I have enjoyed watching and learning the leadership styles of Moses and Joshua. Both are so very different from one another and yet each one served their purpose based on where the Israelites were going. Moses was patient, diplomatic and had a reform leadership style which was needed in order to bring the Israelites out of Egypt, walk through the wilderness for 40 years and set the foundations for the future of the nation.
However, when they needed to go into the promise land, a new leadership style was needed. Joshua was a military leader and had the attitude to whatever it would take to follow the Lord. He was willing to do whatever it would take in order to get the job done and he took risks especially when it came to a time of war.
Was either leadership style wrong? No. Was both styles needed? Yes. It was all about God’s timing.
But what amazed me the most in the book of Joshua was how many times the Lord said to Joshua “do not turn from it to the right or to the left…” God wanted Joshua to listen to His voice and His command alone and not turn to the right or the left but follow only the path that He had for him.
Joshua was about to lead the Israelites into a place “that they have not passed this way before.”(Joshua 3:4) They were about to head into a land that was promised to them but they had never been this way before. Joshua had to rely on the Lord alone in order to know where to go and how to do it.
Many of us find ourselves at a crossroads in life and we just don’t know which way to turn. Most of the time the one path looks bright and sunny because it is the path of comfort. It is the path we always take. It is the path we have always known.
The other path seems dark and there is a sharp turn ahead that we can’t see past. We tell ourselves that this can’t be the path that the Lord wants us to take because we have not been this way before. It looks scary and it might mean change which could mean pain! This just can’t be the path the Lord would want us to take! But in all reality, the Lord is at the end of that path and His hands are outstretched forth to us.
Jehovah–Rapha (the Lord who heals) is standing and waiting for us at the end of that path. But what does Jehovah-Rapha heal? As you study the word of God, it shows you time and time again how and what the Lord heals. It teaches us that He is the great physician and that He pours the balm of Gilead on our wounds.
We see that He heals our physical needs, our emotional needs, our spiritual needs, our hurts, our pains and even our warped thinking. We see that He heals the land, restores our health, restores us to God, He heals the broken hearted and binds up our wounds.
We see that He pardons our iniquities and heals our diseases. He cast out spirits and healed the ill. He healed the blind and set free the downtrodden. By His wounds we are healed.
When you study the name Jehovah- Rapha you see that sometimes God lead the people to the place of healing when they didn’t even know they needed to be healed or He lead them to a place so they could be healed and yet it was painful to get to that place.
Could God be asking you to go to a place that you have never been before in order for Him to mold and change you so you can become the woman He needs you to be for the call on your life? Maybe, just maybe, you are at a crossroad in your life and you desperately want to take the “normal” path that you always take but you are sensing deep within that it is time to take the path less traveled. Could it be that God wants to use your unique leadership ability to lead others into a war that could free their soul?
My question to you is “Which path are you going to take?”
1 comment:
Good teaching Kim. I think many Christians are at a crossroad today. "Sitting in the pew" is way too comfortable or even "sitting in a denomination" that says "this is the way we always do it." There is more; so much more.
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