24 Numbers 13 V 25-32 AND CH 14 V 1-9
What is important today at the time where we live it is that the Church (as Body of Christ) would be unified, that it would not let be divided, demoralized, scattered, and discouraged.
So that a Church should be blessed, visited and growth by God, since it is Jesus himself that adds to his church the hearts, which are saved, it is necessary that this community does what the first church resulting from Pentecost did.
They all were by mutual agreement, they acted all together, they worked all together, they prayed all together, they all were subjected to the Lord and to his directives in common.
The weakness of the Church appeared when contrary spirits with the Holy Spirit of God, Spirit of life came to deviate and scuttle the people of God.
We are currently in the same situation as the Hebrews of that time. We were delivered from the slavery of the sin, we are free and we are on the way towards the Country of Canaan, but obstacles appear on our road, which are caused by the enemy in order to deviate us, to create fear, concern, pessimism, so that the people of God get a falsified image of the truth.
And if it is the case for our church, then it is necessary to erase this spirit of doubt, fear of confusion and pessimism and to take again the road that the Lord traced for us.
1. THE WAY OF GOD IS A WAY OF OBEDIENCE AND FAITH!
The Lord never promised a spineless rose tree to his children.
Christ said to them: "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. "John 16:33
Christ did not promise comfort, easiness and peace in our actions. He promised Victory. It is through battles and fights that we grow, because we also learn how to get confident with the Lord. Paul said to Timothy: "Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." 2 Timothy 2:3
Does God ask us to go further. Will human impossibilities founded by human reasoning prevent us from obeying God and from entering His plan? Will they lead us to be pessimistic about God?
God said to his people to enter the country of Canaan. But to enter there it was necessary to conquer it and reverse obstacles.
History:
One day Doctor J. Wilbur Chapman asked the founder of the Salvation Army the following thing: “Booth General, what was the secret of your success during all these years?”
Booth General answered him slowly: “I will say to you what my secret was:
God disposed of all that was mine!”
Does God dispose of all our life? Is He truly the Lord of our life? Or will we say to Him when He gives us a way to follow, as the 10 spies who were sent to explore the Holy Land did: ”That is impossible, we’re going to the ruin, the failure, we’ll get crushed down!” By such thoughts, we express to God that we know better than Him, and than our reasoning, our wisdom became un-perfectible, in a word that it cannot improve and progress anymore. We declare that we have infused wisdom!
God wishes that his people were people of faith. But faith without risks does not function! Too much human wisdom destroys faith that is often madness before the eyes of the world. Later, one of the two men who remained truthful to God, Joshua, the successor, will hear the words from the mouth of God: ”I will not forsake you, I will not give you up, be strong, be firm, take courage and strengthen yourself, and you will have success.
The 10 spies underestimated their God. We are like grasshoppers in their eyes! They forgot that it was God who gave them the order; and if God leads them He will open the way, He will be there with them!
I beg you: do not listen to the voice of the discouragement, do not let impossibility take over your hearths. Don’t start murmuring against God’s Will like God’s People did. You start having the desire to eliminate those who want to go ahead in the front line. They were ready to lapidate Moses, Caleb and Joshua! Because their decision was too risky for them. It was all the people that was meant to conquer the land and not only two or three of them!
2. THE WAY OF GOD IS A WAY WHERE ONLY GOD HAS TO BE LOOKED AT!
The 10 spies looked only at the giants and the strengthened cities. They were frightened and discouraged because they looked somewhere else like in the right direction.
They did not want to listen to Joshua and Caleb who said:
Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.
Numbers 13:30
Do you know what they answered? :
And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt. Numbers 14:4
They refused to enter Canaan; the door was closed in front of them! They had to wander in the desert during 40 years. God declared that He would not allow those who were more than 20 years old to enter the Promised Land, excepting Joshua and Caleb.
God opens the doors and no man can close them, and He closes doors that nobody can open again or keep open. (Isaiah 22:22 Rev. 3:8)
God opened the door and nearly 3 million people left Egypt. Then He closed this door to prevent the Egyptians from following them.
God wants us to enter Canaan, in a wider country. It often takes a lot of time because of our stubbornness, our lack of harmony, unit, and because of our individual and collective engagements.
The traveling could have been done in 2 or 3 weeks. Do remember that the spies made the outward journey and the return in 40 days. However, as we saw, their fear prevented them from conquering the Promised Land.
It happens very often that we cannot enjoy the blessing that God wants to grant to us because of our fear, our doubts, our pessimism, because we believe more in impossibilities than in God’s ALL POSSIBILITIES.
We are afraid of what the others will say. We are afraid of what can happen to us if we put all our confidence in Christ.
By the report, the spies said that the Promised Land was full of giants and that they were like grasshoppers! Nevertheless, God is good, it opened the Red Sea to save grasshoppers, He submerged all the army of Egypt for grasshoppers!
3. WHAT SHOULD WE DO WITH THE GIANTS?
Will we allow them to reign in our life? Shall we worship them because they are stronger than our Lord? Do you know who those giants are that want to prevent you from going on the road of obedience?
The giants of selfishness, of cupidity, the giants of doubt, concern who reverse the Faith in Christ and prevent us from entering the blessing of God. When things get in order, we discover that there is always somebody who is higher and above all these giants! Our Master Jesus!
We can be pessimistic like the 10 spies or optimists like Joshua and Caleb. We can discourage or encourage? We can create our own problems and claim that we are unable to do anything but we can also act like the 2 heroes, the 2 courageous men full with faith.
An invading faith, an encouraging faith, a stimulative faith, a creative faith: what have they made? They placed God between their impossibility and themselves. It is what we have to do, what the Church has to do, and each one of its members: to place God between our difficulties, our impossibilities and ourselves and to affirm that we are able to do it, able to advance, able to achieve the impossibility with God of all possibilities!
Somebody said if God asks me to cross the wall, He is able to push the wall! That is what He did when He opened the Red Sea! The same thing for Jericho, the Jordan! etc.....
God is our Source, God is the God of the impossible ones!
However, our responsibility is to stand up and leave! To start, take the step of the Faith! We have to conquer, to possess even if we think that we cannot! But God can!
Be strong, take courage and strengthen yourself! Listen to the Voice of God, obey his commands and go forward!
At this point of time, you will have success in your companies!
People of the Lord, Church of Jesus, children of God! It is not the time of apprehension anymore. Our destiny is in the hands of the Lord and we do not fear of anything as long as we remain in his hands! Make conceal the voices of discouragement and lie! And go ahead with Your God!
