February 4, 2025, Message by Lori Mangus (Missionary from Ghana, Africa/Grace Covenant International)
Transcribed by Beluga AI.
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. Great is your faithfulness, O Lord. We give you thanks for Jesus Christ and the mercies of God that have been poured out upon us. We receive those mercies tonight and thank you for them. Amen.
All right, welcome. Hey. Rob and Lori Mangus are here from Ghana, West Africa. With our little church here, we actually support missionaries in West Africa, in Cambodia, in Nepal, and the Dominican Republic on a regular monthly basis. And then every month we do other missions works as well.
We support other missionaries kind of on a once a month, a one-time basis, or maybe repeating, but these are the missions.
The countries I mentioned are the ones we support on a regular basis. Rob and Lori get to visit us once a year, once every other year, and just share with us what’s going on in Africa.
Rob spoke this morning in Bremerton. Lori is going to share with us tonight. So just welcome Lori Mangus to speak tonight on what God’s doing in West Africa.
Yeah. Good golf clap. Good golf clap. Oh, she made the clap. Bravo. Bravo. Yeah. God. God applauds me, so I applaud myself sometimes.
Good evening. Church in Poulsbo. Wait, Firehouse Church, right? We’re still Firehouse Church in Poulsbo, right? Good evening. Good evening.
Ats, go ahead. Can you guys hear me? We’re gonna make sure that he’s got me covered back there. If I get a little, if I get a little overzealous, he’ll cut my mic off and stuff like that. So feel free. It happens all the time. The slides are just gonna roll. I’m gonna let it go through.
But we are Grace Covenant International missionaries in West Africa. Our headquarters are in Ghana. So what we do is we work with pastors and churches to build a network of family in ministry.
So I don’t know how close you guys are as a church family. Can y’all tell me one another’s names? Yeah. Okay, so we have churches in Africa. They’ve sat together for five years and still can’t tell you each other’s names. Church family does not exist. We come to church because this is what we’re supposed to do.
So it’s a works-based, legalism-based atmosphere. So we’re breaking through those walls, we’re breaking those things down. We’re building a network of pastors, churches, church people gathered together so they’re beginning to understand.
If I’ve got a need, I can call this person in this church, I met them through the missionaries. I can call and ask for some prayer. We get together monthly. We bring everyone together. We have a conference once a year. Pastor Kevin came to us in October.
So we want to say thank you to you guys for allowing him to come out and, you know, supporting him, praying for him. Because we were praying. Africans don’t joke like we joke. They don’t get some of the.
So we were praying like, because it’s a rough fit. It’s a tough way to minister if you’re not accustomed to doing that thing. So he did wonderfully, though. We got awesome testimonies coming out of our pastors.
We had 11 pastors in the conference in October that we’re hearing from them now. These are men and women of God. And I’ll just put it pretty succinctly. When a word of knowledge is given to someone, it’s not meant for us; it’s meant for someone else.
And Pastor Kevin was teaching into this very thing. And he said, it’s not supposed to make sense to you. One of our pastors in West Africa, when you hear a word that’s supposed to be for someone else, it is. It’s usually, thus saith the Lord according to Isaiah 42:5. And the Scripture’s always given.
So if it doesn’t make sense, a lot of times people will ignore it because that’s not according to the word. That has nothing to do with what the Bible says.
So Pastor Kevin was teaching into it. And one of our pastors, I believe Kevin had said, just, you’ve got a word, someone here has a word. You need to speak it out. So he decided he was going to do it, even though in his own words it was nonsense. What he was getting was nonsense. So he spoke it out.
After the conference was over, this pastor told us he said, I’ve never understood what God did in that moment. He said, in my obedience, as I said, this is nonsense. I want to go ahead and obey the man of God that taught in that moment.
That I began to speak, God began to give revelation of wisdom,revelation of ways to move in the ministry that I have in my own churches, that I oversee and everything. He said, my spiritual gift was activated because I began to understand that’s not for me. It doesn’t have to make sense to me. It only has to be obedience to what God is speaking.
So we’re seeing new things coming, coming out. We have never had this testimony in West Africa, in all. And we’ve been in West Africa for 10 years now. We’ve not heard that particular of a testimony. So it’s a wonderful, powerful thing.
So you’re going to see these are our leaders. These are just some community things that we have going on.
Our pastor in Togo, he goes out into the villages, and he walks into villages where witchcraft is very prevalent, and they hand out Bibles. His biggest complaint, I’ll message him. Hey, Pastor Shantay, how’s the ministry going? How did your outreach go?
We had trouble. Like, oh, what was, you know, you’re supposed to tell us in times that we’re going to be praying. And he goes, we ran out of Bibles. If that’s the only trouble you encountered, what an encounter to have. So that’s one of the things that. But it’s Bibles in that language, and they are very hard to come by. They’re very hard to get ahold of. They’re very expensive.
In West Africa, we had one church that burned. It is now being rebuilt. Pastor Kevin got to minister in that very church in October.
