A New perspective (3)

Previously we had a look at the 10 spies from the Old Testament who did not mix what they saw with faith, but with ‘dust’ (Please read Hebrews 4:1-2 in the previous post). Now the Bible goes on to say: “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17).
When confronted with this thing ‘faith’; we need to have a look at what the Bible says about faith. In Galatians 2:20 Paul said that he lives by the faith of the Son of God, in the book of Ephesians we see that faith is a gift from God, Hebrews 11 says that it is the Spirit who teaches us that faith is to see the Unseen (v. 27) and to be convicted by what God has already finished in Christ. What is this finished work? It refers to everything that Christ had completed on the Cross, in His death and resurrection, and in his ascension. It is in this finished work that we must have faith; a faith that is of Christ, a faith that is a gift from God, a faith that is worked in us by God’s Spirit. When we have this faith in the completed work of Christ, we can enter into God’s Rest (our Promised Land). Can you see that nothing here can be obtained by performance? It is His faith that He works in us so that we may live in His peace!

On this road called life, we will find many distractions aimed at keeping us from enjoying His Rest. Which brings us to the other two spies who went to scout out the Promised Land; “And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it (Numbers 13:30). “We are well able” is the same as the New Testament Truth: “I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me”(Philippians 4:13). This was the attitude of Joshua and Caleb; they heard the Word of God, they heard what God said and there was no argument in their hearts. They said: “let us go and posses it”. But still the voice of the others carried on and on:

Numbers 13:31-33 But his fellow scouts said, We are not able to go up against the people [of Canaan], for they are stronger than we are. (32) So they brought the Israelites an evil report of the land which they had scouted out, saying, The land through which we went to spy it out is a land that devours its inhabitants. And all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. (33) There we saw the Nephilim [or giants], the sons of Anak, who come from the giants; and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.

Fear. It is fear that drowned out God’s voice in the ten spies’ hearts. The people of God listen to their words and it also struck fear in their hearts. They were afraid to enter into the unknown and desperately desired to go back to what they knew (even though it meant going back to a land of slavery). We are not so different from these Old Testament folks; we too are afraid of entering into the fullness of Christ. We tend to get to caught up in the things of the world (the giants of our societies) that we miss out on the fullness of God in Christ, which He so freely bestowed on us. Do we even realise that there is no way back, but back to slavery?

Romans 8:15 For [the Spirit which] you have now received [is] not a spirit of slavery to put you once more in bondage to fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption [the Spirit producing sonship] in [the bliss of] which we cry, Abba (Father)! Father!

We are the sons and daughters of God, crying out “Daddy”. When the Bible talks about the ‘good life’ (Ephesians 2:10), it talks about the life God prepared and prearranged for us in His Son, a life where we are God’s children and exist in the Father’s Rest.

I want us to distinguish a very important principle from our Old Testament picture; the way you see yourself, is the way in which the enemy sees you! A ‘dust’ perspective makes it impossible to see yourself in Christ, which gives you a ‘grasshopper’ perspective. It is time to stand up straight and look at your enemies (the giants) from His perspective!

Though you live in giant country- don't be deceived- God is on your side and nothing will seperate you from His love for you in Jesus Christ- you are His!