Defiling the Inheritance — David Wilkerson

This is a message this morning that God worked me over real good about, and maybe he'll work you over good, too. I was preaching, in fact, I preached this message at a conference, and I got a note, in fact, that one of the leaders met me before I got up to preach again and handed me a long note rebuking me.

He said, Man, do you know who you're preaching to? These aren't sinners. That's what he was trying to say. He said, Man, these people are dedicated to lives. And I told him, If you don't know Jesus ten times better this year than you did last time, you really don't make any progress.

And he said, How can you use such extracurricular terms like that ten times? And I get up and I said, Folks, I really have to repent. I'm sorry that I've not used biblical terms. I should have used thirty, sixteen, a hundred times better.

I wasn't being facetious, but some of them went right over their heads. You don't go and take this unless you've got an open heart, or you'll get mad at me, like they did. Not all of them, but some of them enough.

The Holy Spirit had the Second Service, had to break through it so I could preach. And he did. He met their hearts. Those criticisms may not have represented the whole group, but it's hard to get up and preach when you get to thinking the whole group is against you.

Defiling the Inheritance: Jeremiah’s Indictment

Well, let's see where we are this morning. Defiling the inheritance. Jeremiah 1 .10, you'll find a very, please don't turn it, because I'm going all through, I've got probably thirty verses I'm going through here, and I'm not even preaching out of Jeremiah.

Yes, I am. Jeremiah 2 .7. Go ahead. Jeremiah 2 .7. Look at Jeremiah 2 .7. This is going to be the basis of my message. When you entered, you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination. When you entered, you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination.

You just leave your Bible open on your lap, and we'll go back to that, and then just give me your good eye and your good ear. Jeremiah 1 .10 is a very concise explanation of the role of a prophet. Now, you know I'm not a prophet, and I don't like anybody calling me one.

My role is an Amos who, as a sheep herder, is told to prophesy. But the role of a true prophet, according to Jeremiah, is to root out, to pull down, to destroy, to throw down, and to build and to plant.

That's a concise role of a prophet. Boy, have you ever had the Holy Spirit, through a ministry, root you down, pull you down, destroy you, throw you down? If he doesn't then turn around and build you and plant you, then he's not a true prophet.

Furthermore, the prophet of God must go wherever God sends him, and he's got to speak whatsoever the Lord shall speak. He's to fear no man's face. He's to spare naught. He's to utter the awesome judgments, touching all wickedness on the face of the earth.

He's got to strike when God says strike, but he's also got to bless and build and plant when God directs him to. And it was with this kind of mandate in mind that Jeremiah began walking the streets of Jerusalem, and he was crying a message into the ears of God's people, and he was pricking their consciences, and he was reminding them of a terrible spirit that was upon the people of God, people who were in the land, and he said, you've been corrupted by a horrible spirit.

There's a spirit upon you that you don't know about. He reminded them, he said, you were once holiness unto the Lord. Israel was holiness to the Lord, but now you walk in vanity and you've been slipping away from him.

He said, you're forgetting the pit from which God delivered you. He brought you through wilderness of drought and the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through before and where no man ever dwelt, and I've brought you in.

Now there's the key. I've brought you in. These are not people in Egypt now, these are not people in the wilderness, these are people in the inheritance. They have already arrived. He said, I've brought you into a plentiful country to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof.

Now you've got to keep that in mind, they're out of sin, they're out of bondage, they're into a good land of blessing and glory, the type of those of us who really believe in their heart and can testify that the Lord has done something special in our lives.

Not that we lord it over anyone else, not that there's a spirit of pride, in fact it's a very humbling thing to be brought into a holy place with God, very humbling before the Lord, because there you see sin in the awesome presence of God.

This is the people that have crossed the Jordan, they're in the promised land, these are veterans, these are warriors of the cross, so to speak. These are veterans, they've been through war now, they've witnessed great miracles, they've seen deliverances, they've overcome, they are people that are in, a very special, highly anointed people.

