To recap, from the story, the people’s fears occurred because of how big they saw the opponent and how small they saw themselves.  At that point, their knowledge of who God is was lost sight of long enough for the seed of doubt to take root in their minds.

Failure was no longer only a possibility to them, but in their minds, failure became a fact.  Realizing this reveals and reminds us of the source of our victory – God’s involvement and direction in our lives. Moses understood this and in Exodus 33:15, he told God, ‘If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence’ (KJV). 

Moses was only going where God would go with him.  This is in contrast to the people who after realizing their grave mistake was rushing ahead and without God’s guidance (Numbers 14:44, 45).  Using the analogy described in the section ‘Confronting Our Fears’, the people were ‘riding without whistling’ where riding represents going forward, and ‘without whistling’ can represent not receiving God’s guidance to move forward. So in Exodus 33:15 we see that Moses chose to moved forward (ride) while he listened to God’s voice (whistled).

So with a heart of faith and fortified by God’s Word, the mind would be solely focused on letting the Holy Spirit guide.   It was critical for the people to learn and reinforce a new sequence of steps in their problem solving approach if they were going to succeed.  Maybe it is the same for us today.

As we continue on the road of experiencing unity within, the internal conflict which causes part of us to war against other parts of us will diminish.  Then as explained in the previous section ‘Response’, when we are confronted with things on the outside, we would with the Holy Spirit’s guidance be able to make sound assessments and judgements that will lead to sound decisions; since the decisions being made are no longer clouded by internal struggles. 

So, at each stage of our lives, we will find the strength in Christ to face challenges in a healthy way.  However, as we grow and meet new and uncharted challenges, we may find ourselves experiencing some mental discomfort as we go from the place that we have become accustomed to and as we start to move to another level.  

Therefore, experiencing internal unity does not mean that we will not wrestle with some decisions or will not face some difficult situations.  But having resolved our internal conflicts at every stage of our lives, this will free up our energy to focus on overcoming new challenges with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And in the midst of it all – in every situation – we will choose to stay true to God.  And we would be able to join Joshua who said in Joshua 24:15, ‘but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD’ (KJV).

We would: look to God our Leader who gives us the power to confront our fears; have a correct view of the internal and ourselves; embrace an optimistic and joyful attitude; take responsibility for our actions; expect God to do in our lives what He has said that He would do; be even tempered in all situations; be aware of the influence others have on us and the influence we have on others; and be in a position with the correct report to move forward with a God-directed response.    

We would overcome with God’s power and we would be able to response correctly in the face of negative influences.  This is worth working towards, and then ‘the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep … [our] … hearts and minds through Christ Jesus’ (Philippians 4:7 KJV).  So when we go to our ‘tents’ (contrary to the people’s response in Deuteronomy 1:27), we will be singing praises to God for His awesome work in our lives and how He has brought us through ever stage and season of our lives.

The next blog post is entitled, ‘Moving forward United Within‘.

Be Blessed.

The previous blog post in this series focused on ‘Influence’. In a world where we are constantly bombarded with information, we can easily get to a point of overload and not know what to do.

If we get to a point where time is of essence and we need to decide and act quickly, we may be tempted to be impulsive; but we need to guard against such.  With each decision, we need to ask God to give us clarity, so that we can make wise decisions.

To make a decision, having a report is a critical point; a turning point.  From the previous sections, we saw the actions that followed when the evil report from the spies (Number 13:32) was shared and accepted. The report will eventually guide our responses.  Even with the best of information, we need to guard against the feeling that we know it all.  Only God knows the full implications of each decision and response that we make.

So should this cause us to do nothing? No.  Instead, it should cause us to be even more determined not to leave God out of our lives.

Awareness is very important. 

We need to be mindful of how we relate to and respond to the things that happen around us.  In the case of the people as explained in a previous section on ‘Anger’, the realization that they were wrong created another impulsive reaction, as they had the desire to fix the problem immediately, so they went into battle without God’s guidance.

It can be a struggle to stay grounded especially when we know the seriousness of our decisions and how much depends on the decisions.  But Joshua and Caleb’s response of unwavering trust in God is the example we can follow.

Our desire and determination to be united with God, would guide the process for us to achieve internal alignment.  Then once we have with God’s help resolved who we are, what we believe, and what God expects of us, then our actions and responses will continue to become in alignment with our mental resolution.  Why is this important? If a decision to stay purposeful is not made ahead, when faced with a myriad of ways to turn and choices to make, it can become very confusing; so preparation is important.

Similarly, that resolve will guide every response we make.  So by making the decision before to stand on God’s side, the minute and daily decisions and responses will fall in line with the overarching strategy that we have adapted for our lives.

So if we are aligned on God’s side, we will be declared winners by God and for God.  The beauty about God’s way is that there is not only place for one person to be a winner; but everyone who stands for God and chooses to go God’s way is a winner.  So with the resolve to stay purposeful in the midst of facing problems, as we go forward (as explained in previous sections), we can:

• confront our fears in God’s power,
• have a correct view of the external,
• have a correct view of ourselves,
• embrace an optimistic and joyful attitude,
• take responsibility for our actions,
• let God be the leader of our lives,  
• expect God to do in our lives what He has said that He would do,
• maintain an even-tempered attitude, keep calm and utilize our energies productively, and
• be aware of the influence others have on us and the influence we have on others.

Then when we are able to address these areas internally, we are in a better position to respond in a healthy way to the external.  So then we can prayerfully:

1. Analyze the facts and perceptions surrounding the problem,
2. Determine a root cause,
3. Prepare a report (mental, verbal or written) with the results and findings,
4. Identify possible plan of action,
5. Make a God-directed decision,
6. Act in accordance with God’s will.

Therefore we would be in a position with the correct report to move forward with a God-directed response.

The next blog post will be entitled Embracing Unity Within.

Be Blessed.

To see the list of the blog posts in this series, click here.  Now as we continue exploring the theme of United Within, the focus is on the effects of influence.

Everybody influences someone else – either for good or for bad; and even our own words influence us.  The reality is that the leaders would have been highly respected by the people. So to hear the 10 leaders speak with such a conviction was credible to the people and the listeners.

In fact, Deuteronomy 1:27, 28 says, ‘and ye murmured in your tents, and said, because the LORD hated us, he hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.  Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, the people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there’ (KJV). 

And Numbers 32:9 says, ‘for when they went up unto the valley of Eshcol, and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel, that they should not go into the land which the LORD had given them’ (KJV).

In addition, because the 10 spies were the majority (83 % of the spies), this helped to make their report even more believable and trusted by the people.  But we know that majority does not automatically mean correct. 

Fortunately in the midst of it all, Caleb and Joshua had positive influences and company in each other.

As we struggle within ourselves, when we are looking for answers, many times the words we heard prior to the struggle and the advice we received even in unrelated circumstances, come back to our memories with such clarity.  So the question arises, have I exposed myself to positive influences that will provide me with good advice as I go through my challenges?

It is important that with God’s help we can correctly decipher all of what we have heard and seen.

Also we need to be aware of our influence on others.  Being our ‘brother’s keeper’ means we are also alert to how we influence them.  Will our words and actions help others when they are going through their struggles? 

As God’s people we realize every word and every action will count for something.  We have the opportunity to choose to let these things count for good and to build up God’s kingdom on this earth.

So as we go forward, we can:

• confront our fears in God’s power,
• have a correct view of the external,
• have a correct view of ourselves,
• embrace an optimistic and joyful attitude,
• take responsibility for our actions,
• let God be the leader of our lives,  
• expect God to do in our lives what He has said that He would do,
• maintain an even-tempered attitude, keep calm and utilize our energies productively, and
• be aware of the influence others have on us and the influence we have on others.

The next blog post will be on ‘Response’.

Continuing on from the previous blog post Dealing with Blame, sadly, the people’s thought process led them to exclude God, and in their desperation, they shifted the focus again and they sought a solution outside of God.

In their desperation they wanted to look for a leader, to take them back from whence they came.  But they ignored the fact that they needed to be delivered from their crippling fears, which resulted in them making bad decisions.

In their moment of irrational thinking, they were willing to leave God, the Creator, who had brought them that far.  Then the spirit of self-sufficiency took over and the people, feeling confident that they knew what was best for them, decided to choose a captain.

Their experiences are also a caution to us not to make decisions in the ‘heat of the moment’, where the decisions are based on our feelings – which at these points of desperation cannot be trusted.

They acknowledged that they needed a leader (Numbers 14:4), but they were going to do the selection themselves, having blamed and ignored Moses, the leader that God had already chosen for them.  They were also going to tell the new leader what their objectives for the leadership would be (Numbers 14:4).

After shifting the responsibility for the outcomes of our decisions and looking for a way out, do we look for something or someone to solve our problems and solve them the way that we think best based on our own vision?

The reality is God does provide help for us through human agencies, so we should never disregard how God uses people in our lives.  But in this case in the moment, the people disregarded God’s leading and just decided to do things that suited them.

