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Have you ever felt like the battles in your spiritual walk have left you drained? You’re not alone. In our latest podcast episode, Jaime Luce shares timeless lessons from the story of Joshua and Caleb that can help you reclaim what the enemy has stolen and walk in victory—no matter how big the giants you face.

Why We Get Worn Out

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by constant challenges, distractions, and information overload. But this is a common tactic of the enemy—to wear down the saints (Daniel 7:25).

Lessons from Joshua and Caleb

Joshua and Caleb weren’t afraid to confront the giants. They obeyed God completely, refusing to leave any enemy behind. Caleb’s “different spirit” is a model for us today—showing how faith and determination can lead to complete victory.

Taking Every Inch of Your Promise

Partial obedience leads to partial victory. Jamie explains how the Israelites compromised with the enemy instead of driving them out—and how we often do the same in our own lives.

God’s Promise to Restore

Just as God told David in 1 Samuel 30:8, “Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and recover all,” He promises restoration in Joel 2:25: “I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten.”

If you’re ready to reclaim what’s been stolen, this episode will encourage you to rise up with a Caleb spirit and take back every inch of your promised land. Listen now and walk in the victory that God has already prepared for you.

Where to dive in:

(0:00:09) – Navigating Christian Faith Battles
(0:13:21) – Joshua’s Conquest of Canaan
(0:23:07) – Claiming and Defending Spiritual Territory
(0:30:27) – Caleb’s Unwavering Faith and Strength
(0:41:13) – Claiming Full Victory Through God’s Power
(0:47:41) – Reviving Spiritual Strength Through Prayer

Full Transcript

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

0:00:09 – Jaime Luce
Welcome to the Jamie Luce podcast. Well, I hope that today is a blessed day for you. That is my prayer for you today. Welcome to some time in the Word and Bible study. If you have been with me the last few weeks, you know that we have been speaking on prayer intercession, how that affects our life, why we need it so desperately, why it’s a mantle that we carry as to look and become the very picture of who Jesus was for us, in that he is always interceding for us. But today I want to take that same vein of thought, that same vein of understanding on what is our responsibility, what we can lay hold of, but what we need to do when the battle is on.

Our tendency as people when we’re in a fight and I don’t even think that this is, I think this is more true and this is a sad statement. This is a sad oh gosh to say this, I think, is people might disagree with me. I’m sorry if you disagree with me, but the majority of Christians that I run up against, I think, is people might disagree with me. I’m sorry if you disagree with me, but the majority of Christians that I run up against not against but come in contact with tend to be worse at this than the people in the world, which is a very sad commentary. What I’ve noticed is that when we run into battles, when we run up against things that we’ve had to fight for, things that we’ve had to contend for, things that we’ve had to wrestle with for any length of time, the wrestling wears us out. We know that it’s a tactic against Christians by the enemy. He says in the last days, basically, that’s going to be his tactic to wear the saints out. And we do get worn out. We physically get worn out.

We’ve talked previously about how the amount of time that we spend on things like our cell phones right, the things that we are allowing ourselves to be a part of, that we would not normally be a part of, are not just distractions, but they are things. Because they are distractions, they’re strong distractions, but they are also things that we were never meant to know, carry, be involved with, have to interact with the fact that God, and God alone, is omnipotent, omniscient, he’s omnipresent. We were not created to see everything, so it’s you know. We now have cell phones that we can know what’s happening in any part of the world at any given time, cell phones that we can know what’s happening in any part of the world at any given time. We know the struggles that are happening to whether it’s the persecuted church, whether it’s nations, and what’s going on with wars, when there are pestilences, when there are famines, when there are diseases that are spreading, no matter where you are now in the earth. We know what’s happening all over the globe and there is a global push, an agenda where there are actually people who are on committees, who have connections in every nation of the world and their agenda whether that’s agenda 2030, whether that’s agenda 2050, there are multiple agendas that want us to operate as a one world system. That one world system is not healthy. That’s not healthy for us.

