Pioneering Spirit
Judges 2:7-11
Joshua was a special leader in Israel who had a pioneering spirit. He led the children of Israel to live a victorious life.
Those with the Pioneering Spirit
Numbers 14:6-9 Joshua and Caleb had a pioneering spirit. When they saw the land, they didn’t see the giants, the wildness of the land or what can’t be done. They saw what God could do.
Biblical leaders think differently than others. They attempt things people won’t even think about attempting. These are not super Christians.
Somewhere in some neglected place, never carried for, where you have to fight your way through brush to get there, there ought to be a stone with 10 names on it of the people who would not believe.
Hebrews 11:6 – Our Goal is always God.
Those Without the Pioneering Spirit
Joshua’s task was not completed. The next generation did not drive out the enemy. 1:21, 27, 29, 30, 31, 33. The faith required to have complete victory was the faith that makes God real to his people. The refusal to trust God is what prompted God to say “there arose another generation after them which knew not the Lord”. The only time God is real is when you faith Him.
1st Generation of Christians have convictions. 2nd generation of Christians have preferences. 3rd generation of Christians have opinions. Each generation has to learn to live by faith for themselves.
The next generation has to learn to face things themselves, including the chance to fail and trust God for it.
The faith life is so meaningful to the pioneer.
There is a difference between taking ground and maintaining. Taking ground is the faith life. It is trusting God, be out on a branch that either God comes through or we die. Maintaining doesn’t require faith. The faith is not real.
A pioneer is looking for the next project. The people want to settle.
The victory is in the battle as faith is required. The rest of the people didn’t want to fight or faith God. The absence of faith causes them to lose touch with God.
Pioneers did not know the end of their endeavor. They had enough light to take the next step. Their needs seemed insurmountable, but God came through. As God provided He became real for them.
Others inhabit the land and buildings that others labored to build. These people could tell stories of others victories, but could not tell of their own victories. It is not real to them.
The facilities were never the goal. The goal was God. They followed God to build them to move on to take more ground. The next generation makes the maintenance of the building the goal. They have a hard time to understand the faith required to trust God.
The next generation has everything handed to them in God’s place so they don’t have to know God.
The spirit of adventure, the faith life that is powerful for the pioneer.
Unless we capture the pioneering spirit and see the fields white with harvest and learn to live by faith, it will be said of us there arose another generation which knew not God.
It is so easy to make a goal out of a by-product, to find something that has been produced as a result of faith in God and make the product the goal and not faith in God the goal.
The cause was not to slay the giant, but that all the earth may know there is a God.
There is a fruitful knowledge of Jesus Christ and an unfruitful knowledge of Jesus Christ. The unfruitful knowledge is knowing about Jesus; the fruitful knowledge is knowing Him.
God doesn’t kill our pharaohs; He goes with us to face our pharaohs.
May God throw us into the fight.
You may choose to maintain, to avoid the fight, choose not to launch out into the deep, choose to stay in the shallow water, or choose a road with little resistance, but if you do you will not know God.
The Great Commission will only be accomplished by a pioneering spirit.