GAINING TERRITORY BY FAITH

     You have probably read God's command to Joshua, to take possession of the land God was going to give the Israelites, "I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. Your territory will extend from ..." God was referring to physical terrain. It is interesting to follow this thread of thought throughout the rest of the book of Joshua. Literally, whatever territory the Israelites walked on and claimed for God was theirs.
     That historical account stands as a picture to help us understand that God wants us to claim faith territory for him. Strange as it at first may sound, God has actually given each of us a certain amount of faith territory to claim for Him over our lifetime. It's only limit is our willingness and ability to take it. It may be in the home, the board room or on the shop floor. It is not always physically gained as was the case with land, but the marker posts that prescribe the limits of the territory are all clear to those who will investigate them. 
     Picture walking throughout a large piece of land. I always picture the several thousand acres around Beacon Bible Camp where we served for several years. Now imagine that you stop and put up a marker post. The marker post is significant. It marks a turning point, a reference from which you can start out in a new direction toward a new goal or destination. Continue your journey and you will cover some distance and surround a certain amount of physical territory. 
     The picture is the same with faith. That marker post describes some event in your life that was a turning point. It may have been a success, a failure, an experience or a crystal clear insight and decision. Whatever it was, it caused you to walk in a new direction. Then another experience presents itself and you plant another marker post to remember it, and so on. I can look back an think of at least seven major turning points in my life that each set the course for several years to come. God wants us to live our lives and conduct our businesses or ministries in dependence upon Him. That takes faith. 
     As a Christian business owner or executive you bring God's thoughts to bear on how you conduct your business. You bring God's thoughts to bear on everything professional and personal because you walk in relationship to God. So your journey encloses a certain amount of decisions, attitudes and actions that appear simply as "business as usual" to others, except that you have done them through faith. It may not have been immediately apparent to others but that is what happened. God has allowed you to travel this path because he wants to help you dependent on Him. 
     If we can look back and review all the marker posts in our life we can learn lessons. Sometimes we are gaining greater territory, while at other times our actions have actually lost ground. The idea is to learn from the marker posts of the past and use them as successful guide posts to the future. GW

Key Coaching
1. Make a list of the events in your life that really caused you to change direction in a major way. Draw a map of that point to point journey.
2. Did each event "gain" faith territory or "lose" some? 
3. Now think about the decisions and experiences of the past 30 days. Are you enlarging your faith territory? Cover all aspects of life at work and at home? 
4. What have you learned about yourself that you can use to gain faith territory right where you are now? In your plans for the future?