When Moses came he brought change. He said,

"We're not doing it the way we did it before. We're going to change things. We're getting out of Egypt and we're going to eat cereal for breakfast now instead of steaks."

It was not a good change. People don't like change. They don't want you to come and say,

"Do you know the way you've been holding your meetings is all wrong? We're going to change the way you've structured your whole church, the way you are running your ministry and training people.

"It is all wrong. It's the wrong pattern. God has given us a new pattern, and this is the way we're going to do it from now on."

The people should have rejoiced. They should have said,

"This is so wonderful! We're tired of doing it the old way. Let's do it in a new exciting way. This is marvelous. Don't you just love all this change?"

No, they were human beings and human beings hate change. They hate it with a passion. Don't push people out of their comfort zone. Don't get them out of their rut. They don't like it.

Poor Moses was called to get them out of their rut. He was called to bring change. Moses faced old mindsets that he had to deal with throughout his life. He was continually trying to change the thinking of the people. He had to get them to see things the right way; the way God wanted it to be.

Joshua didn't have that problem. Do you know why? He wasn't changing anything. Moses had already changed it. He stepped in and did exactly what they had become used to doing now, and all the old nation who were battling to change had all died off.

These were brand new people who had been born in the Wilderness. They were a whole new nation who never knew Egypt. They didn't know any better.

They only knew the new vision and the new pattern. All they had seen from the moment they were old enough to stand up, was the tent out there where they went and worshipped God. All they heard was,

"We are traveling to the Promised Land that God has given to us."

Their whole thinking had been channeled in that direction. They were quite used to it. All Joshua now needed to do was to step in and follow on what the people had already become used to.

So who wants to be a Moses, and who wants to be a Joshua?

You say, "I don't want to be a Joshua, and have to submit to somebody else and take over his mandate. There is nothing unique about me. All I am doing is just filling in."

Well are you prepared to pay the price to step out there and try and rock the boat? Are you prepared to be a pioneer and to change what has been done; and to change the way that people think? You might fall on your face a few times too.

Do you want to be a Moses? It is going to take a special kind of person to be one to go where no one has gone before.

Joshua was not going where no one had gone before. He was just going a bit beyond where they had gone before. He was going where they were meant to go before.

And you know what? Joshua had been there before. He had already been into that Promised Land when he went as a spy. He had already been where God wanted to take them, and he had come back now to take them through into that Promised Land.

Proving His Leadership

Now Joshua just had to do one thing to finally seal his apostleship once and for all. He had to prove himself to the people. Or shall I say, he had to let God prove him to the people, but it required faith and boldness on his part to pull this one off.

You see it is one thing to have the senior apostle announce you and say,

"Now I have laid my hands on this person and appointed him. God has given him authority and he is taking my place."

The people were prepared to receive that. But it is one thing to obey. It is another thing to be totally committed because you believe in a person. It is one thing to say,

"For the sake of Moses whom we love, we'll obey this guy and we'll do what he's doing. We will follow him."

But the people had to come to that place where they knew that they knew that this was indeed the man that God has set his seal on. They had to believe enough in Joshua to follow him all the way and to complete the task.

Acting in Faith

Joshua had to now take some steps of faith. He had to step out in faith that God had called him and that God would confirm and set the seal on his leadership. So in Joshua 3:5 he steps out boldly and says:

And Joshua said to the people, Sanctify yourselves: for tomorrow the LORD [Yahweh] will do wonders among you.

Do you remember Moses standing at the Red Sea and saying,

"Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord."

Joshua was there. He saw it and he was acting like his master again.

He said, "Stand still and see. God is going to work. You guys had better get ready, because tomorrow you will see signs and wonders. God is going to do miracles in our midst."

The people probably thought,

"Oh well we haven't seen that for a while. Where have the miracles been? We've been wandering in the desert."

That was a real step of faith to make a bold statement like that. And what happens if God doesn't do the signs and wonders? Everybody is going to say,

"Hey big mouth you said God was going to do wonders. Where are they? Do you call yourself an apostle?"

Joshua could have said,

"Well Lord, just give me one or two signs here. Can I see some lightning coming down from Heaven? Could you just do one or two miracles and maybe drop some more manna again? It will just confirm to me Lord that you will do signs and wonders tomorrow."

No, he opened his mouth and stepped out in faith and said,

"Okay, at my word God is going to move."

Speaking Prophetically

Then he had to speak prophetically. He had to step out.

You say, "Was Joshua a prophet?"

Absolutely he was. Joshua prophesied many times. In Joshua 3:9 it says:

And Joshua said to the children of Israel, Come here, and hear the words of the LORD [Yahweh] your God.

He was acting like Moses again. Do you know what? Often when Joshua said that he had never received a Word from the Lord. He was just quoting Moses.

Wasn't that a word from the Lord? If God said it to Moses it was just as much God as if He said it to him. Was it not the Word of the Lord? Of course it was.

In verse 10 it says:

And Joshua said, By this you shall know that the living God [is] among you, and [that] he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Hivites, and the Perizzites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Jebusites.

Then he stood as a prophet. He made a decree and released God's power. In verse 13 he said:

And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the LORD [Yahweh], the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan, [that] the waters of Jordan shall be cut off [from] the waters that come down from above; and they shall stand upon a heap.

He spoke it long before it happened. He sent forth a decree. He spoke it into existence. If he had not done that it would never have happened.

You say, "Well it was easy for Joshua. He just told the people to walk into the water like God told him to."

No he did a lot more than that. He stood up and boldly proclaimed and said,

"God's going to do signs and wonders in your midst. And when we walk into that water, let me tell you God is going to make that water stand up in a heap and we're going to cross over it."

I can see the people standing looking at the water and thinking,

"I hope he's right."

