Want victory in your life?
Joshua 14:6-15 has been our focus over the past few Sundays and for good reason - we want to take the mountains that stand in front of us and live in victory as God intended.
Caleb, a faithful and strong warrior of Israel, was different from the rest of the bunch - he didn’t follow the crowd, popular opinion or merge with the majority. Instead,
Caleb wholly followed after the Lord
The rest of Caleb’s peers and those of his age group died off but Caleb continued to be strong and gain new territory.
I mean, check out this powerful verse where Caleb speaks about the reality":
“All of those who went up with me made the hearts of the people melt, but I wholly followed the Lord my God” - Joshua 14:8
Wholly following the Lord will ensure that you fulfill all that the Lord has for you. And this sounds amazingly like VICTORY, SUCCESS, PROSPERITY, HEALTH, WHOLENESS, PEACE, LOVE, JOY . . . you get the picture! (Galatians 5).
So what does it mean to ‘wholly follow the Lord’?
Allow me to provide 3 key ways to do this:
Get wisdom.
Proverbs 4 clearly points out that above all, you should get wisdom. I encourage you to read aloud* Proverbs 4. Get into your heart and spirit and do what you can to attain wisdom. How?! Read James 1. That’s super clear and that is His promise. Ask Him. Audibly. In faith. Then digest, read aloud and meditate on Proverbs daily . . . wisdom will then become your goal, your pursuit and with the help of the Holy Spirit, you will grow in wisdom.
Be led by the Spirit.
Galatians 5 says to walk by the Spirit of God. Do not be moved or take your lead from what the world says, what your peers are doing, what the media says, what the crowd is doing, and sheesh, definitely what social media portrays as cool or right (such a trap for the weak minded and those weak in heart). Caleb chose NOT to follow the crowd nor his physical sight - but to see as God sees and to operate in accordance with who his God was and is. Ask the Spirit of God for direction . . . daily . . . every decision - BE SPIRIT-LED.
Do it. Obey.
I suspect that this next key is one that many, many people fall over at. This is the biggie whanau . . . take heed to read this carefully. You see, many people know in their heart of hearts what to do but they fail to do it. That’s called disobedience. That’s called sin.
I know I shouldn’t watch this movie, but everyone else seems to be enjoying it . . .
I know that I’ve eaten too much, but everyone else is going hard so . . .
I know that I shouldn’t have said those things, I really should apologise, but there’s no way I’m admitting I’m wrong so . . .
I know that the Lord is asking me to talk to that person . . . to give this amount of money . . . to help those people out . . . to stop that habit . . . to have self-control . . . to stop gossiping . . . to trust Him . . . but I just can’t do it . . . what will others think?
OBEY HIM. DO IT. Stop stuffing around and obey Him.
The benefits (blessings) that come with obedience are ENORMOUS - check out Deuteronomy 28. And yet, both amazingly and crazily, many of us choose to forgo the amazing long-term continued blessings of the Lord for short-term sinful gain. This has to change! Let us choose and decide to be people that wholly follow after the Lord . . .
Choose wisdom
Be led by the Spirit
Obey
and in doing so, receive all that He has for us. Amen!
* I am a firm believer in reading the Word of God aloud. The Bible is very specific and clear with regards to declarations, the power of the tongue, and our position as kings and priests. Furthermore, I do recall an amazing God using His Words to create . . . and then His Son speaking the Word to defeat the enemy . . . . Know this, the Bible is His Word, not just His thoughts. His Word is to be spoken and declared!