We were not created as trying to be God, to be everywhere, to know everything and the weight of all of that knowledge, of the suffering that’s happening everywhere. I mean what we know about in our communities. We were made for community, for the local community to make a difference in our local community, to be blessed by and to bless our local community, israel. The stories all over scripture of how Israel moved and lived within their tribes. They had their own communities within the larger community of the nation of Israel and they were to take care of one another. There were certain things that those communities were known for, the gifts and talents that came out of those particular groups. We know that. You know the Levi and the descendants of Levi were to be those who worked in the tabernacle. You also had those in Judah who were praisers. You had people that we just know the different aspects of life were known for, from different groups and different communities.

We were made for community but we were not meant to know everything. And in that knowledge, placing us in that environment of knowing everything all the time, and what we have done to our own literal brain matter, in scrolling continually and taking in all this information, we have wore ourselves into frenzies. We are exhausted. We are exhausted with just the lives we live, but now we’re exhausted because we know what everybody else is doing, because they’re all posting it and everyone’s competing with one another for how good they are, how great they are, how much they can conquer, how much they can do, and this comparison is is wearing everybody out and it’s not even real. Everything is seen through filters that you are meant to see. The filter You’re not meant to see. The real. You’re meant to see the filter and we compare with things that are uncomparable. Because it’s been filtered, it’s been altered, it’s not actually truth you can have.

For instance, I can come on here and record and tell you how to be strong and to dig into the word and to make sure you’re in prayer and to do all these things, and from your end it may look like I never struggle, I never have issues and I’m always feeling full of faith and full of strength. Folks, I have to wrestle it out too. We all are in our own battles. That’s the and we all get wore out. And sadly, when Christians get wore out because what generally were, if you are someone who cares about kingdom, cares about purpose, cares about why God put you on this earth, christians are going after the bigger picture, not just our, our personal life, but the kingdom of God, and so we feel this weight of kingdom, this weight of glory. It is a weight to carry that and to do it well and to do it with all of our might. And because it’s in the realm of faith, so that we walk by faith and not by sight. That means that there are extra things that we battle, extra things we carry, because if you look at the world and they’re not living by faith, they’re literally living by sight. Everything they do is based off of their senses. So they can feel really strong one minute, really weak the next minute, but they tend to still go after whatever they’re going after. It’s the climb, the ladder thing. Step on whoever you have to step on. It’s all still possible. If I just grind it out, and you’ll see more tenacity in an unsaved person many times more than you will for a faith-filled person, because that faith-filled person has to do it blindly.

We’re taught that we’re basically flying blind. We fly by the leading of the Holy Spirit by not knowing we have a lamp to our feet and a light to our path that simply gives us the one step today and another step tomorrow, and we don’t know what the whole plan looks like. We just know we’re following God to the destination that he says we’re supposed to arrive at. That’s not easy. Okay, that’s just not easy. That’s the truth. That’s not easy. It takes us determining to do that. It makes us deciding to do that and in order to be successful at whatever that end goal is, no matter how tired we are, no matter how defeated, we feel, if we are still aiming at that prize and still trying to gain that goal, that promise that’s been in front of us, that promised land that has been promised to us, that means that there are giants we’re going to have to face To live.

This Christian life does not mean that all of a sudden, once you get saved, everything becomes easy. Now, generally speaking, many times, if there’s a baby Christian who comes to know the Lord, they’ll see many miracles right off the bat. It’s that parent feeding the infant, who can do nothing for themselves and is completely dependent. And all of this is brand new and they couldn’t survive if you didn’t do that. And God is so good and so loving and such a wonderful parent that he takes care of that infant while they get to a little place where they can be just a little bit more self-reliant. Not that we become self-reliant we’re always reliant on God but it’s not that we expect him to feed us constantly. We then know we go to the word and we feed ourselves. Jesus is the bread of life and we have to choose to eat of him. There comes a point where he’s not feeding us the milk, but we are eating the bread, we are eating the meat we are partaking of more than the milk that is fed to us. We have a part to play. We have a covenant relationship where both of us are active in that covenant relationship.

When God made covenant with Abraham, he told Abraham you go get the sacrifice. You prepare the sacrifice. I will come when the blood has been spilled and I will make that covenant. I will do the thing you cannot do, but I’m expecting you to do your part to prepare it. Prepare your heart, prepare your mind, get the sacrifice ready. There is going to be a sacrifice on your behalf. You have to prepare that sacrifice.

