Do you view prayer as a last resort or a first step? Here is Nancy Lee DeMoss. In your personal life or in your family, your marriage, in your church, and with your children, when there's an attack of the evil one, you can see it, but you don't know why. Do you go and get on your face? Or do you go and ask somebody else for help? Or you go and get a book, or you go and ask a therapist,

what's your first resort?

This is the Revive Our Hearts podcast for Monday, October 6, 2014.

The Life of an Old Testament military leader has so much to teach women in the 21st century.

We've been discovering that during Nancy's in-depth teaching on the life of Joshua.

Here she is in the series Lessons from the Life of Joshua, Part 10,

Rising from Defeet. Have you ever found yourself having this great spiritual victory,

some mega high point in your life, only to find yourself falling flat on your face within hours or days of that mountaintop experience. I see a lot of heads nodding, and I think to experiences in my own life, you know, I was like in the portals of heaven for a little bit there, and then within moments, it seems, I'm in the flesh as if I never knew the Lord, and you can be having your quiet time, you know, and you just have the most precious time with the Lord, and God speaks to you, and then moments later,

you're screaming at your kids and panicked about your schedule, and that is probably not an unusual

experience, and it's something that we find illustrated here in the book of Joshua. Chapter

6, we studied the fall of Jericho. This was an awesome victory, won by the Lord God himself.

There was such evidence of the supernatural power of God.

And chapter 6 ends on this great high note.

The last verse of the chapter says, so the Lord was with Joshua and his fame was in all

the land.

And the Israelites are riding high. Everybody is ecstatic.

God has just done this great thing. And then we come to Joshua chapter 7. And if you have your

Bible and haven't turned there yet, let me invite you to turn to Joshua chapter 7, verse 1.

And we come to this little three-letter word, but, but, something happens.

The victory is quickly eclipsed by a defeat, and it's a significant defeat.

This little word, but, and what follows, reminds us that we are never in greater danger and never more vulnerable

spiritually than when we are on the heels of a great victory. It's a pattern you can expect that.

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