of faith.

01:02:28
While it looks like nothing is happening and there’s no way to get through the situation that you’re going through and you think you’re going to die trying, the truth is that God was already working, performing the miracle up the road. He was already doing what needed to be done before you even stepped foot into the water. Do you realize how much time ahead of the water ceasing at Jericho, that God had already performed the miracle. He had already done it. And, folks, if God is telling you to stand, it’s because he’s already done the work. Every work that needed to be done on the cross was done for your salvation. Every work that needed to be done on the cross was done for your salvation, and the plan that God has set in motion is a good plan that he has designed for your life. It’s already in motion. He’s already done it for you. While you’re carrying out God’s will, at at the same time, simultaneously, things that he’s already said and established will come to pass, and they will meet as your feet stand in the water. You simply need to stand in his presence.

01:03:49
Let’s look this last verse. I’ll finish with this Ephesians, chapter 6. And we’re going to look at verses 10 to 18. Thank you for sticking with me today. Okay, verse 10.

01:04:27
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand, that’s, that current withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand firm. Stand, therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness and as shoes for your feet, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace in all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the spirit, with all prayer and supplication To that end. Keep alert with all perseverance. And he goes on to say and pray for all the saints and for me too.

01:05:44
Folks, this is God’s way. What did Moses say? Show me your ways, I want to know your ways. God, I don’t want to just know you, I want to know your ways. David wanted to know everything he could know about God’s ways. Show me your ways, I want to see your glory. How do you do it? What do you do? They wanted to know God, and these men of great faith understood that God was worth putting their faith and trust in, that he would do what he said he would do. My encouragement for you today is to understand this vital strategy Stand, stand firm, stand ready, take your stand, having done all to stand. Stand, therefore, and God, who promises to bring about the victory, is already working out all things for your good. We can trust him. He’s a good God, he’s faithful to the end and he will do what he’s promised he would do.

01:07:05
Let me pray for you today, father. We just thank you for your word. We thank you for the power that you have given us through the mighty moving of the Holy Spirit, who leads us and guides us and comforts us, who walks with us hand in hand and shows us the way to go. Help us, father, to be good followers. Help us to be good followers and teach us, lord, to not fear to stand on your word with eyes of faith, knowing that you will do exactly what you said you would do. We thank you for the strength to stand, the grace to stand today. Give your instructions to those who need it. Give your encouragement to those who are needing it today. God, give your help and your strength and strategies to all of us that we are able to follow you well and that we will have good success. We pray. All of these things in Jesus’ name. All of these things in Jesus’ name, amen.

01:08:17
Thank you so much for taking time to prioritize the word of God, to learn about this God we serve, whom we love. It’s worth it. The time in his word is worth it, and you’ll see the evidence as God manifests his glory in your life. Be faithful to him, be faithful to his words, stand today and receive his encouragement. If this has blessed you today, do that same great favor for somebody else.

01:08:43
If someone’s going through it and you know it and they have to stand, you need to speak some life into their spirit that they can know they can stand in strength without looking with eyes of flesh, but to look with eyes of faith. Then send them this, share this message with them. Be an encouragement to one another. We are the body. We are strengthened by the body. We’re no good cut off from the body, but we work well together when we are knit together, each of us having our purpose. Be good to those around you.

01:09:15
Folks, share the word of God, share the truth. Maybe that’s the way you take your stand. If someone is struggling today and you’re afraid to kind of preach to them, you know you’re afraid to bring the word of God to them. You can share this message and let me do it for you. I’ll do it for you and if this was a blessing to you, I encourage you to give me that thumbs up. Hit that like button, subscribe. If you haven’t yet done that, get notified when a new episode comes out. That blesses us as we bless you. Thank you so much for tuning in today. We will see you next time. Bye-bye.