“Nevertheless my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt, but I wholly followed the Lord my God.”
Joshua 14:8 NKJV
The possession of the promises of God is nothing if not a process. In Hebrews 12:1, Paul encourages believers to run with endurance the race that is set before us. Today I want to backtrack a couple books and take a magnifying glass to the process of the promise.
We are the children of Israel; the depiction in scripture is for us and it is our actual identity. The Lord freed the children of Israel from the hands of Pharaoh and the Egyptians (bondage) and was leading them through the wilderness (process of transformation) into the land He had prepared for them (the promises of God). Unfortunately for them, the 40 day journey ended up taking 40 years as God had to mold and train the people in how to serve Him and behave as His chosen people. This is what happens to us; the Lord saves us through His salvation power and then He gives us a new life, a new identity in Him; we learn His ways, study His Word and thus are changed by it (Romans 12:2). But what happens when we don’t submit to this process?
The children of Israel in the wilderness complained that God was actually trying to kill them and that they would rather return to bondage (doesn’t this sound much like us? Our transformation process may take too long, in our eyes, and we long or even return to the worldly, ungodly lives we lived before we came to the knowledge of Christ.) Their stubborn unwillingness to be molded by Moses and God caused their road trip to be delayed by decades. Our own stubborn unwillingness to be completely transformed by God will delay, or even stop us, from walking in the promises of God on this side of Heaven. The Lord will not bestow onto us what we are not ready for because He is a gracious God who looks out for our wellbeing. Our minds and hearts must be able to receive and store the blessings correctly (James 4:2). The scary and sobering reality is this: of the millions of Jews that the Lord rescued from Egypt only two entered into the promised land.
Thank God for the Holy Spirit and grace because we have a much better probability, but we must heed the lesson from God found in this text and follow the good example of Caleb, the only other original Israelite who entered in the promised land besides Joshua. 4 important things we can learn from Caleb:
- Divorce yourself from groupthink.
The children of Israel as a whole were determined to be discouraged. The Lord sent out 12 spies into the land He swore to give them, promising they would overcome opposition and even still 10 of the spies couldn’t see past the opposition into the promise. Groupthink is like the average; average is neither good nor bad, it is common and the people of God are not called to be common. 2 Corinthians 6:17, the Lord commands us to come out from among them and be separate. To be separated is to cause to move or be apart; or to divide. Nothing that is separated is average or a part of groupthink, we are only called to be a part of Christ’ body but even then, every part has its own function so there is still individuality and difference in calling.
- Never be happy settling for what others are happy with.
The other children of Israel were technically Caleb’s circle; they were his kin and the only people he could relate to but he still didn’t allow himself to be overly influenced by them. 1 Corinthians 5:6 “…Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?” This scripture means that by having any ungodly association at all, even a little, one will be defiled. When we are given a mandate by God we must pursue it wholeheartedly. So when, or if, the other saints around us have decided to another route we must stay devoted to doing God’s will.
- Always ask for what you want.
The Kingdom of God must be seized and brought upon the earth. We know this from Matthew 11:12 NMB, “From the time of John the Baptist to now, the kingdom of heaven is sorely pressed, and those who go to it with effort seize it for themselves.” We have to vigorously go after the promises of God. The Lord’s Will is law and nonnegotiable in heaven but seeing as He has given dominion on earth to us, we must manifest His perfect will in this realm. James 4:2 “You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.” Wow, this just hit me! Are we truly asking the Lord for what we want or we are just lusting and coveting after it? It is said, life will rarely give you anything positive that you do not ask for.
- Never become discouraged by the length of the process.
“And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive, as He said, these forty-five years, ever since the Lord spoke this word to Moses while Israel wandered in the wilderness; and now, here I am this day, eighty-five years old.”
Joshua 14:10 NKJV
Caleb literally waited 45 years for the Lord to fulfill His promise to him that he would inherit the land of Hebron. Which should cause us to check ourselves: how soon am I becoming discouraged? What leads me to believe I will shift levels overnight like presto magic? Thus we learn an important principle of the process (and my least favorite — Jesus is working on me) is patience. If we are to upgrade our lives and actualize the promises of God we have to possess the virtue of patience. The process may be lengthy but if we are truly in the will of God, we will lose nothing as Caleb goes onto say in verse 11, “As yet I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me; just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war, both for going out and for coming in.”
There are some parts of the process we simply cannot control and we must exercise our faith in and toward God as the architect of our lives. God controls the seasons but we are in full control of our time, so let us use it positively, energetically and productively! Next week’s blog will cover the possession.
Special shoutout to my e-spiritual father who has unknowingly poured into me and sparked inspiration, especially for this blog. I highly recommend checking out his Youtube channel here.