We’ve got four new pastors that we’ve just met in 2024 that we’re praying into, building relationship with. They’re hearing about grace, covenant, and what’s different than what they’re experiencing in West Africa. So they’re coming alongside us. What does this look like? What does this sound like?
What’s going on? Very, very interested in two of those churches. We’ve ministered in multiple times in two of those churches. So we’re still building.
This is our conference in October. Great time. Great. This is our canopy that we always minister under. We have a time of banquet, and we have a time of communion at the end of the conference because we’re teaching. There’s nothing more intimate than sharing a meal together.
When you get to West Africa, you don’t share meals with other people because it’s going to cost you something out of your pocket. It’s not just time and effort; it’s going to cost you money. And that’s something West Africans do not. Some of them just don’t have. But the ones that do don’t want to give it out. They don’t want to, they don’t want to, they don’t want to share it out or anything.
You guys may have heard about our daughter-in-law, Shelby. It’s our first son, James, and his wife, Shelby. Shelby is the one that has the brain tumors, the glioblastoma. They recently re-diagnosed it as an astrocytoma. They’ve changed some chemotherapy. She’s still fighting, she’s still believing.
Her neurosurgeon just at the end of last year told her that she’s outlived her prognosis. He really didn’t mean it as a compliment. He really didn’t. He was just kind of like, we’re surprised that you’re still alive. And that didn’t boost her spirit. But it is what it is. It’s an attack of the enemy.
We know that fully in 2025, it’s the last slide. I believe it’s the ministry and teaching center that’s going to pop up there in 2025. We are going to tear down one of the apartments on the other side of the compound, and we’re going to build the sanctuary and teaching center because, as Pastor Kevin just saw, our canopy is getting a little. And we just expanded that canopy just in 2024.
So we’re getting to a point where we need extra space. We need extra room to bring our pastors together, to encourage them, to sharpen them so that they can take rightfully divided word of truth into their areas and begin impacting those areas.
So it’s been a. It’s been an adventure. These are our pastors. I love the photo on the left. Pastor Martin is just laughing at something, smiling huge. He’s a Nigerian, but he’s been living in Ghana for 30 years, I guess, so everybody thinks he’s a Ghanaian now.
So we’re getting ready to step into the construction phase of ministry. We’re believing God is already starting to move, so we’re actively raising support for that. We need your prayers. We need monthly support. We need extra support every month. We’ve lost some support through some different avenues.
We actually had someone who passed away that supported us, so that’s a loss. So we ask you to pray. Pray that God would put those pocketbooks into place. Pray that God would allow us to cross the paths of those people. We need your prayers for encouragement.
We need your prayers for support. What you don’t realize is that what you pray here has an impact in West Africa. We felt the prayers, we felt the times of strengthening, that we reached out for prayer, and people have lifted us up. So that’s it in a nutshell.
Usually, when I’m ministering, Rob does the update, but it’s a little, little. I’m pulling triple duty today. That’s what the Marines say. Outstanding job. So here’s the teaching center. So on the right photo is our old canopy. We’ve extended it another 4 ft or 6 ft, and then we’re already bursting at the seams on that one.
So the left side, that’s going to be a two-tier, two-level, two-story, whatever it’s called. We’ll have the teaching center and the ministry center on the bottom, and the top will have an open seating area so we can catch a breeze when we’re outside.
Because as Pastor Kevin can attest, there’s no breeze inside the walls of a compound. The wind’s blowing, but we’re not receiving the wind. So, thank you, Ats. That’s pretty good. You can kill that or whatever.
So if you will open your Bibles, hopefully you have pages. I’m an old school kind of gal. I love turning the pages. I’ll be honest, I like to smell a book. This is not my favorite Bible. My favorite Bible is still in Ghana.
Oh, is that the one you were talking about earlier today? Okay. Remind me to smell that Bible when we get back. Jill doesn’t know this yet, but anytime I see books on our shelf, I’m hoping there’s something about the pages of a book.
Y’all, I don’t get to carry books to Africa because we’re limited in the weight in our luggage, so I have to carry electronics. So that’s why this one travels with me, because it’s super thin.
But you can open your book to 2 Kings, if you will. We’ll be in chapter two while you’re turning. Holy Spirit, we welcome you. We thank you. I ask that you hide me behind the shadow of the cross. Plead the blood of Christ in my mind and over my body.
Lord, let the words of my heart and the meditation, the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing unto you. And Lord, let this moment be as the evening sacrifice. Let it be an incense unto you as we fellowship together and as we open your word and receive the life in Jesus’ Name, Amen.
14 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, Lord, my rock and my Redeemer. (Psalms 19:14, CSB)
Okay, so if you are a title person, as Pastor Kevin was asking me earlier today, and I was just like, the journey. How far will you go? How far do you want to go? It can be any number of things.
2 Kings 2 is a pretty familiar passage of Scripture. It’s when Elijah is taken up to heaven in the whirlwind. And I’m going to start reading in verse one, because I’m not going to read the entire chapter.
It came to pass when the Lord was about to take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. Then Elijah said to Elisha, stay here please, for the Lord has sent me on to Bethel. But Elijah says, sorry.
