Sermon Cloud

Challenging the Lie


    The last few weeks we have been looking at Gods dealing with Israel and how it is similar to His dealings with us.

    That in Corinthians were told that what happened to Israel was for our instruction, therefore we should look at their walk with God.
    Israel was delivered out of bondage by the blood of a lamb just like us. They were led by God through “stages” to learn to depend only on Him for their food ( manna ) and water. Then they were presented with an example of the battle belonging to the Lord by their having to fight against Amelak. How it was not by their ability to fight but by Moses lifting the staff. Moses was told to recite this to Joshua so the people would know it was by the Lords hand and not theirs that they had victory.
    Then they were led to confront the giants standing in their land. God never said lets try and defeat the giants, He was fully expecting Israel to go in and conquer by the strength of the Lord.
    Israel's deliverance from Egypt and during their travel to Cannan, God was preparing them just like us to rule and reign with Him.
    Just like them we can murmur and complain about the manna in our life. We can long or crave for evils things as well. And we also are led into circumstance’s to confront the giant’s in our life, where we too can turn and run.

    But God wants to set us free into full maturity in Christ. Where we become the people of God, trusting Him for our manna or sustenance. To learn full dependence on Him. And out of that assurance to walk into the land of our destiny. That through us God might make known to every power, principality and created thing that He alone is God.

    Why is it we can become stagnate or hindered in our christian walk?
    Why is it we can walk strong with the Lord except for that “one” area?

    Could it be we have excepted a lie either about who we are and Gods ability and faithfulness concerning us?

    My experience facing the old lie.
    Had a good day and saw sign saying, “anything unattempted remains impossible”.

    I said a little prayer, can you imagine the heavenly host watching? Then I got in the car and drove off into my destiny and my land.
    My prayer was, Father thank you for this opportunity to trust You.
    I went and faced the lie in my life and found God faithful.    As I drove I literally felt the prayers of the saints and felt like I was in a bubble of protection.

    Concerning Israel, their example speaks volumes to us.
    Num. 13:25 ¶ When they returned from spying out the land, at the end of forty days,
    Num. 13:26 they proceeded to come to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the sons of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; and they brought back word to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land.
    Num. 13:27 Thus they told him, and said, “We went in to the land where you sent us; and it certainly does flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.
    Num. 13:28 “Nevertheless, the people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large; and moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there.

    Num. 13:29 “Amalek is living in the land of the Negev and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites are living in the hill country, and the Canaanites are living by the sea and by the side of the Jordan.”
    “Amalek” is this not the people they had already whipped at Rephidim?  Maybe whipping Amalek would have or should have encourage them to take on the others.

    Num. 13:30 ¶ Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will surely overcome it.”
    Num. 13:31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not “able” to go up against the people, for they are too strong for “us.”

    But not to strong for the Lord.  However they never inquired of the Lord to actually hear that.

    Num. 13:32 So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size.

    When we face giants who are on our land they can be scary and intimidating. They can be to strong for us in our own strength, but not with God. It is the Lord’s battle, we only need to trust Him and by “faith” face the lies concerning the giants between us and our land.
    Num. 13:33 “There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”
    Num. 14:1 ¶ Then all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night.

    Have you ever wept over knowing your destiny or land or dream is within your grasp and because of believing and accepting a lie would not go and take it?  I have.

    Lets look at what they were weeping about.
    Num. 13:23 ¶ Then they came to the valley of Eshcol and from there cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes; and they carried it on a pole between two men, with some of the pomegranates and the figs.
    Num. 13:24 That place was called the valley of Eshcol, because of the cluster which the sons of Israel cut down from there.
    I mean the cluster was so big that they named the place.

    Num. 13:25 ¶ When they returned from spying out the land, at the end of forty days,
    Num. 13:26 they proceeded to come to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the sons of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; and they brought back word to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land.
    Num. 13:27 Thus they told him, and said, “We went in to the land where you sent us; and it certainly does flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.

    Can you imagine seeing fruit from the land in which you left Egypt for? And then believe you can’t have it.
    This huge beautiful fruit can only mean the land must be wonderful. And they knew it and that's why they wept.
    They could “see” the fruit and they knew what that meant, but it only took a lie or bad report about their ability in Gods strength to take that land for them to doubt their ever seeing the land.
    And here’s the kicker they never saw with their eyes the giants as they did the fruit.

    We so many times we are ready to except a lie concerning ourselves and Gods ability in our life.
    We can see God’s hand in our life, but oh there are those giants.

