Had a great week at the SURFCiTY College Leadership Summit. Watch these guys, they’re leaders in the making.

Take a look at what God instructed the people to do, what will unfold are keys to overcoming obstacles that could prevent you from crossing over to your promised land.

1. THE PRESENCE OF GOD WILL MAKE A WAY

As long as you stay on the riverbank – on the side of the river – you will never receive that which you are believing for.

God had given specific instructions to Joshua – the waters would only part when the feet of those carrying the ark – the presence of God – stepped into the water.

He was telling them, It is my presence that must go ahead of the people, because it is my presence that will make a way.  Don’t send the people in their own strength, I am the one who will part the waters.

God says to you, put my presence in your problem and it will part.

Don’t try and do what God will accomplish for you.  You need to be a carrier of his presence and allow his presence to part the waters for you.

The presence of God tells us that God himself is in our midst.  That is why we must treasure and value God’s presence, that is why we should create an environment that is conducive to his presence.  Because when God shows up, problems disappear.

2. STEP OUT ON GOD’S WORD

God instructed them that as soon as they put their feet in the water the miracle would take place.  And God was true to His word.  But their dilemma is this:

The waters stopped flowing 10 kilometers away, out of their sight. They would not have known what was happening up stream.  It would have taken some time before the water had run dry.  When they first put their feet in the water – bam!  The waters stopped… 10 ks away.

They would have seen nothing, heard nothing and felt nothing, because there was still 10kms of an overflown river that had to run dry before they could pass.

There was only one thing that they could rely on to get them through – that was God’s word.

The Priests are carrying a word from God and the very presence of God; they’ve put their feet to the water with all of Israel watching, and as the sole of their sandal hit the water, they did not see anything, they did not feel anything, they did not hear anything.

But that didn’t stop them.  They kept moving forward step by step, they just trusted God’s word and despite not seeing anything they just kept on going, they kept moving forward until eventually they were in the middle of the riverbed standing on dry ground.

3. CHRIST HAS ALREADY OVERCOME

It is at this point that we begin to see the miraculous work of Jesus Christ emerge in their journey.

The water was stopped about 10 kilometres upstream, out of sight.

It happened that way because it was by Adam, the father of the human family that sin and death entered the world.  And God was painting a picture that was taking place: Christ stepping in and dying on the cross, putting an end to sin and death and rising from the dead, just as the Israelites rose from the river to the other side – the side of the promised land.

What he did at Calvary reaches all the way forward to us today in 2009 and it reaches all the way back to Adam the beginning of the human family.  The curse is broken.

Christ has stopped the raging waters of sin and death and made a way for you to enter into the promised land.

It was the Ark that opened the way and it was Christ that removed the curse of Adam.

You don’t have work for it, you don’t have to earn it, you just have to step out of your comfort zone and receive what he has already done for you.

Because what God did out of our sight 2000 years ago, still has power today.  But the key to activating this power is the presence of God.  Just as the ark made the way, God’s presence will do it today.  You need to open your life to the presence of God.  It’s his presence that makes the way and his cross that cuts the curse.

Then in chapter 4:1-10 God instructs Joshua to establish a memorial on the other side of the river, to testify of his goodness.

But then something extraordinary happens.  Joshua himself, does something peculiar.  With his own hands he makes another pile of 12 stones.  But he does so in the middle of the riverbed, so that when the waters came rushing through, they would never again be seen.  But they would always be there in the middle of the river, under the water.

God didn’t ask him to, the Bible doesn’t call it a memorial.  He just builds 12 stones in the middle of the river, right where the presence of God opened the waters and allowed the people of Israel to walk from death to life.  From a curse to a promise.  From a burial to a resurrection.

I believe that Joshua, a type of Christ, whose name means Jesus.  Was making a profound statement.  There was something significant about these waters.

Just as the Priests had stepped into the water – the place where the old was left behind and the new was before them – they stepped in with anticipation and great expectation of something miraculous to happen, about 1400 years later John the Baptist  spoke with anticipation and great expectation of something miraculous to happen, he prophesied that there is One coming who is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to carry.  He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with Fire.  He was speaking of Jesus Christ and it was Jesus who stepped in to those very same waters and was baptised.

Joshua put together those 12 stones that stayed underwater as a symbol of those who are dead in sin.

Romans 6:4 tells us that we died and were buried with Christ by baptism.

Joshua was making a statement that these are the waters of baptism – they are now and they will be then – and the people of Israel had been through a type of baptism, whereby they entered into the riverbank, where at its core the presence of God was found and it was there Joshua lay 12 stones, for all the people of Israel, in the middle of the river,  and then the water came rushing over it it buried the old life.

But Romans 6.4 goes on, it says

And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.

And so it was that God instructed the people to build 12 stones on up on the river bank on the side of the promised land, where everyone could see.  But they weren’t any old stones, they were specifically taken from the middle of the Jordan river, the waters of baptism, symbolising that they had come up out of the waters of baptism, into their inheritance.