So if we have this understanding, then that in order to be conquerors, in order to take it, in order to live in it, there is something that is required of us. We have to understand that, even though we get tired, even though it gets hard, it is still God’s plan. He’s still going to be there. He’s still going to do what he promised he’s going to do. Going to be there, he’s still going to do what he promised he’s going to do. I know we wish that. The work of that, the battle of that, the warfare of that. I know we wish that was easier.

But the truth is, if we’re going to use the language of promised land and living in a promise and taking that promise, we have to take it according to the way it was presented to us in scripture. And God gave some very specific instructions on how that was to be done and what it would take and what’s necessary. And he said if you’ll do it my way, you’ll be blessed. I’ll be there, I’ll defeat your enemy for you. But if you choose to do it’ll, do it my way, you’ll be blessed. I’ll be there, I’ll. I’ll defeat your enemy for you. But if you choose to do it your own way, there are going to be consequences, and today I want to talk about Caleb. Caleb had a more excellent spirit. He had a different spirit, and if you’re going to be those who take and conquer according to all the blessing that God has, where there is the blessing of the Lord that makes rich and adds no sorrow to it, or the kind that many people settle for in having part of the promise some of the promise, not all of the promise still filled with a lot of the thorns of the world that are attacking that promise and not letting you live in the fullness of it. There is a difference and we get to choose and I want to show that to you today. I want you to go to Joshua.

We’re going to start in Joshua, chapter six and I’m going to take you through just reading a few verses in each chapter to take you through this, but I want you to see this. So in Joshua chapter six, starting in verse 21, it says then they devoted all in the city to destruction, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep and donkeys, with the edge of the sword, what this is referring to. And a few weeks back we taught on this. So if you need to go back and hear that, that would be good to do that. But this is when they were given the command to go in and to give the first fruits and devote everything to destruction to the Lord. It was an offering to the Lord, it was a type of first fruits. Everything belonged to him. First, before they were to take anything of their own, they were to devote it to the Lord. But God had given them um instructions that they needed to destroy everything that represented the enemy. Everything, every person, every animal, every article, every tree, every building, everything that represented the enemy they were to destroy. There was to be nothing left of this enemy. This enemy was to be nothing left of this enemy. This enemy was to be obliterated. Okay, it says.

But two of the men who had spied out the land, joshua, said well, did I finish reading that to you? Let’s go back. I want you to get the full context here. This this was Jericho’s destruction in verse 17. And the city and all that was in it was to be devoted to the Lord for destruction. Only Rahab, the prostitute, all her family that’s verse 17, was saved, and they weren’t to keep anything for themselves, they were handed all over to the Lord. But this is where we first hear of Caleb.

But to the two men who had spied out the land, joshua and Caleb Joshua said go into the prostitute’s house, bring out from there the woman and all that belonged to her, as you swore to her, so that the young men who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her, and they brought out her relatives and put them outside the camp of Israel and they burned the city with fire and everything in it, only the silver and gold and the vessels of bronze and of iron they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord. So they didn’t take it for themselves. They were going to dedicate these things to God as part of God’s reward. But Rahab, the prostitute, and her father’s household and all who belong to her, joshua. But Rahab, the prostitute, and her father’s household and all who belonged to her, joshua, saved alive and she has lived in Israel to this day because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. Joshua laid an oath on them at the time saying Cursed before the Lord. Be the man who rises up and rebuilds this city, jericho. At the cost of his firstborn shall he lay its foundation and at the cost of his youngest son shall he set up its gates. So the Lord was with Joshua and his fame was in all the land. So this particular part of scripture is to describe Joshua taking Jericho, his full obedience to the direction God gave him and the full destruction of the enemy, aside from the one who actually sided with God, which was Rahab and her family.

Now, in Joshua 8, verses 18 to 29, we see that Joshua takes Ai. Let’s look at that real quickly. Chapter 8, joshua 8. I’m trying to read this with you, so my pages are stuck together Joshua 8, verses 18 through 29. And the Lord said to Joshua stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand. And Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city. And the men sorry that just made noise to you and Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city. And the men in the ambush rose quickly out of their place as soon as he had stretched out his hand, they ran and entered the city and captured it and they hurried to set the city on fire.

So I’m giving you a quick synopsis. Let’s jump down to 28. So Joshua burned Ai and made it forever a heap of ruins, as it is to this day. And he hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening. And at sunset Joshua commanded that they took his body down from the tree and threw it into the entrance of the gate of the city and raised over it a great heap of stones which stands there to this day. So we see two examples and this is a lot of scripture, so I’m going quickly two examples of where Joshua completely annihilates. Because God told them destroy every person, don’t save anyone alive. Completely annihilate the enemy, the enemy. Okay.

Now Joshua deals with the kings of the Amorites. That’s in chapter 10. We’ll go to. Let’s just real quickly, I want you to see this. In verse 8 it says and the Lord said to Joshua do not fear them, for I have given them into your hands. Not a man of them shall stand before you. That’s the promise that God makes.

When you go in and you decide to obey God, to take territory and defeat your enemy, whatever your territory is the lives of your children, your business, your marriage, your health, what your, your schooling, your schooling, your job, whatever territory that you’re going to take, god always said don’t save anybody. This was Saul’s mistake when he went against and why he was replaced with David, why Samuel had to go and tell him God has rent the kingdom from you. Because God said destroy it all, get rid of the enemy, never leave remnants of your enemy that you’ll end up living with. You destroy. When you take territory, you obliterate the enemy, okay.

So now let’s look at verse 20 through 28. I don’t know if I’ll read you the whole thing, but it says when Joshua and the sons of Israel had finished striking them with a great blow until they were wiped out, and when the remnant that remained of them had entered into the fortified cities, then all the people returned safe to Joshua in the camp at Makeda. Not a man moved his tongue against any of the people of Israel. This is how afraid they were of them and what God was doing. Let’s jump down to verse 28.

As for Makeda, joshua captured it on that day and struck it and its king with the edge of the sword. He devoted to destruction every person in it. He left nothing remaining and he did to the king of Makeda just as he had done to the king of Jericho. So again, complete annihilation. Joshua is the kind who follows after God with his whole heart, to the letter of the law. If God says, destroy it all, joshua destroys it all. This is how this conquest is going. He did the same in the southern region of Canaan and the northern region of Canaan.

So in verse still in chapter 10, verses 29 to 42, you can, and I’m giving you the whole bits of scripture so you can go back and look at that yourself, but I’m giving you just a few verses in it, chapter verse 29,. Then Joshua and all Israel with him passed on to Makeda, to Libna, and fought against Libna and the Lord gave it also, and its king, into the hand of Israel and he struck it with the edge of the sword and every person in it. He left none remaining in it. Jump over to verse 40. So Joshua struck the whole land, the hill country and the Negev and the lowland and the slopes, and all their kings hill country and the Negev and the lowland and the slopes, and all their kings. He left none remaining but devoted to destruction all that breathed, just as the Lord, god of Israel, commanded. And Joshua struck them from Kadesh, barnea as far as Gaza, and all the country of Goshen as far as Gibeon. And Joshua captured all these kings and their land at one time because the Lord, god of Israel, fought for Israel. Then Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to the camp at Gilgal.

Okay, jump over chapter 11. That was the southern Canaan region. Now this is the northern Canaan region, verse 11,. And they struck with the sword all who were in it, devoting them to destruction. There was none left that breathed and he burned Hazor with fire, all the cities of those kings and all their kings, joshua captured, struck them with the edge of the sword, devoting them to destruction. Drop down to verse 19. Then there was not a city that made peace with the people of Israel, except for the Hivites, which we discussed in a previous broadcast, inhabitants of Gibeon. They took them all in battle, for that was the Lord’s doing, to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle in order that they should be devoted to destruction and should receive no mercy but be destroyed just as the Lord commanded. Moses and Joshua came at that time and cut off the Anakim from the hill country, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, from all the hill country of Judah, from all the hill country of Israel. Joshua devoted them to destruction with their cities. There was none of the Anakim left in that land, of the people of Israel. Um, verse 23. So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord had spoken to Moses. So we just see this over and over and over again. Now jump, joshua is now old. Let’s jump over to chapter 13 and we’re going to read verses one and two and six and seven. Says now Joshua was old and advanced in years and the Lord said to him you are old and advanced in years and there remains yet very much land to possess. Very much land to possess.