And I shuddered when I read Jeremiah's indictment against these highly anointed in-people. When you entered in, in other words, when the Lord brought you in, you did something to defile that good thing God was doing in you.

I rejoice in what God is doing with our staff at World Challenge, the confessions that have come forth and the cleansing and the purifying, and most of our staff are not sitting around watching television.

They're praying, they're seeking God, and God slowly but surely is bringing us into a place, isn't he? Many of you here have been brought in, he's bringing you little by little. You know that you're not where you were a year ago, don't you, and you rejoice in that.

But he said when you entered in, you defiled it, you made this heritage an abomination. And I tremble at this horrible indictment because it struck an arrow in my soul, it was something that happened to me, and I'll share it this morning, but I think it's also the axe being laid to the root of the whole Church of Jesus Christ.

The Danger of Defiling a Deeper Walk

We live in a day of Christians who boast that they've come in. The whole health and wealth people talk about revelation knowledge coming into special revelation. Those in the Pentecostal charismatic movements talk about the fullness of the Holy Spirit, a fullness that's coming into something, isn't it?

There's no doubting that the Holy Spirit is doing a tremendous work in the remnant. He's separating the Bridehood from the Laodicean Church, and in this Bridehood there's a revelation of Christ and the glory of the Lord.

But he said all you who have entered into a new walk with God, having separated yourself from lukewarmness, and you've come into this radical kind of Christianity, and that's what God's going to demand of us, a radical Christianity, and he said when you entered into this kind of thing, you defiled it.

You trod underfoot a great work of the Spirit in you, and then you brought in something that God wasn't pleased with. You brought in some filth, and you brought in some corruption, and this glorious place of resurrection, this realm of the Spirit bringing you into, this progress that you've made, and you were on the brink of waters to swim in, but then suddenly you did something that grieved the Holy Spirit.

You began to indulge in something, and the very good thing God did in you, you turned it into abomination in his very eyes. Friend, this is a scorching word to me, and I dare not cast it aside. You see, he's rooting something out.

The role of the Prophet, remember, to root it out, he's pulling down a stronghold still in the flesh of those who are moving into the promised land. He's got to throw down yet a form of idolatry in all of us who want to move on in God.

Israel's failure in this matter is an example for us, and the Holy Spirit directed me to go into the Word of God and find these corruptions of the people of God after they'd entered in, and I found three sins of those who enter in to a deeper walk with God.

I don't think you'd be here this morning, I really don't, unless God had done something in you, and you're drawn, because just as Jerry's talking about, there are a lot of us saying that in these last days it's going to take more than we have been giving him.

It's going to take a lot more, and after what I've seen this weekend, I know it's going to take a lot more. It's going to take a lot more, even than some of those very dedicated missionaries were willing to give more.

I heard the confessions, and I saw things that just grieved my heart, and it's going to take more. By the way, if you think you've arrived, Brother Ravenhill had a man, he was telling me, come to see him once, he said he wept over me in particular because I was searching for something I hadn't found.

I thought, God help me if I ever get to the place where I think I've found it. I want to be searching, I want to be seeking, but I hope I'm moving further in him. The Lord woke me up one night and sent me to my room and said, I will not give you sleep until you deal with something in your life.

Here I've been rejoicing in the good thing he was doing. This started, if you followed my ministry, about four years ago when Brother Ravenhill gave me Christian in complete armor, and I realized I didn't know God like that man.

I didn't know God like those Puritans. I didn't know the Lord in his fullness. I didn't know what was commanded of me. I didn't know anything about the government of God. I knew his mercy, but not his government.

Covetousness as the First Corruption

God started bringing me in to a new realm, and then God showed me this. Let me talk to you about it. The first sin is covetousness, the sin of covetousness. Now you look at Israel now, they're across the Jordan, remember?

They're finally in, and they've already had a bloody encounter at the hill of the four skins. Remember, Joshua made him sharp knives, and he circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the four skins.