Elisha says, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. So they went on down to Bethel. Verse 3. Now, the sons of the prophets who were at Bethel came out to Elisha and said, do you know that the Lord will take away your master from over you today? And he said, yes, I know. Keep silent.
2 and Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here; the Lord is sending me on to Bethel.” But Elisha replied, “As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel. 3 Then the sons of the prophets who were at Bethel came out to Elisha and said, “Do you know that the Lord will take your master away from you today?” He said, “Yes, I know. Be quiet.” (2 Kings 2:2-3, CSB)
I kind of relate to Elisha in a lot of ways in that sentence. That’s not the text, though. In verse four, Elijah said to him, Elisha, stay here please, for the Lord has sent me onto Jericho. But Elisha responded, as the Lord lives, as your soul lives, I will not leave you. So they came to Jericho.
Now the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho came to Elisha and said, do you know the Lord will take away your master from over you today? And he answered, yes, I know. Keep silent.
4 Elijah said to him, “Elisha, stay here; the Lord is sending me to Jericho.” But Elisha said, “As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So they went to Jericho. 5 Then the sons of the prophets who were in Jericho came up to Elisha and said, “Do you know that the Lord will take your master away from you today?” He said, “Yes, I know. Be quiet.” (2 Kings 2:4-5, CSB)
In verse six, Elijah said, stay here please. The Lord has sent me on to the Jordan. Elisha responded, as the Lord lives, as your soul lives, I will not leave you. So the two of them went on. Now you all know the rest of the passage. They get on, they go on down. They get to the Jordan.
6 Elijah said to him, “Stay here; the Lord is sending me to the Jordan.” But Elisha said, “As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So the two of them went on. (2 Kings 2:6, CSB)
Elijah is finally asking Elisha, what exactly are you asking? What do you want? He said, I want a double portion. If you see me when I’m taken, it’ll be given. If not, then I can’t help you. Basically. So they go on. The whirlwind comes down. Elisha keeps his eyes on Elijah.
He’s taken up the mantle, falls down. Elisha picks up the mantle and he walks back to the Jordan River. And the Jordan River is just still running. And he slams, where is the God of Israel now? And the water parts. And Elisha goes on over.
We all know that part in the reading of this and just kind of reading. I normally don’t delve into places very often, but Holy Spirit gave me. Gave me some things.
And he’s reminding me, this might be all for me and it might be for all of us, but I’m hoping to encourage all of us today. We’re all on an adventure. It’s called life. Our life is an adventure. It’s a faith walk.
Some treks are longer than others. Some treks are shorter than others. Some treks are said to be short lived. Some treks are said to be out of season. Whatever the case is, we’re all on a journey and we’re all walking somewhere. We all have an expected destination.
I know my expected destination is to be in the presence of my Father, to be in the presence of my Savior forever. That’s my expected hope. That’s my expected destination.
On this earth, there are different destinations that we walk through. And as I was reading and I was studying, I was asking Holy Spirit, I don’t get it. I really. Sometimes that’s how I ask him, Lord, I’m a little denser than other people. Sometimes I get things real quick. Sometimes it takes me a bit to break it out.
And so I began doing a word study on the journey that Elijah and Elisha began taking, that they were walking together. Now they were coming from Gilgal. The Scripture in 2 Kings 2:1 says that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal.
Now this is not. There are many Gilgal’s in Scripture. I did find that out. I did not know that there’s over six towns named Gilgal. But the word Gilgal has a specific meaning. This is not the Gilgal where they crossed the Jordan River and stepped into the Promised Land and they built.
They put up the erection of stones that the twelve tribes of Israel each put a stone. This is not that Gilgal. This is a different site. But Gilgal means circle. It’s a verb. It comes from the verb. And I’m not going to pronounce the words because I’m from Texas and I barely speak Texan, let alone English.
So not going to pronounce all of them, probably any of them. Many places have the same name. It’s a place of memorial. It’s a sacred site where large stones were always set up as a remembrance.
Now we know when they crossed into the Promised Land. As soon as the priests went through, they brought all the children of Israel through. And all the 12 tribes set up stones as a remembrance so that when the generations to come came to this place at Jordan, they would say, what does this mean?
Oh, this is when God parted the waters of the Jordan River. This is after all the wandering in the wilderness. And this is when we stepped foot into the Promised Land. That’s what these stones represent.
We have these things. We have historical monuments. We can go to the Statue of Liberty, and we can read the. Bring your tired, bring your weary, bring your. I don’t remember all of the things because I think I’ve only read it twice, honestly.
But we can say we know what the Statue of Liberty represents. The Statue of Liberty represented freedom from the oppression of different places as they were coming to the shores of America.
We can probably go. I know in the state of Texas, we have the Alamo. I would say forget the Alamo, because we actually lost that battle. But it’s still a monument, and it’s a battle that Texas fought through to gain independence from the state, from the country of Mexico.
You have moments. Jill and I were talking on the way over to church tonight about when people pass the things that. Oh, I remember getting this for my grandmother. That’s a form of memorial.
