We are all living in a time that is so unpredictable. There are so many things going on that wants to shake our faith and trust in God. Like in the days of Noah when the earth was flooded with rain because the earth was corrupt - Genesis 7. God had to wipe from the face of the earth every living creature that He had made. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
The word of God encourages us to live by faith and not by sight - 2 Corinthians 5:7. Satan who is the god of this world for a short while - 2 Corinthians 4:4 has blinded the eyes of so many people that they do not believe that there is a God that loves us unconditionally and cares for us all - John 3:16.
God is love and His plan for us is to bless us all.
In the following passages of the bible the people believed in different reports:
Numbers 13: 16 - 31
These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun, Joshua.
Then Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, “Go up this way into the South, and go up to the mountains, and see what the land is like: whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, few or many; whether the land they dwell in is good or bad; whether the cities they inhabit are like camps or strongholds; whether the land is rich or poor; and whether there are forests there or not. Be of good courage. And bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes.
So they went up and spied out the land from the Wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, near the entrance of Hamath. And they went up through the South and came to Hebron; Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, were there. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) Then they came to the Valley of Eshcol, and there cut down a branch with one cluster of grapes; they carried it between two of them on a pole. They also brought some of the pomegranates and figs. The place was called the Valley of Eshcol, because of the cluster which the men of Israel cut down there. And they returned from spying out the land after forty days.
Now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. Then they told him, and said: “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan.”
Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.”
But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.” And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”
This is exactly true in our world now, so many of us are focusing on what the report of the god of this world is saying that we are now living in fear of what might happen to us and because there are so many different reports going on, we are not able to focus on God's word anymore. The spies went to the land and they only could see the negative side of the land and this was against the plan of God for them.
Out of the twelve spies that went to spy the land only two came back with a good report because they could only see the positive side of the land. In our time here as the negative report is going on, let us also focus more on the positive side of things that the Lord is doing.
In Zechariah 5:5
Then the angel who talked with me came out and said to me, “Lift your eyes now, and see what this is that goes forth.”
Ezekiel 40:4
And the man said to me, “Son of man, look with your eyes and hear with your ears, and fix your mind on everything I show you; for you were brought here so that I might show them to you. Declare to the house of Israel everything you see.
Romans 10:17
So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Acts 26:18
To open their [spiritual] eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness and release from their sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified (set apart, made holy) by faith in Me.
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The will of God for us is to be blessed and He said this in Jeremiah 29:11. God is faithful to his promises and He is not a God that lies, nor is He the son of man that He should repent - Numbers 23:19. What Gods says is what will be. The word of God will help us to focus on His will for our lives.
When a servant of God was been threatened by his enemies, God gave him an assurance that it was His battle to fight and God proved Himself in the book of :
2 Chronicles 20: 1 - 29
It happened after this that the people of Moab with the people of Ammon, and others with them besides the Ammonites, came to battle against Jehoshaphat. Then some came and told Jehoshaphat, saying, “A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, from Syria; and they are in Hazazon Tamar” (which is En Gedi). And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. So Judah gathered together to ask help from the Lord; and from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord.
Then Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord, before the new court, and said: “O Lord God of our fathers, are You not God in heaven, and do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations, and in Your hand is there not power and might, so that no one is able to withstand You? Are You not our God, who drove out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel, and gave it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend forever? And they dwell in it, and have built You a sanctuary in it for Your name, saying, ‘If disaster comes upon us—sword, judgment, pestilence, or famine—we will stand before this temple and in Your presence (for Your name is in this temple), and cry out to You in our affliction, and You will hear and save.’ And now, here are the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir—whom You would not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned from them and did not destroy them— here they are, rewarding us by coming to throw us out of Your possession which You have given us to inherit. O our God, will You not judge them? For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.
Now all Judah, with their little ones, their wives, and their children, stood before the Lord.
Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, in the midst of the assembly. And he said, “Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the Lord to you: ‘Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s. Tomorrow go down against them. They will surely come up by the Ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the brook before the Wilderness of Jeruel. You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem!’ Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord is with you.”
And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem bowed before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. Then the Levites of the children of the Kohathites and of the children of the Korahites stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with voices loud and high.
So they rose early in the morning and went out into the Wilderness of Tekoa; and as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: Believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper.” And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the Lord, and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying:
“Praise the Lord,
For His mercy endures forever.”
