In this 10‑minute teaching episode of the “No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe” podcast, host Greg Ryan explores the biblical principle that spoken words have power, using the Old Testament book of Joshua as his primary illustration. He begins by reminding listeners that every book of the Bible has purpose and that Joshua follows Moses’ death. Ryan highlights God’s first words to Joshua in Joshua 1 – “be strong and courageous” and the promise “I will never leave you nor forsake you” – as an early example of God’s encouraging spoken word. He then moves to the encounter at Jericho (Joshua 5:13‑15), interpreting the “man” who appears to Joshua as a pre‑incarnate appearance of the Lord (Jesus), emphasizing that capitalized “Man” or “Angel” in the text signals the divine presence. Ryan contrasts God’s willingness to receive worship with angels’ prohibition against worship, using this to illustrate the unique authority of God’s spoken word. He proceeds to recount the specific battle plan God gave Joshua for the fall of Jericho (Joshua 6), detailing the six‑day marching, the seventh‑day seven circuits, the trumpets, and the great shout that would bring the walls down. Ryan stresses that this plan was uniquely given by God and that the fulfillment of God’s spoken word demonstrates its power. Throughout, he urges listeners to read the cited passages themselves, assures them that Scripture will not harm them, and closes with a call to subscribe and continue the series. The episode blends biblical exposition, theological reflection, and practical encouragement to trust in the power of God’s spoken word.
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Welcome to episode 48.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Spending time in the Word of God is the best way to spend time with God. Welcome to No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, where we will encourage, inspire, and empower you to live your best life in Christ. Here's Greg.
Welcome to episode 48. If this is your first time listening, uh, we have covered a lot of ground in the last 47 episodes, but this specific teaching I'm on, I think I'm on part 9. It all starting to run together, and I apologize, but I try to keep it, make it, try, try to make it about 10 minutes. And so I try to get one thought, and I was talking to a friend of mine today And he said, you're kind of like a voice crying out in the wilderness, and I am an ear in the wilderness. And I, I want to give a shout out to Tony and tell him, hey, thanks for being out there, and, uh, thanks for being an ear. I need, I need more ears. But anyway, I want to just continue on my path, and we're talking about the power of the spoken word, and we're going to stay in the Old Testament, and we're going to go to Joshua. The Book of Joshua is a wonderful book, and I— if you've listened to me, all of them are wonderful. Every book in the Bible has a purpose. None of them are in there by accident. But Joshua, at the beginning of Joshua, Moses has, has died, and God starts speaking encouragement to Joshua right out of the gate. He starts talking about— because God knows, again, he knows the end from the beginning. God weighs The way God looks at things, he looks, he's not caught in time. So he's looking at, he knows the battles that are coming up, and he starts telling Joshua, and in chapter 1, you know, be very strong and courageous. And another thing that he says, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. As I was with Moses, I will also be with you. So he's encouraging Mo, he's encouraging Joshua, 'cause Moses has been leading them for over 40 years in the wilderness. And Joshua was kind of Moses's right-hand man and kind of was all around Joshua— Moses. He was kind of following him and watched how he worshiped God and went into the tent and all of that stuff. So Joshua is, is no stranger to the presence of God, but he did not know God like Moses knew God. But he was, he was learning. And so God now has to have a new leader because Moses is dead. So he's telling Joshua, hey, be strong and courageous. And then he says, didn't I tell you, be strong and very courageous? So I'm not going to read chapter 1 to you. It kind of sounds like I am, but I'm not. But we're going to go to the power of our— because we're in the power of our words, and those are encouraging words that I would encourage you to read in Joshua 1. Well, we're gonna go to where the Battle of Jericho, and that's found in Joshua 5. And a lot of stuff has happened to Joshua from the time Moses has died, 4 chapters. You know, he's preparing, God is preparing the people of Israel to instead of being wanderers and, you know, getting the manna, we're about to go in there and we're about to start fighting. So as is my way in every episode, I wanna encourage you to go back and read the word of God. It's not gonna hurt you. I promise you, it hadn't killed me yet. So I want to encourage you to go back and read it. A lot has transpired. The, the children of Israel went back under covenant with God. They were circumcised, and they also ate of the produce of the land, and the manna had stopped. And, and there were some other miracles showing the people of Israel that God was with Joshua. So all of this is, is is coming to pass. They're about to have to go into battle, and they, they come up to Jericho. And I want to pick it up there in Joshua 5:13. And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a man stood opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, are you for us or our adversaries? So he said, no, But as the commander of the army of the Lord, I have now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, what does my Lord say to his servant? All right, I gotta stop. There's a bunch there, but I want you to see that, that this was— if you look at it, it says the man, the man stood opposite him, and man is capitalized. Every time this— the, the army, the army of the commander of the Lord, and any kind of man or angel, anytime that's capitalized, that is the Lord. That Jesus appearing in the Old Testament to lead his people. That's— this is not an angel, this is the Lord. God is here. You know, if it— if you want to know if it's the Lord or God or an angel, if it's God and someone starts worshiping, God doesn't stop them. He doesn't—
