Establishing Your Authority

Joshua 3:7 And the Lord said to Joshua, "This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. 

Before choosing this title, I hesitated a few minutes.  The reason for my pause was that I didn't want to give the impression that we should "try" to establish our own authority.  In the world, both in the military and commerce, we are trained how to establish authority in order to lead.  In the Kingdom of God the Lord establishes his leaders by his own hand.  Here the Lord speaks to Joshua and tells him that on this day He would exalt him in the eyes of the people as their leader.  Moses had been such a powerful and influential leader for so long that he was a hard act to follow.  Now it's time for his assistant to take the baton and lead Israel not only in a maintenance mode but to truly take them where Moses hadn't, into the Promised Land.
I think new leaders can miss this and this misunderstanding can cause them to fail.  The wrong thinking is that new leaders following previous leaders who have seen success should follow suit and just keep the ship afloat.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  A maintenance mode is a dying mode.  It's a slow dying mode and one that takes a long time to recognize but a dying mode none the less.  The very thought that says, "I'm here to keep the ship on course" is wrong thinking.  Certainly a new leader of a business or ministry should  be very careful with making too many changes in the beginning but the very fact that a transition was in God's plan is proof positive that change was needed, at least some adjustment.  Here is my major point this week:  your ability to lead your group into and through change is commensurate with your level of recognized authority.  In the case of Joshua the Lord was about to allow miracles in the middle of battles and conquest to establish him in the eyes of the people.  You may think you are a leader but unless the people you are leading see you in that way you are one crisis away from disaster.  It seems to be a patter in Scripture that God allows some crisis to arise shortly after a new leader takes office to display the new leader as one who can be trusted.  It is this confidence of God working through a leader that brings stability and peace among a people.  Therefore, don't hide in the maintenance mode.  Don't run from battles and much needed miracles.  It is in leading in conflict and crisis that you will be established as the leader needed for the hour.  However, remember, it is God who will establish you and not your own efforts.  Someone has said, "responsibility is our response and His ability."