Joshua learned through his association with Moses. The next experience he had was climbing the mountain with his master. In Exodus 24:13 it says:

And Moses rose up, and his servant Joshua: and Moses went up into the mount of God.

Joshua Always With Moses

Joshua was glued to Moses. He went wherever Moses went. I believe that part of the reason for this was that Joshua was actually Moses' bodyguard. If you were going to pick a bodyguard, would you pick someone who was small and weak?

That is how I know that he must have been quite a tough guy. I could just see little Moses walking along. He was probably about my height. I like to think that Moses was pretty small.

Then you have this 6 foot 6 inch guy walking next to him. If you came across Moses and wanted to attack him, you took a second look at that big guy next to him and thought,

"Not today."

Joshua went wherever Moses did, and you didn't tangle with a guy who looked like that. So when Moses went up the mountain he took his bodyguard with him for protection. I mean you never know what you might find up the mountain.

Moses took Joshua with him wherever he went. And as the disciple learns to stick to the master, he or she will receive the chance to enter into some of the blessings that the master experiences.

So as God called Moses to go up the mountain, Joshua was the only one out of everyone who got to go with him. Some of the other elders, and even Aaron, only went part of the way up. But Joshua went all the way up with Moses. He was the only one who was given that opportunity.

We don't know whether Joshua went directly into the presence of the Lord with Moses or not. The Scripture doesn't tell us whether as God communicated directly with Moses, Joshua was there as well.

We don't know whether he experienced it as well. But Joshua experienced something up that mountain that nobody else had an opportunity to experience.

Sticking Close By

If you want to rise up to be an apostle, God has given you somebody to be your master, teacher and trainer. You have to stick to them like glue, even when they give you dirty jobs to do. And when you come back from finishing the dirty work you go and say,

"So do you have anything else for me to do?"

You need to stick to them. And when you do, your association with them will cause you to experience some of the same blessing that they are getting.

This is very important. It reminds you of Elijah and Elisha doesn't it? Remember that Elijah said to Elisha,

"I'm leaving here."

Elisha said,

"I'm going with you. I'm not leaving you behind."

It is going to take that kind of commitment, even when the master starts to become impossible. Even when they become senile and ratty, and fly off the handle because they are in a bad mood. There is nobody else to fly off at except you because you're there.

What a price to pay! Have you ever been there? You have to take the good with the bad, but ultimately you are heading for the same place as your master.

Wanted More

Like all good disciples, Joshua was not satisfied to get just what his master had. He thought,

"That's great; Moses is doing a good job. He's got a good anointing, but I want to be better. I want to be greater and to have more."

That is the quality of a good disciple. Elisha was like that. Elijah said to him,

"So what do you want?"

He said, "I want twice what you have."

"Don't be greedy now."

Joshua's desire was to exceed Moses. How do I know that? It tells me in Exodus 33:11, that Moses also took Joshua with him once he had set up the Tabernacle of Meeting and they would go into the presence of God.

Joshua went with Moses into His presence. And now the Scripture does tell us exactly what happened. As God spoke to Moses face to face, Joshua was there witnessing it. It says in this Scripture:

And the LORD [Yahweh] spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he returned again to the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, did not leave the tabernacle.

Joshua had a mentality that said,

"More Lord; Moses was happy to sit there for an hour, but I'll stay there for a couple more."

Joshua was determined to get as much as he could. It was not enough just to be there while Moses spoke with God. He stayed on a bit longer. I'm sure he just cried out to the Lord and said,

"Can't you speak to me too? Lord, I want what Moses has. I want to spend time in your presence. I want as much as you have. I want everything you have; I want it all."

There was a driving force. He was not going to let his master leave him behind. He wanted to grab everything that he could. There was a very important reason for that which we will see as we go on.

In his association with Moses alone, Joshua was beginning to rise up as a leader. And in your association with a senior apostle of God, just by remaining close to them, watching them and copying them in everything that they do, you will already begin to accumulate some of the anointing that is on that man or woman.

However before you can qualify there are tests that you must pass. Your master will test you and God is going to test you through them.

They are not always pleasant, but you have to pass the tests in order to qualify to rise up and be a leader in your own right. Until you do, you remain purely an extension of your master and nothing more.

Developing Good Qualities

There are qualities that are needed for one who is to rise up and lead the church of God. And particularly in these End Times in which we live, God is raising up His End Times apostles to lead the church of God. There are qualities in you that will have to be developed.

Submission and Obedience

The first quality is one of humble submission and obedience. That is because if you cannot obey a person that you can see, how can you obey God that you cannot see?

You must learn obedience and submission. Until you have learned it you will not go any further. Until Joshua had learned that, he was not permitted to move any further in his training.

Being Fully Committed

In order to be a leader it is going to require diligence and persistence. You will have to apply yourself completely to it. You will have to make it a life-consuming passion; that this is what you will live for. This is what your life is going to be about.

It is not a sideline hobby that you do in your spare time. It is not something you do over weekends when you are bored. It is a seven day a week, 24 hour a day commitment.

It is what you do and who you are. It is what you think and speak. Your life must be consumed with it. People might think you are paranoid and say to you,

"Come down to earth and be normal. Don't you do normal things? Don't you talk about normal junk like everybody else does?"

