Apostle Dr. Peggy Elliott

It has now become the norm for students and teachers to mandatorily practice what to do, if a student turned gunman, riddles classrooms and hallways with rounds of bullets, killing many.

​

Yes, there is a great need for healing in our communities. Is it possible to decrease the atrocities of gun violence?  Yes, it is.  Knowing that nothing is new under the sun, I turned to the Word of God to find the answer to this problem.   God led me to the book of Joshua.  “After the death of the Lord’s servant Moses, the Lord said to Moses’ helper, Joshua the son of Nun, “My servant Moses is dead.  So, you and all these people get up and cross the Jordan River to the land I am giving to the people of Israel.  I have given you every place where the bottom of your footsteps, touch, as I promised Moses.” Joshua 1:1-2

​

The Lord appoints Joshua to succeed Moses. God promises to assist Joshua. Joshua’s mission was that of a military leader.  This passage records his call to bring the Israelites over the Jordan River into the promised land.  They were directed to get up and walk and every place they walked, they were to claim that territory as kingdom territory, territory taken back from the enemy. To overtake what I call a territorial spirit of murder, I felt led to organize a Joshua army.  At the time, I was residing in Wichita, KS. Far too many young men and women were dying from gun and domestic violence.

​

I asked God for a strategy that would end the violence.  I  was led to organize a Joshua army that ended gun violence for five consecutive months in the northeast area of Wichita.  Its inception began when I was interviewed by an editor of the local paper.

​

Late one evening, I received a phone call from the editor of the local section of the Wichita Eagle.  The interview focused on my consulting firm.  Peggy Elliott Consulting Inc. specialized in racial and cultural diversity training and the editor asked if I saw a need for such training in Wichita’s corporations?  To this day, how the editor obtained my name and phone number is unknown to me.  At the end of the interview, she asked, “So, what do you think about the shootings that took place this past weekend, two gang members killed one mile apart, one hour apart?”

“I’m angry that we keep losing these young people,” I stated unequivocally.

“So, what do think the city should do?” she asked.

“I suppose they are doing all they can,” I replied.

“So, what do you think the police should do?”

“I suppose they are doing all they can do,” I replied again.

​

“So, what do you think is going to stop all this killing?” the editor pressed me for an answer.

​

My response was very specific, “This homicide must stop. The only reason these young people are killing one another is that Satan has taken over the streets.  He has raised his ugly head and the body of Christ must rise up and take back the streets.  This has got to stop and the only way to stop all this violence is for the Body of Christ to get out on the streets as Joshua armies.”

​

“When are you going to start doing this?” the editor asked.

​

“We will start this coming Saturday at 8:00 am,” I said.  The editor went on to ask if she and a cameraman could come and film the walk and interview the walkers?  I told her that I was not walking for the sake of publicity and that whether they attended or not, I was going to proceed.  The next day, my interview with the editor made front-page news of the Wichita Eagle.

​

The following Saturday, over one hundred men, women, and children met me at one of the churches in the community. I communicated the need, purpose, and process of a Joshua Walk, of a Joshua Army.  The father of one of the young men who was recently killed came forward for prayer.  After praying for him, we set out marching onto the streets of northeast Wichita.  We left the building with the resolve that Satan could not continue to have control over our streets.  We were taking them back from the enemy.  It was during the walk the Lord gave me a specific strategy on how to overtake a territorial spirit of murder.  I shared the strategy with the walkers when we returned to the church.  At 8:00 am every morning, we were to go out and do Joshua walks in the specific areas that the Chief of Police assisted us in mapping out.  We were to do this every Saturday until the Lord told us to stop – every Saturday! I was committed to doing whatever the Lord said.

​

The next Saturday, we were thirty-two strong.  By the third Saturday, the army only consisted of seven soldiers, myself and a friend and a family of five. I felt much like Gideon, wondering how we were going to take territory back from the enemy, a large area of territory, with so few people.

