Today’s Bible Verse
…If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
John 8:31-32 (NKJV)
We Live by the Truth Not Facts
In the world, meaning the godless system, we were brought up to think a certain way, by reasoning, and by the “facts”, and we were governed by our five physical senses: sight, touch, smell, hearing, and taste. But now that we are born again, we are to walk by faith and not by sight. To walk by faith means to no longer be governed by our five physical senses, but by faith that believes with the heart in spite of what our physical senses or circumstances may say.
The Apostle Paul tells us not to be conformed to this world but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind (Romans 12:2). In other words, “I have to change the way I think and take on the way God thinks.”
It says in Isaiah 55:8-9 (NLT), “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts.”
When we read the Bible, we begin to see how God thinks and what His will is for our lives. His will is in His Word. God has given us exceedingly great and precious promises, but like the children of Israel, WE have to possess them or take hold of them by faith. They were given land to possess, but they came up with reasons why they could not go into the Promise Land. They had “Grasshopper Mentality.”
“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.” (Numbers 13:31-33 NKJV)
When we think small, we talk small…and we make God look small. God, in our lives, is only as big as our thinking. Pastor Kuna always says, “Don’t limit God.” We limit God by the way we think.
The children of Israel saw real, physical giants. At one time or another, we all will face giants whether financial, physical, or emotional. Proverbs says how a person thinks will determine their outcome. We will have an excuse if our reasonings are greater than God’s Word. Israel’s reasonings, or facts, were holding them back and boxing them in. The fact is, there were giants. The truth is, God is bigger and stronger than ANY giant. (Pastor Henry Acevedo)
An Uncommon Life
Caleb and Joshua saw the promise, not the giants. Unbelief sees the giants, not the promise.
Caleb tried to encourage the children of Israel by reminding them that God was with them. There was no need to rebel or fear the people. He said in Numbers 14:9 (NKJV), “Only do not rebel against the LORD, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the LORD is with us. Do not fear them.”
To rebel is to resist or defy any authority. Fear is a state or condition marked by a feeling. We must learn to master our feelings. God told Joshua to be strong and of good courage. \Courage is not the absence of fear, but to do what is right, in spite of it.
Caleb had the right attitude or spirit. God says of him, in Numbers 14:24 (NKJV), “But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring him into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it.”
Caleb and Joshua were not common men. This term is used to describe someone who is ordinary, typical, undistinguished, or unrecognized. Someone without greatness. What made Caleb and Joshua uncommon is the spirit and the attitude they carried. They took God at His Word, by trusting the man of God. Caleb and Joshua were part of the 12 who went up to spy out the land God was giving them. Caleb and Joshua said we are well able to possess the land, because they knew God was with them. They were not relying on their own abilities or strength. But 10 of the 12 thought differently. They were going by how they saw themselves, insignificant grasshoppers. Although this wasn’t true of them, because it was what they believed, they missed out on God’s best.
By speaking the facts, they condemned their future. Caleb and Joshua on the other hand, said they were well able to possess the land. The one who says he can, and the one who he says he can’t, are both right. Pastor Art once said, “When God speaks, before you can act on what He says, the perspective you have, must change.”
Today’s Declaration
I don’t say what I see, I say what will be!
Today’s Bible Reading
Our Bible Reading Plan gives 25 daily readings per month. There is no scheduled reading for today. You can use this time to catch up on any readings you may have missed, or read through previous passages again.
