Blueprints for Life
The Making of Great Men in the Bible
Allen Domelle
Smashwords Edition
© Copyright 2008 Allen Domelle Ministries
All Scripture quotations are from the King James Bible 1611.
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1 - Having the Face of God
Chapter 4 - Lucky or Prepared?
Chapter 6 - Good Beginnings Don’t Guarantee Good Endings
Chapter 7 - A Burden for Souls
Chapter 8 - A Foolish Wise Man
Chapter 9 - Can God Trust You?
Chapter 10 - Finding Grace with God
Chapter 12 - Picking Up the Mantle
Chapter 13 - God’s Trophy Piece
Foreword
When I was a boy, we lived in Pueblo, Colorado, for a few years as my dad started and pastored a church in this city. I remember one morning, it had snowed the night before, and as the usual case was on a Sunday morning, I went to church with my dad to help prepare for the morning service. When we arrived at the church, my dad came over to my side of the car and opened the door to help me get into the church as the snow was deep. As my dad walked to the door of the church, I put my little feet into my dad’s footprints and followed him all the way to the church door. When I remember this story in my life about putting my feet into my dad’s footprints and following where he walked; I realize that we can become successful in life by simply following the footsteps of those who have walked before and make those footsteps a blueprint for our life.
This book that you are about to read is a study that I did on thirteen great men of the Bible. My hope is, that as you study this book, you will take the characteristics that have made these men into the men that they are and use them as a blueprint to follow in your life. My belief is if we will follow in their footsteps and make the characteristics that made these men great Christians a blueprint for our lives, we can be as successful as these men were and even do greater things for God.
Without a blueprint to follow in life, we are sure to fail. God has given us a blueprint to build our lives upon, and this blueprint is the Word of God. Let us take the examples that God has given us in His Word to learn from and use them so we can further the cause of Christ and avoid the mistakes that these men made. We can use these lessons to build upon the successes that these men achieved.
Having the Face of God
Deuteronomy 34:5-6, “So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD. And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Beth-peor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.”
Maybe no better compliment could Moses receive than to have God Himself think that no man was worthy to bury him. As we look in our text verse, we see that God thought to Himself that, because Moses was so close to Him, no man was worthy of holding Moses’ funeral or burial. God decided to be the One who would hold the funeral and graveside service for Moses. What an honor! I mean, I would hope someday that God could look down from Heaven and see the life of Allen Domelle, and God would say to the preacher that is scheduled to hold my funeral, “Step aside; no man is worthy to hold this funeral service, so I will.” That would be quite the honor for God to do this. The whole reason why God did this was because of the man who Moses was and how close Moses became to God in his lifetime. Let me explain by telling you the story of Moses’ life.
Moses was born in the land of Egypt under the rule of a wicked Pharaoh who had forgotten all of the works that Joseph had done for this land. Pharaoh saw the Israelite people growing and becoming stronger and more in number than the Egyptians; therefore, Pharaoh decided to enact a law that would have every male who was born killed. This was the first time in history that we see abortion being made a law. The midwives of the land knew that this was wrong. By keeping the men children alive, they realized that obeying God was more important than obeying laws that were in direct contradiction to the laws of God.
The mother of Moses was pregnant with him and delivered him during this time of history in Egypt. Instead of having him killed, she decided to put him in a basket and hide him in the bulrushes in the river. She told her daughter to keep an eye on him to see what would become of her son. As it would happen, the daughter of Pharaoh came to bathe in the very river in which Moses was placed. Hearing him cry, her heart went out to him and she took him to be her own son. As she held this baby, Moses’ sister came over to see if she could help, and Pharaoh’s daughter asked her to find someone to nurse and care for the child; and so it was that Moses’ mother was able to nurse him and rear him as he became the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.
Time had now passed and Moses became a grown man. Knowing that he was a Jew, he decided to identify with his own people instead of with Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Seeing an Egyptian smiting a Jewish man, Moses took matters into his own hands and killed the Egyptian which ended up causing him to run for his life and live in the wilderness for forty years.
We know the story of how Moses came back and became the leader of the Israelites to help deliver them from Egypt and take them to the Promised Land. Through his leadership, God used him to help deliver Israel from Egypt by sending the ten plagues; he led them through the Red Sea, and for forty years led these millions of people through the wilderness. Yet as we come to the end of his life, God saw fit to bury him, for no man was worthy to bury this great man of God.