What if it didn't happen? It is going to take faith and courage for you to step out and boldly make a proclamation like that.

You say, "But this has never happened in our ministry before."

You will stand up and say,

"Today God's going to heal the sick and perform miracles in our midst."

You say, "But it's never happened before when I've prayed for people."

"Did God say it's going to happen?"

"Yes, He promised me it would happen in my ministry, but it hasn't happened up until now. Can we have a few miracles just in the privacy of our own home, before I have to step out into the public eye and boldly open my big mouth and say, 'God is going to meet your need?' "

Putting His Faith into Action

No, sorry to disappoint you. It is going to take boldness, courage and stepping out in faith to boldly speak what God tells you to speak. Only then will God move and confirm His Word with signs following.

And do you know what? The Lord will vindicate you and confirm His Word, but it is not enough to talk. You will have to put some action to your talking. After Joshua spoke that, he could have sat and waited for a few weeks for some signs.

You say, "Well let me get my faith charged up a bit. I know I've spoken it and I have been very bold. But come to think about it I can see me lying awake at night thinking, 'You know I opened my big mouth today and I felt pretty good when I spoke it. But do you realize what I said? Do you realize what I told these people?' "

Joshua spoke to the priests and said,

"Take the Ark of the Covenant and walk into the water."

He had already said,

"When you walk into the water it is going to part."

Now he said, "You go and walk to the water and go and do it now."

He put action to his faith. And do you know what happened? The water parted. It happened as the priests stepped into the water and not before. I wonder if Joshua thought,

"Oh Lord, couldn't you just make the wind blow a bit and at least kind of let the waters give a little sign just before they get there; just so I know I haven't missed it? Because if these guys walk into the water they will drown, and the Ark is going to float down the river. I had better then get my running shoes on and get out of here, because the people will stone me."

Positive Proof

It is the price you will have to pay if you want to be an apostle of God.

But do you know what? Not only did the Lord vindicate Joshua by opening the water, but He went one step further. He allowed Joshua to set up a landmark for the future that would be a positive proof. It was a seal and a sign that nobody would ever forget; a proof that this took place.

I can see the people later on telling everybody about this wonderful miracle of how God parted the waters. They will say,

"How much did Joshua pay you to say this? You guys are all just saying this to make yourselves look good."

God led Joshua to take stones up out of the river and put other ones back in the river, and to set those stones up as a landmark. He said,

"In the future when your children come and ask and say, 'What are these stones?' you can say, 'That is a sign that God parted the waters and caused the children of Israel to go over.

"You know what? That guy Joshua stood up and said God was going to do this, and you know God did it just like He said. He was a mighty man of God; one of the best leaders we have ever had. We just thank God for him."

God vindicated Joshua. Why? It is because he was prepared to step out onto nothing but the Word of God. And God will vindicate you as you step out boldly to be his leader and to do what he has told you to do.

Here comes the final part, and this is the final seal of all. In Joshua 4:14 it says:

On that day the LORD [Yahweh] lifted Joshua up in the sight of all Israel; and they revered him, as they revered Moses, all the days of his life.

Completing the Mandate

There was no going back after that. It set the seal. Joshua stepped in and took Moses' place. And as the people looked at Joshua they saw Moses. They revered him the same. There was no more questioning whether he was capable of doing what Moses did.

So Joshua faithfully completed the mandate of Moses. But he did one more thing, and this is the final price you will pay if you are a Joshua apostle. He completed the canon by setting the final seal on Moses' writings. Joshua 24:25-26 says:

So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.

And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and took a great stone, and set it up there under an oak, that [was] by the sanctuary of the LORD [Yahweh].

The Pentateuch is known as the Law of Moses. So who wrote the part about Moses going up the mountain, dying and being buried? Who wrote the parts that Moses couldn't have written?

I don't know, but I would like to suggest that a lot of what was considered the Law of Moses was actually written by Joshua. He was there all the way through.

Who knows whether Joshua didn't write half of what Moses did. But nobody ever talks about the books or the Law of Joshua.

As I looked in the Scriptures I realized that Joshua took no credit for himself ever. He took no honor for himself, but he gave all the honor to Moses. So much so that as we go to the New Testament and we read in the book of Hebrews 11, we have a listing of all the heroes of faith and a lot is said about Moses.

Even Rahab the harlot is mentioned there. She is on the list, but not Joshua. He is not mentioned. He was a greater leader than Moses. He did the job. He divided the tribes, took the land and gave it to them, but his name isn't mentioned.

Identical to Moses

Do you want to see where Joshua is mentioned in Hebrews 11? Go and read about Moses. That is where you will see Joshua, because Joshua was Moses.

Joshua became Moses. He took over what Moses was meant to have done. He completed the task that Moses should have completed. He stepped into the shoes of his master and he became enveloped into Moses until you couldn't tell the difference between them.

Although the Scriptures give us the record of the distinction, you will read throughout the book of Joshua that every single thing that Moses said and did it says,

As God commanded through His servant Moses.. As Moses commanded.. As Moses said.

Again and again, every single thing that Joshua did was a completion. Moses had laid out the entire pattern and the entire principles. All Joshua did was finish what Moses had already laid out.

What is the difference between Moses and Joshua? The one initiates and the other completes, but the mandate is the same.

Has God called you to be a Moses? Then pray you can complete the task and not have to hand it over to a Joshua because you have failed.

Has God called you to be a Joshua? Then rejoice in the fact that you don't have to go through all the tough stuff that Moses went through.

You can complete the task with the part that brings the glory, but there will be a price for you to pay. In the end you will have to give honor to your Moses, and stand back and rejoice in the fact that you completed what he failed to do.

It is a big price to pay. But yet the rewards are there, and only in eternity will it be written what was truly accomplished by you as a Joshua apostle.