We Followed the Lord
Today we celebrate the resurrection of Christ. When Christ resurrected He raised us with Him. We were able to receive the fullness of His life within us and the benefits of it. We celebrate God and His faithfulness in the promises He has given to us as a ministry and personally. We celebrate how He has kept us as we pursued Him and His vision for us. We will look at the life of Caleb and how he received from God what was prophesied over his life and hopefully draw lessons for what lies ahead of us as we continue to receive at the feet of Jesus.
We have seen God fulfil prophetic words, fulfil visions, the Bible and answer prayer in an amazing way. We want to share our testimony and also help you learn how to receive what God has promised to you and are trusting Him for.
Caleb was a man who honoured God. A man who, when was faced with adversity, heard God louder than what he saw in front of him. He was sent out by Moses alongside eleven other spies to spy out the land God had given to them. On their return, only he and Joshua were not afraid to take the land God had promised to them. They were not intimidated of the giants on the land. We see how forty years later he received what God had promised to him by the mouth of His prophet Moses.
"See, the Lord your God has given you the land. Go up and take possession of it as the LORD, the God of your fathers, told you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." Deuteronomy 1:21 (NIV)
God was pleased to hear what Caleb and Joshua had to say about the land. He was pleased to see their faith in Him and His words. Even though the land had mighty giants, even though they were like grasshoppers in front of them, they saw the situation through the eyes of the Lord. They knew they were well able to take on everything that God had given them. They trusted God and God saw this as wholehearted worship.
"When the LORD heard what you said, he was angry and solemnly swore: "Not a man of this evil generation shall see the good land I swore to give your forefathers, except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I will give him and his descendents the land he set his feet on, because he followed the LORD wholeheartedly." Deuteronomy 1:34-36 (NIV)
- He received a promise from God
- He believed God and did not waver from God’s word (He followed God wholeheartedly by keeping faith and not giving in to the pressure that he saw around him from his brothers and from the giants in the land.)
"So Hebron has belonged to Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite ever since, because he followed the LORD, the God of Israel, wholeheartedly." Joshua 14:14 (NIV)
Do not worry about what God has promised to do – to fulfil is the Lord’s, to believe is ours. God may have promised you victory over an area of your life, over something that may seem impossible at the moment – trust Him. His ways are not like our ways. You may not see the direction He is headed with you but if you are being led by Him you can be sure that it is headed to victory.
I remember laying on the couch last night, as I was going through a series of gruesome visions that were clearly demonic attacks, seeing a cactus or prickly pear in the side view mirror of a car. At that moment I started thinking, in conversation to God just how I would have removed the cactus so I could have a clearer vision but then vividly, in the midst of all that I heard God gently respond to me that even though it was there it did not affect me, He had kept me. It is because it was there yet did not harm me that I am able to trust in God’s leading and not the circumstances around me. I thanked God and woke up. I drew two lessons from God from this and was reminded of how Caleb received what was promised to him in the midst of adversity.
- Even in our darkest moment God holds us.
Not only did that vision reveal a dark moment in life but it, in itself, was a dark moment of demonic attack. The devil thought he had gripped my mind to sway it to and fro with visions of evil but when I spoke to God, He gently responded to me. His gentleness was a sign of strength, a sign of security. He was not intimidated by the devil and therefore I was secure in my mind, my body, my soul. - Though God’s ways may be foreign to us we must always respond to Him in faith. Our human wisdom is limited. We may think in our darkest hour God is not there but He is, He is watching over us, ensuring that we come out unharmed. This, beautifully experinced as I spoke with Him in the midst of an attack and also said by Him as we spoke about the cactus.
God is much wiser than us. He is God who thrives in impossibilities and loves making us go through ways that no human could ever thrive in so that we may know in the depths of our hearts that it was He who helped us and His glory may be seen by all who are watching. This advances His Kingdom.
If you are holding onto a prophetic word, scripture, or trusting God for an answer to prayer do not lose faith. Be like Caleb, trust God even when things seem to be going South because with God, though things may seem like they are not favourable He knows what He is doing and victory already is yours. You will never be humiliated when your faith is in Him. He knows what He is doing.
The detail is not ours to figure out, ours is to follow God and His instruction. Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged. Walk.
"Do not be afraid; you will not suffer shame. Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated. You will forget the shame of your youth and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood." Isaiah 54:4 (NIV)
"He allowed no one to oppress them; for their sake he rebuked kings: "Do not touch my anointed ones; do my prophets no harm." Psalm 103:15 (NIV)
"till what he foretold came to pass, till the word of the Lord proved him true." Psalm 103:19 (NIV)
God is the same, He has never changed. He still uses prophets to speak over our lives and He alone fulfils that which He has spoken because He cannot lie. Trust in the LORD.