The Bible gives us a vivid illustration of the key to Christian victory in Numbers 13 and 14. Israel had sent twelve spies to search out the Promised Land. When the spies returned after forty days, ten of them planted three lies in the hearts of God’s people: 1) “There are too many people in the land and they’re too strong for us;” 2) “the cities are walled too high and the strongholds are impregnable;” and 3) “there are giants in the land and we’re no match for them. We’re helpless! Finished!”
These lies took the heart right out of Israel. Scripture says the people endured a night of despair. “So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night” (Numbers 14:1 NKJV). More than two million people were weeping, wailing and moaning, focused completely on their weaknesses and inabilities. Their wails of unbelief bombarded heaven.
Joshua and Caleb, on the other hand, had a revelation of how precious they were in God’s eyes, and that was the key to their hopeful spirit. Joshua said, “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’” (Numbers 14:8). In other words, “Because he delights in us, the land is as good as ours already.”
Beloved, the devil throws the same three lies at God’s people today. “Your trials are too numerous. Your temptations are too overwhelming. You are too weak to resist the power coming against you.”
As we hear the devil’s lies, the word that God spoke to Israel is for us too. “You shall be a special treasure to me above all people; for all the earth is mine” (Exodus 19:5). “For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth” (Deuteronomy 14:2).
Like Joshua and Caleb, every victorious Christian today can have this same confidence in their heavenly Father’s love. “We can’t fail! All our enemies are meat for us because we are precious to the Lord.”