“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Matthew 28:19-20
In the very first chapter of the Book of Joshua, God passes on this huge mantle from Moses to Joshua. God doesn’t try to sugar coat or convince Joshua into picking up the mantle by making it sound easy. On the contrary, He speaks of the great inheritance for Joshua to take for him and the Israelites, it is the coming into the promised land. His words are like fire when He speaks to Joshua, He doesn’t ask Joshua, but He commands, He tells him multiple times to “Be strong and courageous” Joshua 1:1-9
Read over those verses and ponder what your very response would be if God called you to this at this very moment, would you be ready? Would you be willing? Would you be overcome by fear, doubt, insecurities? Maybe you would need to ask God more questions about His battle plans to be sure about doing this.
Hopefully we all could respond as Joshua, it is not recorded that he said anything in response to God but simply took ACTION! He immediately turned his officers and commanded them saying:
“Pass through the camp and command the people, saying, ‘Prepare provisions for yourselves, for within three days you will cross over this Jordan, , to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess”
Joshua 1:11
There is such power in these verses! It shows full trust in God that we can ACT on the Lords behalf! Joshua’s book, in my opinion, is one of the most pleasing books. We read VICTORY after VICTORY! God wins every battle in the most supernatural ways! Ways man could never attempt. Like the most famous Walls of Jericho falling down from the Israelites marching around the city walls 6 times, and on the seventh they blew their trumpets and shouted. The walls fell down and the Israelites took the land! (Joshua 6:3-20) My response to that is, ONLY GOD! He wants to send you out to behold these miracles too!
Reinhard Bonnke was a well-known evangelist from Germany called to bring revival to Africa. He has amazing stories filled with the fire of the Holy Spirit. I recently watched a video of him speaking at a conference called God uses ordinary people and he said something the stuck with me: “Jesus will lift you from the deepest pit, but he will not lift you out of your easy chair”.
Whatever it is that is keeping you from rising up and going out to fulfill Gods command, remember Jesus already won the victory over it! Is it fear, depression, anxiety, doubt, pain, infirmities, sin, insecurities? Give these over to Jesus Christ, and received the Holy Spirit then none of these can hold you back. Put on the new man, pick up your cross, and do as the Lord commands: GO.
“if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”
Ephesians 4:21-24
We see when Jesus sends out the disciples for the first time in Matthew chapter 10:
“And when He had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease.”
Matthew 10:1
The disciples before this had spent much time with Jesus being taught and following in Jesus’s way, but Jesus knew His calling was not only for Him. Jesus needed to pass His mantle down for us all as children of God to win over darkness. As many of us know these disciples were not perfect, they had not yet received Jesus’s sacrifice either. But Jesus still sent them. We even see later when the disciples are unable to drive out a demon and Jesus tells them it is because of their unbelief (Matthew 17:14-21). Jesus knew this, but still sent them so that they would learn.
Before Jesus sends them, they were with Him going to cities and villages teaching, preaching, and healing. There’s a moment where scripture says Jesus was “moved with compassion for them (the multitudes), because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.” Matthew 10:36 Jesus goes on to say:
“The harvest is truly plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”
Matthew 10:38
Meditate on these scriptures. Ask Jesus to fill you with the same compassion He felt. The same compassion He feels for you: to be beaten and bruised, to die on the cross, go to the depths. So that you would live no longer as lost sheep, but found by the Great Shepherd. He feels this way for your friends and family, your co-workers and neighbors, the people you see at the store, the bank, the homeless, imprisoned, those who have hurt you and done wrong to you, your cities, countries and the nations. All these people within your reach or miles away, God wants to send you. He is seeking through all the land who He can send. Not if, but when He sends you will you obey His voice?
"But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give." Matthew 10:6-8