One of the strategies of God in elevating men is to bring them into the service of other men who have gone ahead of them in the ministry and calling.
It is part of His divine wisdom and ordination for ages.
He does so by depositing in such men virtues and gifts that are needful in bringing up their servants or disciples.
In doing this, the work of the Kingdom will easily grow and expand.
No one can become a master if he has not sat under a master(s).
You cannot become a teacher if you have not sat under teachers in different levels of your academic pursuit.
It is also God’s divine ordination in raising men through other men.
No matter what you want to become in life and no matter the level you want to rise in that area of calling, there is/are a man/men that God had deposited some level of grace to facilitate your growth and rising.
At times, they might not have risen as high as God is about raising you, but if you can identify and submit to them, you will get to where the Lord is taking you.
Your primary school teacher could remain as a primary school teacher until you’ve graduated from the University.
You may even become a professor in the University while the man still teaches in a primary school.
The most important thing is that you owe that man the respect of teaching you in the primary school without which you could not get to where you have reached.
You may acknowledge an older professor who mentored you in the university as your real mentor, but you may still have other teachers that brought you up.
No one can make it to the top without the contribution and impact of others in his life.
Although God is the actual Raiser of men, He does so by bringing them under the tutelage and discipleship of other men.
We will look into the Scripture to study how some men of old were brought up through the ministry of other men.
After the children of Israel were delivered from the land of Egypt into the wilderness, the Bible identified Joshua as the servant of Moses.
How he came to the realisation of the need for him to come under this man, Moses is not stated in the Scripture.
It was his deliberate choice to do so.
He was neither elected nor appointed into that service, but he did it by taking a deliberate decision.
Even if he had a revelation to that effect, the revelation would have fizzled out if he refused to take a deliberate step into that service.
Although he was an Ephraimite and not a Levite, he still decided to follow him closely.
This was the first time the issue of Joshua came up in relation to his service in the days of Moses’ leadership in Israel.
The Bible does not give a record of how he grew up to the point that Moses could shoulder him with the task of fighting against the Amalekites.
However, there is a clear indication that Moses had known him to some extent such that he could entrust such a herculean task into his hand.
We only read about how he was considered, but we don’t read how he grew and came to the point of being considered.
His secret labour in submissiveness and discipleship was not really recorded here, but we see how he went to fight that battle.
Was he the only valiant man in the nation at that time?
No!
But Moses had seen him through his quiet observation of him (Joshua).
Joshua was instructed to handle the selection of men that would go to the warfront in that battle.
Moses was not the one to choose men for him, but he had to do it by himself.
So Moses had also seen him as a man that had some measure of wisdom in the choice of warriors.
Moses’ dealings with Joshua had revealed to him some virtues that were inherent in him.
He then knew him as a valiant and wise man, with the ability to choose men for war.
His future destiny and elevation was prophetically displayed here.
He was to lead the Israelites in the process of conquering the inhabitants of the land of Canaan, but he had to fight this battle under the leadership and instruction of Moses.
Although he would grow at a later time to receive instructions directly from God, but for that period, he had to learn submission through Moses’ leadership.
How submissive are you to your current God-ordained instructor?
It will determine how God can deal directly with you.
If you don’t honour the instructions of your spiritual instructors, you will be deprived of God’s direct instructions.
It is an error for you to claim that you’ll hear the voice of God while you despise His voice brought to you through His media.
How can God decide to make His voice available to a man who is not prepared to listen to the instructors that He had sent to him?
God tests men’s faithfulness to Him by exposing them to instructions brought to them by their instructors.
Of course, as a royal priesthood, you are a bona fide recipient of God’s voice; but the level at which He can interact with you through this voice is seriously affected by your submissiveness to your instructors.
If you despise your earthly instructors’ voices of instruction, you will be deprived of the heavenly Instructor’s voice.
If you don’t honour your instructors, you will not become an instructor.
As Joshua was building trustworthiness before Moses, it was subtly transmitted to the sight of God.
In fact, God was seeing his submissiveness to Moses and was preparing him to take over from him (Moses).
He was building confidence in the sight of Moses and in doing so he was also building confidence in God.
After his choice of warriors, there is no indication from the Scripture of any disapproval by Moses.
How can you be under a leader and he will be sincerely afraid of handing over some sensitive and important responsibilities to you?
If that is your situation, then be sure that God can never consider you for divine elevation.
Learn a lesson from Joshua!