Prayer Works Morning Devotion: July 15, 2025

In The Presence Of God/The Lord

"Joshua 5:13-15 Joshua In The Presence Of God at Jericho"

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Good morning, family. Welcome to our morning devotion. It’s always an honor and a privilege to serve the Lord and be a servant for his Kingdom. As we go forth in this day, I pray that all is well in your lives.  

We had some rain last night and we can honestly say that God is with us and he has protected us and pray that he is doing the same for you as we are all on the call this morning so let's go to the Lord in prayer and ask for his blessing on Morning Devotion.  

Heavenly Father, we come before you and give you thanks for this day, thanking you that you saw us through the storms last night and will always see us through the storms that we may face.  

Thank you, father, for the privilege and honor of serving you this day and I pray that your word only your word comes through in this devotion and thank you for the privilege and honor of serving this way. 

And I pray that your word touches the hearts and minds of those that will be on the call today, as well as those that will hear the recording at a later time. I ask your blessing over each and everyone that's on this call, and I pray for those that will listen to the call now as we go forth Father, push me aside.  

Let your words shine through, use me to speak the words that you want me to speak and let me not say anything that is not of you. I thank you again for the privilege and honor of serving you, and I ask your blessing now as we go into this call and it's in Jesus name we pray, Amen.  

So we have started a new series as past as we mentioned yesterday. We are now looking at being in the presence of God and what that entails and so as we go forward, the scriptures that we will be looking at that introduce the presence of God and various ones in the Bible had experienced the presence of God.  

Today we're going to be looking at Joshua and coming out of the book of Joshua our excerpt for today, our Scripture for today is Joshua 5:13-15. And let me just go ahead and read that and then we will discuss what is actually going on.  

So it says verse 13 beginning and it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho that he lifted his eyes and looked and behold a ma stood opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua went to him and said to him are you for us or for our adversaries?  

So he said no, but as the commander of the army of the Lord, I have come now and Joshua fell on his face to the Earth and worshipped and said to him. What does my Lord say to his servant then? 

The commander of the Lord of Armies said to Joshua, take your sandals off your foot for the place where you stand is holy and Joshua did so in Joshua 5:13-15, he is the leader of Israel right now.  

As we go through this a little history, because we need to understand for those especially that may not be familiar with the Book of Joshua, what actually transpired, we know that the Israelites had wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, and this was because of their disobedience.  

This was because they did not obey God's commands, and specifically, as the spies had gone to look at the promised land and came back with negative reports the Israelites believed those reports.  

With this, not trusting in God, not believing in God, they were left to wander in the wilderness until all of those that had come out of Egypt, that God had saved that crossed through the Red Sea until all of those that were out of Egypt were no more.  

And now it's the children that were born in the wilderness that Joshua is now commanding. And so Joshua is commanded to make flint knives for himself and to circumcise all of these children because they were not circumcised.  

And so after he had finished doing this, they camped out in Gilgal and they had a Passover. And now this Passover was the first meal that they had that was of the Earth. That was from the fruits of the land that God had promised them. 

And so our verse for today then comes and it says again that Joshua was by Jericho and he lifted his eyes and looked. Behold, a man stood opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand.  

So Joshua now is just about to go for this battle for Jericho and in the battle he sees this person just before they go into battle. He sees this person and he approached the person and asked, are you for our enemies?  

And of course, the man replied in a curious kind of way because he doesn't, you know, say no, I'm not for them or yes, I'm for you.  

Man just replies neither. He says but as the commander of the Army of the Lord I have now come. Joshua's question was natural enough, so we are left to wonder, but upon meeting the armed man.  

On the eve of a battle he asks are you on our side or the side of our enemies? And the man's response is key here, because he says neither an Israelites, nor a Canaanite he is the commander of the Lord's Army.  

So the better question for Joshua to have asked was, are we on your side? The man identified himself as the commander of the Army of the Lord and at this point Joshua fell face down on the ground in reverence.  

Now another time that this had happened was in the Book of Genesis with Abram, and he had the same reaction to finding himself in the presence of God. You could read that in Genesis 17:1-3, the commander does not tell Joshua.  

However, not to worship him, this is key. Rather, he tells Joshua take off your sandals for the place where you are standing is holy. Now this is exactly what the Lord God told Moses at the burning Bush in Exodus 3:5 to take off your sandals because the place where you are standing is holy.  

Joshua here, though, addresses the man using a Hebrew word that means master or Lord, indicating the level of respect at this point, Joshua had for the person with whom he spoke. 

So based on this information there is only one possible identity for this person. The commander of the Army of the Lord was what we would call a theophany, or a visible appearance of God himself, and just to emphasize that a theocracy is a manifestation of God in the Bible. 

That is tangible to human senses. In its most restrictive sense, it is a visible appearance of God in the Old Testament period, often, but not always, in human form. And there are many scriptures that attest to this from Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, job that we can see what would be considered a manifestation of God himself appearing to men.  

So the Lord God appears to Abram in Genesis 17:1, and again in 18:1. The Angel of the Lord again appears to Hagar in Genesis 16:7, and we remember the story of Hagar as she was sent away from. Abraham and Sarah and he visited her God in the desert.  

After which she claims to have seen God in verse 13 of Genesis, Chapter 16. The man who wrestles with Jacob in Genesis, chapter 32. Who was that but a divine characteristic that Jacob concludes himself.  

I saw the face to face. I saw God face to face, and in each case we have human interaction with God the Son, through whom God communicated himself to others. So here Joshua then encounters a preincarnate appearance of Jesus Christ.  

This is the only explanation as to who the commander of the Army of the Lord is. Joshua, who is in charge of the Israelites, actually encounters the commander of the Army of the Lord, who again is Jesus Christ Incarnate.  

