6 lessons leaders must learn before making agreements.

In Joshua chapter 9 we read the story of the Gibeonites. In this story, we see the Gibeonites a people that occupied a portion of the Promised Land that Israel was to conquer had heard that Israel was coming, and devised a plan to secure their survival. Essentially, they poised as if they were a people from another area, and made a treaty with Israel that spared them from destruction. You can read the whole story in Joshua chapter 9.
There are many lessons one can take from this story, but there are 6 I’d like to highlight in today’s blogs.
1. Some who desire to partner with you are actually your adversaries in disguise. (V.4-6)
Allegiances can come from those who you are supposed to destroy, remove from your life, or otherwise trim. Be careful of who wants to join themselves to your cause. Some of the very people who want to partner with you can become dead weight that drags your mission down, or causes you to not complete it all together.

2. Flattery can be a doorway to forming inordinate alliances. (v. 9)
We all like to be praised and our causes lauded. Do not allow praise to soften your critical analysis of who is praising you and deal you are considering.

3. Leaders must make due diligence towards those who seek to bind themselves to them.
Do not just accept information and appearances given. Verify the information presented to you and give yourself time to do so. Give yourself at least 3 business days to come to any decision where you are entering into an agreement with another. (v. 4-6)

4. Do not let live that which you are supposed to eliminate. (v. 15)
Everything leaves a wake. Things you are supposed to avoid and or eliminate serve as parachutes that slow you down. Instead of them being life saving, they have the tendency to make you work harder to overcome the drag. Dead weight can being you to a standstill so be careful. Sometimes we are moved with sympathy or compassion about an issue. We can see the logic of not eliminating a cause, project, even personnel from our environment. I can personally attest to NOT removing people when I should have and how that hindered me. We must be willing to remember that sometimes we must let them go.

5. Failure to seek the counsel of God invites yoking yourself in such a way that not even he can undo what you have done. (v. 14)

One of the best ways to invite disaster into your life is to partner with people, who God has designated you to eliminate from yourself and or your cause. You will never see the fullness of Gods blessing. They are the “lots” in the world. People who you have affinity and even a familial sense of obligation but from whom God wants you to separate from. otherwise you will find yourself always rescuing them. Using resources in ways God did not intend. Not asking God about the people in your life is hazardous to your health.

6. You invite criticism and potential division from your followers if you do not execute due diligence, and your mistakes are revealed. (v. 18)
When the follower learns information that should have been available to the leader if the leader simply had taken the time to execute due diligence. It invokes questions about the efficacy of the leader. Leaders must then be quick to acknowledge the mistake given and recognize the loss of value they have imposed on the people. Remember don’t feed and make provision and or even allow to serve you things that you are supposed to eliminate from your life, cause, and business. Not everything can yoke with you!

D