Certainly Moses was a great man of God and there can be no argument to this fact. Probably no man of God in history had seen God perform more miracles through his ministry than Moses had seen. Yes, he was a great man of God and is a man who is worthy of studying his life and learning some of the characteristics that made him such a great man.
Let me give you some of the characteristics from the life of Moses that I believe made him the great man of God that he was. We can take these same characteristics and apply them to our lives. What was it that made him the man that he was?
1. He chose God’s way over position and wealth.
Exodus 2:11, “And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren.”
Hebrews 11:24-25, “By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;”
The truth is that Moses chose God’s way over position and wealth. Moses could have inherited the riches of Pharaoh because he was an heir by being the adopted child of Pharaoh’s daughter. He could have had a high position in the nation of Egypt if he would have just decided to keep quiet about who he was and who his people were. However, Moses realized that God’s way was more important than having any position and having a substantial amount of wealth. We as Christians must learn this important truth and apply it to our lives.
There is no position and there is no amount of wealth that should be able to lure us away from doing what God commands us to do. If we ever have to choose between serving God and having position and wealth, we should always choose what God commands and not position or wealth. Position and wealth may give you pleasure for a season, but eventually that season will end and when it ends, if you did not get the position and wealth by walking God’s way, then the only thing you will have is heartache and sorrow. Matthew 6:33 is still in the Bible, and God still commands us to seek Him before we seek anything. If we must choose between going to church or working a job, we ought to go to church. If we must choose between a high paying job and the will of God then we should choose the will of God over the high paying job. I fear that in our society today we have lost this truth that God’s way always comes before position or wealth. Now if in walking God’s way, position and wealth come, there is nothing wrong with this, but if we seek position and wealth by forsaking God’s way then it matters not what position we obtain or how much wealth we get, it is wrong.
2. He did not let his physical weaknesses stop him in life.
In Exodus 4:10-11, we read “And Moses said unto the LORD, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue. And the LORD said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth? Or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? Have not I the LORD?” We learn that one of the physical weaknesses of Moses was that he did not talk clearly; he had a problem with stuttering. You can see in this verse that at first he did not think that God could use him with this weakness, and yet later on, we see that after he got it settled in his mind that God could still use him, he went forward. Moses did not let his speech impediment stop him from being used of God.
We must realize that with any of the weaknesses that we have, God made us the way we are and because He made us that way, He can use us in that condition. We should never question whether God can use us in the condition we are in, but we should instead trust an all-knowing God who knows what is best and can use us the way He made us. If God can use a donkey to preach a sermon to a backslidden preacher by the name of Balaam, then certainly God can use us even with the weaknesses and frailties that we may have. Never let your physical weaknesses be the excuse that keeps you from serving God.
3. He kept a good relationship with his family.
Exodus 4:18, “And Moses went and returned to Jethro his father in law, and said unto him, Let me go, I pray thee, and return unto my brethren which are in Egypt, and see whether they be yet alive. And Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace.”
Throughout the life of Moses we see that he kept a good relationship with his father-in-law. You will even find later on in the book of Exodus that it was Jethro, his father-in-law, who had come for a visit, and while visiting, he saw the pressure that Moses was under and he advised Moses to delegate some of his duties to other men so that he would not wear himself out. Moses and his father-in-law were on good terms with each other. Aaron was his brother and assistant in the ministry, and we even see later on that Miriam, his sister, was also involved and had a decent relationship with Moses.
How important it is in the Christian life that we keep good relationships with our family. We ought to constantly work on having a good relationship with our parents and with our siblings. We should never go through life being at odds with our family. We only have one family and we ought to do our best to get along with them. God says in Proverbs 17:17, “A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” There is going to come a time in your life that you are going to need your family and you had better be careful not to burn so many bridges with your family that one day you will be all alone because you have never done anything to keep a good relationship with them. What a shame that children cannot get along with their parents! One day you will wish you had a good relationship and unless you start working on it now, you will regret it later on in life.
Not only should you try to have a good relationship with your immediate family, but you should also do everything in your power to have a good relationship with your in-laws. I know there are plenty of good jokes out there about mothers-in-law, but honestly, God has given me the best in-laws in the world. I believe we ought to work hard at keeping a good relationship with our in-laws.
4. He understood that compromise never gives what it promises.
In Exodus 10:24-29, we see one of the four compromises that Pharaoh had offered to Moses in letting them go to serve God. Yet in each of these compromises that were offered, Moses knew that if he would give in one time, he would lose the battle. He understood that compromise never gives you what it promises, so the best thing to do is never compromise.
