The introduction to the book of Joshua is powerful and the promises found here are fantastic. “You will succeed in everything you do,” the Lord promises, if “in all things you act on the Word.”
So why do so many Christians fail at obeying and acting on the Word? And why did Joshua succeed? The answer can be found forty years earlier in Exodus 33: “And the LORD spoke unto Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And Moses turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.”
When Moses left the tent of meeting, the place where God spoke to Moses face to face, Joshua stayed.
The foundation for the obedience that forty years later enabled Joshua to lead the people into the promised land was laid during his time of meeting with God. You are the one who makes the choice to obey God, but the power to obey comes from God!
You have two legs. With one leg you obey, and with the other you pray! Prayer is conversing with God, feeling his presence on the inside, hearing his voice and trusting that his invisible power is with you.
Everything starts in the relationship, which reveals the Word that points to Jesus and his Spirit, that gives you power to develop the obedience to stand on the Word, which in its turn causes you to succeed at everything you do!
