Walking The Promise
By Cyndi Kay Green
Through prophets, pulpit messages and His word, God has spoken to each of us His promises, our destiny, and the vision He has for us. Just as He spoke to David, Moses, Abraham, Joshua and many, many more, He has promised the same for us. We must choose to hear Him.
It is up to us to follow His instruction to receive the promise. We cannot let fear, doubt or unbelief hold us in the wilderness. When we tell ourselves that we have to have the right look, house, job or enough money before we can step into the promises, it only holds us back from being the blessing that God has designed us to be. Yet, we still find ourselves questioning whether or not we will ever be ready to step out and be that disciple that Christ has called us to be.
In Numbers 14, we read about the Israelites crying out that they should have just stayed in Egypt. They felt that at least in Egypt they knew what was going on in their lives. They felt like they had some sort of control as to what happened. They had become bound up in fear of dying in the wilderness and would not look past the natural to see the deliverance of God. Moses and Aaron tried to convince them otherwise. God asked Moses in verse 11 “How long will these people treat me with contempt? Will they never believe me, even after all the miraculous signs I have done among them?”. It hurts my heart to think that I have been in contempt with God. Yet, when I doubt His calling on my life, that is what I am doing. When I tell myself that I am not what God says I am, then I am in unbelief.
When Caleb and Joshua returned and tried to encourage the people that they could take the land and live in the promises of God, they were met with disbelief. It is much like that for us. He will send Caleb’s and Joshua’s to encourage us to go forth; consequently, if we do not go forth and follow His instructions, those Caleb’s and Joshua’s will move into those promises as we stay held captive and even die in the wilderness. This is not done as punishment, but rather He needs us in the promises and if we don’t go, He will send those who will. There is no time to wait for the “perfect” anything or “enough” money. Neither of these are possible when it comes to serving God and walking in the promise land. He will provide everything we will need as we go forth and answer His calling. If we expect to get enough money and be perfect enough, then we are trying to make it happen on our own. Consequently, if we are doing that, then it is not God’s plan for us. His plan will make us uncomfortable. We won’t always understand the plan at first, but in God’s timing, it will come to us.
The world is in need of love and it isn’t going to wait for us to get it together. The only one who has got it all together is God and he is calling us to go out and be the light and love to those who are lost and hurting. He wants us to give warmth to those who are walking in a cold dark place. It is not about how we look or what we drive. It is about sharing the love of God to those who society calls unlovable and unwanted. Jesus loves and wants all of them to come unto him and experience His love. Matthew 25 verses 34-36 says, “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink, I was a stranger and you invited me into your home. 36 I was naked, and you cared for me. I was in prison and you visited me.” Jesus is describing exactly what He expects us to do. Are we going to let the promises of God pass us by because we are to afraid to visit someone in prison? What about the stranger who is cold and hungry; are we going to walk by them and not offer them a warm meal?
The book of Joshua is full of encouragement to seek the promise of God. He has held these promises way before we were born so they are nothing new. He has always known what our wilderness would look like and what the promise land holds. He knows the paths that we walk and the manna that we need. It is ourselves that keep us hidden and wandering by staying stuck in the lies of the enemy about getting it together before we can be worthy enough for God to use. We don’t always know what the journey will look like and we don’t know everything about the promised land; but when step in faith and put our toes to the water, he will ALWAYS part the water and provide a way.
As we go into the book of Joshua, after the death of Moses, we learn that God is still wanting to deliver his people out of the wilderness. A place they have wandered for 40 years. Can you imagine wandering in a place for 40 years? Sometimes I feel that have done that very thing. Because I was too afraid of what certain people would think of me, I would not allow myself to put any of my writing out there for people to read. When I did, oh man! I felt like I was doing something I had no right to do. I felt as though the very people I looked up to were in fact the ones looking down on my attempts to follow God’s purpose in my life. So, I stopped writing. There were the occasional devotional pieces that came to mind and I typed up and saved, but there was no more putting them into the world for people to read. As I look back, I see how that not only hurt me, but it hurt others. I kept words that God had given hidden away on a flash drive. Those words could have very well been life to someone else. Needless to say, I have repented and I now know that hiding those words, God’s words, is not something I want to do from this point forward.
Anyhow, as we learn in the first few books of Joshua, God delivers the Israelites into the promised land just like he promised in Numbers. He promised Joshua, “No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live. For I will be with you as I was with Moses. I will not fail you or abandon you.” Joshua 1:5. Oh how wonderful is God? To say hey Joshua, Moses has died and now I am calling you to step in to his role and lead my people to the promised land. If you follow my instructions then you will be blessed always and I will never abandon you. What a thrilling promise that would be to hear. The truth is, we have that same promise. When we seek to follow God and His vision for us, then we are blessed beyond measure. Luke 1:45 says, “You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.”
I encourage you to continue to seek God’s vision for your life and do not look to the right or left to see what others are doing. Just trust His voice and lean into him as you go forth walking out the promise. You will find yourself being the disciple that you have been called to be.
Blessings,
Cyndi