he—
God doesn't say, whoa, whoa, don't, don't worship me. You know, there's times when he'll say, you know, do not fear, and pick them up. But he does not tell them not to worship. Now, angels will tell you, you know, don't— I'm, I'm similar to you, I'm, I'm a created being just like you are. I mean, they don't say that, but they won't allow you to worship. That is, the glory is for God. Praise and worship is for God. And that's a side note, that's Satan get— it's gotten in trouble, and that's pretty much why he is banished or will be banished to the lake of fire, because he tried to put himself in God's position and wants to be worshiped. So there's a rabbit. You've wondered if I was going to chase a rabbit this episode. Now you know, I— the rabbit has been chased, and I got to get back to the story. But the commander said, and this is Jesus, said, no. You know, when Joshua said, are you for us or our adversaries? And God said no, was his answer, no. But as the commander of the army of the Lord, I have now come. So Jesus ain't— is not picking sides. He's never going to choose sides. Every person that you— if you're listening to this podcast, you are a child of God. Now, whether you have accepted him as your Lord and Savior, that's a different story, but you are a child of the King. And I will tell you that you are God's favorite. You may think, well, I can't be, all the stuff I've done. But God knows exactly who you are, and God knows exactly why he loves you, and he loves you. He's the perfect Father. So that is why when the— when Jesus, you know, when Joshua asked him, say, hey, are you for us or our adversaries? Jesus said, no, no, I'm not for either one of you. Joshua worships the Lord. Then the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, take your sandal off of your foot for the place where you stand is holy. And Joshua did so. And then it's going to go into talking about Jericho, and I'm going to read that because it is just a— I mean, it's never going to hurt us to get too much scripture. Now Jericho was securely shut up because of the children of Israel. None went out and none came in. And the Lord said to Joshua, see, I have given Jericho into your hand, its king and the mighty men of valor. 2 You shall march around the city, all you men of war; you shall go all around the city once: this you shall do 6 days. 3 And 7 priests shall bear 7 trumpets of ram's horns before the ark. 4 But the 7th day you shall march around the city 7 times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. 5 It shall come to pass, when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, that all the people shall shout, with a great shout, then the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people shall go up, every man straight before him. Now that's an awful lot of scripture, but I wanted you to get the picture that God gave Joshua a specific battle plan, and he has never given this battle plan before, and he's never given it again. So don't go out there and start— you know, I see people with the Jericho March, and there's nothing wrong with that to try to build up your faith and that kind of thing, But it— this was specifically for Jericho, and this was specifically for Joshua, so that they knew God again was going to show himself faithful. You know, there's not a general in his army that would have said, hey, you know, I think what we ought to do, we ought to go, let's do this, you know. And if you're just sitting there spitballing, you know, you're in a— the generals meeting, and you say, I think, I think what we ought to do is we ought to walk around this walled city where they're, where they're riding chariots and houses are built. Let's walk around this, this walled city and blow trumpets. Let's do this 6 times. Let's do this every day for 6 days. And then, hey, and, and let's just add to this, on the 7th day, let's walk around it 7 times and blow in the trumpets. And then when we get on the 7th time the trumpet players, y'all are going to hold that note really long and really loud, and then we're going to shout with a great shout, and then I'll bet you, I'll bet you the walls come straight down. Now, who would ever— that, you would get laughed out of the generals meeting if you come up with that kind of idea. But when God says it, the word of God is filled with faith, and God, once he speaks it— and again, the power of the spoken word, and there's no There's nothing more powerful than the word of God. And so when God said it, it was going to happen just exactly like God said it was going to happen. And the only thing that was left to do was these 7 days were— had to come to pass. So I'm going to pick that up. We're going longer than we like. It's not— it's getting past the 10-minute mark, so I'm going to pick this story up in the next episode. But I wanted to set the I kind of wanted to set the table for this Joshua thing. It is a cool story. I want to encourage you to go to Joshua 1 and read up through Joshua 5, coming up into Jericho, and see where God has pulled these people. And God is— God is so cool. God's a great God. But we'll pick it up in the next episode. I want to thank you for being a part of this episode, and if you haven't hit the subscribe button, go ahead and do it, and I'll see you in the next episode.
Thanks for listening to the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast at www.nodoubtonlybelieve.com.