​

Judges chapters 6-8, recounts the story of Gideon and his experience as a military leader, judge, and prophet who won what looked like an impossible battle against thousands of Midianites. One day, while threshing wheat, Gideon saw an angel sitting under an oak tree.  The angel spoke to him and called him a brave man who was to go boldly in battle and save the Israelites from the Midianites.  Before going out, God told Gideon that his army was too large.  For, if they went into battle and won with their large numbers, they would gloat that it was because of the numbers they won, versus because of God.  Twenty-two thousand were sent back home and there remained ten thousand.

​

The Lord told Gideon that even that number was too large and that he only needed a few.  How was Gideon now to determine who to send home and who was to stay and fight?  He took the soldiers to the river for a drink of water.  The remaining men drank only one of two ways:  either standing and drinking out of their hands or on their knees, lapping water like a dog.  God instructed Gideon to only take those into battle who drank out of their hands as they stood on their feet, for in standing, they would be ready instantly to battle.  That number was only three hundred.  The key to winning the battle was not the numbers of soldiers in the army, but that the army had received strategy, power and might that only God could give them.  Gideon and his three hundred soldiers went into battle and because God was the Commander-in-Chief, they won! 

​

With the other six soldiers in my Joshua army, we had the leading, strategy, and boldness from the Lord.  As an army of God, we performed Joshua walks every Saturday.  It was typical for a beautiful summer Saturday in Wichita, to be eighty degrees at 8:00 in the morning!  For five months, five steamy, hot, humid months, we went out and took territory back from the enemy. We had the opportunity to pray with people and lead them to the Lord.  One Saturday, we stopped a gang fight and prayed with the members.  Another Saturday, a man beckoned me to come and pray for his dying father.  This father believed that he could not spend eternity in heaven because he murdered two men and served time in prison.  The beautiful moment occurred when I was able to pray the sinners’ prayer with him when he asked Jesus to forgive him of his sins and then asked Jesus into his heart.  This one soul being saved made every hot Saturday doing Joshua walks, worthwhile.  Two days later, Fred (not his real name), went home to be with the Lord.  I was honored to perform his homegoing.  We prayed for many during our Saturday Joshua walks.  During the last Saturday of our fifth month of marching, God told us that we were to conclude our marching.   Was there anything good that came from our Joshua walks? 

​

We went and met with the chief of police the following Monday morning, asking him how much violence and how many homicides occurred during those five months? The answer shocked us all.  THERE WAS NO CRIME COMMITTED DURING THOSE MONTHS - NONE!  During the period walked, taking back territory, there were NO REPORTS OF VIOLENCE, NO DEATHS, NO SHOOTINGS, NO BREAK-INS!  NO HOMICIDES!  NONE!  Look at the power of God! All things are possible, anything is possible when the Lord leads, guides and directs! We are his feet and hands.  It wasn’t comfortable every Saturday to do Joshua walks, but it was mandatory if we were going to save the lives of young people.

​

The Chief and the paper asked me how I thought this victory could possibly have happened?   The answer was clear – prayer and actively getting out and walking, re-claiming our territory, were the reasons violence had ceased!  Praise the Lord!  Yes, even that made the papers and local news.  Prayer is mandatory to overcome the enemy, yet, sometimes that is not enough.  We must activate our faith!  It is impossible to win a war if you remain on your knees.  Gideon learned this.  You must get up and go out to win the battle!  Here now was proof that in the name of Jesus, we have the power to overtake the enemy! 

​

To any community who is experiencing the loss of young men and women to gun violence, IT CAN CEASE!   Get up, form a Joshua army, go out into the highways and by-ways and reclaim your territory.

​

Would you like to know how long the victory lasted?  You would be surprised.   Are you feeling led by God to form a Joshua army and you would like to know the step-by-step process of organizing and activating such an army?  The answers to these questions and the strategies are in my newest book titled:  How to Overtake a Territorial Spirit of Murder:  Organizing a Joshua Army.  Go to the bookstore on my website www.drpeggyelliott.com to purchase this wealth of information. 

 

My newest book I’m Just 65, I Ain’t Dead, will be out in time for the holidays.  You can pre-order yours now!  It's going to be a hoot! Why does society think we have very little to give once we reach our late 60’s?  I share some of the funniest personal experiences I have had since age 64!  If you need a good laugh, a really good laugh, you’ll want to purchase this book.  It will make a wonderful Christmas present!  You can order by going to my website listed above.