From the moment we accept Jesus as our Savior, we enter into His purpose to conform us to be His image bearers. We gain knowledge of Him from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21. Proverbs 9:10 says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”

2 Peter 1:3 says, “As His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him…” Then in verses 5-7 Peter charged his readers to add to their faith. One of those was knowledge. 

Our knowledge of the Lord deepens as we continue to seek Him through intimate communion. That is the soil which produces fruit for His glory. John 15:1-8.

Paul gave Timothy a charge of what to pursue in 1 Timothy 6:6. It says, “Now godliness with contentment is great gain.” We have everything we need through our relationship with the Lord. Verse 11 was the charge which includes us. It says, “…pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness.” Pursue means to follow hard after.

Back in the 70’s I read “Pursuit Of God” by A. W. Tozer. It changed my life. I loved his prayers at the end of each chapter. They awakened something in me as I began to pray them. I made his prayer after chapter one into my first person. ’I want to want You; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still.’ 

I love Psalm 63:8 in the Amplified. It says, “My whole being follows hard after You and clings closely to You; Your right hand upholds me.” 

I am presently memorizing Philippians 3:8-14. Paul was in prison. Verse 8 says, “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.”

Paul had amazing credentials. Verses 4-7. Yet he counted them as nothing. The Amplified says, “…refuse, dregs…” Anything that we pursue apart from the Lord becomes a heart idol. It blocks our intimate communion with Him. 

You can read the Lord’s instructions to Joshua in chapter 6, verses 1-5. All the people heard was his command. They were to march around the city for six days and return to camp. On the seventh day they marched around, the priests blew the trumpets. The people shouted. Verse 10 says that the wall fell down flat.

Verse 21 says, “And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city…” In verse 24 they burned the city and all that was in it. The vessels of gold, silver, bronze, and iron  were put into the treasury of the house of the Lord.

What is the lesson for us? When we face our impossibilities, it is a time to be silent. Negative dialogues are dross to our faith. What we need to do is to speak truth from God’s word. Romans 10:17 says, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

What we hear coming out of our mouths will either build up our faith or weaken it. Mark 11:22 are our watcher-on-the-wall words. It says, “…Have faith in God.”

The children of Israel crossed over the Jordan on dry ground. Joshua 3:16 says, “That the waters which came down from upstream stood still, and arose in a heap very far away…and the people crossed over opposite Jericho.”

Isaiah 55:9 says, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.: God’s way to destroy Jericho are too high for man to understand.

We get a glimpse from Joshua 2 from Rahab who hid the two spies Joshua sent out. Verse 10 says, “For we heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea…” Verse 11 says, “As soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted; neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you, for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and earth beneath.”

The Lord told Joshua what He was going to do. Joshua 6:1 says, “Now Jericho was securely shut up because of the children of Israel…” Verse 10 says, “…You shall not shout or make any noise with your voice, nor shall a word proceed out of your mouth…”

David wanted to know the Lord’s way. In Psalm 25:4-5 he prayed, “Show me Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; on You I wait all the day.”

Waiting is a trial all its own. It is God’s way to wait. I love 2 Samuel 5:24. King David was instructed to wait. Once he heard what the Lord wanted him to hear he could advance. 

David wrote about waiting in Psalm 27:14. It says, “Wait on the Lord; be of good courage and He will strengthen your heart; wait I say on the Lord!”

Job made a great statement when he couldn’t perceive the Lord. Job 23:10 says, “But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.”

The way of man is to please himself, but the way of the redeemed is to walk in His ways. Colossians 1:10 says, “That you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him…”

Psalm 103:7 says, “He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel.” Let’s go back to the Red Sea. The children of Israel were sandwiched between two impossibilities. They could not go forward nor backward.

God showed Moses His way. He knew what the Lord was going to do. The others were reacting in fear because they faced the unknown. I heard a message by Charles Stanley regarding adversity. He said that we must, “…surrender to the unknown will of God…because we can rest in His trustworthiness…”

God showed Joshua His way. The Lord told him what He was going to do. The others only saw the impossibility of the Jordan River overflowing its banks, and that their pathway into the promised land was blocked. 

Facing impossibilities. Exodus 14:13 says, “…Do not be afraid. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord…” Do you know how to be still? Psalm 131:2 says, “Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with his mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.”

Hebrews 12:10 Amplified says, “…He disciplines us for our certain good, that we may become sharers in His own holiness.” 2 Peter 1:3 it says, “As His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue.”

1 Thessalonians 5:24 says, “He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.” Herein is our power to do all that the Lord has called us to do. 2 Timothy 1:9 says, “Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.”

As we abide in His word, it deepens our intimate communion with Him. He knows our hearts. He knows our thoughts before we think them. Therefore His way’s draw out the hidden dross-alloy that weakens our faith. Through His divinely orchestrated trials, He wisely designs the fiery trials that will purify and strengthen our walk with Him.

I’ve been meditating on the last part of Psalm 119:168, “…for all Your ways are before me.” The Lord always leads us into His ways as we walk in His paths. Psalm 23:3b says, “…He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.”

His ways are proven because He goes before us. Psalm 85:13 says, “Righteousness will go before Him, and shall make His footsteps our pathway.” His discipline, every adversity, trial, hardship, or impossibility that we face, is designed and orchestrated by Him.

Hebrews 12:11 says, “Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

The Amplified described this process as, “…in conformity to God’s will in purpose, thought, and action…” Romans 8:29 says, “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.” Conformity is God’s way to enable us to reflect His character throughout every aspect of our lives. Conformity is pressure that helps us center on Him.

In Ezekiel 37:11 Israel said, “…Our bones are dry, our hope is lost…” Dialoguing in hopelessness will dry up our bones. Proverbs 17:22 says, “A merry heart does good, like medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.”

We can take a lesson from one with a merry heart. What do they think about which keeps them healthy without medicine? Jeremiah turned the corner from hopelessness to hope. Read his words of truth. 

Lamentations 3:22-24 says, “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore I hope in Him!” I love the exclamation points in my Bible.

When we speak the truth of God’s character, His promises, or His steadfast love, it feeds our innermost being with life. It puts rebar in our sagging hearts. When we start to carry on an inner dialogue that is pulling us down, we can course correct through speaking truth to our hearts. We affirm the truth we read by making it ours through experiential knowledge.

What is your inner dialogue? Are you speaking life words that build you up and strengthen your inner man? I love Ephesians 3:16 in the Amplified. It says, “May He grant you out of the rich treasury of His glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in the inner man by the (Holy) Spirit (Himself indwelling your inner most being and personality).”

When I was young, my dad built all the houses that we lived in. I so remember the rebar. I would walk in and around these steel sticks that would reinforce the structure. They were firmly set in concrete.

We are God’s building. In 1 Corinthians 3:10 Paul wrote that he had laid the foundation through the gospel. Verse 11 says, “For no other foundation can any man lay than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus.”

Then he went on to tell them that what they added to the foundation would one day be tried by fire. Our body is supported by a foundation of bones. What we think affects our bones.