Joshua 3:4 | Episode #1223

June 24, 2026

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

Joshua 3:4

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for over 25 years. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word verse-by-verse and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

If you would like to revisit today’s Bible study, please visit our website at https://hopealive.buzzsprout.com/ to download the transcript. 

If this podcast ministered to you, please subscribe, and leave us a review. Reviews help us reach more people and spread the wisdom of God. 

Please follow us:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hopealivewithgod/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/hopealiveministry/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LakeComChurch/ -Lake Community Church

Transcript

This is Hope Alive, where we apply God's Word to our daily life. My name is Chad Harrison. I'm first a husband, a father and a grandfather. I'm also the teaching pastor at Lake Community Church in Dadeville, Alabama on beautiful Lake Martin. I've been serving as a pastor for over 30 years. I also serve as the Tallapoosa County District Judge. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word verse by verse through the Bible and to find his purpose and will for your daily life. If you would like sponsor this podcast, go to the Show Notes where there's a link where you can make a donation. I pray in the name of Jesus that God would open his word to you, allow you to see him and to know him, so that you would know his will and his way for your life, that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today. Word of God, please speak to the hearers of your voice today in the name of Jesus. Amen. We are in Joshua, chapter three, starting with verse four. Well, we're just going to deal with verse four. It is an interesting logistical matter and I think it's important that God put this here. God could have not said anything about this. It could have been not that big a deal. But God was very specific about it. So when we're reading it, even though it is just when I say a logistical matter, it's just a purely logistical thing that God said, make sure you do this when you cross the Jordan River. And the verse says, yet there shall be a space between you and it. And it's talking about the people and the ark of the covenant. Now remember, the ark of the covenant is the place where the presence of God resides. The presence of God in the physical world at that time. What we call the propitiation spot, the mercy seat, where they would placed the blood of the lamb to atone for the sins of the nation. That happened once a year in the tabernacle and then later on in the temple. That mercy seat, that location was considered the location where God's presence resided in the earth. Now we know that that now is in the hearts of human beings. It's no longer a physical location somewhere in the world. Now it is in millions and billions of locations all over the world inside the hearts of human beings. And so there shall. So that mercy seat, that place of God's location, where God's going, He said, there shall be a space between you and it, meaning God's going to lead out in this. Now that's a Critical key to this in the sense of we're talking about the Spirit filled Christian life. We're talking about God's giving us the fullness of his calling. He's given us what Hebrews would call his rest, which means it's rest from our own struggles, rest from our own worries, rest from us being in control of our life and allowing him to be in control of our life. This is a picture of the peace of God being able to allow God's peace to reign over us and God's purpose to reign in our lives. That kind of rest is a, well, it's an important rest. It is the way to live the Christian life. And so when we get to this, it's very interesting that God says there's gonna be some separation between you and me. Why? Because, well, he's leading. The Ark of the covenant's being carried on the shoulders of priests. So that's important that it's. You have this picture of God being upon us, upon those who have access to his presence. The priest, we know we're the priest, but we're also the people. So we need to get both perspectives. We need to make sure that we see this thing from both perspectives. Obviously in order to live the Spirit filled Christian life, the Holy Spirit's gotta be upon us. He's gotta be, his presence has gotta be there with us so that we see him, we know him, we walk with Him. He, he, his, his purposes are manifest to our lives. His, his, his individual personal will for us. That, that comes from his overall will in the universe and, and the specific will of His Son. All those things come and they come right down upon us and, and, and, and it time oriented, temporal where we're at right now. God's wanting us to, to, to, to allow him to lead us personally. Now he's upon us. But I want you to notice that he said, I want there to be a space between you and me as we cross the Jordan river. And it's about 2,000 cubits by measure that, you know, that's about a thousand yards. It's about, I guess the best way for me to describe it. It's a kilometer. It's about a kilometer and you go. We don't do kilometers in the United States. I know, but some people would know what a kilometer is. This, you know, it's, it's, it's basically somewhere in the neighborhood of, on a, on a, on a track and track and field track. It's you know, somewhere in the neighborhood of two, two and a half Times around the track. I mean, it's a pretty long way. It's a, it's a thousand yards. And notice God wants us. He wants to be in the lead. He wants us to see him leading him. And you go, why does God give us this, you know, this logistical, logistical, you know, information. Why does he tell us this? Well, because no matter how we do this Christian life, it's not like we're going Lone Ranger out there. And now we have the power and, you know, we're, we're doing it ourselves. God's still doing it. He's still leading us. And the great example of that is Jesus. Jesus, he's God. He was 100% God while He was walking on the earth. But he said, I don't do my will. I do my Father's will. And how did he know what his Father's will will was? Well, the Holy Spirit revealed that will to him when he went and prayed to the Father. The Holy Spirit was continually revealing the will of the heavenly Father to Jesus. Well, God, for you to live the Spirit fill Christian life, you know, one of the main prerequisites is, is you got to be under the leadership of, of, of the Godhead of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And so how do I know what the will of God is? How do I, how do I recognize that will? How do I see that will at work in my life? How does that work itself out? Well, by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit. And so when we start out, the Holy Spirit's going to be, he's going to be a good bit far ahead of you, and you go, that seems like I won't be able to see you. What's going on? Well, in