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Let’s jump down to verse 6 and 7. All the inhabitants of the hill country, from Lebanon to Mizrathothmaim I don’t know how to say that even all the Sidonians. This is God saying I myself will drive them out from before. The people of Israel Only allot the land to Israel for an inheritance, as I have commanded you. So God’s recommissioning his command. Even though Joshua was old and now the people have to go in and conquer these lands, he’s saying, okay, joshua’s going to tell everybody how to divide up the land. He ends up sending in, sending out representatives from each tribe go and get us basically a giant map and we’re going to sit down and, before God casts lots, we’re going to allot out whose all land this is. And it’s your job to follow the command of the Lord and to drive out all these enemies, because God will go before you and help you do it. So, if they are obedient to what God tells them to do, the command is still to get rid of all of the enemy Folks.

I cannot, I can’t emphasize this enough when we take territory, the enemy will do everything he can to remain in a territory. It’s why when Jesus went to the madman at Gadara and cast out legion from him, and the demons, when they spoke, said please do not make us leave the region, can we go into the pigs? They don’t ever want to leave or lose territory. Now Jesus came not to cleanse their territory, but he was coming to save that man. So he allowed them to go into the pigs. But what did the pigs do? The minute that they came into the pigs, the pigs went and committed suicide, jumped off a cliff. I mean, it ended up spreading Jesus’s fame because of what happened to the pigs. But you have to understand this is how the enemy fights for a territory.

It reminds me of another passage of scripture where we are being taught that we have to be careful, because when we sweep, so to speak, our souls clean and we get rid of the enemy and now we are clean, if we do not fill that territory with the Holy Spirit, if we are not diligent to make sure that we are filling ourselves with what is godly, what is spiritual, what is edifying to our spirit in God, versus what is carnal and of the flesh, then that demon that left, or that, those dark places in us, that thing will come back and it’ll come back with seven times more strength and more power the second time around. Even when Satan attacked Jesus, the scripture doesn’t say that he would leave forever. He says he would come back at another opportune time. Folks, we have battles in front of us that we have to stay on our watchtower and be looking and being diligent, to keep ourselves pure, to fill ourselves with the spirit, to take the territory and not allow an inch to the enemy. Not to give him an inch. It’s the old saying if you give them an inch, they take a mile. Well, that’s a true of demonic forces. You give them an inch, they’re gonna take a mile. You can’t allow them to come in. There’s a mile you can’t allow them to come in. There’s a problem that happens when we allow them to come in.

Okay, so I’ve given you all about Joshua’s conquest. He’s now passing the baton, basically to the people. But I want you to look at what begins to happen. Jump with me to chapter 13, verse 13. Now that the people are in charge, look what happens, verse 13,. Yet the people of Israel did not drive out the Geshurites or the Macathites, but Geshur and Macath dwell in the midst of Israel to this day. They didn’t drive them out. We see the first signs of allowing the enemy to stay.

Now we knew about the other group of people who had lied to Joshua, and Joshua’s mistake was he didn’t go to the Lord and find out if this was true, or what to do with this people. He believed them and they had lied to him, deceived them and allowed them to live, and they had made an oath before God that they would be peaceful with these people so they couldn’t break it and destroy them now. And they made them. Their servants made them, you know, those who built things and did things for them, which was never God’s intention. They were to be wiped out. This was never God’s intention, but this is what that mistake began to. It’s the a little leaven leavens, the whole lump, because that had taken place, because there was an instance where people were allowed to live among them as servants, as those who had to pay taxes to them. They allowed them to live. This was now a model that they saw that when Joshua, who knew to take the enemy out, who understood what God meant and what God wanted, how he did it, different than the people did it. It says that they did not drive out all of these people. They did not. That’s the first time we see that.

