WE ARE ABLE

24 The place was called the brook Eshcol, because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from thence.

25 And they returned from searching of the land after forty days.

26 And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and shewed them the fruit of the land.

27 And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.

28 Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there.

29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan.

30 And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.

31 But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.

32 And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.

33 And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. —Numbers 13:24-33 (King James Version)

Revelation 21:4-8 (KJV - King James Version)

4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.

7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. —Revelation 21:4-8 (King James Version)

ME

HOW DO I STRUGGLE WITH THIS?

We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them. —Numbers 13:33

With these words, ten of the twelve spies gave their report to Moses and the Israelites on their scouting mission into the land of Canaan. After forty days spent exploring the land that the Lord had promised to give them, they were frightened, overwhelmed, and groping for whatever faith and courage they had possessed when they left Egypt. They wanted to go back! Back to the land of slavery, oppression, and false gods. The spies had misplaced their faith and it turned into fear.

This is how they described things in seemingly reasonable terms: the people were stronger than them; they were of a great size; they had fortified cities; the Israelites would fall by the sword and their wives and children would be taken as plunder. (Numbers 13:28-29, 31-33)
From a natural standpoint, these are reasonable concerns. But while all of these things may have been true but at the end of the day, their misplaced
faith in this moment was nothing more than unbelief in God’s promises.

The Lord told Moses to send the spies into Canaan, He promised to give the land to them. (Numbers 13:1-2) All they had to do was take it. After forty days in the land, for all but two of the spies (Joshua and Caleb), trusting God was the farthest thing from their minds.

WE BE NOT ABLE (v. 31), WE ARE THE SIZE OF GRASSHOPPERS COMPARED TO THEM, they know it and we know it!

• We are living in a world that is constantly distracting us and keeping us from seeing the promises of God.
• We live in this world that is pushing our attention to every obstacle and every roadblock.

So we have a tendency to be AFRAID, to be ANXIOUS…and to place our faith in anything but the promises of God!

OUR FEAR Makes VOID the Word of God.

• They said “It is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof” (chap. 13:32).
• God had said that it was “A good land and a large, flowing with milk and honey” (Exod. 3:8).

Here is THE contradiction. Unbelief always contradicts God, because it can only judge by appearance.

WE WALK BY FAITH - NOT BY SIGHT!!

So let me ask you, WHERE IS YOUR FAITH? In what you see, or in the promises of GOD?

WE

HOW DO WE ALL STRUGGLE WITH THIS?

This is a problem for all of us. We put our faith in:

• JOBS. Many people look to work for a sense of significance and security. There is nothing wrong with working hard, but it can be dangerous when it drives our decision-making to the point of completely ignoring God’s ways and desires, or the promises that He has given for our lives.
• SUCCESS. God wants us to be successful, but not so that we will forget about Him. It is really easy for us to put our faith in our success when we follow other people’s definitions, rather than God’s.
• TECHNOLOGY. If you’re giving your electronic device more time and attention than you do God and His promises in your life…You have your FAITH misplaced.
• IMAGE. In the age of Facebook and Instagram, we can be obsessed with projecting the image of the perfect life, relationship, kids, holidays, friendship group. The problem with this is…that IT’S NOT TRUE REALITY!
• THINGS. Today’s consumerism drives us to believe that we need
  certain THINGS to feel happy and content. THINGS can only get us so far…to see spiritual victory - don’t place your faith in THINGS!
• MONEY. There is much value in money, but it is not the most valuable thing. That’s why Jesus teaches in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” If you place your faith in MONEY…and not in GOD, you will surely be disappointed.

Every one of us has a tendency to allow our attention to be diverted to something other than believing and trusting God! This only leads us to:

• Failure
• Despair
• Panic
• Hopelessness

GOD

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT THIS?

What does God have to say about the situation? He had already promised the land to them, and when they placed more faith in the giants and circumstances than in the one who promised to give them the land.

So I have come down to deliver them out of the land of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites, and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. —Exodus 3:8

and I have said I will bring you out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey. —Exodus 3:17

God has given us so many great promises about our lives in His Word. When we choose to believe things we see at work in our daily lives over WHAT GOD HAS PROMISED - we are in danger of believing an EVIL report and misplacing our faith! When we misplace FAITH - FEAR will set in! FEAR could easily be defined as FAITH IN THE ENEMY!!

Focus on the WORD OF GOD:

21 See, the Lord your God has placed the land before you; go up, take possession, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has spoken to you. Do not fear or be dismayed. —Deuteronomy 1:21 NASB95

36 But the Lord, who brought you up from the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm, Him you shall fear, and to Him you shall bow yourselves down, and to Him you shall sacrifice.
—2 Kings 17:36 NASB95

1 The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life; Whom shall I dread? —Psalm 27:1 NASB95

3 Though a host encamp against me, My heart will not fear; Though war arise against me, In spite of this I shall be confident. —Psalm 27:3 NASB95

YOU

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO ABOUT THIS?

What is the Word of God for your situation? If you don’t know - you need to find out right away!

You can’t STAND ON THE PROMISES OF GOD if you don’t know what they are!
Spend time with God, spend time daily in the Word of God - and get your faith back in the right place.

QUIT LOOKING AT YOURSELF and CIRCUMSTANCES through your eyes or through what you perceive others think about you! Ask God to open our eyes to what he is doing.

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. —Joshua 1:9 ESV

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not
been perfected in love. —1 John 4:18 ESV

WE

HOW CAN WE ALL LIVE THIS OUT TOGETHER?

No matter how true or reasonable our fears and doubts may seem, it is dangerous to focus on our insecurities and our weaknesses and STOP
THERE without moving on to consider God’s power. To reflect on His greatness. To remember His promises to strengthen us to obey Him and bring Him glory.

13 Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus. —Acts 4:13 NASB95

WHEN WE HAVE SPENT TIME WITH JESUS - AND WE BELIEVE HIS WORD - we will not have Misplaced Faith!

GOD GAVE THE WORD - WE MUST PLACE OUR FAITH IN THE WORD THAT WILL STAND

21 And at that time came Joshua, and cut off the Anakims from the mountains, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the mountains of Judah, and from all the mountains of Israel: Joshua destroyed them utterly with their cities.
22 There was none of the Anakims left in the land of the children of Israel: only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod, there remained. —Joshua 11:21-22 (King James Version)

WHEN WE WILL REPENT, BE BAPTIZED IN JESUS’ NAME, and BE FILLED WITH THE HOLY GHOST - we can start living out the promises of God and we will take down giants, and we will take territory that God has intended for us.