Jeff Johnston

In Numbers chapter 13, we read a powerful example of God’s people selling themselves short – a character trait that seems to be just as prevalent today as it has ever been. Here’s a short excerpt from that passage to get the ball rolling on this:

“And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size.  We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

To give you a really quick synopsis of what’s going on here, I’ll let you know that Moses had sent 12 spies into Canaan to scope out the land they were called to possess. The cities. The people. The land. The fruit. After 40 days of looking around, they came back with their report that you saw above.

The people are too strong for us. The cities are too fortified for us. Our opposition is too big. We are too small. We are not able. Then they said something I want to key in on:

“we SEEMED like grasshoppers in our own eyes…”

Their negative thinking led to a bad report, and their bad report BECAME THEIR REALITY. It challenged their identity in God, and it changed what they believed His destiny for their lives was. All because their enemy SEEMED a lot bigger than they did.

Have you ever fallen prey to the enemy’s spell of ‘seeming like’ something you actually aren’t? Seeming a lot smaller than you really were? A lot less significant? A lot less worthy? A lot less capable? This is exactly where the enemy of our souls wants us to exist. Fear. Doubt. Trepidation. A defeated spirit.

And it’s all lies too.

JOHN 8:44 tells us “He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

That’s right. His native language is lies, and he is the father (creator) of such things.

Proverbs tells us something powerful about all of this in chapter 27 – “As a man thinks in his heart… SO IS HE”.  In other words, the view in which we see ourselves, will eventually become our reality.  If we think we are small, we will live small. If we think we are defeated, then we are defeated.

Biblically speaking, right thinking leads to right living, and it all begins with the perceptions we have of ourselves.

In one sense, we are the architects of our own lives, and we are responsible to protect the beautiful creations of God we truly are by demolishing every thought that sets itself up against the truth of God in us (2 Cor 10:5).

Let’s do this with every distorted thought we have of ourselves, and release the greatness of God inside of us.

JJ