Don’t take your “foot off the pedal”….keep hoping and trusting!

“One day some men from the tribe of Judah went to Joshua at Gilgal. One of those men was Caleb

son of Jephunneh. He said to Joshua, “You remember what the Lord said at Kadesh Barnea. He was

speaking to the prophet Moses about you and me. 

Moses, the Lord’s servant, sent me to look at the land where we were going. I was 40 years old then.”

Joshua 14:6, 7

 

Caleb is officially one of my favorite bible characters now. I get pumped up every time I read

his story. He was one of the spies that was sent out to spy out the promise land and he was one

of two spies who believed YAH would deliver the Canaanites into their hands.

His faith in YAH was crazy!

His story challenged me so much. In Joshua 14, he goes to Joshua to ask for the mountain YAH promised

him all that time ago.  Let me rephrase that, he tells Joshua to give him the mountain YAH promised

him. There was no asking…..

 

The crazy thing about this story is that Caleb was promised the mountain when he was 40 years old.

And at the age of 85 he was ready to take what YAH promised him. (Joshua 14:10) He waited 45 years for

the Lord’s promise. His faith didn’t waver in all that time. He held on firmly to what the Lord promised him.

 

I don’t know about you but my faith is stirred every time I read that. The Lord is faithful and will

not fail to fulfill what He promised us. We need to make sure we don’t give up and falter in our faith.

If you do falter then get back up. Put your hope in the Lord again. Don’t stay down, don’t

stay discouraged.

No matter how long it has been, hold on to your faith. Hold on to the Lord’s promise.

Caleb didn’t let his age stop him from possessing the Lord’s promise.

At 40 his faith was in YAH and at 85 his faith was still in YAH and stronger than ever!

Don’t let anything stop you from trusting YAH.

 

He never gave up or lost hope. He was patient and confident in the Lord’s faithfulness! His trust

was not in himself, no. His faith was in the Lord.

 

“So give me the mountain country the Lord promised me that day long ago. Back then you heard that

the Anakite people lived there. And the cities were large and well protected. 

But now with the Lord helping me, I will force them out, just as the Lord said.” (italics mine)

Joshua 14:12

 

Wow! That faith!

 

It’s not too late. The Lord has not forgotten about you so don’t throw in the towel! Hold on to the promise

even though it seems like it’s not going to happen.

To be honest with you, there were things I stopped praying about but after reading about Caleb I am back.

That’s what the Lord wants, for us to keep holding on to the promises He has made. No matter what people say,

hold on to the promise.

Don’t let go it. The Lord is faithful and will fulfill what He promised!

 

ACT ON IT – Firstly, write down the things YAH promised you.

Secondly, Go boldly to YAH and ask Him for those things you have stopped praying about

Thirdly, Talk to someone about it.

And lastly, Is there something you need to start doing? Caleb’s faith was in the Lord but he

had to go fight. What do you need to do today as a demonstration of your faith in YAH?

 

And that is it friends. Hold on to the promise of the Lord until he brings it to pass. There will be plenty

opportunity to give up but don’t. The Lord is is faithful to us always!

Bless you.

Rolain

The Compromise of the Calling…..

 

 

We all agree that God has a destiny for each and everyone of us. No matter who you are or how you were brought up or where you lived, God has a destiny for you. Like the people of God you have a purpose and a calling. I would like to make a point but to do so we need to look at a few scriptures. Let us look at Judges 1:19:

The Lord was with Judah, and [Judah] drove out the inhabitants of the hill country, but he could not drive out those inhabiting the [difficult] valley basin because they had chariots of iron.

But the Benjamites did not drive out the Jebusites who inhabited Jerusalem; the Jebusites dwell with the Benjaminites in Jerusalem to this day. Judges 1:21

Neither did Manasseh  drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shean and it’s villages, or of Taanach or Dor or Ibleam or Megiddo and their villages, but the Canaanites remained in that land.
Judges 1:27

As you read the rest of the chapter you will see a trend. You will see how Israel failed to drive out the inhabitants of the land. They compromised the call of God. They were specifically told to destroy the nations around them but they couldn’t. Why?

