Joshua 6: You Are a Shofar in Spiritual Warfare

Introduction

In January, Pastor Clive, senior pastor of Kingdom Faith Church, gave the church a prophetic word for the year, drawn from Joshua 1. Sharon Vandeput, part of the church's leadership team, is convinced that this word is "still for now." She picks it up to open her message: "Prepare yourselves," the promise that every place the sole of your foot touches is yours, and "Be strong and courageous."

About ten months ago, she says, the Lord began to speak to her about spiritual warfare and about what happens in the heavenly places. At the same time, he spoke to her about an unexpected object: the shofar, the ram's horn trumpet that God gave Israel for very specific moments.

Her message comes down to one sentence: "You and I are like a shofar. God wants to bring out of you a sound that will change things in the heavenly places." But just as it was for Israel before Jericho, that sound only comes out after a path of consecration.

Outline of the message

1. Joshua 1: taking spiritual ground

Moses is dead, and God tells Joshua to rise up with all the people and cross the Jordan (Joshua 1:2). God gives them every place the sole of their foot will tread on (verse 3).
"As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not fail you nor forsake you. Be strong and courageous" (verses 5 and 6).
Setting foot on the land and inheriting it: all of this involves action and movement. For Joshua, it meant military action on physical ground.
For us today, Sharon explains, God is speaking mostly about taking spiritual ground, a spiritual territory. "That is the pair of glasses you need to read this message with."

2. The visible and the invisible: the wind behind the waves

There is a world above the natural world: the supernatural, the heavenly places. This spiritual world influences the natural world.
Sharon shares an illustration she heard recently. In the storm, the disciples are afraid of the waves filling the boat. But what causes the waves is the wind. Jesus rebukes the wind and says to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" (Mark 4:39).
"The real problem was not the waves, it was the wind. The invisible was acting on the visible."
Today there are wars and rumors of wars. What happens in the natural spills over from a spiritual battle. Understanding this keeps us from living in fear or anxiety.
We are a people of the Spirit, called to know our place as sons and daughters and the authority we have in Jesus. "In the world you have oppression; but cheer up! I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). He has already won.

3. What the shofar proclaims in the Bible

Priests, judges, military leaders, prophets and watchmen all blew the shofar. Very often, where our Bibles say "trumpet," the Hebrew text says shofar.
It announces that God is coming. At Sinai there is smoke, fire, a trembling mountain and the sound of an exceedingly loud trumpet, so that all the people tremble (Exodus 19:16). In Revelation too, the trumpet announces the return of Jesus.
It proclaims freedom. In Leviticus 25, the sound of the shofar announces liberty throughout the land. God calls us to proclaim liberty to the captives, as Isaiah writes (Isaiah 61:1).
It calls people back to the Lord. "Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain!" (Joel 2:1; see also Ezekiel 33). The shofar warned of judgment and called the people to return to God with a repentant heart.
It announces a new king. The shofar is blown when Solomon is anointed (1 Kings 1:39), and likewise for Jehu and for Joash. "We are called to announce the reign of our Lord Jesus."
It raises the war cry and the sound of victory. Gideon and his 300 men, with their jars, torches and trumpets, see the Lord throw Midian into confusion (Judges 7). At Jericho, at the sound of the shofar, the walls fall down. To sound it is to declare that the battle belongs to the Lord.

4. Knowing the true enemy and refusing the comfortable path

In a time of infighting and division, we need to know who the real enemy is. "For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world's rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:12).
"We are not fighting people." Talking about spiritual warfare does not mean going after people. It means dealing with the root of the problem: the wind.
"The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God for the throwing down of strongholds" (2 Corinthians 10:3-5). Sharon points out that the text does not say "some of us fight," it says "we": it is not optional.
God is a warrior: "Yahweh is a man of war. Yahweh is his name" (Exodus 15:3). In Revelation, he comes to wage war (Revelation 19:11), not against people but against the powers of darkness. If we want to be like our King, we follow his example.
David, at the time when kings go out to war, stayed behind on his roof (2 Samuel 11:1). There he committed adultery and had a man killed. He may have chosen the comfortable path, without seeing that the enemy was taking advantage of the opening.
"You can choose not to engage in spiritual warfare, but the enemy is not going to say to himself, well, I'll take a day off." The thief comes "to steal, kill, and destroy" (John 10:10). "So what are we going to do about it?" Not knowing your role actually makes you more vulnerable.

5. Fighting from the victory of the cross

Facing the enemy, we answer with truth. God made us alive together with Christ, wiped out the record of the charges that stood against us, and nailed it to the cross. "Having stripped the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it" (Colossians 2:13-15).
"It is important to understand where we are fighting from": from a place of victory. We do not have to react out of fear.
Sharon connects this message to the previous weeks: a royal priesthood called to reign with Christ, sons and daughters of God with an inheritance, the keys of the kingdom, authority over all the power of the enemy. Our role is to enforce the reign and victory of Jesus, instead of letting the enemy sow chaos.
Sacrificial love for others is also part of the battle: loving them enough to fight for them in the Spirit.
"For if the trumpet gives an uncertain sound, who will prepare himself for war?" (1 Corinthians 14:8). For Sharon, a clear sound is ringing out right now and calling the church to get ready.