Now let’s look. I want us to take a quick look at Caleb’s life. The first time we hear about Caleb is, interestingly enough, it’s both chapters, chapters 14, but one is in the book of numbers and one is in joshua. Let’s look at the book of numbers, real quick, chapter 14. And verses uh, verse 24. Verse 24, and it says now, this is when the very first time that Joshua and Caleb went out, went to spy out the land, and they came back and they were the only two who had a good report, but Caleb’s the only one who had the fortitude to stand up and quiet and challenge all the people and quiet and challenge all the people. Okay, in fact, I want to read you, let’s go to verse 24. But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring him home, into the land into which he went and his descendants shall possess it. Okay, oh, there’s more there, but we’ll leave that. We’ll leave that. But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land to which he went and his descendants shall possess it. Okay, this is Caleb.

Now, that word I want us to look at that Caleb has a different spirit. What does it mean that he has a different spirit? Now, we know Joshua had the spirit. He took over, he was called to take over the people of of Israel for Moses, and we saw all along the way through Moses’s life. Joshua stayed at the tent of meeting always. He wanted to be as close to God all the time, as much as he could, and he gleaned as much from that relationship. He was Moses’s right-hand man. It made sense that he would take over and he knew how to be a man of war. He understood strategies and being able to lead the people in and out. So we know about Joshua, but this is Caleb.

And Caleb wasn’t the same as Joshua. He wasn’t called to the same thing, but he was a man of war, he was very strong and he had no fear and he fully believed God. He fully believed everything that God said. He followed the Lord fully, and this is God’s promise to him because he has a different spirit. Well, what does that mean? That he’s a different spirit? What that means is there’s several different words here it means another kind, another kind of spirit. Have you ever noticed that people who are successful, there’s something different about them than those who don’t? There’s something different about them, there’s just something different. They have a different kind of mindset, a different kind of desire a different kind of method, a different kind of purpose-driven mindset in their life.

Okay, it also means elsewhere. I thought that was so interesting Elsewhere. What that tells me is that his spirit, if he has an elsewhere spirit, means he’s not bogged down with what is right now. He’s thinking about something else, he’s put his mind on something else, so he’s not distracted by the right now. He knows I want to get in that land, live in that land. He’s thinking about what that future promise is and he’s ready to take it right now.

The elsewhere it means following, and we know that this word directly has to do with following, because it says that Caleb followed the Lord wholly fully. He’s a follower, a full follower, with all of his heart, all of his strength, all of his might. It means other. You know, sometimes we describe God as otherworldly. There’s nothing in this world that can encapsulate who God is. He’s other. You can’t even put descriptions on him. He’s other. This kind of spirit is other. He’s other. You can’t even put descriptions on him. He’s other. This kind of spirit is other. It’s different. It’s not the same as everyone else. You had 10 spies who had all the same spirit, but there were two who were different. It means unlike in nature, so their nature, their very substance. It’s different. It’s different. Their form is different, the quality is different, it’s distinct, it’s separate.

It proposes, and it means one coming behind. I thought that was so interesting. That goes along with following one coming behind. He understands the job and he’s coming up behind the one behind him. He’s someone who takes advantage of knowing. The person in front of me is paving the way and I don’t have to do all the same work they’re doing. I can just follow in what they tell me and I’ll get where I’m going. It’s the idea of you know how we say that our kids should be able to stand on our shoulders. Okay, it’s a step up. He understands that in his following after these commands, he gets to step up, he gets to to live in the blessing of that. If God says I’m going before you and I’m going to defeat your enemy, he gets to go then and live in what God’s doing, and then his descendants, according to what we just read, will also be able to possess it. Okay, so now let’s go back to Joshua 14 and we’re going to look at verses 6 through 12. This is now in Joshua. I’m sorry, there’s something in my eye and it hurts. Okay, let’s go to 14, verse 6. We’re going to read through 12 now.

The people of Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh the Kenzanite, said to him you know what the Lord said to Moses, the man of God, in Kadesh Barnea, concerning you and me. So what we just read he knows. He’s reminding him. You know what God said. I was 40 years old when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land, and I brought him word again, as it was in my heart, but my brothers who went up with me, made the heart of the people melt. Yet I wholly followed the Lord, my God, and Moses swore on that day saying Surely, the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children forever, because you have wholly followed the Lord, my God. And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive, just as he said, these 45 years, since the time that the Lord spoke to. The spoke this word to Moses while Israel walked in the wilderness. And now, behold, I am this day, 85 years old. Now, let me just help you.