I was telling Brother Ravenhill the other day, I see three hills in the life of a Christian, the dung hill of Paul, where you get rid of everything and say, that's enough. Then you've got this hill of the four skins where you're circumcised before the Lord, and then you've got the heap of stones, and that's Achan, and I'm going to talk about him right now.

There are three heaps in all of our lives, and if you're going to go up on, you've got to be able to show them to the Lord. You say, there's my dung heap, there's the circumcision heap, and there's the valley of Achor and the door of Hope, and I've got a heap of stones on top of my Achan.

Let's get into it here just a minute now. They're in, they're circumcised, they're ready to move on in God, and it's time to bring the walls of Jericho down. It's time to show the whole world God's with them.

And just before they moved into Jericho, Joshua knew there was something lurking under the surface of these inn people, these highly anointed people. He knew that they had not been dealt with about the spirit of covetousness, and so he finds it in the spirit necessary to give a special warning to these people who are in the land, warriors, anointed, called, commissioned, and under the directionship of the captain of the Lord's army, which was Jesus Christ, the Lord himself.

He said, keep yourselves, now you're about to go into this thing, you're going deeper now, you're going to see victories like you've never seen. God's going to take you all the way. But keep yourself from the accursed thing lest you make yourself accursed.

When you take of this accursed thing and make the camp of Israel curse and you trouble it. Don't touch it, don't covet after anything that you see in Jericho. Israel was a covetous people, anointed, highly called, in fact, remember, God said, of all the families of the earth, you alone have I known.

And yet there are people that have a spirit of covetousness lurking under the surface. That accursed thing was not a Babylonian garment, it wasn't 200 shekels of silver, it wasn't a wedge of gold. The accursed thing was a spirit, a spirit of covetousness, of wanting, of lusting.

The walls come down, remember, and they slay the inhabitants of Jericho, except, remember, the harlot that was saved. By the way, I don't think that was much of a battle. I don't think there's much fighting if people have to have been through an earthquake.

I mean, all ground, everything fall around, who's going to fight? They're just running for their lives, they run into an Israeli sword. And the walls are down now, and the silver trumpets are about to blow, bringing the warriors back to base camp, and there are things laying everywhere.

I mean, the whole ground is covered, because the walls, and I believe the houses, everything came down, because they finally burned it to the ground and cursed, Joshua cursed the very ground. And look at all these things laying around, and don't tell me Achan was the only one.

Achan is the expression of what was in all their hearts. There were a few, knowing Israel, and only two of them coming out of it, surviving in faith. You know what was in the hearts of these people. Joshua would have never warned them if it was only one man, he'd have taken them aside and told them.

He knew what was in all their hearts, and later when he was caught, he said, I coveted these things, and I took them and I hid them in my tent. Now, evidently, he saw that Babylonian garment and his thing was closed.

He said, boy, that is something, I have never seen anything like that. He picked it up and looked at the stitching, and he said, man, that's the best piece. He looks around and he said, if I could just have this, that's all I'd ever want.

I would have the most unusual garment in the place. He saw himself strutting everywhere in this garment and telling everybody he made it. He rolls it up and sticks it under his turban or wherever you stick it in those days.

He said, I've got it, that's it, I'm satisfied, and suddenly his foot hits a bag of shekels, shekels, money. He looks down and there's 200 of them in there. He thinks of that garment and he says, now, that will buy a ranch or something.

When I get in there, this will really do it, that will set me for life, and he said, this is all I, I'll just take this now. Now I'm really satisfied, until he sees something shining there and he lays it down, and that's a wedge of gold, pure gold.

He said, now, that's stupid to leave that there. I'll drop that in the basket when I get time. I'll give it to God, and now you see, if the silver trumpets hadn't blown, he'd have come out of there like a packed donkey with one of everything.

You know, I used to think the covetousness, that we, every one of us had a button the devil could push, that we've got a weakness. You see, he thought his was closed. It's not closed, because now he's after silver, now he's after gold, he's after one of everything.

