Read Num 13:26-33 and Num 14:1-9.
What will you do when what you see doesn’t sync well with what God says, like the experience of most of these scouts?
• They didn’t expect to see fortified cities, let alone giants in the land. And so many of them, spreading over such a large area.
• Everything they see does not flow with what they expect from a God who says, “I will give you this land as a possession.”
There will be encounters and experiences in life that will cause us to question God and doubt what He says.
• We do not have the full picture and our understanding is finite.
• If the Lord says He’s giving us this land, how then can there be occupants in it.
The Israelites’ predicament is, Are we going to trust what we see, or trust what God has said (that which we cannot see)?
• Do we listen to man’s report or God’s Word? Do we go by what we see, or by what we cannot? Do we walk by sight or walk by faith?
We have the privilege of hindsight to know the answer.
• We know it has nothing to do with what they see but everything to do with what God says.
• We are walking by sight when we believe in everything we see. We are walking by faith when we believe in everything God says.
I want to share TWO PRINCIPLES that you can cling on to when you are faced with challenging circumstances that threatens to derail you from faith in God:
FOCUS ON THE PROMISE, Not the Problem
Hold on to what God has revealed. That’s the PROMISE of God.
• When you have conflicting reports, stick to what God has said, even when you do not fully understand.
A little girl asked her mother how the human race got started. The mother told her how God created Adam and Eve. She turned to Genesis and read to her.
Later the girl went to ask her dad the same question and he said, “We evolved from monkeys.”
She came back and asked why dad had a different story.
Mom said, “I told you about my side of the family and your father told you about his side of the family”.
Stay with what God has revealed.
• What about things He did not say? He did not tell us there’d be giants in the land; it would be occupied, and we are supposed to fight our way in.
• Don’t worry about WHAT GOD DID NOT SAY. Stick to WHAT GOD DID SAY.
• Focus on what God has already promised us!
The problem is not the real problem. It is our REACTION to or our RESPONSE to the problem, that’s the problem.
• In Christ, all problem is surmountable and can be overcome. God has a reason for every trial and tribulation.
• Our task is to CLING on to His Word and trust Him without fail.
• This is the principle that I’ve been holding on to and that has brought me through again and again.
Trouble comes when we are FIXATED on the problem. We see nothing else except the problem. We see everything else through the lens of this problem.
• “It’s the end of the world! All of us is going to die by the sword and our wives and children will be taken as plunder.” (14:3)
• They painted mental pictures of all that could possibly happen (without God).
• So they ended up calling for an all-night prayer meeting? Wrong! They had an all-night weeping and wailing session! (14:1)
The problem is with their FOCUS. Man will fail if he cannot take his eyes OFF the problem and onto GOD.
• Joyce Meyer: “You cannot expect to live a POSITIVE life with a NEGATIVE mind.”
Joshua and Caleb saw everything – the same fortified cities, the same giants, the same problems.
• But their eyes were FOCUSED on something else, obviously. They were the only TWO confident ones. Their eyes were on the PROMISE of God.
• Num 14:7-9 “The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. 8If the LORD is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. 9Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them.”
• Nothing about the Canaanites. Everything about the LORD.
How can the same group of scouts, seeing the same sights and hearing the same sounds, ending up worlds apart?
• Perspective. It’s all about perspective. What are you really looking at?
A salesman selling shoes was sent to a remote part of the country. When he arrived, he was dismayed because everyone went around barefooted. So he texted the company, “No prospect for sales. People don’t wear shoes here.”
Later another salesman went to the same area. He too sent word back to the HQ office. His text reads, “Great potential! People don’t wear shoes here!”
What are you fixated on today? That will make you or break you.
• Let us fill our mind with the truth of God’s Word. You can never go wrong. Not only is His Word true, it is unchanging.
• Isaiah 55:10-11 “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11So shall My Word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
The second principle is this…
FEED YOUR FAITH, Not Your Fears
Don’t spread bad report around, which was what they did. Num 13:32 “And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored…”
• You can actually rephrase this to: “And they spread fears around…” They just killed faith.
• Where is God? Nowhere in SIGHT and nowhere INSIDE. Faith has been displaced.
• They did not see the giants or the fortified cities. They just HEARD the bad reports and they killed their faith.
What is God’s verdict - Num 14:11 “The LORD said to Moses, "How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them?”
When we face the storms of life, they almost always appear MORE POWERFUL to us than God’s Word.
• We have to remind ourselves that our perceptions can be deceptive. The question we must quickly ask ourselves is, WHERE IS MY FAITH?
• When Jesus called Peter to walk on the water, he is training him to trust what He says OVER what he see. (Matt 14:29 “Come.”)
Feed your faith on God’s Word and let fears starve.
• The people fed on the negative report. They lost the battle even before it started.
• The battle was lost, not because of the formidable foes without, but the unseen foe within - fear.
I seems that to God, life’s problems are always not with the circumstances, or the situations, or even the big mountain in front of you. It is always an issue of faith.
• The existence of the giants actually reveals only one thing - the true state of their heart. Do they really trust God? Are they willing to trust God?
• The trials we face reveal the condition of our hearts. It either reveals that my faith is in God, or my lack of faith in God.
God wants us to trust Him. The hard way is not always the wrong way.
• Every challenging moment reminds me of WHO God is and WHAT He can do.
• It trains me to FOCUS right and exercise my FAITH.
If you study closely, the people’s unbelief in God is a belief in self.
• They were looking to themselves. They were trusting themselves. How can they as grasshoppers overcome the giants?
• They actually wanted to enter the Promised Land on their own merit.
Joshua and Caleb urged them otherwise. Trust God instead. They refused. They made their choice.
• Faith is always a CHOICE, not an emotion. We CHOOSE to believe God.
You know what’s the consequence of their unbelief?
• Num 14:29-30 “In this desert your bodies will fall - every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me. 30Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.
• Num 14:34-35 “For forty years - one year for each of the forty days you explored the land - you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you.' I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will surely do these things to this whole wicked community, which has banded together against me. They will meet their end in this desert; here they will die."
Our walk with God is a walk of faith. Feed your faith with God’s Word.
• If we walk by faith, then we cannot walk by sight. Don’t believe everything you see. Our perception can be deceptive.
• Fix our eyes on His promises. Take our eyes off selves and look to Him.
• When you do that, faith takes over. And when faith takes over, fear is pushed out. They cannot co-exist.
• Faith in God is a choice we make. Trust Him no matter what.
You can choose, either to be among the whiners or the winners for God.
