Joshua and Caleb, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes and said to the entire Israelite assembly, “The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.” But the whole assembly talked about stoning them.
Numbers 14:6-10
Listen to God’s promises not your problems (:6-8)
We pick up our story with Caleb and Joshua pleading with the people, “God told us He’d give us the Land and that’s all we need to know. I don’t care how big the giants are, I don’t care how thick the walls are, I don’t care how mean the warriors are. Here’s what we know … God promised us this land and if He’s says “go” we should go!”
Negative voices will list out all the reasons that God’s plan for you won’t work.
Isn’t it interesting that ten out of twelve well respected leaders didn’t believe God could overcome the odds. What was the difference between the ten naysayers and Joshua and Caleb? The ten were focused on the problems the two were focused on their God.
Sometimes life’s problems incapacitate us. We become immobilized by the challenges that we’re personally unable to overcome. This happens only when our problems, rather than our Christ, capture our attention.
Caleb doesn’t deny that the problems are there, he just chooses to focus on the God who parted the Red Sea, plagued Egypt, and dropped the walls of Jericho. He decided that he would listen to God. So often the naysayers will have detailed lists of obstacles and reasons why “we can’t do it.”
Make no mistake, understanding the problems you are facing is important. There are plenty of unwise people who want to run blindly into what they believe is “God’s plan.” These people need to slow down. Jesus himself said, “What king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?” -Lk 14:31
We definitely need to count the cost of obedience. We need to know what we’re up against and prepare and plan for problems. However, the simple fact that there ARE obstacles shouldn’t be what keeps us from moving ahead. We cannot allow the problems to incapacitate us.
Ministry leaders must listen to the voice of God above all others.
We must wear our noise cancelling headphones that are tuned in to His voice and that tune out all the other voices. How do we do that? Let’s step away from Caleb’s story for a moment and get very practical.
God still speaks directly to us today through the work of his Holy Spirit. The Bible is crystal-clear about this truth. In John 10:27, Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice.” What the Bible is saying here is that all Christians, in every generation across the centuries will be able to hear the voice of God. We are able to hear instructions, encouragement, guidance, warnings, wisdom, and admonitions. Rarely do people hear audible voices from God. And when people claim to, I get very nervous.
But we’re talking about thoughts that the Spirit places in our minds; impressions that God presses into our hearts and that are unmistakably from Him. Has God whispered to you recently, that maybe you should be preparing for something new that He is going to bring into your life? Has God given you a sense of restlessness, a sense that what you’ve been doing was only for a season, and that season is about to come to an end? You’re not sure about it, but you have a little bit of a restlessness and maybe an anticipation that God’s going to open a new door. He’s going to give you a new assignment. There’s going to be something different that’s going to unfold in front of you.
God does speak, and I believe that church leaders would receive more promptings from God, more whispers, more impressions, if we learned how to listen to God better. Acts 13:2 talks about how the early church was preparing for a huge decision to send Paul and Barnabas out into the world, and it says, While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said … Look at those details. While they were worshiping and fasting, while they were in this surrendered position before God, that’s when the Holy Spirit spoke to them.
Was it a sheer coincidence or accident that the Spirit spoke to them while they were engaged in these spiritual practices? Or do you think maybe their regular pattern of fasting and praying and worshipping increased their likelihood of hearing God’s voice? Let’s push it further. Are YOU most likely to receive a prompting or whisper from God, in the middle of a re-run of The Office? While you’re texting on your phone in traffic? While you’re at a noisy restaurant multi-tasking? While you’re chasing three pre-schoolers around your house?
Or are you more likely to hear from God when you quiet yourself down and carve out a space and time where you can lower the ambient noise and listen to the still small voice of God? Again and again the Bible tells us to be still. Be still, and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10). Reduce speed. Stop multitasking. Quiet down. Slow your pace. And then you’ll be aware when God is speaking. We take our headphones and we plug them in to Scripture or into prayer or into fasting and we listen and we let them do their job of cancelling out the other noise of negativity.
And of course, this begs the question
How do you know it’s God’s voice?
How can you be sure you’re tuned in to the right channel? There are 3 checks that are very important in discerning the voice of God.
- Check with scripture.
Does this prompting square with the teaching of Scripture? If it does, that’s a green light. If it doesn’t, that’s a red light. - Check the character of Jesus.
When God is prompting you to do something; always ask yourself can I imagine Jesus doing this. If you can’t imagine Jesus doing it, you may have your wires crossed. - Check with trusted Christian colleagues.
When God prompts you, you want to always check with a spiritual advisor or a ministry colleague in your life. Preferably someone who’s further down the road than you.
