Are you ready to learn one of the most important lessons ever?
Numbers 12-14
The children of Israel had been partakers of so many blessings from God. He had shown them the signs and wonders in Egypt – so that He actually procured their release from a powerful Pharoah. They had seen the Red Sea part so that they could walk through on dry ground. They had been fed supernaturally by manna falling from heaven every day.
They finally arrive at the promised land, and send spies from the twelve tribes to check everything out. After going through the land and observing, the spies come back with their report. The land is indeed a fruitful land, just as promised, but there are giants in the land. “We were like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and so we were in their eyes.” Only Caleb and Joshua stood with God. They said that if God is with them, they can take the land.
So whom do the people believe? They believe the ten doubters, of course. Not the two faith-filled ones. In fact, they cry all night and moan that God should have left them in Egypt. (After all He had done for them). So their own words condemn them. They will not be allowed to enter the land because of their doubt and unbelief. They will spend the next 40 years wandering in the wilderness – until this generation dies out and a believing generation comes on the scene.
Sadly, 40 years later, when the next generation starts to take the land, Rahab brings some clarity to what they should have done. This woman of Jericho says, “As soon as we heard (all the great things your God had done for you), our hearts melted; neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you, for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and earth beneath.”So the “giants” were afraid of the Israelites, and would have given up quickly.
How is this a lesson for us? God has made us many promises, which might be called our “promised land.” The Bible is loaded with these promises which are for “those who believe.”
God doesn’t waste time promising that the sun will come up each day or that the earth will continue to spin. Those things will happen whether we believe it or not. But what about the variables? What about the welfare of our children, or our finances, or our health? Or what about the promises that He will send water to the dry and thirsty ground around us?
All of these promises require our faith for their fulfillment. We can accept what God says, or we can look at the giants in our land which seem too hard to overcome. Which will it be for us?
I want to be like Caleb and Joshua. I am believing that everything my God has promised me will come to pass. I will pray, speak His Word, obey His directives – whatever it takes for my believing to bring forth the promises.
Mark 5:21-43
We have just been talking about the necessity of faith to receive our promises. Now we get to see this principle in action.
The woman with the issue of blood is a poster child for the faith that God wants. So many think that everything that happens is God’s will, but that is not the truth. None of the evil in the world is God’s will.
Here we have a woman who believes and says that “if she can just touch the hem of Jesus’s garment, she will be healed.” She crawls to Him from behind and touches His hem. There are people all around that are thronging Him, but He felt power go out of Him and He knew that someone had touched Him with faith. Wow!
Do you realize the significance of this? He didn’t look at her and call her out for healing. He didn’t even know who had touched Him until she confessed. It was her faith that had pulled the anointing from Him. her faith had made her well.
Once again we see the crowd all around but not necessarily operating in faith. Then we see one little woman who reaches out for all that He has. And she gets it.
That’s a picture of how we should operate. She didn’t look at the giants – like the fact that she had gone to doctors for twelve years and spent all of her money trying to get healed. She knew that Jesus was able to go beyond the doctors, and He was able to heal her.
And she received her healing. Think about this today. Are you willing to go beyond what the crowd is believing and believe for impossible things? Be it done to you according to your faith.
