Are You Part Of
The Joshua Generation?

Our last lesson looked at the public/corporate side of Moses imparting his gifting/anointing into Joshua. We saw this impartation was born out of a long term mentoring relationship as well as at the command of the Lord. We saw that when God imparts to people, He does not keep that a secret from the body -- it is done openly and in a public way. And once God has imparted to someone, He backs them up ministry-wise. In short, God trains and equips people for their destiny; He sets them into it and He backs them up.

But there were also aspects of the impartation that were very personal for Joshua and there were aspects that were for the sake of the people who Joshua would lead.

God set Joshua in place specifically to lead His people to cross the Jordan and take the promised land. They were to go fight the "giants" who lived there in God's power and anointing, defeat them, and then possess the land God had promised them. God was very up front and straightforward with them about His plans for His people; He helped them to understand what it would entail. At the same time, God was quick to encourage them as a group. Look at Deut 1:29-33, 37-38:

29 "Then I said to you, "Do not be terrified, or afraid of them. 30 The Lord your God, who goes before you, He will fight for you, according to all He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, 31 and in the wilderness where you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this place.' 32 Yet, for all that, you did not believe the Lord your God, 33 who went in the way before you to search out a place for you to pitch your tents, to show you the way you should go, in the fire by night and in the cloud by day. : : 37 The Lord was also angry with me for your sakes, saying, "Even you shall not go in there. 38 Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall go in there. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.

This was both a corporate and a personal encouragement. It was corporate, because God reminded the people of their history and of how their fathers had failed God and of how God was going to use them to gain this victory. He assured them that He would use Joshua to lead them and cause them to possess the land.

But it was also personal for Joshua. Look at verse 38. God tells the people to encourage Joshua because Joshua will cause them to inherit their promised land. Even in a corporate setting, God singled Joshua out to encourage him. God knows that the people whom He has chosen and called need to be encouraged. And He is most willing to encourage them.

That was true for Joshua, and it is also true in your life. As you begin to possess and move into your destiny, God will be quick to do two things in your life: He will publicly confirm you in your calling and He will encourage you in it.

God gave instructions to Moses concerning Joshua in Deut 3:28: "But command Joshua, and encourage him and strengthen him; for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which you will see." God had already told Moses that his time in leadership was over and that Joshua would replace him. After that, God told Moses to prepare Joshua personally for the impartation and destiny that God had called him to.

(I should have mentioned this earlier, but let me say it now. God will not impart into someone unless He has a destiny for them. The impartation is not for the person's edification/joy; it is to equip them for the destiny that God has called them to. The only reason that God imparts a person's giftings/anointings into us is to equip us for a specific job. God is serious about advancing His kingdom and He gives each of us a piece to do to accomplish that overall task. The bigger the job that God has for us to do, then the more He needs to give us to fully equip us for it. The impartation with laying on of hands is intended to equip us for the destiny and calling that God has given to us. And God expects us to use the anointing we receive at our impartation only to accomplish His kingdom goals.)

Moses obeyed God's command to encourage Joshua. Deuteronomy 31:7 tells us, "Then Moses called Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, 'Be strong and of good courage, for you must go with this people to the land which the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall cause them to inherit it.'"

This made Joshua's commission both personal and public. Moses instructed and admonished Joshua about destiny. But it was done in front of the congregation. It was not a secret. Everyone knew about it.

Let's look at the impartation itself from Deuteronomy 31:14-15, 23.

14 Then the Lord said to Moses, "Behold, the days approach when you must die; call Joshua, and present yourselves in the tabernacle of meeting, that I may inaugurate him." So Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tabernacle of meeting. 15 Now the Lord appeared at the tabernacle in a pillar of cloud, and the pillar of cloud stood above the door of the tabernacle. : : 23 Then He inaugurated Joshua the son of Nun, and said, "Be strong and of good courage; for you shall bring the children of Israel into the land of which I swore to them, and I will be with you."

Notice that God showed up in a tangible way when Joshua received his impartation from Moses. God had commanded the impartation and God also participated directly in it.

The truth is that the original gifting/anointing came from God in the first place. When that anointing is transferred (via impartation) to another person, it can only be at God's command. The transfer is not really one person taking what they have and giving it to another person. It is God taking what He has put in one person and putting the same thing into another person. The impartation might look like it comes from one person to another person, but in reality it comes from God to the person. The mechanism that God has chosen to use in this is laying on of hands and formal impartation. But the anointing that is imparted does not come from a human being, it comes from God.

