📖 Joshua 13 : 1-5
“… the Lord said to Joshua, “You are very old , and THERE ARE STILL VERY LARGE AREAS OF LAND TO BE TAKEN OVER ” . v 1.

IDENTIFY THE UNCONQUERED LAND
Joshua had fulfilled his God’s given task of conquering the land but the Lord had pointed out the UNCONQUERED LAND ( v 2-5 ) . Some of the unconquered lands were the regions of Philistines and Geshurites, Amorites, Sidonians and others.. (13:2-5) .

📌 Unconquered Philistine towns v 3
Let us meditate upon the unconquered Philistine towns.They all had some historical importance , and we can draw some spiritual insight.

1) Gaza : It was the place where Samson lost his vision (Judges 16:21) . He was born with God’s intervention , and was raised as a Nazirite . God gave him power and strength but he choose a wrong life partner by the name Delilah (Judges 13,14,15 &16) . Later on she was successful to find out the secret of Samson’s strength. Finally he was seized and the Philistine took out his eyes 👀
🎯 There are a series of Gaza that comes in our pilgrimage by which we often lose our SPIRITUAL VISION ( lust of the eyes , lust of the flesh , pride of life )

📝 Job said , “I made a covenant with my 👀not to look lustfully at a girl ” 31:1

WHOM DO YOU LOVE – GOD OR DELILAH ?

🎯 Where there is no vision people perish.

📝 The writer of Hebrews writes , ” let us fix our 👀 on Jesus ..” 12:2

2) Ashdod (I Samuel 5:1-5) . Here idol worship was popular with Dagon as the Philistine’s supreme god.
Yes , there are Ashdod in our lives. Anything that becomes more important than God is to be checked.
📝 When the Ark of God was kept beside Dagon in their temple , next morning the statue of Dagon was broken into pieces.

🎯 Every idols will be thrashed out when we invite Jesus in our lives and give him the lordship ✝️

3) Gath : The birth place of GOLIATH (1Samuel 17:4) . Goliath was huge and powerful warrior who challenged and mocked at the Israelites. Goliath is often pictured as a man of boasting , power , pride , rudeness and arrogant .

🎯 Sometimes we are engulfed with pride and arrogance.
Pride is the enemy of God ( Prov 16:18 )

🎯 We need the Armor of DAVID ( Holy Spirit ) to defeat the schemes of GOLIATH in our lives.

📌 Unconquered Sidonians land v 4
Jezebel , the wife of Ahab the most wicked king of Israel belongs to Sidon . She was the strong believer and promoter of Baal worship (1Kings 16:30-33). Even our Lord Jesus Christ declared the sin/guilty of Thyatira church for being submissive to Jezebel ( Rev 2:20-23 ). He will judged them severely.

Who are Jezebel today ❓
Someone who :
✔️ Leads someone away from the Lord.
✔️ Leads / encourage others to worship idols
✔️ Encourage Immorality and Worldly Pleasures .

🎯 Let us identify the Jezebel ( False teachers, Cult and Nominal Christians ) and rescue our fellow brethrens by feeding His Word 📖

💕 Beloved Church, today we are not to conquer lands but we have to conquer the spirit of GAZA, ASHDOD, GATH and SIDON ( known and unknown SINS )
🔖 HOW TO CONQUER ❓
1) RECLAIM the vision ( Ask wisdom from above )
2) REFOCUS on God’s Word ( Break away from idols )
3) RELY on God’s Power ( let us claim Romans 8 : 31 )
4) REFRAIN from evil practices ( Cast away the Jezebel’s spirit )
.
🙌 Take courage, the Lord will give you and me every place where we set our foots 👣 👣

Glory to God 🙌
✍🏾 Mark Boje
Arunachal Pradesh, India 🇮🇳