Hello peeps.... please shift closer let's gossip about Joshua today in writing.
I'm pretty sure that you've forgotten already that Joshua stood at the edge of Jericho with a battle in front of him and questions inside him.
The walls were still standing. The enemy was still armed. The future of Israel felt heavy on his shoulders. Then he looked up and saw a Man standing before him with His sword drawn. Joshua did what any leader under pressure would do—he asked the question that rises from a heart fixed on outcomes: “Are You for us, or for our adversaries?”
And the answer shattered the way I often think about God.
“No.”
Not because the Lord was absent. Not because He was indifferent. But because Joshua’s question was too small.
The Commander of the army of the Lord had not come to take sides. He had come to take over.
That is the lesson that pierced me.
There are moments when I come to God wanting Him to endorse my plans, validate my emotions, and strengthen my strategy. I want heaven to stand behind what I have already decided.
But Joshua 5:14 reveals something deeper and holier: God is not looking to be recruited into my agenda. He calls me to bow before His.
Joshua’s response says everything. He fell facedown to the earth and worshiped. Before Jericho fell, Joshua fell. Before the victory came, surrender came. Before instructions were given, reverence was required.
That is where real strength begins.
The greatest danger is not the walls in front of us. It is the pride within us that still wants control. Sin trains the human heart to resist God’s authority, to crown self as commander, to demand that the Lord bless our will instead of breaking it. We do not naturally ask, “Lord, what do You want?” We ask, “Lord, will You help me do what I want?”
But grace meets us where pride is exposed.
Joshua encountered the holy presence of God and learned that victory would never come through human confidence alone. In the same way, we need more than advice, more than motivation, more than religious language. We need redemption. We need Jesus Christ.
Because the deeper battlefield is not Jericho. It is the soul.
We have sinned against a holy God. We have gone our own way. We have treated His rule as optional. Yet the good news is that Jesus, the true and greater Commander, did not come merely with a drawn sword of judgment—He came bearing the cross.
He lived in perfect obedience where we rebelled. He died for sinners who deserved wrath. He rose again in power so that all who repent and believe in Him can be forgiven, cleansed, and made new.
That is the turning point.
Repentance is where we stop asking Jesus to serve our kingdom and finally surrender to His. Grace is where He does not destroy the sinner who bows, but saves him. Redemption is where the heart that was once hostile to God is brought into peace with God through the blood of Christ.
So the lesson I learned when Joshua met the Commander is this:
Victory begins when surrender becomes complete.
God is not a mascot for your ambition. He is Lord. He is holy. He is worthy to be obeyed. And when you fall before Him, you do not lose—you finally find the only place where true courage, direction, and peace can live.
Maybe you are standing before your own Jericho right now. A crisis. A fear. A decision. A burden too great for your strength. Do not start by asking God to join your side. Fall at His feet. Ask what He says. Yield your heart. Trust His command.
And if you have never truly surrendered to Jesus Christ, do not wait. Turn from your sin. Put your faith in Him today. The Commander who is holy is also the Savior who is merciful. In Him there is pardon for the guilty, strength for the weak, and hope for the broken.
Bow low. Trust fully. Follow completely.
If this spoke to your spirit, share it with someone who needs to stop fighting for control and start walking in surrender. Save it, return to it, and let it remind you that the battle is never won by those who merely make plans but by those who worship the Lord and obey His voice.
I remain your handsome friend John Petra.