You remember the millionaire from Dallas that flew in here the other day with the two helicopters right in front of our place there, and a lot of people don't know who they are. That's one of the richest men in Dallas, and Teddy said, Bud Dave, I've got one of everything ever made.

I've got one of everything. Poor man. He's a good man, I guess, I don't want to make a judgment on that, I don't need to, but he said, I've got one of everything ever made. And you know, I used to think covetousness was one weakness we had, the devil could get that.

You know, I thought mine was cars, good German cars, well-built German cars, and then, you know, I thought, well, some men have a weakness, a lust in them toward women, or some others have a lust toward boats, and some of you men, pickup trucks, and shotguns, and you ladies that are laughing, furniture, and shoes, my wife, shoes.

My wife could sell shoes. Now she gives a lot away, and the Lord's helping her, but I always thought, you know, every one of us, now there is a trigger, there's no question the Babylonian government was a trigger.

There's a trigger in all of us. But God showed me, no, that's not it, it's a spirit! It's a spirit, covetousness is a spirit! And if you give in to this one thing that you want, you'll not be satisfied.

You know, I was reading Psalm 10 .3 out of Helen Sparrow, an original Hebrew, and I'll tell you, those who preach this gospel of covetousness, health and wealth, listen to this scripture, the unspiritual man glories in acquiring his soul's desire, and in getting gain, he curseth and blasphemeth Jehovah.

Wow! Isn't that awesome? Listen to it again, the unspiritual man glories in acquiring his soul's desire, and in getting gain, he curseth and blasphemeth Jehovah. Covetousness is a spirit of acquisition, it's a spirit of reaching out and taking gain, it's lusting after the things of this world, lusting!

I really thought mine was cars, and after I'd written this book on judgment, I'd lost about 8 or 9 pounds, and my wife and brother Wagner, a few of my friends can tell you the intensity that I was under during that time, and after it was all over, there's a tendency to relax, and the most dangerous time in a minister's life or a Christian's life is after great victory and then relax.

The devil moves in during those times of relaxing, and it was whispered to my heart, you've earned a rest, and I'm taking this ease, and I had a 1974 BMW, I was 11 years old and having problems and the air conditioner wasn't working, and I knew my weaknesses, and I said, Lord, I've got to stay with this car because, now don't think I'm something because I'm driving an old car, my wife drives a new Cadillac, so that explains that it's not a humble kick I'm on, and I was driving down the road, and I said, Lord, I've got to have a better car, and I started, you know how you do, you justify, if you want something, you can make a list of 50, 100 things, reasons why you have to have it, don't you, you can write a book on why you need it, so I prayed, and I seemed to have been released in the spirit to buy a Toyota or a Datsun, and I thought, well, that won't trigger me, so I go into Dallas one day, take a day, and I hadn't pulled with those things in a long, long time, I thought that was out, man, I got the victory, I told the Lord I had the victory, I shouldn't have told him that, Lord, of all things, that's gone, that'll never bother me again, don't ever say that, so I went to Dallas, to the Toyota garage, and while I'm looking at a Toyota, I look over there, and there's a 1984 Porsche, and I thought, well, I'll just look inside, and I shouldn't have done that, and I drive it, and it's wow, zero to 60 in six seconds, and I go in, and I signed on the line, I didn't pray, I knew if I whispered to the Lord, he'd say no, and so they're cleaning up the car, and I'm sitting out there, and the driver said, oh, God, I'm sick inside, and my tummy hurts, I'm just so stupid, and a man comes out, and he said, Reverend, we can't sell you the car, he said, there's an oil problem, we found an oil problem, we canceled on that premise, and the Lord said, you see, I bailed you out, and wouldn't you think that would do it?

