ALL BECAUSE SHE HEARD A RUMOR

“I don’t care if the world knows my name, but only if the devil knows that I’m coming”- Dr. Mike Pangio

To my fellow readers, I want to encourage us all that we should never neglect the power of our testimony of what Christ has done in our lives to accommodate His own plan and purpose for our lives. You never know, His supernatural working and provision to your life might start a rumor in the land.

Join me in Joshua 2 where the spies were sent to the land of Promise before the initial move of possession took place for Israel to inherit the land that God reserved for them.

We are introduced to a character, a harlot actually, named Rahab. The men who Joshua sent to spy the land out for a few days, stayed in the home of Rahab. We all know the story of how she hid them in her roof when the King of Jericho heard that the two men of Israel came to search the land and yet she was willing to accommodate them. Why was she, this prostitute, willing to “spare” the lives of these men? It’s because she heard of a rumor.

Joshua 2:9-10 (9) And she said unto the men, I know that the LORD hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. (10) For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed.

This woman and all in the land of Jericho heard, also like many other nations, of the miraculous work upon a people who were not only a nation called out by the Lord, but a nation in covenant with the Almighty God! The God, who this prostitute admitted to be the God of heaven and earth! She heard the rumor!

The true events of God’s mighty hand since the liberation of the Hebrew people in Egypt, the 40 years of traveling in the wilderness, through most of Moses’ life time leading the people, and now up until the leadership of Joshua, the events came to the ear of all nations that stood in Israel’s way to inheriting the land that God has given unto them. Israel was able to inherit the land God Promised them, all because the other nation’s heard a rumor!

The Prostitute Rahab’s confession to the two spies from Israel was this, Joshua 2:11 And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you: for the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath.

A Prostitute, let alone a nation heard a rumor, that caused there hearts to melt and the very courage or the very spirit of selfish pride ran out of the heart of EVERY man. They realized that if they ever came in contact with Israel, that they don’t stand a chance to prosper, not because Israel was a many member people, but because Israel was a covenant people! I believe that every time nations heard of God’s working and favor upon Israel, from bondage to inheritance, the very demons in them would flee! Why? Because they heard a rumor!

Just as when the foul demonic spirit responded to the certain Jews who took it upon themselves to mimic what God was doing through Paul, by trying to rebuke demons out of people, the evil spirit said to them in Acts 19:15 …Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? Even demons know who is in covenant with God!

This prostitute, Rahab, even though she wasn't from among the chosen people of Israel,the called out covenant people of God, she believed in the rumor. And because she believed, deliverance came to her household!

Joshua 2:12-13 (12) Now therefore, I pray you, swear unto me by the LORD, since I have shewed you kindness, that ye will also shew kindness unto my father's house, and give me a true token: (13) And that ye will save alive my father, and my mother, and my brethren, and my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death.

After the men seen and heard the heart of this prostitute, this woman of a strange land, in which they were about to inherit, they said to her “our life, for yours” Joshua 2:14. In other words, may the very hand of Deliverance that preserved us, a covenant people, be upon you and your household!

Brother, Sister, Church! We must journey on in the power of our covenant with Christ! Being born again, filled with His spirit, spiritually circumcised at the heart by covenant with Christ, we must walk out in the power of our Baptism, in the power of our Covenant! If we do, a rumor will spread in the Land!

We might have tremendous Church services on a Sunday, but I encourage us all as Disciples of Christ, keep praying for the community, and keep interceding for the salvation of souls. If we are faithful to do just that, a rumor will begin to spread in the land, of the goodness, the miraculous and liberating delivering work of The Lord!

Just by a rumor of what God is doing to a people will cause the drug attics to come, the broken families to arrive, the prostitutes to see that truly there is Salvation made available at the cross, at the alter of Repentance! There is liberation waiting for the lost at the alter!

Don’t worry about what the world may think, don’t even try to conform to it, but be a son, a daughter of covenant and love you neighbor as Christ command. Meaning love ALL that get in your way to showing forth the Kingdom of God! As God will work through you, He will cause the very hearts of the lost to melt back in to love with the Savior, the Deliverer, Jesus Christ!

The beautiful part of this story in Joshua 2 is that Rahab tied a scarlet thread to her window as a sign to Israel of the promise given to her and her whole household of deliverance! And as we prayerfully pioneer forward to the place that God calls us to be in as a local church, His Kingdom establishment to a lost, broken, and out of covenant community, we will see the open windows of a once lost community, now found in Christ! To see deliverance brought to many households! To see, according to God’s Word, that each family, each person now knows that they have a connection to an open heaven by the blood of the Lamb! The very scarlet colored thread that weaves in and out through the word of God pointing toward eternal life in Christ Jesus! To see a Community delivered by Covenant in His Blood! Delivered from death unto life! Let the true rumor of deliverance flow from the church through out the land! From our lives to others!

Mark 12:30-31 (30) And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. (31) And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

God Bless