Chag sameach Rosh Chodesh kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah and welcome to the 12th season of the Messianic Evangelical Jericho March in this the 10th year of the Final, Last, Second or Greater Exodus (as it is coming to be known) and the ongoing and almost completed time of the Penultimate Judgment of the wicked rulers of this world and their supporters in this last-but-one generation before the Second Coming of our Messiah. That's quite a mouthful and that's because so much is going on!

As is our tradition (and that's all it is, so that no one accuses us of inventing something 'new' to celebrate or observe), those who want to spend a week devoting themselves to spiritual warfare gather for prayer. And though spiritual warfare can, and does, happen at any time, of course, we use this time especially to learn or remind ourselves how Yahweh conducts warfare through His people Israel. What's so special about the 'Jericho Experience' is that it shows us the supernatural ways and divine tavnith (pattern) of operating here on earth as a covenant people acting as an echad or united community as represented by the summer and autumn/fall annual festivals.

'Body Christianity' or 'Community Christianity' is probably one of the poorest understood aspects of the Besorah (Gospel, Good News). The assumption is often made, quite wrongly, that being 'born again' and being 'filled with the Ruach (Spirit) leading to a vibrant, dynamic one-to-one relationship with Christ, is the whole 'name of the game' - the 'game', 'whole game', and 'nothing but the game', if I can borrow and modify the truth-telling oath that witnesses typically make in court. For most evangelical Christians, it seems to me, having a personal relationship with Yah'shua (Jesus) is really all that it's about. But they would be seriously mistaken if they should ever come to that conclusion. Once a soul has become privately and individually spiritually regenerated, that is 'merely' the prelude to an even more important and greater regeneration that Yahweh calls for. He wants us to repeat the same, not just as individuals, but as a covenant community. And what happened at Jericho is the model example of how a covenant community, represented at its most basic level as the local assembly (church), is supposed to function.

The Book of Joshua is all about conquest - the conquest or overcoming of a huge obstacle blocking Israel's way into the Promised land and their inheritance in Canaan. That block was the mighty pagan fortress of Jericho. I would like to suggest that all of us, at least once, have a 'Jericho' blocking our forward movement in our lives. I know many of you who face 'Jerichos' right now and you don't know what to do. Every strategy that you have thought of, every effort that you have made, has hitherto failed. And in so many cases, it's at the walls of a personal Jericho that many believers decide to give up and to sink into passivity. The Story of Jericho was given to us to remember both to rebuke us when we take such a defeatest attitude and to show us how to overcome our obstacles...Yahweh's way!

No human army had ever, or could ever possibly, conquer Jericho. This fort is a picture of what in deliverance ministry we call a 'strongman', a giant who is seemingly impossible to vanquish, a Goliath seemingly possessing supernatural powers. And many, if not most, of our personal Jericho's do indeed possess supernatural power, but of the dark kind. When that is the case, like must overwhelm like, and for that reason we must turn to another supernatural power to overcome and conquer. And that is our Elohim (God). Only Yahweh-Elohim through His Son Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ), to whom all authority and power has been given in the current æon or age, can ever overcome a 'Jericho'. That means all your carnal weapons of warfare are doomed to fail. Only supernatural weapons can succeed. Having said that, though, that does not mean all man has to do is passively stand aside and let Yahweh get on with it. Not at all. To be a covenant people seeking supernatural intervention against enemies/life problems, requires our active particpation but in a unique way and according to heavenly tavnith (pattern) or design.

A number of key human elements were involved in the conquest of Jericho, all of which are essential. The first was capable military leadership by a spiritually submitted man of Elohim (God), Joshua, Moses' successor. He was every bit an 'Exodus man' like his tutor, the navi (prophet) Moses. He was a great soldier, an effective general, a worthy successor to Moses. But more important, Joshua was a spiritual leader, a true servant-leader. He pleased Yahweh and obeyed His Torah. Thus he led on both the military front and, critcially, on the spiritual front, where raw power is always subservient to simple trust in Yahweh. Joshua learned that you only win by doing it Elohim's (God's) way. The power of the Israelite military was always intended to be a weapon in the hand of Yahweh, not man. Victory came not because of the weapon but because of the Elohim (God) who held it.

My message today is principally for those of you who feel defeated. It is my task to give you a prophetic word to revive you. I am to remind you of the components of true, active faith. A lot of us feel defeated and the reason, always, is a lack of proper trust in Yahweh. It's becauise we have ceased exercising an active faith and fallen back on a powerless, passive faith. In two words, we have fallen asleep. We are locked in a relentless spiritual slumber. And falling into a slumber or deep sleep isn't usually something we usually choose to do (unless we make a conscious, deliberate choice to run away from a problem and hide in some dark 'cave' of our mind) but usually creeps up on us unawares. We lose spiritual consciousness gradually through neglect of our spiritual exercises like prayer, witness and Bible study.

