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Break the walls of Jericho and Build the walls of Jerusalem

We all have the walls around us at all times of life. We’ve all built them either for holding God in the midst and separating ourselves from the wickedness of the world or trying to hide ourselves inside a wall to cover up our sins. They are unseen, yet they effectively hold us back from being the person we should be or should not be. Brick by brick we build our wall. Some are higher than others. But we should be able to recognise what sort of a wall is there around us. They can be either spiritual walls or worldly walls. Spiritual walls relate to the strength and stability of our Christian testimony. They relate to our capability of defending the faith, moral strength in time of temptation and also relate to our ability to separate from the unbiblical values and attitudes of this world’s system. If we have this wall of salvation around us then we are safe and secure. The walled city will be much stronger and more easily defended. The wall clearly sets the city apart from the surrounding countryside. God wants a spiritual wall to surround us but not a wall that doesn’t allow Him to enter. God wants to see strong, solid believers with a testimony that is plainly visible in this dark world. He wants to see Christians with a consistent lifestyle that is distinctly Biblical even if it means a painful separation from the values and the attitudes of the surrounding world. If we do not have this there is always a possibility that the world gets in to us and becomes a wall between God and us (Isaiah59:2). Before the Israelites entered the Promised Land God commanded them to destroy the walls of Jericho so that they can have a break through. We are living in days of battle and spiritual struggle. We need to know how to fight. We need to know that our God is able to give the victory. Just as Israel faced the formidable walls of Jericho, we face walls and obstacles in our lives as well. We need to know how to over come them as we march towards the victory. When we face these obstacles we must learn not to look upon our obstacles as dead-ends, but as opportunities for the Lord to work in our lives.

In the book of Joshua, God commanded Joshua to capture Jericho by breaking the walls down. The children of Israel have moved from the wilderness of worry to the promised land of peace. The first city they came to after crossing Jordan is Jericho. Jericho is considered the greatest walled fortress of all times, and a military citadel unparalleled in those days, with walls so thick that chariots could traverse atop of them.  From a human perspective it was considered as an unconquerable city. The Battle of Jericho is described in the Bible (Joshua6:1-27) as the first battle of the Israelites during their conquest of Canaan. The plan was so crazy only God is the conceiver. According to the narrative, the walls of Jericho fell after Joshua’s Israelite army marched around the city blowing their trumpets according to the plan of God that was revealed to Joshua. God was still at work these six days. On the seventh day they were to march around the city seven times and the priests were to blow their ram’s horns. This Joshua did, and he commanded his people not to give a war-cry until he told them to do so. On the seventh day, the walls of the city collapsed, and the Israelites were able to charge straight into the city. The city was completely destroyed, and every man, woman, and child in it was killed. Only Rehab and her family were spared, because she had hidden the two spies sent by Joshua. After this Joshua burned the remains of the city and cursed any man who would rebuild the city of Jericho would do so at the cost of his firstborn son. Thus Joshua was able to conquer the city. God’s people had neither tools nor weapons that could break down the obstacles ahead. But “nothing is impossible with God”; for “the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.” (2 Corinthians 10:4) This has a resemblance to our lives. Each of us has a walled city in our lives.  A place of hopeless defeat we don’t think we can conquer- a barrier that stands in our way separating us from God (Isaiah 59:1-2). Just as Israel faced the formidable walls of Jericho, we face walls and obstacles in our lives as well. We need to know how to over come them as we march towards the victory. When we come to our Jericho, we have only two choices:  flee from it or face it. To flee, there’s only one place to go…back into the wilderness.  And that should not be an option.  When we face our Jericho we have to do it in God’s way. Breaking the walls of Jericho humanly speaking is impossible. But the word of God says in “Hebrews 11:30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days”.
What kind of walled city are we facing right now? Does it appear to be unconquerable? Do the walls look too high and do they appear too thick? Does it seem that victory is absolutely impossible in our case? If the walls haven’t already fallen down flat, remember they can! They can fall right now if we bring to the feet of our Saviour! We need to take a lesson from Israel and start handling our Jericho’s in the ways of God. Many of the major strongholds we are facing will not fall simply or quickly. Through the power of the Word of God, prayer and praise the walls of the enemy will be shattered, slowly but surely. These barriers have to be shattered and every stronghold reduced if we want to follow Him day by day. Faith can move mountains, bring down walls, heal us and remove all obstacles in our path. Joshua was out looking at the problem…those insurmountable walls. Looking at the walls leads to fear. But looking at God led him to faith. So we should get our eyes off the problem and keep them on the Lord. Some people spend their whole lives gazing up at the walls of their Jericho saying, nothing can be done! “Fear is looking at God thru your problems.  Faith is looking at your problems thru God!” Joshua never went back looking at the strength of the walls but he depended on the strength of God. He listened and obeyed the plan of God. He surrendered his ability to the capability of God. When we realize that we cannot get victory over that stubborn wall that has become a hindrance to the presence of God, give it to the Lord and see victory happen through Christ by faith! Destroy the walls of Jericho (sin) completely. Don’t ever try to build it again (Joshua 6:26) because every thing inside is cursed by God and there is no presence of God where we can have safety.

