Our God is Greater and higher than any other

I wonder how many opportunities we have missed in our lives for God to fulfil His Purpose in us. How many times have we doubted God’s ability to be greater than our circumstances….......

Source: GodTube

There are many stories or parts of the Bible that continually challenge me and as part of my daily bible reading I recently read the account of the spies in Numbers 13:26-33 who Moses had sent into the land that God was about to give to the Israelites. I’ve read this story many times before however, as always happens when reading God’s Word I was stopped I my tracks as the Holy Spirit started to minister to me. Please take the time to read the story for yourselves, in fact it is worth reading the whole of Numbers 13. To summarize; the Lord instructed Moses to send one of the leaders from each of the twelve tribes of Israel to go and explore the land of Canaan which God was giving to them. After forty days they returned with reports of an abundant land flowing with milk and honey and they even brought back some of the produce of the land as evidence; Numbers 13:27 ‘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’. At this point the assembled Israelite community must have been very pleased with the report and excited about the land that God was about to give them, however that was not the end of the report. They then went on to explain that the land was occupied by powerful people who lived in large fortified cities and that these people were descendants of Anak (who were giants); Numbers 13:28 ‘But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there’. This changed the mood considerably and raised doubts, even trepidation in the minds of the Israelites. God was so frustrated with the lack of faith shown by the Israelites that He felt that He was being treated with contempt;  Numbers 14:11 ‘The LORD said to Moses, ‘How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs I have performed among them?’

At the time of the report I can imagine there would have been a lot of shouting and arguing amongst the Israelites and the whole scene would have been rather chaotic, until one of the twelve spies boldly stood up and silenced the people; Numbers 13:30 ‘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’. This pleased God greatly. Somebody had stood up with faith and confidence knowing that it was God’s Will for the Israelites to conquer and to occupy the land and that if it was God’s will then nothing could stop it; Numbers 14:23-24 ‘not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their ancestors. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it. But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it’. The response of the spies and the Israelites (except Caleb and Joshua) and their lack of faith in what God was about to do had a profound affect that rippled through the Israelite community: 

1. They saw the giants in their lives and lost focus on God, who is much bigger than any giant, opposition, barrier or obstacle.  
2. Their doubting distracted them and the Israelite community from God’s Plan for them.
3. They discouraged the Israelite people because of their own lack of faith/confidence in God.
4. God saw their response as contempt. 
5. The Israelites would have seen that those who were bold (Caleb and Joshua) were blessed by God.

Source: PInterest

As I read the account of the inspection of the land and the subsequent report I thought about how often I don’t allow God to fulfil what He has planned for me in my life. I also thought about how I can limit and doubt His Power because I can often care more about what people think than about God. Just like the spies who inspected the Promised Land I can only imagine how frustrated God must be with me every time I let human thoughts, emotions, fears, anxieties, worry, selfishness, greed, pride, vanity and other obstacles become barriers that prevent Him fulfilling His potential in me. 

As a Lecturer I often have conversations with students who are struggling with their various courses to try to find ways of giving them support and at the same time to offer pastoral care. In some cases there are genuine and often personal reasons that are impacting on a student’s ability to focus on their course and in these cases there are lots of ways in which I and the University can offer support. There are however those students who for one reason or another decide not to engage with their courses, they miss lectures, turn up late and generally expect to pass the course with minimum effort. This type of student frustrates the life out of me, particularly when I can see the potential in some of them. I would normally take these students aside individually and try to motivate them by telling them the potential I see in them and how they could be wasting a massive opportunity to graduate with a good degree and to secure their futures unless they start to engage.  I wonder if God sees us in the same way. God sees the potential in all of us but if we fail to engage with His Plan and Purpose in our lives then we too are wasting a massive opportunity. The difference however is that the opportunities that God has for us are not just for the here and now but also for the future and not just for our earthly future but for our eternal future! It would be pure folly to waste such an amazing opportunity.

A final thought; I also wonder how many opportunities we may have missed in our lives for God to fulfil His Purpose in us. How many times have we doubted God’s ability to be greater than our circumstances (our giants) through lack of faith, just like the spies who inspected the land? I wonder what God had planned for me and what He could be using me for today, but can’t because I have prevented Him from doing so? It saddens me greatly to think that I may be preventing God from fulfilling His Purpose in my life if I act in exactly the same way as the spies who returned from the Promised Land full of doubt. From this moment on may God bless me to be bold and to fully submit to His Will for my life only and may He use me to do mighty things in His Name, but all to His Glory!

Author: Anonymous

May God bless and enrich your life 
    
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