The Preparation of a Leader, Part 1b

Friends, what you don't conquer will always conquer you. You've got to remember that. And the Amalekites are representative of the flesh. Of the lusts of the flesh, of those earthly desires and passions that every one of us wrestles with every day and every night. And if we don't buy prayer, Commit them to the Lord and fall on our face before Him and ask Him to give us the strength. We will be conquered by them as Saul Himself was conquered by them. What happened in the physical realm is representative to what happens in the spiritual realm.

And how many people do you know, how many Christians do you know that have fallen by the sword, have fallen by the wayside because they have not been able to conquer? The lusts of the flesh. They have not been able to conquer those things that wage war against their souls, and they fall by the wayside, laying there on the side of the road, defeated by the enemy. All because they don't remember what took place in Exodus chapter 17. So important. Remember the story in Mark chapter 9 where the Lord comes down off the Mount of Transfiguration, He joins his men, gathers them together.

And there was a young man who was demon-possessed, and his father came up to him and said, You know, I've tried to tried with your disciples and asked them to cast out the demon, and they couldn't do it. And Jesus said, O unbelieving generation, how long must I be with you? You see, God had given them the power already to cast out demons. They had already been commissioned to do the supernatural. And yet, for some reason, they were unable to cast out this demon. And Christ becomes a little frustrated with his men.

He casts out the demon. They later go to a house. And they get Jesus aside. Jesus, come over here. How is it? They said. That we couldn't do what you did. Why is it you gave us the power to do it and we were unable to accomplish it? Why is it you commissioned us to cast out demons and all of a sudden we can't do it anymore? What took place? How come you can, we can't? And Jesus said, these things only come out by prayer. You see, what happens is that God commissions us to do a great work. He wants us to be used of him.

And we get involved in the battle. We get involved in the ministry. And all of a sudden, we begin to believe our press clippings. That we are pretty good. That we've been commissioned by God. We are sons of the kingdom. We are mighty warriors for God. We are priests in the kingdom of God. We are being used by God. And all of a sudden, we think that we are God. And we're not. We stopped depending upon God like the disciples did. How come we couldn't do it? And Jesus said, I'm going to come out through prayer.

You didn't depend upon me. You did it all on your own strength. You did it all on your own efforts. And how many times do we do that? We try to parent in our own efforts, don't we? We try to make our marriage work by our own efforts. We try to make it happen. Folks, let me tell you something: you can't make it happen.

I don't care how good you think you are, how educated you are, how intelligent you are, how many books you've written, you can't make it happen. Only God can make it happen. Only God, that's it. And until we learn that lesson, We don't go anywhere spiritually. We struggle and we struggle and we struggle. We live a shallow life. We live a frustrated life. We live a confused life. Maybe that's where you are today. Know, but we get so frustrated, like the disciples did, they were frustrated. How come we can't do it?

And they had forgotten from whence they came. And God tells Moses to write it down. You recited to Joshua, don't you let Joshua ever forget what took place at Mephid Because in the mind of God, he knows Joshua is the next leader, and Joshua needs to know that he cannot make it without God because prayer is the backbone of every single ministry. F, let me tell you something.

That is such an important lesson. What was it that was written? Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing? We're not the right man on our side, the man of God's own choosing. Don't ask who that may be. Christ Jesus, it is he. Lord Sabbaoth is his name. From age to age the same. And he must win the battle. Lord Sab, the Lord of armies, the Lord of hosts. That's who it is. He becomes our banner. He becomes our warrior. I always find it very funny that when you read Revelation chapter 19, that Antichrist has gathered together all his armies.

Plural, and the Lord God comes with his army, singular. He's the army. Now we come with him, we're the holy ones, and the angels come with him. And you know what? The Bible says that we're clothed in white raiment, we're sparkling clean, but Jesus is just dripping in blood.

Because he does all the battle. We just are observers. He is the army. He is the Lord of hosts. He is Lord. Sabael, the Lord of armies. He must win the battle. He will fight for you. He will defend you. He will protect you because that's his promise to you. The question is, will you wait for him to do it? Will you depend upon him to accomplish it? Or will you just take matters into your own hands? Will you try to be the leader you think you need to be? Will you try to just do things, be the father, and just try to be the mother and try to be the parent and just try to be the leader and just try to do it If you want to do that, go right ahead.

But you're going to be frustrated. And you'll find the more frustrated you are, the more you are not relying upon God Himself. When you rely upon God, there is no frustration. God takes all the burden Himself and does it all because He is the Lord of armies. He is the conquering warrior. And that's why Joshua is man of victory. That's why Joshua is conqueror of Canaan. Why? Because he depended upon his God to fight his battles for him. He would depend upon his God for all things. The very first lesson he ever learned was at the backbone of any ministry.

was to depend upon his God and to look to him for all things. Have you learned that lesson? Have you got to the point in your own spiritual life where you know that unless you fall on your knees before God and just give it to him to deal with as he sees fit, Until you get to that point, you have not yet begun to understand the Christian life. The Christian life is a life lived in dependence upon the Spirit of God. When you read the book of Luke, Luke the great theologian emphasizes more so than Matthew.