If we consider that God gave us the story of Jericho because he wants to break down the walls of our hearts and let Himself in, He gave us the challenges of Nehemiah to teach us that only with God’s help we can actually change ourselves and recover from the damage and ruin of the past and rebuild the walls that are broken. In an individual’s life once the walls of Jericho are broken down the rebuilding or restoration of the walls should take place. The walls of salvation are set by God and walls of sin are set by us. The word of God talks about the walls of salvation in Isaiah 26:1 In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; we have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. Isaiah 60:18 Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shall call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise.

Once we break the walls that are grieving the spirit of God, there is always a need to protect ourselves from the darts of satan. Hence we have to build a strong fort around us. Some times we ourselves can build with the help of the Spirit of God and at times some one has to intervene and build the walls that are broken. The book of Nehemiah is designed to teach us that only with God’s help we can actually change ourselves and recover from the damage and ruin of the past. In an individual’s life the rebuilding of the walls is nothing but restoration of people from ruins and despair to a new walk with God. Jerusalem is the place where God desires to dwell. But Jerusalem in ruins reflects the life that has lost its defenses against attack and lies open to repeated hurt and misery. The book of Nehemiah depicts the way of recovery from breakdown and ruin to a condition of peace, security, restored order, and usefulness. According to the New Testament it is not the actual place where God dwells but man is to be the dwelling place of God. That is the great secret that humanity has largely lost today. But for this reason Jesus sacrificed Himself on the cross.

If we notice the description of Jerusalem in the Book of Nehemiah, the people were in trouble. They were feeling a great sense of disgrace and reproach. The walls of the city were broken down. The gates had been burned with fire and were no longer usable. If we take Jerusalem as a symbol of our own lives, there are many people, who fit this description. There are places where the walls have been broken down. There is no longer any ability left to resist destructive attacks. The walls of our city are broken down. Perhaps our gates have been burned and destroyed, again by wrong habits or may be a life that has no connection with God. May be we have been so badly burned. There are parts of our life we cannot talk about. May be we do not want anyone to know. We have a sense of great personal distress and are feeling reproach and disgrace. May be we have been scarred emotionally. If we think why there is so much failure in this area; the reason is because there is no recognition of God as a necessary part of the process. We think we can function quite adequately without Him but we can’t which is a fact.

As we examine the walls and the gates of our life we find much of it in ruins. No one may know about it. To others we appear to be a success. They think we are doing fine, but inwardly we know what we are. How do we handle that? That is a great question many of us face. But this is where the Bible comes in. Nehemiah is a worthy model for us to follow in recovering broken lives of people. We can see Nehemiah’s heartfelt concern and anguish over the damaged walls and ruined gates of Jerusalem. Nehemiah sacrificed the pleasures and privileges of his high position for the sake of God’s interests and a broken-down wall. He clearly had a deep sense of personal concern. He was willing to face the facts, to weep over them, and tell God about them. Before he did anything important he prayed about it. Whenever he faced a crisis he prayed about it. Whenever he had an important decision to make he prayed about it. And, because of his close relationship to and with God – as shown by his prayer life – he was willing to risk everything in order to do what he believed God wanted him to do. He was a real prayer warrior. Nehemiah’s strategy of rebuilding started with prayer and then he repented of all personal and corporate sins where by showing us that excusing our self for what is wrong in our life, will block our own recovery. In this process of reconstruction Nehemiah faced opposition by ridicule and discouragement. He responded to these insults with prayer and kept on working. He got on his knees and reached into heaven. He tapped into the power of God almighty. He had a close relationship with God and he had the desire to talk with God all the time and about everything. Hence no enemy could stand before him; no threats could stop his work. The wall that had laid in ruin for over 140 years was rebuilt in only 52 days!

