FollowtheLeader.indd

LEADERS ARE PATIENT

you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not

you would keep His commands” (Deut. 8:2).

While it brought out the worst in the majority of the children of Israel,
it also brought out the best in a minority like Joshua and Caleb who had
a “...different spirit.” As a result, God said that they followed Him “...
with a whole heart.” God brought them into the Promised Land, and
made them the next generation of leaders for His people (Num. 14:24).

The wilderness is a time for heart-testing. Physicians today often put people
through a rigorous “stress test” in order to check-out the condition of
their patient’s heart. It is one of the quickest ways to find out whether the
heart is healthy or sick. Our Divine Physician does the same thing. He puts
us through the severe testing of the wilderness to prove the condition of
our spiritual heart. But God is omniscient, and knows everything about
our physical and spiritual condition. Unlike a human physician, God does
not put us through a “wilderness stress test” so that He will find out the
true condition of our hearts. He already perfectly knows that and has
given His divine diagnosis in the Bible:

• “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure...I the
  Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man
  according to his conduct, according to what his deeds
  deserve” (Jer. 17:9-10).


• “The hearts of men...are full of evil and there is madness in
  their hearts while they live” (Ecc. 9:3).


• “From within, out of man’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual
  immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
  lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils
  come from inside and make a man unclean” (Mk. 7:21-23).

This heart sickness is not just a condition of pagans. It is the condition of
all people – even religious people! I remind you that the children of Israel
were “God’s chosen people.” Yet the wilderness proved that their hearts
were still very sick and weak. They were still “going through the motions”
of religiosity – but it was only half-hearted devotion. Their worship was
sporadic and superficial. They had left Egypt geographically – but not