Mark or John, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of God To show the supernatural agency at work through the coming of the Messiah, the preparation of the Messiah, the birth of the Messiah. What takes place after his birth, how the Spirit of God would drive him into the wilderness, and how the Spirit of God would assist him during that time. And all throughout Luke's gospel, he has a supreme emphasis on the Spirit of God. Why? Because Luke emphasizes the humanity of deity, the human side of our God. And Luke spends a lot of time helping us understand how we overcome our difficulties by relying upon the Spirit of God.

He wants us to learn that lesson. And folks, we got to get it. We got to get it tonight if we haven't gotten it yet. And we got to write it down and we got to recite it. And we've got to review that history lesson over and over and over again. Why? Because Amalek will come against us. He will attack us in our most vulnerable areas. And usually, right after there's a great blessing, right after there's a great victory, what happens? It comes around to the most vulnerable areas that we have. And if we're not ready.

If we're not armed with the armor of God, praying with all prayer, all kinds of prayer, with all kinds of perseverance, we will fall. Every time we will. That's why the Lord said to us, men on that night in Gethsemane, pray lest you fall into temptation. Guess who fell into temptation? Not Jesus. Peter, James, and John. They still hadn't gotten the point. That without me, you can do nothing. Our problem is that we think we can do some things, and God says, You can't.

And Joshua learned that lesson. That's what made him man of victory. You want to be man of victory? You want to be a woman of victory? Then you need to learn the lesson that Joshua learned at that day in Rephit in Exodus chapter 17: that prayer is the backbone of ministry. Number two.

Number two is in Exodus chapter 24, and this is as far as we're going to get this evening. Exodus 24, this deals with perception. Perception. Prayer leads to perception. Perception leads to passion. That's point number three.

We'll get there tonight, but that's where it goes. Once you begin to commune with God and depend upon God, all of a sudden you get a very unique perspective on life. This is the second incident in the life of Joshua, the second time he's mentioned in the Bible, and it helps us to understand how God continues to prepare his man to lead.

Listen to what it says. Verse 9. Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab, and Ab. And 7 of the elders of Israel, by the way of which Joshua was one of them, and they saw the God of Israel. And under his feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself. Yet he did not stretch out his hand against the nobles of the sons of Israel. And they beheld God, and they ate and drank. Now, can you imagine this? Moses. Aaron, Nadab, and Ab, with 70 elders, 74 men, begin to embark up Mount Sinai.

And they behold God. Do they see God face to face? No, because we know that no man can see God and live. We can understand more about that in Exodus 33 and 34. But there was some form of God, some glory that they were able to behold of God. It was a unique situation. And the Bible says that they ate and drank.

It symbolized, listen, the commun they had with God. The great commun with God. And this is important because the people had made a commitment on two separate occasions. They said Verse number 3. All the words which the Lord has spoken, we will do. Verse 7: All that the Lord has spoken, we will do, and we will be obedient. That commitment and the blood sacrifice that took place on that day gave these men a unique communion with their God. And they began to eat and drink and experience something that they listen, they would never experience again.

Never. Now listen to this. Now the Lord said to Moses, come up to me on the mountain and remain there. And I will give you the stone tablets with the law and the commandment which I have written for their instruction. So Moses arose with Joshua his servant, and Moses went up to the mountain Of God. Second time Joshua is mentioned.

So Moses arises with his servant Joshua. And they go a little further up the mountain. But to the elders, he said, listen very carefully, wait here for us until we return to you. Moses says, To Aaron, Nadab, Abi, and 6 other elders, wait right here. Do not go anywhere else. Stay right here. Now that's pretty easy to understand, right? It would seem to me that would be pretty easy instructions to follow. And behold, Aaron and her. Are with you. Whoever has the legal matter, let him approach them. Then Moses went up to the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain.

And the glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. And on the seventh day he called to Moses from the midst of the cloud. And to the eyes of the sons of Israel the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the mountaintop. And Moses entered the midst of the cloud as he went up to the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain for days and forty nights. Listen, you have the nation of Israel at the base of Mount Sinai. 7 of them make their way up the mountain, stop, behold the glory of the Lord, and have communion with him.

And God says to Moses, come up to the mountain. So Moses and Joshua leave and go further up the mountain. After six days, God says to Moses, come on up.

And that leaves Joshua all alone for 40 days on that mountain. That's all we know. But there's something about perception that he received that day with the glory of the Lord. There's something that Joshua got. Listen, Aaron didn't get. But Joshua got it. How do we know? Because in Exodus chapter 32, when Moses and Joshua come down the mountain, remember that story? Exodus chapter 32? Verse 15, then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand. Tablets which were written on both sides.

