Tonight I will begin a four night Monday evening Bible Study on Leadership. We are taking the life and obedience of Joshua, the great leader who succeeded Moses and finally carried the children of Israel into the promise land. He was a leader whose obedience to his Heavenly Father made walls fall. The very walls of Jericho fell around the city of Canaan. The promised land of the children of Israel.

What creates leadership this powerful? What creates in the heart of a person the ability to lead their own life, or lead the relationships they are in, or lead a vision, or a company, or a team into a depth of power that makes walls fall?

As I have dug into Joshua’s life, and the life of Moses’ his predecessor, I learned that it begins with the very topic we have spent the entire first part of this year talking about. It begins with abiding.

Think of all of the scriptures that talk first about abiding. “If you abide in me and my word abides in you.” “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.” “Ask, and you shall receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you.” Each of these beautiful passages remind us that abiding is where it begins and ends.

Life is full of distractions. The enemy is a master at knowing which ones will distract us most. But God is the “best dish”, Jesus reminded Martha as she griped over Mary’s position at his feet and her lack of help in the kitchen.

This week I ask you to consider where you need walls to fall. Your own heart? Walls of bitterness. Walls of depression. Walls of generational curses. What about in your relationships? Need walls of unforgiveness to fall? Walls of division? What about in your vision. On your job. Need walls of lack to fall? Walls of missed opportunity?

It begins and ends with abiding. We cannot have the power of the one and only God of heaven and earth, who alone makes walls fall, work and operate through us, unless we are in abiding relationship with him. Marriage doesn’t occur over a few trudged through meetings. Marriage occurs once you’ve dug into the deep places, spent ridiculous hours together and learned the pieces and parts of each other’s stories.

God is longing for us. Are we longing for Him? I have learned once you get to know Him, deeply know Him, you can’t imagine missing getting to be with Him every day.