Likewise the same is true for every Christian. We need to realize that compromising God’s commands should never be an option. You see, once Satan gets us to move one time then he knows that he can get us to move a second time. If we never give in the first time then we never have to worry about giving in the second time. We should never compromise for the sake of getting along with people or for the sake of having a bigger church, for we may compromise what we believe in and eventually, we will become something different from what we are right now. Compromising changes us from what we are right now to something that we have always been against in the past. So when the Devil comes to offer us a compromise we should, like Moses, be determined to do only what God has commanded us to do. We should claim the song, “I shall not be, I shall not be moved” and make this song the foundation upon which we deal with Satan.
5. He was not easily discouraged.
In Exodus 32:11-14, the children of Israel had just committed the great sin of setting up the golden calf and now God tells Moses to step away from the people so that He can destroy them and then make of him a great nation. Moses intercedes to God for the people and asks God not to destroy them for His name’s sake. Moses told God that if He was to destroy them then all the heathen nations would think that God did not have enough power to bring them through the wilderness and that His name would be scoffed at among the heathen. God listened to Moses and did not destroy Israel as he had planned. Over and over Moses had to face these times that could have easily discouraged him, but instead, Moses came out on top of the circumstances of life and would not let these circumstances discourage him. This is most likely one of the reasons why he was a great leader.
Great leaders cannot be easily discouraged. If you are going to be a great leader then you cannot let things and circumstances get you down. If you are going to be the leader of the home, men, then you cannot be easily discouraged and lead the home in the right direction. Your home will not follow you if you let everything get you down. Likewise, ladies, if you are going to be the leader who your children need you to be then you cannot let the circumstances of life get you discouraged. Yes, we all must face adverse circumstances, but great leaders are not easily discouraged. Leaders must show restraint in times of hardship and not let the problems of life get them down.
6. He had an intimate relationship with God.
Notice in Exodus 33:11 where it says, “And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.” Again in Exodus 34:29, the Bible says, “And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses’ hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him.” Moses as a Christian and as a leader knew the importance of having an intimate relationship with God. He walked so close to God that God felt comfortable talking to him face to face. Moses spent so much time with God that it says that the skin of Moses’ face shined with the glory of God. You see, Moses walked so much with God that he began to have the shine of God upon his countenance.
An intimate relationship with God will produce a change in your countenance. You will not have to tell people how much you walk with God for your countenance will reveal your walk with God. It says in Exodus 34:35 that Moses’ face shined so much with God’s glory that he had to cover his face when he talked to the people. If you are having a problem with how people perceive you then I would advise that you start walking with God. This will most certainly change the way people perceive you. I mean, when is the last time someone has come to you and knew you were a Christian without you telling them? If you spend much time with God, most certainly your countenance will portray the countenance of God so that people will be able to look at you and see that you have been with God.
7. He realized that obstacles were only opportunities to show God’s power.
Look at Moses in Exodus 14:13, where he stands at the Red Sea as the armies of Pharaoh are coming after him. The children of Israel were scared and afraid and all they could see was a body of water in front of them. However, Moses saw the obstacle of the Red Sea as an opportunity for God to show His power. Moses said in this verse, “…Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.” Moses did not fret over the opportunity, but instead, he realized that he was about to see God’s hand work in a miraculous way. And did he ever see God’s hand work! Again they were in the wilderness without water with only a bunch of rocks around them and the people began to murmur about not having any water. Did Moses get worried over this? No! He went to God realizing this obstacle of no water in sight was an opportunity for God to show His mighty power again, and God gave water from the rock.
We must realize that obstacles are opportunities turned inside out. We must not fret and worry about the obstacles of life, but we must realize that God placed those obstacles there so that we could see His power in our life. We must run to God as Moses did and let God show us His power. An obstacle can only stop us if all we do is murmur as the people did. We must be a people who look at obstacles as opportunities for God to work through us. Obstacles should excite us instead of depressing us, for these obstacles are divinely placed by God in our paths for us to see and be reminded of His mighty power.
8. When others were negative, he found a way to be positive.
In Numbers 14:5-10, the twelve spies had come back from spying out the land of Canaan and ten of those spies came back with a negative report. Yet in this passage of Scripture, Moses, Aaron, Joshua and Caleb all found a way to be positive though everyone around them was being negative. Instead of them looking at the iron chariots, the walled cities and the giants of the land, they looked at the grapes of Eschol and the prosperity that the land had, and most importantly, the God who promised that land to them.
