“Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you” (Numbers 14:28).
TEXT — Numbers 14:1-10,20,28
Message
Someone once said that fear is the darkroom where negatives are developed. Worry and anxiety are two grave-diggers. They dig your grave while you are still alive. They wish you go alive into the grave and write ‘Rest in Peace’ as its epitaph. Another person said, “Your beliefs become your thoughts, your thoughts become your words, your words become your values, your values become your destiny”.
In Numbers chapter 13, twelve spies were sent to search the land of Canaan. They saw the fertile land and brought home evidence of its fruitfulness. Instead of encouraging the people to go ahead and possess the land, they created fear in the heart of the congregation of Israel. In despondency, the children of Israel wept and declared that it would have been better if they had all died in the wilderness. In contrast, Joshua and Caleb reassured the people that they were well able to conquer and possess the land. But their encouragement fell on deaf ears.
The confessions of the spies revealed the state of their heart; the one ruled by fear, the other by faith. Christ said, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” (Matthew 12:34). In the end, only Joshua and Caleb got to Canaan.
There are other instances in the Bible where the spoken word determined the fate of individuals (Psalm 118:17; 2 Kings 4:26). David was victorious while the Shunammite woman received her dead son back to life. Miriam became leprous for murmuring against Moses. Ananias and Sapphira died suddenly for lying to the Holy Ghost. Michal, the wife of David, had no child for despising the anointed of God. As we ponder on all these examples, we must pray like David in Psalm 141:3: “Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth…”
Listed among “500 most powerful people on the planet” by the Foreign Policy magazine in 2013, Pastor (Dr.) William F. Kumuyi is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry (DCLM) headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria. DCLM started in 1973 as a 15-member Bible study group right in Kumuyi’s apartment at University of Lagos where he was a lecturer. His revolutionary Bible teaching on personal holiness and commitment to evangelism soon gained so much traction and resulted in a widespread revival.
1 comment
The app/site now has a share feature on the right side that makes it difficult to read or screenshot to share. Is there a way this can be adjusted maybe horizontally at the top or even removed ?
The app/site now has a share feature on the right side that makes it difficult to read or screenshot to share. Is there a way this can be adjusted maybe horizontally at the top or even removed ?