God will not speak to "Joshua" until "Moses" is dead. We cannot move forward with the Lord until we are ready to surrender to God what we have received during former seasons of His ministry to us. When it is time for Moses to die we must allow the Lord to bury him. Otherwise it is not possible for God to "speak to Joshua." We will remain in confusion. Our spiritual momentum will lose its force. Growth will cease.

We cannot prop up Moses and then follow him into the land of promise. We must follow the Lord always and accept the path He chooses for us.

There are times in our pilgrimage when we must get up and go forward in God. We must move cautiously in the Lord, continuing to watch and pray. As described in the first chapter of Joshua, the initial move of the Israelites upon "arising" was to prepare food, for they were to cross the River Jordan in three days.

The true saint keeps himself in instant readiness to move with the Lord. Never do we become so involved with the world we cannot move instantly with God. We do not move ahead blindly but in prayer and spiritual watchfulness. We look carefully for the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

"The Jordan," as we have stated, signifies death to self. The Christian Church has not been at this level except for a few notable heroes of faith.

Some churches preach salvation, and others preach salvation and sanctification. But it is time now for the third major area of redemption to be announced to the Lord's people. We must permit the Spirit to bring us into prisons of frustration and pain. We must submit to prolonged deferral of our most intense desires. We must learn to move only in obedience to God, not "using" our gifts or our faith according to the impulses of our soul and fleshly mind.

We must learn patience. We must accept the death of the cross. Ministry of eternal significance in the Kingdom of God flows from the death and resurrection of the minister. Works of eternal significance do not spring from talents, from enthusiasm, from attempting to meet the existing needs apart from the guidance and abilities of the Holy Spirit.

Samson slew more Philistines by his death than he did by his life. It is time for the Body of Christ to bow before the Father in humiliation, in stern obedience, in death. By our life we have created a thousand competing denominations. By our death we will tear down the entire kingdom of Satan.

It is difficult, and sometimes frightening, to "let go and let God." What if God doesn't do anything? What if He doesn't "use" us? This is where trust enters. We must learn to trust God, to allow Him to become our Salvation, our eternal Life, our Sanctification, our Power, our Wisdom, our Glory, our Ministry. A diligent, conscientious church member may find it difficult to abandon his soul to God to this extent if he is accustomed to attaining spiritual "success" by striving.

We must labor to enter the "rest" of God, as set forth in the fourth chapter of the Book of Hebrews. There are two counterfeits of the true rest of God, of the true death to self-seeking.

The first counterfeit is passivity.

The second counterfeit is world involvement while waiting for one's "call."

To be continued.