Recently I was talking to someone who had overheard some negative gossip about Zion.
I told them to be careful about what they listen to, and to prayerfully consider what God is saying about it.
I then told them to consider the story of the 12 spies searching out the promised land. This is found in the Book of Numbers chapter 13:
27 –28 “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large.”
Two of the spies were all for going into the promised land:
30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”
But the rest of the spies were fearful:
31-32 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size.”
So, the people of Israel aligned themselves with the word of the fearful spies rather than the words of the two faithful spies. As a result, a whole generation ended up walking in the wilderness for 40 years. They missed out on the promises of God.
They missed out on the promises of God
Likewise, we need to be very careful about what words we listen to, and align ourselves with. Are we listening to words of fear and doubt, or are we listening to words of faith? Because there is a real risk of missing out on the promises of God if we take onboard things that don’t come from faith.
are we listening to words of faith?
Deborah Brown