When they took the first land in Jericho, he was 80 and all of these military assignments that they have gone about, conquering all these regions and kings. Five years of battling has now passed, five years and now he’s 85 years old and he’s reminding Joshua hey, it’s my turn. I’ve conquered for five years. For these other lands, it’s my turn. God promised this to me, verse 11,. I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me. My strength now is as my strength was then for war and for going and coming. So now, give me this hill country on which the Lord spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities. It made me. It may be that the Lord will be with me and I shall drive them out. Just as the Lord said, I shall drive them out. You hear that he has the same spirit of Joshua. I’m going to drive them all out. This land is mine. I’m not letting the enemy have one inch of this land. It belongs to me. It’s my land. I’m keeping it. So we are seeing what kind of spirit that is that we are to have.

Now let’s look at what the people do not joshua and caleb. But what the people do? Chapter 15, verse 63. But the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the people of Judah, could not drive out. So the Jebusites who lived in Gezer, so the Canaanites, have lived in the midst of Ephraim and this day, but to this day, but have been made to do forced labor. They’re doing the same thing they saw done to the first group of people put them to force labor. Remember I said a little leaven, leavens, the whole lump. Go to 17. Chapter 17, verse 13. Well, we’ll start with 12. Yet the people of Manasseh could not take possession of those cities, but the Canaanites persisted in dwelling in the land. Now, now, when the people of Israel grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but did not utterly drive them out. Okay, I want you to, I want you to hear this. There’s a little note here in my Bible and I want to read it to you Bible, and I want to read it to you.

Israel failed to possess all the land and to remove the Canaanites completely for two reasons they wanted the profit and benefits of the forced labor and taxes that they got from the Canaanites. So a greed and a laziness. They’ll do the work for us and they’ll pay us. But compromising, ie giving up or trading something of value in order to come to an agreement, because that’s what a covenant is an agreement God’s will for the sake of ease and money later led many Israelites away from God. Some of the Canaanites, with their iron chariots, had military equipment that was superior to the Israelites. They knew they could not overcome such forces in their own strength, which they weren’t supposed to rely on their own strength. They were to rely on God. This was the mistake, and that’s why they couldn’t drive them out. The Israelites were beginning to lose their confidence in God’s power to overcome their enemies. They weren’t fully relying on God, and so in that mindset they thought well, we’ll let them live with us, but we’ll force them into labor. We won’t drive them out, but we’ll we’ll take possession of their chariots and their um military equipment so that we can be stronger the next time we have to fight a battle. So they’re compromising and not doing what God asked them to do.

Now let’s go to chat in chapter 17,. Joshua addresses a complaint. Chapter 17, verses 17 and 18. This is right. After all, of this is explained to us that I just said to you. Then Joshua said to the house of Joseph, to Ephraim and Manasseh, who didn’t drive them all out. You are a numerous people and have great power. You shall not have one allotment only because their complaint was they needed more land. But the hill country shall be yours, for, though it is a forest, you shall clear it and possess it to its farthest borders. Take all of it, for you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have chariots of iron and though they are strong. Josh is trying to tell them you’re getting this wrong. It doesn’t matter what strength they have. You are supposed to go in and drive them out.

Don’t stop short. Do not stop short. Take every bit of it. I’m encouraging you today. No matter what battle you are in, do not stop short. Take it all. If you are fighting for your kids, if you’re fighting for your marriage, if you’re fighting for your church, for your people, for land, for a home, for a business, for schooling, for a friendship, for your health, whatever you’re fighting for, if God has said it’s yours, you drive that thing all the way out. God has said it’s yours, you drive that thing all the way out. Don’t give up. Don’t stop short. Don’t get lazy and say well, I got at least this much, and I’ll settle for this. Don’t have that mindset. Don’t think well, I can compromise a little and I’ll make it work for me In the end. In the end, this will be really good for me. That’s what we do. We justify. We justify allowing the enemy to stay and keep territory that we are supposed to conquer and take.