Now, you're laughing at me, but boy, I'm explaining you, too, and I'm driving down to a Dotson garage, and I have to pass a BMW place, and I don't know why I drove in, and again, I sign on the line, and I'm driving home, feeling real good about this, and all of a sudden, I'm saying to myself, now, for the price, and believe me, it was a very reasonable price, it was brought over from Germany, it wasn't an accident, you know, the price, I had justified it was the price of a new car, an American car, and I had a beautiful justification, so I was enjoying my justification, and driving my justification back to Tyler, and I was thinking, you know, that 928 that was next to it was the same price, and it would have been faster, and all of a sudden, I'm lusting after every car there is, and this rich man that comes to visit us from Dallas, I'm showing him some property, and he just blurted out, he said, Dave, I think I need to give you a brand new Rolls Royce convertible Cornish, now that will never happen, and I wouldn't drive it, I would sell it and give it to Mrs. before the Lord, I know that, but you know, that was in my mind coming down the road, I thought, man, a Rolls Royce convertible, and all of a sudden, I'm lusting after every car there is, and it was out of control, and I came home, and I'm sitting there talking to some friends, and I'm finding that the conversation, that covetousness spirit that was on me spilled over on everybody around me, my wife who hasn't talked about material things in so long, was talking about some material things, and our friends that were visiting us up that time, we'd been talking about the Lord, we were talking about a condominium they thought they could look at at Palm Desert, which they don't need, and they know it, and suddenly everybody is talking materialism around me.

That spirit had leaped upon them, and I couldn't sleep that night, and that's when the Lord said, go up and turn to Jeremiah 2 .7. He directed me by the spirit to this very verse, after you entered in.

After you defiled it, you defiled it by the spirit of covetousness that is upon you. I haven't been able to get in that car since, it's stuck in my garage, and I have to find a way for it. For me, that's sin, and it's not just cars, it's not cars.

You see, covetousness shuts the heavens, and it did it to Israel here. It incited the anger of God that he would not hear them and he would not go with them anymore. Now, you see, the battle of Jericho is over, and they are going against Ai, and Ai is such a little town, they don't even take it seriously, they send just a small contingent of soldiers against this motley army of Ai, and they fled, the scripture says, before the men of Ai.

Therefore the hearts of the people melted and they became as water. Joshua and the elders rent their clothes and put dust on their heads, and Joshua cried, Why, Lord? Would to God we be content to dwell on the other side of Jordan.

Can you imagine a great man of God saying just what Israel had said in the worst hour, Why did God bring us out here to die in the wilderness? Now Joshua is saying, Why did we stay in Egypt? Why, Lord?

And what was said of Israel can be said of us when there is lust in us, and covetousness. They fled before their enemies, they fled, they couldn't stand against their enemies, they can't stand against the enemies of the flesh, or the devil.

And listen to this, God refused to have anything to do with these people while they were bound with this spirit. Israel has sinned, they have taken to the accursed thing, neither will I be with them any more, except you destroy the accursed from among you.

Now that's called brass heavens, it's called brass heavens, it's called not getting your prayers through. That means not having the witness of God being with you, not having the glory of his presence in your life.

When things are going wrong, the enemy prevailing, trouble and heartache, they are in, but God is not working with them. There is an accursed spirit of covetousness, and they are trying to do God's work without dealing with the root of the cause of their defeat.

And I'll tell you, when the anointing stops flowing, you'd better look for Achan. Covetousness, the Lord showed me very clearly, covetousness can't be curbed, it has to be killed. You can't curb it, you can't live with it.

Killing Covetousness Rather Than Curbing It

And Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan, and the silver and the garment and the wedge of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his asses, his sheep, his tent, and all that he had, and brought them into the valley of Achar, and all Israel stoned him with stones and burned him with fire and raised over him a great heap of stones.

What an object the Holy Spirit is giving us about God's revealed wrath against the spirit of covetousness. He said, I want it killed, you stone it, you burn it, you bury it, then you pile a heap of stones on top of it.

How severe, he says, this thing is, and I want it dealt with that severely, and that's what God has been saying to me, you've got to roll in death on this. I believe I've died to sin once at the cross, but I die to the flesh daily.