You will never rise to the top by being negative. You check out the great leaders of life and see how many of them were negative. You won’t find great leaders being negative, for people don’t want to follow negative people. Society is negative enough without our leaders being negative. If your home is going to rise to the top, you must find a way to be positive when others are negative. If your church is going to rise to the top, you must find a way to be positive when others are negative. If your business is going to rise to the top, you must find a way to be positive when others are negative. If you as an individual are going to rise to the top in society, you must be positive in life and avoid the negatives. Anybody can be negative, but only great leaders and great people can find the positive in a negative situation.
9. He never abused his power.
Oh, the importance that we learn this from Moses. When Aaron and Miriam attacked him about the woman who he married, he did not use his position to get back at them. On the other hand, the Bible says that he was a very meek man. Meekness is simply power under control. He never abused his powers of being a leader and this is why God defended him.
Great leaders never use position for their gain, but they use their position to help their followers grow and profit. Your purpose of having position is not to see what you can get because of that position; your purpose of having position is to help those whom you lead. If you seek position so that you can gain from those whom you lead, you are seeking position for the wrong reason. Moses knew the importance of not abusing his position, and we also would be wise in learning this same characteristic.
10. He did not let his shortcomings stop him.
In Numbers 20:12-14, Moses made that great mistake in his life by smiting the rock instead of speaking to the rock like God had told him. Because of his disobedience to God, he would now not be able to enter into the Promised Land. Yet in verse 14, I love what it says, after he had just been chastened by God and told that he would not enter into the Promised Land, this verse says, “And Moses sent…” Moses did not let a mistake in his life stop him from serving God or going forward in life.
Let’s just be honest with each other. None of us is perfect in life and all of us will make mistakes in life, but we cannot let the mistakes that we make in life stop us from serving God. There is still life to live and we must not think that God cannot still use us. So, you have made a mistake or even messed your life up in sin; don’t let your shortcoming stop you in life from serving God. Don’t add to your sin by quitting on God but go forward and realize that God can still use you, but you must get up and keep going as Moses did.
11. He was a soul winner.
Numbers 21:9 is the story of Moses lifting up the brazen serpent in the wilderness. Everyone who looked to this brazen serpent when they were bitten by the snakes would be healed. Moses knew that he must lift that brazen serpent so that others could be saved from the bite of sin.
Likewise, we must be like Moses and lift up Christ to a dying world. We must go out to a lost and dying world and show them that the only hope of them making it through the bite of sin is to look to Christ. Every Christian should be a soul winner! We must live our lives pointing people to Christ, realizing there are millions of people who are dying in sin and someone like Moses must lift up Christ so that the world can see Him and live.
12. He did not let old age stop him or slow him down.
I like what Deuteronomy 34:7 says, “And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.” Even when Moses was old, he still served God. It says in this verse that he was 120 years old and still going strong for God. He never let his age slow him down or stop him from serving God. He died as an old man still serving God like when he was a young man.
Never let your age be an excuse for not doing something for God, whether young or old. Far too many times in this world we have people using their age to say that they are too old to do anything for God. What a shame that we would use our age as an excuse to be lazy on God! I understand you may not have the strength and energy like you used to have, but this is not an excuse for you to do nothing for God. If you are still alive and breathing air on this planet then God expects you to serve Him. God’s plan for your life is not done until He decides to take you home to Heaven. Never use your age as an excuse but instead ask God to give you the strength to continue to serve Him. It should be said about all of us when we die that our “natural force” was not abated when it came to serving God. Keep your zeal for serving God and serve Him with the strength that you do have.
13. He prepared for the next generation.
In Numbers 27:22-23, God tells Moses to prepare Joshua to take over for him after he is gone on to Heaven. God was teaching through the life of Moses the importance of training people for the next generation. Moses spent the remainder of his life training Joshua to carry on what he had done for many years.
All Christians should be like Moses and live their lives preparing for the next generation. We should never come to the end of our life and not have left something for the next generation. The next generation should have been trained so well by us that they have something to pass on to the next generation. As I write this chapter I am sitting on the airplane flying to my mother’s funeral. I can honestly say that she prepared for the next generation by instilling in me the principles from the Bible that I am now trying to pass on to the next generation. She spent her life passing on to me and many others what was given to her by previous generations. She prepared us and taught us so that when she was gone, we could carry on and continue to give to future generations what was given to her. We all should prepare the generation that follows us to carry on to the next generation that follows them the fundamentals of the faith and the methods of the faith that were given to us.
