[Spirit of Leadership] PracticeSample

Finding Solutions

Joshua was one of the military giants of the Old Testament. This relatively unknown man was raised up by God to be the leader of a new generation and to take Israel into the land of Canaan. He would be a transitional leader for Israel, bringing in a new day and possessing new territory for the glory of God. His leadership was exemplary. To be an exemplary leader like Joshua, one must adopt six essential practices of leadership. 

The first practice of leadership is finding solutions, or solution discovery. Brian Tracy, a motivational speaker, once said, “Leaders think and talk about solutions; followers think and talk about problems.” Now, immediately after Joshua was chosen to lead, he faced a challenge:  the Jordan River, which was out of its banks during the time of harvest. The land the Hebrew people were to possess was on the other side of a flooded river, and there was no bridge. 

Joshua faced this messy situation and a calling to the other side. He looked for a solution. If you want to find a leader, look for somebody who can find solutions and doesn’t just look at the problem.  

God said that if Joshua would do what he was commanded, God would honor him. Joshua trusted that God would do a miracle, and he obeyed God. He sent the priests into the water first. They took the Ark of the Covenant. They stepped into the water, and the people followed them far off. And when the priests entered the water, the water stood up. It was like an invisible supernatural dam. God made dry ground for them to go across into the land of Canaan, much like He had made dry ground through the Red Sea for the generation past. 

God helped Joshua solve the problem. We serve a God who has all the wisdom of the ages; He knows what to do. He sees the problem, but more importantly, he knows what will unlock that problem and bring a solution in our generation. We believe that if we’re full of the Holy Spirit and connected with the all-wise One, that wisdom can come to Earth, and we can find solutions to problems like world hunger, pandemics, bias, injustice, cycles of poverty, creation care, depression, addiction, and on and on. We are called to be solution finders through the power of the Holy Spirit.