Month: May 2021

Has the Lord told us to do something that seems quite impossible? It may be a watershed moment for our Destiny!

God doesn’t make suggestions, He tells us what He wants us to do next and looks to see if we’re obeying.

The story of Israel in Numbers 13 is sad because a whole generation missed their Destiny through fear and unbelief. The Israelites had been following God, firstly out of Egypt and then through the desert. They’d even fought and defeated the Amalakites, Exodus 17 but now a new and larger challenge lay before them, the conquest of Canaan.

The Lord said to Moses, 2 ‘Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders.’ Numbers 13

The whole community was represented before God. These men were neither priests, nor Levites, but they had responsibility before God for the nation (a good reason to pray for our representatives). Moses told them to go in and assess the land in two main areas, the strength of the people living there and its fertility, good or poor land. He told them, ‘Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land’. (It was the grape season). So they went up and explored the land, saw the giants with their fortified cities and brought back a large cluster of grapes, also figs and pomegranates.

There were twelve spies but they gave two very different accounts. Ten of them (the majority) saw the obstacles, the giants. Only Caleb and Joshua saw the opportunity to take the land for God, live in it and ENJOY IT’S FRUIT. There were two ‘Buts’ in the account of the ten even though they had the fruit of the land, good productive land before them

BUT the people who live there are powerful and the cities are fortified. Numbers 13:28

BUT the men said, ‘We can’t attack these people, they are stronger than we are’ Numbers 13:31

Caleb simply said, ‘We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it’. Numbers 13:30

BUT Fear had taken hold of the whole community and they grumbled against Moses and Aaron. Somewhere along the way there was a disconnect between the people and their trust in the Lord. They failed to go in though they were right at the entrance to their Destiny. Sometimes people aren’t willing to fight and battle for what we know is ours by right! We want to take the easy option but God may be saying the time to go in is now.

The TESTIMONY (testimony is powerful) of the ten spies and the murmuring of the people doomed a generation! The Crowd Mentality or Herd Mentality prevailed, the people were afraid to go up. That’s why your personal walk and relationship with the Lord is so important in these days of mass media, it’s so easy to be swept along with the crowd.

I mentioned Hudson Taylor in Monday’s blog, a man who had a vision to reach inland China with the Gospel for His Lord. Pioneers face many challenges and many people saying it can’t be done, but Hudson pressed through all the difficulties. He said, ‘AT FIRST THE THINGS OF GOD WERE IMPOSSIBLE, THEN THEY WERE DIFFICULT, THEN THEY WERE DONE’.

God is still looking for overcomers in our generation, those with the Caleb spirit, faithful to Him.

God bless and keep you today.

 

Hold the door shut… open the gate and get out of the way. 2Kings 6:32, 7:17

The siege of Samaria led to terrible suffering inside the city. The king couldn’t stand the situation any longer, he wore sackcloth(sign of mourning) under his clothes. He swore to kill Elisha the prophet that very day 2 Kings 6:31 and sent a messenger to Elisha’s house where the elders of Israel were gathered. God’s prophet was suffering along with the people, but the king was angry with God and wanted to take his life.

32 Now Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. The king sent a messenger ahead, but before he arrived, Elisha said to the elders, ‘Don’t you see how this murderer is sending someone to cut off my head? Look, when the messenger comes, SHUT THE DOOR AND HOLD IT SHUT AGAINST HIM. Is not the sound of his master’s footsteps behind him?’ 2 Kings 6

Elisha resisted the wicked intentions of the king against him as the Prophet of God in Samaria and it was legitimate. We must learn to SAY NO AND TO SHUT THE DOOR AND HOLD IT SHUT TO THE THINGS OF THE ENEMY. Don’t yield to him.

It was a Turning Point! God’s Word of Deliverance for the whole city came at the greatest moment of desperation when all hope seemed gone.

1 Elisha replied, ‘Hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Lord says: about this time tomorrow, a seah of the finest flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the GATE of Samaria.’ 2 Kings 7

The officer who accompanied the king didn’t believe the Word of Deliverance, he didn’t believe even God could do that so suddenly. Elisha said, ‘you will see it, but not eat of it’.

In the nighttime God caused the whole Aramean army to think they were under attack and they fled leaving everything behind. Four lepers discovered this and reported it to the gatekeepers, who told the palace.

16 Then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Arameans. So a seah of the finest flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley sold for a shekel, as the Lord had said.

17 Now the king had put the officer on whose arm he leaned in charge of the gate, and the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died, just as the man of God had foretold when the king came down to his house. 18 It happened as the man of God had said to the king: ‘About this time tomorrow, a seah of the finest flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.’

In a certain sense people have been under siege/lockdown in many places with the Covid virus; it’s been necessary to resist that sickness and many still face it. But there’s also a shout for Revival beginning to sound in the earth. Revival is and will be a Sovereign move of God, with powerful manifestations of the Glory of God. The officer at the gate was trampled because he tried to control people who were starving from getting to the food. When God moves in power there will be no slowing it or stopping it either, so don’t try. The starving people had  to get relief and the man who tried to control them was trampled.

God bless and keep you today.