This man Moses was more than just a great leader and probably the greatest human leader of all time; he was a great Christian! Every one of us would be wise to look at the attributes of the life of Moses and emulate these attributes in our life.
Joshua 1:8, “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.”
One of the favorite stories of children in the Bible is the story of Joshua leading the children of Israel around the walls of Jericho until they crumbled, and he and the people went in and conquered the strongest city in Canaan at that time. What a great story to read about! For six days, they walked around the city of Jericho and said nothing; on the seventh day they walked around the city seven times, blew their trumpets and shouted, and those huge walls came crumbling down. What a site that must have been! What an experience these people were part of! Yet, the truth is, this would have never happened had Joshua not followed several key principles to make him into the man and leader that he became. Let me explain.
Joshua was born in the land of Egypt during the time that the children of Israel were in bondage to the Egyptians. He saw how Pharaoh treated the people and he saw the wickedness of this Pharaoh who tried to have the men children killed. But he also saw how a man by the name of Moses rose to prominence among the children of Israel and became their leader. He watched Moses with God’s hand upon him approach Pharaoh without fear and demand to let the people go so that they may serve God. He saw Pharaoh refuse to let the people go and then he saw how God sent the plagues upon the Egyptians and not upon the children of Israel. Joshua had seen all of this! Then, he was part of the great plague that the Bible calls the Passover. For this plague, God commanded Moses and Israel to kill the firstborn lamb, take that lamb’s blood, and apply it upon the doorposts of their houses. That night, a death angel was to pass over Egypt and whoever did not have the blood applied would have the firstborn male in their homes killed. Joshua was there when this great plague happened and he heard the wails of parents and children as they saw the firstborn males in their families die. He was also part of fleeing Egypt, seeing God part that great Red Sea and destroying the whole Egyptian army. Joshua was one of the twelve spies who went into Canaan land to search it out and bring a report back to Moses about what he saw. Yet, he was only one of two men who brought back a good report and not an evil one. Joshua, for forty years, followed at the footsteps of Moses, was his minister and was part of all the great miracles in the wilderness.
Now, Moses has died and Joshua became the leader of Israel. How intimidating this must have been to have to follow such a great man of God like Moses. Now it was his time to take the leadership role and to take the children of Israel into the Promised Land in order to receive the inheritance that God had promised to his people several hundred years prior. Joshua accomplished what God had set him up to do. At the end of his life, you see that most of the land of Canaan had been conquered and the children of Israel had complete control of all their enemies.
As we study the life of Joshua, we can see that there are several keys to the success of Joshua. These keys helped him to become the man and leader that he was. I believe these same keys will help us to be victorious and successful in our life as we serve God and do His will. Let me give you the keys that helped Joshua become not just a success, but as Joshua 1:8 says, a “good success.”
1. He got God on his side.
Look at Joshua 1:5, “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.” Notice that it says that as God was with Moses, He would also be with Joshua. How important it was to get God on his side! I don’t believe that God just all of a sudden decided to put the blessing of His presence upon the life of Joshua. I believe that God watched Joshua as a young man. He followed the footsteps of his leader Moses, and when his friends were out playing, he was by the man of God learning from him. God saw this and God decided that there was no better man to take over after Moses than this man Joshua, who had walked with Moses and no doubt had walked with God as he learned from Moses. God was simply telling Joshua in this verse that just because Moses had passed away and was now in Heaven that did not mean God was also gone. Though the great man of God, Moses, was gone, his God was still there. Joshua did not have to fear that God had left him. Joshua got God on his side several years before Moses died, and God was assuring him that He would still be with him as He was with Moses.
If we are ever going to be successful in doing God’s will for our life then we also must realize that we need to get God on our side. You see, when God is on your side then it matters not who is against you, for victory is yours. In Romans 8:31 it says, “…If God be for us, who can be against us?” It does not matter how big the opponent is; when God is on your side, you are guaranteed a victory, for who can stand against God? Again in Romans 8:37 the Bible says, “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.” When God is on your side, you will be a conqueror. 1 John 4:4 says, “…greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” Getting God on your side is the most important thing a Christian can ever do; for if He is not for you then that would mean He is against you and no one can win when God is against him. As Joshua got God on his side by doing right and following the man of God, we also will get God on our side and get God to fight for us by doing right, living right and following the man of God.
