What Does It Take to Step Out Before God Moves? (Joshua 3-4) | Daily Devotional & Bible Study

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.

Links

Silvia and I met on the Bible Study Live trip to Italy, and this conversation grew out of our recent contemplative retreat in Maui. We're returning to Maui in 2027 for another week of slowing down with Scripture.

Bible Study Live is a small-group Bible study trip with Rachael Groll. Study Scripture where it happened in Rome, or slow down for a contemplative Bible study retreat in Maui. Dates and details at BibleStudyLive.org

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Questions or prayer requests? Leave me a voicemail: SpeakPipe

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

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, and set them down where they camped that night. They were markers, so that when future generations asked what these stones meant, the story would get told again.That's what a marker moment is. A place you can look back to and say, if He did it then, He can do it now. When you're standing at the edge of water that hasn't parted yet, your stones are what you have. It made no sense then either, and He was still faithful. So the question worth sitting with: where are your river stones?

Featured quote:

"It's one thing to trust that He's going to hold back the water when I'm standing on dry ground. It is another thing to step in when there's still water."

Scripture referenced:

Exodus 14:21-22

Joshua 3:8-13

Joshua 4:1-9

Joshua 4:20-24

Psalm 66:16

Chapters:

• 00:00 Welcome, and how Rachael and Silvia met on the Italy trip
• 01:28 Deciding to go to Maui, and the tension that came after the yes
• 03:17 Taking the decision to prayer
• 05:06 Why these trips grow out of seasons of healing
• 08:03 What was happening in Silvia's heart on the trip
• 09:32 Self-sabotage, and the lie that she wasn't qualified
• 10:01 Bring it to the Lord before you bring it to me
• 10:31 The woman who grabbed her hand and spoke truth
• 12:20 Why obedience gets attacked in the middle, not at the start
• 13:49 Lady Wisdom, and what everyone else was seeing
• 15:32 The shame the enemy kept returning to
• 17:33 The dependence that only comes with a heavy lift
• 19:23 Holy audacity
• 21:10 Announcing the Echoes of Eden podcast
• 23:00 Psalm 66:16, and the simplicity of the assignment
• 26:45 The word marker, and the stones
• 28:00 Exodus 14 and the dry ground
• 29:30 Joshua 3, and the call to step into the water
• 32:15 Why wet feet require a different obedience
• 32:45 Joshua 4 and the twelve stones
• 34:10 Chasing the miracle worker, not the miracle
• 34:30 Why Rachael laid down podcast coaching
• 35:25 The ark goes first
• 40:20 Where are your river stones?
• 41:30 What Echoes of Eden is and who it's for
• 45:30 Closing prayer

Frequently asked questions

Why did God part the Red Sea before they crossed, but not the Jordan?

The outcome was the same, but the method changed. At the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark had to step into the water before it was cut off. That shift required trust in God Himself rather than in a repeated pattern.

What did the twelve stones represent?

They were a memorial. Each tribe carried one stone from the riverbed so future generations would ask what they meant and hear the story of what God had done.

Who is Silvia and what is Echoes of Eden?

Silvia is a friend Rachael met on the Bible Study Live trip to Italy. Her new interview podcast, Echoes of Eden, gives women space to tell their stories and share where God met them. It's anchored in Psalm 66:16.

When is the next Maui trip?

We're going back in 2027. Details are at BibleStudyLive.org.

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