6. Joshua 5 and 6: consecration before victory

Before Jericho, Joshua goes through a process. The old generation died in the wilderness, and God commands that the new one be circumcised. It is a consecration, a renewed covenant: we belong to him and we will serve no one else.
"Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you" (Joshua 5:9). There is a cleansing: the old is rolled away so that the new can begin.
The people celebrate the Passover at Gilgal, eat the produce of the land, and the manna stops (verses 10 to 12). Before they have even taken the whole land, Israel eats fruit it did not plant. Sharon believes that in a season of fresh consecration, God also changes the way he provides.
Joshua meets a man with his sword drawn in his hand and asks, "Are you for us, or for our adversaries?" The answer: "No; but I am the commander of Yahweh's army. Now I have come" (verses 13 and 14). It was not the right question.
"Take your shoes off your feet, for the place whereon you stand is holy" (verse 15). Many scholars see Jesus here before the incarnation, since angels refuse to be worshiped.
Only then comes the divine strategy (Joshua 6:1-5): Jericho is shut up, the people march around the city, seven priests carry seven rams' horn trumpets. At the long blast of the horn, all the people "shout with a great shout," and the wall falls down. "God is calling you to a great shout."
"You are a people of war, Kingdom Faith. It may bother you, but I'm telling you: we are called to fight in the heavenly places." And, as Pastor Clive often says, "it's not business as usual."

7. You are a shofar: six steps in the making

The ram has to die. The flesh has to die. "I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" (Galatians 2:20). Dying to yourself, to your own will, to your own desires.
The horn has to be separated from the animal. God calls us to be set apart, in the world but not of the world. "Stop worrying about being different. You are not called to be like everyone else."
The horn has to be cleaned out and emptied. God wants to empty us of ourselves and of everything that clutters us, to make us an instrument he can use.
It has to be opened so the breath can enter. "Are you open to the Lord this morning?" Being available so that the Holy Spirit can breathe and work through us.
It has to be shaped by fire. That is how the vibration and the sound come out properly. If you feel the heat rising and a lot of things coming up to the surface of your heart, that is fine: "Let's not fight the fire, let's submit to the fire."
The breath has to enter with force. Those who know how to blow the shofar confirm it: without great force, the sound does not come out and cannot be heard. "I don't want just a little of the Holy Spirit. I want all of him."
Sharon adds a word of caution: taking spiritual ground does not mean "going off in every direction." It takes wisdom. You go through consecration and submission, you meet the Lord on holy ground, you receive a divine strategy, and then you act. "The flesh can't go there, but your spirit can."
The message ends with a time of consecration, then with a shout of victory from the whole congregation to the sound of a real shofar: a shout "in the spirit," not in emotion, to proclaim that Jesus reigns and that he is coming back.

Key takeaways

The spiritual world acts on the visible world: behind the waves, there is the wind. Understanding this sets us free from fear.
Spiritual warfare never targets people. It targets the powers of darkness, with weapons that are not of the flesh.
Staying out of the battle does not put the enemy at rest. Like David on his roof, the comfortable path can make us vulnerable.
We fight from the victory of the cross, where Jesus stripped the principalities and the powers.
The sound comes after consecration: the flesh dies, and the Spirit empties us, opens us, shapes us and breathes with force through us.

Personal application

In your life right now, are you fighting the waves, or are you discerning the wind that causes them?
Is there someone you see as your enemy, when the Word calls you to wrestle against powers and not against flesh and blood?
In what area have you chosen the comfortable path, like David who stayed on his roof at the time when kings go out to war?
Which of the six steps of the shofar speaks to you most today: dying to yourself, being set apart, being emptied, being opened, going through the fire, or receiving the breath of the Spirit?
Who around you can you fight for in prayer this week, out of love for them?

Bible verses cited

Frequently asked questions

What is a shofar, and why talk about it in a message on spiritual warfare?

The shofar is a trumpet made from a ram's horn. In the Bible, it announces that God is coming, proclaims freedom, calls people back to the Lord, announces a new king and sounds the war cry and the cry of victory. For Sharon, every believer is called to be that shofar: God wants to send a sound through them that changes things in the spiritual world.

Who does a Christian fight in spiritual warfare?

Not people. According to Ephesians 6:12, our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, the powers and the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Sharon insists: in a time of anger and division, we need to deal with the root of the problem, the wind, and not the waves.

Why does consecration come before the victory at Jericho?

In Joshua 5, the people are circumcised, God rolls away the reproach of Egypt, the manna stops and Israel eats the fruit of the land. Joshua then meets the commander of the Lord's army on holy ground. Only after this consecration does God give the strategy that brings down the walls of Jericho.