Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
Life is short.
We all know that we have a date with Death in the physical. But your legacy will last long after you take your last breath.
What will people remember about you and what will they say when you’re no longer here? What will your family and friends say about you? What will your neighbors remember?
All too often the things that we care about don’t have validity or longevity. We care about piling up more things, having a healthy bank account, and accomplishing something worthwhile in the world for the sake of accolades. But do any of those things really matter and will they outlast you? Or will you leave a legacy of selfishness in your wake?
Numbers 13:26-33
They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran.There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land.They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.” Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” 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.”
Even though the rest of the Israelites said that it could not be done, Caleb fully and wholly obeyed and followed God. When the Israelites told him to sit down, he refused and said “God is well able to bring us into this land!”
When God gives you a promise, you have to fully commit yourself, even when the outward circumstances seem to be stacked against you. Because of Caleb’s obedience, he was able to conquer and take his share of the land, his generations after him were blessed because of his obedience.
Becoming a Spiritual Giant
Spiritual Giants Know How to Serve
We have Jesus’ example to follow. He said that if we want to be great, we must first serve. The door of opportunity in the spirit is opened through obedience, love, and sacrifice. Are we teaching our children what it looks like to serve the Lord and others with all our hearts? The truth is: servanthood can’t be taught, it’s caught. Will your legacy of servanthood live on when you’re no longer here?
Spiritual Giants are Chosen
God overpowers what we need to overcome through his strength, not ours. Caleb knew that it wasn’t his own strength that would bring victory over the Canaanites. He said God is well able to bring us into the land. He put his faith and trust in the Lord, to do what He had promised He would do!
Are you spending time with God? Are you in his Word and presence and bowing your heart in prayer? Yes, spiritual giants are chosen, but it is our job to cultivate what we’ve been given. Caleb had to work the land after he had expelled the Canaanites from the territory God had given him. It took hard work and countless hours. Hard work is worth it when you are tilling and taking care of land that belongs to you, rather than working it for slavemasters.
Let us go up there at once and possess it. He knew that through the power of God, we can overcome!
Spiritual Giants are Unstoppable through the Power of God
Go attack and take care of the biggest problem, because it’s not too big for Jesus. Are there sin issues in your life that need to be dealt with? What needs to be expelled from your “Promised Land”? God wanted the children of Israel to completely expel and annihilate the pagan peoples from the Promised Land, because He knew that allowing any mixture would tempt them to go after other idols, like they eventually did.
There can be no mixture in our lives. We have to root out complacency and compromise in our hearts. God is calling us to be wholly devoted lovers, with our gaze fully fixed on Him. It is through the power of God that we are able to overcome the things in our life that try to entangle us and lead us astray.
Today, if there are any places of compromise that need to be dealt with in your heart, know that you don’t have to do it in your own power. We have the Holy Spirit to help us root those things out of our lives for good, so we can live with wholehearted devotion for the LORD!
Becoming a giant in the spirit is not only a cute notion to live for on Sunday and forget the rest of the week. Your legacy is counting on you to live your life this way, so you can become the shoulders your children and grandchildren can stand on as they continue building the Kingdom of God.