So Elisha and Elijah are walking out of a place of remembrance, and that journey is moving forward. Now, if you’re looking at Gilgal as the promised land, Gilgal is the place where the circumcisions were performed. Passover was celebrated at that Gilgal.
This Gilgal is. I’m kind of using them loosely together, but you’ll see when we move forward how it’s going. Gilgal was the base camp for the Israelites when Joshua led them to march around the Battle of Jericho.
That was the place where a decision was made. In our journey, the decision is to step we have to make. Sometimes we sit around and we’re just like, oh, man, I’m not good enough.
I can’t go. I can’t go to church. At Pastor Kevin’s church, man, that’s the firehouse. I don’t have any fire. I’ll be honest with y’all. I don’t have any fire right now. It’s not a place I want to be in.
Jill, you and I will talk tomorrow. you’ll have to forgive me, but it’s a place where we are separated from the what, the where, the who that we once were. It’s the place where non-believers get to the point. And they say, here is this person named Jesus that I’m hearing about.
I see all these Christians that are around me, and they’re happy, and there’s something about them. Yeah, they’re fighting through fire. But there’s a peace that’s around them that I don’t understand.
They’re coming out of a place of Gilgal, and they’re stepping forward into a different. Into a different realm. So then Elijah and Elisha are coming out of Gilgal, and Elijah, Elijah the master, turns to his apprentice and says, just stay here. I’m going to do something.
This journey was not for Elisha. This journey was Elijah’s. But Elisha, to his credit, to his absolute heart’s desires, like, no, no, no, no. You’ve got something that I still haven’t received yet. You’re still walking as the master prophet. That’s never going to change.
But there’s something deeper that I want, and I haven’t received it. So I’m going to continue going with you as long as the Lord lets me. As long as the Lord gives me breath, I’m going to continue on this journey.
So, Elijah, I mean, what do you do? Have you ever. Does anybody have younger siblings, younger cousins? Pastor Kevin does. Have you ever been going with your friends? And all of a sudden, little brother, little sister’s tagging along.
I have a twin sister, but she’s older than I am. But when we were born she was smaller than me. She’s a lot more petite. She was treated special when we were born.
So I’d be going out. We’d be out, going to go, you know, mess with the horses or do something with the cows. And Mom’s like, wait for Corey. She’s gonna get dirty, and then she’s gonna cry. Cause we’re gonna throw mud pies at her.
And then, you know, then I get in trouble. But you have someone tagging along. What do you do? You just go on your way? Because when we were growing up, we had to bring little siblings along, little cousins along. They just like, if you can keep up, you can come with me.
But otherwise, how many of y’all ran faster? Just try to lose them. Am I got a witness? At least one witness? No. I tried my whole life. A loser. This would be cool. Oh, we got the whole roll back. There is the youngers. Oh, those are. Those are the. If, like, my little brother was the favorite.
You’ll have to forgive me. I’m gonna drink some Dr. Pepper because my mouth gets dry. And then we don’t get Dr. Pepper in Ghana. We get other stuff. Praise the Lord. Gosh, that’s the best soda drink. That’s the best soft drink.
So Gilgal is the place where we separate. It’s the place we make a conscious decision to walk with Christ and live according to his ways. This is what we come out of.
The world is going to try to keep us in one spot. Oh, no, you’re not good enough. No, you can’t. You can’t. You know what your background is, you know where you came from, you know. Do you know what you keep doing? You do it over and over. You say things over and over. You don’t speak correctly. You can never do this.
My husband was very, very shy when we first met. We actually had people making bets on whether or not he would even speak the vows out loud.
I didn’t find that out until several months after. Because I know somebody had to bet that he would. Is that because he was shy or cautious? Shy. He would tell you cautious. But it was not a shotgun wedding. I don’t care what he tells you.
Elisha and Elijah were leaving out from that place, church. That’s what we have to do. Even though we’re believers, I’m gonna. I’m gonna trust that everybody’s a believer in the house. If you’re not, see Pastor Kevin, see Jill, see myself. See Pastor Rob, see.
Sorry, Pastor Rob. That’s what we call everybody in Ghana, too. See somebody that’s in the church and get your salvation squared away, because it’s not a joke. This is not a walk that we all want to just carry lightly, that we all just want to be haphazard with.
So Elisha tries. Elijah tries to get Elisha to stay in Gilgal, and Elisha says, no, I’m going to go with you. I’m going to go. So they went down to Bethel. Now, Bethel is an interesting place. I like Bethel.
Bethel is the house of God for the presence of God. Bethel had the school of the prophets. Could you imagine going to the school of the prophets? I would just like to be a fly on the wall, sitting around, just listening to all the conversation.
I like to listen to Pastor Kevin and Pastor Dallas when they get together. And Barry sometimes when y’all are. When just theological discussions or even just anything in the Bible, I just want to sit there. I just want to soak it all in.
The students of the prophets, the sons of the prophets, came to Elijah and they’re like, do you know? Do you know what’s about to happen? You sure you want to walk on this journey?