No, not if you are called to be an apostle. It is your consuming passion and you are diligent to commit yourself to it totally. You persist and remain, in spite of all opposition and in the face of all difficulty. You continue and you press on towards the goal.

Being Reliable

It is going to require reliability. Obedience is one thing, but reliability is another. Jesus told the parable of the man who came to his two sons and said,

"Would you go and do this?"

The one son said,

"No I won't do it."

Afterwards he changed his mind though. He repented of his attitude and went and did it. The first son said,

"Sure, I'll do it dad."

But he didn't lift a finger to do it.

Jesus said, "Which one honored his father the most?"

You see it is one thing to humbly submit and say,

"Sure I'll do it. Of course; anything you say Moses."

But do you carry out what he told you to do? When the leader disappears, do you start finding excuses and finding something else to do. Or do they know that they can rely on you totally to fulfill everything that they have given you to do?

If they cannot rely on you then how can God rely on you? If a person cannot rely on you; if you are not reliable enough to complete what was given to you by man, how will you ever be considered reliable enough for the Lord? How can He place upon you the responsibility of the future of His church?

Jesus had to deal with His disciples about that. He had to train them to be totally reliable. Peter seemed the most unreliable one of the lot, but when Jesus was finished with him he became the leader of the pack.

This is a tough one and you will be tested. You will be tried again and again if you have a weakness in that area.

Being Confident and Bold

It will require confidence and boldness, because if you cannot be confident in your leadership, then who will follow you? You need to stand up in boldness and say,

"Okay, this is the plan. This is what God says we're going to do."

If you don't do that who is going to follow you? What if you stand up there and say,

"Well I kind of suspect that maybe this is what the Lord wants us to do. Now, is there anybody out there who can confirm that for me please? What do you guys think? Should we do it?" You are ready to go and die for this guy aren't you?

You are an apostle. You are the leader of the pack. You had better know what you should do. You had better know what God wants you to do, and have the confidence to step out at the risk of making a mistake; at the risk of being accused that you failed.

You need to be confident in yourself and in the Lord. It is a very important quality of leadership.

How do you develop this? It comes through testing and failure; through testing and more failure. Have you been there? It will be developed by the Lord through your master and through the circumstances of life.

Being Courageous

There are lots of other qualities but I have just mentioned a few. Another quality is courage.

What is courage? That is where you step out when you cannot see. You are prepared to take the risk, for the sake of the Kingdom of God and for the sake of others.

Usually it means going where no one has gone before; doing something that nobody has done before. And if you are analytical you will die, because analyticals hate doing something that has never been done before.

So if you are an analytical who is called to be trained as an apostle, get ready to die many times. It is tough, but you will be tested and tried until that quality is developed in you and you can step out boldly and with courage.

When the Lord says, "Move," you don't say,

"But Lord, nobody has ever done this before. We tried this before and it failed."

The Lord says,

"Do it, and do it now."

"Yes sir; anything you say."

Then you step straight into the jaws of death. That is the kind of courage that is required when someone is called to be a supreme leader in God's Kingdom. Joshua faced some of that. And after he had been trained by Moses and had been with him he was given a test run.

Solo Flight

I started airplane flying lessons once. The idea of flying a plane seemed exciting. I remember going for the first lesson and I was so excited about finally learning how to fly a plane. After that lesson was over though I decided that perhaps it wasn't such a good idea after all.

I realized what it was going to cost me and it seemed pretty tough. I could barely cope with the instructor next to me. I had visions of me finally being alone in the plane with nobody there to tell me what to do, and me hitting the panic button.

You know there is nobody there to step in and help you now. You are on your own.

There comes the time when you have to go solo. This is when the instructor climbs out of the plane and watches you take off. He observes you from the ground, and sees whether you will make it or not.

If you are trained to be an apostle the time will come when you will be given a solo flight.

Joshua was given his solo flight. He was selected, along with 11 other men, to be sent out into this Promised Land that they were about to conquer.

He had been trained. He had been with Moses and he understood how Moses thought. He had also been in the presence of God.

He had been through all of the theory. Now it was time to see how he could cope on his own. But he wasn't entirely on his own. He was with other leaders of similar stature to him. He was thrown out there with a bunch of other guys to fend for himself. He was thrown out to the wolves as it were.

Seeing as Moses

It was not a case of someone doing the dirty work anymore. Moses took the 12 men and sent them to go and spy out the land. When they got back only two of them gave a good report.

Joshua went out and saw what all the others saw; the great big giants. He was tempted to react in the same way in fear, but he had developed courage.

He had been diligent. He had started to see things through the eyes of his master. And when Joshua looked at the land he saw what Moses would have seen had he gone.

When Joshua went into the land, he went as an extension of Moses, as his representative. Moses was sending out himself as it were, when he sent Joshua out.

When Joshua came back he gave the positive. He did not speak his own fears or his natural temperamental weaknesses. He rather spoke as Moses would have spoken; as one who was confident in God.

There was one other guy with him called Caleb. I don't know who trained Caleb, but he and Joshua were the only two out of 12 men who had the courage to stand up and say,

"You guys are talking rubbish."

He saw the same kinds of things as them and experienced the same things. But he saw it from a different viewpoint. Why? He was made of a different metal. You see he was God's choice to be a leader.