Episode Details

Holy Audacity: Stepping Into the Water Before It Parts | Joshua 3 and 4

Sometimes God clears the path before you take a step. And sometimes He asks you to walk into the water while it's still standing there. If you're in a season where obedience feels reckless, where you keep asking who you think you are to be doing this, this conversation is for you. Rachael sits down with her friend Silvia, who she met on the Bible Study Live trip to Italy, to talk about what God did on their recent trip to Maui. Silvia opens up about the insecurity that hit right as she was preparing to launch something God had clearly called her to, the moment another woman spoke truth over her, and how God fought that battle in the space of a few hours.

Then Rachael teaches through Joshua 3 and 4, the crossing of the Jordan, and the twelve stones that were meant to mark what God had done.

Join me on an immersive Bible Study Experience. We're returning to Maui in 2027. Learn more at⁠ BibleStudyLive.org⁠

Listen to Sylvia's new podcast, Echoes of Eden, available now wherever you get your podcasts.

Have a question about the series? Leave me a voicemail: SpeakPipe

What is holy audacity?

It's the phrase that came out of a moment on the Maui trip when Rachael found herself asking how she had the audacity to think she should be doing this at all, and the Lord answered that He was the one who told her to do it. Holy audacity is the nerve to obey something bigger than you, not because you feel qualified, but because God said so. It's a prayer worth praying: Lord, give me some holy audacity moments. Challenge me with big obedience so I can see You show up in a big way.

Why does the enemy attack right before you step out?

Because the initial obedience usually isn't where we get stuck. Most of us say yes. It's the middle of the road where self-doubt, comparison, and insecurity start talking. As Rachael puts it, the enemy attacks in infancy what he fears in maturity. Silvia was being called Lady Wisdom by the other women on the trip at the very moment she was internally convinced she had no business doing what God had asked of her. Both things were happening in the same room on the same day.

What's the difference between the Red Sea and the Jordan River?

This is the heart of the teaching. In Exodus 14, God parted the sea first and the people of Israel walked across on dry ground. A generation later in Joshua 3, they face another body of water, and this time the instruction is different. The priests carrying the ark are told to step into the Jordan while the water is still flowing. The waters don't part until their feet are already wet.It's one thing to trust that God will hold back the water while you're standing on dry ground. It's another thing entirely to step in while the water is still there. The miracle still came and the result was the same, but the method changed, and that change required a different kind of obedience.

Why would God change His method?

Because we have a tendency to chase the miracle instead of the miracle worker. When we've seen God move a certain way before, we start expecting the pattern instead of the Person. Changing the method reorients our hearts back toward Him. Notice too what went first into the Jordan: the ark, the presence of God. His presence goes ahead and makes the way, and then the rest of the people cross.What do the twelve stones in Joshua 4 mean?After the crossing, God tells Joshua to have twelve men take twelve stones from the very place where the priests' feet had stood