From the archives of Oral Roberts
All across America people are “slumping.” What do I mean by slumping? It’s what we do when a feeling of helplessness and hopelessness comes upon us because negative situations have happened in our lives. The Israelites were slumping when, after reaching the Promised Land, they learned from ten of the twelve spies sent by Moses that there were giants in the land. (See Numbers 13:33.)
While this news made most of the Israelites slump, two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, who came in staggering under a great load of grapes and containers of honey, brought a different report. “Sure, we saw giants,” they said, “But we’ll not limit God. He can take care of them. The Lord is with us!” Unfortunately only Joshua and Caleb put their faith in God, and only they were permitted years later to enter into the Promised Land.
The children of Israel were not defeated because of the giants. They were defeated because they chose to look at the situation from the viewpoint of their own strength. They were defeated because they limited the Holy One of Israel (Psalm 78:41). In Number 14:7–8 NKJV, Joshua and Caleb said to the people, “The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, ‘a land which flows with milk and honey.’”
What does that story mean to us today? It means that there are things that we’re supposed to have—things are divinely ordained to be ours. And we can have them by not limiting God. Because…With God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26).