Join Sharon Otts in an enlightening discussion on the dynamics of spiritual warfare and God’s promises to His people. Reflecting on the experiences of Israel under Joshua’s leadership, she draws compelling lessons on obedience, faith, and spiritual conquest. With insights on walking softly before God and boldly before the enemy, she equips the faithful with wisdom and courage to advance and possess what God has granted them, while urging a break from compromise for a stronger spiritual walk.
00:24:02 Lessons from History and Modern Implications
SPEAKER 01 :
Greetings, friends and new listeners, and welcome to The Sound of Faith. I’m Sharon Otts, thanking you for joining us today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. I’m excited to bring you today’s devil-chasing message, Satan the Whistleblower. masquerading as an authority over the people of God, he goes around blowing his whistle at us. You can’t park here. You can’t do this. You can’t do that. He is a trespasser and can only usurp our God-given territory if we let him. You have authority over Satan, the whistleblower. So if we even backed up to the verse before, verse 6, James 4, 6, it says, God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. So we cannot resist Satan when God is resisting us. Yeah, that’s a… We cannot resist Satan successfully when God is resisting us for pride. But when we humble ourselves, God starts heaping on the grace. And when he heaps on the grace, you will stand. You can stand. No matter what the devil throws at you, you will stand because he said, my grace is sufficient for you. Amen? All right, I’m going to give you a second chance, folks. Without looking in your Bible on your phone, who can tell me what 1 Peter 5.8 says? 1 Peter 5.8. Anybody? Okay, Rita. You are one before your 5.7. Casting all your care upon him for he cares for you. That’s 5.7, but not 5.8. Okay, you should know this one. Be sober. Be vigilant for your adversary, the devil, walketh about seeking whom he may devour, whom you resist steadfast in the faith. Even knowing, knowing that your brethren in the world, your sister in the world are suffering the same afflictions that you’re suffering. Amen. now this is another favorite of scriptures but if we backed up to verse six and seven and rita already gave us seven but let’s go up to six it says humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of god that he may exalt you in due time casting all your care upon him see they go together For he cares for you. Now you can be sober. And you can be vigilant. Amen. And you can stand against your adversary. You can resist him. And he will flee from you. So what is the message we’re getting? We first must be submitted to God. And then when we’re submitted to God. Because we’re walking in humility before the Lord. You know to put that in a nutshell. You’re walking in humility. Therefore you’re obeying God. Amen. You’re going along with what his word says and his will says. And that is being humble under his mighty hand. You know, from time to time, the Lord does speak to me in dreams. When he gives me dreams that are specifically a message from him, they’re usually very dramatic and very vivid. But once in a while, he’ll just give me one word. or a sentence right before I wake up so that I will remember it because you know a lot of times you don’t remember your dreams later when you wake up in the morning but when he gives it to me like you know moments almost before I’m awake I remember those and I know that it’s a specific word for me I’m thinking he gave this particular word back in around 2009 2010 somewhere in there and this is what I heard right as I was waking up Walk softly before the Lord. Walk boldly before the enemy. Walk softly before the Lord. Walk boldly before the enemy. I’ve got to tell you that that made such a major impact. Obviously, we’re in 2020 and I’m still talking about it. Amen. And I realized that I needed to walk softly before Jesus. I needed to walk in all humbleness of mind. I needed to walk and surrender to him. I needed to crucify Sharon’s flesh. I need to crucify my ego. I needed to walk softly before. Before the Lord. And when I walk softly before the Lord. Something dramatic happens. I walk boldly before the enemy. Amen. When I’m walking in humility before the Lord. He puts some Holy Ghost power in my backbone. And I may have a weak backbone at times in the natural. But oh in the spirit he gives me a backbone. And I can be bold against the adversary. I can walk boldly before Satan. Because I’m not walking in myself. Amen. I’ve got the Holy Spirit backing me up. Amen. And I walk boldly before him and he flees from me. And then I do tread upon the lion and the adder. I tread upon that dragon under my feet. I then tread upon the serpent and the scorpion over all the power of the enemy. And like the scripture says, the God of peace shall shortly bruise Satan’s head under your heel. My God, when I’m walking softly before the Lord, amen, walking softly before him, when the devil comes after me and attacks me, I can rise up and I can tread him underfoot. Amen. That’s what you have to do. Stay submitted to the Lord. And when the attack comes against you, then you will rise up strong. You know, it’s a shame some of you didn’t come this morning. The Holy Spirit is telling me to tell you. I’m going to call your name. He brought you before my mind. I hope you’re watching because this message is for you. You’ve been struggling and struggling and you’ve been taking two steps forward and one step back. Two more forward and one step back. Enough of that already. Amen. And the Lord wants to deliver you. Amen. Okay, we’ve got to take the territory that God has given us. Let’s turn to Numbers 33 and let’s look at verse 50. And the Lord spoke unto Moses in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, When you are passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan, then shall you drive out. all the inhabitants of the land from before you and destroy all their pictures and destroy all their molten images and quite pluck down that’s old english but it’s aggressive and tear down completely all their high places And you shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land and dwell therein, for I have given you the land to possess it. I have given it to you, but you’ve got to possess it. And you shall divide the land by a lot for inheritance among your families, and the more you shall give, the more inheritance. In other words, the bigger ones, bigger families will get more land. Smaller families will get less land, according to their tribes. Verse 55. But if you will not drive out the inhabitants of the land before you, then it shall come to pass that those which you let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes and thorns in your sides and shall vex you in the land wherein you dwell. Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t want no pricks in my eyes and thorns in my side. amen and i don’t want any uninvited vexation of the devil because i didn’t drive him out where i needed to drive him out and so he’s very clear here they were to destroy all the pagan artifacts all the pictures and icons all the idols and then they were to go in the high places they would go high up and then they would take the trees and they would shape them in the shape of gods and idols and they would go there and worship and do sacrifice so he said march up to the high place and tear down those trees and those groves and tear down all their idols and dispossess the people this right here is the nation of israel’s title deed to the land In case the United Nations needs to know where the title deed is, here it is right here. He says, dispossess the nations of the land, which we often call Canaan, because I give it to you. But you got to drive them out. Amen? So that’s what God told Moses. Now we know Moses was not going to get to go in. But Moses is the one that had the authority that could tell them this is what God says. And they would believe. But now Moses is dead. So let’s go to Joshua chapter 1. And now the baton has been passed on to Joshua to take the children of Israel into the promised land. Now after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke unto Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses’ minister, saying, Moses, my servant, is dead. They already knew he was dead. God’s making a point. The past is the past. It’s time to move on. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that I have given unto you, just like I did unto Moses. From the wilderness, this Lebanon, even to the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your coasts. And so now God is saying, you’ve got to go into the land. Amen? You’ve got to, with your feet, the children of Israel are going to have to march into the land and dispossess the inhabitants, which meant they were going to have battles and go to war. Amen? He said from the wilderness. Now that took from south where Israel borders with Egypt. From the border of Egypt, north all the way up to and including Lebanon. Including Lebanon. And from the east, the Euphrates, that’s going all the way into the center of Iraq. The Euphrates River flows through the center of modern Iraq all the way to the great sea west, which is the Mediterranean Sea. These were the borders of the land that God said, I give to you. And the Israelites with Joshua went into the land and they spent many years, years conquering the land that God had given them. However, even after many years, there were still large portions and territories that they had not yet taken. Now let’s flip over to Joshua 13, 13. Nevertheless, the children of Israel expelled not the Geshurites nor the Macathites, but the Geshurites and the Macathites dwell among the Israelites until this day. Go to 1563. As for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out. but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem until this day. Go to 1610. And they drave not out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer, but the Canaanites dwell among the Ephraimites until this day and serve under tribute. So what’s going on here? We see that these are areas that are still under enemy control. Amen. They didn’t drive them out. And you read Jerusalem. Hello. Jerusalem is where God said, I will put my house and put my name. This is where you will come to worship me. Because it was in that area that Abraham offered up Isaac on Mount Moriah. Amen? And that city was where the Lamb of God would be offered up. They had to have Jerusalem, but they didn’t drive them out in the time of Joshua. And do you know that hundreds of years later, when King David was king, he had to fight against them for the city of Jerusalem. Amen? And then we read here that where the Canaanites were, where the Ephraimites were supposed to have the land, they didn’t drive them out and instead they let them stay there and pay them taxes. God didn’t say, oh, if they don’t want to go, that’s okay. Just let them stay there and make them pay you taxes. That’s not what God said. God didn’t want their corrupt money. He wanted the enemy out of God. His land. He didn’t want them to be surrounded by enemy. Even if they were paying them taxes. Because they were going to assimilate with them. And end up with their kids marrying their kids. And corrupting them. Amen. God said I want you to drive them out. You know today some Christians. involved in unrighteous relationships sometimes they’re living together and then one of them gets saved but they don’t move out or make the unsaved one move out because we have a financial agreement and I can’t afford to pay the rent or the mortgage if I make them get out I won’t be able to afford it and you know what that says that says first of all you put yourself in a compromised position Where you’re going to be influenced and if nothing else, vexed. Vexed. Pricks in your eyes and thorns in your side and vexed by the other person’s ungodliness. And secondly, it says that you do not believe God can supply your need if you step out in faith and obey him and do what’s right. You don’t believe that if you say, I’m going out on a limb. Well, go out on the limb in obedience to God and say, now God, I’m obeying the word of God and I’m up a financial tree. And I need you to make a way. Don’t you believe God can do that? If you’re waiting for him to make a way and then you’re going to split, it’s not going to happen. You’re living in compromise and disobedience and God doesn’t bless that. Amen. And that’s what the Israelites were doing. Exactly that. Let’s look at 1712. Yet the children of Manasseh could not drive out the inhabitants of those cities, but the Canaanites would dwell in that land. Now Manasseh was a huge tribe. It was one of the larger tribes. And they actually came to Joshua, belly aching, saying that, well, the area that you gave us is not big enough for us. We need more land. And Joshua said, well, you know what? Since you’re such a large people and a great people, you know that mountain right there that’s covered with trees? Go cut them down. And then they said, but the Canaanites