Also, we need to remember that impartation is not just an event, it is often the culmination of a training and equipping process. That process started long before the person demonstrated leadership or ministry qualifications, as God worked behind the scenes to mature and transform them. God looks at our hearts and sees who is responsive to Him and who will yield to His Spirit. He looks for those who are hungry for Him and who are deeply committed to obey Him because they love Him. When God finds this type of person, He begins to train and equip them. Sometimes He puts them in a discipleship or mentoring relationship under someone with a similar calling or anointing, like He did with Joshua. But God may train them in some other way, like He did with David. But at some point, God releases a special impartation into the person's life to give them the gifts and anointing they need to do the job God has chosen for them. In Joshua's case, the impartation did not come until immediately before he was released into his destiny. In David's case, the impartation and anointing came very early in the process, but David was not released into his destiny until after God finished training and equipping him.

Most of the time, much of our training happens before God instructs someone formally to lay hands on us and impart into us. But that is not always the case. The impartation is not necessarily a formal release into ministry. The impartation and the release to start walking out our destiny both have to come from God in His perfect timing.

The greater the task/calling/destiny, then the longer the time of preparation will be. Also, the amount of power/anointing imparted into us will directly correspond to the difficulty of the task God has for us. He always gives us what we need to do the job He has for us.

Other types of Impartation

The type of impartation that Joshua experienced was the mentor model of impartation. This is where God brings us under a specific person to train us. At some point, God imparts into us the same anointing/spirit that the mentor has. Then we are either released to do a similar ministry or to take the mentor's ministry to the next step. This was a very common from of impartation in the Bible. That is what God did with Moses and Joshua. It is also what God did with Elijah and Elisha, and it is very similar to what Jesus did with the twelve disciples.

But there are other types of impartation in the Bible. Sometimes it is done by a prophet who does not have a personal mentoring relationship with the individual. We saw this when the prophet Samuel anointed both Saul and David as King. This impersonal type of impartation works out well some of the time, but it can also be problematic. Look at Saul. Samuel anointed Saul as king, but Saul did not have anyone to mentor him and train/equip him before he started operating in his destiny as king. God gave Saul a strong leadership anointing and impartation, but that was not enough. Saul's character was not strong, so he did not use his anointing well. He frequently put a higher priority on his own agenda and personal gain than on obeying God. God rejected him as king because of that repeated disobedience. God appointed David to take his place.

There is another type of impartation that I call a "partial impartation." This type of impartation is intended to release a specific spiritual gift into someone. But it is not intended to release the full mantle and anointing that the imparter carries. Partial impartation is also done at God's command, but it is a much lighter thing than the Joshua type of impartation we looked at.

The Apostle Paul did this lighter type of impartation with Timothy. He did not give Timothy his full mantle/calling to the gentiles, or authority as an apostle. But Paul did deposit some spiritual gift into Timothy at his ordination through laying on of hands. We see this in 2 Timothy 1:6, where Paul told Timothy, "Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands."

Partial impartation releases a spiritual gift through the laying on of hands. That is what people usually think of when they hear the word "impartation," and it is the most widely practiced form of impartation in the church today. This type of impartation is a legitimate, good and God ordained thing. I love it when anointed people who carry gifts that I desire lay hands on me and impart. I usually go up for this type of prayer any time it is offered.

However, partial impartation is not the full measure of what God wants to do in our lives. It has limitations because it is not usually accompanied by a long term training relationship. It is a short jolt to help us excel in God in some area. But we are not necessarily ready to step into our destiny the first time we receive this type of impartation prayer. God may want to bring training from another source before He releases us into our destiny.

What Is God Looking For?

God is looking for people who have a heart after Him and who are trainable. He is looking to expose us to those who are mature in the type of ministry He has called us to, so that they can invest into our lives. He is looking to train and develop us as well as to equip us. God is looking for people who will commit to His Lordship in every area of their life, people who will not limit God based on their own ability, and people who will hunger for God and develop that deep intimacy with Him.

God is looking for ones who He can prepare to see what the Father is doing, that they might do it with Him in His power and authority. God is looking for people who will obey Him and rise up and fight to possess their promised land. Those are the ones who God especially wants to raise up and impart to.