And as Romans 5 tells us that as judgment came through Adam, justification will come through Jesus, and it will be from Jesus’ gift of righteousness that we will reign in life and never be put to shame.

Friend let me encourage you, if you’ve been stopped at the raging river in front of your promise, it’s time to cross over.  You need to immerse yourself in the presence of God and put your feet forward.  It’s time to step out on God’s word.

Christ has put an end to death and destruction its time to cross over to the promised land.  He did it for us that we might receive all that he has done for us.

When you cannot see the waters stopping, don’t you stop.  Hold on to God’s word, remain in his presence and kept moving forward.  You’re not the same anymore, you’ve been buried with Christ and now you’re a new person.

You need to receive what Christ has done for you.

© Mark Sceriha 2009

David Bright, one of our students, shared a great message on tithing and giving.  I have included an extract from his message below.  Now you must remember, this is a brand new student and our first chapel service, so he’s not had a lot of practice.  In fact, he’s overcome a pretty rough past to get to where he is today.  If, like me, you were impressed, leave a comment and I will pass it on to him.

I want to speak to you on Tithing and Gods heart.

What we give over, God will take over.  Malachi 3:10… Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse. It doesn’t say lets have a debate over this. It simply states ….Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse.
Why? … Because it demonstrates that our trust is in God

Many think when it comes to a tithe message we are just trying to get the church’s hand into your pocket.  Well…NO!! I am actually trying to put your hand into God’s pocket, where you are able to prosper, not in the accumulation of things, but in the expansion of God in all things within your life.

What you withhold from God, you isolate from His ability to inhabit and multiply.

But you may say, “I don’t make enough to tithe; I’m going to run out of money.”
Well if you think you’re going to run out anyway… run out… into God’s arms, run out trusting Him, because He promises to open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing until it overflows.

God says He will rebuke the devourer for you.  Many are suffering from a spiritual devourer – an enemy that drains away energy, time and resources so that you never seem to have enough.

The Lord is saying, “Now turn your finances over to Me and I will turn over my resources to you and destroy that very thing which is destroying your prosperity.”

Whatever we get from God we need to sow back as Gods gift is a gift that keeps on giving.  Let me recall a story in 1 kings 17 that exemplifies this principle.

During a time of terrible famine the Lord told Elijah to go to Zaraphath, as He had commanded a widow there to provide for Elijah. Notice the Lord did not command a wealthy businessman to provide for him, but a destitute widow – a woman facing starvation who was about to prepare her last meal for herself and her son and then die.

God’s way to activate her faith and to bring her into a supernatural provision was to require her to give over the little she had to fulfill the purpose of God.
What seemed like an insensitive, even cruel command, Elijah ordered her to feed him first and then take food for herself. Although she didn’t know the plan and provision of God, Elijah knew and he urged her into both faith and surrender. As a result, God provided for her miraculously: “The bowl of flour was not exhausted nor did the jar of oil become empty” until the famine broke (v16).

Remember Jesus fed 5000 with 5 loaves and 2 Fish from a little boy

When I hear people say, “I can’t afford to give,” I immediately think, “You can’t afford not to give.”

When faith is activated and surrender perfected, God steps into our lives.  We need to have a testimony of God’s supply, where each of us can say, “God came through for me.”

God multiplied the widow’s provisions during a drought. Maybe it’s in the times of need that we need ‘surrender’ the most.  Our faithfulness with money shows Jesus that we can be trusted with greater things such as miracles.

Why live in the pitiful little realm of unbelief when we can have the provisions of the Most High?  Ask yourself, “How is it Jesus always had what He always needed”?
John 17:10 reveals, “Praying to the Father, Jesus said …. “All things that are Mine are Yours…””

Jesus surrendered all. As a result, He could continue with confidence in His prayer, “And what is Yours God is Mine.””  So also with us – make this same act of surrender.

Whatever we have was God’s in the first place anyway.  To those who give all to Him, He says, “What’s Mine is yours.” We exchange our little for God’s much. Whether it is with our finances, our families, our future or our past.

The key to unlocking the destiny of God is faith and surrender.  What we give over, He will take over.

In his book on Giving, Bill Clinton transcribes a conversation he had with TV Queen, Oprah.  Asking her why she started the Angel Network, Oprah replies, “Three nuns I didn’t know made me fee like I mattered when my mother, half brother, half sister, and I were on welfare and they brought us food and toys for Christmas.  The best gift wasn’t the toys.  It was being able to give an honest answer when the other kids asked what I got for Christmas.”

The essential core of Christmas is about giving and, for me, this highlights it perfectly.  What a great deed to be able to give a gift that brings far greater joy than the gift itself.  Surely there is no better personal satisfaction than being able to give dignity, hope and relief to a child who knows poverty so well she doesn’t fear being without a gift but fears the isolation and segregation that poverty brings.

When God exemplified giving, He executed an act of immense depth and eternal, yet unsophisticated impact on humanity.

Giving is truly satisfying in so many ways.