I want to show you how King David dealt with this. When King David was faced with the loss, he had been out defeating the enemy, going to conquering, he comes back to Ziklag with all of his mighty men and they come back to see that they have themselves been raided. Everything’s on fire. Their families have all been taken, all their possessions have been taken. And in 1 Samuel, chapter 30, verse 8, david goes to God and says God I mean, he’s in tears. The people want to stone him who were his best friends and fighting with him. They are all so defeated, they are feeling so overwhelmed. It’s just too much. And they don’t know what’s going to happen. They don’t know what they can do. They don’t know what they should expect. They want to give up and allow their territory to have been taken because they’re so exhausted and, folks, we do that. We get so exhausted that we think I just have to let the enemy have this. I’m too tired to fight. No, no, if you go to God and ask God, he’s going to say drive them out, I will go before you, I will help you. I will, I will be the one to help you drive them out. And he asks God what he should do.

And in first Samuel, chapter 30, verse eight, this is what God says to David. And David inquired of the Lord, saying shall I pursue after this troop? Shall I overtake them? And he answered him. This is God’s answer answered pursue, for thou shalt surely overtake them and, without fail, recover all. And this is for somebody today, you, you are on the brink of giving up and you just are desperate and crying out to God what do I do? And you’re thinking I have to give up. There is no other way. I don’t know what else to do. But God is telling you you pursue, don’t you give up. I’m the one who has commanded the blessing for you and I go before you Do what I tell you to do. Make sure you’re following my commands. But you go after this enemy. You destroy this enemy and when you do, you will recover all Everything that’s been taken.

It reminds me of the verse in Joel, chapter 2. Let me look it up real quick and read it to you. Oh boy, this whole chapter is so good. You need to go back and read this the whole. You need to read all of it Joel 2.25. And which verse do I want? Which version let’s? Let’s read this out of uh, the ESV.

I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten. The hopper, the destroyer and the cutter. My great army, which was sent among you, I will destroy. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord, your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. That promise is to those. What does the word say? That? It is yes and amen to those that believe. The promises of God are yes and amen to those that believe.

What spirit are you of today? Are you of the group mindset? It’s too hard, I can’t do it. The first generation died out and didn’t take it at all. The second generation, they took it, but not all of them took it all. Not all of them took it all. My hope today is that you will be encouraged in your spirit, no matter how weak you feel, no matter how tired and exhausted you are. Don’t rely on your own strength, don’t rely on your own ability. Don’t rely on what you know, what you can see with your eyes. You do not walk by sight, you walk by faith. You walk by faith and not by sight.

Let’s believe what the Lord has said. Let’s take action on what God has said. Let’s take every bit of territory that belongs to us, and God says he will give to us everything that the enemy has stolen. He will give back to us. And God says he will give to us everything that the enemy has stolen. He will give back to us and we will live in the blessing and the plenty of the Lord. You will not live in shame. You will not live under condemnation. You are not tied to your past. You are not tied to the things that you had that had victory over you. You will have victory over them. Let’s pursue and we will be able to recover all.

Let me pray for you, father. We just thank you for your word. We thank you for your power, your might. We thank you that we know that we do not trust in horses and chariots. We trust in the arm of our God. We know. We trust in the one who is able, who, when he speaks, the mountains tremble. They melt like wax before him. God, we thank you. We thank you that you are the God we serve. You are the one we trust in. You are the capable one and we are well able because you have spoken the word.

Empower your people today, show them what they need to do. If they have put their sword down, father, I pray for the grace to pick it back up. I pray for the strength to come back into them, for the purpose to come back into them, that they will again understand that the battle is not theirs. The battle is yours, and you will bring the victory. We thank you, god, for all that you’re going to do. We give you praise for it, for the answer in advance. In Jesus’ name, we pray Amen. Thank you so much for taking time to dig into the word. Make it yours. Put your heart and your soul into what God has asked you to do, what he is choosing for you, the path that he has for your life. Be of a Caleb spirit, choose to believe and have a different spirit. God will do what he’s promised to do. Follow him. Follow him and see what God will do. Thanks so much. We’ll see you next time. Bye-bye.