Jennifer Nestler is the founder of Esther Company, a ministry called to be a voice of clarity, healing, hope, and life for women in abusive relationships, as well as to awaken and equip the church about the reality of hidden abuse.
Jenn moves strongly in the prophetic and healing anointing and her heartbeat is to minister the purity, truth, and beauty of God. She is passionate about placing value on women and seeing them fully empowered to walk in all God has for them. Her most treasured role is being a mom to her four amazing children who reside with her in Lancaster County, PA.
Websites: esther-company.com
It’s Harvest Time! Exposing the Five Kings Warring Against God’s People and Strategies to Defeat Them – A Word by Jennifer Nestler
Jennifer Nestler
Email: [email protected]
The following word is based on Joshua 10, which is famously known as the miraculous time when God supernaturally caused the sun to stand still until Israel defeated its enemies. These five kings came against Joshua after he experienced a major victory.
If you find yourself being attacked after a great victory, be encouraged! God is exposing these five kings or principalities in order for you to keep your victory and receive your full reward. God doesn’t just want you to win; He wants you to stay victorious and receive your full harvest!
Exposing the Five Kings Warring Against God’s People and Strategies to Defeat Them
During the battle, the five kings escaped and hid in a cave at Makkedah. When Joshua heard that they had been found, he issued this command: “Cover the opening of the cave with large rocks, and place guards at the entrance to keep the kings inside. The rest of you continue chasing the enemy and cut them down from the rear. Don’t give them a chance to get back to their towns, for the Lord your God has given you victory over them.”
So Joshua and the Israelite army continued the slaughter and completely crushed the enemy. They totally wiped out the five armies except for a tiny remnant that managed to reach their fortified towns. Then the Israelites returned safely to Joshua in the camp at Makkedah. After that, no one dared to speak even a word against Israel.
Then Joshua said, “Remove the rocks covering the opening of the cave, and bring the five kings to me.” So they brought the five kings out of the cave—the kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon. When they brought them out, Joshua told the commanders of his army, “Come and put your feet on the kings’ necks.” And they did as they were told.
“Don’t ever be afraid or discouraged,” Joshua told his men. “Be strong and courageous, for the Lord is going to do this to all of your enemies.” Then Joshua killed each of the five kings and impaled them on five sharpened poles, where they hung until evening.
As the sun was going down, Joshua gave instructions for the bodies of the kings to be taken down from the poles and thrown into the cave where they had been hiding. Then they covered the opening of the cave with a pile of large rocks, which remains to this very day. (Joshua 10:16–27)
Exposing the Five Kings Warring Against God’s People and Strategies to Defeat Them
1. Jerusalem: peace
This king speaks to an attack against your peace.
Strategy:
Keep your focus on trusting God, no matter what your circumstances look like. “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you” (Isaiah 26:3)
Take every thought captive to the knowledge of Christ. That doesn’t mean to deny your emotions. The thoughts or emotions we struggle with are often a great compass to reveal the lies of the enemy that God wants to reveal His truth in and to bring healing. “We are demolishing arguments and ideas, every high-and-mighty philosophy that pits itself against the knowledge of the one true God. We are taking prisoners of every thought, every emotion, and subduing them into obedience to the Anointed One” (2 Corinthians 10:5).
2. Hebron: to pass over, to cross over
This king speaks to an attack to stop you from crossing over. You are entering harvest time! It’s time to remove anything that will pollute or stop you from collecting the spoils of war. The enemy wants to stop you before you even cross over. Do not let him!
Strategy:
Keep moving forward in faith. Do not quit.
3. Jarmuth: fear, seeing, or death
This king speaks to an attack of fear. This fear comes like a fog to envelop your new season, clouding your vision. The enemy doesn’t want you to see where you are crossing over into; he wants you to remain in fear and keep you focused on what might die if you cross over. It’s a lie and a distraction! It may even look like death to life as you knew it, to certain relationships or even places. It may look like death to an old season, things you have prayed for–even good things–but there is no such thing as death for believers. The doorway of death always leads to resurrection life.
Strategy:
Press through the fog. Keep pressing on, no matter what it looks like. Don’t listen to the taunts of death. Life is your inheritance!
4. Lachish: independence, self-sufficiency, walks or exists of himself
This king speaks to an attack to get us to move out of the timing of God or to walk according to the wisdom of the flesh. It will tempt us to act in our timing and strength apart from God. We must remain humble and dependent upon Him. We cannot afford to walk in self-sufficiency when God-sufficiency is always greater. “Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5–6).