He may be Joshua, the human commander of Israel, but the true leader is the commander who stands before him with the drawn sword. So Joshua here understood the role that he had and the role of the commander and responded with worship.  

And ask the only appropriate question at this time what do you want your servant to do? Jesus is the Lord of hosts and it is he who must fight the battle if we would win. We have many enemies to combat.  

We have Satan, the world, sin and the flesh. We need Christ to go before us. We need the sword that he has in hand to take us into battle. He is the commander of the Lord's Army, the captain of our salvation, and the one through whom we are granted victory.  

The commander of the Lord's Army alone has the wisdom, the weaponry and the wherewithal to emerge victorious over our true enemies, so family put your faith and trust in God. We may not be able to see him as Joshua did but he is ever present in our lives.  

This is just to say that we have to walk in faith and not by sight that we need to just view the things the trials that we may be going through the hard times that we may be experiencing, we need to understand that it's through those things that God is calling us.  

We may be suffering from illness. We may be suffering from depression, but these are things that God uses to build our character, and here in Joshua we can see that Joshua became the commander, the leader of Israel, after Moses passed on, and what a tremendous experience this must have been for him. 

Newly anointed. To lead. The Israelites into battle for the City of Jericho. And to come upon this individual who is later determined to be Jesus Christ, well, the scripture that says if God is for you, who can be against you.  

Really applies here because we can see that through their victory, it was none other than God Almighty that was on their side. Even though God says I am neither for you or the enemy.  

But God's will be done on Earth as it is in heaven, so this is an interesting story and I encourage you to go back and read it again. This is the book of Joshua. You could read the entire book, but this our scripture verse is in Chapter 5.  

And if you want further understanding of what was taking place here, I'd encourage you to go back and but, but I thought that this was very enlightening and very encouraging. You know, for us today with all that we're seeing in the world, all that transpiring between the nations that we should not fear. 

Because, as I said, if God is for you, who can be against you. And this is proof positive again being in the presence of God, which is our theme. And how reverent are we in the presence of God? As Joshua bowed down to worship as. 

And here's another thought why we know also that this was Jesus, that this was God Almighty, the commander. Because if you think into the New Testament, when John, in his vision of the Kingdom and the angel approaches him and he bows down and starts to worship him. 

The Angel says don't worship me, I'm just like you. But here this individual didn't say that didn't stop Joshua from worshipping him. So that's how we know that this is Jesus, God almighty serving man for his glory, for his purpose.  

So again think about whatever trial it is that you're going through, pray for God to walk you through it, to call you through it, to lead you through it and he will. He may not make his presence known to you in a physical manifestation.  

But you will feel his presence. You will know that it could only be God almighty walking you through your tribulation, your journey. Let's pray. My Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day.  

Thank you for giving us a word of encouragement and a word in a time of such trouble of such sorrow. We know, Father, that even looking at the troubles in this world, the floods, the fires, the loss of life.  

Father that it can make our hearts heavy. It can burden us and so many thoughts could be running through our minds, Father. But we pray that the one thought that keeps us on the straight and narrow is the thought that you are the head of the army of the Lord. 

And that in you we have all the tools we have, all the knowledge, all the wisdom, all the battles that we may face that you are there to lead us and guide us. As in the case of Joshua, he saw you, with the sword drawn, we may not see you with the sword drawn.  

As we learned on our Sunday Bible study that in this day and age, because of sin, we may not be able to physically see angels that protect us, but we know they're there. We know that God sends them on assignment to look after us.  

And so when we are in a dire situation, we know that we need to call out your name, call out Jehovah Jireh who's our provider? We know that we need to look to you. Look to the heavens for our deliverance, and so we are praying today, Father, that through the midst of our trials and tribulations that you manifest yourself in our lives and show us that you are there.  

Give us the peace that surpasses all understanding that God our hearts and our minds and our Lord and Savior, Jesus. We thank you, Father, for blessing us with this word. We thank you, Father, for the scriptures that you've provided that help us to walk in the path that you've directed us. 

We know that it is you that flattens the mountains in our lives and levels the valleys in our lives Father and we thank you that you go before us and straighten our crooked roads.  

We know that we may plan our lives, but that you order our steps and so when we are in doubt, followed by things that we are facing, that we should not be anxious because you alone are the commander of our army.  

And so I thank you, Father, for this knowledge and this wisdom that you have given us this day through this word. I pray Father for all those that are on this call and I pray that your blessing be with each and every one of them this day as they go forth and walk in the glory of your presence.  

I pray Father for those that may be sick, those that may be ailing comes to mind, our dear brother, Sarge, I lift him up and his dear wife Nina to you this day, Father asking you to cover them in the blood And bless them and heal our brother, Sarge, so that we can be together again in the Lord.  

I pray Father, for all those that may be suffering from one thing or another because we know this world is full of strife and that through sin, Father, we are your children, but we also are here on the earth where strife and suffering does occur. 

And we know that that strife and suffering sometimes, Father is your way of building our character and leading us to be your people in a way that walks in the light that you want us to shine in this world so that people know the love that you have for us and that we have for each other.  

So we thank you, Father, for blessing us and for keeping us and for loving us. Now as we go forth in this day, we pray that you will lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one, for yours is the Kingdom, the power and the glory, forever and ever in Jesus name we pray, Amen.  

Amen family, I hope this has blessed you and enriched you this day. I hope that it has touched you in a way that only God could help this word touch you. 

I pray that you have a blessed and wonderful day, that you go in peace and go in the knowledge and wisdom of knowing that God leads the army, that God is the commander, and that God in his presence there is reverence, there is awe, but most of all there is peace. God bless you this day.