are there, and they’re a strong people, and they have iron chariots. And Joshua did not say, oh, yeah, well, I didn’t think about that. Oh, I got you now. No, he didn’t take their excuses. He said, you are a great people. Now drive them out. Amen? Amen. If God says, I give you the land, he’s going to give it to you. Drive them out. He’s for you. He’s with you. God loves it when he has to show up because you’re so outnumbered. You’re so outnumbered and they got iron chariots and you don’t. Amen. That’s when God likes to show up and show off. Because then you know that he gets all the credit. amen so joshua did he wasn’t having it let’s look at chapter 18 verse 1 and the whole congregation of the children of israel assembled together at shiloh and set up the tabernacle of the congregation there and the land was subdued before them they are now putting up the tabernacle in shiloh okay because they don’t have jerusalem yet so for a while this is where the tabernacle of god will remain And there remained among the children of Israel seven tribes which had not yet received their inheritance. And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, How long are you slack to go to possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers has given you? How long are you going to be slack? Years have gone by. And they still had not taken the land that God gave them. Because when they thought about doing it, they heard the devil saying, you can’t come here. They heard the Canaanites can’t have this territory. They heard the Amorites. This is our land. Get out. and they didn’t obey the Lord. So let’s go back to Joshua 13 because even though we’re backtracking numerically chronologically, we are on the right track. You will see what I mean. Joshua 13 verse one. Now Joshua was old and stricken in years. And the Lord said unto him, you are old and stricken in years. Thank you, Lord. Don’t tell me that, okay? Tell me you’re renewing my youth. And there remains yet very much land to be possessed. This is the land that yet remains. All the borders of the Philistines. All the borders of the Philistines. And all Geshur. From Syhor which is before Egypt. Even to the borders of Ekron northward. Which is counted to the Canaanites. The five lords of the Philistines, the Gazerthites and the Ashtothites, the Eshkelonites and the Gittites and the Akronites and the Avites, and you would go on to say the Canaanites, the Sidonians, the Amorites, even all of Lebanon. All that land still had not been taken. That’s a lot, amen? We saw that when God told Moses and then Moses told Joshua, told the children of Israel, gave them specific instructions to go in and dispossess the people and take the land. But all these years later, so much of it was still under enemy territory. And part of this was to be allocated to the tribes of Judah and Dan. And this area was occupied by the notorious Philistines. Why? If they had taken that land, we’d have a much smaller Bible. We’d have a smaller Old Testament for sure. Amen? All the battles going up against the Philistines, we probably wouldn’t have the story of Samson and the story of David and Goliath. Amen? Because they did not take the land that God had given them. And so these warrior Philistines dug their heels in. And they had five major cities, Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron. Now, some of these may sound familiar to you, not just from the Bible, but when you listen to your nightly news. If there’s any news about what’s going on over there in Israel, you may hear some of these cities. You will hear about the Gaza Strip, right? And you will hear about Ashdod. These cities are very prevalent in our daily news regarding Israel. But Israel didn’t take these territories. So not long after Joshua’s death, the tribe of Judah did manage to take the cities of Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ekron. But even though they came in and took the cities, they still were not able to drive the Philistines out of them. And you know what? The Philistines recovered, turned around and drove them out. So these pagan groups like the Philistines and the Amorites, which we read about a lot in the Old Testament, they were left there and they were left to vex Israel. And so God used them cities. He used those pagan people. He used the Philistines and the Amorites everywhere. to judge his people for their backslidings. Amen. So many times, especially when you go now after Joshua, when you go to the book of Judges, you got a 450-year cycle. of their backsliding, their repenting, God blessing them, their backsliding, going back into captivity. It just keeps repeating the cycle. Amen? And they’re vexed because they let these people stay in the territory for hundreds of years to come. These fierce enemies of Israel, even all the way up to the time of King David, continually vexed the Israelites. You know, he had to fight multiple times before he was able to render them too weak to no longer pose a threat against the Israelites. But he was never able to incorporate their land. into his kingdom. Amen. What a Satan stomping word. Satan, the whistleblower. When Jesus sent forth 70 disciples to prepare the surrounding towns to receive his visitation, he told them to preach the kingdom of God and back it up with evidence, healing the sick. And they did. And they returned ecstatically, informing Jesus that even the demons were subject to them in his name. Jesus’ response may seem anticlimactic. I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven until we understand that the Greek text actually means I kept seeing Satan fall from heaven. Every time they cast out a demon, Jesus saw Satan fall all over again. And every time a Holy Spirit-filled child of God casts Satan out of their life, Satan has deja vu. He experiences his fall all over again. This animated anointed message is available on CD for a love gift of $10 or more for the radio ministry. And why not add this to your spiritual library today? Request SK220. Mail… Your love gift of $10 or more to Sound of Faith, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Or go online to our e-store at soundoffaith.org, where you will find other messages of mine and my dad, Archie Hardy. They’re also available on MP3s. But to order by mail, send your minimum love gift of $10. Request SK220 to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Saints, the rising postal cost eats up a large portion of your $10. So please prayerfully consider adding a larger love gift to your order. Thank you. God bless you. And until next time, Maranatha.