I like Elisha. Shut up. Leave me alone. Of course I know this. I’m walking with the Master. Don’t you see this? I already am aware. But Bethel is the place where Jacob saw the ladder, where the angels of God were ascending and descending upon it. From that study, we know that.
That the angels were already here, because if they were coming down from heaven, they would have descended first and then ascended later. But they ascended first. It’s an interesting study. Y’all have to do it. That’s your homework.
God was found in that place. From Jacob, the prophets would go to Bethel to hear from God. They specifically went to a place to gain spiritual understanding, to gain wisdom, to gain the strength to go on. It’s in the house of God that we often come for the same thing. Bethel’s where the bread was broken.
Bethel’s where he provided food. He provided Scripture, he provided strength. He provided sustenance. Bethel signifies the divine encounter and covenant renewal with God. It was also a major center of idol worship. The King Jeroboam set up the golden calves of worship. It was a place of spiritual corruption.
So you had the ones that were truly trying to seek after God, and then you had the ones that were seeking after everything else. Does that sound like anywhere? Does that sound like any nation around the world? Does it sound like any people group, any?
Any culture group? It’s everywhere. You have those that are truly trying to walk, and then you have those that would try to keep you from it. You have the enemy that’s constantly attacking. Is God really in this? Does God really want you to continue on?
I’m sure that Elisha battled so much more than that. Bethel also has the meaning as a place of refuge. Bethel’s the place where my heart beats for. I had to appreciate worship this morning. It was just such a sweet. At least for me.
I don’t know if anybody else was in that place of refuge, like, Lord, you are still right where you’ve always been. You are exactly where I need you in the moment that I need you. But I have to take that step to get to that presence. I have to take that step. I have to move forward.
And again, Elijah said, Elisha, just stay in Bethel. Just stay here with the sons of the prophets. Just stay here in the place where we know that God visited Jacob and they wrestled.
Just stay here in the place where we know supernatural things are happening. Just stay in the flow of what’s going on.
And Elisha, to his credit, I can’t go. I can’t stay. I have to go. I have to follow with you. Because there’s something more in this destination. There’s something greater than I’ve ever considered.
And it’s the same for Rob and I in our faith walk, in our life adventure that we’ve had together, especially in missions. We started out in cleaning. Well, we started out not knowing one another. And then God put us together.
We got married. But in that journey of all of that, we started out cleaning the church. We were looking for a place to serve. We had recently moved from Oklahoma, where we were both leaders in the church.
God moved us to Texas, and we spent, I think, three months, three and a half months going around this entire county for churches. And we’d walk into a church and we’d say, we’re here. We’re looking to be. We’re looking to be a part of a church family. We’re looking to serve. We’re looking how, whatever.
And we were literally, no. We have all the leaders we want. We’re not looking for people to do anything. Okay? We’re not coming back to this church again. Wrong house.
We went through the entire county, and we remembered that an evangelist that we had met while we were in Oklahoma was preaching revival right after Thanksgiving at a church not far from us. We’re like, you know what? We’re just going to go hear the evangelist because he was really cool, really, really vibrant. He was an awesome, awesome ministry. And we were really blessed by the ministry.
So we just decided to go up there just because he was preaching revival. That has been our home church now for 23 years. Our youngest son is a worship leader in the church there. He helps with the youth group there.
For a while, Pastor Kevin’s been trying to get him to Washington. We even called last night and said, hey, would you fly up here? Because the worship leader couldn’t be at Bremerton, this location, this morning. Blake’s like, how long’s the flight? It’s like, he would have done it.
He was that close to doing it, and then he couldn’t because they were already doing ministry at a different thing. But it was just a funny moment. But excuse me.
In our faith walk, we had to step out and we had to find the house of God where the bread was being broken. We had to find the place where we could fit in. We had to find where we. Okay, we’re going to stay here for a minute. Not knowing, not ever dreaming that there’s something bigger and greater than what we were experiencing.
We started out as janitors in the church, cleaning toilets. I can remember teaching Sunday school, and someone would come and tap me, hey, the toilet’s backed up. Like, I am in the middle of teaching Sunday school. We are teaching communion right this morning.
Don’t tell me the toilet’s backed up. Go get the plunger. And I had to after Sunday school. I’d have to go deal with the. With the thing. I don’t know why anybody doesn’t know how to use a plunger. I don’t know. But that was what we experienced, knowing something was calling us deeper.
Something was driving us to move forward. Now this Texas gal is in Washington State. Wait, where are we at now? Poulsbo. Poulsbo. Washington State.
You can. You can see Canada from the fort. What’s that fort up the road? Warden Bostad took us to Fort Worden the last time we were here. You can see Canada or Alaska. Which one is it? Canada from there.
Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever dreamed I’d be that far north of the Mason Dixon Line, to be honest. Just saying. Just saying.
It’s the Rio Grande in Texas. Never did I ever dream the journeys that I have been on, the places that we’ve gone, the people that we’ve met, the experiences that we’ve gotten to have.
It’s only because on this faith journey, and each step is bringing us closer to an expected destination, to an expected thing that we’re just walking towards.