Part of your homework, if you'll take up my challenge after you have heard today's message, is to carefully review three critically important sermon series for this time that I gave nearly 20 years ago called The Slumbering Spirit (4 parts), The Awakened Spirit (5 parts) and I Choose to Live (6 parts). These have helped many people spiritually revive over the years. Use the next 15 days to go through them, one a day if you can manage it, as part of your spiritual exercises for the Jericho Marches Week and for the weeks ahead leading up to Shavu'ot. I promise you, you won't regret it. If I am able, I might, time permitting, even make some videos after the current Jericho Week is over.

One of the biggest problems that many Christians and Messianics face is they believe they are beyond deception even while they are having countless spiritual experiences! They really believe they know it all and are unteachable. One of the tragic consequences of such a stubborn attitude is that when real trouble hits, as it will this year, they suddenly find themselves wholly unprepared and unequipped to respond. Whether it is because they have failed to prep physically (next winter is going to be far, far worse than the one that has just ended, with many believers starving, finding themselves homeless, ravaged by disease, facing death and even locked up in state-run concentration camps) or whether it is because they have not prepped spiritually and are taken completely by surprised by events that suddenly cascade upon them, people desperately need to wake up before it's too late.

Am I being an alarmist? Absolutely. I am sounding an alarm. I sounded the alarm for what's happened recently many years ago and I am sounding the alarm again for what's coming. I have been proven right thus far. It's not over. Jericho was not defeated in one day but seven. But the only way Joshua and Israel defeated that mighty city was because they responded in faith to Yahweh's instructions through His navi (prophet). If they had sat around waiting for Jericho to be conquered by Yahweh without their participation, they would have waited forever, starved, and eventually been overwhelmed by the occupants of that city. They had a job to do and it wasn't to just sit under a palm tree and eat figs all day long. Had they not responded to Joshua, the many miracles of deliverance from Egypt and the hostile Sinai desert trek would have amounted to nothing. It would all have been in vain. You have to keep moving in faith. The stragglers in that 40 year-long desert march all got picked off by Amalakites because they wouldn't keep up. Fall behind, try to do it alone, and you run no less a risk. There are lots of Christian and Messianic stragglers, trying to 'do it alone', who are in grave danger of being 'picked off' by the devil's predators.

By going 'on the attack' with practically nothing save their faith in the Elohim (God) of Moses and Joshua, being obedient to every instruction given them, 'they' brought down the walls of Jericho, as must 'you'. Now I don't know what all your individual problems or obstacles are. Maybe you have recently lost something very precious or important to you - your marriage, a relationship with one of your children, your best friend, your job, your chance for a promotion, your home, your self-esteem, your struggle to overcome an addiction, your grappling with a tough doctrine which you don't at all like but which you know is true, your health, or whatever it may be. All of these are challenging to be sure but they are not insurmountable. You have fought hard, but the score on your side of the board was nothing, a big zero. Now what?

The Book of Joshua, which is where the story of the Battle of Jericho is recorded, is a book about winning and losing. In order to conquer and settle the Promised Land, the Israelites had to win a series of battles and, untimately, a war. The Israelites prevailed. Will you?

The story of the Battle of Jericho is a reminder of the constant, relentless pace of life and how important it is to keep up. After the exhilaration of battle, which we'll be discussing presently over the next few days, real life would settle in. We must always look ahead. Right now we are focussed on today, as we should be, but we have to remember that even after you have won your current victory and overcome - even after we as a covenant community have won our victory and overcome - we must still face the world on the other side of Jericho. The élites will be defeated, there will be a respite, but it will only be brief. We have to keep moving on and consider why Yahweh has ordained us for victory, if we will positively respond, and that is to evangelise the world. That's one huge calling we have been given in Matthew 28:16-20, and we have to constantly remind ourselves that we're not just here to overcome for ourselves but that we are called to go out and help others overcome, by preaching the messages of salvation and of the Kingdom.

Even after the victory at Jericho the Israelites found themselves surrounded by idolatry and an immoral culture. The defeat of the élites is not going to remove evil from the cultures we are in or surrounded by. It will still be there. You see, even in winning it is still possible to lose. Don't rest on the laurels of past victories because more battles must be won until the war is over. The Israelites could have gained the whole land of Canaan and have still lost their souls. A military victory could bring with it the fruits of a moral defeat and that may well be the reason why so many of you are defeated today. You won past victories and then stopped. Conquering militarily is not the same as conquering a culture, which is a set of deeply engrained ideas, and then the military losers could become the cultural victors, as the victors of the two World Wars discovered in the 20th century.

The end of the First World War brought with it a wave of scepticism against Christianity followed by a wave of moral unrestraint and promiscuousness, not to mention extreme financial hardship. The end of the Second world War brought a second and even more destructive immoral cultural wave which now we are reaping the fruits of. The anti-Christian nihilism of today's culture is a direct result of two disastrous Christian fratricidal world wars. Physical conquest is never enough. The Battle of the Soul is far more critical. And that's exactly what happened after the Battle of Jericho was won, resulting in the disaster that was a series of multipe apostacies recorded in the Book of Judges.

