28 Tell them: As surely as I live,” this is the Lord’s declaration, “I will do to you exactly as I heard you say. (Ex. 14:28, HCSB)
This verse of scripture speaks volumes into the faith and speech of believers. This conversation between God and Moses takes place immediately after the twelve spies return with their report to the people of Israel of all they saw in Canaan (the promised land). Ten of the spies came back saying that it is all that God says it was (unbelievably beautiful and having an abundant supply all things necessary for living). There was just one problem; there were giants in their land. So, their final assessment was: we can't take the land.
Now God had given them the land, but required them to go in and possess it. He was not sending them in blind for He promised them that he would be with them and that they could surely do it. Nonetheless, these 10 spies said that they couldn't. The two other spies, Joshua and Caleb, said that the land could be taken, because God had already given it to them, they only needed to go in and possess it. The people decided to believe the other ten spies and begin to say that God had asked them to do the impossible.Allow me a bit of digression for a moment. When God is in the midst of your movement there is no such thing as impossible. In fact, through academic study and experiential observation, I can tell you that the more impossible the endeavor, the more powerful God's movement in it becomes. I have learned that when I simply let go and let God, the impossible becomes possible and the extraordinary becomes ordinary.
I digress, God told Moses, "just as they have spoken and I have heard them say, so shall I do to them." God said since you said that you can't, you won't. If you take the time to read this entire passage, you will find that their lack of faith and the declaration that they could not do it, was considered by God to be a direct complaint against Him. When God has promised to walk you through the storm and you keep worrying and believing the lies of your circumstances, you are saying to God, I don't believe you can do what you said you can do. I don't believe your power is enough to manage my moment. I don't believe you will come through.
One of the problems with believers is we have bought into the distorted view of factual information bequeathed to us through secular paradigms. Most of us have been taught that facts are solid and they cannot be manipulated. The truth is facts are fluid because not even factual reality can resist the power of faith through love. In other words, faith bends facts. In life one of two things are happening daily; either your faith is transcending the facts, or the facts are transcending your faith. My friend, nothing trumps faith in God, not even facts.
It is interesting to me the emphasis the Bible places on speech. We are told that there is the power of life and death in the tongue and admonished to choose life. We are told that we will have to give an account of every idle word that comes out of our mouth. We are told that we can determine what is in a man's heart by observing what comes out of his mouth. In this particular instance, God said, just as you have spoken in my hearing, so shall it be.
Here is my first question: What are you speaking into your life? How many words come out of your mouth daily that reinforce the negative happenings in your life? (Okay that was bonus question). The thing is many of you are self-perpetuating your misery with your negative imprecations. Stop speaking anything that is not God's will for you into your life. Stop responding the fact as if they are fixed. I'm not saying that this will stop the vicissitudes and challenges of life from rolling in. Trials and tribulations are a part of life, but faith and the words that come from a faith filled heart produce the power to exit each one of these storms victoriously.
God had never told the Israelites that they would not have to fight; He told them that they would never lose. He told them that He would fight for them. He told them that no weapon formed against them would prosper. I have read the bible from cover to cover too many times to count (not including daily study, teaching, etc) and when I get to Isaiah 54:17, I continuously read the same thing: No weapon formed against you will prosper. It does not say, there will be no weapons formed against you. In fact, the context and sentence structure is implicit that there will be weapons formed against you, but then it becomes direct in the assertion that the weapons will not prosper.Here is my second and final question (maybe)? Who are you listening to when determining what you are going to believe? Here is my advice to you. Stop letting narrow minded people who have no vision convince you that the vision you have for life is unrealistic. Stop letting people who gave up on their dreams talk you out of yours. Stop allowing those that are unacquainted with the power of faith convince you that facts are final. Faith bends facts. Look, the fact was that before The Battle of Gibeon, the sun had never stood still in the History of mankind, however, that did not stop Joshua from praying to God to stop it. When you study this passage, Joshua did not ask as if there could be any other response to his faith; he declared and decreed.
12 On the day the Lord gave the Amorites(AB) over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel:“Sun, stand still over Gibeon,
and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.”
13 So the sun stood still,
and the moon stopped,
till the nation avenged itself on[b] its enemies,
as it is written in the Book of Jashar. (Joshua 10:12-13, NIV)
God desires more audacious Christian believers like Joshua, not afraid of the impossible, but daring to reach for it. Speak life. Speak life into that hopeless situation. Speak life into your dead circumstances. Speak life into your dwindling hopes. Irregardless to what your circumstances declare, make your declarations of your faith. The writer of Hebrews reminds us to hold fast our confession of faith without wavering. The two words "hold fast" is actually the double use of one Greek word "katecho" (kat-ekh'-o) meaning to hold down, possess, to seize. We are to take hold of our faith and stand firm in it.
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