Strategy:
Ask God to reveal any area of your life that isn’t aligned with His perfect will and timing. Allow Him to adjust you. Stay humble and rely on Him and not your own understanding.
5. Eglon: wheel, to go round and round.
This king seeks to wear you out by causing you to walk in circles or repeating cycles in order to prevent you from breaking forth into the new. Don’t let discouragement take hold. Even if you feel as if you keep walking around the same mountain—the same issue—deliverance is here. God is saying, “Follow me. Trust me. It’s harvest time. You are entering the new!”
Strategy:
Allow God to reveal cycles that have derailed or kept you trapped in the past. Ask Him for the new way, and He will make your path straight.
Exposing Enemy Infiltration
“Now the five kings had fled and hidden in the cave at Makkedah.” (Joshua 10:16).
Makkedah: The Place of Shepherds
A king speaks of someone with authority. Their position holds weight, influence, and legal access. These kings hid in Makkedah, which means the place of shepherds—what should be a safe place of guidance and protection. They hid here to avoid being discovered. God is exposing areas of our thought lives or even people who we have given access to that are not a safe or healthy presence. He is exposing these five kings so that we can discern how the enemy is infiltrating our lives. We can then root them out and move forward unhindered into the new, fully able to enforce the victory that God has already given us so that we can receive a full and undefiled harvest.
Standing in Authority
“When Joshua was told that the five kings had been found hiding in the cave at Makkedah, he said, ‘Roll large rocks up to the mouth of the cave, and post some men there to guard it. But don’t stop; pursue your enemies! Attack them from the rear and don’t let them reach their cities, for the Lord your God has given them into your hand’” (Joshua 10:17–19).
Cave (v.): To Submit Under Pressure
We can’t deal with these kings by simply strong-arming them to submit under pressure. We must not stop and simply discern these enemies in our lives. We must stand in our authority in Christ and be on the offensive to pursue, root out, and destroy these adversaries.
Joshua had the bodies of the kings thrown and, in essence, buried in the very place they sought to hide. The kings that have come to battle against you will be buried on the very ground where they sought to hide and insert themselves in your life.
Destroying Principalities
Verse 20: Joshua’s armies defeated all the men, but the kings were still not dealt with. We can’t deal with only the symptoms, but we must deal with the principalities—the kings. Just as a tree will continue to grow back if the roots are not removed, so, too, if we don’t deal with principalities, they will continue to regroup against us.
Verses 24–25: “When they had brought these kings to Joshua, he summoned all the men of Israel and said to the army commanders who had come with him, ‘Come here and put your feet on the necks of these kings.’ So they came forward and placed their feet on their necks. Joshua said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Be strong and courageous. This is what the Lord will do to all the enemies you are going to fight.’”
Stepping on the neck is a sign of subjection and speaks of judgement. The neck symbolizes labor, hardship, or yoke. Be strong, not discouraged—use your authority to step on the necks of these kings and put them into subjection to God. Ask for God for His anointing to break the yoke or hardship you are facing.
Verse 28: “That day Joshua took Makkedah—the place of shepherds, and destroyed all the enemies, leaving not one.”
Once you use your authority, step on the necks of the kings, and subject them all to God, you will destroy all your enemies too. Victory will certainly be yours!
It’s Harvest Time!
We have entered a season of separation. God is weighing hearts and motives. Both the wheat and the chaff have been allowed to grow together for a season, but we have now entered harvest time. God is uprooting and separating that which has sought to pollute and defile the harvest.
Don’t hang onto what God is trying to remove, or you will risk forfeiting all the ground you’ve already taken, and it will sabotage the new season of increase God has for you. Allow God to separate you from anything that would spoil the harvest and hinder you from crossing into the new.
Prayer
Father, I thank you that you are routing out all hidden principalities that have warred against your people, seeking to cloud their vision, thwart their victory, steal their harvest, and keep them from entering into this new season.
God, would you forgive us for ways we have partnered with fear, been tempted to give up, have moved outside your timing, or have operated in our own wisdom and sufficiency. God would you reveal cycles that have kept your people worn out and bound to the past.
I declare the blood of Jesus is severing every tie keeping your people from crossing over into their new season. I declare your people are walking unhindered into the new! It’s harvest time!
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