"Choices are for the Living" Stacking your stones

Choices are for the Living          

Joshua 4:1-7, “When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan from right where the priests stood and to carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.” So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan.  Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you.  In the future, when your children ask you, “What do these stones mean?”  Tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord.  When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”

photo credit tommyimages.com

Deuteronomy 6:12, “Be careful not to forget your God who brought you out of Egypt.”  It’s interesting to me what the word, “memorial” means in Hebrew. It means to remember. Stacking your stones is not to mark a place of burial or temple, but a memorial to some sort of battle, a memorial reminds us of a place or time in our lives, it triggers a memory good or bad.  The Israelites were always forgetting about the Lord’s goodness. I know many people who visit their past only to be tormented by the actions and reactions of others but the Lord is saying, “Be careful not to forget your God who brought you out of Egypt.”  Egypt represented bondage and slavery and the Lord was saying remember me, your Lord. What has been your Egypt? Has the Lord brought you through of a drug addiction? Has He brought you through being molested as a child, or being raped? Or maybe God has brought you through of a pornography habit, a cigarette habit, or an ugly divorce. Or perhaps the Lord has brought you through cancer, eating disorder, fear, stroke, or suicidal thoughts.  Be careful Readers, not to forget the Lord who brought you out of your Egypt. When I look back on my own life I have a choice to make, I can remember how God brought me through or I can remember Egypt.  I can remember slavery or I can remember being set free.  I can remember the bondage I endure or I can remember my deliverance. Oh Readers, how our memories remind us of God’s faithfulness; it is a sign post to a lost world. The Apostle Paul says, “I forget about the past so I can press on to the future.”  Each stone represented a person, a tribe if you will and how God brought them through the Jordan to get to the other side. Many of you are still waiting on the wrong side of the Jordan you are pining for Egypt because it’s far better to remain in the pain of your past than to pick up your stone and carry it across, but you must pick up your stone and carry it across and lay it at the feet of Jesus. I believe the stone was a type and shadow of their previous bondage, despair, and suffering, it represented God’s ability to bring them through the trails of the promise of long ago according to Exodus 3:8, “So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.” Another interesting fact; in Hebrew milk represents spiritual and honey represents the best. So in essence the Lord was saying I have come down to deliver you from your oppression into a land filled with my spiritual best.

 In Deuteronomy 1:6-7, “The Lord your God has said to us at Horeb, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain.  Break camp and advance into the hill country of the Amorites…Readers, for many of you God is saying, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain break camp and advance you have stood too long in front of a mountain that I have removed. I have offered you a land flowing with my spiritual best pick up your stone and carry it across because one day your children will ask, “What do these stones mean?” Each battle you’ve had in your life is another opportunity to stack a victory stone as your sign post of faith.  Choices are for the Living……

 Stacking my stones for Jesus…Michele Davenport

For prayer or questions please email me at fbministries@comcast.net

To order my books or listen to my messages on audio on subjects like, Faith First, Armor of God part 1 &2, Vertical faith part 1 &2 go to fbministries.com

Choices are for the Living

Choices are for the Living

Choices

 Stop treating me like an option, where you pick and choose

If your decision is wrong, then it is you, who will lose

Can you see that I am the answer? Or is that beyond your reach, Did you know that I walked the earth for years, this is where I preached, I taught the power of healing, and I made a blind man see,

I showed who my Father was, when you looked at me, when my journey was over I went to the cross,

Where I gave my life to His people, who were scared, lonely, and lost,

In three days I arose, to everyone confused, do not make me an option, or you will surely lose,

Many did not believe what they saw with their own eyes when I came to speak to them, they were terrified,

It was their own decision; they chose not to believe, I was sent by my Father to set His people free,

When you’re faced with an option, don’t make me a choice, Sit quietly before me and listen to my voice.

John 10:3(b)-4 “He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out. When He has brought out all of His own, He goes on ahead of them, and His sheep follow Him because they know His voice.”

I was trying to quit smoking eighteen years ago.  I went to God and ask Him to help me.  I wanted God’s help but with my conditions. I began talking to God about what I was willing to do in order to be set free but in the same breath I began to tell God what I was not willing to go through to quit the habit of killing myself.  Every year for eight years I tried to quit smoking and every year I would ask God to help me.  Each time I would approach God differently, but I would say the same thing.  Oh God, please, help me, please, help me.  I want to quit smoking but please don’t let me gain weight, please don’t let me go through with-draws, and God I don’t want to get sick or become a grouch.  I would give God my list of demands on how I wanted Him to help me.  Year after year, I remained a victim by choice.  Finally I went to God on the night before Easter.  I was sitting outside smoking and I spoke to God from my heart, I said, “God tomorrow I will be celebrating the resurrection of your Son, the same Son that you allowed to die for my sins.  I think the least I could do on Easter Sunday, is give you one of my sins that He died for.  I would like you to help me put down my addition.  I don’t care what price I have to pay, I don’t care if I get sick or if I gain weight, I just want to glorify you.  It doesn’t matter how you choose to deliver me, just as long I am delivered!  I will fight all night if I can walk away with a new name and a limp (a visual sign I had been in your presence).  The next morning I woke up and I was set free from an eighteen year smoking addition.  I’m here to testify I didn’t have any with-drawls, sickness, nor did I gain weight.

What was the difference this time? I stopped talking. In John 10 the word says, “The sheep listen to His voice and follow Him as He leads them out.” I realized I am His sheep, I know His voice but in order to follow Him out I must be able to hear Him. I must shut up.  I finally let go!  I let go of pride, the need to tell God how to deliver me.  God is the expert on delivering His people, and I was trying to tell Him how to do it.  I have been tobacco free for almost fourteen years now.  Psalm 46:10 “Be still and know that I am God.” Choices are for the Living….

Casting my net….Michele

For prayer or questions you can email me at fbministries@comcast.net

To order my books you can go to fbministries.com where you will find audio Inspirational teachings along with my testimony, “Ripened on the Vine,” and my Devotional, “From My Heart to Yours.”