So let’s. I don’t. I don’t know how long I have. How long do I have? Okay. They can’t tell me that. Oh, I’ll just back the light. Go ahead. Go ahead. So I’m gonna.
I’m gonna look at you, man. When you do this, then I’m gonna know. Okay, so Jericho is where they come next. They move to Jericho. Now, Jericho has always been one of my favorite things. Joshua 6 is one of my favorite passages of Scripture.
You walk, then everybody knows Jericho. Hopefully. If you don’t know Jericho. Do y’all all know what Jericho. All right, we’re good. Y’all. Y’all kind of have to get a little more animated with me, because I’m going to go for hours, days, weeks. I really can. Don’t say anything. If we get more animated, you’ll cut it back. Absolutely. Amen. There we go.
Okay, so Jericho. All right. Jericho means fragrant place, a fortress. So we all know Jericho was the walls that the children of Israel came to when they finally came out of wandering in the wilderness. They get to this place and they’re just like, well, not wandering. They came to this place. They’re like, y’all see that wall, right? And it’s all the way. Y’all see that, right? That’s just. I’m just gonna do it. Like, I’m right there with them.
Because I guarantee that’s what I would have been like. Y’all see that, too? I asked my husband that same question. you. You hear that sound, right? It’s not just me. You see that wall, right? It’s not just me.
So Jericho was the fortress that blocked the children of Israel from the promised land. It was the first battle fought and won in the land of revealed promise. God had already promised them. They came to it and they stopped. What do we do? What are we going to do?
So Joshua goes around to the back of the tent somewhere, the back of the temple, wherever, and he’s praying. And the angel of the Lord stands in front of him. I’m married to a military man. Joshua had his hand on his sword. He’s like, are you for us or are you for them?
13 When Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua approached him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?” (Joshua 5:13, CSB)
I am neither. I am from the most high God. Joshua falls on his face. He said, this is what you’re going to do. Joshua is the place that. I’m sorry, Jericho is the place. Heathen worship. Jericho was destroyed.
And in such an awesome way. Can you imagine? Even. I’m not going to preach on the battle of Jericho. But could you even imagine walking around? It’s hard for me because I’m a talker.
If the leader said, we’re going to walk, don’t say a word, don’t open your mouth, don’t hum, don’t do anything, don’t click your teeth, don’t cluck your tongue, don’t do all of that stuff. I might have had to stay in the tent. I’m just going to say, because I’m going to be walking around.
I can’t wait to see what God’s about to do to this wall. And I would say it out loud because I do that sometimes. Rob will say, what did you say? I don’t. Did I say something? He’s like, you just spoke out loud. Well, I was going over something in my mind. I just didn’t realize my mouth was magnifying the volume of my brain. I just didn’t realize that.
So this victory at Jericho caused Israel’s enemies to tremble before they even saw the Israelites.
Once Jericho’s walls fell and they began moving forward into the next lands, you need to go back and you need to read those.
Those places coming up were already living in fear just because they had seen and heard what God, what the God of Israel had already done. They were already trembling.
Jericho is a place of victory. Jericho is a place of breakthrough. Jericho is the place where we step up and we say, okay, God, I don’t know how to get past this. And he gives us instruction.
And a lot of times we go, I don’t know if I heard that right. Pastor Kevin, could you give me some counsel? This is what God’s saying, but I really want to put the fleece out and make sure that I’m hearing the Word of God right.
Y’all ever. Y’all have never done that. Y’all are more saintly than I am. It’s like, Lord, okay, if this is what you’re saying, this is what I want you to do.
And when he does it, look, if I heard you that way, then this is what I want you to do this way. And he answers me that way. He’s so gracious and so loving, kind and so patient with me. I’m so thankful for that.
Jericho is the place of faith. It’s the place of battles. Israel began to walk in a new understanding when they got to Jericho, when they came up and they heard God speak and they said, you know what? We’re going to be obedient. We’re going to listen to Joshua.
You know, Moses done said he’s a good guy, so going to pay attention to him. And then we’re going to obey and do what God is saying to do. And God gave them miraculous victory.
Walking into the promised land, Jericho is the place where the rubber meets the road. Jericho is the place in our faith walk. No matter what’s going on, there’s going to be Jericho in front of us. But we have to make the decision.
Do we stay in Bethel, or do we take the instructions that we’ve just received and begin walking through to get through the victory of Jericho?
It’s a great faith walk. Such an adventure. I don’t always like the adventure. I’ll be honest. There are times I’m like, Lord, come quickly, or at least take me home quickly. Because in this moment, I’m saved. I’m righteous because I don’t know if I can make the next moment because I see the problem that’s in front of me or the person that’s walking towards me.
And Jericho is not always a place. It’s not always a fortress. Jericho can be a person. Jericho can be a mentality. Jericho is a stronghold that I do know.
When you start breaking, when you start stepping into territory that the enemy does not want you in, it’s a little bit different battle, it’s a little bit different atmosphere. And it’s just like, Lord, I don’t know if we can do this. You know what? Just be silent and just continue walking.
