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Article 7

Arise and Posses

Beloved Saint,

Supposing God came to you and said to you like He said to Joshua in Joshua 1:1-17 “My servant is dead, so Arise ...” how would you respond? What would your reaction be like?

Now many of us cannot even begin to fathom the greatness of Moses and God wanting to fill Moses shoes with you!!! Maybe rehearsing what the world went through with the death of one Pope John Paul II might help.

You see, because of the greatness and impact of this humble man of God, the news media houses everywhere in the world had to broadcast the death of the Pope even in areas where people cared less for the Pope or the Catholic Church. And then a couple days thereafter when the cardinals met and elected the new Pope -Benedict the VI, the media houses were at it again.

Maybe for many Kenyan Americans Joshua 1 could hit a home run if I reminded them of the events surrounding August 22nd 1978 when Kenya lost its first president -Mzee Jomo Kenyatta. Do you recall the tension and confusion at this time? Many questions ran through the minds of many including how would the PPU break the news to the nation? How would the Kenyans react? And how would Daniel Arap Moi become President? Could a Kale be president? And what about the Kiuks? Would they accept Moi?

Yet even this occurrence, does not even come close to the mind of God in Joshua 1. Can you for a second imagine whey God left His glory to confront this man Joshua? Ohh can you see Him searching for a man to replace The Great Servant Moses whom God spoke to -face to face. Infact, the one man that God testified was more humble than anybody else! Now who would God anoint to replace Moses? Or stated differently, whom would God entrust to lead God’s people to the Promises of God? And what if God came to you? Yes YOU!

I guess it would have been most ordinary to think that maybe God would elect a priest or a prophet to lead God’s people. BUT not this time! For God eyed a secular army General to lead a spiritual people into their spiritual destinies! What an irony! But God must have seen in Joshua something that not even the priests or the prophets possessed.

Well, granted on the one hand, God is sovereign and being sovereign God can do anything and choose anyone for God’s service. However common knowledge would have dictated a spiritual leader as opposed to military personnel. God’s action in selecting Joshua signals a paradigm shift in the operation of God and I want to quickly relate this reality to what I perceive taking place here in the US with regard to the new move of God in the world today. Let me explain …

At his calling, Moses had already undergone special secular training in Egypt for 40 years. God further graduated Moses in the humble spiritual training in the Midian Desert where he served as a shepherd for 40 years. In total 80years of training with God now made Moses to become not just bold but also humble at the same time. One time he would be killing God’s enemies and on another, he would also be interceding for Gods people even to the point of challenging God as only Moses could.

But do you also realize something about Moses’ leadership style? Moses was one man who believed in undertaking tasks alone. Imagine the things he did “single-handedly” including killing and burying an Egyptian solo. Then challenging Pharaoh alone, feeding Jethro’s flocks alone, performing Miracles alone. He also went for the Ten Commandments along and further led Israel in the wilderness -alone. And forget not also how Moses was so much into that he even neglected his family when he failed to circumcise his very son! Can you imagine that? You’d expect God’s servant and the giver of the law to know better …. A point that made God come to kill Moses! But thank God for wives who will do anything to save their “God fearing servants of God” from the wrath of God whom they serve [See Exodus 4:24-26].

So focused on himself was Moses that he had to be challenged to work with others! Jethro had to challenge Moses to appoint leaders to help him govern God’s people. And even God challenged Moses to appoint Seventy Men to help him!! Friends, although, Moses was a man mightily used of God, yet he was a “SOLO SERVANT” and not a “TEAM WORKER”!

Notwithstanding though, God used Moses all the way through Egypt, Mt. Sinai and the wilderness. BUT, BUT now that they were about to enter the Promised Land God had to change Leadership for the task of settling Canaan did not want another SOLO Servant, instead God now needed a Team Leader who would settle God’s people ALL-TOGETHER AS ONE in Canaan.

Ohh Saints, just grasp this, God was not going to waste anymore years of wanderings, and He desperately needed someone who would effect His promises. You see saints; more was at stake with God than with the people cause if God never settled the people in Canaan, then all His Promises would have been void. For this reason God wasn’t going to risk His credibility and so He comes down for a “one on one” with Joshua challenging Joshua to Arise and lead. So why Joshua?

The leadership of Joshua called for Boldness and Strength physically as well as spiritually. So that even if the sun had to be stopped then it had to obey for the battle has to be won and completed. Ohh yes Joshua’s are Aggressive people for they know too well that settling in Canaan means facing the Canaanites and taking over their land. Ohh Saints, we cannot and will not be able to capture and enjoy our promises unless we choose to engage the forces that oppose God and God’s people with a view to deter them from inheriting God’s Promises!! This is a fundamental truth that we all have to deal with in diaspora.

