Numbers 13:25-33
At the end of forty days they returned from exploring the
land. They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at
Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole
assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. They gave Moses this account:
“We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and
honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the
cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. The
Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the
hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.”
Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We
should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”
But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack
those people; they are stronger than we are.” And they spread among the
Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land
we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of
great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the
Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same
to them.”
II Corinthians 1:3-4
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our
troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we
ourselves receive from God.
All of us have a tendency to see the “better things” in life
and desire to have them, and there is nothing wrong with that. I don’t believe that God intends for his
people to live in impoverished conditions, after all we are children of the
King, not spiritual hobos. We see fancy
houses, expensive cars, hand crafted furniture, guys with big muscles, women
with fancy shoes or purses and we want them.
The problem isn’t that we desire these things, it’s that we are not
willing to make the sacrifices that are necessary to acquire them.
Doctors didn’t just wake up one day with medical degrees,
professional athletes weren’t born hitting a baseball 700 ft. or dunking
basketballs behind their backs, and business men aren’t just handed fortune 500
companies as soon as they finish business school. All of these people had to go through struggles
to get where they are.
Yes I do believe in faith, but contrary to what that TV
evangelist tells you, the word of God says that faith without works is dead. God blesses people all the time, but most of
the time those blessings come from hard work, sacrifice, and faithfulness
during the tougher times.
Many believers have been deceived into thinking that just
because they are saved and are now part of God’s family, He is supposed to give
them everything they desire without any effort, without any work, without
battling difficulties, or without any discipline on their part. The truth of the matter is that the blessings
and promises of God cost what they cost and the Lord never slashes prices. If you’re not faithful in the small things,
His word is clear, you’ll not be blessed with an increase of the bigger
things. To receive your inheritance,
first you must be a faithful and obedient child.
Yes God wants to prosper you and bless you, but sometimes
you’re going to have to go through something.
Sometimes you have to struggle and sometimes you have to fight an enemy
that’s between you and your inheritance. There is something in the struggle
that is necessary for you to become what God has ordained you to be. God left giants in the promise land on
purpose for several reasons and He allows us to struggle with our own giants
for the same reasons.
First He knows that we need to learn how to fight. When I was a boy we lived in a house in north
Mississippi and we had no running water, I had to carry the water in jugs from
my grandmother’s well. My uncles, who
were just a few years older than me, would push me down take my jugs and pour
them out and make me start over, just to be mean. My daddy wouldn’t intervene and stop
them. He knew I had to learn to stick up
for myself. Usually I would just cry,
but one day I got mad enough that I hauled off and punched my uncle upside the
head, that day he cried, and he never messed with me again. The devil is always messing with God’s people
and God knows that we need to learn how to fight, so He allows us to struggle
and often tears are shed, but if we don’t learn how to fight the blessings that
wait for us may never come.
Second, giants distinguish the difference between the
talkers and the walkers. It’s one thing
to confess the promises of God, to “name it and claim it,” but it’s an entirely
different thing to put on your armor, strap on your sword and go toe to toe
with an enemy that’s standing in the way of your promises. Your struggles qualify you for your
reward. David heard them speak of a
reward, but he knew the reward was only for the person who would fight and kill
Goliath.
I Samuel 17:25 (NLT) “Have you seen the giant?” the men
asked. “He comes out each day to defy Israel. The king has offered a huge
reward to anyone who kills him. He will give that man one of his daughters for
a wife, and the man’s entire family will be exempted from paying taxes!”
Through our struggles we should come to understand that the
fight, the spiritual warfare, the praying, the waiting patiently and the
enduring is as important as the blessing or reward. While we often are looking only at the
reward, God is looking at the development that is taking place through the
struggle. Faith is always forged in the
fires of adversity.
Third, our struggles produces thankfulness. When we moved back to Mississippi 10 years
ago this month we had no idea for what going to be in store for us 4 months
later. After surviving our first
hurricane that August when so many others did not, I wasn’t asking the Lord why
he allowed us to go through that storm, I was thanking Him for protecting us
and our home. In December a tornado came
through Columbia, MS. People had lost their cars, their homes, and some had
lost their lives, but everyone who survived wasn’t concerned that their
property was gone, they were thankful that their lives had been spared. When you know that you had to fight for what you
have, you appreciate it more. You won’t
let anyone take it from you. Struggles
test your level of commitment. The only
way to truly gauge your level of gratitude is through the struggle
Fourth, the Giants flush out the grasshoppers in the crowd,
because when the giants show up, grasshoppers begin to speak up. Grasshoppers usually blend into their
environments but giants uncover them.
Grasshoppers don’t eat grapes and you will never have faith with the
spiritual mind and appetite of a grasshopper.
This generation of the children of Israel forfeited their inheritance
because they would not fight
How many of Gods people today are willing to forfeit their
destiny and their promise because they refuse to stand up against the enemy and
fight for it. When the heat of the fires
of life approach and the enemy is breathing down their necks, they bail out,
back down, lay down their swords and surrender.
As long as everything is going smooth they’re right there with the rest
of the army, but when the real fight comes they cave in to discouragement, fear
and doubt.
If you are willing to admit it today, what you are today in
God has been forged in the fires of adversity, your growth has most likely been
due to overcoming the enemy’s attempts to bring you down. You are what you are
in Christ because of what you had to fight for, what you have had to fight
against, and the struggles you have overcome.
A caterpillar has to go through the process of metamorphosis
to change from an earthbound creature into a beautiful butterfly, but this
process involves struggle and to cut the struggle short would rob it of its
destiny.
A baby chick in the egg has to go through growth inside of
the egg until it begins to outgrow the egg, then it must peck its way out. It is the struggle that give the chick
strength and prepares it for life outside the egg. To cut the struggle short would weaken it, if
not kill the chick entirely. It is only
through the struggle that it gains the strength it needs to survive and thrive
in the brutal world of its new environment.
Last, the best reason for God to allow us our struggles, is
that it qualifies us to help others who have similar struggles. When you have
had to struggle through something, you can help somebody else. When you have stood your ground, when you
have fought the good fight and conquered your giants, you are qualified to help
someone else through theirs.
The devil wants to make it all about you, he wants to give
you tunnel vision so that you’ll focus all your attention on the struggle, but
God wants you to see that the devil may have sent it to take you out, but God
is going to use it to take you up, and when you get up you’ll be qualified to
help someone else get up. Through your
struggles, if you stand and fight, God will bring you to a place of greater influence
and make you a blessing to your brothers and sisters in the Lord.
Tell yourself right now: I may be going through a fight, but
God’s growing me through this fight. I
may be facing giants, but God us bigger than my fears. I’m developing more compassion, more
patience, more endurance, and some long suffering. I’m getting a spiritual workout, but I’m
gaining spiritual power. I am acquiring the
ability to put myself in someone else’s shoes, to see where others are and to
feel what they feel, so I can speak a word in season to them. Yes I may be struggling right now, but don’t
pity me, because there’s something in this fight that I need to become what God
has ordained for me. I would have no
testimony with this test and no victory without a fight.
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