When the children of Israel reached the Promised land orders were given to send spies to search out the land of Canaan. Here it is said, God directed Moses to send them (Num_13:1, Num_13:2), but it appears by the repetition of the story afterwards (Deu_1:22) that the motion came originally from the people; they came to Moses, and said, We will send men before us; and it was the fruit of their unbelief. They would not take God’s word that it was a good land, and that he would, without fail, put them in possession of it. How absurd was it for them to send to spy out a land which God himself had spied out for them. God had already promised the land to them – PROMISED LAND!!
Why? Because their thinking about their past was dictating their belief about the future.
Their past was Egypt and bondage. Their thinking went along the lines of “Last time we entered a foreign land we ended up as slaves and I bet it won’t be any different this time!”
How often are we not the same? We have experiences from our past that we hold onto so strongly that every time we face a new opportunity the past surfaces and influences our thinking.
This happens in the positive as well as the negative.
Experience good – excitement or at least hope for the future
Negative experience – fear and apprehension for the future
Fear will cause us to find something or someone to blame so that we can have an excuse for failure or a reason not to go forward and try something new.
Words such as “It always happens like this” or “I will never be able to…”
I can guarantee that if I said God had spoken to me and each one of you were going to get a promotion when you walked into work tomorrow accompanied by a big raise we would have two camps. Those who would get immediately excited and those who would say “Yeh right!”
WHY??
You need to find out why and then set about changing it. God has a promised land that He has appointed for each one and the only person who can stop it happening is YOU!!
We must look at our past and the thinking about our future that comes out of that and let God heal and change us so that we can look at the future through His eyes and not our experiences. We can do this because we have the mind of Christ and Christ has redeemed us from everything that would keep us defeated. He has also given us everything that pertains to life and godliness so that our future would be paved with His overcoming promises, grace and blessing. Let the Holy Spirit walk you through your life experiences and begin to heal and free up your mind, emotions and choices for the future God has promised you.
-Lindsey Lefebure