It was stated in The Joshua Spirit Part 1, that you must decide that where you are is no longer an option. You’ve envisioned your goal, now you just have to achieve it. Easily said, right? In this writing I’d like to share strategies extrapolated from Sun-Tzu’s Art of War that when theoretically applied, methodically ensures a victorious outcome.

Key Applications

1. Knowing your Purpose
2. Assessing your Promise
3. Assessing Yourself with Respect to Purpose
4. Setting Strategy based on Assessments

The Art of War

Sun-Tzu, a Chinese military strategist, derived principles of war over 2,500 years ago that still ring true today. His war strategies were compiled into a book called The Art of War.

The Art of War moved humankind from barbaric charges in battle to well planned maneuvers precisely executed. Sun-Tzu’s five-point premise for victory is, (1) the Commander must have characteristics that soldiers respect, (2) the soldiers must be committed to the Commander and the cause at risk of life, (3) every soldier, battalion, and officer are trained to carry out distinct responsibilities that are mutually supportive, (4) all aspects of the military operation are well managed and, (5) rules of engagement based on distance, terrain, climate and composition of the enemy are in place. These principles are not exclusive to formal military campaigns but are useful in setting strategy to achieve your Promise.

Knowing Your Purpose

Knowing your purpose speaks to the principle of being trained to carry out a specific life task or responsibility. From the time of Joshua’s appointment as leader of the nation of Israel, Joshua stepped into his Purpose. He probably had indications of the impending appointment long before it occurred. Now that he knew his Purpose, he had his sights focused on the Promise associated with his Purpose. Joshua’s purpose was to subdue the enemy in Canaan. The promise connected to the purpose was that Israel would possess a land ‘flowing with milk and honey’. A promise given to their ancestor Abraham over 697 years before. It could then be said, your Promise is the manifestation of your Purpose.

Can you age out of Purpose where simply time has run out? Other than aging out in death, the answer is an emphatic ‘No’. Age is not a factor in deciphering and understanding your purpose. If you’re breathing you have purpose. Moses was 80 when he went into Egypt to free Israel from bondage. Abraham was 100 when he conceived Isaac and biblical extrapolations show Joshua was in excess of 78 years old when he crossed the Jordan into Canaan.

Most of you have not had purpose fed to you and have to figure it out yourself. Some of you may inherit purpose as Joshua did. In fact, as you became adults it was easier for others to see glimpses of your purpose before you did. You have innate tendencies that illustrate your purpose to others on a consistent basis. Simply put, you may not have figured it out yet. That may be because you are too focused on coveting someone else’s purpose that you’ve minimized your own. Life is like a puzzle with thousands of pieces scattered all over the table. Maybe you fit in the center or maybe you are the corner piece that doesn’t get the attention the colorful center pieces do. But if the corner was not there the puzzle would not be complete. Everyone has purpose.

If you don’t already know, what is your purpose? Here are some hints to help you uncover it.

When you’re in a certain environment, what need always draws your attention?  Given the opportunity, would you instantly come up with ways to fix it?  What do people keep telling you you’re good at? What activity do you most like to engage in when you have free time? What do you dream about, day or night? What pulls on your heart strings? How do you want people to remember you?

You may not be a professional musician, you may find out you have an awesome spirit of encouragement. Your purpose may be to encourage the bewildered. It may be to mentor young boys or girls. You may have the heart of a giver and that is your purpose. Purpose has many tributaries. Choose the path that resonates with you and go with it. It’s the only path that will leave you completely fulfilled. It usually never works out when you’re trying to wear someone else’s shoes. You may wear them for a while but the Peter Principle comes into play. The Peter Principle purports that a person is promoted based on previous successes but will eventually rise to “their level of incompetence.”  To avoid being billed incompetent in your purpose, find your lane, stay in it and perfect that.

Assessing Your Promise

It is the utmost importance to know the location of your Promise and the resources needed to reach it. This is the principle of planning and managing all aspects of the operation. Moses assessed the Promise by deploying Joshua and eleven other men of war into Canaan. They were to scout out the land to determine the type of people that lived there. Were the cities fortified? What was the terrain like? Did they live on plains on in mountainous regions?  Were there alliances among the kings in the land? All these considerations were necessary to prepare for conquest and select the appropriate rules of engagement.

Now here’s a good place to make a point. Although Joshua had God’s promise to deliver the land to them, that didn’t mean they were to waltz into the land without strategy. After all, God told them to “be strong and of good courage”. Why? Because they were going to need it!

Now to assess your Promise. But first, to further differentiate Purpose from Promise, Purpose is the activity (action verb) that gets you to the benefits (noun) of your Promise. Ask yourself these questions concerning your Promise.  What is it? Where is it? What is it going to take to realize it? What obstacles lie between you and your Promise? Are you willing to sacrifice what it takes to obtain Promise? Is the Promise worth the sacrifice?

If you’ve answered all these questions and still want to move forward, your answers to the questions play a key role in developing the rules of engagement you need to employ to seize your Promise.

