Ballistic Breakthrough | Hold Fast
Scripture: "Hold fast to the hope that lies before us." (Hebrews 6:18)
Scripture: "So let us seize and hold fast without wavering the hope that we cherish and confess, and our acknowledgement of it. For He who promised is faithful to His word." (Hebrews 10:23)
Scripture: "And let us consider and give continuous, attentive care to watching over one another, studying how we may stir up to love and helpful deeds and noble activities. Not neglecting to assemble together as believers, as is the habit of some, but admonishing, warning, urging and encouraging one another, and all the more faithfully as we see the day approaching." ( Hebrews 10:24-25)
Scripture: "So you have need of steadfast, patient endurance so that you may fully accomplish the word of God, and thus receive what is promised." (Hebrews 10:36)
Dear Family,
May the grace and peace of the Holy Spirit be with you all. I pray for you during this fascinating time in history that you would know the calling the Lord has on your life. This is the time that God is raising us a new breed of Calebs and Joshuas! In Numbers 13, God told Moses it was time to send scouts into the land of Canaan which He had given to the Israelites. So Moses picked a man from each of the twelve tribes, all of them leaders, and sent them to explore their promised land. Now Moses was exhausted from leading the whiney Israelites. We find him in Numbers 11:14 -17 expressing his frustration the God. God told him to gather 70 leaders and He would put some of the Spirit that was on Moses on these men and they could help lead the people. The twelve men that Moses picked were part of this group of 70 leaders. And with Caleb and Joshua among them they went into the promised land rejoicing that the Lord had given it to them. They probably went in full of excitement and courage, but when they say the size of the people who lived there, all that courage leaked out through their feet! (The sons of Anak were a race of giants. Goliath was a descendant of these people.)
By the time the twelve went back to the people, ten of them were terrified. Fear had made them forget God's promise that His anointing was on them to take the land. Two, Joshua and Caleb, however, had not forgotten God's promise. As the Israelites gathered to hear their reports, Caleb and Joshua quieted the people and assured them that they were well able to conquer it. But the other ten, their fear growing with every moment, told the people that there was absolutely no way they could go up against the people of Canaan because they were much stronger. (Numbers 13:31) And with each word they spoke, they fed their own fear rather than their faith. In Numbers 13:32-33 those ten let their fear grow the story. Not only were the people huge (and growing by the moment,) but they lost all courage and hope and saw themselves as tiny grasshoppers, convinced that the people of Canaan thought they were grasshoppers as well. Fear and bad news grows nothing good.
The people, quick to jump on the bad news bandwagon, wept and lost all hope. Joshua and Caleb implored the people to believe God and His promise rather than what they saw with human eyes. What God had promised, He would surely DO. They begged the people to believe God, not what their fear was concocting. The people chose to believe their fears, and the Lord in His anger promised that they would not enter their Promised Land. "But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land, and his descendants shall possess it. Surely none will come into the land in which I swore to make you dwell, except Caleb and Joshua." (Numbers 14: 24, 30)
My friends, once again the people of God are faced with the decision of believing God's Word or giving in to our fears. The unprecedented season we are in could make the most courageous warrior's knees shake. How do we cultivate "a different spirit" and follow Him fully, according to His Word, no matter what we see. Presently their are giants everywhere. Never in our lifetime have we seen what we are seeing. There are very real and very BIG concerns. What is tearing at the fabric of our country is nothing that humans can fix. No candidate has the power to heal this. No vaccine will be our savior. There is only one real Savior, Jesus. We, like the Israelites, are standing on the brink needing to decide where we will stand. Today, as in their time, God says to us, "Because all those people who have seen My glory and My miraculous signs which I performed in Egypt and the wilderness, have tested Me and proved Me and have not heeded My voice..." (Numbers 14:22) We have a history of turning away and not heeding his voice!
Throughout salvation history God has raised up people of a different spirit, ordinary people who chose to take God at His word no matter what giants stood in their path. In the darkest times, saints arose, steadfast believers whose YES allowed God to fill them with supernatural gifts to move in courage and power and heroic love in the darkest, most evil moments of history. This is our time. We too must choose where we will stand. IT'S HARD. The news is blaring, the facts are grim, the hatred and vitriol are spewing, freedoms are being taken away. Our Promised Land is full of giants! But our God is all powerful and unstoppable! Psalm 2:4 says, "He who sits in heaven laughs at the plans of His enemies." No matter how bad it looks, our God has a way through. If you've read the Book, you know who wins.
"This is why I would remind you to stir up the gift of God, the inner fire, that is in you by means of the laying on of hands. For God did NOT give you a spirit of fear, of cowardice, but He has given you a spirit of power, of love and of calm, well balanced mind, discipline and self control." (2 Timothy 1:6-7)
"For I know the One in whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard and keep that which I have given Him until the final day." (2 Timothy 1:12)
In the name of Jesus, I pray a fresh fire on each of you; that the Holy Spirit will set a fire in you that changes the atmosphere. I pray a fresh anointing of His love and presence, that you may become a being wholly filled and flooded with God Himself. (Ephesians 3:19) What a privilege to live in this time. May the "different spirit" of Caleb and Joshua rest on each of us and cause us to not only stand firm and lead others to the hope that is in Christ Jesus.
All glory to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit now and forever. Let's keep each other in prayer.