When you get to the point, there’s going to be a shout of victory. There’s going to be a dance. They don’t dance. We dance in Africa. He doesn’t dance ever. We do have video proof of a just slight dance. But when our daughter-in-law is healed of cancer, he will dance.
Jericho is a lot of things. There’s a lot of things represented in Jericho. But I believe when we step in faith, we walk in obedience. There’s a fragrance that pleases the Father, and he just simply breathes that incense. And then he.
I’m pleased with that one. I’m pleased you’ve heard, you’ve obeyed, you’ve continued walking. And then he destroys the enemy right in front of us. So at least that’s the way I see it.
Every story that’s said in Jericho, in Scripture, conveys the broader themes of our faith walk. It conveys obedience, it conveys mercy, it conveys healing, it conveys redemption and compassion. It’s the battleground we often face immediately after hearing a word from the Lord in the house of the Lord or having a victory in some other area. There’s another immediate something.
Have you ever had seasons where you’re just like, what else can happen, what else can come, what else can be there?
So Jordan, we’re going to move forward now. Elijah tried to get Elisha to stay in Jordan, or sorry, in Jericho. And Elisha says, I’m going to continue going with you.
The sons of the prophets even came out and said, you need to say, are you aware that this is about to happen? And Elisha says, yes, I don’t care what’s going to happen.
I’m going to continue going because I’m going to meet the destination that I have, that I’m. That I. That I have something burning in my spirit. I have something in my soul. I’m going to get there.
So they come to the Jordan, they come to Jordan. Now Jordan means flowing down or descending. It also means the descent, the descending one. I kind of find that interesting. The descending one, it’s like Jordan, Jordan. If you go study the Jordan, it has a. It, it does descend quite a bit, but it’s a core elevation drop.
It flows and then it drops, and it flows and it drops, and it flows and it drops. Go look up the numbers for yourself, because I didn’t. I do know it flows downhill like some 2,000 ft of elevation, and it drops rapidly. That part I did pick up.
There’s another etymology when you do the word study: the river is the judge. And it’s the idea of a suspected criminal being thrown into the river. If the person survives, he was judged innocent. The river judged him and allowed him to live. Kind of a scary thing, too, there.
The Jordan is where we have spiritual transition. We’ve walked from a place that we were stuck, that we not necessarily stuck in, that we were staying in, that people would have us to remember things about ourselves, remember things that’s kept us down or kept us back or that we’re not good enough or we’re not ever going to be good enough.
And we stepped forward and we stepped into Bethel, which is the house of God, where we receive the bread of life. We receive revelation, we receive strength, we receive instruction, we receive sharpening and the tools to walk in this faith walk.
Then we step into Jordan, or, sorry, Jericho. Jericho is the place of battle, where we have to put to faith the things that we’ve already picked up, the things that we’ve already learned, and then we’re still on the road to Jordan. Jordan is that place where you see a transition.
My husband and I saw it in our church in Texas when we finally found the one church. It’s like, yeah, we’ll take you. What? He plays the trumpet. We need a trumpet player on this praise team. Oh, do you teach?
We need a Sunday school teacher in some of the classes. We’re going to start doing this stuff together. We’re going to walk together. That’s the place where our ministry was, I’ll say, expedited. Holy Spirit began depositing things like this.
We didn’t know it at the time, but we can look back and we can see it in our faith journey. It’s like, oh, Lord, that’s a wonderful thing. That’s. That’s really. That’s a really cool thing. It’s been a wild journey, but it’s a really cool journey.
Now we’re living in West Africa, and my husband preaches. And sometimes I don’t know who he is when I hear him preach, because he used to never be that vocal ever.
If I’d have known they were placing bets at our wedding, I would have placed a bet myself, my own. I’ve been like, you better be talking those vows. But triple down. Those odds are pretty good in my favor.
The Jordan is a spiritual transition. It’s a turning point that we walk through, that we on the way to our freedom. As we’re walking, it’s the last leg of the journey through the wilderness. The Israelites had to pass through the Jordan River. They stepped from slavery into freedom. They stepped from bondage into victory.
1 The allotment for the descendants of Joseph went from the Jordan at Jericho to the Waters of Jericho on the east, through the wilderness ascending from Jericho into the hill country of Bethel. (Joshua 16:1, CSB)
They stepped from one place to another. I can remember. I know the Jordan River is a euphemism for heaven. I don’t know. You can ask Pastor Kevin, all that stuff.
I can remember being 6, 7 years old and being in a revival, and children were kicking off their shoes as they were slain in the Spirit on the floor. And I remember just walking back and forth, and I’m just looking at all these kids and some adults and teenagers, and it was just a powerful revival. And I remember just looking and I remember.
I don’t know who the person was. I was like, why are they taking their shoes off? I don’t. I don’t know what they’re taking their shoes off for. And the minister said, well, they’re crossing a Jordan. I’m like, well, then, well, kids might drown. I was little. I know better now.
But I can remember those moments. I remember those moments in my own faith walk, those experiences where I’m like, you know what, God? Take whatever has to be left on this side, then I can transition through to this side because there’s something waiting over here.