some ways, that's, that really is true. You, you don't see what God's doing up ahead of you. And, and does it remain that way, Pastor? No, no, it doesn't remain that way. But at the start, you've got to learn to see it, trust it, walk in it, get there, get to it. It does. It's not. It. It does. It's living. The Spirit for a Christian life is not always God reveals himself right in the moment, and then you, boom, you act. Now, does that happen later on as you're walking with go us? But, but is it something that, that when you first start trying to hear God's voice, discern his will, trust him? Is it something that, Is it something that you, you do automatically, well, really quickly at the start? Well, no. And especially if you don't have a great grasp of His Word meaning you, you don't. You haven't really read God's word a whole lot. You, you haven't, you know, immersed yourself in the word of God. And if you've not immersed yourself in the word of God, then sometimes you gotta see kind of God's. You gotta, you know, sense God's will for me out here ahead of me. And then while I'm getting to that wheel, I've gotta, you know, make sure it's a part of God's word. I've gotta make sure I'm hearing from God and I'm not just listening to myself. I had a discussion with my daughter the other night, and she was talking about, you know, sometimes people are always saying, well, I'm just. I feel like this is the will of God for me. And sometimes the things they say, it's like, you know, I'm not sure about that. You ought to check that out. And, and, and the reason they would say something like that is because, you know, it doesn't really align with God's Word. But the person might not know. That person might not realize that because they really not spend a whole lot of time in God's Word. Or maybe they don't know, you know, they don't understand how things work themselves out. And so, you know, once you, once you, once you kind of figure that out in your, in your, in your heart and in your mind, you've gotta. You gotta also measure it up with God's word. Okay, is this God's voice? Is this where he's leading me to go? Is this how this is? Is this in line with his clear, revealed will in His Son? Remember, we've got the general revelation of God in His creation. We've got the specific revelation of God in His Son, and His Son is the Word made flesh. So the Bible is the revelation of His Son. And then we've got personal revelation from God where God speaks to our hearts and leads us. All right, well, obviously, I've got to. What God's doing by his will has to be in line with what I see clearly from His Son and His Word. And so, you know, when we're first trying to figure out how to follow God's will, you know, one of the big things is you gotta know God's Word. And so when we're doing that in the initial, you know, efforts to, to walk by the will of God, you know, there. He needs to be out ahead of us, right? He needs to be out ahead of us. So that when we get. By the time we get to him, you know, we've really. By the time we get to where God's leading, we. We really have a firm grasp of what his word has to say about that situation. What, what, what. What's going on. We can kind of recognize and see God's hand at work in a situation as we're watching out ahead and walking toward it. Now, when you get to where you're walking in the will of God on a pretty regular basis, when that kind of stuff is happening regularly for us, well, then sometimes God says, do this right here in this moment, right now. Do it, do this. And you have a grasp of God's word, a strong grasp of it, and you realize that's not outside of God's will. I feel the voice that I've always been listening to, the leadership that I've always known. I know that's God. He's telling me to do this. Boom, I do it. But that may take years to do and probably will take years to get good at doing that. But when we start, he's got to be out, way out in the distance so that we can see it, we can measure it, we can think through it. We can. And notice it literally says that do not come near it. That you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way before. And that's the reason for the logistical instruction. That's why he's telling us that. He's saying, listen, don't come near right now. Don't get all right up on me because you're not going to be able to follow me. You're not going to hear my voice clearly. You're not going to know my word clearly. Don't get up close and follow me. Watch where I'm going. Learn to follow the Holy Spirit. Really, that's what he's saying. Learn to watch out, watch how I do things. And he says that. That you may know the way by which you must go. He's saying, don't come near me. Watch what I'm doing so that you can know how to do these things. Know the way which you should go. And. And the reason is because you haven't done this before. So you haven't been here before. You've not gone this way before. And so if I'm not gone this way before, I need to, you know, I need to watch, learn, grow. And so I think it's really neat that God gives us a list logistical sentence. He could have not told us this it could not have even been in here in Joshua. But it is a insight and I think it's an insight that really is shedding a lot of light on the New Testament and how the New Testament believer who's indwelt by God can learn to walk by God. But I also think it's really relevant for your, where you are right now. God's trying to be God is, well, he is being relevant to the specific situation of the people that hear his voice and hear His Word right now. And so he says, don't come near me while I'm leaving you at the start. Don't get, watch, watch what I'm doing, watch where I'm going, watch how I do things. And that really is a key to recognizing God, you know, recognizing his voice, recognizing his, his ways. Recognize, you know, God has a personality, has ways of doing things, recognizing his, his, his, his leadership and, and spending time discerning. Okay, is that the way he went? Is that how we go this, why are we going this way? Why are we doing this? And as you're walking through it, you're learning to hear his voice and you're learning to see him. And that's really the logistical key to learning how to live the spirit filled Christian life. I got to watch God and how he does things. I got to discern his will, both personally for me, but definitely in line with His Word. I gotta, his will's gonna definitely be in line with his revelation of His Son Jesus. So I gotta make sure what I'm doing definitely lines up with what God's Word says. And then, and then I just gotta get used to following him. I got get used to watching him and following him. And the more you do that, the better you get. And the better you get, the more you can draw even closer to and follow his will more precisely and directly because you've, you know, you've trusted him. As you go. Today I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you, that he'll make his face to shine upon you and that he will give you hope and peace today in Jesus name.