2. He did not listen to his fears.
As I have said previously in this chapter, how intimidating this must have been for Joshua to take the role of leadership and follow such a great man like Moses. I can only imagine how he felt inside as he wondered how he would ever get the people to follow him. Just think of this, Moses was a great man and Joshua had pretty much grown up with all the people whom he is to now lead. I am sure he thought to himself that he could never be Moses. This thought would have been true, if he thought this, because there was and will only be one Moses. However, God made him whom he was and made him for this time in order to lead the children of Israel into the Promised Land. If he was going to be successful in doing God’s will for his life, then he had to ignore his fears and realize that God is the One Who made him to do this job. This is why God said in Joshua 1:6, “Be strong and of a good courage…” Again in Joshua 1:7, God said to Joshua, “Only be thou strong and very courageous…” God knew that if Joshua was going to be successful then he must not listen to his fear. He must be strong and courageous and do what God had called him to do in spite of his fears.
However, in any endeavor in life there is the possibility of failure. If you are going to be a success, you cannot cower because of the fear of failure. You must be strong, courageous and go after what God has called you to do. You cannot let the fear of failure stop you! The only difference between the successful person and the mediocre person is their response to fear. The successful person has fears just like the mediocre person has fears, but the successful person will not listen to their fears. The mediocre person has fears, and they listen to their fears; they end up not doing anything because of their fear of failure. Christian, you are going to fail in life if you endeavor to do anything, but you cannot let your fear of failure stop you from pursuing what God has called you to do. Eighteen years ago I stepped out into full-time evangelism. Truthfully, I was afraid, but I would not listen to these fears. Now, eighteen years later, I am still preaching the Gospel of Christ all over this country and even to parts of the world. If I would have listened to my fears, I think I would still be working a full-time job and would have never been satisfied in life. Successful people cannot listen to their fears. Whatever your fear is, that is natural, but you must plug your ears to your fears, step out and do what God has called and made you to do.
3. He spent time with God.
Notice in Joshua 1:8 it says, “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night…” Joshua knew the importance of spending time with God. He knew that if he was to become successful and stay successful then he would have to spend time with his God. Every great man in the I whom God used was used mainly because he spent time with God everyday.
That is what this verse is teaching when it says that we are to meditate on the I day and night. In order to meditate on something, you have to spend time reading about it. That means there was a specific time for them to read and then again a specific time to meditate or think about the I. God told Joshua that he was to meditate or think about the I every day and night. This most certainly would be one of the most important keys to Joshua staying successful. He had seen how Moses had spent time with God daily and if he was going to keep God on his side, then he also must spend time with God daily.
Never has a person been successful in the will of God without spending time with God. As I have studied great men of the I and great men of God from the past, every one of them had a personal time with God; everyday they read His Word and talked to Him in prayer. One of the greatest failures of Christians today is that we just don’t spend time with God. We wonder why we live in a powerless generation with nothing happening in our churches or even in our lives, and the truth is that we just don’t spend time with God as we should. Great Christians spend a great amount of time with God. Backslidden, cold, and defeated Christians spend little or no time with God. Whenever I counsel someone who is struggling with the will of God for their life, I always ask them how much time they are spending with God. Without spending time with God, you are sure to fail. You will never know how to do God’s will properly without spending time with God, for God will tell you how to do His will.
4. He set goals.
In Joshua 1:11 it says, “…Prepare you victuals: for within three days ye shall pass over this Jordan…” Joshua was a man who believed in setting goals. It says in “three days ye shall pass over.” What was this? This was a goal! They had a goal that in three days they were going over Jordan. Joshua set many goals in his life. He had a goal to make it through the wilderness, and he did. He had a goal to get over the Jordan River, and he did. He had a goal to get into the Promised Land, and he did. He set goals to conquer the cities of Canaan for God’s sake. He conquered most of these cities. There were only a few left that he had not conquered by the time of his death. Yes, he did not accomplish all of his goals, but he would have never accomplished any of his goals if he had not set some goals to pursue.
If you are going to be successful in the Christian life or even life in general, then you must set goals. Goals give you directions of where to go, and without any goals in life, you will go nowhere. You are sure to hit your target if you have no goals for there is nothing at which to aim. Oh, you may fail in hitting your target if you set goals, but you will have progressed much farther in life with goals than without goals. You see, I would rather aim high and miss it than to aim at nothing and hit it. If my goals are high and I miss those goals then I am higher than I was without any goals. But if I have no goals and aim at nothing then I am sure to hit my target: nothing. Without goals, you really become a nothing in life because you are shooting at nothing.
