The Word: Joshua 1: 5 – 7 (KJV)
5 There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.
6 Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them.
7 Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper withersoever thou goest.
Dig Deeper:
8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
9 Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.
Think about it
FOCUSING ON THE NEW
Still on Vision, Planning, Strategies, Goals, Timing
After Moses passed on. God spent considerable time encouraging Joshua to be strong and courageous. The instruction to be strong and courageous was actually written 3 times within Joshua 1: 6 – 9. That reflects emphasis. Even though it’s not written down, but it would appear Joshua was emotionally affected by the exit of Moses. If someone as meek as Moses failed to make the promise land after labouring and serving as a leader for 40 years. Then it is perhaps easy to see why Joshua may not be interested in the new leadership role. The thought could be: ‘If Moses failed, what chances have I got.’ To put it mildly, Joshua could have been prone to some level of depression. Some people just have a way of dealing with it. So here was a new open door, an opportunity to move forward, but instead of enthusiasm and joy, there was skepticism and lack of interest. Joshua’s emotion was lukewarm as a result of discouragement, seeing what had happened to his predecessors or mentor. He knew Moses got punished. In other words God said: ‘Joshua, I have a job or role for you. It is a promoted role. But Joshua analysing everything though: ‘Is it really worth it? What happened to Moses can also happen to me in a different way’.
This is called: discouragement because of past experiences. That discouragement could also be a mild form of depression if we can put it that way. It has the tendency to truncate the new even before the new starts because it presents a question and a subtle lie: Can the future be different or worth it?
Strong people sometimes gets depressed. I hope we know that.- Leaders can also get depressed. Typical example is Elijah.
But God gives Joshua an antidote to get out of discouragement and not to allow the failure of the past or what we are going through to stop us from the future. The secret is: FOCUS. He said:
8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
In other words when you focus on the new, you unconsciously get over the past. Focused people don’t know everything. They sometimes only know what they are focused on. Focus creates blindness. It allows you to zero in on something and be blind to everything else. As much as our minds can be bombarded with several thoughts, the reality is that we can only process one thought at a time. Focus puts all our energy into a single basket. Focus makes our effort effective. Joshua was to focus on the word: confess it, meditate on it, do it…. everything was to be about the word. The word speaks about the plans or new things God is doing. Someone may say: How will I get over the past disappointments?
The answer from God’s instruction to Joshua is to focus on the new. The past will naturally take care of itself and fade away.
Nuggets:
We must not allow our former experience to rob us of what God is now doing…..
Our memory verse for January 2018
Habakkuk 2: 2
2 And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.
Let’s take a few moment to learn our memory verse for this month by heart. It can be memorised in 2 lines:
Line 1: And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision,
Line 2: and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.
Once you say it a few times it will stick.
Prayer focus: Our prayers for the next level project:
We are destroying every satanic altar against our lives, churches… We come against every lineage satanic altar through the blood of Jesus
On Grace:
Masterlife Workbook: The Church is embarking on weeks of discipleship workbook study: Masterlife now on the 2nd workbook: The Disciple’s personality