We know the story. Elisha got to that point, and the mantle of Elijah fell down. He picked it up, and there was a double portion, a double anointing, a double blessing that was upon him.
I don’t know where you are in your faith walk, but I hope you’ll take courage to keep walking. Take heart. Don’t grow, don’t, don’t, don’t grow. Don’t grow weary. In due season, you will reap if you faint not. That’s what I’m believing for.
The Jordan represents the place that we step into, the fulfilled promises of God. I’ve seen it in my own ministry where I walked into a place and there was a woman that came over and she literally put her leg up like this.
We were in Africa and it was a pillar. Okay, you have a pillar there. It’s a pillar like this, holding just a piece of wood, like a four by four. And she put her foot way up high on the dress and all. I was just like, okay, what are we doing here?
She said, there’s a cancer on my leg. Before I even touched her leg, I’m like, ooh, that’s hot. You could feel the heat coming off of her calf. It’s like, oof.
I’m by myself. He’s preaching at another church. Pastor Dallas is over at a completely different church. I don’t know these people. They don’t know me. I just finished preaching about the goodness of God and the blessings. And she put her leg up there. She’s like, here. I was like, how?
Holy Spirit said, now what have you picked up? What have you learned? Apply. It’s like, okay. So I touched her leg.
Lord, in the Name of Jesus, I ask you to heal her leg. And felt it begin cooling. The hot from even far away. Just felt it cooling.
I’ve seen many, many things that God has done. And I know that there’s been Jordans. I know I haven’t crossed the ultimate Jordan. None of us are there yet. But it’s still our expected destination. It’s still our expected arrival. God still is expecting us to arrive. We just have to continue to walk.
So the question, and like I said, this may just be for me, but it may be for everybody else. How far are you willing to go? How far will you walk? How far will we journey? The world doesn’t look the same as it used to. It may never be the same. Doesn’t matter. How far will we go? Are we willing to dig in? Are we willing to press in? Are we willing to get that drive and keep going forward?
We can’t stay in the place of remembrance, because if we’re only looking at things God did, we’re missing what God’s doing and what God wants to do. If we’re only looking backwards, we’re going to trip as we’re trying to walk forwards. Because you can’t. You can’t walk forward while you’re looking backwards.
I just tried it not too long ago, and a complete stranger said, you know you’re going to run into something if you keep looking back. I was looking for the air thing to fill up the tire. We had a low tire.
Each place represents a different season within our faith Walk. In this particular passage, this is what Holy Spirit is speaking to me. It’s easy to camp out. It’s so easy to stay in one spot. But don’t do it. I gotta challenge you.
I’d miss seeing all of you if I had camped out in any of the other places. You guys would miss seeing me if you camped out in some of the other places. I’m considering it a blessing y’all might not be. But that’s all right. I’m not everybody’s cup of tea. That’s fine.
Look at where you’re at. See what season you’re in, what faith, walk, adventure, what place that you. you’re in and say, okay, God, where do you want me to go from here? Do I follow the mentor? Is there a mentor in your life?
Is there someone that God has put before you that you can. That you’ve been following? Or is there God saying, no, I don’t want you to go this way. I want you to go this way. But Lord, I like this one better. I don’t like him. I don’t like what he’s saying.
That’s going to make me step out of my comfort zone, as my husband would say. That’s going to make me start preaching. And God did it. He’s still not in his Jordan.
We can’t stay in the place where ours is the only breakthrough. There’s Jordans for—sorry, Jericho’s for everyone. And sometimes we’re supposed to be the one that shows the way to get to the breakthrough. As we walk through victory, we’re supposed to show others how to walk that same way.
We can’t stay in one spot. We’ve got to keep. We’ve got to keep moving forward. And we’re going to see the anointing of God. We’re going to see the blessings of God. We’re going to see the power of God.
It may not be as miraculous as Elisha. When I’m dead and buried in a grave, somebody gets thrown in on my grave on top of me, they may not resurrect. I’m okay with that. I just want to know that I’m in a place that God, I can say, Lord, how would you. How would you have me minister to anybody else around me?
I want you to receive the glory, but I want to see you doing things. However, I can walk, however I can look, however I can sound. Just let me be your instrument. Let me be part of the journey that someone else is walking on. Even for my own walk. Let me follow in those steps.
So how far would you like to go? That’s it. That’s it. I’ll give it to Pastor Kevin. So Gilgal, Bethel, Jericho, and Jordan, that’s a journey. Y’all need food for the journey. We have food for the journey.
Our food is Jesus himself, and he’s given us this meal to say, I’m here. your New Covenant. Your sins are forgiven, and you can feast on me.
And so, dear ones, I just want to invite you forward to receive the food of God this evening. The body and blood of Christ.
On the night he was betrayed, Jesus took bread and he broke it, gave thanks to his Father in heaven. He said, this is my body given for you.
In the same way, he poured out the cup, gave thanks to his Father in heaven, and said, this is my blood which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. It’s the blood of the New Covenant.
So, dear ones, come and take food for the journey. Come and receive communion. Come to the table tonight.
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