Life always has its ups and downs. We become depressed and discouraged. We stumble and fall. We face opposition. We feel like we are all alone, without a friend. Sometimes we don’t understand ourselves and our own actions and words. So what do we do? Like Nehemiah, we should fall on our knees and reach into heaven. If we learn to pray through those situations we can and will get up again. Too often we let things interfere with our prayer life. We get too busy and think we don’t have time for prayer or we allow ourselves to be easily distracted or our thoughts wander and concentrate on everything except God. The problem is a lack of discipline. We don’t make prayer a priority. Prayer becomes the last thing we do rather than the first.

No matter what the intensity of the ruin be there is always a place to start. There is a place where you must begin. Do we need to apologize to someone? Do we need to go to somebody and straighten something out? Do we need to seek advice? Do we need to get some guidance? There is always a first step. That is where we must begin. And whatever we pray, pray that God will give us the grace, the strength and the determination to take that step. Then, the process of recovery begins. Building strong spiritual walls is not easy, but it can be done. This is the great encouragement and challenge to us from the book of Nehemiah. Let us not be content to live with broken-down walls. Let us be like Nehemiah’s wall-building team and strengthen our hands for this good work. “Let us arise and build.” Each man that took up the rebuilding of Jerusalem along with Nehemiah had a weapon in one hand worked with the other hand. This blending of the resources of the spiritual life with those of the material world is a marvelous picture of how believers ought to face threats. What we learn from this is that we too need to arm ourselves. God’s word is a weapon that we have. If we continually increase our knowledge of the word, it is nothing but sharpening our swords. We then are able to use God’s words against the devil, winning victories over him; yet building our wall. Nehemiah when he planned the rebuilding of the walls he completed the whole wall in one go and after the work is finished he appointed gate keepers, singers and the Levites. So also when our spiritual rebuilding finishes we also should have gate keepers –intercessors, Singers-worshippers; and Levites-servants of God to strengthen and protect the spiritual life.

The first secret for success in this whole process of breaking the unwanted walls and reconstructing the walls of salvation is “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. And the second one is “sit down weep, mourn, fast and pray before the God of heavens, admit declare and confess like Nehemiah. This will not only help us in rebuilding our personal life but also our society, our church and who ever is on the verge of collapsing.

May God use each one of us to break the walls of Jericho like JOSHUA and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem like Nehemiah!

– By Sis. Shobah Charles

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24 replies on “Break the walls of Jericho and Build the walls of Jerusalem”

Hi Good people,
All our savings were stolen by thieves and we are almost zero yet again. of late we have been plagued by a series of setbacks one after the other and i am kindly requesting you brethren to pray for me. I have not wronged anyone, and at one time i asked God what have we done to deserve such.
Kindly pray for me.

Specific prayer items:
-God’s forgiveness and deliverance from spells

– God’s wisdom
-God’s blessings(Finances)
-A new job for self and wife
– Improved personal relationship with Jesus
-Family
– Business opportunities

Pray for the Lord Jesus Christ to give me a better job where my skills and potential will be fully utilized and to bless me with all the money I need. Pray for my deliverance from all chains, bondages to sin, curses and oppression of all enemies and evil things in the spirit realm. Pray for God to wash my soul & spirit clean of all evil and sin and to empower and energize my soul & spirit.
Please pray for my total deliverance from all enemy chains and control as well as from all evils, darkness and sin inside my soul and spirit and bind all the enemy’s attempts to control my mind and lifestyle.

Regards
Jonah Kenei

Dear brother,
We have included you in our prayer list and we will definitely bow down and plead with our father on your behalf. We thank you for visiting our website. May God Bless you and help you in your times of needs…Romans 5:5 5 “And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”

Please pray to God to have mercy on my son and his wife to have fruit of the womb. They lost their first-born child (daughter) within hours of birth on March 30th 2011.