I die to the flesh, if necessary, a thousand times a day, every time it raises its ugly head, to roll in death on it, and stone it and kill it. Sadly, today, we make Achan in the church today, Achan is the hero in many churches, in many circles, the man who goes for the gold, the man who goes for the clothes, the man who goes for us, he's the hero, he's got faith, he's figured God out, he's got all the blessings.

What a tragedy we've made Achan the hero. Through Isaiah, God said to his people, for your sin of covetousness was I angry, and I punished you, and I hid me, and I was angry, and you were rebellious in the way of your own heart.

Jeremiah, for from the least of you, even to the greatest, every one of you was given over to covetousness, and even from the prophet, even to the priest, he said, you're all given over to covetousness.

Thine eyes and thine heart are not but for your covetousness, O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasure, thy end is come in the measure of thy covetousness. I believe that's America.

Covetousness, Hearing God, and the Loss of Spiritual Sensitivity

Ezekiel gives the strongest words of God on this matter, and they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before these my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them, for with their mouth they show much love.

We showed much love here this morning, we're the end people showing him much love, coming into his courts with praise. But their heart goeth after their covetousness, and lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well upon an instrument, for they hear thy words, but they do them not.

That shudders my soul, it just echoes deep in me, that I was that kind of man, and I'm not trying to lay a heavy burden on you, but I wonder if that's what God is saying to all of us. And I wonder sometimes if the church of Jesus Christ isn't too far gone.

There are times I really feel deep in my heart that God strips us all and brings a total economic collapse and strips us down, because if we're not careful, we're going to want one of everything. You're just going to reach for this and reach for that, and just when you think it's dead, we reach and we reach and we reach, and you sound not like that, oh, and one way or another we all reach for something.

And God says, I want that reaching stopped, I want that spirited out of you, I want it killed. And you remember Hosea said, he referred to the valley of, the door of hope in the valley of Acre, and I believe that is our door of hope, and Acre, remember, was the heap of stones here.

He said, that's the door of hope, that's where you're no longer coming, is she? But husband, I'll bring you into a new relationship if you deal with the spirit of covetousness, if you'll just slay this thing by the spirit, if you'll isolate it and take it like aching and say, oh, God, I want to deal with this spirit.

You know, I looked at the missionary wives up there, and I could just see them sinking in their seats, and there was love in my heart for them, but some of them had packed so much they were going out like royalty, and still they were saying to their husband, I need this and I need that and I need that, and here is this beautiful call of God to go to the mission field and give themselves, and it's overlaid with this spirit of covetousness.

And that spirit of covetousness is in all of us. You go looking for houses, don't start looking at the $200 ,000 house, look at the $30 ,000 house, and then move up if you want, but don't start up there, you'll want that, you'll never come down.

There is something in us, it's in all of us. I don't care, the holiest, most devout, most pious man on the planet, this spirit is in him, it has to be dealt with, all of us, this spirit of covetousness, and it hides the face of God.

Carelessness and the Failure to Seek the Lord

You know the man of God who lusts after the big church, he'll eventually lust after the woman in that church. A man who lusts for ambition and recognition will start lusting after everything else because it comes in many, many pairs.

Listen to me closely, covetousness leads to carelessness, these are twins. On the hill of every Achan there's a Hivite, and I'll tell you what that means. That means that on the hill of covetousness is carelessness.

Jericho and Ai have been defeated now, Achan's out of the way, but there's still a spirit of carelessness that this has created in the camp. Now remember, after Ai is Gibeon, where the Hivites live, and that's three days' journey.

And can you imagine all of the messengers that there had to be, the whole time Israel was in the land, they had all kinds of spies from all these countries, there were Canaanites, Hivites, Amorites, all those hills and areas out in the distance, all those camels, those raiders out there, these were the spies, and they saw those walls come down, can't you imagine them running to Gibeon?