They lost sight of the fact that their ‘help cometh from the LORD’ (Psalm 121:2 KJV) the Creator; and even though God engages people in His work of helping others, ultimately God is the source of our help, solutions and hope.

Our only safeguard is to be resolute to never allow God to take second place in our lives.  Persons deciding to take matters into their own hands would no longer feel accountable to God; and  it could also result in impulsive decisions and behaviors.  Seeking a solution without God is a dangerous road to take.  We need to forever guard against this.

The account is not for us to say, how could they have done that? But rather, what can we learn from the experiences in order to avoid this subtle downward spiral?  Remembering God’s leading in the past,  hearing of other’s experiences who submitted to God’s will,  memorizing God’s Word and praying momently for God’s intervention in our lives are the actions for us to take.

So we can: confront our fears in God’s power; have a correct view of the external as well as a correct view of ourselves; embrace an optimistic and joyful attitude; and take responsibility for our actions and let God be the leader of our lives.

We stand on the assurance that God the Creator of the universe can solve every problem and issue that we face on this earth.

In our next blog post, we will explore ‘Expectations’.

Following on from the previous blog post, Inflated Account of the External, having confirmed in their minds that the opponent was bigger than they, their thoughts shifted to ‘how much smaller they were.’  They saw themselves ‘as grasshoppers’ (Numbers 13:33) and they even went one step further to say, ‘as we were in their sight’ (Numbers 13:33).  At that point, every ounce of hope was gone from their minds. 

In our own lives, can we think of a time when through a series of our logic, we ended up feeling so hopeless that we decided how we look to our circumstances,  and how our circumstances would just consume us?

When we reach a point of despair, fortunately that does not have to be the end.  In prayer we can run to God and ask Him to help us to see things through His eyes.  Interestingly in Isaiah 40:21 and 22, the inhabitants of the earth are described as grasshoppers when compared to God.

The story of Elisha and his servant in 2 Kings 6:15-17 is one of encouragement. When they were surrounded by the opposing army, Elisha was calm through the entire ordeal because he saw what the servant could not see initially – God’s intervention.  When the servant’s eyes were finally opened, he saw ‘horses and chariots of fire’ (2 Kings 6:17) protecting them and the servant’s hope returned.

The enemy is happy when we see ourselves as helpless and when we stop there.  But the enemy is not happy when we see ourselves as helpless and we run to God to lead us through.

As explained earlier, we should never deny or ignore the magnitude of the issues we face, or the strength of the enemy, but we must always keep in mind and live with God’s assurance.  He will not leave us.  In the context of our individual potential, we also have to be careful not to doubt our own capabilities, when others believe that our abilities are limited, or when we think that others believe that our abilities are limited.

Let us today determine to see ourselves through God’s eyes, then as we move forward, we will correctly see ourselves as ‘more than conquerors through’ Jesus Christ who loves us (Romans 8:37).

The title of the next blog post in this series is Pessimism and Weeping.

(Please note that Scripture quotations are from the King James Version.  Public domain.)

Be Blessed.

In my previous blog post, I wrote about Confronting our Fears.

In Numbers 13: 31, 32, the informants saw their opponents as stronger than themselves.  This is the key reason why they felt hopeless and helpless.  At that point, in their assessment they did not factor into the equation God’s presence and God’s assistance.  They had forgotten that God was the one who had led them that far.

Because of the crippling fear that the environment was so big and intimidating, the previous account of the good produce in the land (Numbers 13:26, 27) was distorted and then the 10 spies presented an ‘evil report of the land’ (Numbers 13:32). The opponent most likely was strong, but the Bible has reassured us that ‘greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world’ (1 John 4:4).

Similarly as we go through our situations, in the areas of our lives where we previously believed that God had called us to move forward, are there things that we now identify that are causing us to second guess God’s calling and His leading in our lives?

In life we are always in need of ensuring that we do not let our fears distort the reality. The good news is that once we are aware of this, we can ask God to give us the right perspective and the objective assessment of each situation. This is also key for us to address real issues in the environment, with the view of going forward as God ordained.

Then instead of seeing the magnitude of the opposing environment, we would see the providence and provision of a faithful God; instead of seeing ourselves intimidated by a big world (which many times can be very non-supportive to what God is calling His people to do), we would see the world subjected to our God who made the universe.

(Please note that Scripture quotations are from the King James Version.  Public domain.)

The title of the next blog post is: Seeking Correct View of Self.

Be Blessed.