Josh 1:1 After the death of Moses the Lord’s servant, the Lord spoke to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ assistant. He said, 2 “Moses my servant is dead. Therefore, the time has come for you to lead these people, the Israelites, across the Jordan River into the land I am giving them. 3 I promise you what I promised Moses: ‘Wherever you set foot, you will be on land I have given you—4 from the Negev wilderness in the south to the Lebanon mountains in the north, from the Euphrates River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west, including all the land of the Hittites.’ 5 No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live. For I will be with you as I was with Moses. I will not fail you or abandon you.
Here we have the bible referring to two different leaders, two different groups of people and two different generations and their experience when it came to the promises of God with in their lives.
We have Moses and his generation, a generation that experienced the power of God in a very real and supernatural way when God exercised His power and brought Israel out of Egypt.
They experienced God’s power to bring them out of their past, but for some reason had a hard time trusting Him to bring them into their future, therefore Moses and his generation shrank back from the challenges of the future and eventually died only experiencing half of the promise.
Then we have Joshua and his generation, Joshua and Caleb were also apart of experiencing God’s amazing power to bring them and the people of Israel out of Egypt and through the red sea, but them unlike the rest were not satisfied with only experiencing half of the promise, but they had a faith that was constantly being developed so that when the time came they were willing to take on the challenge so that they would experience the fulness of God’s promises with in their lives.
Number 14:24 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.
And similar to these 2 groups of people, we also can find ourselves in one of these 2 places.
- Like Moses and the people that died in the wilderness, Grateful for the miracle of God that brought us out of whatever darkness we were living in, but for some reason lacking the faith necessary to experience the fulness of God’s promises with in our lives.
This group of people shrinks back from future challenges, and because of the shrinking back they gradually begin to die in the wilderness never truly experiencing the fulness of God’s promise with in their lives.
One time I was back in the states and had a conversation with one of the brothers from my sending church. Very wealthy business man. He said to me, I was one of the ones that was supposed to originally go out as a missionary, but I didn’t want to step out into the unknown so I gave myself to my business. And although my business has become successful I don’t fill fulfilled because I know that I was called to go to the deep but I shrank back from the opportunity.
- Like Joshua and Caleb and the generation that was willing to step into the challenge of the future, they not only experienced the breakthrough of bringing them out of Egypt but they had a continual experience of breakthrough as they continued the journey the Lord had for them.
We as God’s people will always be face with the decision when it comes to the Journey the Lord has for us, will we shrink back from the challenges of the future or will we by faith step into the challenges of the future.
It will always be the condition of our faith that will determine the difference.
- Past Challenges effect faith for the future
One of the things I have learned in these last 25 years of being in the ministry is that this life with Christ comes with many up and down seasons.
Sometimes we are on the mountain top and other times we are in the valley.
People that tend to shrink back from challenges that block them from their future promise have some how allowed the valley seasons of life effect the condition of their faith.
The group of people that shrank back from the challenge of the promise land were all raised in Egypt, and the way they were treated in Egypt effected them in such a way that they had a tendency to shrink back from challenging times.
Heb 3:19 So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.
Disappointments of the past cause us to hesitate when challenged for the future.
- Past Challenges shape our faith for the future
The second thing that we can see is that there are some people that also come from seasons of disappointment but instead of those season effecting their faith, those season have shaped their faith.
Have you ever noticed that things respond to boiling water differently?
- Carrots become soft and weak in boiling water
- Eggs become hard in boiling water
- Coffee changes the colour and taste of boiling water
We need to decide how will we respond the boiling water season of life.
David is perfect example of a man who didn’t allow the disappointments of the past effect the condition of his faith for the future.
Some commentaries say that the reason David was in the shepherd field taking care of sheep is because he was a child that was born out of an adulterous affair, and him being in the house was always a reminder of his fathers failure.
Psalm 51:5 5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
That’s why he was not even invited to the anointing service because he was not looked at as a true son of Jesse.
But David didn’t allow the disappointments shepherd field to effect his faith, but he allowed the disappointments of the shepherd field to shape his faith.
The disappointments of the shepherd field prepared his faith to face the giants of the future.
I Sam 17:34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them
Then when David came face to face with goliath look at the level of his faith.
I Sam 17:41 Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David. 42 He looked David over and saw that he was only a boy, ruddy and handsome, and he despised him. 43 He said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44 “Come here,” he said, “and I’ll give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!” 45 David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. 47 All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”
We have all had disappointments in life, but we have also learned to slay some lions and bears, so let our faith tell us, that the same way God brought us through those challenges, by faith God will bring us through anything that is hindering us from our future!
- Come to a place of persistent faith for the future
The future that God is calling us to will be a future that we step into by faith. A faith that has been developed by a life that has a proven track record of God’s faithfulness to us.
We need to have a faith of persistence, a faith that does not shrink back.
Heb 10:39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved
Joshua and the generation with him would not be denied on the future that God promised them. They knew there was giants in the land and they knew their were fortified cities, but they also knew God had promised them that land, so by faith they were willing to step into anything that was holding them back.
Josh 1:16 Then they answered Joshua, “Whatever you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. 17 Just as we fully obeyed Moses, so we will obey you. Only may the Lord your God be with you as he was with Moses. 18 Whoever rebels against your word and does not obey your words, whatever you may command them, will be put to death. Only be strong and courageous!”
Close with this:
When the game of golf first started they used to use a golf ball that was smooth, but the golfers at that time discovered that after the smooth golf ball had been hit and dinged up a bit, the ball because of the dents would go faster and further then the ball that was smooth, so they began to produce gold balls that had dents.
We have taken some hits and our lives may be a little dented, but because of the hits and the dents we can move faster and further into the future God is calling us into!
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