The promise God has for us is not easy to attain! We see this clearly shown in the scriptures I just wrote. Walking the path God has for you is not for the faint-hearted! It is hard, and difficult to attain. God was speaking to Joshua and this is what He told him as he was about to get into the promise land:

No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you.
Be strong (confident) and of good courage, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.
Only you be strong and very courageous, that you may do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you, Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. Judges 1:7

Have not I commanded you? Be strong, vigorous, and very courageous. Be not afraid, neither be dismayed, for The Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:9

Is it possible that Israel compromised because they didn’t understand what it really meant to walk into the promise land? Did they expect it to be a walk in the park? Did they not know it was going to be difficult?
Walking into what God has for you is not only difficult but impossible!!! In our own strength we don’t stand a chance,it would be better to give up right now.

When Moses told all this to the people of Israel, they mourned long and hard. But early the next morning they started out for the high hill country saying, We’re here; we’re ready – let’s go up and attack the land that God promised us. We sinned, but now we’re ready – let’s go up and attack the land that God promised us. We sinned, but now we’re ready.” Numbers 14: 39-45

We all know the story. The Isralites were defeated. They could not take the land in their own strength. This is what I would like you to see.
God has a calling and purpose for us. In the natural, it is impossible to accomplish it. The only way to walk in your purpose is to trust God. You will accomplish all He has for you when you look to Him and rely Him.
But even with all that said, to accomplish our purpose we need to be strong and very courageous. It takes a strong person, a person who knows who he is in God to accomplish his purpose!

God will not leave you alone. He will not expect you to finish the race on your own because He knows you can’t do it. We compromise the call of God on our lives when we think we can do it by ourselves in our own strength. The truth is we can’t. God is with us willing to help us. We just need to ask Him for help. As you trust in Him, He will help you and strengthen you.

I can see where God is leading me to next in my walk with Him. I also see it’s going to need me to be strong and courageous as I walk with Him. I also see without Him I will fail, no doubt but in the midst of all that I am confident He is with me. He will not let me down. And so it is with you. As you pursue the desires God has put in your heart know that He is by your side. There will be days when you will feel like giving up but just keep pressing on. He will bring you to the other side! He is good indeed!

Rolain

 

It’s not God’s fault….!!!

What do you do when things don’t go according to plan in your life?

What do you do when what you were trusting God for doesn’t happen?

What do you do when it feels like God has abandoned you?

Do you think there are some instances where God is to blame for some of the
things that have not worked out in your life?

I have had to deal with these questions in my life. There have been times I
have blamed God. These are hard questions but questions which need to be
answered. As I had these questions God spoke to me through Joshua.
He had just come from the defeat of Jericho. God had given them a big victory. The
next town they had to attack was called Ai. It was a small town. Joshua 7:3
says,

And they returned to Joshua and said to him, Let not all the men go up; but
let about two thousand or three thousand go up and attack Ai; do not make
the whole army toil up there, for they of Ai are few.

It was supposed to be a sure victory but it wasn’t. They were defeated!
They had never experienced defeat before. They even experienced death which
was a new thing! Joshua 7:5 says,

And the men of Ai killed about thirty-six of them, for they chased them
from before the gate as far as Shebarim, and slew them at the descent. And
the hearts of the people melted and became as water.

To top that off, all the surrounding nations would now try and attack
Israel. They heard about all the miraculous things God did for them but if
they heard about the defeat at Ai they would surely come to destroy them!
Joshua acted quickly. He went up to God. Joshua 7:6-8;

Then Joshua rent his clothes and lay on the earth upon his face before
the ark of the Lord until evening, he and the elders of Israel; and they
put dust on their heads.

Joshua said, Alas, O Lord God, why have You brought this people over the
Jordan at all only to give us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us?
Would that we had been content to dwell beyond the Jordan!

O Lord, what can I say, now that Israel has turned to flee before their
enemies!