Don't you know they ran everywhere and the fear of God was on them? The fear of God was on these people and they knew Israel was coming. You remember what they did? They made as if they had been ambassadors and they took old sacks upon their asses and wine bottles, old and torn and bound up, and old shoes and patches on their feet, and old garments upon them, and all the bread was dry and moldy, and they said to Joshua, now remember they're only three days away and they're pretending to be ambassadors, listen, we've come from a far country, now therefore make a league with us.

And they were setting a well-conceived trap, Joshua and his princes were about to make a careless, careless mistake, and they said unto him, from a very far country thy servants have come because of the name of the Lord thy God.

Now watch how they start stroking this great man of God, we've heard the fame of you all. We've heard the, you're famous! You see the princes smiling at one another, hey, everybody knows what God's doing here.

I had a pastor of a great church in Dallas say to me once, you've got to come, you just have to come, I don't want you to preach, just sit and see what God's doing, we just want everybody to know, that's why every time they build a big church, they call in all the press, they call in every well-known people, they call in the magazines and newspapers and television to let everybody know what's happening.

And these men of God are being stroked by these men, he said we've heard thy fame and all that he did in Egypt, therefore our elders and all the inhabitants of our country said to us, take victuals with you for the journey and go meet them and say to them, we are your servants, therefore now make a league with us.

This bread we took hot for our provision out of our houses on the day we came forth to go to meet you, but now look, behold, it's dry, it's moldy, and these bottles of wine which were filled and were new, look now, they're all torn, and these are garments and our shoes have become old by reason of the very, very long journey.

Now keep in mind that this man Josuel was the one who met the captain of the Lord's army, and that was Christ, and he said, take off your shoes, you're on holy ground, and any Jew who knew what that meant, that meant I give up my rights.

And from that day on, Josuel said, what saith my Lord? On all things, that's what Josuel said, about Jericho, about Achan, what saith my Lord? That was what God wanted out of this man, and I'm convinced that, remember, it came to pass with Josuel by Jericho that he lifted up his eyes and looked and behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Josuel went to him and said, are you for us or for our adversaries?

And he said, no, as captain of the host of the Lord am I come, and Josuel fell on his face to the earth and did worship, and said unto him, what saith my Lord unto his servant? And the captain of the Lord's host said to Josuel, loose your shoes from off your feet, for the place where thou stand is as holy, and Josuel did so.

But remember what he said, what saith my Lord? He didn't do anything until he consulted with the Lord. Listen to this now. Josuel gets careless and asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord, Josuel 9 .14.

He doesn't ask counsel at the mouth of the Lord. And Josuel made peace with them. He signed on the line without praying. Now he's careless. What a horribly careless act this is, and I'll show you the consequences of it.

It was awesome. Josuel made peace with them and made a league with them to let them live. And the princes of the congregation swear unto them, and it came to pass at the end of three days after they'd made a league with them, then they heard that they were their neighbors and that they dwelt among them.

Now you say, all right, it wasn't so bad. All Josuel did was make them servants. He said, all right, you fooled us, but from now on you're going to be our servants. And the Gibeonites and the Hivites from Gibeon said, all right, we're your servants.

And he made them cutters of wood and hewers of water, drawers of water and hewers of wood for the house of God. Now I'm going to give you something here. He made a league with them to let them live. And what he actually did was give the flesh and nail it in the house of God.

He made the flesh to live on as servant to the things of God. The Hivites from then on to the very cross, it was all the way to the cross that the Hivite system lived. And not only is it giving the flesh and nail in the house of God, it's a distraction, a total distraction.

And that's what happened to me when I went into Dallas and I began to look at this. And the Lord says, you see, your mind was on me. I was revealing myself to you. You were deep in the word of God. Now you have cards in your mind.

Now you have to sell this. You have to extract yourself. Your secretary has to make calls. Look at all the distractions around you now. This causes distraction, terrible distraction from the burden of the Lord, from the vision of the Holy Ghost.