by Pastor Afolabi Oladele

And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua (Joshua 2:7).

Throughout history, God has taken the initiative to make His Name known to those He longs to redeem; and He empowered patriarchs, prophets and priests and oftentimes, ordinary people to make His Name known to the nations. How that truth has been lost! What caution, those called of God to shepherd His flock through challenging times, need to learn and exercise!

Consider the conversation in Joshua 3:1-11.

Compare the record of what was spoken to Joshua 3:7 viz ‘And the Lord said unto Joshua, This day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of Israel, that they will know that as I was with Moses, so will I be with thee’ with what Joshua reported to the people in verses 9 and 10 – And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, Come hither, and hear the words of the Lord your God. And Joshua said, Hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Hivites, and the Perizzites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Jebusites. (Joshua 3:9-10)

Was that what he was told? Why then was that what he would rather the people hear? A lesson to us all, irrespective of how great you seem to loom in the ministry: learn and live it, that it’s not about you, but about God. Make His name known, not yours!

All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. Matthew 11:27

My Father has entrusted everything to me. No one truly knows the Son except the Father, and no one truly knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Matthew 11:27 NLT

I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me… And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. John 17: 23, 26.

Quit this self-worship that is an entrapment of Satan to make you like him! Isaiah 14:14.

Joshua demonstrated the greatest lesson every leader in the house of God must daily pursue – to make His name known, not yours.

Blessings.

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash