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-- © GodSpeak International 2004 --
-- Do not republish without written permission from <copyright@godspeak.org> --

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND CONTRIBUTING RESOURCES
Author: Teresa Seputis ts@godspeak.net http://www.godspeak.net
Editor: Kevin Nolan

Are You Part Of
The Joshua Generation?

Lesson 7
What Happens After The Impartation And Release?

By Teresa Seputis

In previous lessons we have seen that God looks for those who have a heart after Him and for those who are committed to obey Him. He brings each of them through a period of training and maturing, then releases an impartation of giftings and anointings into their life to equip them for whatever He has called them to do. At some point, God finishes preparing and equipping them, and He releases them to function in their destiny. At that point, God gives them a personal commissioning, defines clearly what He is releasing them to do and encourages them in it.

Then God thrusts them into their destiny. He brings opportunities for them to function in it. And as they do, He backs them up with His supernatural power and anointing. Then He expects them to continue operating in their anointing and calling.

Operating In Your Anointing

After God imparts to you and releases you, then He starts to provide you with opportunities to move in that gifting or anointing. Sometimes He is gentle about it, giving you a nice easy learning curve in a comfortable or "safe" environment. Other times, He simply thrusts you into it -- sink or swim -- and you have no choice but to rely on Him to do the impossible. That is what happened to Joshua.

Joshua had to step up and lead the people once Moses was gone. God gave him a brief encouragement and directions, but all too soon it was time for Joshua to implement God's directions. This is recorded in Joshua 1:10-11. "10 Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, 11'Pass through the camp and command the people, saying, "Prepare provisions for yourselves, for within three days you will cross over this Jordan, to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess."'"

The people answered him in verse 16. I wonder if their response surprised Joshua. They said, "All that you command us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go."

Things seemed to be starting off well. God had called Joshua to leadership and God had imparted a leadership gifting into him. And as Joshua stepped up to the plate and began to lead, it seemed to be working. The people recognized him as a leader and they stated that they were willing to follow him. However, they did say something alarming in verse 17. They said, "17Just as we heeded Moses in all things, so we will heed you." Why was that alarming? It is alarming because of their bad track record in heeding Moses. They opposed Moses's leadership, they whined and complained anytime things did not go perfectly, and the rebelled against God multiple times.

I think that is why God did something supernatural to firmly establish Joshua as a God-appointed leader in the peoples' eyes. God said, in Joshua 3:7, "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." Then God had Joshua do the same miracle that Moses had done. Moses parted the Red Sea and let the people cross over on dry land. Joshua parted the Jordan River and the people also crossed over on dry land. (You can read all about that in Joshua chapter 3.)

God supports and sustains us in whatever He calls us to do. He had gifted and called Joshua for leadership, so God was very serious about establishing Joshua as a leader. If God had called Joshua to physical healing instead of leadership, He would have established him as a healer instead of as a leader.

No matter what God calls us to, He establishes us firmly in it. He usually confirms our calling as we start to function in our destiny. Some people phrase it this way: "The anointing makes a way for you." In other words, as people see you operate successfully in what He has called you to do, they come into agreement with your calling. As they see God's power and anointing flow through you in your area of ministry, they recognize the call of God on your life. For instance, as you move regularly and strongly in the prophetic, people begin to recognize the prophetic call on your life. Eventually they start to call you a prophet. You don't have to promote or proclaim yourself. God confirms His call on you by anointing you as you serve Him.

God will open doors for you as you serve Him. He will make a way for you to operate in what He has called you to do. He will establish you and provide opportunity for you to do what He has tasked you to do.

However, that opportunity may not come the way you expected. Sometimes God will tell you to go knock on a door before He opens it for you. Sometimes you have to start small and fight for every step of forward progress that you take. Perhaps God called you in the prophetic and you expected your pastor to recognize that and to open doors for you. But maybe your pastor does not recognize your prophetic gifting at first. Maybe he doesn't give you opportunities to prophesy in the Sunday service. Don't give up. Instead, go to God and ask Him for direction. Perhaps God will have you start by prophesying in a small home group or Sunday School class. Or maybe God will cause your prophetic words to be distributed on the Internet or in a magazine or newspaper. As you seek God, God will give you a place and show you what He wants you to do.

Overcoming Difficulty and Resistance

Once God has set you in place, you have to keep on doing what He has given you to do. It may not always be easy. Don't give up and quit.

Things went very poorly for Moses when he first began to walk in his destiny as the one who would deliver Israel from Egyptian slavery. He went to Pharaoh, and he did this at God's direction. But Pharaoh did not listen to him. In fact, Pharaoh became annoyed with him and increased Israel's workload. And the people who had recognized him as a leader began to curse him for making their workload worse -- they even hoped that God would punish him for doing that to him. Things seemed to be going terribly wrong. That was not a good start for a leader, was it? And even after Moses successfully led them out of Egypt, the people complained and muttered and turned against Moses every time something went wrong. And even though Moses was called and appointed of God, things constantly went wrong in his ministry. Just days after Moses lead the people out of Egypt, an army chased them. Shortly after the great deliverance from those soldiers at the Red Sea, the water supply ran out and the people were ready to riot and go back to Egypt. Then the food supply ran out and Moses had to deal with that.

Just like Moses, you will run into all sorts of problems and roadblocks as you walk out your destiny. Don't be surprised when that happens, because it is part of the process. Don't panic. Look to God, and God will empower you to overcome each difficulty or problem. You must not interpret problems or setbacks and an indication to give up and quit. Understand that the devil is going to oppose you and things won't always go smoothly. That is a part of the process. Don't let it throw you when it happens.

Don't quit because of closed doors either. At times you will have to press in to serve God in your calling. You may have to march up to a few closed doors and knock on them. but as you follow God, He will open the doors for you and give you many opportunities to serve Him. Then, as people see the anointing demonstrated in a given area, they will begin to trust you this area of ministry. Let me share an example.

Let's say that God calls you and puts a passion in you to heal the sick. If you go around telling people, "I have the gift of healing," they would not believe you. You need to demonstrate it. But if you walk up to sick people in your church and offer to pray for them, they just give you a funny look and make a quick excuse to get away. So you have to find a mechanism within the church to operate in your gift. The ministry team has an annual training session, so you attend it and sign up to become a team member. Then you begin to pray for people at the ministry time at the end of service. From time to time, people who are sick come up for prayer. Even if they came up with a different prayer request, you also pray for them for healing. Over time, a lot of sick people get well and the people in your church begin to realize that you move in the gift of healing. Now things change. Sick people in the church begin to seek you out for prayer and you end up with lots of opportunities to minister.

Accepting Your Destiny

You don't choose your destiny and then ask God to bless and empower it. Rather, He chooses it for you -- in fact He custom-made you for that purpose. He prepares and equips you for it and then He sets you into place in it. But that place may not be precisely what you desired. Perhaps you dreamed of being in full-time ministry, but God asks you to serve Him in the secular world. You have to let God direct where, how and when you minister or serve Him. God may call you to a secular job explicitly to have you minister for Him in that position. God is using lay people as prophets and apostles and pastors and leaders in the work place. Why does He do that? Many times the pastors don't have access to the unsaved people in the work force, but you have access to them because you are a coworker. So God carefully puts you in a place where you can reach and effect the ones God has called you to.

Or it may go the other way. You may want a high-paying secular job and God may call you to a low-paying ministry job.

Don't be distressed if God's choice for you doesn't match your hopes and dreams. He knows who you are and He has custom-made you for the destiny that He has called you to. You will feel most fulfilled and most alive when you walk in that destiny.

Just remember that once God has released you into your destiny, it is a life-long commitment. You need to keep on serving God once He releases you into service. You can't get tired of it and decide to quit. Sometimes things will get tough and God won't bring the victory as fast as you would like Him to. But you have to keep on serving and keep on doing your best. You have to continue to obey Him because you love Him and you have to continue to serve Him anytime He wants you to. The specific tasks God has you do may change over time, but you continue to walk out your destiny and serve Him. Once you enter into your destiny with God, you have to keep walking in it. There is no turning back or quitting. It is a lifetime commitment.

And as you walk in your destiny, you will find that you also walk in victory. We will discuss that a bit more in the next two lessons.


-- © GodSpeak International 2004 --
-- Do not republish without written permission from <copyright@godspeak.org> --

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