They were written on one side and the other. And the tablets were God's work, and the writing was God's writing engraved on the tablets. When Joshua heard the sound of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, There is a sound of war in the camp. But he said, It is not the sound of the cry of triumph, nor is it the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing I hear. You see, now Moses comes down with the tablets. He picks up Joshua because Joshua's been there for 40 day all al. And evidently, Aaron didn't stay where Moses told him to stay.

Because in verse number one, it says, Now, when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron and said to him, Come, make us a God who will go before us.

This Moses. The man who brought us up from the land of Egypt. We do not know what has become of him. See, evidently, Aaron didn't stay where he was supposed to stay. He went back down with the crowd. 40 days was too long for him. He didn't get what Joshua got. Joshua got perception. He was able to see his God. When he went up there a little further with Moses, he stayed there for 40 days. All by his lonesome, no one else with him, beholding what everybody else saw. From the bottom of the mountain, beholding it from the middle of the mountain, and could not get enough of the glory of Almighty God.

And this per became the bas for his victory. Prayer is the backbone of ministry, and perception is the basis for victory. You see, what he learned this day was to behold his God and to understand his God, to become engrossed with his God. Because there was something that happened to Joshua that evidently did not happen to Aaron. He gained a deeper perception of God. He gained a deep appreciation for his God. And he realized that prayer plus vision plus perception Moves you to become a great warrior for God.

You see, it's this perception of God that changed him. It's this perception of beholding the glory of God and being entrenched in that for 40 days, all by him, that changed his life dramatically, which made him able to say, When he comes down out the mountain, he Hears something, something's wrong. He doesn't know what's wrong yet, he just knows something's wrong. Why? Because when you've been with God that long, you know when something's wrong. That's what happens. When you're with God for that amount of time, you become so entrenched by Him when you begin to engulf your life with Him and see Him and see Him only.

You know when something's not right. And although he didn't know exactly what it was, Moses would begin to define what was wrong for him. He knew that things weren't right. Because his perception of God helped him understand and be discerning of other things. That's why in Numbers 13, when the spies, the other 10, said, We can't, Joshua said, we can. When they went to battle Jericho and the people said we can't just march around the city blow a few trumpets and hope the walls fall down Joshua said yes, we can because he saw what nobody else saw And if you want to be prepared to lead, you got to see what nobody else sees.

You got to. You got to see God in everything. You see, when the ten spies went into the land, what did they see? They saw grapes. That's a good thing. They saw great cities. That's a good thing. But they also saw what? Giants. And when they saw giants, they perceived themselves as grasshoppers. Right? But when Joshua saw the grapes and when Joshua saw the great city, in spite of the giants, he saw God. He saw God and they didn't. They spied out the same land. They saw the same people, but they come back with a totally different perspective.

Why? Because one sees God and ten don't see, or excuse me, two see God and ten don't. Because the perception of Joshua was molded on Mount Sinai. For those 40 days, he was entrenched. That's why when King David, 1 Samuel 17, there in the valley of Elah. Came out and wanted to know who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God. Who is he? You see, because Israel measured themselves against Goliath, and David measured himself against God. There's a big difference there.

And Israel was scared to death. But David, a shepherd boy, a teenager, had no fear. Listen to this. 1 Samuel 17. You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of armies, the Lord of hosts, Lord Sab. I'm coming to you because I got a conqueror on my side. I got a warrior on my side. I got the king of armies on my side. Goliath, you're a dead man. You don't stand a chance. And Goliath could abuse him with his words and mock him because he was just a scrawny little red kid.

And Goliath was a mammoth individual. But David had no fear because he saw the Lord of armies and Israel did not They had lost perspective. That's why they wanted a king, like everybody else. Give us a king, like everybody else has got one. So they got one. They got Saul. He was scared to fight against Goliath. They lost perspective. Their perception of God had dwindled. Folks, let me tell you something.

You can't afford to let that happen. You can't. And the more you pray, and the more you're on your knees, realizing that this is the backbone of your family, the backbone of your leadership, the backbone of your ministry, the backbone of your spiritual welfare, the backbone of all that you do. Once you realize that, your perception of God begins to grow and grow and grow. So when you go to war, all you see is God. That's it. You seek nothing but God. It was A. W. Tozer who recorded these words. The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion and man's spiritual history.

will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God. Worship is pure or base as the worshipper entertains high or low thoughts of God. For this reason the gravest question before the church is always God him and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be. Folks, that's the truth. We got to get that. And that's why Joshua became that man of victory. That's why Joshua became the conqueror of Canaan.

Because he knew the backbone of any ministry rested in his dependence upon the living God. And he knew that the basis of victory was how he saw God in every circumstance he faced. How about you? What do you see? What do you view? What do you know? Joshua became that great leader of Israel because he understood the backbone of ministry. He understood the basis for victory.