    Israel never even attempted to fight the giants. They just contemplated it in their own “reasoning” and allowed themselves to receive a lie concerning their land and talked themselves out of their destiny and their promise land.
    The lie they believed was “they” were not “able” and “they” would “fail”.

    Their position really was, you can take us around that same old mountain only don’t ask us to face something where we might fail.
    Fear of failure kept them from even trying to fight.
    The main thing fear of failure does is teach us to avoid and how to live life like that. To manage our daily life's.
    So we learn avoidance and management techniques

    I am learning to walk into a lie I have believed for so long is to allow God to rewrite my thought processes. To renew my mind. To find I really am able through Jesus Christ to walk where He ask.
    To have read about God and to believe in Him is a place we all need to walk. However God wants to reveal Himself to us and others around us by asking us to walk by faith. He desires to show us His glory. His awesome power. But that requires us to become vulnerable, where we can only be dependent on Him alone. It is only then that we know that we know that He is God. And that our God is able to deliver us. To move in power on our behalf.
    How can we ever expect God to show us He is able, if we will not allow Him the opportunity to show us during exposures to that which keeps us from fully trusting Him?

    Stepping into the unknown and finding God there is how Abraham became the friend of God. He went out not knowing where he was going. But he believed God and acted on that belief, which is faith.

    In our early christian walk we learned of the authority we have in christ. And this is true, however until we are assured of who we are in christ which comes not from reading about it. Rather it comes from experiences with God and “seeing” Him faithful.
    God will create conditions where we as His people can learn by exposure of His greatness and His ability to save, deliver and heal us.
    We must allow Him to establish us in Him. And that only comes through exposure to trials, difficulties and warfare with Him “showing” us His power perfected in our weaknesses.


    In Matt. 14:22 where Peter walked on water, we sometimes can be focused on how he was willing to step out of the safety of the boat to walk on the water.
    However the bigger issue is he stepped out into a “storm” to walk on that water.
   
    Another example of a battle would be when the disciples were just boating along in their boat with Jesus, hallelujah isn’t this wonderful. When pow a storm comes up, now the battle was on. Would they trust this guy Jesus or try and figure a way to handle this themselves? Eventually in fear and desperation they shook Jesus awake saying, don’t you care we are perishing? Were dying here and your sleeping.
    We need to avoid or manage this storm in our life.

    We really need to hear the significant of Jesus response to them.

    “Oh ye of little faith”    what was he saying?

    Do you not know I can call down thousands of angels, that the very hairs of your head are numbered, if your Father can take care of the lilies of the field, can He not take care of you?
    Do you hear how Jesus through out the gospels ask this basic question?
    He is saying we really can trust our Father.

    For me God has provided many opportunities for me to enter into my land, to rule and reign with Him through many “desert and wilderness places”.
     He has wanted me to learn of His faithfulness and mighty works in order for me to walk boldly in the power and authority of Christ.
    In some ways I have been always learning and yet never coming to the knowledge of the truth until I was willing to step into the storms of life trusting my Father.
    I can know of Him and read of Him but until I am willing to experience Him, I can never really “see” His mighty works in my life.
    Job said “ I knew of You, but now my eyes have seen You”


    The devil presents a lie for us so we might avoid or learn to manage our lives in our own strength.
     We need to stop accepting the lies associated with the storms or giants and be willing to trust Him with all we encounter.

     We need to hear what God is asking of us and then be willing to step into it.
    To expose ourselves to His ability and not avoid it.

    It is not easy facing giants to take our rightful land and destiny, but God has assured us He will never leave us nor forsake us.
    The battle is His, we only have to step out and face the lie in faith, trusting our Father is as near as our voice.

    The exciting difference between Israel and us, is that we in Christ can come boldly before the throne of grace and get another chance to face the lies in our lives where we have failed before. And there is no condemnation for those of us in Christ Jesus.

    There comes a time in our walk with God where we will no longer seek to escape from the giants, that inpsite of the lies, we will see them as another oppotunity to trust and be assured of God’s faithfulness to us as His sons and daughters.


    Agree with me as I pray this prayer,,,

    Father we pray for boldness and courage to be willing to step out in faith to confront the areas of our lives where we have believed the lie.
    Lies that say, the giants are to big for us,  and have therefore allowed the enemy to rob and steal from us, our land.
     We confess our sins, and our failure to trust you Father, we ask that You would lead us into our destiny with You.
    Lord we do not want to continue going around the same old mountain of lies.
    Help us to see Your hand in the areas where we have in the past avoided or tried to manage in our own strength.
    Oh God, we want to be free, that we might be who You have desired us to be.
    We are willing Lord, help us in our unbelief.  Amen