“There we saw the giants” Numbers 13:33.
Yes, there they saw the giants, but Caleb and Joshua saw God!
Those who doubt say ‘We are not able to go up’.
Those who believe say ‘Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able’.
Here at Fawkham Avenue, our new home, we are experiencing giants in our lives, but our confession is that we are ‘well able to overcome them and possess the good land the Lord has given to us.’
Giants stand for difficulties, in ourselves and in our circumstances.
Giants are stalking everywhere.
They are in our families, our churches, our social life, and in our own hearts; and we must overcome them or they will devour us and it will be as the men of old said of the giants of Canaan, we will become ‘like grasshoppers in our own sight’.
Some of us are aiming to attain warrior status, some are foot soldiers, some generals, some field marshals, others somewhere in between.
We all have a place.
We cannot opt out of this war
We are on manoeuvres – all day, every day.
The terrain is rough and unpredictable, the going is hard, but we are being trained as God’s S.A.S. to go in undercover, do the job and come out before the enemy has detected us.
We are called to fight, and the fight is good.
We cannot be overcomers unless we have something to overcome – we are discovering this daily!
We are not of those who turn back and wander aimlessly.
The Apostle Paul’s life was one long hard fight with persecuting Jews, wild storms, vipers and all the powers of earth and hell; he was saved by the narrowest margin and had to swim ashore at Malta on a piece of wreckage and barely escaping a watery grave! Acts 27:19 and 38.
It is interesting that everything had to be thrown over to lighten the ship, as in the book of Jonah, (Jonah 1:5) before they could be saved.
We have had to take a look at the baggage we have been carrying which needed to be thrown overboard before we could come into everything God purposes for us on this new level.
We have made determined, intentional choices to reach the top of the mountain from our Base Camp 3 and have thrown aside ‘everything that would so easily beset us’…Hebrews 12:1.
We intend to be unstoppable.
Paul tells us that when he took the Lord as his life, a severe conflict immediately came, indeed a conflict that never ended, a pressure that was persistent, but out of which he always emerged victorious through the strength of the Lord Jesus. ‘We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed, perplexed but not in despair; persecuted but not forsaken; cast down but not destroyed, always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life also of Jesus might be manifested in our body.’ 2 Corinthians 4: 8-10.
A ceaseless, strenuous struggle requiring backbone, not wishbone.
It is impossible to express in English the forcible language of the original.
Here are five pictures in succession. First, crowding – enemies pressing in from every side and yet not crushing him because heavenly intervention clears a way just wide enough for him to get through. The literal translation would be ‘We are crowded on every side but not crushed’.
The second picture is that of one whose way seems utterly closed and yet he has pressed through. There is light enough to show him the next step – one translation says ‘Without a way, but not without a by-way’.
The third figures is of an enemy in hot pursuit while the Divine Defender stands with him – he is not left alone – pursued but not abandoned.
The fourth figure is still more vivid and dramatic. The enemy has overtaken him, has struck him, has knocked him down, but it is not a fatal blow. He is able to rise again. It might be translated, overthrown but not overcome!
And lastly, now it seems to be even death itself ‘Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus.’ But he does not die, for the life of Jesus now comes to his aid and he lives the life of another until his life’s work is done. He lives on the other side of the cross, where the world has now no hold on him, and he is totally given over to the work of the One who called him.
When the conflict comes and the battle rages for a long time do not become discouraged and surrender.
God has nothing worth having that is easy.
There are no cheap goods in the heavenly supermarket.
Hard places are God’s school to teach us to overcome ‘by faith and patience and inherit the promises’ Hebrews 6:12.
Destiny and purpose:
In these days God is urging us to speak out our destiny and purpose. To speak forth the things that are not as though they are, because as far as He is concerned, they already exist; provision is already there along the path that God has marked out for us. When we encounter problems, we stand and look for the provision that is already there, that God has marked out for this situation.
He has not left any bases uncovered beloved. It is time to move out of unbelief and into what God has got for us, our inheritance, our destiny – we are living in –
2 Timothy 2 NASB
‘1You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. 3Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.’
An Unashamed Workman
14Remind them of these things, and solemnly charge them in the presence of God not to wrangle about words, which is useless and leads to the ruin of the hearers.
15Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.’
Amen!
God bless you all, thanks for standing with us.
Beryl and Team Oasis