Reflecting on Joshua’s campaign to capture the Promise Land, it was obvious it had to be taken by force because the land was occupied. As you plot your strategy you are going to run into resistance. Resistance may be a person, a group of people, a mindset, a particular environment, a situation or even a culture. The environment surrounding your Promise will be varied and in order to take ground you need to know how to change directions when needed, when to take action, or when to lay low if it calls for it. When you take the time to learn the lay of the land that lies between you and your Promise your advancements will always be forward.

Assessing Yourself

Evaluate your ability to keep yourself in alignment with the Supreme Commander. Yes, you are leading this expedition but the Commander authored it. This covers the last two principles of aligning yourself with a reputable commander and remaining loyal for life. Purpose, gifts, talents come from a source higher than we are. Fact is, we had nothing to do with the gift deposited in us. Our job is to perfect it. So, we must acknowledge that God, the Giver of gifts, talent and purpose is our Commander. He knows the Promise at the end of our Purpose.

In assessing yourself against Promise, you must ask these questions. Do I exemplify the character needed to be the leader of the Purpose given me? Do I understand and manage the elements that make the strategy sound?  Am I disciplined and on task every day? Do I speak life to my purpose or do I undermine my purpose with words of doubt?  Is my radio on? Meaning am I in constant, direct communication with the Commander? Or is there static on the line or worse yet do I have the Commander on a party line? What’s my ‘fire power’, the strength of my weapons, my arsenal? Do I fly by the seat of my pants or do I know and operate under the authority of the Commander and the arsenal He’s left me (the Word of God)?

Who are your supporters? Know who’s in your inner circle, those who sit in the war room with you. These are those that have embraced your vision and are loyal to your cause. It is not a bad idea to have more than just your own eyes upon the land to search it out. Someone may catch something you don’t or may offer vital advice. As with any initiative, there will be non-supporters and as long as they remain passive and don’t become obstacles, they are non-issues.

It is also important to pay attention to what season you are in your life. Are you in one of growth and clarity? Take advantage of that season to plant knowledge, skill and advocacy to sharpen your purpose. You could be in a season of dormancy. This is a time of review, reflection and planning for the growth season when it comes.

Set Strategy based on Assessments

Most people approach a goal with a shotgun. They want the shot to spread wide enough so they know that some of the pellets will hit the mark. Most times after inspecting their shot they are not ecstatic with the results but settle for getting something for their efforts. That something usually falls painfully short of the desired goal.

Strategy 1. Align yourself with the Commander

God, your Commander, employs various means of communicating direction to you. He left you His proxy, the Holy Spirit to lead you in the right direction. He left winning strategies in the Holy Bible. He will also place certain people in your life as guides. Those people may not be with you for your entire campaign but they are there for that particular season in your journey to impart wisdom and sound advice.

Strategy 2. Evaluate self and resources

Ensure your resources are in alignment with you. Achan, one of Joshua’s men of war (Joshua 7) allowed his personal greed to overrule the good of the whole. He caused the conquest of the little, unfortified city of Ai to fail and result in harm. Ai handed their heads to them. Israel scampered back to camp thoroughly defeated and confused.

As you pursue your Promise, there will be a constant need to reassess those who sit at your round table, those who work in the ranks as your advocates to determine if any has lost sight of the goal. If possible, get them back on track. If not, let them go. You cannot allow those vital to your Promise to gravitate to hanging on the fringes. This is an indicator that something else has their attention to the point your progress will suffer. Once Joshua properly addressed Achan’s misdoings, then Israel was able to successfully defeat Ai.   

Strategy 3. Evaluate the ‘terrain’ between you and the Promise and employ Commander-directed strategy.

When we set sights on our Promise, we can clearly identify some obstacles that lie in front of us. Devise a plan based on the obstacles and manage progress.

Let’s look at Joshua again. At the outset, the majority of the people in Jericho were not afraid of Israel. They were surrounded by a three-tiered wall that started out as an earthen embankment inclined upward to meet a retaining wall 12-15 feet high. Following that wall was the third wall 6 feet thick measuring another 20-26 feet high. The people were so confident Joshua couldn’t penetrate their walls. But God gave them overwhelming favor and victory at Jericho. With a couple of battles under his belt as well as lessons learned, Joshua has yet one more lesson to learn.

The men of Gibeon robed themselves with tattered clothing and carried moldy bread to deceive the princes of Israel that they were from a very far land and wanted to make a league with them. After looking them over the princes made peace with them only to find out the men were only three days journey away. They had been hoodwinked! What was Israel error? In spite of how valid and true the circumstances appeared they failed to consult the Supreme Commander. So now they had to tolerate the enemy living among them. In your journey to Promise, some things may appear right but may not be right for you and where you’re going. You cannot rely on simply your senses for they may embrace the situation or the person only to find out later you have a “thorn in your side”. 

Battle Ready Summary

Are you ready to make the commitment to take this one to the finish line? You don’t actually have to be capable when you start, just willing to be made capable along the way.

The point of briefly looking at Sun Tzu’s principles of war with respect to Joshua and your life’s purpose is for you to intentionally formulate a battle plan. A battle plan to employ your Purpose to seize your Promise. Before, you’d let things happen, and if you saw an opening, you’d try to take advantage of it. But this moment, right now, take intentional measures to be mentally, physically and spiritually prepared to go on the offense. Make your move. Move in Purpose and you’ll reap its Promise.