Now when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated. For the people of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir to utterly kill and destroy them. And when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another.
So when Judah came to a place overlooking the wilderness, they looked toward the multitude; and there were their dead bodies, fallen on the earth. No one had escaped.
When Jehoshaphat and his people came to take away their spoil, they found among them an abundance of valuables on the [f]dead bodies, and precious jewelry, which they stripped off for themselves, more than they could carry away; and they were three days gathering the spoil because there was so much. And on the fourth day they assembled in the Valley of Berachah, for there they blessed the Lord; therefore the name of that place was called The Valley of Berachah until this day. Then they returned, every man of Judah and Jerusalem, with Jehoshaphat in front of them, to go back to Jerusalem with joy, for the Lord had made them rejoice over their enemies. So they came to Jerusalem, with stringed instruments and harps and trumpets, to the house of the Lord. And the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries when they heard that the Lord had fought against the enemies of Israel.
Whatever we are going through right now is very temporary and the presence of God is ever present with us all, remember that He said in Deuteronomy 31: 6 He will never leave us nor forsake us. He was with Jehoshaphat then and He is with us now, in the midst of any crisis He will be there. This is who God is to His children as we choose to let Him into our lives.
It may seem that the will of God is not been seen in our lives at the time that we want it to but be assured that He is there and working even when we are not seeing a good report. He says if we are faithless, He will always be faithful - 2 Timothy 2:13 and 2 Corinthians 12: 9 - 11.
We really need God's help at all times and we need to always seek His face for His help in our lives and in order to get His help we are told to meditate on His word day and night - Joshua 1:8 and He said to us that as we do this He will make our way prosperous to His glory. The word of God never fails - Luke 1:37.
Living by faith and not by sight simply means to believe in what He says instead of what we are seeing. The report of man is not always positive and the report of God is always good. There are so many incidences in the word of God that will bring encouragement to us all.
When Jesus was here on earth the Bible records that He went about doing good and healing all those that were oppressed by the devil - Acts 10:38
Whatever we need has being settled for us when Jesus paid the price for our freedom - 1 Peter 1: 18 - 19 ; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Revelation 5:9 ; Romans 5:8.
Habakkuk 2:1
I will stand my watch
And set myself on the rampart,
And watch to see what He will say to me,
And what I will answer when I am corrected.
God is always speaking to us all, but are we positioning ourselves in a way that we will be able to hear Him speak? and also because of this realm that we are in, it is sometimes difficult to hear God when He speaks. But we have the power of His Spirit to help us as our Helper - John 14:26. The noise of this world is just too much for us to concentrate on hearing God and seeing Him at work in our lives.
God is faithful that promised - Philippians 4: 6 - 9 ; Exodus 14:14 ; Romans 8:28.
Job in the bible was tested and eventually the word of God prevailed in his life.
Job 1: 6 - 22
Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. And the Lord said to Satan, “From where do you come?”
So Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.”
Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?”
So Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!”
And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.”
So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.
Job Loses His Property and Children
Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house; and a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, when the Sabeans raided them and took them away—indeed they have killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you!”
While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them; and I alone have escaped to tell you!”
While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three bands, raided the camels and took them away, yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you!”
While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, and suddenly a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they are dead; and I alone have escaped to tell you!”
Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshipped. And he said:
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
And naked shall I return there.
The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away;
Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.
With everything that Job went through, he chose to trust in his God that does not fail and he did not blame God for all his misfortune and at the end of it all, God blessed him beyond what he was expecting from God. We are also to trust that in our lives God will see us through it all and we will all have a testimony to give to everyone around us.
The book of Ephesians 3;20 says this -
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.
This is saying to us that only God as the power to bring His promises to manifestation in our lives and that He is able to do so as we put our trust in Him that loves us with an everlasting love - Romans 5:8 and 1 John 4:9.
And we are to remember this promise in the word of God.
Job 36: 4 -5
“For truly my words are not false;
He who is perfect in knowledge is with you.
“Behold, God is mighty, and yet does not despise anyone [nor regard any as trivial];
He is mighty in the strength and power of understanding.
Remain blessed in Him that is able to help us in our weaknesses and will always give us a good report because in Him we are not condemned.
