Faith | Step out with your feet and take territory for Jesus

The Sahara’s relentless heat saturated the air, turning the desert into a furnace. Our group was meeting in a compound at Wadi Natrun—halfway between Cairo and Alexandria.

By the time the group assembled, the sun had climbed higher. No breeze offered relief.

Before me sat 50 young, courageous men and women from across the Middle East and North Africa—from Morocco to Iraq. They had risked much just to be there, stirred by a common passion to advance God’s kingdom in places often hostile to the Gospel.

No air moved. It was the stifling. Sunlight passed through the shutters, creating dusty bands of light.

I felt the gaze of 50 sets of eyes, and let silence fill the room. Then I reached down, slipped off my old shoe, and threw it hard across the room. It sailed through the dense air and hit the far wall with a dull thud, coming to rest against the plaster.

“Do you know what is wrong with that shoe?” I asked.

No one answered.

“It doesn’t have my foot in it! It’s my shoe—designed for my journey—but without my foot inside, it’s useless. It goes nowhere. It accomplishes nothing.”

Then I opened the Scriptures and read the Lord’s words to Joshua: “I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses” (Joshua 1:3, NIV).

Do you see it? The places you step become the territories God calls you to claim for his name. Your steps are not random; they are divinely appointed claims on ground he has promised.

The stories of Joshua make this truth clear. God declared all of Canaan as Israel’s inheritance. Yet to possess it required obedient action—people had to set foot on new land in faith.

Joshua’s movements teach us about claiming spiritual territory—whether personal strongholds, family legacies, or unreached nations. Possessing these require courage, perseverance and trust. The land was promised, but taken one obedient step at a time.

The bottom line? Step out with your feet and take territory for Jesus.

Scripture celebrates the beauty of feet that follow him into the unknown. The prophet Isaiah declared, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things” (Isaiah 52:7).

These are not feet admired for their appearance but for their mission—the dirt-stained, calloused, sometimes bloodied feet of those who traverse difficult terrain to deliver the message of Jesus. An ingrown toenail or a bunion never diminish the biblical beauty of your feet. In fact, pain heightens the spiritual reality rooted in sacrifice and obedience.

This truth matters in daily life. It means setting your foot in places of influence, even when they are hard. We must ask ourselves: Are we quick to move when he prompts us to move? Are we working in our assigned places, or just waiting … and waiting?

As I looked at those 50 young believers that day in Wadi Natrun, I saw young men and women ready to step out. Some had been disowned by their families. Others risked prison or worse. Yet there they were, in that stifling room, training to carry the Gospel into closed nations. Their feet—both physically and spiritually—would soon travel across the region.

“Your feet,” I told them, “will carry you where I cannot go. You will stand and see God’s hand in ways I cannot. You will reach people with the gospel that I will never meet.”

As the first session of the day ended, I sensed a fresh anointing. Fifty pairs of feet—soon to become hundreds, then thousands—would carry the name of Jesus into territories long held in darkness.

The shoe lay forgotten against the wall, but its lesson endured: Put your foot in it. Move forward.

For where you tread in obedience, God has already declared victory.

Rev. Micah Smith is president and founder of Global Gateway Network (globalgatewaynetwork.org). Questions and comments should be directed to editor Lucy Luginbill in care of the Tri-City Herald newsroom. Email lluginbill@tricityherald.com.