Leadership lessons from Joshua

Joshua 3:9-13

⁹And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, Come hither, and hear the words of the LORD your God. ¹⁰And Joshua said, Hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Hivites, and the Perizzites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Jebusites. ¹¹Behold, the ark of the covenant of the LORD of all the earth passeth over before you into Jordan. ¹²Now therefore take you twelve men out of the tribes of Israel, out of every tribe a man. ¹³And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the LORD, the LORD of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above; and they shall stand upon an heap.

We often hear in leadership circles that it is the responsibility of the leader to cast the vision for the people and to motivate them to the point where they will remain committed to the vision until the mission is accomplished. Along with casting the vision and motivating people, the leader is required to manage their effectiveness in accomplishing specific tasks along the way. Leadership is a challenging endeavor to say the least. For the Kingdom leader that challenge is magnified. We can add to the list of leadership responsibilities for the Kingdom leader the challenge of imparting faith to those in whom they lead. Imparting faith is a different action in contrast to inspiring. To impart faith is to give an individual a clearer perspective of an unseen reality, but to inspire an individual is to motivate them to accomplish the task they see before them. Imparting faith is a challenging endeavor to say the least, especially imparting the type of faith that would put ones life in jeopardy. However, the advantage for the Kingdom leader is that he or she is bringing one to faith in the living God. And because this is a living faith, God has the responsibility of producing results Look at the text in vs. 3: 10 And Joshua said, Hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive out from before you…” The text is making God’s intention clear. God is about to perform a miracle—the parting of the River Jordan (vs. 13)—and the sole reason for this miracle is so the Hebrews would know that God is with them and that he would not fail them. In this instance the Hebrews were asked to believe that Joshua was speaking for God and then they were required to believe that God would accomplish what He said He would. The faith imparted to the Hebrews opened up the door for God to move miraculously for them in the future as well… the rest of vs. 10 says “…and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Hivites, and the Perizzites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Jebusites.” So what was Joshua’s responsibility in this? Look back at vs. 9 “And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, Come hither, and hear the words of the LORD your God.” You see Joshua imparted faith by simply gathering the Hebrews and speaking God’s words. And, the rest of the process is up to God. It is the responsibility of the leader to cast vision, motivate, manage and inspire them to remain committed to the vision until the mission is accomplished. Additionally for the Kingdom leader he or she is required to impart faith to those in whom they lead. However, the advantage of this task is that the Kingdom leader is responsible only to speak God’s word and then leave rest up to God.