The walls of Jericho and Jerusalem

UV 369/10,000 Two types of wall being broken down and built up Hebrews 11 v 30 Heb 11:30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days. Our beliefs based on the Word of God are as solid as incontrovertible facts. We can call them “ faith-facts”. The faith-facts will lead us to do faith-acts and the faith-acts will lead to faith-events just as the books of the Old Testament led to the Gospel and the Gospel led to the Acts of the Apostles. The Jews under Joshua believed the walls of Jericho would come down as they went around it seven times. This was a faith-fact that led to the faith-act of their actually going around it seven times and the faith-event of the walls falling down. One of the faith-facts revealed to me just the day before is that each of us and collectively,we have walls of Jericho being built around us that obstruct us in our spiritual progress and pilgrimage. Left to itself, the spiritual equivalent of the Great Wall of China will be built around us keeping us from fulfilling the purpose of God. The walls of Jericho is a metaphor for all that obstructs us, opposes us, makes us weak and ineffective, keeps us from fulfilling our potential and the will or purpose of God. It amazed me to hear that Rick Warren, the famed and celebrated author of “ The Purpose-Driven Life” has been side-tracked into a major compromise of his faith. I hope I am proved wrong at least on this. The point is that simultaneously, we need to pray and act in the spirit to bring down the walls of Jericho around us and around the body of believers and to pray and act in the spirit to build the protective walls of Jerusalem around us. The presence of God will be built up around us like solid walls and ramparts of a fort. The walls of Jerusalem that Nehemiah undertook to rebuild in his time are a symbol of the need for building up our faith all round us, to plug the gaping holes, the doubts, the fears, the prejudices, the confusion in certain areas of our lives. We need to simultaneous bring down the walls of Jericho and build up the walls of Jerusalem. We need to do this two-way faith act all seven days of the week 24 x 7. Thus, the kingdom of darkness will be demolished and the kingdom of light, the kingdom of God will be built up in us and around us. Prateep V Philip