Joshua blamed God! There is no other way to put it. I am not going to try
and be euphemistic here. He blamed God…..But I understand, I have been
there. When things have gone so bad that you feel like God has abandoned
you, when you feel like God deliberately did something to hurt you. Have
you been there, or maybe you ARE there! I want you to know,

Joshua was wrong! God was not to blame for what happened. God did not want Israel to
be defeated. That was never in His plan. God is a good God who only has
good in store for us. The fault was in Achan. He went against what God had
told him to do. (Joshua 7:11)

This story raises a very important point. God is not to be blamed for what goes
wrong in our lives. His plan for us is ALL good. ALL GOOD!!! Yes that may entail
trials, and tribulation, and tests and so forth but God is not the author
of the pain, brokenness, disappointment we face in life. He has a destiny
for us. He has a plan for our lives and that plan is good. HE CAN BE
TRUSTED!!!

I don’t write this for the sake of writing a good post. This is what I believe. God is not

to blame. His plan for my life is good. Trials and tests will come but I must remember

that He is good and He is with me every step of the way. That goes for you as well.

No matter what you going through, He is with you and it is not His fault. He loves you

and He is only good. Everything He does stems from that!

God bless…

Rolain

 

The Promise land in Danger!!!

I have been loving the book of Joshua these past couple of weeks. It has been a book in season for me.
I am going to talk about God’s plan for us. We all know (at least I hope) that God has an amazing destiny for us. God wants use us to touch the world. He wants us to be light in this darkness.
I was reading the book of Joshua and I saw something. It seemed insignificant at first but as I meditated on it more and more, the more serious it became.
In the book of Joshua we read about how the Israelite s got into the promise land and began taking what God promised them but when Joshua dies everything changes. The tribe of Judah is the first tribe were we see something strange happening. They have been taking their allotted land but then we read they couldn’t take a certain piece of land because the people in that place had iron chariots!!! (Joshua 1:18,19)
From there we read how one by one the other tribes fail to take the land God has given them and they resort for something way below what God planned for them! They lived with the people they were supposed to destroy and put them to forced labor!! Was that really God’s plan for them? This is what I am trying to get to in this post.
Israel for some reason didn’t take all God had for them. They settled for mediocrity. Were they tired of fighting, maybe? Were they in fear, maybe?
Did they lose heart because the people they were facing were just too strong, maybe? Was God ok with them not destroying the people they were supposed to destroy? No!!!  Look at what He says in Judges 2:1-2,

God’s angel went up from Gilgal to Bokim and said, “I brought you out of Egypt; I led you to the land that I promised to your fathers; and I said, I’ll never break my covenant with you – never! And you’re never to make a covenant with the people who live in this land. Tear down their altars! But you haven’t obeyed me! What’s this that you’re doing? 

They were supposed to destroy the nations. God knew they had iron chariots, He knew they were strong but He also knew He would help His people. My question and challenge to you is this, are you living out everything God called you to do or have you settled for second best because you are in fear. You saw what God wanted you to do but you thought you were not the right person. You thought He made a mistake or you got tired of fighting that you just settled for second best??

Personally I know there is so much God has called me to do but I am not pursuing all that God has for me. It doesn’t matter if the land God has for me has giants and iron chariots, God is with me. It’s the same for you. He is with you to destroy the giants and the iron chariots. The enemy will not give up without a fight!
Let us not settle for a mediocre life. Let us aim for the best God has for us. Don’t settle for second best. Stand up and trust God. I know  God will destroy all your enemies. Refuse second best, refuse, mediocrity! God’s plan for you is worth the fight. The story of the Israelite’s is not our story. Our story is one of victories and enemies being destroyed. Our story has a God end!!! Our story will tell of how we went conquering the enemy and how we lived a life of trust in God and how we accomplished all that God had for us!!!!!!   Amen.

Rolain

God is to blame for my problems?????

I don’t know anyone in this life who has never had a bad thing happen to them. We live in a broken world where bad things happen and we as children of God are not exempt from it. In this lifetime there will be suffering and pain but where we err a lot of the time is we blame God or a friend, or a system or the government, or the wife, husband and the list carries on instead of looking at ourselves first.
As children of God we need to know in our heart that God has only the best for us. His plan for us is good! God does not have any evil plans for you. His plan for you is not to be sick or poor or lonely!!! He has a good plan for you.
Let us take a look at Joshua because he had to learn that God’s plan for him was good. In Joshua 7 we read the story of Ai. This was a small city compared to Jericho. Joshua had just defeated Jericho and now they had to face Ai. It was so small that Joshua sent 3000 men to fight! Ai was supposed to be a walk in the park but it wasn’t. Instead they got defeated and to make it worse other surrounding cities would attack them and defeat them because of what Ai did!!! This was a problem and look at how Joshua responds.

