You Have to See to Believe
Joshua 6:1-5, 20
In Joshua 6: 1-5, the Lord brought Joshua to Jericho, and Jericho was sealed with a security wall that could not be penetrated. None could go in, and none could go out. In 6:2 the Lord said to Joshua, See, I have given you the city, which is significant because the word “See” is not merely the Lord inviting Joshua to take a look, but just as Genesis 1: 3-27 described God creating the heavens and the earth, by speaking the universe into existence, God saying to Joshua, “See” was the act of causing Joshua to see. To see in the spirit that is
There is a difference between the spiritual and the natural. The natural produces evidence that can be experienced by the 5-senses; that can be proven by science. The spiritual requires faith. For we walk by faith, not by sight, 1 Corinthians 5:7.
The bible teaches the difference between natural thinking and spiritual thinking: But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned, 1 Corinthians 2:14.
Isaiah 55:8-9 tells that the Lords thoughts and the Lord’s ways are higher than our thoughts and ways. When God moves it exceeds beyond our comprehension. Often time God has already moved, and we’re disappointed because we can’t see the evidence of movement.
In the natural, there was no visible evidence that the wall represented victory for Joshua and his army. How can the city be theirs when they can’t get into the city? How can they claim victory over the king by defeating his army when they’re totally shut out? But the fact that there was a wall confirmed that Joshua’s enemies knew of the power of Joshua’s God. The wall was natural man’s best attempt of protection from God.
When, in this life, you’ve seem to have run into a wall before you become discouraged, you need to pray that the Lord will allow you to see the situation how God sees the situation. See in the spirit, and not in the natural. Prayer, Lord open my eyes!
2 Kings 6:9-17 is an example of praying for spiritual sight. The servant of the prophet Elisha began to panic because they were surrounded by the army of their enemies. Elisha told his servant not to fear because there were more with them than was of their enemy’s army. But he needed to see it in the spirit.
“Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray that you would open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw and, behold the mountains was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha, I Kings 6:17.
If you can’t see in the spirit, you won’t believe. When you don’t believe, you won’t follow the Lord’s instructions. Nothing in the Lord’s instructions to Joshua—to march around the wall every day for seven days, and on the seventh day march around seven times, and then shout the victory, would have made any sense had not God caused Joshua to see the God had given them the victory.
Until you see in the spirit, you’ll keep praying for God to move in the natural, and then you’ll become frustrated with God when it seems as if he doesn’t respond to your prayer. But prayer that the Lord will open your eyes and cause you to see His will on earth as it is in heaven.