Goals are the end zone of life, and they let you know whether you have scored or not. Without goals, you are sure to lose in the game of life. Could you imagine a football game without an end zone? Whether you make it into the end zone or not, at least you know how much farther you have to go. Likewise, life needs goals to let us know how we are progressing. If you are going to be successful in doing what God’s will is for your life then you must be someone who sets goals and then pursues those goals. Every husband should have goals for his marriage! Every parent should have goals for their children! Every Christian should have goals for their Christian life! Every pastor should have goals for his church! Every ministry worker should have goals for their ministry! Every business person should have goals for their business! Every person in general should set goals, for goals will help you to go forward. They are what motivate us to accomplish things in life for God. Without goals you will be in ten years exactly where you are right now.
5. He was a producer.
Notice in Joshua 1:8 it says, “…then thou shalt make thy ways prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.” Joshua knew the importance of being a producer in life and not just a maintainer. He knew that producing meant that he accomplished something, and that is truly important if we are going to be successful.
Successful people are people who produce and accomplish things in life. There are thousands of people who are busy in life, but there are few people who produce in life. Now, let me just be honest with you; God created us and made us to produce! All through the Bible you see God’s commands are for us to go forward and to reproduce after ourselves. God never intended for anybody to be a free loader in life. God intended for everyone to pay their own way through life.
In your church, are you the one who is producing people down the aisle or are you the one who only fills a spot during the service times? Christians are to be producers! Oh, you may be very busy doing things in the church, but the ultimate goal of every Christian should be to be a producer by going out and seeing people saved and bringing them to church to get baptized. If you are on staff for someone, you are on that staff to produce and not to maintain. If all you do is maintain and not produce then you are a failure! You were not hired just to maintain a position. Anybody can do this. You were hired to produce and make your hiring worthwhile. Those who move up in life, whether in the Christian life or even in the business world, are people who are producers. Producers will always move to the top because their works alone push them higher, and eventually, they will become the leaders of that in which they are involved.
6. He prepared ahead of time.
In Joshua 1:11 we see the phrase, “…prepare you victuals…” Joshua was a man who prepared ahead of time. In order to go through the Jordan River, he had to prepare to go through that river. In order to conquer Jericho and Canaan Land, he had to be a man who prepared. He would have never made it if he was not a man who prepared ahead of time. Joshua knew the importance of preparation because preparation is what allowed him to be able to handle each battle that came his way and handle the problems of that battle. Without preparation, Joshua would have never made it into the Promised Land.
We must realize that great leaders learn to prepare ahead of time. God teaches us all through the Bible of the importance of preparing ahead of time. He tells us in Proverbs 6:6-8, “Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.” God shows us through the example of the ant about the importance of preparing or planning ahead of time. Preparation keeps the crisis moments at a minimum. If you are a person who never plans ahead then I would imagine that you are a person who lives quite often in a crisis. Joshua knew how important it was to prepare ahead of time. We also should realize that our success in life leans quite heavily on how much we prepare ahead of time.
7. He did not try to be smarter than history.
In Joshua 1:13 the I says that Joshua was to “Remember the word which Moses…commanded you…” Joshua certainly did this! He never thought that he knew more than Moses did; instead, all he did was copy what Moses did. It made Moses successful, and he knew it was sure to make him successful.
History can be the greatest teacher in life. You see, history has no axes to grind other than to tell you what has worked and what has not worked. We would be wise in our lives to not think that we can outsmart history and get by with something that others could not. We would be wise to simply copy what has made others successful instead of changing the methods that were given to us from the past only for the sake of creating our own niche to impress people.
One of the biggest culprits of compromise is when an individual is so consumed with “being their own man” that they forsake the methods of great men of the past and try to carve a new path to walk. This is one of the biggest reasons America is in the shape that she is in today. We have forsaken what has made America great for the sake of political correctness and for the sake of not offending people, and in so doing, we are destroying our nation. I see churches in our generation doing this same thing. We have changed the methods of great men of the past to copy the “new” ways because we live in a different age. Ladies and gentlemen, let me emphatically say it matters not in what century we live; the methods and procedures of those from the past still work today. We don’t need to look for new methods or new ways to do things. We just need to copy what those from the past did who were successful, and we should do the same. Joshua certainly knew that he was not smarter than history, and neither are we!
8. He followed the proper roles of authority.
Joshua was a man who knew what the proper roles of authority were, and he followed them. When he was the servant of Moses, we never see him going around Moses or questioning Moses. No, he followed the proper role of authority. When he became the leader of the children of Israel, he followed the proper roles of authority, as we see in Joshua 1:17. He knew what his position was and he knew that he was under God; therefore he followed that role of authority.