Joshua said, “Oh, oh, oh…Master, God. Why did You insist on bringing this people across the Jordon? To make us victims of the Amorites? To wipe us out? Why didn’t we just settle down on the east side of the Jordon? Oh, Master, what can I say after this, after Israel has been run off by it’s enemies?
When the Canaanites and all the others living here get wind of this, they will gang up on us and make short work of us – and then how will You keep up Your reputation?
Joshua 7:7-9

Can you believe him? “Make us victims”, “wipe us out”, “gang up on us”….! These were the words used and a lot more. Joshua totally missed it here. From trusting in God, he went to fear! He forgot that God’s plan is always good. As much as I would like to sit here and criticize him I know I have prayed the same prayer and thought the same thoughts!! Have you? When things go wrong we look to other people to blame. It must be that person, we tell ourselves but we can’t keep on thinking like that. We need to trust the fact that GOD is GOOD. He will never do anything to harm us. He loves us.
The reason the Israelite s failed to defeat Ai wasn’t because God did something wrong, it wasn’t because He liked to confuse them, or it wasn’t because God liked seeing them fail!!!!
They were defeated because some one man sinned! Achan failed to listen to God and disobeyed Him.
When things go wrong who do we look to? Is the first instinct to look outside of ourselves?? That needs to change. God is not to blame for your problems. God is not unfair and cruel and evil. He is good. God is not the problem, you are! It’s you and me!! God wants the best for you but how often do we mess it up. Before you blame God look inside you. Start with yourself.

Is God to blame for the evil in the world and the pain and the suffering? No He is not. Let us trust in His goodness. He is good. Do you believe that???

Rolain

 

 

How to Overcome “Jericho”!

We all have insurmountable challenges in our lives. We face situations that threaten to drown us or take us out for good but what do we do in those threatening or seemingly hopeless situations?! The answer is found in the book of Joshua. A friend of mine shared this revelation with me years ago but as I read the story of Joshua this past week I was reminded of what it meant.
The Israelite s had just crossed the Jordon and were in the promise land about to carry out what God had called them to do but understand they had never seen walled cities before. They had never seen giants before and the first place they had to defeat had all of that!!!
Were they afraid, I think so. Did they have doubts, I think so. But look at what the word says in Joshua 5:13-15;

And then this, while Joshua was there near Jericho: He looked up and saw right in front of him a man standing, holding his drawn sword.
Joshua stepped up to him and said, “Whose side are you on – ours or our enemies?”
He said, Neither. I’m commander of God’s army. I’ve just arrived.” Joshua fell to the ground, and worshiped. He asked,
“What orders does my Master have for his servant?”
God’s army commander ordered Joshua, “Take your sandals off your feet. The place you are standing is holy.” Joshua did it.

Joshua approached Jericho but instead of looking at Jericho and its walls he looked up!!! He knew there was Someone bigger than “Jericho”! When he looked up, he saw God, he saw his deliverance! That’s what happens when you look up instead of your problem, your “Jericho”.
When you focus on your problem you become like the 10 spies who saw defeat. They saw no answer to their problem. All they saw were giants and walls and grasshoppers!!!!
By looking at Jericho they lost sight of how big God really was…
When we focus on the “Jericho” in our lives we lose sight of God and how big God really is. Instead you begin to focus on the details. I never finished school so I am not smart enough, I didn’t get brought up in a rich family, I never went to university, I am not tall enough, I am the wrong color, I am not rich enough, I am fat and so on and so on!
When you come to your “Jericho” learn to look up. Your deliverance comes from looking up at God who is bigger than anything we will ever face!!!
Watch and see how small your problems are against a big God!!!

So as I conclude this post I would really like you to think about where you are focused when you approach the “Jericho’s” in your life. It’s ok to see the facts and even admit there is a problem but don’t stop there. Yes, Jericho is a walled city and it has giants but God is our Deliverer, He is our Rock and Strong Tower!
He is our only Hope in the face of insurmountable challenges!

Rolain