What I am saying is that, yes, it is right and necessary to rest after a victory, even to celebrate, but not indefinitely. As any gardener knows, the moment you stop gardening, nature takes over and starts overwhelming your previous work. Last year was a Sabbatical Year and we face a lot of extra weeding this year before we can get our crops in. That is what life in the mortal sphere is like. We can find inward rest in Christ on a permanent basis through the ongoing daily cultivation of our relationship with Him, and take necessary physical rest each Sabbath, but active discipleship must go on. The moment you stop, you will slowly be overwhelmed. Complete rest must await the Millennium! This may not be what you want to hear but really it's the only common sense thing you can do: keep going! And, yes, you may be as exhausted as some of the sicker folks here are, but we know we have to keep going until our task is done.

For decades since the end of the Second World War, far too many of us (in the West, at least), even if we love Yahweh, have far more money and prestige than believers of any previous generation. And that's true even of Second and Third World countries even if the wealth gap between these groupings might suggest otherwise. There have been enormous economic and social victories over the last 70 or so years but that has not stopped our nations from becoming defeated. The West, led by the United States, is teetering on the edge of the abyss as I speak. It's vassal states are rising up and demanding a multi-polar political world. And since we no longer hold the moral lead anymore, what possible grounds do we have left for claiming superiority or the right to dictate to anyone? 'Democracy' has replaced Christian Morality as the watch-cry of the West but nobody, rightly, believes us anymore. What's so superior about the degraded West with its insane wokery? The former communistic nation of Russia, albeit semi-totalitarian like practically every other country nowadays, has more Christian morality than we do now. That's just a fact, however much it might agitate our sense of self-righteousness. The Western hegemony is over thanks to the depraved élites who have taken it over, with our permission, no less. Oh yes, it's ultimately our responsibilty for swallowing the immorality they preach, for chasing the carrots they dangle, to make us weak and defenceless spiritually. We're witnessing the end of an Empire, even though it has never called itself that, and the death of empires is always followed by a period of anarchy.

Do you want victory in the midst of the current moral, political and social degradation? Do you feel defeated because of the degraded state of modern society? Only Yahweh holds the true instruments of victory; raw power like money, prestige and position will not secure that victory. Politics alone will never secure it. Our trust and obedience to Yahweh will lead us to victory - to overcoming - and nothing or no one else. That is the essence of the message I will be having for you over the next six days. We need to learn to develop the courage that is necessary to become completely obedient and surrendered to Elohim (God). And to put it bluntly, that is the only choice we now face if we are not to be swept away by the chaos that is everywhere around us gaining momentum now. And are we as prepared as we think? As Solomon reminds us:

"A man's heart may strike him as pure, Yahweh, however, weighs the motives" (Prov.16:2, JB).

We want to invite you to join us in prayer and intercession over the next week for personal, family, and community victories. We are going all out to enter an overcoming mode to set the precedent for the ongoing Last Exodus and Final Gathering, not just to talk about it, but to do it. So we will be having six very short 10 to 15 minute-long devotionals and prayer sessions every evening, that will be videotaped, in place of our regular 5-minute devotionals that will hopefully both flesh out the theme of the Battle of Jericho to make it relevent for this current new year and to give impetus to renewed prayer life. One month has already past and a critically important one now faces us. So please join with us, start reading those old sermons which you will find linked in the online article and in the video description boxes, because I believe you will come to need them. Yahweh bless you in all your spring labours until we assemble briefly again tomorrow evening.

"Yahweh-Elohim, our Heavenly Father, we Your people come before you here in Sweden and around the world, to bless these assemblies brought together in Your Name and hear our petitions. We exalt You as the Illustrious and Majestic One, Creater and Ruler of the Cosmos, King of every beating heart that acknowledges Your Name and the Name of Your Son.

"You have broken the lightning-swift arrows, the shields, the swords, and the lines of battle arrayed against Your people in all generations. At Your reproof the Enemy stands spellbound, at Your verdicts as they thunder down from Heaven, the wicked ones are silenced and stand speechless.

"Your Seven Ruachot (Spirits) roam the earth to save the humble and punish the wicked whose evil designs you see and whose deeds You bring to light for all to behold. Man's wrath only adds to Your glory; the survivors of Your wrath you draw like a girdle around You and protect them, the rest You scatter like chaff in the wind. You snuff out the lives of princes and kings, of prime ministers and presidents, of merchants and magnates and all potentates who oppose You. You bear patiently with us all.

"Help Your people now, as You did at Jericho, Holy Father, to engage the Enemy with the weapons of spiritual warfare; help us not merely to stand our ground as we have been doing in the face of the Enemy's tempests of rage, but now, Father, give us leave to emulate Joshua and his people Israel according to the pattern, and be with us as in faith we march around every obstacle that currently stands in the way preventing us from advancing the cause of Your Kingdom.

"Cover us as You covered Israel as we silently circle the Enemy camp bearing Your Throne and as we patiently await the moment when You give us voice to bring the walls of the strongmen tumbling down. Be our covering to give us shelter from the stormy blast as we recall Your accomplishments of old and as we anticipate similar things today and in the future. Heal our wounds and illnesses, justify our scars, strengthen our feeble hearts, and prepare our mouths and hands and feet to bring forth righteousness and truth in gentleness, and judgment with the roar of lions at the appointed hour. May Your Enemies quake and Your people rejoice in the hour of Your deliverance in Yah'shua's (Jesus) Name. Amen."