Following authority does not make you a weak person, but instead, it makes you a stronger person. If you don’t learn to follow authority when you are a follower then you will be a poor leader if you ever get the opportunity to lead. Great leaders and successful leaders learn the importance of following authority. We must not fall to Satan’s tactics of questioning authority, but we must follow God’s methods of submitting to authority. If you ever rise to a high position in life, your potential in that position will only rise to the height that you learned to follow authority when you were a follower.
9. He did not spend time with rebels.
As we follow the life of Joshua, we see that he never sided with the rebels but always sided with those who were following God and the man of God.
The quickest way to destroy everything that you have built in your life is to associate yourself with rebels. Rebels will destroy you and bring you down. By nature, a rebel is a destroyer. You may succeed in life, but the length of your success will be determined by how much you choose to associate with rebels.
Joshua was most certainly successful in life. In fact, the word success only occurs one time in the Bible and that is in the book of Joshua. If we are going to be successful in life then we are going to be successful on purpose. Most of our success is determined by what we do before we reach the position that we will fill for the rest of our life. Every Christian should look at the life of Joshua and copy the keys that led him to success. These keys will work for us just like they did for Joshua. Don’t be guilty of looking at this great life and then let the life that he lived be only a story to you. Instead make it a blueprint to follow this man who, from his youth to his death, served God and never waivered in doing the will of God for his life.
Isaiah 41:8, “But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend.”
When God described to us whom Abraham was, He said that Abraham was the friend of God. What a special relationship these two must have had for God to call Abraham His friend. Nowhere in the entire Bible will you find God calling anyone else His friend: only Abraham.
When Abraham was born, he was given the name Abram which means “high father.” Abraham was to be the father of Israel. The main emphasis on the life of Abraham was that he had no children and yet he trusted and believed that God was going to make him the father of many nations. He was considered a great man of faith because he left his homeland at the command of God, without any children, to go to a land that he had never seen, to be the father of many nations as God promised him he would become. This took faith, for he left a place where he was highly successful in the eyes of man. He left everything to become the father of many nations, yet he had no sign that he was going to be that father other than God’s promise to him. Even when God changed his name from Abram to Abraham, which means “father of many nations,” he never lost sight and hope of the promise of God to him. It was not until he was one hundred years old that he had Isaac who was to be the son that would carry on the promise from God. Imagine all of those years, he believed in the promise even when it seemed physically impossible for him to have any children. Yet, though all of those years passed by, he never gave up on God. Maybe it was because of his undying faith that God called him His friend. Whatever the reason, we can learn several lessons from the life of Abraham.
1. God cannot use you until you burn your bridges to the past.
God told Abraham in Genesis 12:1-2 that he was to leave his country, his kindred, his father’s house and homeland to go to a land where God would make of him a great nation. Notice he was to leave everything before God would bless him and start using him. The reason for this is that God wanted to see if Abraham had enough faith in Him to burn his bridges to everything that he knew in order for God to use him. This burning of bridges to the past, for Abraham, was the beginning of a life of faith in God. It was this burning of bridges that proved to God that Abraham did have faith that God could do something through him. The blessing of God on Abraham’s life would never have happened if he would not have stepped out by faith and left everything for God’s sake. It was this act of faith that put God’s blessings upon his life.
We need to realize that God cannot use us until we burn our bridges to the past. Far too many times we try to hang onto something just in case serving God does not work out. This is not faith. When you burn your bridges and leave no way to go back to the past you are saying, sink or swim, it is now God and me on this journey. This certainly takes faith.
I recall when I stepped out into full-time evangelism; I had a total of four meetings on my schedule. I quit my job and went full-time into evangelism trusting that God would take care of me, and for these eighteen years He has done just that. Why? Because God honors those who step out by faith and burn their bridges to the past and say, “I am going one direction and that is forward.” You see, the reason God blesses this is because this is faith. God says in Hebrews 11:6, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” The only way that anyone can please God is through faith, and it takes a lot of faith in God to burn your bridges to the past! You see, when you burn bridges to the past you are proving to God that you believe Him and that you are going to trust Him over any possession or link to the past. Without this type of faith, the type of faith that causes you to burn bridges to the past, God cannot and will not use you to your fullest potential. It is only when we put our whole trust in God that He will then decide to use us. The one way we can prove that we have put our whole trust in God is to burn our bridges to the past.