In the era of Moses, everything was dished out by God miraculously including Manna, Water, Quails etc. At this time all the people did was to selfishly murmur against Moses or God and then Moses would approach God and God would in turn answer back with a miracle!

This is similar to what has been going on among the Christians who continually depend on a “Moses” figure. To these people, they always await a certain “man of God” or a “woman of God” to come and dispense “miracles”. Such a people are more dependent of a human being more than God just like the Israelites were when they told Moses to go meet with God rather than God meet with them. But shouldn’t it be the other way? But that era is now long gone, what is needed now are a people who know themselves, and further understand their position in Christ and can engage any enemy that takes away from them. That’s the only way you get to POSSESS the Promises of God fulfilled in your life in Canaan. Amen and Amen!

Also settling the Israelites on the Promises of God needed a strategist who had learnt to work together with others. A natural example of this model can be gleaned from the Marines. You see the Marines are most disciplined soldiers who always fight as one unit such that they never ever leave their wounded or their dead in battle, instead they always bring themselves and their wounded ones home. Ohh what a classic example of the Joshua Team Leadership model!

So what is the implication of all this for us in the US? Well to begin with, we must understand that God is about a Reformation in the US -for something unique is happening here. For instance in the last ten years or so we have experienced a mushrooming of established churches and ministries in the US like at no other epoch in the history of Kenyan Americans. This is contra in the previous generation where “Moses Ministers” visited the US for “handouts”. But you know what? There is a new Generation of Ministers who like Joshua realize the acute need to settle God’s people in their respective Promises in the Here and Now without murmuring or asking for handouts! And these leaders are now leading the Saints into God’s Blessing for their lives right here in the US!

Ohh yes there is a “Joshua” Conquest Mentality among the upcoming cadre of ministers who are not only strong in the word but are also courageous to take God at His word like Jeremiah 29:1-11 resulting to Saints not only being highly educated, but also buying land, prospering financially and materially, marrying and giving in marriage BECAUSE the Lord brought us here to prosper!

May I also add that true Joshua Mentality also PRAYS FOR AMERICA AS HOME for in the words of Jeremiah “we should pray for the peace and prosperity of this land for its peace and prosperity is ours too”. Ohh that we may arise and in the spirit of Joshua profess that this land is ours and nobody can rob “gutunya” us in the Name of Jesus Christ!

In Settling the Israelites, Joshua was also instructed by God to make sure that every tribe received a fair share of the Blessing of God. Signaling the fact that Canaan was not going to be a homogenous community but a heterogeneous whole. Ohh yes, God is a God of diversity! This now means that we must seek to celebrate our diversity regardless of ones sex, color, tribe, nationality, status, education, accent, etc for before God we are one blessed whole.

Another interesting aspect in the settling of the Israelites under Joshua was that the different tribes supported each other. Ohh that all of us may arise and remember that we are no longer in Africa, Asia or Europe but in America and so we are obligated to fellowship and reach out to our fellow Americans as brother and sister in Christ without discrimination. And who else knows the concept of Harambee better than the Kenyan Americans!

May I quickly add that just because a few bad people have corrupted the concept of Harambee, does not necessary mean that it is all evil. We must learn to pull together [Harambee] as one in Christ without denying the others’ heritage. On the other hand let’s not also become like the foolish extremists who despise or throw away their cultural heritage for “mkosa mila ni mutumwa”. Yes we can still be one though differently gifted … friends isn’t this the Prayer of Christ in John 17:21?

Beloved, I can go on and on and on, but please allow me to sum up with this God’s Word: “Now that Moses is Dead, ARISE, CROSS the Jordan to the Land I AM GIVING YOU”. You may add that you do not qualify to lead, but who said so? Joshua was just a natural man who excelled in that which he did best. Fiends, if God could choose Joshua why not you or I?

Ohh that you will all hear the voice of God speak to you to be Strong and Courageous; then ARISE and CROSS so that you may inherit the Promises of God for you and yours in this the Land that the Lord has given unto you! Amen and Amen!

Always Possessing,

Bishop Dagi

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Respectively Submitted by,

Bishop Dr. Douglas Muchiri
President, All Saints Church Alliance [ASCA] – USA

P. O. Box 256 Urbana, Ohio. USA
pastordagi@yahoo.com
Tel. #937-465-0530

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