I thank God for answered prayer.

Amen

Hi Adole, We have added you to our prayer list and we are praying for your son and his wife for having a blessed child. With God all things are possible…Thank you for writing to us!

Praise the Lord. Am a pastor aged 25. Plz pray for my church 2 b revived and know the word of God. Am also looking forward 2 marry bt the problem is that my earning can’t cater for my family and also i nid 2 build. Pray God 2 establish me, bls me financially bls me with another job so that 2 b able 2 support my family and the church of God at large.Also pray for my fiance 2 get a job she has applied 2 different places bt no reply and currently where she is working is being misused. GOD BLS YOU

Prayer warriors,

My husband and i are in a financial crisis and we are looking for God to bless us. I am actively looking for a job and asking for God’s intervention in this regard as everything is tight. My husband has tried setting up his business and has failed. We need to break down walls of low self esteem, poverty and believe in what God says about us. Two of our three children were diagonised with ADD and believing God for healing and prayers too. We humbly ask for promotion at school and work., provision of school fees, a home and all the blessings that come with it. The crisis is also affecting our marriage and ask for God’s intervention.

Dear Sis.Irene, Thank you for writing to us. We have added your request to our prayer list. We will pray for you and surely God will answer your requests. Take assurance on the promises of God and know that they are yea and amen. When you have made him the Lord of your house, he will surely take care of your children’s healing, your financial crisis and anything else affecting you and your family. God said in his word, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” – Deuteronomy 31:6. Lift up this promise and pray kneeling down before God almighty with your family as we do the same for down here in our fellowship here.
– Your brother in christ!

Please pray that God will restore my relationship with Larry and that we will be understanding of each other, learning to compromise to make our relationship work. Release all past hurts and abuse so that we will not carry this pain into our union. Larry will come around and forgive me for my thinking and recognizing who I am becoming by the Grace of God and still marry me. That we will not fall into temptations during our trial but will remember the love we have for one another. God will put me on the heart and mind of Larry and we will be in harmony again. In Jesus’ name Amen

Thank you for your comment. We will pray for you. May God deliver you and give you victory that he promised to those who seek him and rely on him.

hi,

I just wanted to thank you so much for your article on Break the walls of Jericho and build the walls of Jerusalem.

The Spirit of God had given me an assignment for 7 days in regards to breaking every wall of Jericho in my live and those of my loved ones. Amazing revelations already. I am glad that I found your site and this article has completely changed so many things that I failed to realize. To God be all the Glory. The Power is in each and every one of us, the question is, “How much of it do you want and how far with God are you willing to go in order to gain it.

Waoh, The power of God supersedes every other power. To HIM BE ALL THE GLORY AND ALL THE HONOR AND ALL THE PRAISE, AMEN AND AMEN AND AMEN.

Thank you and God’s Continued Guidance.

Hi there, Thank you so much for your comments. We are glad you’ve been blessed by it. And AMEN to that. May God bless you and keep you (Numbers 6:24). With Love & Prayers, NPF Team

Please i want to know if there is any difference between the walls of Jericho and that of Jerusalem?
secondly, if i am asked who rebuilt the walls of Jericho, what should be my answer?
thanks

Please pray for me to get a stable job, i need a job. My parents are treating me worse than a dog because i do not have a job.plase pray i get a good job and grow closer to Jesus,and all the walls of jericho to break in my life and the wall of Jerusalem to be built in my life

Asking for prayers in complete healing and restoration in with my love.
I know God is able. Thank you all and God bless.

Please Pray for my financial crisis, going through since 2012 and surviving on Bank loans, Often losing my job which has lead me towards poverty and in debts. Had worked in Gulf and Africa but none of my jobs remained stable.. Also the house in which I stay is in Controversy with my sisters who are not ready to give me after my parents died. Finally No Job, no money for survival and no house.
Please Pray… My email [email protected]

Dear Sandeep, We will surely keep you in our prayers. God said He will never leave us nor forsake us. Please join our community of believers at https://www.facebook.com/uecglobal and be blessed. You have an opportunity to interact with our pastor who can pray for your needs. God bless you! UEC Team

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