Read Joshua 1:3-9 from your Bible
Outstanding success is for strong-hearted men. It is the heritage of men who will rather burn than bow. It takes toughness to taste triumph.
Courage is the key ingredient required for the fulfilment of God’s success formula. The success promised in verse eight can’t be achieved without courage, hence God’s strong admonition to Joshua: “Be strong and of a good courage…”, “Only be thou strong and very courageous…” and “…Be strong and of a good courage.”
The dictionary defines courage as the quality of mind enabling one to face danger or hardship resolutely. It is the ability to control fear and to deal with danger, pain and uncertainty. It also means bravery, fearlessness and gallantry.
You require inner strength to succeed, a face set like a flint towards your expected end and ears that don’t hear, “It is impossible.” I don’t mean bold face, but a bold heart. Without a heart, you will never make a mark. You need a bold heart, a heart that is set not to bow to failure, but rather stand violently on the Word of God.
Good success only answers to strong and very courageous people, because you can’t go far without that force of courage.
Read Matthew 11:12 from your Bible
It takes force to be first. Your heritage in the kingdom will not be delivered to you without the application of the relevant force; that’s why you need courage.
Read Deuteronomy 2:24 from your Bible.
You have a heritage of success, true. But you need the force of courage to make it a reality. Caleb possessed this quality, so he couldn’t see why the others felt they couldn’t possess Canaan.
Read Numbers 14:6-9 from your Bible
Numbers 14:24 records that Caleb possessed another spirit (a courageous spirit), which was why he didn’t see things the way the others saw them. While the others saw themselves as grasshoppers before the sons of Anak, Caleb saw them as bread for the children of Israel. His face was set as a flint towards the land flowing with milk and honey, that he couldn’t see the obstacles on the way to getting there.
Caleb was full of courage, even in old age, hence he could ask to be given the mountain as his inheritance.
Read Joshua 14:10-12 from your Bible
He didn’t see anything as impossible before him. Your inheritance of good success is real, but it takes the force of courage to possess it. Not physical strength, but inner, spiritual strength. Your face is set on your success goal and a divine strength is deposited in you through courage, enabling you to accomplish it.
Outstanding success will remain a day dream without that inner force of courage. Your position may never change, until there is that inner force propelling you towards your desired goal. “…Take it by force.” Courage is that force of the spirit-man, that keeps propelling both your body and your soul in the direction of your desired goal.
Outstanding success is for only forceful saints. There is, however, a major leakage of this inner strength. Whenever you see the situation you are confronted with as being stronger than you, then failure is inevitable. You begin to lose inner strength. But hear this:
Read 1 Corinthians 10:13 from your Bible
That problem is not special, it’s common. You don’t have a special problem, only a special ignorance. That problem is smaller than you. God won’t allow what is bigger than you to come near you. It is your lack of light that has made you a victim of failure.
As a covenant child of God, you can never have a special problem. God sees you as superior to every challenging situation that confronts you. So, when you start crying over such situation, He is disappointed.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego possessed a strange kind of courage, that caused them not to bow before the fiery furnace of fire, but to sing their way into it. Courage was Daniel’s backbone, making him walk boldly into the lion’s den. They all became outstanding successes even in the land of captivity. Daniel was the first of the three presidents in Babylon; he was preferred above the others and the king even sought to set him over the whole realm. Why? Courage!
Shalom!
#pstnath
